Overview
Nick Bottom is a member of the group within the play commonly known as the Mechanicals, a troupe of foolish/clumsy men, all of whom are craftsmen in Athens. The Mechanicals include:Bottom, the weaver; Snout, the tinker; Snug, the joiner; Starveling, the tailor; Flute, the bellows-mender; and Quince, the carpenter. The Mechanicals - sometimes called the Hempen Homespuns - led by Peter Quince, are rehearsing a play, Pyramus and Thisbe (written by Peter Quince) in hopes of performing for Duke Theseus on his wedding day and perhaps even being awarded "sixpence a day" for life, quite a handsome reward for these six men. Bottom is given the lead role of Pyramus in the play, and something of a power struggle ensues between Bottom, a charismatic natural leader, and Quince, the somewhat nervous playwright attempting to direct his own play.
While they are in the woods rehearsing, the fairy Puck, a mischievous sprite and minion of Oberon, king of the fairies, happens upon their rehearsal. He decides to have some fun with them, carrying out part of Oberon's orders in the process, and when Bottom (as Pyramus) exits the stage, he transforms his head into a donkey's. When Bottom returns, not knowing of his own transformation, his fellow actors run away from him with Quince screaming, "We are haunted!" Bottom believes they are playing a prank on him, proclaiming, "This is to make an ass of me, to fright me if they could." So he stays in the forest by himself and sings loudly to show them he is not afraid. The Fairy Queen Titania is awakened by Bottom's song. She has been enchanted by a love potion made from the juice of a rare flower, once hit by Cupid's arrow, that her husband, Oberon, King of the Fairies, spread on her eyes in an act of jealous rage. During his enchantment over her, he utters "Wake when some vile thing is near." The first thing she sees when she wakes is the transformed Bottom, and she immediately falls in love with him. She even commands her fairy minions to serve and wait upon him. Later, Oberon finally releases Titania from her enchantment. After being confronted with the reality that her romantic interlude with the transformed Bottom was not just a dream, she is disgusted with the very image of him and also seems very suspicious of how "these things came to pass." After Oberon instructs Puck to return Bottom's head to his human state, which Puck reluctantly does, the fairies leave him sleeping in the woods, nearby the four Athenian lovers, Demetrius, Helena, Hermia, and Lysander.
He wakes up after the lovers leave. His first thought is that he has fallen asleep in the woods during rehearsal and has missed his cue. He quickly realizes he has had "a most rare vision". He is amazed by the events of this dream, and soon begins to wonder if it was in fact a dream at all. He quickly decides that he will "get Peter Quince to write a ballad of this dream", and that "it shall be called 'Bottom's Dream,' because it hath no Bottom". Upon being reunited with his friends, he is not even able to utter what has happened and says "For if I tell you, I am no true Athenian".
Theseus ends up choosing Pyramus and Thisbe as the performance for his amusement, now also the wedding day of the young Athenian lovers. The play is poorly written and poorly acted, though obviously performed with a great deal of passion. Bottom performs the famous Pyramus death scene in the play within the play, ironically one of the most comedic moments in the play.
In performance, Bottom, like Horatio in Hamlet is the only major part that can't be doubled, i.e. that can't be played by an actor who also plays another character, since he is present in scenes involving nearly every character.
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