The Benign Comic: Understanding Bottom’s Growth and Appeal in a Midsummer Night’s Dream

DOI

10.2991/assehr.k.220502.044How to use a DOI?

Keywords

William Shakespeare; A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Nick Bottom; Character analysis

Abstract

Nick Bottom from Shakespeare’s comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream is an egotistical weaver who induces a lot of laughter in the play. Based on a close reading of the text, this essay analyzes four crucial scenes in Bottom’s character arc and seeks to understand his growth as a dynamic character as well as his true appeal to the audience. Incorporating both original insights and scholarly interpretations, this essay eventually reaches the conclusion that Bottom - despite his foolish exterior - is one of the most complex characters in Midsummer. His fluid identity, divinity, multiple paradoxes, and symbolic behavior all suggest things much more profound than his appearance. Bottom embodies both the human and the animal, the natural and the civilized, the carnal and the spiritual.

Copyright

© 2022 The Authors. Published by Atlantis Press SARL.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Tianjun Ren
PY  - 2022
DA  - 2022/05/14
TI  - The Benign Comic: Understanding Bottom’s Growth and Appeal in a Midsummer Night’s Dream
BT  - Proceedings of the 2022 International Conference on Comprehensive Art and Cultural Communication (CACC 2022)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 209
EP  - 215
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.220502.044
DO  - 10.2991/assehr.k.220502.044
ID  - Ren2022
ER  -