Character Analysis of Bottom in A Midsummer NIghts Dream

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” Character Analysis of Bottom the Weaver The play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” by William Shakespeare offers a wonderful contrast in human mentality. Shakespeare provides insight into man’s conflict with the rational versus emotional characteristics of human behavior. Athens represents the logical side, with its flourishing government and society. The fairy woods represents the wilder, irrational side where nothing seems to follow any sort of structure. The character of …

…the reel on which the thread is wound and his very person embodies the union of reality and illusion, carrying as he does Puck’s trick on his real, sturdy shoulders. His love of life enables him to engage in it to the fullest, which is what unites these two experiences. All passages from Midsummer Night’s Dream are quoted from The Norton Shakespeare, ed. Stephen Greenblatt et al. (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1997)