Nick Bottom In A Midsummer Night's Dream By William Shakespeare

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In A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare, one might notice that the use of the word “ass” is common. This word is used to represent a donkey within the play, but it is clear that it is placed there to induce humor and poke fun at people’s egos. Even though the word is merely representing a donkey, with an understanding of Shakespeare’s witty and hidden humor, it is suddenly swept up and transformed into mockery towards a man. Nick Bottom is almost a minor character, but at the very same time he makes up a very large and important part of the play. It is very evident from the second that he is introduced as part of the ensemble that he has a large personality. The way he strives to be perfect at every part of the play shows that he is not even close to being humble. When Puck comes across Nick in the woods, he is very turned off by his personality. Puck decides to turn Nick into a donkey as a way to force him to look himself in the mirror and realize how awful he is. Unfortunately, this does not work because Nick is so narcissistic. His ego only rises after Titania falls in love with …show more content…

The word “ass” is mostly used in this play as an alternative word for donkey, but one line by Nick Bottom stands out otherwise: “This is to make an ass of me, to fright me if they could.” This is said after he morphs and is indeed an ass, Nick is a loud character to begin with, and you can tell that the other cast members in his play are impatient with him. It is no surprise that they might play a prank on him, so when they are all running away, he does not even seem phased. This exposes the fact that the cast members are often pranking him, otherwise Nick would be more concerned than he is. Instead, he watches them leave and begins to sing. He is completely content even after his own (and only) friends left him alone in the