Reality Vs. Illusion In I Stand Here Ironing

Reality v. Illusion

Reality v. illusion is one of the most important set of opposite characteristics that are in the world of literature. These elements help us to find out what is real and what is not real. The three texts that embody reality v. illusion that we have read are the short fiction story, I Stand Here Ironing, the play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and the poetry piece is A Dream Within a Dream. All three of these texts further our learning, reading and thinking skills.

In Olsen’s, I Stand Here Ironing, the narrator has many illusions that everything she has done as a mother has hurt her daughter, Emily. In reality, we see that she could be right when she gives Emily to a neighbor to be cared for while she looked for work, sending

illusion takes place. However, one of the most intriguing instances is the character, Bottom, himself. Bottom is one of the most ignorant characters in this entire play. He thinks that everything that he does is the right way to do things and believes that he is the best actor to ever walk on the face of the planet. The audience knows that he is wrong with whatever he says most of the time and that he is a terrible actor. Even his friends disagree with him on multiple occasions. When Titania falls in love with Bottom, we know as the audience that this cannot really be true. First of all, Bottom’s head is transformed into an ass, and the funny part is that he doesn’t even know it. Bottom’s friends even leave him because they’re trying to “make an ass” out of him. What is funny is that Bottom can’t fathom why his friends would leave. As we go back to the love affair between clumsy Bottom and graceful Titania, he believes that her love to him is true and real, which is his own wrong illusion. Titania is the beautiful queen of the fairies and Bottom is the fool. Not to mention it again, but Bottom is also very ignorant. It becomes more bizarre when he thinks that Titania’s devotion to him is real. As the audience, we know that their love is not true because of the potion that Puck put on the eyelids of Titania. Bottom doesn’t know about the potion, nor does he know that he is in a magical world, but he believes that he is dreaming. What is more peculiar to the audience is that even the servants are kind to Bottom. As readers, we know this is a fantasy because in the beginning of the play, no one respected Bottom as a person or really liked him. It just doesn’t make sense how two completely opposite people fall in love with each other. When Bottom wakes up from his dream, he has no words to explain what happened. As the reader, we can tell what is true and what is fantastical. But