Nick Bottom is a character in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream who provides comic relief throughout the play. A weaver by trade, he is famously known for getting his head transformed into that of a donkey by the elusive
Bottom, however, plays a much more integral role in the play than simply adding a comedic factor—he unifies dream with reality. Bottom does this by being the only human character who interacts with both the world of dreams (fairies) and reality (Athens).
Probably created as a showcase for one of Shakespeare's favorite actors, Bottom's role involves dancing, singing, and laughter. From his first introduction, Bottom is presented as courageous and outgoing.
A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999) - Kevin Kline as Nick Bottom - IMDb.
Nick Bottom is considered to be the comedic relief in the play A Midsummer Night's Dream. He is ambitious, overconfident, and ridiculous. For example, he thinks he will move the audience to tears during his performance at the wedding even though his acting is subpar.
Honest, tolerant, and inclined to reserve judgment, Nick often serves as a confidant for those with troubling secrets.
Nick describes himself as "one of the few honest people that [he has] ever known," and he views himself as a hopeful man who can see the best in everyone. To that end, he is the only one who truly cares about Gatsby and not just about Gatsby's wealth.
Nicholas "Nick" Bottom is the main protagonist of the show. He is a struggling writer who is at the end of his rope, trying to compete against Shakespeare. He runs a theater troupe with his brother Nigel.
The irony here is in Bottom's name. He was turned into a donkey, or an ass, which is a synonym for the word “bottom.” This is an example of verbal irony, since the irony had to do with words or phrases.
The craftsmen's names reflect their jobs (see Act I Scene 2 ), but Bottom's name may not only refer to the bottom (reel) from which a weaver unwinds his thread. It may also carry the sense of 'bottom' as 'the sitting part of the body', which ties in neatly with his later transformation into an 'ass'.
He is turned into a donkey in order to bewitch Titania into falling in love with him, an animal, to make her pay for disobeying her husband.
Bottom claims that his fellows are trying to make him an “ass,” or appear foolish by their “knavery,” or their making fun of him. What he doesn't know is that Puck has literally given him the head of an ass, or a donkey, making this statement quite ironic.
The humor surrounding Bottom often stems from the fact that he is totally unaware of his own ridiculousness; his speeches are overdramatic and self-aggrandizing, and he seems to believe that everyone takes him as seriously as he does himself.
Bottom is a weaver and one of the Athenian craftsmen who are referred to as "the Mechanicals." (These are the working-class guys slated to perform the play Pyramus and Thisbe for Theseus's wedding entertainment.)
Bottom's true passion is performing. He throws himself into it with abandon.
Ever playful, Puck gives one of the “mechanicals,” Nick Bottom, an ass's head; when Titania awakens, she falls in love with Bottom. After much general confusion and comic misunderstanding, Oberon's magic restores Titania and the four lovers to their original states.
“The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man's hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report, what my dream was.”
Nick's selectiveness makes him an unreliable narrator because he is selective with regard to the information that he includes in his account of the events.
Nick says he's among the most honest people he knows, but at this point in the novel the reader only has his word to go on. Although Nick hasn't given much indication that he is an unreliable narrator, how can the reader be sure? Throughout the novel, we aren't even sure if Nick is being honest with us.
Nick Bottom
A struggling renaissance writer at the end of his rope. Nigel's older brother. Incredibly jealous of the success of William Shakespeare and will do anything to beat him. He is responsible for creating the first musical, Omelette, after guidance from the misguided Nostradamus.
Bottom is a very passionate and wordy performer, but is also rather ignorant and arrogant, which makes him very silly. He is involved in a constant power struggle with Quince over who should ultimately lead the mechanicals. Flute and Starveling both look up to him, though Starveling honors Quince just as much.
When he first goes to a party at Gatsby's, he seeks Gatsby out (presumably to thank him for his invitation), while the others at the party gossip about Gatsby and enjoy themselves. Similarly, after Gatsby's death, Nick is the only one who shows concern. Nick can therefore be seen as the moral compass of the story.
Throughout the novel, Nick is the vehicle used to gather all of the pieces together to learn about Gatsby. Nick is the only character that changes in the novel from the beginning to the end. Nick is the literary device that is employed to learn about Gatsby, which ultimately tells the theme of the story.…
In the first chapter, Nick reveals that he was born in a wealthy Midwest family. After graduating from Yale, he gains the title of a World War I veteran. He presents himself as a tolerant person who keeps his opinions to himself. It is a trait he inherited from his father, who was against criticizing people.