William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream is a broadly comedic, yet immensely thematic work - much of these ideas about love, gender, transformation, and foolishness come through the character of Nick Bottom. Despite the subtle humor of many other characters in the play (Puck, for example), Nick Bottom has very on-the-nose, sensational humor in his repertoire. He is far from the primary focus of the play; he is the main character of the subplot of a troupe of actors producing a play telling the story of Pyramus and Thisbe. Throughout the play, he deals with the situations that are presented to him with a typical lack of awareness, thus providing incredible humor to the audience. Nick Bottom, while on the surface being nothing more than a broadly comedic relief for the play, also showcases the folly of arrogance and the importance of self-awareness.
A Midsummer Night's Dream is thought to have been written between 1590 and 1596, and demonstrates a decided change from his earlier works, drawing from a variety of sources (Greek mythology, with characters like Theseus), English country fairytales (Puck being an infamous 16th century English figure), and more. With the character of Nick Bottom, in particular, Shakespeare seems to be satirizing himself and his works - the bawdy players who foolishly try to put on theater, actors who behave like prima donnas, and more are subtle jabs at his own career and livelihood. In these ways, Midsummer draws inspiration from a number of places, and has an element of personal ridicule and metafictional good nature.
Works Cited
Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer Night's Dream. Oxford University Press, 2009.
