Bottom

Nick Bottom is the leading actor in the acting company invited to perform at the Duke's wedding celebration in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream . Although quite hammy and slightly conceited, Bottom is well-liked by his fellow actors and is not malicious or cruel at all; in fact, he is quite lovable.In A Midsummer Night's Dream , the actors go into the woods of Athens to rehearse, not knowing that the fairies are up to mischief there. The incompetent Bottom comically messes up during the rehearsal constantly, and the sprite Puck (or Robin Goodfellow) decides to teach him a lesson by changing Bottom's head into the head of a jackass who can still talk. Titania, the Queen of the Fairies, has had a love potion sprinkled on her eyes by Oberon, the King of the Fairies, after a quarrel, and the potion makes anyone fall in love instantly with the first person they see upon waking up - and when Titania awakes, she sees Bottom, who, in most productions of the play, has no idea that he looks like a jackass (in the 1935 film version, he does). The two eventually have sex (although Shakespeare only implies this), and when enough time has passed, Oberon restores everything to normal; however, now Titania is completely aware that she has fallen for a half-jackass instead of a man, and Bottom remembers the spell placed on him. Bottom returns to the other actors and hilariously takes part in the unintentionally funny performance of Pyramus and Thisbe that they present at the Duke's wedding.In most versions of A Midsummer Night's Dream , once the Pyramus and Thisbe scene is over, Bottom is no longer in the play. But in the 1999 film version with Kevin Kline and Michelle Pfieffer, among others - and only in that version - Bottom has apparently truly fallen in love with Titania and cannot forget her, although she is married to Oberon. He is mesmerized at the sight of a statue of the Fairy Queen, and on the wedding night of the three couples, faint Tinker Bell-like lights appear in their respective bedrooms; it is the fairies blessing them. In Bottom's room, one single flitting light appears -it is Titania herself, presumably blessing Bottom, who responds with a smile and tears in his eyes, knowing that they probably can never be together in real life. Show less «