In this way, Bottom becomes a kind of replacement for Titania's foster child, the little "changeling" boy Oberon has taken from her. Yeah, we know. Read our analysis of the " Changeling " for more info about mother-child bonds. Bottom is the most uproarious of the Mechanicals, ever eager to offer his advice and direction—whether it's wanted or not. In many of Shakespeare's plays, there's a fellow who seems to be a fool, but actually makes brilliant and insightful points that others can't.
OK, fine. He does have one perceptive comment about love and reason, but we think he makes up for it with his overwhelming silliness. Bottom unwittingly makes an idiot of himself, expressing confidence about the wrong things and being ever-willing to explain to others as if they were the ones out of the loop.
Still, Bottom's idiocy is almost endearingly innocent. It doesn't seem as though Shakespeare is being malicious by creating a working-class character who's also a bona fide twit. Instead, Bottom is an important character for opening some self-deprecating doors to wonder about the real art and artistry of the theater.
Bottom is not so much Shakespeare's comment on whether working-class folks can know and understand theater, but actually, he's Shakespeare's gentle jibe at a lot of the amateur and country acting groups that were on the English theater scene. Some of the most ridiculous lines from Pyramus and Thisbe even come close to lines being performed in simple country versions and children's plays of the day.
When Titania, whose eyes have been anointed with a love potion, falls in love with the now ass-headed Bottom, he believes that the devotion of the beautiful, magical fairy queen is nothing out of the ordinary and that all of the trappings of her affection, including having servants attend him, are his proper due.
His unawareness of the fact that his head has been transformed into that of an ass parallels his inability to perceive the absurdity of the idea that Titania could fall in love with him. Therefore, he tries to act high and mighty by using complicated words he does not really know the meaning to.
Such incidents tend to backfire on him, causing his peers to make fun of him. The entire third act, he remains in the fairy world after he is transported up to the world. He was found in the forest where he set up camp with the other actors to practice for the play. 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.
Although it is only his head that has been turned into an animal body part, the process is surprisingly easy and Nick has no difficulty in settling in his new part. The implication is that since Nick has always been a bit of an ass, the transition does not bother him at all, rather it fits his personality very much.
He meets Titania, the queen of the fairies, who is an attractive woman and has fallen in love with Nick due to being under a spell. She dotes on him and arranges for him to get special treatment from her maids. Instead of questioning the whole situation, Nick is uncomplaining and goes by the routine as if this is what is due to him.
This kind of behavior is also common in donkeys since they tend to go with the flow and act accordingly. There are such many instances where Shakespeare shows the likeliness between the character of Nick and the animal he has been turned into. Even his surname is a instrumental in deciding his fate; when Puck first notices Nick, he is taken by the name, Bottom, and surmises it to be another term for donkey.
Hence, Nick is chosen to be the device via which Oberon plans to embarrass Titania into submission. When they perform the play, Bottom does as poorly as his fellows, breaking the fourth wall multiple times and uses the most dramatic words in his monologues far too many times after stabbing himself, his last line is "now, die, die, die, die, die!
It is unclear if this is mostly due to Quince's poor writing or the mechanicals' poor acting, though both play a heavy role.
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