Midsummer Bottom's Up in a Essay

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This is why Shakespeare included a character and plot of such low comedy in a play with such far-reaching and complex themes; in the end, all of the complexity boils down to a few very simple facts bout humanity. As Valerie Traub notes, "early modern England was a culture of contradictions, with official ideology often challenged by actual social practice," and Midsummer makes this exceedingly clear (131). Such contradictions necessarily lead to complications, as the central plot of the play (that of the lovers) clearly illustrates, and though these complications are comedic in their own way it is also hysterical watching someone who is unabashedly human -- and quite asinine in several senses because of it. His transformation is yet one more piece of honesty that Shakespeare includes in his commentary on humanity.

This aspect of both the character and the pay is captured brilliantly in Michael Hoffman's 1999 film adaptation of a Midsummer Night's Dream, with Kevin Kline playing the role of Bottom. Bottom becomes a much more central role in the film than he is in the script, which accentuates the degree to which he represents the other characters. Kline's natural charisma as an actor makes even the character's most embarrassing moments some of his most endearing, and his momentary fears and insecurities become almost palpable.

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The degree of shape shifting achieved in the film is also far more effective than anything that could have been accomplished in Shakespeare's day or indeed in a modern theatrical production. The amount of time it would take to apply and remove each piece that made up Bottom's transformation into a true ass in the film would simply take too much time in the theatre. The effect, however, has the od effect of exaggerating both the animalistic and the human qualities of the character, and thus emphasizes the essential animal qualities of all humans. The lovers are truly no less base than Bottom; they are looking for love, ostensibly, but the play suggests that this endearment is really just so much artifice invented by culture and society to restrain the abandon of lust observed in the animal kingdom.

It is impossible to determine precisely what Shakespeare meant to be the primary message or conclusions of his play, if indeed he intended any. What is clear in the text, however, is the willingness of human beings to be blinded by love and/or lust, and the fools that this willingeness makes of mortals.

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