The Character of Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare

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The Character of Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare In this exercise there will be an in depth analysis of Bottom the weaver and to what extent his folly may morph into wisdom of various sorts. This exercise will attempt to describe how Bottom is both foolish and wise (wise in his foolishness and foolish in his wisdom). The exercise will also analyse the parody found within the texts spoken by Bottom and that of Corinthians and the possible implications it might have on the level of wisdom to which Bottom can be judged. Bottom’s monologue in act 4.1.211 line 205- 207 states the following: “ 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!” If we compare this to the King James version (1611) of 1 Corinthians 2: 9-10 we can see, to a large extent, that they are extremely similar and is indeed a parody: “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his spirit: for the spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God” The Geneva Bible (1557) however renders the last verse in the following ways: “ The Spirite searcheth all thinges, ye the botome of Goddes secrettes.” It is thus highly likely that Bottom received his name from Paul’s letter in old versions of Scripture that were used during Shakespeare’s time. And Bottom himself, so to speak, would be from ‘top to bottom’, the ‘Bottom translation’ of God’s secrets. (Brook p58) Furthermore the weaver both ‘overwrites’ and ‘underwrites’ the text of Corinthians and in doing so, he weaves a new garment from the old text, incarnating the Scripture and the word of God. It is then almost inconceivable to assume that Bottom does not serve a

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