Bottom's Dream

After Titania leaves Bottom, he wakes up and says, “ When my cue comes, call me, and I will answer” (4.1, 196). Bottom believes that he is in the same play practice as the one before his abduction. When he doesn’t see any of the actors, Bottom becomes confused, but then realizes what has happened and says, “ Stolen hence and left me asleep” (4.1, 199-200). Bottom thinks that the actors left him and he fell asleep. He mistakes his time with Titania for the dream he had while being abandoned by his friends. To Bottom the “dream” seems real, causing him to become confused by its reality. He reassures himself about the dream by saying, “ Methought I was… but man is but a patched fool” (4.1, 203-204). Bottom is reminiscing upon his dream saying that he thought he was actually with Titania. Bottom realizing that it was foolish of himself to think his time with Titania was anything but a dream, calls himself a “fool”. …show more content…
When he is reassuring himself that his “dream”, was indeed a dream, he says, “The eye of man hath not heard, and the ear of man hath not seen” (4.1, 204-205). Bottom is saying that although to the senses a thing might seem like reality, in actuality it could just as easily be fantasy. Through this line, Shakespeare provokes an array of questions and thought about the distinctions between reality and fantasy.
Once Bottom is sure that his time with Titania was a dream, he decides to make it into a play. He says, “ I will get Peter Quince to write a ballad of this dream; it shall be called ‘Bottom’s dream’, because it hath no bottom” (4.1, 207-209). Bottom understands how unrealistic his “dream” was. He even says that his “dream” was one that had no “bottom”, meaning that it was one where there was no end to his