William Shakespeare is one of the greatest English playwright, poet and actor, renowned for his works as a dramatist and a writer. One of works that have continuously captured the attention of different audiences and scholars across the globe is, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In Act 4, Scene 1, Line 199-216, Shakespeare captures the thoughts of Nick Bottom, who after being transformed from a donkey awakens suddenly and thinks it was just but a dream. The only difference is the fact that whereas he thinks he is still acting with his friends, he realises that he is all alone in the woods. He then exclaims that he has had a dream that no human being is capable of interpreting and as such, he sets out to find Peter Quince in order to have him write this dream into a ballad.
威廉·莎士比亚是英国最伟大的剧作家、诗人和演员之一，以其剧作家和作家的作品而闻名。《仲夏夜之梦》是一部不断引起全球不同观众和学者关注的作品。在第四幕第1场第199-216行中，莎士比亚捕捉到了尼克·巴顿的思想，他从驴子身上变身后突然醒来，认为这只是一场梦。不同的是，尽管他认为自己仍在和朋友们一起表演，但他意识到自己独自一人在森林里。然后他惊呼自己做了一个没有人能解释的梦，因此，他出发去找彼得·昆斯，让他把这个梦写成一首民谣。
To begin, Nick Bottom is perceived as the most humorous characters in the play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In this regard, the way he does and perceives things makes him humorous as compared to most characters in the play. Importantly, whereas he is only a weaver, Bottom thinks and sees himself as the best actor as compared to other actors in the play (Miller 260). This perception of himself contributes to his high level of overconfidence. However, from the audience’s perspective, this high level of confidence exposes his weaknesses. In particular, just as his name, Bottom, suggests, he is not someone to be taken seriously in the play. In other words, just like the “bottom” of mankind, Bottom does not seek solutions to address issues but rather ignores them. This creates an avenue for him to fail to differentiate between explicable and inexplicable, ordinary and mysterious (Miller 260). As a result of this, he ends up being portrayed as among the most irrational characters in the play.
首先，尼克·巴顿被认为是该剧《仲夏夜之梦》中最幽默的角色。在这方面，与剧中大多数角色相比，他做事和感知事物的方式使他很幽默。重要的是，虽然他只是一个织布工，但与剧中其他演员相比，巴顿认为自己是更佳演员（米勒260）。这种对自己的认知导致了他高度的过度自信。然而，从观众的角度来看，这种高度的自信暴露了他的弱点。特别是，正如他的名字巴顿所暗示的，他在剧中不是一个值得认真对待的人。换句话说，就像人类的“底层”一样，底层并不寻求解决问题的方法，而是忽视它们。这为他创造了一条无法区分可解释与不可解释、普通与神秘的途径（米勒260）。因此，他最终被刻画成剧中最不理性的角色之一。
Importantly, an analysis of Bottom’s dream reveals a number of things not only about him but also about humanity in general. In this regard, his dream, from a general perspective, simply means that man has a special relationship with the supernatural, and as such, through dreams, human beings can be able to connect to the super natural world. Bottom’s dream further emphasise on the element that there are moments that human beings think that their dreams are very important and unique and as such, they define who they are in society. For example, he notes, “It shall be called “Bottom’s Dream” because it hath no bottom…” (Brooks cxvii). This statement seeks to promote the element that Bottom’s dream was profound and unfathomable. It could also mean that his dream was not sensible and as such, no one could interpret it become it does not make any sense.
重要的是，对波顿梦的分析不仅揭示了他自身的许多方面，也揭示了整个人类的一些方面。在这方面，他的梦，从一般的角度来看，仅仅意味着人类与超自然有着特殊的关系，因此，通过梦，人类能够连接到超自然世界。波顿的梦想进一步强调了这样一个要素：有些时刻，人类认为他们的梦想非常重要和独特，因此，他们定义了他们在社会中的身份。例如，他指出，“它应该被称为“底部的梦”，因为它没有底部……”（布鲁克斯cxvii）。这句话的目的是宣扬一种元素，即波顿的梦想是深不可测的。这也可能意味着他的梦想是不明智的，因此，没有人能够解释它，因为它没有任何意义。