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...Whereas Puck’s humor is often mischievous and subtle,
the comedy surrounding the overconfident weaver Nick Bottom is hilariously overt.
The central figure in the subplot involving the craftsmen’s production
of the Pyramus and Thisbe story, Bottom dominates his fellow actors
with an extraordinary belief in his own abilities (he thinks he
is perfect for every part in the play) and his comical incompetence
(he is a terrible actor and frequently makes rhetorical and grammatical
mistakes in his speech). The humor surrounding Bottom often stems
from the fact that he is totally unaware of his own ridiculousness;
his speeches are overdramatic and self-aggrandizing, and he seems
to believe that everyone takes him as seriously as he does himself.
This foolish self-importance reaches its pinnacle after Puck transforms
Bottom’s head into that of an ass. 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...
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I never read Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'.
But when Father told us in our English class that there is a character named Bottom in that play, all of us laughed. And then he added that there is also a Puck, which added to our mirth.
In my long life I have watched (on TV and in newspapers) many Bottoms who are quite unaware of their ass-heads and take themselves too seriously for their own good. They look like fools but they don't know it.
I can only hope I am not one of them. Teaching at IIT KGP doesn't brook nonsense (at least it didn't during my time there). One is made to stand on his toes every moment and stripped naked by one student or the other whom every teacher has to face day in and day out.
It is folks that don't have to face the public everyday that get into this Bottom-Syndrome.
Politicos need only face their voters once in 5 years but even then they are down to earth; except those that get into the Rajya Sabha through the back door and those who wield extra-constitutional powers...called ECCPs during the infamous Emergency of the mid-1970s. And the so-called intellectuals that surround them as their advisers.
Also journos who had acquired some degree of reputation and sit on it.
And Babus who draw their pay and pension irrespective of whatever happens.
Elections unmask many Bottoms. And the one that has just gone by was no exception.
The Chief of the defeated party had the grace to admit that she didn't quite gauge the extent of people's anger. But she was advised by a coterie of Bottoms alright. As a disgruntled chap of her party put it well, it is not enough to blame the advisers. One has to blame the advisee too. And she took the blame gracefully.
...Posted by Ishani
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