Bottom: The Fool Who Is More at Home in Fairyland Than Anyone Else

Bottom wants to play all the parts. In Act 1, Scene 2, when Quince assigns roles for the mechanicals' play, Bottom volunteers for Pyramus, then offers to double as Thisby in a 'monstrous little voice,' then proposes himself for the lion. He is not modest, not subtle, and almost certainly the best actor in the group.

When Titania falls in love with him in Act 3 (ass's head and all) he adapts to the situation with extraordinary equanimity. He asks his fairy attendants for scratching and for honey. He announces he could sleep. His complete ease in the fairy world is funnier than any discomfort would have been.

His waking speech in Act 4, Scene 1 is the play's most unlikely moment of genuine wonder. 'I have had a most rare vision. I have had a dream, past the wit of man to say what dream it was.' He cannot describe what happened, but he knows it mattered. He is the only character who experiences something genuinely extraordinary and takes it seriously.