Mechanical (character)

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A mechanical is any of six characters in A Midsummer Night's Dream who perform the play-within-a-play Pyramus and Thisbe. Named for their occupations as skilled manual laborers, they are a group of amateur (mostly incompetent) actors from around Athens, looking to make names for themselves by having their production chosen among several acts as the courtly entertainment for the royal wedding party of Theseus and Hippolyta. The biggest ham among them, Bottom, becomes the unlikely object of interest for love-potion-charmed fairy queen Titania after he is cursed with the head and ears of an ass by the servant-spirit Puck.

[edit] Mechanicals and their roles

• Peter Quince, the carpenter - the Prologue
• Snug (no first name is given), the joiner - Lion
• Nick Bottom, the weaver - Pyramus
• Francis Flute, the bellows-mender - Thisbe
• Tom Snout, the tinker - Wall
• Robin Starveling, the tailor - Moonshine

These kinds of characters (see also the grave diggers from Hamlet) were traditionally portrayed by clowns, which most Elizabethan theatres had in their employ.^{[citation needed]}

v • d • e Characters in A Midsummer Night's Dream Lovers Oberon and Titania • Lysander and Hermia • Demetrius and Helena • Theseus and Hippolyta Mechanicals Nick Bottom • Peter Quince • Francis Flute • Robin Starveling • Tom Snout • Snug Other characters Puck • Egeus • Philostrate • Other Characters