Bottom is transformed into a person with an ass's head, but he is also transformed into the love object of Titania, Queen of the Fairies. This is ironic, the opposite of what we would expect, because Bottom is a lower-class weaver. We would expect someone of his stature to perhaps worship a queen from afar, but never, ever to be fawned over and beloved by a royal personage. Adding to the irony, while Titania is graceful and sophisticated, Bottom is a bit of a buffoon. For example, he is the ultimate ham in wanting to play all the parts in the play the mechanicals are putting on for the wedding feast.

Bottom is hardly an appropriate love object for Titania, yet, ironically, she has her fairies waiting on him hand and foot, while she weaves flowers into his hair. This is all because Oberon has had Puck infect her with a love potion as he wants her to give him the young Indian boy she has guardianship over. Shakespeare has fun with illustrating that love truly is blind, for the noble queen finds it impossible to see she has fallen in love with a fool.

Puck gives Bottom the head of an ass because he thinks Bottom has been acting like an ass. Puck has been watching Bottom and the other tradesmen practice their play they hope to perform for Theseus's and Hippolyta's wedding celebration. During the practice, Bottom shows himself to be less than intelligent, boastful, and essentially a swaggering fool. Since Puck tends to be ornery, he decides that Bottom should look like an ass since he is acting like one. Bottom is unaware of the transformation so when Snout says, "O Bottom, thou art changed. What do I see on thee?" Bottom replies, "What do you see? You see an ass-head of your own, do you?" and then when Quince also exclaims over Bottom's transformation, Bottom again ironically says, "...This is to make an ass of me, ...". He thinks the players are just trying to make him feel foolish and he continually uses the word "ass" ironically.

Why is Bottom an ironic character in A Midsummer Night's Dream?

There are several characters in A Midsummer's Night Dream that undergo ironic changes. For example, Lysander is ironically transformed into loving Helena instead of Hermia. Likewise, Demetrius is ironically transformed into loving Helena, whom he shunned at the beginning of the play. However, Bottom is the most ironic character, not just because of the ironic change he undergoes, but because of who he is as a character.

One of the ways in which he is an ironic character is that he is very conceited about his abilities as a performer. He envisions himself being able to give a grand performance as Pyramus, as we see in his lines, "If I do it, let the audience look to their eyes; I will move storms" (I.ii.22-23). However, the reality is that, just like the other mechanicals, he is actually too uneducated and too unskilled to be able to give a convincing and winning performance. We see an example of his lack of education and skills when, in their rehearsal, we see him come up with ridiculous solutions for their stage set problems, such as having an actor play the part of the wall, and also when we see him botch up his lines, such as referring to Thisbe's breath as smelling like an "odious" flower (III.i.75).

It is due to his conceit and ridiculousness that inspires Puck to transform Bottom into the proverbial "ass," which brings us to the second way in which Bottom is the most ironic character. Bottom actually says his most humble an intelligent lines after having been transformed into a donkey. Bottom delivers his most intelligent lines after Titania proclaims she loves him. His response actually captures one of the play's most central themes, showing us just how irrational love is, when he says:

Methinks, mistress, you should have little reason for that. And yet, to say the truth, reason and love keep little company together now-a-days. (III.i.134-136)

Bottom also delivers his most humble line in response to Titania. When Titania declares that he is as wise as he is beautiful, Bottom denies it, saying, "Not so, neither," while previously he would have proclaimed his own merits (140).

The fact that Bottom is conceited about his own skills when in reality he has none, and the fact that he speaks his most humble and intelligent lines as a donkey, shows us that Bottom is indeed the most ironic character in the play.