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These simple folk carve out their own realm in the play, with Bottom at the front. Shakespeare has them speak prose, serving as a sharp contrast to the poetry of the lovers and fairies. They stand as representatives of an innocent real world, plain, good-natured, and well-meaning. Their preposterous bad acting and terrible attempts at poetry are made fun of, but their good intentions and shared fellowship are always apparent. Shakespeare may use them to satirize elements of his theater, but he does so in a way that makes their theatrics, not them, the objects of his comedy. Their burlesque may make them look ridiculous, but as characters they fare better than the more articulate lovers do.
They are a necessary adjunct to the other worlds of A Midsummer Night\'s Dream. They counteract the duke\'s stiff reliance on reason, the lovers\' high moral flights of fancy, and the fairies\' elegant and primal poetry. All of these realms together make a recognizably human world.
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