Imagine being a woman in sixteenth century Europe. Females were raised to believe that they were subservient and that men knew better on any subject. Basically, women had no rights. They were considered property, first “owned” by their fathers and then control was “transferred” to the husband chosen for them. Marriage was not about love, but in most cases, it was a business deal that was mutually beneficial to both families – an interesting fact is that like young women, most young men had no choice in the selection of their future betrothed. These traditions and the gender roles assumed by men and women at that time had an impact on Shakespeare’s writing and performances and a great example of this is evident in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Similar to other works by Shakespeare, such as The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night’s Dream embellishes the pressures that arise between genders dealing with complicated family and romantic situations. The plot includes a duke who is going to marry a woman he conquered in battle, the king and queen of the fairies embroiled in a fight so fierce that it unbalances the natural world, and a daughter fighting with her father for her right to marry the man she chooses. The girl’s father selects Demetrius to marry his daughter, but she is in love with another man, Lysander, who loves her in return, and her friend Helena is in love Demetrius, but he wants nothing to do with her. Considering the fact that males were dominant during that era, whereas, men chased women, and women remained submissive, Shakespeare dallies with those traditional roles and there are several possible reasons why. Perhaps he made women a stronger force in his plays because he wanted to give his audience a break fr... ... middle of paper ... ...ons of Shakespeare's Plays and Poetry. Anne Marie Hacht. 2nd ed. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 2007. 578-613. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 24 Nov. 2013. Impersonations: The Performance of Gender in Shakespeare's England. Stephen Orgel. Cambridge [England: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Print Obscured by dreams: Race, Empire, and Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Margo Hendricks. Shakespeare Quarterly, Vol. 47, No. 1 (Spring, 1996), pp. 37-60 Folger Shakespeare Library in association with George Washington University. Web. 24 Nov 2013 University of Southern Queensland, USQ Home. School Resources, A Midsummer Dream, Discussion of key issues. 2011. www.usq.edu.au/artsworx/school- resources/midsummer-nights-dream. Web. 24 Nov 2013
In Shakespearean time and even up to the turn of the 20th Century men were expected to be the sole provider of the family, entailing them to be either well educated or hard working. They were also expected to be good with the handling of finances and property. It was also acceptable for them to be barbaric, boisterous and socially well connected. This has given the men of this time an overwhelming sense of power, respect and freedom; rights which were not given to women at this time. Far from what was socially acceptable in regards to men, the gender identity of women was of a somewhat weaker nature. Women during Shakespearean time were regarded as docile, quiet and non-opinionated. Their socially acceptable role in many cases was to be domestic, entailing them to spend countless hours in the home, tending to basic familial needs, such as cooking and cleaning. This position prevented many women to receive an education or to socialize outside of the home. As a result of their inferior social status, they were expected to be submissive and to cater to her husband’s needs at all times. Women in Shakespearean time were also treated as property, either by their husbands or fathers, which diminished any sense of self-worth they may have possessed. This gender ideology ultimately paralyzed women, as the majority were helpless to alter their social standing or designated familial role.
There have been strict gender roles set in place for men and women to follow, throughout history. During Shakespearean times, The females were viewed as this weak, emotionally and physically. Women were expected to always listen and obey their husbands, father or male when demanded. Women were never in positions to make the rules. Men on the other hand, were expected to be the head of their households, strong, and wise. In “A Midsummer Night's Dream” written by Shakespeare, you may notice a lot of “gender roles” being played. Oberon and Titania characters are the only couple in the play who have been married for a while in the play. That makes them an important role in “A Midsummer Night's Dream”.The other couples are just starting out
To start, males play a very important role in love, as they are one of the sexes. In both plays, males are portrayed as the dominant gender due to their imperious behaviour towards the females. This is first seen in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" when Hermia's father Egeus declares his daughter his "property" and gives her away to Demetrius, without regard for Hermia's feelings: "I beg the ancient privilege of Athens: As she is mine, I may dispose of her...(Egeus, 1.1.41-42)" also: "And she is mine, and all my right of her I do estate unto Demetrius." (1.1.97-98) If Hermia had been a man, she would've had more say in the decision. In "The Lion and the Jewel", Lakunle proclaims out loud to Sidi that "Women have a smaller brain than men." (page 4) As revealed, the two plays' men have a similarity in how they treat females. However, there still exists a distinction between them. In "A Midsummer Night's Dream", the male lovers are stereotypical gentlemen, always looking out for the women and their needs. This is demonstrated when Lysander asks Hermia if she is tired after their journey into the forest. Also, the Duke of Athens did...
William Shakespeare has a habit of creating complicated plots, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream is no exception. Three distinct worlds are presented within the play, and the story’s theme is most prevalent when they collide or mirror one another. Shakespeare’s allusions very intentionally cast light on these themes as he uses them to develop characters, settings, and comedy. The point of that development is the effective delivery of the theme that love renders us equals.
Shakespeare’s literature exemplifies creativeness and powerful word use to create bodies of work with strong attributes that grab the reader’s attention. Midsummer’s night dream is an example of some of Shakespeare’s best work. The thesis of this essay is Hermia’s father, Esues wants his daughter to marry someone that he approves of and more importantly he wants someone for her that is respected by the rest of society to admire. This play has love, drama and characters that follow their hearts. Hermia is told she is not allowed to love or marry Lysander by her father. Her father Esues wants her to marry Demetrius. The setting of the play is taken in Athens. Athens is a place of order and royalty and a place where people are supposed to marry
In Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night’s Dream there are many instances of Traditional gender roles. The traditional gender role are how men or women are suppose to act or how people think they should act. And still some people think that men are suppose to have control over women.
The poet, William Shakespeare (1564-1616), wrote A Midsummer Night’s Dream before the year 1600, and published it in 1600 in Quarto edition. However, it is suggested, that this play was ‘first put on in court in 1595’ (Salgado, 1975: p. 116). Because of the wedding theme in the play, it is possible that this comedy was written intentionally for a specific wedding, although, scholars still debate which wedding it was written for. (Goodall, 2015). During Elizabethan era, plays were performed usually in an open-air auditorium that was roofless. The plays were performed on the simple platform that had a wall on the back which was used for players as an offstage area where they changed. Additionally, this area consisted of exterior doors and
Love plays a very significant role in this Shakespearian comedy, as it is the driving force of the play: Hermia and Lysander’s forbidden love and their choice to flee Athens is what sets the plot into motion. Love is also what drives many of the characters, and through readers’ perspectives, their actions may seem strange, even comical to us: from Helena pursuing Demetrius and risking her reputation, to fairy queen Titania falling in love with Bottom. However, all these things are done out of love. In conclusion, A Midsummer Night’s Dream displays the blindness of love and how it greatly contradicts with reason.
Gender Inequality may not be as apparent today in our more developed countries, but during the Elizabethan Era, gender inequality was standard and even encouraged. One of the many forms of women inequality during this era was forced marriage. Females involuntarily married men they did not accept and married at ages they did not agree with. The male population enforced these practices, making them traditional. So how did the balance between men and women become what it is today? One cause can be traced back to Shakespeare, a man who was and is widely revered as the greatest writer in the English language. With the comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare supports women's growing independence by creating strong-willed female characters that defy male authority and gender
In Shakespeare’s, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, there is a constant conflict among the characters over jealousy and insecurity. There are four lovers: Hermia, Lysander, Helena, and Demetrius in the play who cannot be with their lovers. At the start of the play, Hermia’s father wants her to marry Demetrius who loves her, but Hermia loves Lysander. Demetrius used to love Helena but when he met her best friend Hermia, he fell in love with her. Helena still loves Demetrius and throughout the play she tries to win him back. Lysander and Hermia decide to run away together so that they can elope. Helena tells Demetrius of their plan, so he decides to go after them while Helena follows. While all the lovers are sleeping, a fairy puts love potion on
Society has created a set of standards for women that has been portrayed in literature for many centuries. Shakespeare depicted these strict standards in Athens during the 16th and 17th centuries in his play A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Two centuries later, in her novel Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen depicted the expectations of women during the 19th century in England, and the resemblance between the two was anticipated. Women had nearly the same roles throughout the centuries, although there were some differences. Weaker women had a tendency to conform completely to these harsh standards for men and betrayed other women, whereas stronger women were more likely to think for themselves and behave in their own ways. Both Austen and Shakespeare
A Midsummer Night’s Dream focuses highly on love and what goes along with these relationships. This play shows the effects of conflict within the romantic relationships, and the way that the women were treated throughout the entire play. Whether it is in the fairyland between King Oberon and Queen Titania or between the mortals. It is quite apparent that the way women were treated in this play was different than that of today. The women in A Midsummer Night’s Dream were treated as second class citizens by the men during the time period of the play.
At age fifteen, my hormones went wild and I threw myself at every boy in the neighborhood. Although I didn’t go all the way, I offered as much flesh as I dared. If the suburbs can create such sexual angst, imagine the lust stirred by moonlight, fairies, and a warm midsummer night. In Shakespeare's comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream, Helena represents the frenzy of young love when fueled by rejection and driven to masochistic extremes.
Even with the many demonstrations and campaigns advocating for women’s rights, women still do not receive the same treatment men do. In the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream–written by William Shakespeare–a young maiden, Hermia, wants to marry Lysander, but her father holds a different opinion, choosing Demetrius, who is also in love with Hermia, as her future husband. Hermia runs away with Lysander to the forest, where they get wrapped up in the fairy rulers’ conflict. None of the female characters in the story had authority over their male counterparts, which reflected the injustice towards women encountered during Shakespeare’s time. It is quite apparent in the interview “Gaming for Change” by Scholastic
Shakespeare literature is very popular even in modern times. Although, it goes unseen on the way he portrays women especially in one of his most famous play Hamlet. In the play, we notice that Shakespeare views women as a weak sense of character. He portrays the women in the play as needing a man in their life to tell them what to do. The two main female characters are portrayed as weak and are always being used and manipulated by the men in the play. They were also very vulnerable to the men in the play anything the men wanted the women to do they would oblige and do it which showed how much power the men had over the women.