Gender Lense in A Midsummer Night's Dream

Helena, Hermia, and Hippolyta are all important female figures in A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Shakespeare. Unfortunately, they are often discriminated against, and the gender lense can be used to analyze the play. The play A Midsummer Night’s Dream was written by William Shakespeare in 1596. It is about how four lovers are having relationship troubles, and when a fairy tries to fix their problems (along with his own,) even further confusion ensues. However, the resulting events are so strange that when everything is fixed, they believe it was all a dream. Throughout the story, multiple love triangles, rectangles, and pairings form. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the gender lense is repeatedly seen and used to enhance the overall storyline in the play.
On page 20, Theseus explains how he captured Hippolyta, and then fell in love with her. The quote states,
“Hippolyta, I woo’d thee with my sword,
And won thy love doing thee injuries;
But I will wed thee in another key,
With pomp, with triumph, and with revelling (1.1.17-20).”
This is a use of the gender lense because it shows that Hippolyta did not have the choice of who she was to marry. An important point is that Hippolyta was a part of the Amazons, which were an all-female warrior group. One would think that this would result in her opposing the “wooing,” but the play gives no evidence of this. Perhaps the fact that Theseus is the Duke of Athens gives him more jurisdiction over others, but it is more likely than not that if Hippolyta captured Theseus, he would not be obligated to love her. Theseus’ quote shows that women often did not have a choice in who they loved, and had to be content with the man that "captured" or "woo'd" them.
On page 23, Theseus is explaining to Hermi...

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...ream to emphasize the fact that there were not equal gender rights and that men and women had different expectations in Elizabethan times. Theseus often patronizes or disrespects women, because in Shakespeare’s time, men were much more influential than women. Also, women had to do a lot of work to please a man, whether it was their father, husband, or someone else. They had to work hard and be willing to change themselves to a man’s liking. Lastly, Helena is a unique character because she goes against “normal” gender roles. She goes against Demetrius’ wishes by following him around and refusing to leave him alone just because she was a woman. Overall, the gender lense was used to great effect in A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare, and it shows that even though Helena, Hermia, and Hippolyta were big characters in the play they were discriminated against.