Gender Roles In A Midsummer Night's Dream

Throughout William Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream, one of the most important themes is the hierarchy of men and the objectifying of women. Due to the time that the comedy was written, male superiority and anti-feminism is very common and it plays an extremely critical role in each of the plays that Shakespeare has created. Throughout A Midsummer Night’s Dream, women are portrayed as objects and are forced and obligated to do as the men say and are expected to accept their roles given and set by the men. On all accounts of Shakespeare’s play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is an anti-feminist play through the themes of male dominance, the feeble nature of women and how women are unable to have the same rights and advantages that men

The first instance shown in the play is between Hippolyta and Theseus. Hippolyta, the warrior queen of the amazons seems normal with the fact that she was captured by Theseus during a battle and is now being forced to marry him. Theseus, now filled with a huge ego, proudly talks about how he captured his wife in a war against amazons and is now going to marry her. Throughout the play, Hippolyta does not speak or inquire much about the marriage and she does not talk about any of her preferences or any of the opinions that she has. It could be because that she has accepted her fate to marry Theseus and knows as a woman in that time, she has no power or authority to questions a man’s power. Helena also is shown as being a faithful lover towards Demetrius but her persistence to get Demetrius to fall in love with her is often annoying which gets Demetrius extremely aggravated. Helena pursues Demetrius’s love desperately despite the fact that he scorns and ignores whatever that she has to say. She states that women like her “should be wooed and not be made to woo” (Act 2, Scene 1, Line 242) but still continuously attempts to make him fall in love with her stating “for I am your spaniel and Demetrius the more you beat me the more I will fawn on you.” (Act 2, Scene 1, Line 205-207) Even though Demetrius continues to reject her,

Due to the fact that the play was written during the Elizabethan era, inequality of rights towards women was extremely common. One of the biggest instances of inequality in that time of and in the play was that women were unable to pick who they wanted to marry as they were often given away to a man that they did not have affection for. The play shows this through the characters of Hippolyta and Theseus as she also has been captured and is being forced to marry Theseus but does not speak against his wishes as she knows she has no place to speak against a male figure. Another example in the play of forced marriage is shown through the characters of Hermia and Lysander. Hermia who loves Lysander enormously is being forced by her father to marry Demetrius which is someone that she has no affection for. Even though she decides to stand up against her father and speak her mind, she is threatened with very few options including death if she does not marry Demetrius which is also agreed by the duke of Athens Theseus as he states “either die the death or to abjure forever the society of men. Therefore, Hermia, question your desires, if you yield not to your father’s desires, you can endure the life of a nun.” (Act 1, Scene, 1, Line 84-88) Throughout the play, women are deemed as unfit to take on the