Lack of Rights in A Midsummer's Night Dream

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Lack of Rights in A Midsummer's Night Dream

Do men and women not shed the same blood? Of course they do, so why is it that women are treated so unfairly? Women for hundreds of years have been degraded to something less than man when all along they should have been treated equally. The women of the Renaissance period were mistreated by being denied the right to chose whom they wished to marry.

In the play A Midsummer Night's Dream Theseus talks about how the power lay with the father to choose who may marry his daughter. Theseus talks about the law with Hermia and Egeus because Hermia contests the law. Theseus also talks about how she may be put to death if she does not comply with the law.

Hermia is contesting the law because she has two people pursuing her. One that her father has chosen for her to marry and another that has won her heart over. Hermia wants to marry Lysander the one that has won her heart, but since her father does not approve of him she is being forced to marry Demetrius.

By the end of the play Theseus feels differently towards Hermia's claim specially after the children run off into the woods. He turns in the favor of Hermia's claim which is for her to be able to choose whom she wishes to marry.

Helena has a different experience than Hermia and she speaks of it to Demetrius:

Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex.

We cannot fight for love, as men may do;

We should be wooed, and were not made to woo. (537)

Helena states here how she is pursuing Demetrius when it should be Demetrius pursuing her. Helena tries to make herself more appealing to Demetrius so he will like her, but everything she does discourages him even more. It was not until the fairies intervened that Demetrius fell in love with Helena. The fairies gave Demetrius love potion without him knowing, and that was the only thing that made Demetrius love Helena. Puck knew that if he were to remove the pedals from Demetrius's eyes that he would not like Helena anymore. That is why he left the pedals on Demetrius's eyes after he had already removed them from the others.

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