A Midsummer Night's Dream Gender Roles

Theseus and Hippolyta find the lovers asleep near the woods and Theseus begins to decide their fate. Demetrius interrupts Theseus to tell him about his love for Hermia, saying "[t]he object and the pleasure of [his] eye [is] only [to] Helena. Demetrius is now in love with Helena, which is what she wanted the entire time. After she challenges her duties of being a woman, she still gets her way. Women are not supposed to chase around men in this time.

Although Hermia and Lysander are in love, Egeus attempts to exert control over them by arranging Hermia to marry Demetrius. He declares, “As she is mine, I may dispose of her;/Which shall be either to this gentleman/Or to her death, according to our law” (1.1.42-44). At his side, Theseus furthermore exerts control with an additional option, “To death, or to a vow of single life” (1.1.121). This also affects Helena’s love for Demetrius, since the marriage is arranged by Egeus rather than between Hermia and Demtrius. However, Demetrius himself attempts to exert his control her as well as Lysander by declaring “Thy crazed title to my certain right” (1.1.92).

Helena is shown as a faithful lover, but her dedication is at times, irritating. Helena chases Demetrius relentlessly, despite his cruel treatment of her. She appears, not mad at Demetrius for leaving her; but rather she blames herself for not being attractive enough.

This is not the first time in the play that men refer to women in terms of plant life nor the first time the reference to plants sexualizes women. In fact, comparing the women to flowers occurs frequently throughout the play. This first example of this is when Theseus attempts to persuade Hermia away from Lysander at the request of her father. Theseus reproaches Hermia’s decision to choose chastity over marriage to Demetrius by using an extended rose metaphor that focuses on sex. Theseus tells Hermia:

In Athens, women had very little rights. Womens fathers were the ones who got to choose whom they married, and that caused trouble for the lovers. Hermia’s father, Egeus, strongly believed in this rule. At the beginning, Egeus decides that he wants Hermia to marry Demetrius, which is good for Demetrius but bad for Hermia. Hermia, daringly refuses her father’s wishes, so they seek the help of Theseus, the Duke of Athens. Theseus listens to their situation, and being the authority in the situation, tells Hermia: “Either to die the death, or to abjure for the society of men. Therefore, fair Hermia,... if you yield not to your father’s choice, you can endure the livery of a nun...”(24). This shows how authority, in this case the law, gets in the way of “the course of true love…”(28). Egeus’s decision to have Hermia marry Demetrius does not only affect Hermia but also affects Helena. When Hermia’s father chooses Demetris to be her

It was not uncommon for Shakespeare to think outside the gender norm of the time period, giving lives to characters, especially female characters, that would have been unfathomable to anyone else. He seems to pay special attention to the differences he contributes. The female characters within the plays arguably represent a more modern, stronger woman that what would have been socially acceptable in England at this time. Women within this era were property and an okay other to the male Christians in England's borders. While still possessing the power to destroy family honor and reputations. Which essentially seems to be why they needed to be controlled, or why men thought they needed to be controlled. They possess the power to destroy livelihoods.

Shakespeare reveals in his writing how traditional gender roles were in 1590’s. Hermia has a problem with her father because Hermia’s father doesn’t allow Hermia to marry Lysander, the man she truly loves. Shakespeare shows the dominate role and control of men over woman (including a daughter) by not given much consideration , nor freedom, in a very personal and important decision. It is clear that Shakespeare describes traditional gender roles present during his time as they are very different than what we see today in an open society where men and women have equal control and freedom over their lives and who they choose to marry.

The social order and love within A Midsummer’s Night Dream is skewed without the influence of the fairies, yet Oberon, Titania, and their troupe of troublemakers forcibly insert themselves into the plot with their own personal squabbles that exert power over the characters and events of the play. The crazed and maniacal actions of the characters go against the traditional forms of accepted behavior in Elizabethan society, and just like in dreams, they turn the plot topsy-turvy and breed a chaos that runs unchecked until the young Athenians emerge from the woods at dawn. There are many points where sexual roles and norms are challenged during the play, but the most heated is Oberon and Titania’s fight in Act 2 Scene 1. Titania’s refusal to

All throughout history, males have always been the dominant gender. Men never let the females have certain rights and would consider the women to be objects or possessions. This sexism can be seen all around society and has established one of the most famous works of literature, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare uses the contradicting settings of the woods and Athens to show how women try and break out of the role society has forced them to play. During the Elizabethan Era, the society was patriarchal.

There are many differences in the way others view and treat men and women. For example, some hold the idea that men are superior to women, and women are incapable of performing certain tasks, such as being in charge and making their own choices. In William Shakespeare ’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream, one of the main characters, Hermia, has issues with her father over her marriage. Her father wants her to marry one man while she wants to marry another and threatens to have her killed if she does not marry the man of his choice.

Until the Information age ( the era of which we currently live in) patriarchy has influenced practically all aspects of a person’s life whether it is love, power or freedom. Even now after thousands of years of the dominance of men patriarchy still exists in various nations throughout the world. William Shakespeare demonstrates this in the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream through the challenges faced by characters and the acute consequences of an patriarchal society. Hermia a daughter of a prominent nobleman is a victim of the patriarchal society in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Hermia’s response to her intricate problem in resistance to a society ruled by men shows the probable consequences of women merely being an asset to men and not allowed

The topic of women and their roles in William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream appears to be controversial and of great significance. Shakespeare’s views on women are shown in this play through Helena’s despair, Hermia’s carelessness, and Hippolyta’s hypocritical behavior as they rebel against the Athenian laws and its society. Helena chases after men, which goes against how women were supposed to act. She breaks society’s norms of the women obeying their fathers and letting the father choose the husband, by chasing men by herself instead. Hermia also disobeys her father Egeus by running away with Lysander, even though her father wanted her

In “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” by Shakespeare, we are introduced to many characters. There are many “main” characters and an example of two would be Helena and Hermia. In many ways the two women are very similar. However, throughout the play, we notice several ways they differ. For starters, they are the same gender and they happened to grow up together.

Shakespeare may be the most known playwright of all time, however, you may be surprised at how many unfair stereotypes this very famous writer incorporated into his plays. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a comedy play written by William Shakespeare in the late 1500s that portrays events surrounding the marriage of Theseus, the Duke of Athens, to the extravagant Hippolyta, the former queen of the Amazons. Such events included Demetrius jilting Helena at the altar and falling in love with Helena’s rival instead, Hermia. However, Hermia is in love with Lysander, not a disdainful youth known as Demetrius. According to feminist theory, the theory that focuses on gender inequality. A Midsummer Night’s Dream would not be considered a feminist empowerment play because throughout the play Shakespeare portrays women as timid/easily frightened. He shows men having more power than women, and perpetuates the unfair stereotype that all women must act a certain way.

Hermia is recognized as an inferior character due to her fathers commands-Egeus. Hermia endeavours to get Egeus to give permission for Lysander and herself to get married. However, he responds with a rational answer, giving her two choices: “Consent to marry with Demetrius…” “…or to her death, according to our laws…” (Shakespeare 1:1 40,44). This passage stats how Hermia is given the option to marry Demetrius or to be killed by her fathers request. Also, it describes that this act is legal and right in the laws of the Athenians as Egeus mentions. This means that women throughout the town are forced to do what their fathers say. Which proves that woman are powerless and males are given the role of superiority, this makes the society unjust. Hermia is shown as powerless towards what