Feminism In A Midsummer Night's Dream

Through Helena Shakespeare created a woman so pitiful and wretched that he openly mocked the modern sixteenth-century women who allowed themselves to be treated in such a manner. Had a man been the monarch of England when this play was written, the bard might have been more discrete in his support of feminism. Luckily, Queen Elizabeth was fond of autonomous women and showed little animosity towards such mockery.

Stereotypes that are put on girls can affect them; A study shows that “by age six, girls were already significantly less likely than boys to say … their own gender were ‘really really smart,’” which shows that the stories and movies that the young girls see are portraying these stereotypes that can hurt a girl for her lifetime (National Science Foundation). There are so many different critical lens’ that can apply to literature but they can also apply to other works. The Feminist Theory refers to the movement of feminism, which fights for the equality of the sexes. One thing the movement of feminism always deals with is the stereotypes that surround women. In the play Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare, it is evident of the stereotypes that surround females. A female should always have a male in her possession is the stereotype that is exemplified the most throughout the plays only two female characters.

The 1500’s were a turbulent time for women. Throughout history, women were perceived as second-class citizens to men, and that the man dominates society. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, William Shakespeare adds to this by creating female characters that further cement stereotypes. Even though Shakespeare creates emphasis on the stereotypes of females, he stresses the bond of womanhood. This bond is broken as soon as men and love come into the picture. The most important female characters in the play are Hippolyta, Titania, Hermia, and Helena. They started out as strong role models and “evened out” over the course of the play. William Shakespeare and A Midsummer Night’s Dream highlights patriarchal thinking and how female bonds can be broken,

Whether playfully resolved in the comedies or brutally exposed in the tragedies, at some level, all Shakespeare's works symbolically explore the conflict between male and female, or control and emotion, within society and the individual self (Novy 3); however, it is in the tragedies that Shakespeare moves beyond merely reflecting a woman's need to transcend socially imposed limitations to an in depth exploration of the dangers inherent in a worldview that prescribes the extreme devaluation and expulsion of the feminine in order to maintain masculine power and domination (200). In particular, Shakespeare's Macbeth is a play in which the masculine-centred world of the protagonist metaphorically and literally reflects the miserable alienation of both men and women when a fear of the feminine within society and themselves leads to chaotic disorder and the death of the soul.

Women in today’s society feel as if they are given less power than a man and are fighting back for their rights. In his comedic romance novel, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, William Shakespeare portrays women as the weakest of the sexes. Throughout the tale, Shakespeare makes it a societal normal to treat women in this manner, which in old times, was accepted. Women in the story even see themselves as weaker than men and accept they are below them. Shakespeare’s conflict, imagery, and symbolism sets the stage for how the sexes are portrayed in this novel full of comedic irony.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare is a brilliant play that shows elements of romance, comedy, and magic. The play takes place in Athens, Greece in ancient times, when men and women had specific roles, jobs, and rules applying to their gender. For example, women were not allowed to perform in plays, when men were. There were also stereotypes of men and women, such as men being stronger, and women being prettier. These rules and stereotypes affect A Midsummer Night’s Dream in many ways. Gender’s rules, stereotypes, and roles are apparent in A Midsummer Night’s Dream because of it’s time period, and its culture.

In the play ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ written by William Shakespeare, an important event is when Egeus goes to Duke Theseus to force his daughter, Hermia, to marry a man whom she does not love, Demetrius. This event helps readers understand the idea of expectations of women during the patriarchal society.

Shakespeare's 1611 play Macbeth is widely regarded as being far ahead of its time in terms of feminism, William Shakespeare himself also being referred to as a feminist. The story of the play delves into the topic of morality, and can be examined to understand expressions of gender. While the topic of gender is very broad, femininity and masculinity in the characters of Lady Macbeth and the three witches is explored. However, even though the play is considered as being feminist, the increasingly dislikable portrayals of the only main female characters is patriarchal, and contradicts the idea. Lady Macbeth is shown as being intelligent and powerful, but quickly the audience turns to thinking of those traits as being bad to be seen in a woman.

The play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare, demonstrates many aspects of a feminist approach to play writing. By examining the Athenian patriarchal order, male dominance, and the overall portrayal of women in the play, it becomes clear that Shakespeare is in favor of patriarchal order and a strongly male dominated society, much like the society in which the play was written in. During the time A Midsummer Night’s Dream, England was under a patriarchal order. “Even though there was an unmarried woman on the throne in Elizabethan England, women were still considered to be the weaker sex.

In many of Shakespeare’s plays, he uses women to reflect on the social structures of Elizabethan England. Specifically, in Titus Andronicus and A Comedy of Errors, Shakespeare appears to take a very feministic approach on the role of women within society. Although women were not allowed the same privileges as men during this time period, Shakespeare seems to attribute agency to the female characters within his plays. In Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus and A Comedy of Errors, he uses allusions, metaphorical language, and explicit imagery to create powerful identities for women in order to critique the patriarchal structure of Elizabethan society.

Shakespeare kept inserted some satires related to gender’s rules, stereotypes, and roles which apparent in A Midsummer Night’s Dream on its time period, and its culture. We could know that Shakespeare had tried to criticize the male-dominant society by making a caricature.

Romance can be found in a myriad of oeuvres. Since the beginning of the written word, it has appeared as a theme in countless novels, theatrical performances, and poems. Some of the most popular stories from ancient Greece are those about love. A prime example of this would be the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice. In this rather romantic story, Orpheus, a talented Thracian musician, marries the love of his life, the prepossessing Eurydice. Soon after their union, Eurydice gets bitten by a snake and dies. The courageous and devoted Orpheus journeys down to the underworld to save his cherished bride. This romantic and legendary myth has survived for millennia, therefore it is a true testament to how favored love

The portrayal of women is a prominent theme of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The Elizabethan women in this play do not have the right to choosing their spouses. In the beginning of the play, Hermia’s father, Egeus, has arranged a marriage for Hermia only based on his own interest, but Hermia obeys her father's will because she's in love with Lysander. Egeus argues to the king “I beg the ancient privilege of Athens: / As she is mine, I may dispose of her, / Which shall be either to this gentleman” (Shakespeare, 1.1.42-46).

The forest in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ is used as a green space, a place where the social norms don’t apply. At the time of writing, Shakespearean England was ruled by a female monarch, Queen Elizabeth the 1st who was only the 2nd queen of England in their own right. This power held by a woman at the time was not the norm, women were subservient of men.

Generally, Macbeth is thought of as Shakespeare’s most feminist play. With a supposedly powerful female character and an inversion of gender roles, it is easy to see how this idea came into being. However, it is totally wrong. Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare, is a play about an ambitious nobleman who would go to any measure to become king and retain that position after receiving a prophecy from three witches. At first, he is unwilling to resort to violence to become king but his wife, Lady Macbeth, manipulates him into doing so. Once the first murder is complete, he has found a thirst for killing and continues to kill various people until he is eventually killed and the rightful king takes his place. The claims of this being a feminist play stem from Lady Macbeth’s character and her relationship with Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is violent and evil, while Macbeth is originally too kind, showing a gender role reversal. Even so, there are many problematic aspects of Macbeth that completely negate the few progressive components in Shakespeare’s writing. Macbeth is a misogynist play because it promotes strict gender roles, gender non-conforming women are demonized and seen as responsible for men’s problems, and by the second half of the play, any innovative gender role reversals are themselves reversed.