Hippolyta, Titania, Hermia, And Helena In A Midsummer Night's Dream

Hermia is a beautiful, desirable, a young Athenian woman and is the rebellious daughter of Egeus. She refuses to marry Demetrius, which is against her father's wishes. But her true love is Lysander, a handsome young Athenian man.

In the book, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, by William Shakespeare, Hermia is a strong-willed woman who wants to be free to marry her true love Lysander. She cannot marry him, because her father, Egeus, is making her marry Demetrius. She has two other choices, to either become a nun or die. She is not happy with his decision and feels he is being unfair. Lysander and Hermia plan to run away with each other to escape her father and the Athenian law. Hermia’s friend, Helena, may stop those plans though, because she is in love with Demetrius. She hopes to win Demetrius back by foiling Hermia’s plans. We will hear more about this intriguing story in just a bit. Hermia will make an appearance on the show, Talking with the Athenians, where we will interview her on her ideas of love.

In the play, Helena is heavily portrayed as jealous, neurotic, and persistent. The girl is unconfident and insecure, as she believes her best friend Hermia, is far superior than her. “Happy is Hermia, wheresoe’er she lies,/For she hath blessed and attractive eyes.” (2.2.96-97) She describes Hermia as happy no matter what circumstance occurs, as she is considered a beautiful person. “No, no, I am as ugly as a bear,/For beasts that meet me run away for fear.” (2.2.100-101) Speaking to Demetrius, she continues to put herself down, and describes herself as extremely unattractive that others run away from her. It is worth noting that Helena may have been confident in the past, but when Demetrius made the switch from her to Hermia, she lost that confidence, and felt as if she was not good enough. She

Have you ever wondered why Shakespeare uses so many descriptive words that could really be said in one? Or why some characters speak in rhyme and sometimes not? Shakespeare writes in this way to show how the characters feel through the rhythmic and descriptive words that they use. How the characters speak also shows how sincere and loving they are. Shakespeare had a way of writing that informed us about the characters and what we needed to know about them and also makes it interesting to read.

In A Midsummers Night Dream a group of craftsmen put on a play for the Dukes wedding. A play about Pyramus and Thisbe. Little did the craftsmen know, that they are about to perfom Hermia and Lysander’s entire struggle. The play gives this drama a comical side, and give symbols and allusions to Hermia and Lysanders relationship.

Penelope obeying Telemachus when he tells her to go to her room shows us how the audience see that women have no backbone and and are unable to stand up for themselves. Also, locking herself in her room reveals to the audience that women are portrayed as weak characters.

Women in The Odyssey are portrayed differently in order to give each one a distinguished personality. The women are portrayed in several different ways. These ways include intelligent, loyal, and controlling. In The Odyssey, Penelope is portrayed as an intelligent woman.

In the A Midsummer Night’s Dream, William Shakespeare wrote about different aspects of love. Love is viewed as an arranged marriage in this story because Theseus and Hippolyta and Oberon and Titania had the girls parents decision on whom they must marry, however, their reactions to the marriage were much different. A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare explores the mature and stable love between Theseus and Hippolyta in contrast with the relationship of Oberon and Titania, that has a negative impact on the world around them. The story contradicts a healthy relationship to an unhealthy relationship by having one couple be so strong whereas the other relationship is so

Many Greek plays depict strong female roles. These provocative women cause disorder and initiate change. This is in direct contrast to the real life of Athenian women who lives were thoroughly controlled by men. Their lives would have removed from men, politics and public affairs. They would have been mostly confined to the home. However, female roles in the plays were intriguing and dynamic. Women like Euripides’ Medea and Sophocles’ Antigone.

Titania was humiliated and had her son-like figure taken away from her by Oberon, and Helena and Hermia are just fools without having been charmed by an enchantment in comparison to the men which shows how inferior women truly are in comparison to men. Ultimately, in the play, women are recognized as foolish and insignificant, and men are recognized as calm and mature and are placed on a

be advised fair maid. To you your father should be as a god, one that composed your beauties, yea, and one to whom you are but as a form in wax by him imprinted and within his power to leave the figure or disfigure it.” (1.1.47). In this quote it is easy to see that Theseus thinks Hermia should see her dad,Egeus, as a king or that she is less than him. Egeus lining up his daughter’s marriage shows that the men did not see women as fit to make their own decisions regarding marriage. He also refers to Hermia daughter as a “fair maid,” creating a sense of lower social rank. Later on in the story, Helena states, “Yes, but that makes me love you even more. I’m your little dog, Demetrius. The more you beat me, the more I’ll love you.” (2.1.8). In this quote, Helena refers to herself as Demetrius’ “little dog,” as if she is his servant where she would do anything he asks of her. It also states that he could hit her but she would only love him more with each beating. This quote shows how Shakespeare wanted women to be portrayed, as beneath men. Another instance of gender inequality in A Midsummer Night’s Dream is seen in the quote by

In the beginning of the story, the Duke of Theseus takes Queen Hippolyta, his future wife, and her younger sister Emily after the Duke is victorious over the Amazon. The two women are simply spoils of war for the Duke and the Amazon people. Meanwhile, the Duke of Theseus represents his traditional gender roles as he is a strong

In the play, Othello, there are many different representations of characters and archetypes. The women of the play are seen as symbolic representations of how the men in Shakespeare’s generation saw women. The women of the play are all individual characters with different personalities. They are seen as objects but stray from the average mold. Shakespeare converts these women into the play with roles that represent the strong stereotypes of women and how they are not what the rumors portray them as.

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.

Women have a specific role throughout the Elizabethan society and are known as inferior. In Shakespeare’s play, A Midsummer Nights Dream, women are told how to act by men, that reveals superiority towards men. This is portrayed by the characters-Hermia, Helena, and Titiana throughout the play. These characters were represented as powerless and blind because they fail to receive what they what and are told what to do countless amounts by the men in the play. Women's’ inferiority in the play makes it impossible for them to achieve true happiness attributable to the superiority the men in the play believe they have.