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Theme Of Hippolyta In A Midsummer Night's Dream

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Shakespeare’s, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, is often considered a simple story in which, the characters are conforming to traditional societal behaviors set in Elizabethan times. However, in contrast, the characters’ display behaviors that contradict the emphasized customs and social behaviors that are alluded to in the play. Throughout the play, Shakespeare challenges the conventional societal norms of his time by exemplifying such transcendent behaviors through strong and independent female characters, like Hermia and Hippolyta. Hermia, with her defiance of stereotypic norms, progresses towards achieving what she desires most: to marry the man she desires. And, in Hippolyta’s case, because she has been captured by Theseus during battle, she is forced into marriage – however, she is changing her tone to lower the tension between her and her soon to be husband, Theseus. It is the dialogue between them that truly shows us Hippolyta’s strength in voicing herself – a direct contradiction of what is expected of a captured woman. And so, strong and daring, Hermia and Hippolyta have taken tremendous steps forward to oppose the conventions of obedience of their time.
In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hermia defies the reality of her fate, as she fights to achieve what she desires: marrying the man of her selection. In this selection from the play, Egeus and Theseus represent the natural ways in which men in Elizabethan times would use their dominance over women. It was a fixed

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