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What Role Does Margaret Play In A Midsummer Night's Dream Essay

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It seems that the majority of the plays we have read have contained male lead characters. The stories always revolve around the men, but what about the women? They should not be ignored even though they are not the feature character of the story. Many of them have significant roles to the storyline, and without them, the play would be quite different. Queen Margaret played an important role in Richard III as a prophesier of the events that were to unfold, and Helena was important to A Midsummer Nights Dream because she was the only one who really thought about the nature of love. Queen Margaret is the old, vehement widow of King Henry VI. She enjoys angrily lurking around the castle and cursing everyone for the dreadful things that have happened to her family. Margaret’s wrath exists for good reason. For one thing, Richard’s family took the thrown from Queen Margaret’s late husband so that Edward IV could be crowned king. In addition to this, Richard killed her son. Margaret is not only a woman, but also a widow, and now she's a charity case without a husband or a son. She feels a terrible grief, and the fact that the murders have not been avenged just makes things worse for her. Though she plays a very minor role in the play’s plot, Margaret is still a very powerful …show more content…

Because she lacks any real physical or political power, she turns to casting curses. The intense rage that she directs at Richard and his family stands for the helpless, righteous anger of all Richard’s victims. She draws our focus to Richard's evil when she says, “Out, devil! I remember them too well. / Thou killed’st my husband Henry in the Tower, / And Edward, my poor son, at Tewksbury” (1.3.118-120). Margaret’s curses seem to harness the power of divine justice and effectively foreshadow the events in the play. While speaking to Queen Elizabeth, she

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