The Role of Women in Midsummer Night’s Dream, Essay Example

William Shakespeare is regarded as the pioneer of the current literature. His poems and plays have been widely used in many matriculation institutions. Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of his comedies, which he wrote in 1595. Analytically, the comedy reveals various events surrounding relationships and gender roles. Characters like Duke of Athens, Theseus, and Hippolyta enhance the aforementioned themes in an excellent manner. Shakespeare, through his literary skills, portrays various adventures in which certain young Athenian women undergo in the comedy. The comedy consists of numerous instances revealing the theme of gender roles, particularly the role of women in the Athenian society. Through comic and tragedy, he successfully unleashes the two themes literally to the readers enabling them to understand the comedy easily. This paper aims at exploring the theme of role of women in the society as portrayed by Shakespeare. It will specifically use certain examples from the comedy to provide backups for all arguments ad assertions.

Just like many other examples of Shakespeare comedies, this comedy literally dramatizes the existing gender tensions that arise mainly from complicated romantic and familial relationships among various characters. The comedy demonstrates several headstrong women who had faced restraining by their respective societies in various manners. In spite of these, the determined women have constantly fought for what they regarded as their right. Most women in the comedy stood still against all odds for what they believed was right. To begin with Hermia is determined to become Lysander’s bride. He has fallen in love with him earlier on and is looking forward to marrying him in future. Nonetheless, while exhibiting disregard for his emotions, her father Egeus had other plans for his daughter, which he felt as a parent to be more important and helpful for her. Egeus desire for her daughter is to marry Demetrius and not Lysander. Notably, she wants to control the life of his daughter by making for her a crucial decision that should be  only made by his daughter. The clashing desires make the parties go to the council of Duke (Theseus) to get advice on the most appropriate option to take.

Despite the fact that Hermia tries to plead with his father and the council, she is denied the only relationship that she really likes and longs for. She however decides to defy the duke’s rule as well as his father’s order in order to marry the only man whom she loves. The comedy is set in the midst of a society that is evidently male dominated but Hermia is still determined to hold onto her passion and desires in life. She has decided to defy the rule and go her own way. She struggles against the said dictators and oppressors in order to achieve her freedom and happiness in life. With this, it is evidenced that women in this comedy suffer a lot of oppression to the extent that they do not have the opportunity to make the decisions that are crucial to them. The choice of a marriage partner is something that should be purely personal and no one should play any role other than the two interest parties. Women in the Athenian society suffer a lot of oppression from their male counterparts. In addition, it is evidenced that the authority seems to be flooded or rather dominated by men to the extent that all major decisions favor the men only. In this case, Hermia’s father knows very well that the duke will not rule against his wish and this is the main reason why he decides to take the case to him. In other words, men in this society are quite dictatorial and the authority supports them. Women have to obey the men, take all their kinds of advice, and serve them necessarily and not to act disobediently to them in any way. Throughout this novel, Shakespeare tends to expose to the readers some of the characteristics of traditional gender roles whereby men were always expected to remain very active in making decisions, as women remain passive and domicile. In this case, it is evidenced that men have more power over women implying based on the manner in which the male and female gender are represented.

Women are revealed as individuals who tend to lack unity in defending their rights. Instead, they are affected by extreme jealousy that paves ways for men to continue oppressing them. Helena is not happy seeing Lysander and Hermia together. She is seemingly very jealous. She says, “How happy some o’er other some can be! (Act 1, Scene 1, Page 9)” As revealed by Shakespeare, Helena seems to be a very fair woman but she is a woman who is never interested in what other people say about her. She is perfect in dealing with other people’s opinions and fights dogma at its best. She however reveals to the readers that it is none but Demetrius whom she wants to think of her as being fair. Evidently, Demetrius must have been in love with her sometimes back. In fact, Shakespere puts it clear that Helena is a bitter woman since she believes that Hermia stole her lover. “He hailed down the thought that he was (Helena’s) but that all was the fault of Hermia that made him change his mind” (Act 1, Scene 1, page 9). In essence, Hermia made Demetrius change his mind and love her (Hermia) instead of Helena. Helena feels some sort of betrayal from her friend and definitely is not ready to wish her well in her relationship and marriage. In particular, it is very easy to notice that women in this comedy lack the most crucial tool in fighting for their rights, unity. They are affected by jealousy that makes most of them lose focus on their roles in the society. On the other hand, they make counterparts continue dominating, coming up with tough unfair rules and regulations that unfairly inconvenience women.

Most women in this comedy are seriously affected by low self-confidence. Most of them rely on men in making crucial decisions for them. One way through which women in this society are affected is by over-rating and over-relying on men to marry them. Women seem very unhappy and incomplete when married compared to men. Helena’s childhood friend Demetrius does not love her but she (Helena) tries her best to convince him so that they can get married. Demetrius loves Hermia, whom does not even love him. Hermia, as stated before, loves one many who is Lysander and tries to get his hand in marriage. In particular, the two women can be seen to rely heavily on the importance of marriage in their lives rather than finding a way of acquiring their freedom, which is affected by their male counterparts. The short dialogue between Helena and Hermia reveals that Hermia loves no man other than Lysander. “Hermia: I frown upon him, yet he loves me still. The more I hate, the more he follows me” (Act 1, Scene 1, page 8). Helena: The more I love the more he hateth me” (Act 1, Scene 1, page 8). The excerpt is a portrayal of the fact that Hermia is truly in love with Lysander and not Demetrius. Helena on the other hand, says that Demetrius hates her yet she (Helena) loves him a lot. Interestingly, the two women portray some form of drama at this particular part of the comedy. It is seen that Helena loves a lot what Hermia hates. The tow do not have self-confidence in dealing with their problems easily. All that they do is trying to get men whom they love to marry them. Helena’s case is typical when talking of self-confidence. She believes that Hermia had what it takes to snatch her lover, Demetrius from her. This affects her a great deal and interferes with her life to the extent that she can no longer take part in handling her normal daily chores. On the other hand, Helena fights for what she believes is her right. Demetrius has been her long-term lover. They grew together, played together and it makes her bitter that he will marry another man. Due to this, she remains determined despite being treated like a dog to convince Demetrius to love her. Helena represents the modern, independent, determined as well as hardworking women in the society. Marriage, in this comedy, is well illustrated using the mentioned characters. Hermia is interested in marrying Demetrius and nothing can change her mind about that. In most cases, marriage is affected by different ideologies among the partners in the comedy. The idea of inhuman or not-human are also depicted in the play. The fact that characters like Hermia are being dictated on whom to marry is highly inhuman and unacceptable. It is equivalent to choosing for a person what he or she should like and what to hate.

Based on the above, women in this comedy tends to be very passive and domicile whereas men are expected to be very aggressive and control the activities done by women as well as their decisions. Shakespeare, in this comedy, has successfully depicted a society that undermined women and gave credit to the men in all circumstances.