ipl-logo

How Is Hippolyta Portrayed In A Midsummer Night's Dream

554 Words3 Pages

In Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream the sexes are portrayed in many different ways through many different characters. Though the sexes are portrayed in many different ways, there is one view that is repeated twice. This view is that of a dominant male figure. This view is showed through the characters of Theseus and Hippolyta and also through the characters of Hermia and Egeus. Both of these relationships are dynamic, yet they are both still based on the idea of a dominant male figure. Theseus conquers The Amazon and captures Hippolyta to be his future wife. During this story Hippolyta is put into a position where she does not have control. Theseus views her as a piece of property rather than as a human being. Shakespeare sets up this relationship to make the reader feel sympathetic towards the female character. Hippolyta is forced to do everything that Theseus tells her to do and doesn't have the …show more content…

Egeus sets Hermia up for an arranged marriage with a man named Demetrius. However, Hermia is in love with a man named Lysander. Her father does not care that his daughter is in love. Egeus wants Hermia to marry Demetrius because Egeus wants to be linked through marriage with a highly ranked family. Egues has no regard for what his daughter's heart wants. Egeus is angry with his daughter so he goes to the king for a resolution. Egeus says to the king, "as she is mine, I may dispose of her, which shall be either to this gentlemen or to her death, according to our law immediately provided in that case." (********************) Egeus uses his power to try and threaten Hermia. However, Hermia chooses to betray her father. Hermia goes against her father's wishes and chooses to be with Lysander. Eventually the king decides that Hermia and Lysnader can be together and Egeus accepts the king's decision. Shakespeare uses Hermia's character to display a strong headed women who will stand up for her

Show More
Related

  • Penelope In Homer's Odyssey

    752 Words  | 4 Pages

    17). It isn’t clear to the people she is doing it for but “[her] deeds [are] marked by a nobility of purpose, and [she] must be willing to risk [her] life for [her] ideals” (Campbell 1). She had to act as if she had a heart of iron but it’s marked by nobility of purpose which was to protect her son and her husbands’ kingdom even if it meant risking her own life by rejecting the suitors hands in marriage or being judge by her son and husband the same man in her life that she is risking it all for. Nevertheless she doesn’t stop her quest she continues and she decide to test Odysseus by Her cunning request to Eurycleia to move the wedding bed that Odysseus made himself to see his response “Ulysses was very angry and said,… who could move it from its place…, I made with my very own hands. There was a young olive…tree at its roots" (Homer Par.19).In Using her bed as the finale test of Odysseus true identity shows her strong mindedness, she didn’t just give him an easy test, she gave him the test, that only Odysseus would be able to answer in such detail.

    Read More

  • Letter From Phaedra To Hippolytus In The Heriodes

    811 Words  | 4 Pages

    This combination of words creates of Phaedra being reliant on Hippolytus.

    Read More

  • A Midsummer's Night Dream And The Odyssey Comparison

    1474 Words  | 6 Pages

    Lysander is young, handsome man who is in love with Hermia. A few of the characters from Midsummer’s Night Dream and the Odyssey are selfish. Demetrius is trying to steal Hermia from Lysander, whom he knows is alive and is probably planning ways to kill him. The suitors are trying to get Penelope to marry them but have no idea where Odysseus is and if he’s even

    Read More

  • Love In A Midsummer Night's Dream

    1015 Words  | 5 Pages

    Hermia’s father, Egeus, being one of the major reasons. According to law, Egeus has complete power over her so what he wants for her is what she receives. Hermia is then expected to respect and obey him. Egeus demonstrates an over-protective parental love that in this scenario demands her another man besides Lysander. Lysander’s Eros love and determination for Hermia ultimately brings the two together which supports true love as being very strong.

    Read More

  • Penelope In The Odyssey Analysis

    1041 Words  | 5 Pages

    In an epic poem, The Odyssey, by Homer, Odysseus struggles to come back home while his wife, Penelope, faces barbarous suitors who plague her house to court her for the marriage in order to claim the kingship of Ithaca. With an absence of the man of the household and a son who is not old enough to rule over the country and handle the domestic complications, Penelope endeavors to keep the household orderly and civilized. In order to prevent further chaos in the household, Penelope maintains her role as the Queen of Ithaca and Odysseus’s wife through her loyalty and cunning. For a woman who does not know when her man will return home, Penelope is extremely strong to keep hope and wait for her husband; thus, her unwavering loyalty to her husband

    Read More

  • Persuasive Speech In 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'

    1124 Words  | 5 Pages

    This may also present to us that the women in this play are quite strong and independent despite the times this play is set in, Hermia's father Egeus treats Hermia as though she is his property and that she has no freedom of choice Egeus threats his daughter by death or to become a nun which shows some state of

    Read More

  • Sexism In A Midsummer Night's Dream

    1910 Words  | 8 Pages

    He did this by having two settings: Athens and the woods. Athens represented modern Elizabethan society, and here, all the women are in their stereotypical gender roles; Hermia was the dutiful daughter that had to follow her duke’s and father’s orders, Helena was the girl that was in love Demetrius but was not allowed to go after him, and Hippolyta was the captive who had to marry her captor. Athens was a society not yet prepared for the inclusion of women; essentially, Shakespeare meant that Elizabethan England was not yet ready for women to have the same rights as men. To contrast this setting, William Shakespeare made up the woods. The woods is where the four lovers run off to, and where fairyland presides.

    Read More

  • Lysander And Hermia's Relationship

    948 Words  | 4 Pages

    Lysander’s unbridled love for Hermia shows obvious respect towards females, making him out to be one of the few characters admired by the audience. In our scene, Lysander’s subtext is an excited yet mannerly teenager who fears Theseus yet still stands up for himself and Hermia. When he saw that his relationship was being threatened he stopped cowering and pushed Egeus and Demetrius away pleading his case to Theseus. Hermia, who has a similar definition of love, trusts the emotion and thinks of it as a driving force in her life. When given the choice between spending the rest of her life as a nun and being forced into a loveless marriage, she decides that staying perpetually celibate would be the superior choice: “‘So will I grow, so live, so die my lord, ere I will yield my virgin patent up unto his lordship, whose unwishèd yoke my soul consents not to give sovereignty’”

    Read More

  • Justice In A Midsummer Night's Dream

    779 Words  | 4 Pages

    Toba Beta once said: "“Justice could be as blind as love.”   Shakespeare 's play A Midsummer Night 's Dream captures the blind bias of both love and justice.   Egeus, a respected nobleman in Athens, arranged for his daughter, Hermia, to marry nobleman Demetrius.   Egeus tells his daughter that she must obey his wishes: if she does not, she can either choose to become a nun, or die.   Hermia, much to her father 's dismay, is deeply in a mutual love with a different nobleman, Lysander.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Imagination In A Midsummer Night's Dream

    1252 Words  | 6 Pages

    In A Midsummer’s Night Dream, Shakespeare let the readers to explore his imagination and bring them to fantasies. A Midsummer Night’s Dream implies a world of imagination, illusion and unconsciousness through the word ‘dreams’. In the last scene of the play, act V scene I, the audience experience there is different thought of Theseus and Hippolyta in interpreting the love stories of Hermia, Lysander, Helena, Demetrius and the imaginations of many other characters. The scene of Theseus talking to Hippolyta lead to a controversy about the value of imagination and reason. From the play, the audience indeed witnesses magical incidents in the fairies’ forest, where the fairy king and queen, Oberon and Titania, rule over the natural processes.

    Read More

  • Effects Of Love In A Midsummer Night's Dream

    848 Words  | 4 Pages

    Theseus and Hippolyta wake up Lysander, Hermia, Helena, and Demetrius because Hermia has to make her final decision. With the love juice on his eyelids still, Demetrius confesses that he no longer loves Hermia and wants Helena to be the love of his life. Theseus overrides Egeus’s wishes, and he says the three couples will have a triple wedding. After Theseus, Hippolyta, and Egeus leave, all of them are unclear what exactly happened. Helena even says, “And I have found Demetrius like a jewel,/mine own, and not mine own” (4.1.176-177).

    Read More

  • Men And Women In A Midsummer Night's Dream

    1205 Words  | 5 Pages

    This piece of literature demonstrates the roles for men as the dominant gender and women as submissive, which are obsolete stereotypes. Shakespeare portrays the roles of the dominant males when Egeus tells, “as she is mine, I may dispose of her, which shall be either to this gentleman or to her death, according to our law immediately provided in that case” (1. 1. 42-45). He states this to let readers know that Hermia will not marry Lysander, and he gets the final decision. He gives her options, which are to marry him or die.

    Read More

  • Gender Roles In A Midsummer Night's Dream

    1898 Words  | 8 Pages

    First, Shakespeare challenged the policies of the day was through examining the role of courtship using the single women of the play, Helena and Hermia. One way was through the belief that women should have the right to reject men. Hermia says: “I do entreat your grace to pardon me/ I know not by what power I am made bold/

    Read More

  • Character Analysis Of Hermia In 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'

    895 Words  | 4 Pages

    (He wants his daughter to marry demetrius who he knows better than Lysander). Causing him to be very strict and wants things to go his way. Egeus is then becoming angry with his daughter because of her disobeying actions in wanting to marry Lysander instead of Demetrius; Quote:” As she is mine, I may dispose of her which shall either be to this gentleman or to her death” (Act 1 scene 1 Lines 41-45) But in the end he becomes agreeable and allowed Hermia to love Lysander, But here’s the thing if the Fairies did not get involved Egeus would have went ahead and executed His own daughter for her disobedience.

    Read More

  • Patriarchy In A Midsummer Night's Dream

    986 Words  | 4 Pages

    The male characters in this play often feel uncomfortable when their female counterparts break gendered stereotypes. This is the same feeling that drove Theseus to war with the Amazons. An equally important woman is Hermia: Theseus and her father have in mind Demetrius for Hermia’s groom, yet she still refuses even after a small threat from Theseus, “Be advised, fair maid. To you, your father should be as a god” (1.1.47-48). Here in patriarchal Athens, fathers are the head households and hold influence over near-all decisions.

    Read More

More about How Is Hippolyta Portrayed In A Midsummer Night's Dream

Open Document