Theme Of Women In A Midsummer Night's Dream

Elizabethan England was a time from the mid 1500 to the late 1600 where woman were dependent on the man because it was their only way to a positive status in society. Throughout William Shakespeare’s drama “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” there are many themes one encounters while reading, but throughout the acts a theme that recurs often is marriage. It is shown in the play that marriage is mostly arranged and/or forced by men, and proves that woman never had a say in how their life went. They obeyed the man’s wishes as their life went on. Men’s decisions overpowered those of women, certain roles in society were to only to be fulfilled by men, and finally women were considered as prizes to be won. Given these points, men over power women in a hierarchy of the sexes and it shows that women were subservient to men.

In act 1 of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” Hermia daughter of Egeus is forced into marriage with the man she does not love. She is obligated to marry Demetrius, the man her father wishes her to wed, and not Lysander the man she actually loves. She should marry Demetrius because that is what her father requires her to do “[a]s [Hermia] is mine, I may dispose of her” (1.1.40) being the daughter she needs to obey his wishes and ignore her own. One sees that Egeus’ desires are put on a pedestal because he is the man in the situation, meanwhile, her’s are not even taken under consideration. To conclude, women were thought of as being incapable of making their own decisions and