Male Dominance In A Midsummer Night's Dream

Throughout the Elizabethan era women were made to obey men. A perfect representation of this is in the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream where the playwright William Shakespeare depicts the relationship roles between men and women in everyday society. As Lisa Walters writes, “In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Athens is a patriarchal domain ruled by Theseus, where the ‘father should be as a god’ and Amazons are conquered and married” (157). Shakespeare’s play demonstrates the unfair power and mistreatment of women as a result of male dominance; making the women feel forced and obligated to do whatever a male figure requests them to do. Shakespeare shows how two out of the three female characters of the play are defiant, while the other is submissive …show more content…
The opening scene begins with Hippolyta, the queen of the Amazons captured by the Athenian king Theseus. The same quote from earlier works again to show this point: “Hippolyta, I woo’d thee with my sword, and won thy love doing thee injuries,” (1.1.16-17). This statement refers to how Theseus won the battle with the Amazons and how in conquering the Amazons, Hippolyta in Theseus’s eyes is a trophy to remember his victory both physically and emotionally. Theseus's action of claiming Hippolyta as a prize and a wife might show that he treats her as an object rather than human …show more content…
Within the play Shakespeare demonstrates the unfair power and mistreatment women had as a result of male dominance. For example, Hermia’s father, Egeus, proclaims that a woman's entire existence, and her preference in her sexual and emotional life, is controlled by a powerful male figure. He exerts his right to ask Theseus for Hermia’s death, unless she makes up her mind in marrying the man her father chose for her. Theseus mistreats Hippolyta by boasting about how he had conquered her and how she is a trophy to remember his victory. Oberon mistreats Titania by tricking her with the magic love potion into giving the boy to him and having sex with a donkey-man. Furthermore, women in the play are regarded as property, and treated as mere objects. The opening scene begins with Hippolyta captured by the Theseus. Theseus won the battle with the Amazons and in conquering them Hippolyta becomes a trophy to remember his victory both physically and emotionally. Egeus believes that because Hermia is his daughter, she should marry whomever he decides without a say in the matter. In addition, Shakespeare shows how two out of the three female characters of the play are defiant, while the other is submissive to men. Helena displays how much of a submissive person she is in the play when he wants Demetrius to use her as a dog just to get the slightest bit of