Oppression Of Women In A Midsummer Night's Dream By William Shakespeare

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Women in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”

In “The First of the Trumpet,” John Knox argued that “Woman in her greatest perfection was made to serve and obey a man, not to rule and command him” as he gives example of a picture of women in the William Shakespeare society at that time. Women at that time were not only dependent on men but they also had no freedom of choices. Also men were not allowing women to go to school and they also don’t allow them even to enter the university or even to act on the stage. So because of that they will remain fully dependent upon their male relatives. In fact, during marriage a powerful male relative was the one who responsible for choosing the husband for the women, and not the women herself. As William Shakespeare wrote most of his plays during that time, it is not strange as he pictured women in a way he knew to be familiar and normal to him and also to be familiar and normal to his society as well. In the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream, for example, he pictured women as how they are being dependent on men and how they cannot support them self as well. And this appear through the identities, and the relationship, and finally personalities of two particular characters in the play, which is the first character is …show more content…

While Helena prove this status as she is dependent woman who hardly cares for her lack of free will, and Hermia dares to go against her tradition by not only go against the will of her father but also by speaking her mind out in front of Theseus the Duke of Athens as well. However, it has been shown that even in her action, Hermia may have felt guilty as she went against the male authority. All in all, these two female characters clearly shows that the male authority over women in William Shakespeare

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