“A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” by Shakespeare is a play created in Athens. In this time women are supposed to be humble, virgin, and respect their keeper. But in the play there are three women in the Athens society. Helena , which is in love with Demetrius, but he doesn’t want to do nothing with her. Hermia, who runs away with Demetrius so she wouldn’t get executed, but, she’s in love with Lysander. Last but not least Hippolyta, who is forced to marry King Theseus because she’s been captured. In the play I feel like Shakespeare thinks women are rebellious, weak, and foolish. In this essay I will be describing how women are being treated in the play. In the Elizabethan Era women are expected to be fulfilled. In this era women weren’t allowed to get an education which meant they couldn’t make a choice on their own. Women weren’t even allowed to pick the male they wanted to marry. Women need to be respectful to their keeper so they couldn’t speak up. According to the play, “ To you your father should be as a god; One that composed your beauties, yea, and one To whom you are but as a form in wax By him imprinted and within …show more content…
Helena is in love with Demetrius, but Hermia’s father wants him to be with his daughter. Helena is someone that will fight for what she wants even if it hurts her friendship. According to the play, “HERMIA: The more I hate, the more he follows me. HELENA: The more I love, the more he hateth me. A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act I, scene I 9 HERMIA: His folly, Helena, is no fault of mine. HELENA: None, but your beauty: would that fault were mine!” In this quotation Helena thinks that Hermia is the reason that Demetrius doesn’t want her. Helena is a jealous person. To sum this paragraph up, women in this society, let man interfere their friendship. It's not good because when it comes to a man they think they can take advantage of women's
In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, there are many traces of lenses. The lens that I chose to explain is the gender lens. Since this is a long time ago, women weren’t treated the same as men. Women were treated as items, as property. Men were the rulers of everything, they made the big choices. Hermia was treated as property that Demetrius wanted, even though Lysander already “owned” and Egeus (Hermia’s father) was lending out to people. It seems like a sexist world back then.
Centuries ago in Elizabethan England there were many traditions about marriage and the treatment of women. In Shakespeare's Othello these traditions can be used to examine the play in a historical context. One strong tradition of these times was the practice of marriage between races. Interracial marriages were considered extremely taboo. (High Beam). In this era marriages were arranged by the parents with strong help from the local church. The individuals had little choice as to who they would marry. (Elizabethan England Life). Yet another example of these traditions was the respectable treatment of women. While the husband was in charge of his wife, as was the father, the husband were expected to treat the women right (Elizbethi). In spurning these traditions, Shakespeare demonstrates there may be problems with how the traditions of marriage and the treatment of women in Elizabethan England.
Infatuation causes Helena to lose all sense of dignity, as can be seen when in the woods, she desperately pleads with Demetrius to ?but treat me as your spaniel?. Here, Helena also becomes irrational, obsessed with pursuing Demetrius, though it is obvious that Demetrius is fixated on winning Hermia?s hand in marriage. Helena?s infatuation also causes her to see things from a skewed perspective, for she falsely believes that when she divulges Hermia?s plans for eloping with Lysander, Demetrius? love for Helena will rekindle. As the audience, we know that the most probable course of action for Demetrius upon hearing such news is to pursue Lysander and Hermia, or to report them to Theseus or Egeus. Clearly, infatuation has clouded Helena?s ability to think clearly, and she sees things in her own idealistic way.
Imagine being a woman in sixteenth century Europe. Females were raised to believe that they were subservient and that men knew better on any subject. Basically, women had no rights. They were considered property, first “owned” by their fathers and then control was “transferred” to the husband chosen for them. Marriage was not about love, but in most cases, it was a business deal that was mutually beneficial to both families – an interesting fact is that like young women, most young men had no choice in the selection of their future betrothed. These traditions and the gender roles assumed by men and women at that time had an impact on Shakespeare’s writing and performances and a great example of this is evident in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
The relationship between Demetrius and Hermia is problematic, in that Demetrius is seeking the affections of Hermia, while she is in love with Lysander. However, Hermia’s father approves of Demetrius and tries to force her to marry him, but Hermia refuses because of her love for Lysander (A Midsummer Night’s Dream 1.1.22-82). Lysander points out the flaw in the situation through this comment, “You have her father 's love, Demetrius –/Let me have Hermia 's. Do you marry him,” (A Midsummer Night’s Dream 1.1.93-94). The second flawed relationship is between Lysander and Helena, as a result of an enchantment put on Lysander that made him fall in love with Helena. Helena does not want the affections of Lysander, but rather the love of Demetrius, and believes that Lysander is taunting her. In addition, this relationship creates tensions because Hermia is in love with Lysander (A Midsummer Night’s Dream 2.2.109-140). Both relationships are not desirable due to a lack of mutual admiration and the creation of non-peaceful and unsatisfying
Love is superficial. In "A Midsummer Night's Dream" multiple love triangles exist that switch between the plots. Historical and gender roles are a key point in this play. One key point explains the troublesome choices one can go through while in love. While another key point directed toward on cultural norms and perception of love. In the Ancient world of Athens males dominated their culture ultimately deciding the lives of many woman and men.
Stereotypes are commonly held beliefs that most are all individuals sharing a given trait also should or do share other attributes to be associated with aspects such as race, religion, and physical qualities. In Shakespeare’s “Othello” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, he uses stereotypes to embody the characteristics of the stereotypical female according to society’s liking. The women in both “Othello” and “A Midsummer NIght’s Dream” are loyal and faithful. Women are bound by respect and loyalty to the men they love. Shakespeare has drawn a line concerning gender roles and the consequences of violating these positions (Bevington, 2014). Women seem to be victimized by society’s influence as they yield to these stereotypes that shape the
Oprah Winfrey once said, “The best thing about dreams is that fleeting moment, when you are between asleep and awake, when you don't know the difference between reality and fantasy, when for just that one moment you feel with your entire soul that the dream is reality, and it really happened.” But, what actually is a dream and what do dreams really have to do with one’s everyday life? In essence, a dream is a series of mental images and emotions occurring during slumber. Dreams can also deal with one’s personal aspirations, goals, ambitions, and even one’s emotions, such as love and hardship. However, dreams can also give rise to uneasy and terrible emotions; these dreams are essentially known as nightmares. In today’s society, the concept of dreaming and dreams, in general, has been featured in a variety of different mediums, such as literature, film and even music. While the mediums of film and music are both prime examples of this concept, the medium of literature, on the other hand, contains a much more diverse set of examples pertaining to dreams and dreaming. One key example is William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. While the portrayal of dreams, in general, plays a prominent role in Shakespeare’s play, the exploration of many aspects of nature, allows readers to believe that dreams are merely connected to somewhat unconventional occurrences.
Helena was the younger sister of Hermia. It often bothered her that her sister got all the attention, and she even want it. Helena was madly in love with Demetrius, However Demetrius was arranged to marry Hermia. Helena truly believe she was not good enough, and could not understand why Demetrius did now want
In “A midnight summer’s dream” women are taught to be submissive to men. This is true for the three characters Hermia,Titania, And Hippolyta. An example of misogyny in the play is when egeus uses the athenian law to blackmail his daughter into marrying Demetrius. During this part of the play Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius, and egeus are all in a room at theseus palace. Egeus comes and complains to theseus about hermia being disobedient. In act 1, scene 1 theseus says “Full of vexation come I, with complaint Against my child, my daughter Hermia. Stand forth, Demetrius. My noble lord, This man hath my consent to marry her. Stand forth, Lysander: and my gracious duke, This man hath bewitch’d the bosom of my child;Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast given
What Hermia sees is her beloved Lysander in love with another woman. She expresses this by saying,” why are you grown so rude? What change is this, sweet love?” (Shakespeare 3.2.268-269). Hermia doesn’t know that a love potion is forcing Lysander to love Helena instead of Hermia. However, Lysander sees that his love with Hermia is over and Helena is now his new true love. He expresses his love for Helena by saying,” Stay, gentle Helena. Hear my excuse. My love, my life, my soul, fair Helena!” (Shakespeare 3.2.248-249). The climax of this play is based around this case of this dramatic irony. Dramatic irony is littered all throughout this play, but other types of irony are present
with her feelings towards Demetrius (A2S1) and the fact that the two men love Hermia, whilst Helena is left with no one for herself.
During much of the play, Helena relentlessly chases Demetrius, giving him love no matter how many times he spurns her. While in pursuit of him in the woods, where he tells her that he will never reciprocate her feelings, she tells him, “I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius,/The more you beat me, I will fawn on you” (II.i.203-204). She is so desperate to win him over that she lowers her own status, calling herself his dog; no matter how many times he may abuse her, she will always adore him. Out of love, Helena is willing to swallow her pride to prove her devotion to him. More evidence of Helena’s blind love towards Demetrius can be found in her overlooking the flaws in Demetrius’ character. For example, he proves himself to be quite insensitive towards Helena: when they are in the woods, he says he will “leave [her] to the mercy of the wild beasts” (II.i.228) if she doesn’t stop following him. He also says to her, “…I am sick when I do look on thee” (II.i.212). Lastly, he threatens her, saying “…if thou follow me, do not believe/But I shall do thee mischief in the wood” (II.i.237). Helena acknowledges this aspect of his character, though choos...
Demetrius, Helena, Lysander, and Hermia are the for young teens of the story. At the beginning of the play it is Lysander and Helena who are madly in love, and are planning to to escape from Athens to elope. Helena is in love with Demetrius, and Demetrius cared for Helena and liked her a lot but was not in love with her. As soon as Demetrius sees Hermia he immediately stops having any feelings for Helena whatsoever and is deeply in love with Hermia. Demetrius thought that he had fallen in love at first sight, but Helena was determined to show him differently. Demetrius: ³ Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit,/ For I am sick when I do look on thee.² Helena: ³And I am sick when I look not on you.² (Act II, sc. i, lines 218-220) This piece of dialogue shows how much Demetrius is now in love with Hermia from just seeing her, and how disgusted he feels when he looks upon Helena who he used to care about. Helena is simply just expressing how much she is love with Demetrius and how bad she feels that he is treating her in such a manner of hatred.
Night's Dream, one will notice an immense difference in the way that a noble woman compared