Implausible Love in Midsummer Night’s Dream

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Love is chaotic and free, and because love is so powerful, we often do extreme and erratic things to capture it. The tradition of marriage, or mawage, is so firmly established in history that the gender roles common to marriage are often inescapable, no matter how strong love is, or how powerful a person is. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, William Shakespeare uses imagery to portray the theme of gender roles and show how love has the spell-bounding power to either change or reinforce those roles. A Midsummer Night’s Dream begins with commentary on the classic gender roles of an engaged couple Hippolyta and Theseus. However, the classic gender role of women’s subservience to her husband is made complicated by war and victory. Theseus, duke of Athens, conquers the Amazons, and consequently takes Hippolyta as his prize. The prize mentality that Theseus embraces is rather barbaric, similar to wild animals fighting for a mate, and aids in reinforcing detrimental gender roles. Previous to being conquered, Hippolyta had been the ruler of a great nation and was by no means a weak or submissive woman. Although she had been shamefully conquered for marriage, Hippolyta refuses to be a beautiful statue that lies in the outskirts of the palace to be gawked at. Hippolyta secretly has control over her situation, as shown in the first passage of the play in Act 1, Scene 1. In this scene, Theseus discusses their wedding day with a tone of longing. Imagery of anticipated seasons of the year with slowly moving days is used when he fantasizes about the wedding day and describes Hippolyta as holding his desires from him. Although Hippolyta has an intimidating Amazon warrior image, Theseus is enamored by Hippolyta’s beauty and will do anything to gain... ... middle of paper ... ...er roles, and is portrayed as a submissive wife once again. As in all comedies, the end must be positive, up-lifting, and expected. If Titania would have demolished the gender roles, the play would not have been comedic and the reader would have been left with a queasy feeling of unrest. Love truly has a great effect on the couples of Hippolyta and Theseus, and Titania and Oberon. In the case of Hippolyta and Theseus, Hippolyta is able to manipulate the gender roles in the relationship because Theseus’ love for her trumps all. However, in the relationship of Titania and Oberon, Oberon values controlling their hierarchy of power before his love for Titania, and thus, gender roles do not change, but are in fact worsened. Whether or not gender roles are changed, love is a chaotic process that causes people to act in ways that seem implausible to the outside world.

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