In Saudi Arabia, women recently have become identified as mammals, granting them the same rights as other mammal species such as camels and goats while male Saudi Arabians have had much more power and rights for many years prior. For centuries, societies all around the world have held women to different standards than their male counterparts. William Shakespeare’s plays show these differences in standards. He puts great emphasis on the differences between men and women and how that affects the ways in which each gender carries out their lives. In one of Shakespeare’s pieces, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a sort of “love square” consisting of Helena, Hermia, Demetrius, and Lysander creates friction between the four, and is a great example of the gender stereotypes Shakespeare puts in his work. Another dispute in the play involves Titania and Oberon arguing over who should take care of the baby boy whom Titania has promised to look after. Shakespeare identifies the issue of gender stereotypes in A Midsummer Night’s Dream by …show more content…
Helena is fighting for Demetrius’s heart when she realizes that he should be the one fighting for her. During the Elizabethan era, society had the idea that men are the ones who should make the first move. She proclaims to Demetrius, “Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex./ [Women] cannot fight for love, as men may do./ We should be wooed and we’re not made to woo" (II.ii.247-249). Helena expresses how her and all other women during that time period are having to live behind the scenes of their own love lives since they have little control over their relationships with men. She says to Demetrius that his behavior, forcing her to pursue him, is an insult to women. He has compelled her to do something she believes she should not. As a woman, society expects her to make men want her rather than going after what she