Balance In A Midsummer Night's Dream

“Balance is the Key”

In the world of A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare, the gender of a character determines many things in his/her life. There is a lack of balance between the masculine voice and the feminine voice in the time period the play was written in, giving women the rough end of the stick. However, one of the messages Shakespeare conveys throughout the entire book is that if feminine values are kept in mind, balance between the Polis and the Green world can be achieved much easier. The statement that Shakespeare makes about the flaws in a male dominated society is shown by comparing when women’s voices are suppressed to when women stand up for themselves and in doing so, bring balance between the masculine and the

He has given Hermia absolutely no choices that would work in her favor. He does not give any reasons as to why she cannot marry Lysander instead of Demetrius other than the fact that she is his daughter so he owns her. Her opinion does not matter to him and only towards the end of the play, when Demetrius states he also does not want to marry Hermia anymore, Egeus backs down. Hermia is his own daughter by blood but since this is a male dominated society, masculine values matter more. Until the end of the play, Demetrius too believed that he owns Hermia and it is his legal right to be able to force her hand in marriage. He directly tells Lysander, “…Lysander, yield/Thy crazed title to my certain right” (1.1.93-94). Talking about Hermia, he believes that since he has Egeus’ blessing, she is now his property. This plays on the idea that women are property of men and even if Hermia does not want Demetrius, her father has allowed him the right to her hand. The communication seems to remain only between men when talking about whom Hermia marries, not letting any women express their opinions or values. However, there are times when women like Titania do have what they want but her husband Oberon still

Shakespeare’s revelation regarding equal rights shows in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and people who read/watch his play today can still realize what he realized so many decades ago. In order for the world to be balanced there needs to be contribution from women as well as men and the world today still needs to strive for making an even more equal environment. However, the world is indeed improving because what Shakespeare is saying about women would have greatly shocked the audience back then but in modern times the amount of support for his message has increased and will hopefully continue to