Gender Roles In A Midsummer Night's Dream

William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream takes place in an ancient Athenian society where men tend to hold much higher places than women in society. In this comedy, women are still owned by their fathers, prizes of battle, and are not allowed to make decisions for themselves. With that, however, it is said by Helena in act two, scene one that women are meant to be pursued by men, rather than be the ones pursuing. The idea that women should be passive and men should be active in pursuing relationships is a cultural construct that has evolved over time, and while this was the case in the 16th century, they are no longer universally true today. In many cultures and societies, gender roles and expectations have become more fluid and flexible,

He conquers Hippolyta and takes her as his prize, and makes her his wife. ''Hippolyta, I woo'd thee with my sword and won thy love, doing thee injuries; but I will wed thee in another key, with pomp, with triumph and with reveling” (I.i.16-19). This reflects on the patriarchal beliefs at the time and is a direct reflection on how men fight for love and how women are bystanders to these men fighting for them without their say. The women in these instances are making no choices on the man they want to be with; it is simply dependent on how they look. This is an issue seen in many societies today, as patriarchy is still pretty dominant, where men with power will in essence conquer any woman he wants. This relates to the notion of wooing, as it is still the man chasing the

There is still a peacock effect, where women are the one’s attracting men, while men go out to find the women. The patriarchal surroundings that still exist are the reason why this is the case and is why it is still very prevalent among women for them to care about looks and is why rich and famous men tend to have more attractive spouses than them. This reflects to how men used to dominate women, as seen with Theseus and Hippolyta; the only way up in life and society as a woman was to marry up in class. This thankfully is much less frequent nowadays and hopefully be completely faded out as women become complete equals and no longer have to worry about attractiveness to move up in