Gender Roles In A Midsummer Night's Dream

470 Words2 Pages
The patriarchal system grasped its hand around almost all aspects of sixteenth century society. Born in England in the year 1564, William Shakespeare grew up where men and women were viewed in two different lights. While men were free to any of life’s pursuits, the women were a step back. They were solely tasked with filling the men’s practical and domestic needs. Everyone followed the set precedent of gender roles. What made Shakespeare such a revolutionary thinker was his defiance of social norms in his work. A Midsummer’s Night Dream is very representative of this claim. In A Midsummer’s Night Dream, Hermia is very much in love with Lysander. Egeus, Hermia’s father, demands that she marries Demetrius instead. Hermia shows that she