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Midsummer Night's Dream Thesis

1541 Words7 Pages

THESIS STATEMENT In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare modeled the relationships between Hermia and Egeus, Titania and Oberon, and Theseus and Hippolyta after the Elizabethan hierarchy, yet challenged the traditional gender roles through his dominant female characters. PURPOSE STATEMENT Through critical analysis, historical reference, and literary interpretation, a comparative study between the Elizabethan era and A Midsummer Night’s Dream will be presented to express Shakespeare’s literary objection to the tradition male hierarchy. INTRODUCTION Representing a large assemblage of social classes, the Elizabethan audience shaped the personalities and ideologies of Shakespeare’s characters. By capturing the human condition of his contemporaries, Shakespeare founded the beliefs and tendencies of his characters on the common man in England. “The synthesizing impulse …show more content…

However, Hermia’s heart had already been “flinched” by Lysander, and she refuses to obey her father’s command. Egeus knows, “As she is mine, I may dispose of her, / Which shall be either to this gentleman / Or to her death, according to our law” (1.1.42-44). The law of Athens places Hermia in an unjust situation, to choose either loosing Lysander for Demetrius, perpetual virginity, or death. Theseus, acting as the stately father, reinforces Egeus’ demands and further expounds, “To you your father should be as a god— / One that composed your beauties, yea, and one / To whom you are but as a form in wax / By him imprinted, and within this power / To leave the figure or disfigure it” (1.1.47-51). Patriarchal Athens, modeled after Elizabethan England, acts as a dictatorship, endowed with the power to give life or impose death. Hermia is a victim of her situation, forced to either speak out or conform to her father’s

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“ I beg the ancient privilege of Athens: as she is mine, I may dispose of her, which shall either be with this fine gentleman (Demetrius) or to her death according to our law, immediately provided in that case” (1.1.45-48). Hermia wishes to marry her true love Lysander, who in turn loves her as well; however, even though he is as good a man as Demetrius, status-wise, Hermia’s father, Egeus, would rather kill her or turn her into a nun than let Hermia control her life. This practice was widely done by the Elizabethans. Daughters had no choice but to marry the man their father

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