Shakespeare's one-act comedy drama A Midsummer Night's Dream explores the social roles, obstacles, and goals of women in society. Men are portrayed in the drama as having superpowers rather than women. (April, Jennifer and Claire 77) Women are believed to be the carriers of affection, the mothers of children, and the ones who should not speak out on political or romantic matters. Additionally, Shakespeare is able to convince his audience that only love can lead to the formation of a connection between a man and a woman, and in this relationship a woman has no voice but to be submissive as long as she loves and intends to marry her man. In this regard, he also manages to illustrate the false love that exists between different young characters in the play. This is a clear picture of what happens in our society and the bottom of the play is when they finally get their true love.
Analysis of Feminist Perspective
Callaghan (42-78) in the analysis of literary work of Shakespeare suggests that, female are seen as persons who cannot make their own decisions. The play begins with Egeus forcing a marriage between his daughter, Hermia and Demetrius yet she loves Lysander. It becomes clear that she will either marry her father’s choice or face being killed as their law states. The life of a woman is seen as being controlled by powerful figures in the society, and treated as objects as portrayed, “To you, your father is like a god” in act 1, scene 1 line 47. Here it is evident that women have no chance in choosing what is good for them. As a result, they must listen and follow what their male counterparts say without questioning. Theseus also agrees with Hernia`s father, he is contented with Athens law as he personally intends to a marry a woman he got in war after conquering the Amazon. Hippolyta, the woman Theseus intends to marry has no obligation to follow what her husband to be says even though it’s most likely that her tribesmen were killed by the same man she is to marry. This further illustrates that the women have already accepted their position in the society.
Also, De Sousa (15-60) indicates how Shakespeare shows how female are seen as objects that men can played with the way they want, more so in issues pertaining love. For instance, when an argument arises between the Oberon and Titania over her focus on Indian boy, Oberon tries to assert his authority as a male and she does not heed to his words. Oberon decides to trick her through magical love portions until she gives him the boy. This shows how egocentric the male are in this society putting their desires and affection a head of everything. Besides that we also see clearly how Lysander and Demetrius objectify woman. Demetrius had earlier on committed his love to Helena but as the play proceeds we see his hatred to her being manifested clearly. To make matters worse, he intends to marry Hermia despite Helena being still devoted to him. Through this scenes Shakespeare manages to portray how women are tricked into love by being promised eternal love only for things to change for a worse after a short while.
Shakespeare also shows that a woman is to be owned. He clearly illustrates how a woman is owned while she is still at her parents’ home and later at her husband’s home. Hermia is perceived as an object of Egeus while at home, she has no say over her life. In this regard, Egeus can decide she lives or she dies just as he says, he shall dispose her either to Demetrious or to her death as the law was clear about that. Upon being married or engaged she turns to be submissive to her husband just as the case of Oberon and Titania, Oberon expects her wife to follow all that he says, if she fails he goes an extra mile of employing magic for her to obey him.
Female characters in this play seem to have lost confidence in themselves and have accepted their fate that they are weak compared to their male counterparts. For instance, Helena is seen running and trying to woo Demetrius who harshly avoids and dismisses her. She does not give up as she even accepts it is not women who are supposed to woo men but men should woo women. Besides that, when both Lysander and Demetrius fall in love under the influence of the magical love portion form Puck she does not believe its true love. She believes they are mocking her and it can’t be really. There is also Hippolyta, queen warrior who is to marry Theseus she does not comment much and her opinion is not even seek as their weeding is being prepared. Through these scenes Shakespeare illustrates that women are there to be seen not to be heard, and their opinions does not matter. However, ironically the women have accepted their fate to be the weaklings in the society and have no option but follow what their husbands and fathers say.
According to Krainitzki (1-70), women in this play are their own enemies. Helena and Hermia are good friends. At one point they are even described as having one heart with two bodies (54). However, when both Lysander and Demetrious fall in love with Helena, Hermia gets jealousy. The result of this jealousness is the misunderstanding between the long term friends. Helena is accused by Hermia of stealing her love while Helena tells Hermia not to unite with those men that are causing them troubles. Shakespeare manages to portray how these women should unite and fight for their rights rather than fight between them. In addition to that, it is the same men that use them as sexual objects and thumb as we are told how Demetrius had earlier on sworn to love Helena till eternity only for him to jilt her and fall in love with Hermia. Besides that, these two ladies do not even realize that it’s the two men that are causing mistrust between them. This is due to their feminine perspective that they have grown knowing men are always right.
Shakespeare portrays love as the main theme of the play but it’s also the binder of the relationships of most characters (Callaghan 68). He posits that the only thing that creates relationships in the play is love as we see relationships between: Theseus and Hippolyta, Titania and Oberon, Lysander and Hermia, Demetrius and Helena. The irony is that all these relationships are built on false love. For instance, the relationship between Theseus and Hippolyta is not of true love as their relationship is born from war, on the other the relationships between Demetrius, Helena, Lysander and Hermia is not genuine as we see how Demetrius promises to Helena for eternity only for him to turn against her. Titania and Oberon relationship seems to be the only relationship to be working on true love until when she disobeys her husband. Oberon resolves to use magical love portion in order to achieve his objective and this case we see Titania falling in love with a beast. Through these relationships, Shakespeare shows the type of hypocrisy and lies that the society lives in in the name of love and women are the victims.
Additionally, Shakespeare shows that women have no say on matters pertaining to politics. Women should remain submissive to their male counterparts at all times (Callaghan 79). This comes into light when Oberon tells his wife that her continuous trouble and disobedience had led the world into not being peaceful. Oberon is categorically clear that women should only be involved in house chores and not hold public offices. Therefore when she disobeys him everything is no longer at peace including nature. However, everything becomes normal when he makes her a sleep and takes away the little Indian boy and when she wakes up all become fine. This is also manifested in the relationship between Theseus and Hippolyta, she is just there to be seen and not to be heard, since the beginning of the play till the end, queen warrior does not talk much and she rarely comments. She only consoles her husband to be when he complains that the 4 days duration remaining before their wedding is talking to no long to arrive.
Besides that, Jacobs (45) in this play posits that women are sexually abused by their male counterparts. Women are seen as sexual tools that are meant to give birth and take care of their children. Women are also assumed not to have a stand on sexual related issues. For instance there is a chance that Demetrius had sexual relationship with Helena before the lay began but upon fulfilling his aim, sleeping with her, he jilts her and starts to pursue Hermai. This is a clear portrait of how women are used as sexy objects and dumped upon being used. Therefore, it’s true to state that women in Athens are taken as weaker beings, sexual objects and have no role in determining their sexual partners or whom to marry.
Criticism of A midsummer’s Night Dream
Shakespeare’s a midsummer night dream play tries to use almost all its characters to portray the main theme of the play. All through since the onset of the play we see how the characters portray love and affectionate to each other (Krainitzki 89). However, one thing that captures ones attention is how Shakespeare manages to use fairy tales and imaginations to change the perspective and love feelings of the young characters in the play. This shows how the young generation of Athens is so naive in matters pertaining love.
Shakespeare also employs mechanicals in creating the bridge between the really world and the dream land in a play within the play he uses Pyramus and Thesbi as a major metamorphism that brings the audience back into reality. He wants the audience to understand that it’s just but a play and not really happenings in true life. Besides that, Shakespeare manages to tell the audience that Pyramus is not killed, as a fiction of what happens. As such, he uses fear and fiction to create meaning in his work yet it is an apparent aspect of the play. He also uses the joiner to make the audience understand that it’s only a play, for instance when the joiner says that he is not really a lion, the audience laugh despite knowing he isn’t a lion a he claimed in the play.
Additionally, Shakespeare’s use of fairy tales not only are they the most fascinating part of the play but they also aid in relating the really world and dream world (Jacobs 65). For instance, when Puck mistakenly puts the love portion to a wrong youth and upon his waking up, they realize the mistake done. He corrects the mistake by giving magical love portion to the other youth and everything becomes settled as the four youths, each get a partner and the play ends with a wedding ceremony of three couples being conducted. Through these fairies we see how they intervene and solve the looming problem in really world from dreams of both Lysander and Demetrius. Besides that when Oberon questions Puck on what he has done on those lovers, it actually shows that he knows on what boundary he should not cross less the culprits suffer the consequences inflicted to them through magical powers.
Furthermore, Shakespeare’s a midsummer night dream main theme is love. Just as in most of his comedy plays, he shows how most of people tend to fall in love with others just because of mere looks and appearance. As the play proceed these becomes apparently clear that the youth make a mistake by making such a judgment as they end being rejected after a short duration in such relationships. Shakespeare points out that true love is not based on mere looks and appearance but mutual understanding of your partner. He also shows that the path of true love is never smooth, just as it was at one point in those youths relationship but at the end, really love blossoms and we see all three couples happy in a wedding ceremony with the entire community in celebration mood.
Marriage also comes out as the final stroke on all problems facing relationship in the play. The two couples of Demetrius, Helena, Lysander and Hermia faces a lot of challenges in first and second scene of the play. Later they resolve their differences and true love leads to marriage rather the one that Egeus was imposing on his daughter earlier on. The triple marriage at the end of the play also symbolizes the end of trouble for the three couples. Besides that, Shakespeare also portrays that the stable marriage of king Oberon and his queen Titania shall be cause of peaceful marriages and relationship in Athens.
There is also a notion that things are not really what they seem to be in this play. Shakespeare employs the art of appearance and reality in his play (Seema 76). For instance, we see people falling asleep and waking up claiming to have dreamt, as the author says, “I dreamt my heart had been eaten by serpent” (77). These characters wake up and assume the role they took in dreamland. For instance, when Demetrius falls asleep and wakes up he deeply falls in love with Helena, the same case happens to Queen Titania when she falls asleep and wakes up she falls for the beast but the king reverses the spell as his mission to take away the Indian kid is fulfilled. Through these events Shakespeare manages to portray how the appearance and reality can deceive each other in really world.
Shakespeare’s a midsummer night dream also captures the order and disorder in the play. He illustrates how there is disorder with nature when the kings marriage is not in order. The nature only comes into order when the kings reconciliation with his wife is done, indicating that without this the play could have nit ended in celebration moods as we sea. He also shows how when the city dwellers found themselves in the forest order is lost and relationships start to tumble down. However with time the relationship are saved come out of the forest being stronger than before. Shakespeare also writes to show the great significance of love, friendship and betrayal in the society. He uses his characters to pass the message to his audience (Fortier 38). For example, there is love between the young characters even though they pass through a myriad of problems before settling on their true lovers. Friendship is also struck between the two women, Helena and Hermia, despite the latter feeling that Helena was a lover snatcher who had snapped her lover; they resolve their differences and finally the play ends when all the differences have been resolved.
In the play Shakespeare uses two contemporary worlds to his message. In the really world the Athens men are overall, they are the superpowers while the women are supposed to be ever submissive the male (Seema 32). In the fairy world, the women have their own way of doing things as we see through Queen Titania; she does not obey her husband and continues to attend on the little Indian boy. Shakespeare concludes by bringing out the similarities between the two worlds by making the fairy king Oberon achieve his aim and later Titania being submissive to her man just as her fellow women do in the really world. The inability to give a clear distinction between the real and the imaginary worlds was a great weakness of the play.
Shakespeare shows how magic can be used into a proper way or be misused. He uses the fairy king Oberon to portray how his fate affects the whole world. We see Oberon telling his fairy queen that she should take caution as her earlier troubles had led nature into confusion. On the other it’s not only nature that is not at peace but there is also confusion in love of the youth as portrayed in the play. Through mysterious ways when king Oberon reconciles with his wife everything becomes calm: nature settles and young lovers get married. Through these events Shakespeare tries to inform his audience that sometimes the events that take place in really life are beyond the control of man’s nature, and despite that there is a supernatural force or some sort of magical powers that control such happenings. In addition to that, Shakespeare uses the imaginary and irony in his play to pass message to the audience. He uses the poet, the lover and the lunatic in the same play at the same scene yet they are of the same caliber (Fortier 45). It is an irony that these same characters that should portray irony are ironical in themselves. Through this act Shakespeare manages to clearly pass the message to his audience that there is always a hidden meaning in all that they see in their contemporary world.
Finally, we should be in agreement that Shakespeare manages that his message to the audience through his characters. He clearly shows how women are portrayed as weaker beings in the society, sexual objects who should only give birth and take care of their young ones. He also shows that women should not hold public offices and should never engage in national politics at any point in life. Besides that, Shakespeare employs varies styles of writing to pass his message: a play within a play, irony, imaginary and fairy tales.
Works cited
April, Mon, Jennifer Miller, and Claire Dolan. "Pre-Reg Beckons! Fall courses." (2016).
Callaghan, Dympna. A feminist companion to Shakespeare. Vol. 97. John Wiley & Sons, 2016.
De Sousa, Geraldo U. Shakespeare's cross-cultural encounters. Springer, 2016.
Fortier, Mark. Theory/theatre: an introduction. Routledge, 2016.
Jacobs, Michael. A Freudian Dream: Interpretations of A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Psychoanalysts and Psychoanalytically Informed Literary Critics. Diss. The Open University, 2017.
Krainitzki, Eva. "Judi Dench's age-inappropriateness and the role of M: Challenging normative temporality." Journal of aging studies 29 (2014): 32-40.
Seema, S. R. "Re-reading William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream: An Ecocritical Analysis." (2016).
