Outline

I. Introduction
II. Patriarchy in AMSND
1. Power Relations
2. Gender Roles
3. Misogyny & Sexism
 Outline
III. Challenging Traditions
and social norms
1.
2.
3.
IV. Conclusion
Introduction
Patriarchy in
A Midsummer
Night’s
Dream
• Patriarchy is a major theme in A Midsummer Night’s dream as the world of
the play is dominated and ruled by male characters, in which women are
suppressed, opressed and objectified .

Mirroring the patriarchal Elizabethan society

1. Power Relations:
• power relations in the play are defined by the inequality that is influenced by
gender.

• This idea is justified by the control that Theseus has over Hippolyta for
example, as her conqueror and superior .

 This imbalance of power favours the male characters.

 Theseus and Hyppolita :
• Theseus has power over Hippolyta after defeating her with his “sword.” He
believes he has won her “love” and she is to be his queen just because he is
more powerful than her .

“I wooed thee with my sword and won thy love doing thee injuries.”

• Although Hippolyta was a woman of great power, she is now reduced to a

possession by the male authority.
• As head of the State, Theseus represents the highest rational institution of
man. He is both judge and ruler of a well-controlled and organized system of
law and justice. (he is the embodiment of power)

• His position does not only allow him to stand above the rest and command
them but also to make Athens “forever the society of men.”

 Exclusion of women (implying their inferiority)

 Egeus and Hermia :

• The relationship of Egues and Hermia also shows the gender based power
relation between characters. He brings complaint against his daughter to
Theseus who chastises Hermia preventing her from marrying Demetrius,
declaring that, as her father, he should be seen as ‘God’ by her.
“I beg the ancient privilege of Athens:
As she is mine, I may dispose of her,
Which shall be either to this gentleman
Or to her death, according to our law
Immediately provided in that case.”
• The laws of Athens stand with Egues as they state that she could be executed
for her refusal of Demetrius.

 Hermia has no control over her life . She is considered a possession and her
life thus depends on the decisions of the two male figures which are considered
orders.
 Oberon and Titania:
• Oberon wants the little Indian boy that Titania, his wife, has adopted, for his
own retinue. Titania promised the boy's mother, a close friend who died, that
she would raise the boy as her own. Therefore, she refuses to give him up to
Oberon.

• This is not satisfactory to Oberon as he believes he must have the

child.(because he simply said so)
• Oberon uses his power to command Puck to put a love potion in Titania's eyes
so that she falls in love with the first creature she sees. Oberon believes this
will preoccupy her and cause her to lose interest in the Indian boy.

 He does not care about his wife or her emotions, he only cares about what he
wants and would do whatever it takes to get it.
• Despite the fact that at the end of the play, Oberon allows Lysander and
Hermia to marry , Shakespeare makes it clear that both Oberon and Theseus
are dominant males who are used to having their own way. They both expect
women to give in to men's desires.
 The women of the play–lacking physical prowess and political power– are
relegated to subhuman status, being treated more like property and less like
people.

 Shakespeare further seems to objectify at least the moral women of the play
by giving them similar-sounding, possibly interchangeable names. In addition to
creating confusion for the reader, the similar-sounding names imply that women
are all the same and therefore easily substitutable.
2. Gender Roles:

“A set of behaviour patterns, attitudes, and personality characteristics

stereotypically perceived as masculine or feminine within a culture.”

- Oxford Dictionary
• According to Simon De Beauvoir’s theory The Situation of Married Woman,
for women, marriage is not a choice but a destiny traditionally offered by the
society they live in which is actually constructed by the patriarchal society.

• Beauvoir believes that the marriage is actually not between the women to be
married and the men to be their grooms, instead it is between the father of the
bride and the son in law. Women have been regarded as property of their
fathers. A marriage will happen if their fathers and their future husbands have
made a contract.
“[…] it is men’s society that allows each of its members to accomplish himself as
husband and father; woman, integrated as slave or vassal into the family group
dominated by fathers and brothers, has always been given in marriage to males
by other males […] A young girls’ free choice was always highly restricted; and
celibacy – except in rare cases where it bears a sacred connotation – ranked her
as a parasite and pariah; marriage was her only means of survival and the only
justification of her existence.”
-De Beauvoir (2011)
 Gender is thus seen as forms of being either male or female that represents
what is socially acceptable and socially acquired. (Wolfreys 2006)

• Society has its own standard in classifying women’s femininity and men’s
masculinity, “If men are regarded as the strong, women are seen as weak or
fragile ones. If men can go public, women should stay at home. If men can
make rules, women tend to obey it.” The gender differences like this create
injustice that mostly makes women subordinated under the domination of
men.
 “What say you, Hermia? Be advised, fair maid:
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 his power
To leave the figure or disfigure it” (I.1)

 Women’s associated role by the patriarchal society in A Midsummer Night’s

Dream is to obey the males orders
In Athens, women are to look in a certain way  stereotypical beauty

“Lys:How now, my love? Why is your cheek so pale?

How chance the roses there do fade so fast”

 The quotation above implies that a woman with rosy cheeks is regarded as
the beautiful one. Therefore when she looks pale, she will not look interesting.
 The stereotype given by the men to the women in A Midsummer Night’s
Dream.
• Hermia who is described as a beautiful woman has fulfilled the standard of
beauty made by the men :

“Demetrius loves your fair.

O happy fair! Your eyes are lodestars
, and your Tongue’s sweet air
More tunable than lark to shepherd ear”

 Beautiful, fair and feminine, Hermia fits female stereotype of Athens and is
thus loved and desired by two men; Lysandre and Demetrius
 There is a gender awareness which has been presented by Shakespeare in A
Midsummer Night’s Dream. He shows that there is a gender difference in
the play presented by the male and female characters in a restricted
patriarchal society of Athens.

 Gender roles are thus determined by this patriarchal ideology giving men
the role of making orders and defining female beauty standards and women
the role of fitting these standards, obeying and satisfying their male
superiors and getting married.
“Woman in her greatest perfection was made to
serve and obey man.”

- the Scottish protestant leader John Knox

3. Misogyny and Sexism:

Misogyny = ‘‘hatred or dislike of, or prejudice against women”

Sexism = ‘‘the unfair treatment of people, especially women, because of their

sex’’
(Oxford Dictionary)
• Set in a patriarchal society, the women in A Midsummer Night's Dream are
obligated to be subservient to the men. Power is only extended to women in
the fictional world of Fairyland.

• This exemplifies the misogyny of the time, where women had no significant
societal role in the real world. However, once in the Fairyland, the women are
able to make their own choices and demonstrate their true power.
One of the misogynistic characters of the play is Demetrius.

• Although Demetrius may act in a loving way towards Hermia, he is still

openly demeaning and cruel to other women in the play. He constantly
degrades Helena, Hermia’s friend, refusing to even treat her as a human
being.
• Helena pleads, ‘‘What worser place can I beg in your love And yet a place of
high respect with me Than to be used as you use your dog?” to which
Demetrius responds, “Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit For I am
sick when I do look on thee.”

• His treatment of Helena reflects on his view of women: he does not see them
as equals, nor respect them as humans. Regardless of Helena’s feelings,
Demetrius is relentless in hurting her.
• Demetrius displays sexist behavior towards Hermia by trying to force himself
upon her. He is in “love” with Hermia, based off of her look and social class,
not her character. In A Midsummer Night's Dream, when Demetrius is
describing Hermia, he uses words such as “sweet” and “fair”. This
demonstrates his lust, not love, for her.

• His motive of marrying her to gain power is evident in his dire attempts to
sway Hermia: “Relent, sweet Hermia And, Lysander, yield Thy crazed title to
my certain right.”
• In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Oberon, like Egeus, treats Titania as his own
property. When Titania tries to deny Oberon, he forces himself upon her. She
argues, “I have forsworn [your] bed and company.” To which Oberon replies,
“Tarry, rash wanton; am I not thy lord?” Titania, seeing no means of
disentangling herself from this dispute, eventually gave in: “Then I must be
thy lady”
• Although Oberon is a fairy, like Puck, he acts misogynistically towards
Titania. His egocentric attitude may be related to his title as king within the
fairy community.

• Shakespeare’s connection between misogyny and people in political power

thus connects a hatred of women to a fear of woman whose intellect or
political prowess equals or exceeds that of men. Oberon feels threatened and
his mistreatment of Titania is a byproduct of his own desire to maintain
leadership in the Fairyland.
Conclusion
 A Midsummer Night’s Dream explores a patriarchal society in which both
male and female characters negotiate masculine control. This reading posits
that the play is characterized by an attempt by men to master women

 In his play Shakespeare not only highlights the accepted sexist routines of his
time, but he also explicitly attacks and dismantles the idea that women can be
strong or independent.
 Power Relations and gender roles in the play are both based on and affected
by the belief in male superiority over women . This belief is displayed by the
misogynistic attitude of the male characters which in turn imply the threat
they feel by women’s potential of subverting their power.

 Despite the representation of Athenian patriarchy in the play, there remain

moments of tension which serve to undermine those values.
 Female characters’ rebellion such as Titania’s and Hermia’s threaten and
undermine the hierarchy set by the patriarchal society

 In the end ,Despite the female character’s efforts in damping down the
patriarchal ideology, A Midsummer Nights Dream makes the clear point that
any woman who forgets or tries to upset the gender power dynamic of
Elizabethan England will assuredly end up like Titania (the Fairy Queen of
the play), robbed, humiliated, and dejected.
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