Female_Weakness_In_A_Midsummer_Night’s_Dream

Female Weakness In A Midsummer Night’s Dream In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare portrays the difficulties of love and, in particular, the weakness and vulnerability of the female characters in their relationships. They have little influence in deciding who they will marry, and the marriages and relationships that they are involved in are strongly male-dominated. The power of men and weakness of women are seen through the characters of Hippolyta, Hermia, Titania, and Helena, and the relationships that they are in. The first female character that Shakespeare portrays as weak is Hippolyta. Hippolyta is married to Thesus, who “wooed [her] with [his] sword, / And won [her] love doing [her] injuries” (Act I, Scene I, lines 16-17). She is not married to Thesus out of love, but instead seems to be his possession. She has lost much of her fighting spirit since the commencement of her relationship with Thesus, and he often ignores her opinions. For example, at the end of the play, when Thesus is choosing which play is to be performed at their wedding ceremony, Hippolyta states that perhaps he has not made the best choice. When Thesus ignores this statement, Hippolyta does not protest again. It is obvious that their relationship is very male-dominated, and midsummer, night's, dream, love, weakness, relationship, hermia, through, wishes, titania, thesus, lysander, hippolyta, helena, female, relationships, demetrius, women, shakespeare, power, male, even, character, weak, very, strongly, since, position, play, oberon, male-dominated, little, instead, indian, hermia’s, give, fall, example