Msnd

Daniel Akerlind

Mrs. Lebeda

English II CP

7 May 2015

Strengths and Weaknesses of Female Characters

In William Shakespeare’s play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, there are three female protagonists that exhibit signs of strength as well as weaknesses. These three ladies consist of Hermia, Helena, and Titania, whom all show signs of different strengths and weaknesses. In the play, these three women go through many hardships with their loved ones. One of the strongest women in the play would be Hermia.

Hermia is a fair woman, who is in love with Lysander. Things begin to become difficult when Hermia’s father arranges for Hermia to marry Demetrius. Hermia decides to run away with Lysander and devises a plan. After creating her plan she declares, “There my Lysander and myself shall meet” (I, i, 220-225). Hermia shows strength by ignoring her father’s plan, which puts her in immense danger. Another example of Hermia’s strength would be when the love potion is used on Lysander causing him to fall in love with somebody else. Hermia responds, “Puppet? Why so? Ay, that way goes the game” (III, ii, 305). This shows that she is not going to give up on her true love and fight to win Lysander back. A woman who shows weak qualities in the play would be Helena.

Helena is in love with Demetrius, a man who does not love here what so ever. She is very weak as she keeps being loyal to someone who does not care for her. When speaking to Demetrius Helena acclaims, “I am your spaniel, and, Demetrius, the more you beat me I will fawn on you” (II, ii, 210-211). This means that she is probably going to die alone because Demetrius shows zero interest in Helena. Another sign of weakness is when Helena speaks to Hermia talking about romance and how “We should be wooed and were not made to woo” (II, i, 248-249). This means that Helena is just going to wait around for something to happen and not take matters into her own hand. The last woman in the play shows both signs of strength as...