Women in a Midsummer Night's Dream

In Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, we see a lot of content that discusses the role of women in the time of Elizabethan England. These women were expected to follow certain rules weather they be written in law, or unspoken rules written in by society itself. The examples we see within A Midsummer Night’s Dream, including Hippolyta and Titania (two supposedly powerful women who are in fact queens) shed light on a link to Queen Elizabeth. The two queens are women in power however, they submit themselves and their free will to their male counterparts giving Queen Elizabeth a positive nod for resisting male domination by denying marriage. This play shows a clear juxtaposition of two women submitting their power over to a male counterpart, and gives a compliment to Queen Elizabeth for sticking to her ideals and power without needing a male by her side.

In earlier scenes in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare shows how the queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta, originally shows her power over her soon to be husband. However she quickly becomes submissive to the fact that they will be married. We see her power when she is not very eager to get married and give up her power to Theseus. She states, “Four days will quickly steep themselves in night / Four nights will quickly dream away the time; / And then the moon, like a sliver bow / New bent in Heaven shall behold the night of our solemnities” (1.1.6-11). Which shows her un-eagerness to give her hand in marriage, until Theseus comes back with his statement “Hippolyta, I wooed the with my sword / and won they lobe doing thee injuries” (1.1.16-17), which shows that he captured her in the Amazons and is now forcing her to marry him. This shows a clear submission to Theseus for the fact that he is truly making Hippolyta wed him. Hippolyta can be very clearly juxtaposed with Queen Elizabeth because although she was captured in battle and forced to marry Theseus, she is willing to give up on her fight to get...