A Midsummer Night’s Dream - The Feminist Subtext Essay

The Feminist Subtext of A Midsummer Nights Dream Shakespeares works have persistently influenced humanity for the past four hundred years. Quotations from his plays are used in many other works of literature and some common phrases have even become integrated into the English language. Most high schoolers have been unsuccessful in avoidance of him and college students are rarely afforded the luxury of choice when it comes to studying the bard. Many aspects of Shakespeares works have been researched but one of the most popular topics since the 1960s has been the portrayal of women in Shakespeares tragedies, comedies, histories and sonnets. In order to accurately describe the role of women in Shakespeares A Midsummer Nights†¦show more content†¦Being too lowly to ask for Demestriuss love, she instead begs to be in his presence saying, I am your spaniel; and Demetrius, The more you beat me, I will fawn on you: Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me, Neglect me, lose me; only give me leave, Unworthy as I am to follow you. (II.i.203-207) These words and the entire alliance between Demetrius and Helena have the subtext of a sexually sadistic and masochistic relationship (Greene et al. 151). This correlation leaves little in Helena to be admired by feminist critics. Her only intelligent scene in the play spawns from her discovery of the Athenian lads infatuation with her as she screams, Can you not hate me, as I know you do/ But you must join in souls to mock me too? (III.ii.149-150). Through Helena Shakespeare created a woman so pitiful and wretched that he openly mocked the modern sixteenth-century women who allowed themselves to be treated in such a manner. Had a man been the monarch of England when this play was written, the bard might have been more discrete in his support of feminism. Luckily, Queen Elizabeth was fond of autonomous women and showed little animosity towards such mockery. The queen of fairyland, Titania is a deceivingly strong feminist at the opening of the show. She combats her counterpart, Oberon, with such a rage that diseases run rampant, seasons dangerously alter and all of humanity suffers from their discord. As a