Explore the presentation of women in AMND

This was written before my class investigated the different metres in verse for Titania, which I would add now. But otherwise, this earned a Band 6.

Explore the presentation of women in Acts 1 and 2 in light of the following statement

Gervinus, Shakespeare Commentaries (1887), suggests that the humour in in Shakespeare’s comedies stems from the playwright’s focus on female characters:

‘All have more or less something of unwomanly forwardness in their nature, something of domineering superiority; and therefore the men in contact with them play more or less a subordinate part.’

            In Shakespeare’s comedy play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, one can conclude that there are four important female characters, each tied to their own respective interwoven plotline. Within the main narrative of Athens, which represents the “City World” of the play, is Hippolyta, the fiancée of Theseus, whom is presented with ambiguity as to whether her marriage to Theseus is through willingness or forced submission. There are the female counterparts of the Athenian lovers: Hermia and Helena. Hermia is caught in the serious conflict of the play, being forced to decide whether to obey her father and marry her chosen suitor, Demetrius, or to defy her father’s wishes in loving Lysander and face life in a convent, or death, by requirement of Athenian law. Helena, however, is the victim of unrequited love as she is portrayed as dog-like in her pursuance of Demetrius, though this initial portrayal is later subverted as Lysander falls prey to the supernatural interference of the fairies, while Helena demonstrates defiance towards his unbecoming advances. And finally, there is Titania: the queen of the fairies, and of what critic Northrop Frye refers to as the “Green World”, where social disorder is all-consuming. While she is expected to submit to her husband Oberon, she shows “unwomanly forwardness” in her refusal to meet Oberon’s expectations. Such expectations were typical of the society of Elizabethan times, when women were expected to run the household and bear children. As Scottish Protestant leader John Knox said: “Women in her greatest perfection was made to serve and obey man.” To an extent, all of the women explored in A Midsummer Night’s Dream defy such a statement, apart from Helena.

            With regards to Hippolyta, the warrior and queen of the Amazons, there are two interpretations that may be drawn concerning her marriage to Theseus, which is described by Theseus as, “Hippolyta, I wooed thee with my sword,/And won thy love doing thee injuries.” Either Hippolyta felt attracted to him through his military skills and superiority, this being reflected through the romantic verb “wooed”, or she was forced to submit to him and become his trophy from the war, suggested through the use of the verb “won”, which indicates possession. Critic Schanzer takes the former interpretation, noting, “in the relationship of Theseus and Hippolyta reason and love have been made friends and keep company together.” This is shown through Hippolyta’s only dialogue in the scene, in which she expresses feelings of content and serenity when she says, “And then the moon, like to a silver bow/New bent in heaven, shall behold the night/Of our solemnities.” This tone of contentment is created through reference to the moon, which represents Diana, the Roman goddess of fertility. However, Diana was also the Roman goddess of the hunt, which coincides with Hippolyta’s portrayal as a warrior, as well as a “silver bow”, which can be reference to a weapon. Therefore Hippolyta’s dialogue in this case may not be an expression of contentment, but rather of “unwomanly forwardness” that masquerades as passivity. She is later described by Titania as, “But that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon,/Your buskined mistress and your warrior love,” with the adjective “buskined” meaning high-booted, and this description evokes an empowering image of her warrior heritage. This coincides with the character of Hippolyta from Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Knight’s Tale”, a work Shakespeare was greatly influenced by. In this work, Hippolyta is described as, “…The queen named Hippolyta, whom he [Theseus] carried/Back home with him amid much pageantry”, which also indicates Theseus’ possession of Hippolyta, as opposed to a mutuality of attraction. Therefore, the character of Hippolyta is ambiguously presented concerning her marriage to Theseus. But due to the position of Elizabethan women in society when they were expected to bring a dowry to a marriage, Hippolyta has no choice either way.

            Certain similarities may be linked between the characters of Hippolyta, and the daughter of Egeus, Hermia. Potentially like Hippolyta, Hermia is forced against her will to marry her chosen husband, Demetrius, for whom she harbours no affections. She too is treated as a possession, which is highlighted through Egeus’ language when addressing his daughter, “And she is mine, and all my right to her/I do estate unto Demetrius”, this indication of possession represented through the possessive pronouns of “mine” and “my”. This enforces the ideas of women being viewed as nothing more than a transaction when it came to marriage, which was typical of Elizabethan society. Yet, unlike Hippolyta, Hermia demonstrates active defiance against her father’s wishes, despite later recognising her actions as unbecoming, “I know not by what power I am made bold”. As critic Bamber notes, such defiance is perceived as “a rebellion of the feminine against the power of masculine authority,” this “male authority” being both the parental authority of Egeus, and the patriarchal social authority of Theseus. This conflict in the main narrative of the play provides the context of Elizabethan times in regards to the role of women in becoming, “…a hyperbolic image of Elizabethan social facts: daughters of marriage age risked disaster as the only alternative to remaining single or coming to terms with their parents…”, as critic Harbage notes. This “disaster” that Harbage refers to in the case of Hermia is the choice of becoming a nun, or death, as inscribed under Athenian law. In Act Two, despite having escaped Athens, though it is dubious as to whether they have escaped the reaches of Athenian law, Hermia continues to stick to her morals and etiquette when she refuses to “lie with” Lysander. Despite his persistence, she remains true to her own principles when she tells him, “But, gentle friend, for love and courtesy/Lie further off, in human modesty;” and this forwardness prevails as he accepts her conditions. This may be interpreted as a “domineering superiority” for it is her wishes that are respected, but throughout the first two acts she maintains humility, so not to act unbecomingly from the behaviour expected of a woman in Elizabethan times.

            In contrast to Hermia, who holds on to her social codes of propriety, Helena relinquishes any sense of self-modesty in pursuit of Demetrius. In Act 1 Helena’s dialogue is written by Shakespeare in rhyming couplets to indicate that the play is a comedy, therefore what can be perceived as being serious, such as her soliloquy at the end of Act 1 Scene 2, must not be taken seriously, but comically. She laments the subjective nature of love, saying, “Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,/And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.” Reference to sight through the adjective “blind” has been cited by critic Panofsky as showing that “the classical sighted Cupid symbolised divine love, while the blind or blindfolded Cupid symbolised the moral dangers of earthly and illicit sensuality.” Yet despite the earnest nature in her monologue questioning the nature of love, there remains a comical irony to this in that Helena herself is pursuing an unhappy and dysfunctional love, the comedy of the situation highlighted through the contrived rhyming couplet structure between “mind” and “blind”. Helena may demonstrate an “unwomanly forwardness” in pursuit of Demetrius, this only contributes to her derogatory presentation as a dog, something Helena herself acknowledges when she tells Demetrius, “I am your spaniel, and, Demetrius,/The more you beat me I will fawn on you.”; this specific example of dialogue introducing a violent aspect to their relationship through the verb “beat”, which only results in further devotion towards him. This suggests a submissive and lesser role Helena has to play in her relationship with Demetrius, while he is masculated and physically asserts his dominance in a hypothetical scenario. As opposed to speaking in rhyming couplets, this section of Act Two Scene One is spoken in blank verse to assert their distance from the faeries as they enter the forest. However, in Act Two Scene Two the dog and the pursued dynamic is gender-reversed, with Lysander (under the spell of the love potion) pursues Helena, much to her disgust. “Yet Hermia still loves you; then be content/” she objects, to which Lysander completes the rhyming couplet structure by responding with, “Content with Hermia? No I do repent”. The structure of the rhyming couplet in this context is utilised by Shakespeare to indicate the artificial nature of Lysander’s love for Helena, which the audience knows is the product of the love potion. In contradiction to the Helena prior to this scene, Lysander’s advances are met with utter defiance as she reprimands him, “Good troth, you do me wrong – good sooth, you do -/In such disdainful manner me to woo.” This example of “domineering superiority” certainly fulfils the argument put forward by Gervinus as Lysander is forced into playing the pest in a “subordinate part”.

            Finally, the fourth main female role in the play is Titania, the queen of the faeries. Unlike the male-female relationships in the City World of Athens, in the “Green World”, a literary concept created by Northrop Frye in which social disorder reigns, Titania is placed equal to, if not higher than her male counterpart Oberon. This is demonstrated in the stage directions of their first entrance, “Enter Oberon at one door, with his train, and Titania with hers.” There is no indication of one entering before the other, which places them on equal footing. In Act Two Scene One, their argument is written in blank verse with monosyllabic words to lend their dialogue a harsh quality, which presents Titania as defiant, rather than the typical saccharine female character. When asked by Oberon, “Am not I thy Lord?”, she refuses the notion of the husband and wife relationship being one of domination and submission in her reply, “Then I must be thy lady; but I know…”. Her final line of the scene is written as a rhyming couplet, “Not for thy fairy kingdom.-Fairies, away./We shall chide downright if I longer stay…” before exiting the scene, signalling that she has won the argument by not allowing Oberon to respond in her presence. Unlike in the City World, in the Green World the women are able to assert dominance over the men, as social order has been disrupted, once again aligning Titania with the description Gervinus provides. But it is not just the female-male relationship that is significant in this context, but the female to female relationship Titania has with the mother of the fledgling boy in her care, because, as Titania says herself, “And for her sake do I rear up her boy;/And for her sake I will not part with him.” The monosyllabic language in this example asserts her adamancy in a poignant manner, telling the audience that she argues with Oberon not merely for the sake of securing herself power in her relationship, but because of the strength in her female bond with the Indian boy’s mother, thus suggesting that the female relationships triumph over male tyranny.

            In conclusion, to an extent all four central female characters do express “unwomanly forwardness”, as Gervinus prescribes to them. While Hermia’s defiance against her father is a rebellion against principles he wishes to uphold, she is also assertive towards Lysander for the sake of upholding her own moral principles of abstinence, though throughout such examples of female defiance, she is aware, if not regretful, that this is unbecoming of the expectations of her behaviour. Helena, by contrast is not afraid to demonstrate her forwardness in pursuit of Demetrius, but this creates a derogatory presentation of her as opposed to an empowering one. However, when confronted by such behaviour, this time from Lysander, she is not afraid to reprimand his actions, though this is because she wishes to remain faithful to Demetrius, which continues her pathetic want to be acknowledged romantically by Demetrius. With regards to Hippolyta, her warrior heritage is at odds with her demonstrated passivity, and it remains ambiguous as to whether her engagement to Theseus is consensual or forced. But Shakespeare’s use of possessive pronouns indicates the notion that Hippolyta is treated as a trophy of war, rather than Theseus’ loving betrothed, and because she does not voice a dissatisfaction of this, one cannot determine any “dominating superiority” from her, as Theseus is comfortably in control. And finally, in complete contrast to Hippolyta, Titania does demonstrate superiority over Oberon by winning the argument between them, because the setting of the Green World allows her to do so outside of the social confines of the City World. But the reason for her defiance is not a malevolent one, rather it is because of her commitment to a fellow female, and the power of the relationship between them is able to surpass that of her own marriage. This is a direct contrast to the female relationship between Hermia and Helena, which Helena is prepared to sacrifice for the sake of gaining Demetrius’ approval. But despite this, these female characters all express superiority and defiance to their male counterparts, but all to varying extents.