A Feministic Analysis of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” by William Shakespeare
This essay will cover how the female and the male characters are treated differently and how they were represented in the world of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. We will explore Laura Mulvey and her theory on ‘The Male Gaze' and how women are perceived in film and how Mulvey’s theories link to the world of the play. Furthermore, we will consider Hermia’s relationship with her father and dig into how he treats his own daughter and the authority and power that he has over her and her life. The essay will also cover feminism at the time that William Shakespeare was writing his plays and the impact feminism had on the way Shakespeare portrays his female characters, and the decisions he makes to be either feminist or anti-feminist. The essay will also cover how women are divided by how attractive they are in the world of the play.
In a BBC production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, there is a very clear sexual portrayal of the female characters in the world of the play. In the scene with the fairy queen and the other fairies, Titania, who is the queen of the Fairies, walks past moonlight in a gown, the gown is lit up in the moonlight and the silhouette of her body is shown to the audience, this is clearly sexualizing Titania for the male audience members. Laura Mulvey came up with the theory of the ‘male gaze’, which is that in film women are shown through the eyes of a man. We see this theory in that particular scene, when the audience sees the woman from a male perspective, very sexualized and placed in the scene like a spectacle or an object to be viewed and judged. Women such as Hermia and Titania play a ‘traditional exhibitionistic role’ in this production, their bodies are held up as “passive erotic objects for the gaze of the male spectators”. Mulvey also argues that the representation of women in culture has historically been created by men, for men, in which men then create fantasy-like images of women. It is true that men are the spectators and women are the ones being spectated, this comes from the theory of ‘Voyeurism’. Sigmund Freud first introduced the concept of scopophilia or ‘voyeurism’ in 1905 when he wrote three essays on the Theory of Sexuality. There is a clear difference between how a woman is viewed and how a man is viewed in this BBC production of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, by looking at the way the camera is angled, it is clear to us as audience members who are of higher status. When we see a camera shot of a male character the camera is always looking up at them, showing us that they have a purpose and that they are superior. This is very different to how a camera shows a woman, the majority of the camera angles that show a woman, are looking down on them, belittling them, and showing them as less important and inferior to male characters. As soon as we witness a character being objectified, we see them as devalued and their humanity is taken from them. Men on-screen are ‘agents of the look’, a strictly male audience would identify with this because of the ‘vicarious’ control and possession that the male characters may have of the female. This relates to theatre as well as film, if a male role is shown as the more powerful, the audience will perceive it as the male is always the most important and above any female. These kinds of messages in theatre and film gives spectators a broken view of reality, which creates productions, plays, and films where we witness women being represented as the weaker and less significant sex.
As well as being viewed as objects, the women in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ are also spoken about as if they are possessions or inanimate objects. Hermia’s father Egeus, uses such language most, compared to any other male character in the play, “As she is mine, I may dispose of her,” Egeus speaks of Hermia as one would speak about an inanimate object, something he can easily get rid of when he is no longer pleased by it. Hermia has a duty to do what her father wishes, “... arm yourself To fit your fancies to your father’s will”. To fight for what she wants and who she loves, Hermia is willing to go against the patriarchal laws of Athenian society. Hermia is “prepared to embrace death” or to live the rest of her life as a nun in solitary. This type of exclusion of the female voice allows for the creation of a specifically male perspective on the female experience. Every woman in the world of the play is viewed as ‘the other’, less than men, and this is merely because they are women. There is also a visible divide between the woman of the Athenian society, and they are divided by how attractive they are. If a woman is unattractive, she is seen as the lowest in Athenian society. In the play we see this divide between the two key females; Hermia, who is portrayed as the most beautiful, even by Helena, “Your eyes are lodestars, and your tongue’s sweet air More tuneable than lark to shepherd's ear”. Helena, on the other hand, is shown and perceived as less attractive and struggles to get the man she loves, Demetrius, to love her back, “Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit; For I am sick when I do look on thee.” This situation, the division between the attractive and unattractive female, represents how powerful the role of a male is. Helena’s struggles with the male domination stereotyping her, and her love for Demetrius is rejected because she isn’t attractive enough, despite this ‘Hermia does not show discourage instead she keeps pursuing’ Demetrius’ Love. In the play Act 1 Scene 1 she says, “But herein mean I to enrich my pain, To have his sight thither and back again.” Helena realizes that she was being “constructed by Athens society” to be unattractive, Helena ignores this and still keeps pursuing Demetrius’ love, just like Hermia, ignoring her father’s wishes and seeking to marry Lysander. The male is able to choose who he marries, and he can reject any woman even if the woman has feelings for him because there is no rule that ties them together and there is no punishment for rejecting a woman who is in love with them. We see a feminist view right at the end of the play when Helena is finally loved by Demetrius and Hermia and Lysander marry each other. ‘The fact that male superiority was taken for granted does not mean that all women had to be subordinate to every man. We saw this in Hermia’s dismissal of her father’s wishes for her to marry Demetrius. This happy ending is common for a Shakespearean comedy, what is surprising is the fact that these women got what they wanted at the end even though they had to go against Athenian society. Feminist theory is interested in moments when women have succeeded in something despite being women and inferior to men. Hermia for example risked her own life to be able to have what she wanted. The main function of feminist theory is to analyze and reveal the effects of patriarchy on female representation with a view of repositioning the female perspective, which is what we see with Hermia going against her father, she gets what she wants by repositioning herself as a woman. If we look back over why Hermia’s father wanted her to marry Demetrius, it was very political. He only wanted her to marry him because he is a “worthy gentlemen”.
To conclude, we know that women were treated as inferior beings that men viewed as possessions and objects of their sexual desire. However, there is the fact that both Hermia and Helena got what they wanted since the beginning, Hermia was to marry Lysander and she did. Helena to be loved by Demetrius, and she was. There is however a downside to this, yes, they got what they wanted, but it was only because of a male, who used magic. So how can we tell that the love Helena got from Demetrius, is real. We can also conclude that the inequalities between men and women can be taken for granted, and they were taken for granted at the time that William Shakespeare was writing. To add, we saw how feminism impacted Shakespeare’s portrayal of women in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. He represented Hermia as a strong-willed female who wouldn’t stop till she got what she wants, that shows a pro-feminist view.
References
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- Wells, S. Taylor, G (eds.) (2005) William Shakespeare, The Complete Works. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University.
- Miller, J. (No Date) A Midsummer Night’s Dream - William Shakespeare. Available from: https://www.digitaltheatreplus.com/education/collections/bbc-studios/a-midsummer-nights-dream [Accessed 19 Dec 2019].
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- Rackin, P. (2005) Shakespeare and Women. New York: Oxford University.
