A Midsummer Night’s Dream Gender Quotes

Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour
Draws on apace. Four happy days bring in
Another moon. But, oh, methinks how slow
This old moon wanes. She lingers my desires,
Like to a stepdame or a dowager
Long withering out a young man’s revenue.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 1, Scene 1. The Duke of Athens Theseus comments to Hippolya about their approaching wedding day in these opening lines of the play. He is impatient for their "nuptial hour" to arrive, complaining that time is passing too slowly. He uses the moon as a metaphor for his frustrated desires. He compares the slowly waning moon to a greedy aging stepmother or widow spending her husband’s fortune before her son can inherit it (examples of similes).

Hippolyta, I woo’d thee with my sword
And won thy love doing thee injuries,
But I will wed thee in another key,
With pomp, with triumph, and with revelling.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 1, Scene 1. Theseus defeated and conquered Amazon Queen Hippolyta in battle and she is now betrothed to him. The Amazons were a mythical nation of warrior women, who were courageous and independent and the archenemies of the ancient Greeks. But in Theseus’ world it is the men who take charge and women are property and prizes to be won in battle. He uses verbal irony when he says that he won Hippolyta’s love by causing her injury, as hurting someone does not normally endear them to you. Theseus has now been transformed from warrior king and Hippolyta’s enemy to her lover. He employs a musical metaphor when he talks of wooing her with his sword and now wedding her "in another key" – with pomp and festivities and celebration instead of war. There is a subtle foreshadowing in this passage that love in the play has to be fought for and won. The uneasy union of Theseus and Hippolyta, brought about by enslavement, is also foreshadowing of the dispute between Oberon and Titania, their counterparts in the fairy world.

I beg the ancient privilege of Athens:
As she is mine, I may dispose of her,
Which shall be either to this gentleman
Or to her death, according to our law
Immediately provided in that case.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 1, Scene 1. Egeus is demanding that his daughter Hermia marry the man he chooses for her, Demetrius, but she defies him because she loves Lysander. In this passage Egeus appeals to the Duke of Athens Theseus to enforce the law, saying that if his daughter disobeys she would be put to death. "As she is mine, I may dispose of her," an enraged Egeus ominously declares. Egeus sees her simply as his property, to do what he will with her under the law of Athens, including killing her!

What say you, Hermia? Be advised, fair maid:
To you your father should be as a god,
One that composed your beauties, yea, and one
To whom you are but as a form in wax,
By him imprinted and within his power
To leave the figure or disfigure it.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 1, Scene 1. The young Athenian woman Hermia has been told by her father Egeus that she must marry Demetrius. In this passage the Duke Theseus, who is the authority in the city of Athens, upholds her father’s demand. Using a series of similes the Duke tells her that her father is "as a god" to her and she is to him "as a form of wax" to be shaped by him. Theseus is asserting a father’s complete power over his daughter and that she should obey him. As his daughter’s creator Egeus can do what he wishes with her, even "disfigure" her, according to Theseus.

Thrice-blessed they that master so their blood,
To undergo such maiden pilgrimage;
But earthlier happy is the rose distill’d
Than that which, withering on the virgin thorn,
Grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 1, Scene 1. Theseus tells Hermia that she should marry Demetrius. He says that those who master their passions and remain virgins are three times blessed. But, using a flower metaphor, he suggests that a woman who is married and deflowered ("the rose distill’d") is happier than one who remains a virgin. The virgin simply grows, lives and withers on the stem.

So will I grow, so live, so die, my lord,
Ere I will yield my virgin patent up
Unto his Lordship, whose unwishèd yoke
My soul consents not to give sovereignty.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 1, Scene 1. Hermia shows herself to be one of Shakespeare’s strong women as she defies the wishes of her father Egeus and Duke Theseus. They have commanded that she marry Demetrius instead of Lysander. In a powerful expression of women’s autonomy, she declares that she will not give up the ownership of her virginity to her father. Nor will her soul give her father sovereignty to command her to enter an unwanted marriage. Using a metaphor, she compares marriage to Demetrius to an "unwishèd yoke" – a pair of oxen harnessed togeher under the yoke of enforced marriage. She says that she would rather die or become a nun than marry Demetrius.

Take time to pause; and, by the next new moon
(The sealing day betwixt my love and me,
For everlasting bond of fellowship),
Upon that day either prepare to die
For disobedience to your father’s will,
Or else to wed Demetrius, as he would;
Or on Diana’s altar to protest
For aye austerity and single life.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 1, Scene 1. Hermia is told by Theseus to think hard about her decision to disobey her father’s wish to marry the man he has chosen for his daughter. The Duke gives her a deadline of the next new moon. Then she must either marry Demetrius, or prepare to die or live a life of austerity as a virgin priestess in the temple of Diana. Hermia is denied the freedom to make her own choice in the matter of who she loves and marries. This is controlled by men: her father and Theseus.
Theseus

My good Lysander,
I swear to thee by Cupid’s strongest bow,
By his best arrow with the golden head,
By the simplicity of Venus’ doves,
By that which knitteth souls and prospers loves,
And by that fire which burned the Carthage queen
When the false Trojan under sail was seen,
By all the vows that ever men have broke
(In number more than ever women spoke),
In that same place thou hast appointed me,
Tomorrow truly will I meet with thee.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 1, Scene 1. Hermia is very strong, extremely brave and willing to fight for love. She pledges to run away with Lysander, even though it is a decision that could threaten her life. She is prepared to take great risks to be with the one she loves, Lysander. Shakespeare pokes a bit of fun at men’s unreliability in their love promises, when he says that men break a lot more vows than women. "By all the vows that ever men have broke." Hermia says in her pledge to rendezvous with Lysander.

QUINCE: Flute, you must take Thisbe on you.
FLUTE: What is Thisbe? – a wand’ring knight?
QUINCE: It is the lady that Pyramus must love.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 1, Scene 2. In the play that the Athenian craftsmen are to perform in celebration of Duke Theseus’ wedding, director Quince gives the part of Thisbe to bellows-maker Francis Flute. Flute is happy to play such a manly role when he thinks Thisbe is a wandering knight. But he is disappointed and unhappy when he discovers that Thisebe is instead a woman in love.

An I may hide my face, let me play Thisbe too, I’ll speak in a monstrous little voice: "Thisne, Thisne!" – "Ah, Pyramus, lover dear! thy Thisbe dear, and lady dear!".

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 1, Scene 2. As soon as director Quince starts assigning parts for the Mechanicals’ play, the silliness also begins and we see signs that these bungling amateurs are about to transform this Babylonian tragedy into a comedy. Bottom seems to want to take on every role in the play. Already assigned the character Pyramus, he also offers to play his tragic lover Thisbe. Arguing about his fitness for the female role, he maintains that he can make speak in a high-pitched tone – "a monstrous little voice," he says using an oxymoron. In Shakespeare’s time, women weren’t allowed perform on stage and so men had to play their parts.

I grant you, friends, if you should fright the ladies out of their wits, they would have no more discretion but to hang us. But I will aggravate my voice so that I will roar you as gently as any sucking dove. I will roar you an ‘t were any nightingale.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 1, Scene 2. In consideration of the ladies’ sensitivities, Bottom gives an assurance that he will temper his roar when playing the part of the lion. Using a simile, promises to make it as gentle as a "sucking dove" – this is most likely a malapropism for "suckling lamb." Bottom also uses verbal irony when he says he will "aggravate my voice." He of course means the opposite, that he will calm his voice. Here "aggravate" is a malapropism for "moderate."

The King doth keep his revels here to-night:
Take heed the queen come not within his sight;
For Oberon is passing fell and wrath,
Because that she as her attendant hath
A lovely boy, stolen from an Indian king;
She never had so sweet a changeling;
And jealous Oberon would have the child
Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild;
But she perforce withholds the loved boy,
Crowns him with flowers and makes him all her joy:
And now they never meet in grove or green,
By fountain clear, or spangled starlight sheen,
But, they do square, that all their elves for fear
Creep into acorn-cups and hide them there.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 2, Scene 1. All is not well in fairyland! Puck reveals to the fairy that a battle of the sexes is taking place between the Fairy King Oberon and his wife Titania. Oberon is jealous of all the time Titania is spending with the changeling boy she stole from an Indian king. She "crowns him with flowers and makes him all her joy." Oberon has demanded that Titania give the boy to him, so that he can make him a knight within his retinue, but she refuses. A changling is a child that the fairies steal and bring up as their own, leaving the parents with a fairy child in its place. The royal couple argue so much that the frightened elves go off and hide inside acorn cups, we are told.

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.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 2, Scene 1. Helena literally throws herself at Demetrius, as she grovels to him and metaphorically calls herself his submissive "spaniel." Her absurd pleadings and willingness to humiliate and degrade herself reek of her desperate love. She says that the more he beats her, the more she will love him.

Apollo flies, and Daphne holds the chase,
The dove pursues the griffin; the mild hind
Makes speed to catch the tiger – bootless speed,
When cowardice pursues and valour flies.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 2, Scene 1. As Demetrius flees from Helena’s sexual advances, she complains that the classic story of pursuit is being reversed. Instead of Apollo chasing Daphne, Daphne pursues Apollo, the dove chases the griffin and the deer the tiger. Helena is saying that her having to chase Demetrius is reversing the normal state of affairs, in which the man pursues the woman.

Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex.
We cannot fight for love, as men may do.
We should be wooed and were not made to woo.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 2, Scene 1. Helena complains to Demetrius that society finds it acceptable for men to woo women, but not for women to woo men. She accuses him of causing a "scandal on my sex" because she has had to be the one to pursue him. Helena has been chasing Demetrius through the forest, while he has told her that he is not interested in her.

A lion among ladies is a most dreadful thing.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 3, Scene 1. The six Mechanicals from Athens collect in the woods to rehearse their play Pyramus and Thisbe. Bottom is concerned that having a lion in the play will be too frightening for the ladies. He doesn’t grasp the fact that the ladies will see it isn’t a real lion, but a man dressed as a lion. He doesn’t really grasp the element of illusion in theater. Bottom is the fool who provides comic relief throughout the play.

Nay you must name his name, and half his face must be seen through the lion’s neck, and he himself must speak through, saying thus, or to the same defect: …"If you think I come hither as a lion, it were pity of my life. No, I am no such thing; I am a man, as other men are" – and there indeed let him name his name, and tell them plainly he is Snug the joiner.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 3, Scene 1. The lion in the play by the Mechanicals presents a problem. In order not to frighten the ladies, Bottom suggests another prologue that makes clear Snug is not a lion. In trying to explain himself drops another of his verbal clangers, one of his malapropisms – instead of saying "to the same effect" it comes out as "to the same defect." Clearly no one watching the play will be fooled into thinking that a pretend lion is the real thing. This episode is merely added for comic effect and to poke fun at the blundering Mechanicals.

On the ground
Sleep sound:
I’ll apply
To your eye,
Gentle lover, remedy.
When thou wakest,
Thou takest
True delight
In the sight
Of thy former lady’s eye:
And the country proverb known,
That every man should take his own,
In your waking shall be shown:
Jack shall have Jill;
Nought shall go ill;
The man shall have his mare again, and all shall be well.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 3, Scene 2. Oberon gives Puck a flower to reverse the enchantment on Lysander, which has caused confusion and conflict. When the four star-crossed lovers are asleep, Puck squeezes the juice from the flower into Lysander’s eyes, so that he will awaken to love his former lady Hermia. Meanwhile he leaves Demetrius permanently under the love spell so that he remains in love with Helena. Puck is intent on fixing things and reversing his mischief. He says that he is resetting things to their natural state, where each "Jack" will have his "Jill." There is a touch of gender inequality when Puck uses a bawdy animal metaphor to compare a male lover’s woman to his "mare." This suggests that she is her lover’s property.

You, ladies, you whose gentle hearts do fear
The smallest monstrous mouse that creeps on floor,
May now perchance both quake and tremble here,
When lion rough in wildest rage doth roar.
Then know that I, as Snug the joiner, am
A lion fell, nor else no lion’s dam.
For if I should as lion come in strife
Into this place, ’twere pity on my life.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 5, Scene 1. The Mechanicals’ farsical performance of the legend of Pyramus and Thisbe continues with Snug entering playing the role of Lion. He addresses the ladies in the audience, concerned that they may tremble and shake at the sight and roar of a wild lion since they fear the smallest mouse. So he reassures them that he’s not really a lion, but is Snug the carpenter. He doesn’t appear to grasp the nature of theatre and that the audience will be able to distinguish between a pretend lion and a real one. There is also irony in his comment about the ladies being so fearful, as his female audience includes Hippolyta, the Amazon warrior queen.
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