09 Oct How does A Midsummer Nights Dream engage questions of queer desire and gender identity/roles? You may want to consider Helena and Hermias relationship, Hippolyta role, Titanias various rela
How does A Midsummer Night’s Dream engage questions of queer desire and gender identity/roles? You may want to consider Helena and Hermia’s relationship, Hippolyta role, Titania’s various relationships, etc. You might also want to take up the play’s insistence on marriage.
Kelsey Henderson
Professor Lynn Maxwell
Intro to Shakespeare
8 October 2022
How does A Midsummer Night’s Dream engage questions of queer desire and gender identity/roles? You may want to consider Helena and Hermia’s relationship, Hippolyta role, Titania’s various relationships, etc. You might also want to take up the play’s insistence on marriage.
Parameters: Write a 5-7 page MLA-formatted paper with a works cited. Your paper should present your own argument about a text (or texts) that we have studied together. The following prompts are designed to help you craft a thesis. If you have a topic that you would like to write about that you do not see offered, you are welcome to do so. However, I highly recommend that you consult with me via email (or office hours) to make sure that you write a paper an appropriate paper.
Thesis: Shakespeare’s interpretation of Helena and Hermia’s relationship manipulates and exudes a patriarchal view of female relationships.
Evidence:
Using his male view, he creates an illusion of what female relationships look like through the male gaze
Examples: Homoeroticism, Female Cattiness, and Male Subservience.
· Helena versus Hermia
· Helena choosing to make Hermia her enemy instead of Demetrius.
· The common trope of women versus women rather than the blame on the male hedonist.
· When the tables turned, and the boys loved Helena
· It became woman versus woman again. They hated each other.
· Called each other’s puppets
· Called each other jugglers, mistress
· While Helena and Hermia seem to have a homosocial relationship that exist outside the patriarchy, throughout the play their actions combat this idea.
· Women in Midsummer night dream exist as objects of the patriarchy even Helena and Hermia who at first glance seem to have a homosocial relationship that exist on the outside.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is.
