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Shakespeare’s play ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ is a feminist’s nightmare. It is full of men trying to dominate women and women falling under their “power”. Each group of lovers is male dominated. In addition to which the father daughter relationship is completely man trying to control women. From fairies to humans, it seems the male sex is always striving to be on top. Shakespeare is a man. It is seen in his writing that in more then just “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, Shakespeare had a very poor view of women. In most of his plays, women either take on the role of temptress, are portrayed as domineering or lower than the men in the play. The women in this play are no different. In Shakespeare’s days women weren’t allowed to be actors so the men played the women’s parts. There is no wonder why none of the women feel real. Each female character is how a man thinks a woman would act, and react to situations. As an actor, it is a challenge performing any of Shakespeare’s women. The challenge lies in trying to add feminine qualities to the women characters. If you have a strong woman character such as Hermia, finding out how she, a woman, loves Lysander is particularly hard since she is written as such a dominating character.
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