Gender Roles In Euripides A Midsummer Night's Dream

“O women, of all creatures that live and reflect, certainly it is we who are the most luckless” (Euripides, 230). With this speech Medea reflects on the women roles that were set up in ancient Greece. The word “luckless” meaning out of luck, cursed, jinxed, doomed, and ill-fated really shows that the gender system put in place did not have success and enjoyment for the women in mind. This social system closely parallels the one that was established during the Elizabethan Era or the time period in which William Shakespeare wrote A Midsummer Night’s Dream which also takes place in ancient Greece in Athens. In both Euripides’s play Medea and Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream the difficulties presented for women by the societies at the time cause the women to
In A Midsummer Night’s Dream gender roles are challenged through Helena’s desperation and Hermia’s rebelliousness as they act against Greek and Elizabethan expectations for women. First, there is Helena who is in abiding love with Demetrius, but he loves Hermia instead. Helena states the custom explaining, “We cannot fight for love,
With Medea and A Midsummer Night’s Dream both Shakespeare and Euripides make a statement about the conditions women suffered through in ancient Greece and the Elizabethan Era and with the inclusion of happy endings for the women in both of their stories they seem to be trying to say it is time for a break from the norm. They both saw the plight the women endured and through these three strong, independent women characters they each provide role models for other women to follow as they try to break out of the submissive, patriarchal