Besides, all three of these female characters from the aforesaid plays are all quite developed and are in many ways some of the most complex characters presented in their respective plays.Although Shakespeare permits some of the female characters to exist fully outside of conventional norms, others are put back into their place.
In A Midsummer Night's Dream, the reader recognizes right away that Hermia is not ordinary woman. Her father, Egeus, has dragged Hermia off to Theseus's court in a desperate attempt to compel his daughter to comply with his wish that she marry Demetrius, rather than her beloved, Lysander. Egeus doesn't choose the court on a whim; rather, he is hopeful that by taking Hermia to the literal and symbolic seat of the highest authority of the land, she will recognize and honor masculine authority and, by extension, will comply with traditional gender roles, which dictated that a woman should marry to either preserve or advance social ties and familial goals, not to gratify her own romantic or sexual needs or desires. Egeus is so insistent about the importance of maintaining the dominant gender paradigm that he entreats Theseus to use the full weight and penalty of the law to punish his daughter if she does not obey, even if the punishment means death. Theseus, clearly invested in maintaining the prevailing social order because it advances his own interests.In other words, gender roles and expectations are being stated to this strong female character in no uncertain terms.
What is remarkable about Hermia's response to both her father and to Theseus is that it is impassioned but logical, convincing but calm. She protests, but is neither aggressive nor apologetic in doing so. In fact, Hermia deploys a clever and intelligent argumentative strategy to respond to the men and to maintain her own position and the right to direct her own destiny rather than have it chosen for her and uses the fine art of rhetoric to defend her ideas as opposed to simply her gender or sexuality.
