In Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream and As You Like It, female homoeroticism emerges as a game of passive-aggressive opposition. Women take the sphere of romantic love – a sphere they have access to in the midst of an oppressive patriarchal order – and reformulate it to exclude men, ironically, in the midst of. their homosexual relationships, women assume particular roles which create a pseudo-patriarchy which is reminiscent of the order from which they sought to escape. Rather than separating themselves from the patriarchal order, women tend to seek the. security of a familiar power structure, which they discover by creating it themselves Say no to plagiarism Get a tailor-made essay on "Why violent video games should not be banned" In A Midsummer Night's Dream, Hermia particularly objects to the patriarchal order in which her father and other male authority figures dictate the terms of her marriage. She protests before Duke Theseus, saying: "I do not know by what power I am emboldened, nor how my modesty can be concerned by such a presence here to plead my thoughts, but I implore your grace that I may know the worst that could happen. me in this case, if I refuse to marry Demetrius. (MND, 1.1.59-64)By defending her right to “plead [her] thoughts” before an assembly of men, she imposes her rhetorical argument on a sphere dominated by men; she transgresses the boundaries that society imposes on her as a woman. As she compromises her modesty and femininity, stands in the presence of the Duke and negotiates her own marriage before the patriarchal authorities, she reflects the very rebellious nature that would allow her to overthrow the heterosexual order through the implementation of female homoeroticism. Erotic Images of Hermia and Helena's relationship occurs in Helena's memories of their past interactions. She addresses Hermia saying: "We, Hermia, like two artificial gods, have created with our needles a single flower, both on a sample, sitting on a cushion, both warbling the same song, both in a single tone, as if our hands, our sides, our voices, and mindshad been incorporated. So we grew together, Like a double cherry: seeming separate, But yet a union in separation, Two beautiful berries molded on a stem. (MND, 3.2.204-212)References to flower and berries introduce ideas of life and regeneration emerging from their close interaction. Everything from their physical bodies to their voices and minds merge, as if to compensate for the one sexual fusion that cannot occur between two women. Since homosexual intercourse will never provide the reproductive power of sexual intercourse between a man and a woman, prolific imagery compensates for the sterility resulting from homoerotic intercourse. The “double cherry: seeming separate, yet a partitioned union” and the “two berries molded on one stem” create several erotic possibilities. The divided but united nature of the fruits, as well as the color, could refer to their lips or, more erotically, their genitals, reinforcing the sexually charged nature of Hermia and Helena's relationship. Jessica Tvordi cites this passage to acknowledge the homoerotic undertones at work, stating that their relationships "are described with language charged with emotion and eroticism." Tvordi also refers to the use of the words "head" and "nest" as slang for female genitalia. Given this knowledge, Hermia and Helena's association with birds ("chirping a song") sexualizes their interactions by centering them aroundfemale genitalia. The eroticized descriptions of Hermia and Helena's relationship refer to the past, before the women entered the forest. . However, upon entering the forest, the lack of patriarchal authority causes their homoerotic relationship to develop into a pseudo-patriarchy. Same-sex relationships that depended on the mutual oppression of men collapsed in the absence of social order. The equality between Hermia and Helena is transformed into a hierarchy in which Hermia assumes the role of the pseudo-man and Helena that of the wronged woman. Hermia's attempted subversion results in a new structure of relationships resembling the heterosexual order. Her audacity which reinforced her rebellion is reflected in her acceptance of the masculine role in the pseudo-patriarchy that she and Helena form. As Demetrius and Lysander's affections turn suspiciously toward Helena, she accuses Hermia of conspiring with the two men. She said: “And will you tear apart our old love, to join with men in despising your poor friend? injury. (MND, 3.2.116-220) Helena's accusations confirm the role Hermia plays in their relationship; in Helena's eyes (and thus in their pseudo-patriarchy), Hermia joins a "confederacy" of men to objectify and degrade women. She alienates Hermia from the entire female race, claiming that their “sex…may rebuke [her]” for her union with men. Along with her statement that Hermia's contempt for Helena is "not virginal," she also asks, "Have you no modesty, no maiden modesty...?" (MND, 3.2.286). These questions appeal to the trait that Hermia willingly gave up to negotiate her marriage in the presence of the Duke, implying that Hermia has finally stripped herself of her femininity. Hermia cannot claim to display "modesty" or "modesty" because she admitted her audacity in the first act (1.1.59) and declared that she would resist and argue against her marriage to Demetrius no matter "how This could concern her.” modesty" (1.1.60). With patriarchal tendencies loaded into Hermia and Helena's supposed homoerotic relationships, the women have no choice but to turn to the patriarchal order and their respective heterosexual couplings. The text of the play ensures the restoration with an almost ominous finality and silencing of the women Hermia's final words throughout the play are in response to Demetrius' question of whether the Duke had just asked them to follow him. Hermia responds by saying, “Yes, and my father” (4.1.192) In this single line she gives a respectful and affirmative response to a man, she reestablishes herself as her father's daughter, and she submits to him. he authority of the Duke and her father, the same two men whose authority she challenged in the opening scene of the play Her silence must be more extreme than Helena's because she posed a greater threat. for the patriarchal order The homoeroticism depicted between Titania and her vousss shows a similar movement toward pseudo-patriarchy, with Titania as the dominant male and her vousss as the female. The depiction of their relationship does not involve male degradation and oppression, as in Hermia and Helena, but rather patriarchal issues of offspring. To begin the discussion of offspring in relation to female homoeroticism, we must return to the threats made by Theseus to Hermia at the beginning of the play. When Hermia resists the order to marry Demetrius, Theseus warns her against the prospects of life as a nun, painting a picture of women confined to cramped spaces, sexually frustrated, and bored with their religious duties. It depicts her living “in a shady, meowing cloister... a sterile sister all [her]life” (1.1.71-2). Its depiction of a sterile and chaste convent ironically raises questions about the types of homoerotic activities that might take place in a modern English convent. (Hardly an implausible notion, the subject of lesbianism among nuns actually justifies an entire book, written by Judith C. Brown, entitled Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy (Erickson).) Theseus's threat to " wither away "a virgin thorn" would lose its basis if homoerotic activity took place within the confines of a convent. Hermia could technically remain a virgin while engaging in creative erotic activities with other women; she could live “a barren sister” while keeping her sexual appetite fully satisfied. In fact, the notion of homoeroticism among nuns renders Theseus's mention of sterility irrelevant, since it moves sexual activity outside the realm of human reproduction. Women who have chosen to consume exclusively with people of the same sex have already accepted the reality of sterility. This choice made by women calls into question what Valérie Traub proposes as the issue of female homoeroticism: that of “maintaining the marital alliance, with social and biological reproduction at its center”. (Traub, Ren, 258) Returning to Titania, the examination of the conflict between her and Oberon regarding the changeling boy illustrates a tension rooted in the instability of normative "social and biological reproduction." Titania's claims to the child, as well as her sexually charged description of her relationship with the vousss, throw the men in a precarious position. She describes their time together saying: And in the spicy air of India at night She often chatted at night And sat with me on the yellow sand of Neptune Marking the traders embarking on the flood When we laughed to see the sails conceive And grow the belly with the free wind That she had pretty and with a swimming gaitNext, her belly then rich of my young squire, Would imitate... (2.1.124-132)The image of their session together chatting resonates with Hermia's description of her time with Helena, when they "on beds of pale primroses used to live / emptying [their] breasts of their sweet counsels" (1.1. 215-16). Immediately afterward, the description of their time together and the photo of your Voss's swollen belly imply (although entirely fantastically) that his dealings with Titania have somehow permeated your Voss. Especially since Titania makes no mention of your son's sexual relations with men, but describes their relationships in detail, one cannot help but identify Titania as the boy's other parent. The idea of ​​two women sharing the parentage of a child threatens the social institution. of family, which in turn throws the concepts of heredity and lineage out the window. Titania erases the biological basis for men's role in reproduction by describing the womb of her voss as "rich with [her] young squire" (2.1.131). When she calls the child in your womb “my young squire,” she leaves no room for a male’s biological contribution to the child’s creation. His claims over the child “render [Oberon] temporarily superfluous” (Traub, Lesbian Desire, 159). Oberon must challenge Titania's maneuver, which removes the male from the sight of social and biological reproduction, by gaining access to the boy, assuming a paternal role for himself, and grafting the boy into the patriarchal social order. Through his "adoption" of the changeling boy, Oberon would restore the patriarchal family structure that Titania had disrupted through her homoerotic relationships with her vousss and her attempt to single-handedly raise the boy. Oberon states..