In his comedies, Shakespeare critically examines the nature of female and male friendships in relation to sexual desire. More specifically, Shakespeare contrasts the strong and loyal bonds of female sisterhood with the chaotic and contentious nature of male rivalries. Without men, the women in Shakespeare's comedies are entirely capable of maintaining fulfilling relationships, nourished by the loyalty and intimacy of sisterly love. Left to their own devices, men enter into competition with one another, almost as if fighting and dissent were the default states of male interaction. These profound differences between male and female relationships are manifested in the characters of A Midsummer Night's Dream. While men are linked only by mutual jealousy, women are linked by bonds of kinship. While men are fickle in their affection, women remain true to their feelings. In the play, heterosexual desire is seen as disruptive, even damaging, to the innate innocence and virtue of childhood friendships. Furthermore, the conflict that arises from this desire is seen as a product of patriarchal law, a system that Shakespeare also criticizes. In making these palpable distinctions, juxtaposing love and devotion to the tumult and fickleness of patriarchy, A Midsummer Night's Dream posits sisterhood as a superior alternative to heterosexual relationships. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get the original essay A Midsummer Night's Dream follows four young Greeks, Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius and Helena, as they flee a strict Athenian society for the sexual freedom of the forest (Shakespeare's “Green World”). In the context of the play, Athenian patriarchal law, like the law that dictated the political climate of Elizabethan England, is based on the principle of male supremacy. This belief holds that women are "naturally inferior to men and must therefore accept male domination." Additionally, marriages in Athens required the consent of a parent, echoing the moral ideas espoused by the Puritans in Shakespeare's time. Unmarried daughters are therefore considered their father's property. This is the case of Hermia and her father, Aegeus. Thus privileged, Aegeus has the right to choose whom Hermia will marry; he chose Demetrius. However, Hermia has found her own love with Lysander and refuses to marry another man. According to the stipulations of the law, she risks death or "the vow of celibate life" (Ii121) if she does not obey her father's orders. Faced with the decision of whether to accept married life with Demetrius or suffer the consequences of his objection, Hermia decides to escape with Lysander to her aunt. Here, outside the city's jurisdiction, they can be free to marry. Dowager, Lysander's aunt is known as a sole woman, one of the only women in this patriarchal order who can keep her possessions. Thus, the flight of Hermia and Lysander is an inversion of the patriarchal model embodied by Aegeus, as they replace a harsh Athenian government with the laws of nature and free love. This backdrop not only provides a critique of Egeus's point of view, but also establishes a framework within which the stark disparity between male and female friendships can be fully discerned. At the beginning of the play, Shakespeare establishes the bonds of sisterhood shared between Hermia and Helena. We learn that they are childhood friends who often ran away to the woods, where “on beds of pale primroses [they] used to lie down” (Ii215). However, it is clearthat the girls' current sexual attraction to Lysander and Demetrius threatens the stability of their own relationship. Because she agreed to flee with Lysander to this same place in the woods, Hermia sacrifices an emblem of her friendship with Helena to her heterosexual desire for Lysander. He thus supplants Helena's place in Hermia's life. “Farewell, sweet playmate” (II220), says Hermia, assimilating her flight from Athens to a rupture of this infantile union. Here, the play illustrates how heterosexual relationships can only be formed once the bonds of sisterhood are dissolved. We will see the girls' behavior in the forest solidify this chasm, as the damage their friendship has suffered under the influence of sexual desire becomes more evident. This brotherly love contrasts sharply with the fierce rivalry maintained by the young men in the play. From the beginning of the drama, we observe the conflictual relationship between Demetrius and Lysander. Because his marriage to Hermia was sanctioned by the approval of Aegeus, Demetrius feels entitled to Hermia as one would feel entitled to property. He demands: “Soften yourself, sweet Hermia, and Lysander, yield / Your crazy title to my certain rights” (Ii91-92). While Lysander expresses at least a concept of "love" in relation to Hermia, believing that this sufficiently legitimizes their marriage, Demetrius never makes such a mention. He invokes purely legal language. For example, in asking Lysander to “yield his foolish title,” Demetrius confuses what Lysander's love is with a false and unsubstantiated claim about Hermia. Obviously, Demetrius can only understand it in these terms. Therefore, it seems that Demetrius wants Hermia not because he cares about her or even regards her in an emotional, organic way. He simply enters into competition with Lysandre, wishing to gain the upper hand in their rivalry. However, it is crucial to note that even Lysander speaks of Hermia as property. To Aegeus's insistence that he has unequivocally granted his legal right of Hermia to Demetrius, Lysander responds: I am, my lord, as well bred as he, as well possessed; my love is more than his; My fortune is in every way as equitable (if not advantageously) as that of Demetrius. And (which is more than all these boasts can be) I am loved by the beautiful Hermia. Why shouldn't I assert my right then? (Ii99-105) Lysander does not contest Aegeus' rights to his daughter. In fact, he accepts the patriarchal model and recognizes Hermia as his father's property. By sympathizing with Egeus, Lysander questions the integrity of his supposed love for Hermia. Because it structures both the language and the conceptions that define the “heterosexual relationship,” patriarchal law itself is seen as promoting male rivalries. Even with the transformative power of the forest and Oberon's love potion, this bitterness and masculine dissent does not waver. Waking up under the potion's "love in idleness" spell, Lysander first looks at Helena. Instantly, he transfers to her the love (perhaps not so true) that he has expressed for Hermia throughout the play. However, he immediately follows (and, in a sense, underlines) this revelation by exclaiming: "Where is Demetrius?" Oh, how fitting a word / Will this ignoble name perish on my sword! » (II.ii.106-107) Her capacity to love is weakened by the ease with which she moves, her susceptibility to change. On the other hand, Lysander's fraternity of hatred, the contempt he feels for Demetrius, cannot be penetrated by external forces. Lysander's complete abandonment of Hermia as the object of his affection reflects another issue at the heart of Shakespeare's inquiry: the problem of inconstancy.