In the first scene of act I, Shakespeare introduces us to the patriarchal world of the court. Here, Theseus says, "Hippolyta, I woo’d the with my sword, and won thy love doing thee injuries." (I.i.16-17) Now the OED defines "woo" as "to court" or "to move or invite by alluring means." However, from this passage, we can see that Theseus does not use "alluring means" to court Hippolyta, but instead uses a warlike approach to forcefully appropriate her love. And therefore, we see that Theseus uses the benign, amorous image of a romantic courtship to describe what is in fact,

The unmasking of this hypocrisy is accomplished through the devices of "play". In the next scene, the actors meet to discuss the play Pyramus and Thisbe. In this scene, Bottom asks, "Who is pyramus? A lover, or a tyrant?" (I.ii.22) This question clearly parallels the question about the nature of Theseus himself. Quince responds by saying that Pyramus is, "a lover, that kills himself most gallant for love." (I.ii.24) Here we see that in this play, Pyramus proves his love to Thisbe not by hurting her, but by hurting himself, thereby following the traditional narrative of romantic courtship, or "woo". Therefore we can see that Quince characterizes Pyramus as a lover and not a tyrant because he won love through sacrifice. The clear implication is that Theseus must be a tyrant, since he won love "by the sword". This unpalatable comment about the role of power in the patriarchy is made right and seemingly harmless through the mechanisms of displacement from the realistically portrayed Athenian court to the far away concerns of the mythological characters.

In Shakespeare’s A Midsummer’s Night Dream multiple forms of play are used to convey controversial truths about the patriarchal nature of Elizabethan society. Two instances in which play is formed by displacin

Some topics in this essay:
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