Midsummer Night's Dream
Shakespeare's comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream relates to conventional Elizabethan views of marriage in several ways. To begin, Elizabethan marriage customs were relatively strict and conservative. Women were expected to remain virgins until their wedding night (it is debatable whether this rule also applied to men), and would then become the property of their husbands. Men always exercised the control and authority, even in choosing suitors for their daughters. For example, Egeus, an Athenian nobleman and father to Hermia, has chosen Demetrius to marry Hermia, despite her wishes. According to Elizabethan custom, love is not the number one reason to marry, but it may happen if you are lucky. Rather, marriage is a joining of assets: women are wed to successful men that will be able to support them, and men in return "own" a beautiful new accessory they may do what they wish with. It is clear Hermia is not in love with Demetrius, but instead Lysander, but her father does not care and......
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