Battle of the Roses: The Shifting Treatment of Women in A Midsummer Night's Dream: Act I

From the beginning of Act I, there is a clear difference between the way women an men are seen and treated.  However, this role changes by the end of the act.  A Midsummer Night's Dream begins with an ultimatum for Hermia: if she does not get married to Demetrius, she will either be killed, or be forced to spend the rest of her life living alone as a nun.  This ultimatum shows the lack of power women have in the society and time in which this play takes place.  If a woman is single, it is thought that she will not live a life of happiness: "...earthlier happy is the rose distill'd / than that which, withering on the virgin thorn / grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness." (I.i, 76-78) The word "distill'd" was interesting to me, because according to the notes at the bottom of my edition (The New Kettridge Shakespeare edition), it is a word referring to the process of making perfume out of roses. (pg 6)  In other words, it is a way to bottle and use a rose's beauty.  So, either the rose will live forever in its youth and not be wasted if she marries a man, or it will wither on a "virgin thorn" if she refuses to marry and, as a result, live her life as a nun.  Though she is given a choice, marrying Demetrius is the will of Hermia's father.  A father, in this play, is described as being, "one that compos'd your beauties; yea, and one / to whom you are but as a form in wax, / by him imprinted, and within his power / to leave the figure, or disfigure it" (I.i, 48-51).  These lines describe the absolute power a father is supposed to have over his daughter.  When Lysander, Demetrius's competition for Hermia's love, approaches Hermia's father, Egeus, about obtaining Hermia's love, Egeus replies by saying, "...she is mine, and all my right of her / I do estate unto Demetrius." (I. i, 97-98).  She is referred to as being "his" and he has "rights" over her, like she is one of his possessions.  Even though Egeus is supposed to have the absolute power over Hermia, this power is in fact not transferred over to Demetrius.  Hermia hates him, but he loves her in return.  Demetrius's one-sided love of Hermia puts her in the position of power, a complete shift from the beginning of the play, and she defies the will of her father and Demetrius by choosing to run off with Lysander.