Shakespeare's Female Communities in "A Midsummer Night's Dream".

Shakespeare's festive comedy, A Midsummer Night's Dream, while not usually noted for the strong, adventurous heroines we see in such plays as Twelfth Night or As You Like It, includes three female communities which are dramatically altered during the course of the play. This thesis explores the four female characters of Shakespeare's Dream---Hippolyta, Hermia, Helena, and Titania---through the lens of feminist criticism, New Historicism, and a close reading of the text. Each of the four women is found to be removed from her female community of origin during the drama and consequently suffers significant personal loss. Shakespeare scholarship over several decades supports an assessment of the high cost of marriage for women in a patriarchal society. Comedy's traditional ending that culminates in marriage, as in A Midsummer Night's Dream, can thus be viewed in light of the losses females suffer prior to the "happy ending."