Imagine you are a woman in 16th century Europe. Women were raised to believe that they were submissive and that men knew better on every subject. Basically women had no rights. They were considered property, first “owned” by their fathers and then control was “transferred” to the husband chosen for them. Marriage was not about love, but in most cases it was a mutually beneficial business arrangement for both families. An interesting fact is that, like young women, most young men had no choice in choosing their future fiancée. These traditions and the gender roles assumed by men and women at that time had an impact on Shakespeare's writing and performances and a great example of this is evident in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Similar to other Shakespeare works, such as The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night's Dream embellishes the pressures that arise between the sexes dealing with complicated family and romantic situations. The plot includes a duke who is about to marry a woman he conquered in battle, the fairy king and queen caught in a fight so fierce it unbalances the natural world, and a daughter who fights with her father for her right to marry the man who chooses. The girl's father chooses Demetrius to marry his daughter, but she is in love with another man, Lysander, who loves her in turn, and her friend Elena is in love with Demetrius, but he wants nothing to do with her . Considering the fact that males were dominant in that era, while men pursued women and women remained submissive, Shakespeare indulges in those traditional roles and there are several possible reasons why. Perhaps he made women a stronger force in his plays because he wanted to give his audiences a break from the newspaper medium of Shakespeare's plays and poetry. Anne Marie Hacht. 2nd ed. vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 2007.578-613. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Network. 24 November 2013. Impersonations: the performance of gender in Shakespeare's England. Stephen Orgel.Cambridge [England: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Print Darkened by Dreams: Race, Empire, and Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.Margo Hendricks. Shakespeare Quarterly, Vol. 47, No. 1 (Spring, 1996), pp. 37-60Folger Shakespeare Library in association with George Washington University.Web. 24 Nov 2013University of Southern Queensland, USQ Home. School Resources, Midsummer Dream, Discussion of Key Issues. 2011. www.usq.edu.au/artsworx/school-resources/midsummer-nights-dream. Network. November 24 2013