A Midsummer Night's Dream: Women In Elizabethian England I think something very interesting in this play is the way in which woman were seen in Elizabethan England during Shakespeare's day. The play gives numerous examples of the way woman are treated as second class citizens; for instance, the laws concerning marriage and the position of men in society. When Hermia states that she does not want to marry Demetrius, the man of her fathers choice, and would rather marry Lysander, she is placed in a difficult position. Her father seeks out the aid of Theseus, the Duk