In William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer's Night Dream, Athens has a very strict patriarchy which helps maintain The Great Chain of Being. Despite this, Shakespeare grants the female characters’ agency throughout the play. The Great Chain of Being is a Renaissance concept wherein every being has a place assigned by God based on his or her ratio of spirit to mass. Consequently, God is at the top, then the Angels, followed by humans, animals, and lastly non-living things. Even within these divisions, there are sub-orders, most notably with men consistently occupying a higher place than women. Within the play, every time a female character challenges patriarchy, she is essentially challenging The Great Chain of Being and, indirectly, the will of God.
