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As per Greek mythology, Hippolyta was once an Amazon queen and warrior who met Theseus in battle. Some myths tell that she fell in love with Theseus and willingly followed him back to Athens, while others say that he forcefully abducted her. Regardless, in the context of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hippolyta is set to marry Theseus. Their wedding day will be the deadline by which Hermia must make her decision to marry Demetrius or join a nunnery.
In the play, Hippolyta is entirely stripped of her Amazonian past. There is little of the brave Athenian warrior left in her. Rather, she seems content to take on a domestic and political role as Theseus’s wife and Duchess of Athens. As a character, she has little stage time and mainly serves as an extension of Theseus. Her only divergence from her husband is when she questions, due to the consistency of the stories told by Hermia, Demetrius, Lysander, and Helena, whether something strange and magical happened in the woods the night before. Theseus, ever practical and orderly, remains skeptical.
Some scholars and directors have theorized that Theseus, Hippolyta, and Philostrate are meant to be seen as doubles of Oberon, Titania, and Puck. One group exists in the real world while the other exists in the fairy world. Some stage iterations of A Midsummer Night’s Dream have the same actors play Theseus and Oberon, Hippolyta and Titania, and Philostrate and Puck, respectively. If we do assume that these characters are each other’s doubles, we begin to see obvious parallels between Theseus and Hippolyta’s marriage and Oberon and Titania’s marriage. Just as Theseus once tamed the warrior Hippolyta on the battlefield and turned her into his happy wife, Oberon tames the unfaithful, rebellious Titania, restoring balance and love in their marriage. It is not uncommon for Shakespeare’s comedies to end with headstrong women gladly submitting to their husbands and to their wifely duties. Although these narratives are meant to be lighthearted and romantic, they do enforce the patriarchal norms of the time, which saw the masculine as the rightful head of the domestic hierarchy.
