The Power of the Virgin in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Early modern England had contradictory views about female virginity. While premarital virginity was almost fetishized as insurance of legitimate bloodlines, virginity as a life choice was disapproved of as an anomaly by Protestant moralists. However, the country was ruled for forty-six years by a woman whose vowed celibacy was celebrated in cultural representations. I claim that these contradictions stem from early modern patriarchy's unconscious that saw virginity as a source of power. A virgin, who had not been penetrated by a man, was not seen exactly as a woman in direct contrast to the male first principle. Virginity denoted a genderless space where a woman could assume male attributes such as autonomy, articulateness, military valor, and political potency. A Midsummer Night's Dream reflects these discrepancies through its four virgins. It offers lifelong celibacy as a punishment for Hermia's filial disobedience, yet idolizes the imperial votaress in Oberon's tale. The play also enlists various tropes that manifest virginal power. Hermia and Helena display courage and outspokenness. Hippolyta, the virgin warrior queen, is a physical threat to men. Finally, the exaltation of the fair vestal (aka Elizabeth I) is linked to the English patriarchy's need to unsex their monarch, who being a woman was unfit to rule. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]