Marriage in Elizabethan Society
Women were expected to stay at home and clean the house and look after children. They were uneducated and had little rights. They were also seen as mere sex objects to please and benefit men. Women were also seen as incapable of performing on stage, most of the time men dressed up as the female roles and performed these plays. Queen Elizabeth went against this but in her speech you see the way women were represented at the time “I know that I have the body of a weak and feeble woman but I have the heart and stomach of a king and a king of England too”. This shows how women were presented as week and fragile and how Queen Elizabeth tried to break through this.
Beliefs in marriage:
Marriage was seen as important in an Elizabethan society, as it was believed, women wouldn’t be able to survive without a man to look after them, they were uneducated and had no rights. Men were seen as superior and had complete control over women and could marry whoever they wanted, women however had no choice in who they married. It wasn’t the norm in Elizabethan society to not get married, it was almost seen as deviant for a woman to not be married. This however didn’t apply to nuns, prostitutes, widows or the most important women in the country, for example, Queen Elizabeth neither cooked or cleaned and was well educated. In Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night you see the importance of marriage when Viola and Orsino marry in the resolution, this suggests a happy ending which reflect the normal values of an Elizabethan society. In most of Shakespeare’s plays women were forced to marry men, it could be argued in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, Shakespeare is showing his disagreement with forced marriages as Olivia and Orsino are supposed to marry but they both end up marrying the people they truly want to be with.
Expectations of women:
Women were expected to stay at home and clean the house and look after children. They were uneducated and had little rights. They were also seen as mere sex objects to please and benefit men. Women were also seen as incapable of performing on stage, most of the time men dressed up as the female roles and performed these plays. Queen Elizabeth went against this but in her speech you see the way women were represented at the time “I know that I have the body of a weak and feeble woman but I have the heart and stomach of a king and a king of England too”. This shows how women were presented as week and fragile and how Queen Elizabeth tried to break through this.
Match Making:
Most marriages were arranged or forced with the woman having very little say. However, Anne Shakespeare clearly chose William as her husband, as the match was not one that would have been arranged. This goes against the typical conventions of marriage in Elizabethan society and may be reflected through some of Shakespeare’s plays.
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