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Analysis Of Elizabeth I 's Speech

Decent Essays

The subject of gender appears as one of the main topics these three samples of Elizabeth I’s speeches. While she commonly mentions gender to sound humble and motherly, she also combines her gender with her knowledge to drive her points when explaining or avoiding topics, influencing the people’s opinion, and rallying the people. Some of these ideas have been captured in her portraits. Elizabeth uses her gender and knowledge to make herself appear as a humble queen who knows she does not deserve the crown while still using this information to her advantage. Right at the beginning of her Speech to the Commons, Elizabeth explains that, “The weight and greatness of this matter might cause in me, being a woman wanting both wit and memory, some fear to speak and bashfulness besides, a thing appropriate to my sex. But yet the princely seat and kingly throne wherein God (though unworthy) hath constituted me…” She uses this tactic to explain why she cannot answer Parliament’s concern about her single state. She also mentions “a philosopher whose deeds upon this occasion I remember better than his name…” By using this philosopher’s deeds and her gender, Elizabeth creates a solid argument. While it is possible that she did forget the philosopher’s name, pretending to have forgotten his name would have also strengthened her argument of using her gender to stay her answer. She also shows humility in The “Golden Speech” when she speaks about the Lower House discovering the harm

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