Elizabethan Gender Roles

In life, people are changing constantly. Sometimes it is for good and sometimes it is for bad. The same goes for Romeo in the play entitled Romeo and Juliet written by William Shakespeare. Romeo makes many changes throughout the play, but none bigger than his love. He starts off loving Rosaline, but soon finds more love with Juliet. Because of his change in lovers, his emotions become entirely different from the beginning of the play. He starts off as depressed and melancholy, and then suddenly finds joy and happiness in life. Romeo gains maturity as the play continues. Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare. The plot is focused on a feud involving two royal families set in the late 1500’s. Romeo and Juliet are from the two different families and are stuck in the crossfire. Because of this feud, Romeo must adapt and make many changes throughout the play. Romeo makes many changes throughout the play that have good and bad consequences.

William Shakespeare’s tragedy “Macbeth” completely challenges the idea of traditional gender roles and social norms during the renaissance period. The male characters have many feminine traits while the female characters have many more masculine and manlier traits. This was going entirely against the stereotypical outlook of the roles you’re supposed to play as your gender during that time of history. During the renaissance period women were only expected to clean, cook, and to have babies. Men on the other hand were typically expected to work hard and to provide for the home. Socially women didn’t have power or respect and men were the ones who were supposed to be brave and tough at the best of times and the worst of times. That idea is

Throughout Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare, there is an overlaying presence of the typical roles that men and women were supposed to play. During Elizabethan times there was a major difference between the way men and women were supposed to act. Men typically were supposed to be masculine and powerful, and defend the honor. Women, on the other hand, were supposed to be subservient to their men in their lives and do as ever they wished. In Romeo and Juliet the typical gender roles that men and women were supposed to play had an influence on the fate of their lives.

In the Elizabethan period, women were subordinate to men. They were considered to be ‘inferior' beings who were controlled by their husbands, fathers or any other men in the family. Women were not allowed to hold their own opinions, views or lifestyles. Men had control of everything, some of these included money, politics, work, children, women and home.

Romeo and Juliet is a story of how two teenagers that are not even allowed to talk to each other because there families are sworn enemies. Romeo and Juliet are different though because they fell in love and by doing that went against all their family believes because they knew they were right for each other and were going to be with each other no matter how they had to do this. They had a great plan but both of there were sadly cut short because they had a plan with a person and he had messed up the plan so because of that they both were lead to a sad death. This person thinks they're so great and that they're so amazing when they really do awful things and says he's helping them when he isn't doing much to help them.

In the Elizabethan era, there was a standard women and men had to follow. The Elizabethan society was patriarchal, meaning men were considered leaders, and the women were inferior to men. The men in Elizabethan life was to be of power, authority, and head of the their families, and above all to be obeyed. In this time wealthy men were to become courtiers, diplomen, clergymen, and lawyers. The men made the decisions and whatever decision they make women have to obey them. They were also responsible for taking care of the family while working different jobs..And they were expected to improve the positions of all members of the family through influence and patronage from wealthier people and families than their own. As for the women in this time frame they were raised to believe that they were inferior to men. Their roles in Elizabethan society was very limited, and their job was to be housewives and mothers. Women at the time were to be watched for and if she was married it would be her husband but if she was single then her father or brother. Gender conventions in Elizabethan Era is key to understand my argument about how women in Shakespeare’s plays break their gender conventions. I will be using parts from Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, and Twelfth Night, to show how women in this time period broke gender conventions.

Gender expectations limited personal choice to a great extent during the Elizabethan Era. The Elizabethan Era was the period in which Elizabeth I ruled England from 1558-1603. There was a strong view on women should be the property of men and must obey them. William Shakespeare influenced this time period massively and incorporated the different gender roles and expectations into his plays. Personal is defined as something concerning one's private life, relationships, and emotions rather than one's career or public life. Choice is defined as an act of choosing between two or more possibilities. Therefore personal choice can be seen as how someone chooses to life their personal life; whether that be the relationships formed or

In Elizabethan times, gender roles were dominant in society. Women were regarded as the weaker sex and were taught from birth to cook, clean, and do similar tasks so they could marry and their husbands would be proud (Ram, Pham, Sok, Hamsafar, and Wilhemsen, “Gender Roles in Elizabethan Society.”). Women were expected to bear children and take great pride in being mothers (Ram, Pham, Sok, Hamsafar, and Wilhemsen, “Gender Roles in Elizabethan Society.”). They had few rights; they could not vote, choose a profession, receive an actual education, join the army or navy, or generally provide for themselves (Ram, Pham, Sok, Hamsafar, and Wilhemsen, “Gender Roles in Elizabethan Society.”). Men, on the other hand, were to provide for the women in their families, make all decisions, and have ownership of the family’s land and home (Ram, Pham, Sok, Hamsafar, and Wilhemsen, “Gender Roles in Elizabethan Society.”; Petit, “A Look at Male Gender Roles in Shakespeare’s Renaissance.").. The men could vote and all actors on stage were men. In general, men had every advantage in that time period (Ram, Pham, Sok, Hamsafar, and Wilhemsen, “Gender Roles in Elizabethan Society.”; Petit, “A Look at Male Gender Roles in Shakespeare’s Renaissance.").

During the Elizabethan Era, gender role was a big thing. Every man knew his role and his class and every woman knew her role. When Shakespeare was writing, the gender expectation was that a woman should serve and obey to her husband. If a man told a woman to do something, then it was her job to fully submit to him. When women do not obey their husband, they get punished.

Romeo and Juliet is a drama about a boy and a girl different families who fall in love with each other. Shakespeare uses the power of his love to show how strong their love is for each other. In scene 5, act 3 Juliet wakes up to find her beloved Romeo dead next to her. She takes his dagger and turns it on herself. She loved him so much that when she saw his dead body laying their she killed herself so that she could still be with him. When Romeo sees Juliet for the first time he knows that she is the woman for him. After the party he is behind a bush under her window and she comes out on

Title goes here Gender roles in modern day society are not the same as gender roles in the Elizabethan Era. During the Elizabethan Era, only men were allowed to hold swords. Females, on the other hand, were not allowed to take up arms: instead, they spent their lives caring for children and accepting the life of a housewife. William Shakespeare alternates the gender roles between Macbeth and his wife Lady Macbeth continuously throughout the play. It was illegitimate for a women to see blood or a dead being.

Why were women in the Elizabethan era treated so much different in the Elizabethan era? A very broad question, with many answers to it and many reasons too. As a student in 2017, I was shocked to hear how many women were treated many years ago. The things all women had to put up with in the Elizabethan era is dehumanizing to say the least. The role of women was to listen to men and let the men rule over them, but this was because they knew no better.

With England coming out of the Middle Ages, the early Modern Age was presented as a revival for the country. With a woman now on the throne the ability to play on the idea of gender was a necessity, and it created an influence on society as a whole. Like many aspects of the period, the presentation of gender and sexuality began to change with the rest of England’s Early Modern era. Conversely, gender play, and even cross-dressing, in this time period was presented as an alternative was looked upon as a disruption society and must be contained. Therefore, the structure for gender roles was concrete and strict, for its intention was used to keep the social order to remain in balanced and keep the general public to function as they should have.

Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet was set in a time that gender was very important to society, which ultimately leads to the tragic demise of Romeo and Juliet. While the audience is shown that the society's expectations of gender create a strong community, it is undeniable the tragedy is partly due society giving women no influence over their own fates and being seen as objects, who are hidden from the world therefore naive to society. However we cannot ignore the expectations of being brave and proud placed on the male gender that end in the demise of the lovers. The fact that women of the time are powerless and unable to contribute to the decisions made about their lives leads to the tragedy.

Imagine living 400 hundred years ago and you were thought less of a man. Man that would be hard for us 20th century girls! During the time of Shakespeare women were be seen as the weaker sex. They had little control over there destinations and always depended on males. Men on the other hand were seen as tough beings and expected to take care of everything. Shakespeare's prove these gender roles wrong throughout his writings. One of his writings is Macbeth. All through this play women were looked as fragile and insulted each other not being manly enough. Over all Shakespeare saw women as extremely powerful beings even if society neglected them. He act knowledge them throughout his work and proved they were not always scapegoats or the tools