Culture and Society in Elizabethan England

Culture and Society in Elizabethan England Over the years, society has created and recreated different ideas of what is considered socially acceptable and what customs to follow on a daily basis. These ideas are constantly changing and renewing themselves, making even last year’s behavioral habits seem crude. For instance, life in Elizabethan England contrasted with how life is now because people acted differently, dressed differently, spoke differently, and in a general, broader sense, they lived differently. Because people grow and change and learn from their previous mistakes, Elizabethan customs are practically obsolete due to their lack of effectiveness or rather the lack of need for them to continue. Although it may be difficult to distinguish between the wealthy and the financially unstable in current times due to equal privileges, in Elizabethan times, the two halves lived very differently. In Elizabethan standards, there were three different kinds of poor: the underprivileged kind, which was reserved for orphans and things of that like, the handicapped poor, and the extravagant spenders who had long ago depleted their savings. The un-resourceful poor were not offered any help or pitied by others. A large majority of the poor people resided in the countryside and provided for themselves and their families through coal mining, brick making, fishing, or raising crops and livestock (Evans 1-10). Wealthy people rarely had jobs or if they did, they worked at the court or another clean, sedentary job. The wealthy earned their riches from hardworking ancestors or being close to royalty so they did not have to continue to labor away to pave the road for new generations (www.elizabethan-era.org.uk). Homes were not only designed for defense, but their composition also reflected the wealth of the owners. The poor and middle class built their homes out of a sturdy wooden frame, stuffed with wickerwork and plaster topped with a thatched roof with a hole for smoke