Elizabethan family life

Family life during the Elizabethan period was largely determined by what class the family was in. As in how rich the family was. But the main exception to this was religion. It didn't matter whether the family was wealthy, poor, young or old, each family was expected to attend a protestant church service every Sunday. Each family member also wore different clothes.

A wealthy family led a completely different life to one of a poor family and men led very different lives to women. The men had quite a lot of control over the lives of the women in the family during the Elizabethan times. The women were expected to always be ready to do whatever the men told them to do and were supposed to obey the men in all aspects of their life. In their religion, disobedience was seen as a crime or wrongdoing.

The whole purpose for women to get married was to increase the position and wealth of her own family and then to produce children. Love was not really considered as a reason to get married back then but may come in the marriage. Male children were preferred back in those times. There were no careers available to women and the girls did not receive an education either, so most of the females weren’t able to read or write. It was the women’s job to keep the house tidy and in good shape. It was also the responsibility of the women to keep their family healthy by producing medicines from their available herbs.

The Elizabethan men led a life of power, completely opposite to the women and much more favourable. The men made all the decisions and the women were expected to obey them. The men supported the family by going to work and they had a wide variety of occupations.

The men were expected to improve the positions of family members too by working with wealthier people and families than their own and patronising with them. Boys had an education and went to school for 6 days a week. This meant they were literate, unlike the girls. When tobacco was introduced, smoking