Elizabethan Drama: Stagecraft and Society Introduction Elizabethan drama refers to the plays produced while Queen Elizabeth reigned in England‚ from 1558 until 1603. It was during this time that the public began attending plays in large numbers. The opening of several good-sized playhouses was responsible for this increased patronage‚ the largest and most famous of which was the Globe theatre (1599)‚ home to many of Shakespeare’s works. The most popular types of Elizabethan plays were histories of
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displaying their biased‚ opinioned portrayals in a production. “Feminist critics have considered the implications of this complex sexual impersonation‚ arguing that representation of females by males reinforced stereotypes of women found in many Elizabethan plays‚” (Wilson and Goldfarb‚ p. 183) For starters‚ women were portrayed in plays as weak‚ vulnerable‚ and even as whores in many production. In some productions women were called dim-witted and played off as prostitutes. It did not help much either
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Alexander Lucero AP English 12 Yu 5.17.12 Homosexuality Portrayed in Literature: Threat To Yourself and Those Around You The Victorian era and Elizabethan era had many homophobic attributes‚ just as today’s society does. Gothic writers of the Victorian Age played off of the fear and immorality of homosexuality and used those feelings as a basis for their novels. Bram Stoker told a story about a vampire that challenged the Victorian gender roles and managed to reverse them‚ making men faint like
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The Elizabethan Age Thomas Wolfe‚ an American novelist‚ once said‚ “Culture is the arts elevated to a set of beliefs” (“Thomas Wolfe Quotes”). What defines a culture? According to Dictionary.com‚ a culture is a stage of civilization‚ with its own quality in arts‚ manners‚ and pursuits. Like many other societies and civilizations‚ different factors affected and shaped England’s culture. At the time‚ the reign of Queen Elizabeth saw England as a prominent‚ leading nation due to its trade and commerce
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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
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Elizabethan weddings were a business arrangement‚ based mainly on strengthening social position. Many of the wedding customs used now originated during the Elizabethan period. In Elizabethan times a woman‚ if at all‚ had very little say in whom she was married to. Often the bride and groom would not meet until their wedding day. Elizabethan weddings were almost opposite compared to now. Elizabethan weddings were mainly used to strengthen social position. They were generally a business and brides
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characters they are connected with. “According to the Elizabethan times that the play was written in and the general hierarchies within Venetian society men hold all the power and women are considered to be of low intellect” (Berggren 55). Yet it is the women that speak the in the scenes throughout the play. Othello by William Shakespeare is a story in which the women characters are treated in the unfair way that women of the time of the Elizabethan times were treated. As seen in the play‚ women of this
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The Jacobean era refers to the period in English and Scottish history that coincides with the reign of King James VI (1567–1625) of Scotland‚ who also inherited the crown of England in 1603 as James I. The Jacobean era succeeds the Elizabethan era and precedes the Caroline era‚ and specifically denotes a style of architecture‚ visual arts‚ decorative arts‚ and literature that is predominant of that period. The word "Jacobean" is derived from the Hebrew name Jacob‚ which is the original (and Graeco-Latin)
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Parallels between the representations of witches and unruly women have existed since the Elizabethan era in popular culture and literature. Witchcraft was classified as a pact with the devil as far as learned writers were concerned but popular audiences conceived of it as malfeasance‚ or the witch’s capacity to do harm or destruction through occult
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Jeffy’s Talk The Elizabethan Belief in Witches During the Elizabethan era people blamed unexplainable events as the work of witches. There were frequent outbreaks of the deadly Black Death (Bubonic Plague) for which there was no cure. The fear and anger about this terrible disease had to be directed at someone - witches were the obvious target. When people died from terrible diseases‚ when animals died‚ when there was a bad harvest‚ or when houses were burnt down in fires - someone had to be
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