Marriage in Elizabethan Times

Something is Rotten in England Something is always rotting in politics. Whether it was the middle ages or even now, there are always situations in politics that are too rotten or too taboo to talk about. The Elizabethan era, in particular, had plenty of betrayal, murder, and war. Shakespeare liked to place politics into his histories. Shakespeare’s play Henry IV Part 1 shows characters and events in a political view. During the first half of the play, Prince Hal is a joke throughout the…

There were few known ruling women during the time of King Lear , one important figure being Queen Elizabeth I. “The Elizabethans had very clear expectations of men and women, and in general men were expected to be the breadwinners and women to be housewives and mothers” (3). In William Shakespeare’s play King Lear, he portrays the women to be dissimilar to how they appear in history. The daughters, Goneril and Regan, have profound amounts of power over that of their husband and seem to be the…

in love at soon as they lay eyes on each other, a reminder of John Clare 's poem 'First Love '. 'First Love ' is a poem about love at first sight. Both the poem and the play portray love at first sight in the way that they have the effect that time stands still when they are thinking, speaking or looking at the girl/woman that they have fallen in love with. The play was…

In 1996, Baz Luhrmann defended his blockbuster film Romeo+Juliet, saying, "Everything that's in the movie is in the play. Violence, murder, lust, love, poison, even drugs that mimic death. - It’s all in there. It's just that we have come to associate productions of 'Romeo and Juliet' with a certain style”. It has been considered that perhaps Romeo+Juliet is an example of a triumph of style over content, in the worst possible way. However, it considers the universal truths from Shakespeare’s play…

“This book is not about heroes...Nor is it about deeds, or lands, or anything about glory, honour, might, majesty, dominion, or power, except War” (“Preface” W. Owen). Wilfred Owen wrote this in May of 1918 as a draft for the preface of a book of poetry he was hoping to publish. Owen never got a chance to rewrite this draft or publish a book of his poems. He died six months later on November 4, 1918, while leading his troops across the Sambre Canal. Owen’s poetry stands as a testament to the…

The aid to dependent children policy provided financial assistance to children whose families had low or no income. This is relevant to social work practice because the social work profession’s deepest are concerned with poverty, from the time of the Elizabethan Poor Laws. This set of laws was the “poor laws” which gave the local government the power to raise taxes as needed and use the funds to build and maintain almshouses, to…

Wyatt’s sonnet Whoso List to Hunt and Sonnet 67 by Edmund Spenser are adaptations of Petrarch’s Canzoniere sonnet, Rima 190, Una candida cerva. Although both poets adhere to concepts of love in their sonnets, they also add variations that reflect the times in which they were composed. In Una candida cerva, Petrarch employs the metaphorical image of a white doe to describe…

From lines 40-68, Shylock expresses his extreme undying hatred towards Antonio, his agony in how the Christian community has dealt him unreasonably and heartlessly. This can be seen when Shylock ominously says, ‘let him look to his bond’ several time, just on the mention about Antonio by Salerio. This implies that the bond is not ‘merry’ any more. Furthermore, when Salerio asks ‘Why, I am sure if he forfeit thou wilt not take his flesh. What’s that good for?’, Shylock declares that ‘To bait fish…

of induced madness. Hamlet is verbally abusive to Ophelia seen when he says, "I say, we will have no more marriages./ Those that are married already, all but one, shall live. / The rest shall keep as they are. / To a nunnery, go." (3.1.9) This in Elizabethan times was a very strong insult, and it is clear that Ophelia struggles with herself after this is said to her. He tells her their marriage is off, and that she is to go to a nunnery due to her sexual sins. She shortly after says; “And I, of…

William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a play packed with mischief and mayhem. It is often referred to by modern-day scholars as the Elizabethan Inception, as there are multiple examples of “play within a play” devices, each embodying several themes and concepts. Among these are examples of the contrast of tragedy and comedy, the dynamics of the written and spoken word, and imagination vs. reality. The final scene of the play opens with the reappearance of Theseus and Hippolyta, who…