Gender Roles in the Elizabethan Era: A Study on 'Much Ado About Nothing'

Elizabethan Era and “Much Ado About Nothing” Gender Roles

This play dates back to the Elizabethan era, a time when men and women lived in a patriarchal society. Under those circumstances, men were molded by traditional beliefs; their loyalty and their social ranking depended on honor, comradeship, and authority over women. Because men were viewed as the better sex, it was thought that women needed to be protected by men their entire life. In the case that a woman was unwed, the father, brother or another male relative was to care for her until a male companion showed up.

Women were subservient to men; men were the leaders and women their subordinates. For instance, once married, men played the provider role for the woman and family;
• The punishment for disobedience was a beating. It was seen as sin to disobey the male member of the family.

Source: Lin, Kevin. “Role of Women in Elizabethan Times- Nothing But Shakespeare.” Role of Women in Elizabethan Times- Nothing But Shakespeare. 2010. Web. 1 June 2015. https://sites.google.com/site/nothingbutshakespeare/role-of-women-in-elizabethan-times

In the play, Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare exposes the grim truth about gender roles and inequality in the Elizabethan era. The inequity of genders is established in Beatrice’s language, how the male characters view women within the play, and the concept of
What makes this relationship stand out is the fact that they don 't fit the mold of the gender roles in a relationship, they share a mutual respect for each other, they are equals, which is what makes them compatible for each other. In the Elizabethan era, marriage wasn 't about love, sometimes it occurred and sometimes it didn’t, it was more for the social status. But, be that as it may, despite what the social norms were, Benedict and Beatrice both looked past their gender roles that they were supposed to take on in a relationship and decided to have an equal partnership with each other.

Hero, the daughter of Leonato and the cousin of Beatrice, she is the spitting image of the traditional woman in the Elizabethan era. Hero fits perfectly into her gender role, she is passive, quiet, obedient, and feminine. She never speaks out about anyone, even in a time when she should defend herself. The most compelling evidence of this is the wedding scene in Act IV; Scene I, (lines 30-55) when Claudio and hero are standing at the altar and he publicly humiliates Hero and accuses her of cheating on