A Woman’s Role

A Woman’s role

What was the typical role for a woman during the Elizabethan times? What was the typical role the woman played in Shakespeare’s plays? Shakespeare was a one of the greatest writers during the Elizabethan times who wrote many plays and other works. How were women’s life in Elizabethan times and how did Shakespeare portray women in his plays?

Shakespeare was a literature genius during the Elizabethan times. It is also called the golden age in English history. The Elizabethan time occurred when the renaissance was at its highest. Elizabethan times were when Queen Elizabeth sat on the throne as the only leader. There was no king at this time and even though the leader was a woman, Queen Elizabeth, women were treated inferior to men at this time. Women were second class to men in every way. They did everything they were told to do by the men in their lives and did not really have any say at all. A woman in this time basically had two jobs and that was it. These two jobs were being a housewife and a mother. “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” (elizabethi.org). Women had many children at this time so they had to nurture them with their body which drained them of their own nutrients. This caused them to lose their teeth and age quicker. It was ordinary for the woman to die when giving birth. Most of the time the women did not even get to chose when or even who they got to marry. They just took orders and obeyed. In that time if the men thought that their woman was getting out of line it was perfectly ok to beat them back into line. Though if a woman were to kill her husband due to him beating her t...

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...o. They had to come up with a plan to act like she killed herself so she could be put in a tomb so she could then get up and run away with him. She had to fake kill herself so her father would never know the truth. Yes she was scared of her family and his family and it is not that she was not strong enough to stand up against them and tell them what she is going to do because to do so would mean certain death for her and Romeo. What she did took a great deal of courage in that many woman of this time could not and would not go against what their family wants them to do.

Another play that Shakespeare wrote is Macbeth. There is a difference though in how Lady Macbeth is portrayed. She was not portrayed as weak but instead as a strong powerful woman. She overpowers her husband by getting into his mind and getting him to do things she wants him to do that she cannot.