Marriage and Status in Elizabethan Era

Era of Status A famous Proverb once said, “Those that marry for money sell their liberty”. Marrying for wealth is a price someone would pay for losing the freedom of love. Through many generations money is still the basis of a few marriages instead of the courtship of love. Earning a high social standing during the Elizabethan era is one of most prevalent cause for marrying for money. In William Shakespeare’s play, Taming of the Shrew, he reveals how marriage revolves primarily around the social standing rather than a romantic desire. Through the three different marriages in the play, the husband 's’ motives for marrying become apparent. During the Elizabethan era, men have to prove anything to receive status and power, while women tend

Hortensio goes through the process with many other suitors to try and get Bianca’s hand in marriage. Despite, Bianca developing feelings for Lucentio, she pays no attention to Hortensio that he eventually gives up. He proclaims his defeat by moving on to someone else saying, “I will be married to a wealthy widow / Ere three days pass, which hath as long loved me” (4.2. 37, 38). The widow and Hortensio are both in desperate need of someone to accompany them, which brings them together because they both can not find someone else. They share the common goal of finding someone of high social standing to marry, to then fit in the puzzle of society. From a social perspective each relationship affects the other by means of influencing or harming. The widow shares her experience by stating, “Your husband being troubled with a shrew / Measures my husband’s sorrow by his woe” ( 5.2.29, 30). Petruchio is constantly projecting his suffering of taming Katherine onto Hortensio, affecting the Widow’s and Hortensio’s marriage. The constant need that the men have for power over their wives leads them to impact other marriages and disregard the true meaning of marriage;