Marriage and Love in Elizabethan England Essays -- European History Es

spousal and Love in Elizabethan England The movie, Shakespeare in Love, provides shrewdness into the world of Elizabethan England. Through the character of genus Viola De Lessups the audience is shown how spousals was an institution entered into not for love, but as a strategic looseness designed to enhance the lives of those who would benefit from a union, whether or not the beneficiaries were the great deal actually exchanging vows. As poof, Elizabeth I chose not to enter into such a union. She expressed the thoughts and feelings she had about the subject in both her speech, On Marriage and her poem On Monsieurs tone ending. A comparison of the character of Viola to the real life Queen of England, Elizabeth I, can provide the reader a greater understanding of marriage and love in Elizabethan England. Queen Elizabeth and Viola both realized that their station in life would bound their prospects for marriage. Elizabeth had the power to de cide not to marry. Violas marriage to Wessex resolved for her as a daughters duty and the Queens command(Shakespeare).2 Viola is the daughter of a wealthy merchant and opus she is not so well born she is, as her nurse points out, advantageously moneyed which is the same as well born and well matrimonial is more so (Shakespeare). Likewise, Elizabeth knew that if the Queen of England were to marry she would have to make a union that would benefit her country. She felt pressure from Parliament to marry and address it in her speech, On Marriage, given to Parliament in 1559. She insure them that they could put that idea clean out of their heads for whensoever it may please deity to incline her heart to another kind of life, she intended not to do... ...n that she unsounded that duty prevented her from such a marriage. In her poem, On Monsieurs Departure she allows a glimpse into the pain it caused her to be unable to fully stick to a life of love. Works Cited1 William Shakes peare, Sonnet CXVI, The Longman Anthology of British publications The archeozoic Modern Period, ed. David Damrosch, 2nd ed., vol 1B (NewYork Longman, 2003) 1233-34.2 Shakespeare in Love, dir. John Madden, Perf. Gwyneth Paltrow, Joseph Fiennes. Mirimax/Universal, 1998.3 Elizabeth I, On Marriage, The Longman Anthology of British publications The Early Modern Period, ed. David Damrosch, 2nd ed., vol 1B (NewYork Longman, 2003) 1084-85.4 Elizabeth I, On Monsieurs Departure, The Longman Anthology of British Literature The Early Modern Period, ed. David Damrosch, 2nd ed., vol 1B (NewYork Longman, 2003) 1081-82.