Context page

First, we’ll start with marriage, nowadays it’s regarded as one of the most important days of your life in some people’s eyes, but back then it was more of a convenience for economics and wealth than a promise bound on the basis of love. For all, social and practical pressures dawned on them when it came to marriage, it was typically married young and for status, wealth combination or gain, status and alliance. The actual practice of mutual romantic feelings was more of an afterthought, as the benefits came first. People would get married young and if you were wealthier, you might just have your parents choose your partner for you since keeping wealth and status in the family was important and good. Society pushed and practiced the concept of women obeying men, and this carried through marriage, from obeying her parents and especially her father to obeying her husband. The woman in the marriage would be an afterthought and seen as more of a convenience, and someone to help carry on the last name. The construct of marriage was very traditional, or seen as more conservative now, the man is the one who essentially took lead over the relationship, acted as the decision maker and money maker while the woman had children and was essentially limited to that.

In terms of revenge culture, there were a few parts to this. The first way you could get revenge on someone during Queen Elizabeth Ist’s reign, you could turn to the legal system, filing a lawsuit was common, and letting the legal system carry out your revenge for you was a slightly more modest way of getting revenge. These court cases could lead to public punishments, such as public hanging for grand offences, then punishments like amputation, whipping, pillories and branding were used for lesser offences, lower scale wrongings like thieves and gossipers. One could challenge someone to a duel, which was done between men to settle disputes and get revenge. Another way one could seek revenge against another person would be through rumor spreading, ruining the reputation of another through word of mouth. Overall, the people from the Elizabethan era had strong ways with revenge, having different scales and methods for different offences against each other.

The patriarchy was alive and well during the Elizabethan era, with women being slotted into an extremely submissive position in almost every aspect of life, men would take on roles of leading just about every aspect of their families lives. The aspects of finance, marital choices for their children and education were naturally controlled by the eldest man or husband of the family, they were given main charge over their wives. Ironically, The patriarchy was doing well but overall, Queen Elizabeth the first ruled, which contradicted the nature of the patriarchy entirely. Male authority dawned over every woman except the queen's life during this time period, showing us the major gender bias present during this time period.