Discuss How This Play Might Reflect On Elizabeth I`S Decision Not To Marry

By the time Shakespeare wrote A summer solstices Night Dream during the winter of 1595-96, baron Elizabeth I was comfortably past her childbearing long time, past the age of sixty and had not chosen an heir. Given the previous several(prenominal) decades of English history, this make her subjects understandably apprehensive. The fact that she was a powerful ruler who had accomplished much and was relatively benign elicited admiration however, the fact that she was an unmarried woman would have raised many psyches in the minds of people living in and during what essentially was a patriarchal, male-dominated place and time.The initial performance of A Midsummers Night Dream may have been attended by Elizabeth. Were this the case and it was known that the Queen would attend, it would not have been unreasonable for Shakespeare to incorporate elements designed to flatter her. On the other hand, Shakespeares tacticss were indite for the masses as well. It is not beyond the realm of p ossibility that some subtle form of g everywherenmental or social criticism might have found its way into the script.In some ways, the structure of the play (one of the few that Shakespeare created from his own imagination without relying on a primary source) is metaphorical of the history of England during the turbulent years of the 16th century the Duke of Theseus and Queen Hippolyta represent constancy in what is essentially a chaotic plot, and this stability is present only at the beginning and the ending of the play.Likewise, the 16th century had opened with the reign of total heat VI, who had restored stability following the War of the Roses when his son, Henry VIII broke with the Roman Catholic Church over the issue of his divorce from Catherine of Aragon, he unintentionally lit a socio-political fire fanned by the winds of the Reformation, atomic number 82 to societal upheavals over which he had little control.Following the passing of Henry VIII, three more(prenominal) Tudor monarchs came and went in quick succession (Edward VI, Lady Jane Grey and Mary I), each one bringing a castrate of official religion Elizabeth I restored stability to English society and began the process of turning the British pudding stone into a superpower. Elizabeths legitimacy was in question because of her Protestant faith, but she was very popular with her subjects. Nonetheless, the question of her marriage came up soon after her ascension to the throne.Rumors at the time suggested that she was in love with the world-class Earl of Leicester, Robert Dudley, but since her council would not sanction marriage to a commoner, she decided not to marry at all. It is more likely that the decision was political, however. Had Elizabeth married, she would have sacrificed virtually all of her power and a sizable portion of her wealth. In the opening scene of A Midsummers Night Dream, Hermia refuses the suitor her father Egeus has chosen for her. Theseus outlines her alternatives in no uncertain terms Either to die the death, or to abjure For ever the society of men. (Act I, opinion 1, Lines 65-66).Any male monarch (married or not) would have had to a mistress, and no questions would have been asked. The patriarchal double-standard would have made any tryst on Elizabeths part a political disaster, however. Furthermore, Renaissance conventions required that a wife be unquestioningly subject to her husbands authority. Since this would have had significant political consequences, it was in Elizabeths best interests (as well as Englands) for her to remain a virgin.On one hand, the play would seem to be critical of Elizabeth in her refusal to submit to male authority, and yet there is something admirable in Hermias defiance, unstrained to risk all for the one she loves. In the last scene of the 1999 film Elizabeth, the Queen declares that she is married to England. Whether it was ad hominem ambition and desire for power, or a true love for and sense of duty toward the nation, the fact rest that had Elizabeth married, Britain would never have become an empire, and the world would be a much different place today.