How is the social life of the Elizabethan period linked with the theatre of that time and vice versa ?
Answers
Answer:
The life of art and society can not be separated. They have an interaction in their
growth, even they influence each other. As Hauser (1982: 89) says that art both influences
and is influenced by social changes, that it initiates social changes while itself changing with
them. It means that the changing in society will make the changing in art and vice versa.
Hauser (1982: 92) also adds that art and society are in a state of continuous mutual
dependance which propagates itself like a chain reaction. This means not only that they
influence each other, that society is modified by the art whose product it is, and that art in a
given society confronts a structure which presupposes many of its characteristics, but also
that every change in one sphere is linked to change in the other and calls forth a further
change in the system in which the change originates. The statement above shows that the
changes will be further and further and it, of course, for its occasion of change has its own
characteristics that we can see in the work of arts. The example can be seen in Shakespeare’s
works. His works are influenced by some issues of Elizabethan society since they were in
Elizabethan era.
William Shakespeare lived in (1564-1616). This age was Elizabethan era which was
exactly (1558-1603). In sixteenth century, the kings dominated in England (Ford, 1991: 15).It, of course, influenced the writers’ works at that time, specifically William Shakespeare. His
works talked more about the life of the kings or the noblemen and the kingdom’s life, for
examples King Lear, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth. Those titles become the names of the main
characters.
The political condition was one of the prominent issues relating to the government or
kingdom’s life at that time. Since Queen Elizabeth did not have son, the crown would be
another problem when the Queen was dead. There would be “abortive coup” when people
tried to get the power to be the king. In can be said that fighting and war was not a strange
thing. It was actually preceeded by the history point of view that in 1030 Roman Empire
invaded England so violence at that time was “human”.
The cultural condition in Elizabethan era was indicated, one of them, by the “Globe
Theatre” or the theatre which go around. This kind of theatre was still showed the very
patriarchy system. As we know that in Shakespeare era that the rights of women in England
was very limited. Although in fact, for over four decades, England was ruled by a female
monarch, most women had little power over the direction of their lives. Most writings about
the life of the family during this time in history centered around the traditional partriarchal
paradigm that of "domination and submission." Just as the kingdom was ruled by a monarch,
the father and head of the household ruled over his wife and children.
The economic and social condition also have an important role to the idea of
Shakespeare’s work. In connection with capitalism London was a violent place. The more
serious rioting occurred in rural areas against enclosure of property by landlords and the
crown. This type of protest was very popular during Shakespeare's career, especially from
1590-1610. The life of rural society or country side was affected by feudalism in England. As
Ford (1991: 27) said that Elizabethan country life kept in the main to the pattern left by
feudalism: the same manorial organization, the same common field system of farming. And
the government, backed by public opinion, sought to preserve these arrangement by holding
labourers to the land by force of law. On the other side, generally the economic condition got
many benefits by the trans-atlantic trading although it was still in capitalism.
Shakespeare’s age was also in transition era. It was in the late of sixteenth century or
medieval era where there was a strong belief in supersition, ghosts, fortune, etc. this can be
seen from his works which was indicated by the appearance of ghost or witches or poison
used. It was also in the early seventeenth century or renaissance era where people had their
free will such as in Macbeth when he had to follow his ambition and his wife’s to be the king
Explanation: mark as brainliest pls