Importance of virginity in elizabethan and jacobean period
Answers
The play The Tempest by William Shakespeare puts a lot of emphasis in a woman’s purity. The character Miranda, who is the only female in this drama, is given a value by Ferdinand, her would-be lover, and Prospero, her father. That value of her virginity is not monetary but has significant value as a way of demonstrating how she is untouched by man and, once lost, would be the most evident proof of paternity. Female virginity during this period has also been used as a metaphor for colonialism, where the newly discovered land is represented as the virgin woman and the conquerors or discoverers of this new land are depicted as the source of the lady’s defloration, but this essay will not be covering that side Elizabethan culture in reference to virginity.