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Submitted by marija on November 6, 2005
Category: English
Words: 1263 | Pages: 6
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SOCIAL AND POLITICAL SOCIETY OF THE PERIOD:
The Great Chain of Being organised society into a fixed order. God was placed at the top, then down through angels, men, women, animals, birds, fishes, insects, tress to stones. There were seven orders of angels with archangels at the top. Men were organised in a fixed oreder from king down to serf.
This great hierarchy meant that the structure of each class of being reflected the structure of creation as a whole. Even parts of the human body corresponded to elements of society. For example the head was the king, the arms were the warriors, the hands were workers, etc. As you went up the chain each link had power over the other link before it. If you disobeyed people in authority, then you were defying the divine plan. Superiors had to be obeyed even if they were wrong.
People with power during Shakespeare's time wanted everyone else (including Elizabth's government) to know their rightful place. They therefore argued that this hierarchy was divinely ordained. In London the merchant class was moving their way up the social ladder, accumulating wealth and power. This was seen to undermine the theory that everyone was born into a class and must not move up the hierarchy. During this period science was also developing. Men like Copernicus, Galileo and Francis Bacon showed that through observation and experimentation, the world could be explained in new ways. Copernicus's proof that the earth went arpund the sun and not vice versa, was known in London during the time. There was a small but influential group who made it their aim to doubt everything and discard old beliefs. The writings of one such thinker, Michaeal de Montaigne were read by many, including Shakespeare.
During Shakespeare's life there was great hardship for many people, but it was laso a time for new social mobility. In the county-side class divisions were still prominent. Men and women worked...
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