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Shakespeare’s Social Order

Shakespeare’s Social Order. Hierarchy and the Chain of Being. A Most Excellent and Perfect Order.

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Shakespeare’s Social Order

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  1. Shakespeare’s Social Order Hierarchy and the Chain of Being

  2. A Most Excellent and Perfect Order • Every degree of people hath appointed to them, their duty and order. Some are in high degree, some in low, some kings and princes, some inferiors and subjects. Almighty God hath created and appointed all things in a most excellent and perfect order. - Elizabethan Litany

  3. A Most Excellent and Perfect Order • Hierarchy • any system of persons or things ranked one above the other. • Individuals have a fixed place in a rigid social order. • Ex: government, corporations, student body • Wealth determined rank and status • Dichotomy of tradition and new social mobility

  4. Social Classes • Aristocracy • 75-100 people • Hereditary titles • Hereditary wealth • estates • Positions of power in government • Queen Elizabeth I and James I were the ruling monarchs during Shakespeare’s life.

  5. Social Classes Cont… • Gentry • 5% of rural population • Land Owners • Not distinguished by title • Many were knights and some purchased the rank of Baron • Responsibilities: • Provide hospitality for neighbors, treat tenants paternally, and govern. • Served as: deputy lieutenants, militia captains, justices of the peace, enforcers of the law

  6. Social Classes Cont… • Yeomanry • Landowners who cultivated their own land • Fairly prosperous • Part of rural society • Often times the younger sons of gentlemen. • Roles: • Most owned enough land to serve in government. • Elders, constables, tax collectors. Country scene, England 17th century, from the Roxburghe Ballads. Mary Evans Picture Library

  7. Social Classes Cont… • Middling Sort • Urban equivalent to Yeomanry • Tradesman, artisans and shopkeepers • Held same offices as the Yeomanry 17th Century Shopkeeper, Woodcut Mary Evans Picture Library

  8. Social Classes Cont… • Peasants • Urban poor • Apprentices andlabourers • Rural Poor • Hasbandmen, cottagers, labourers • Majority of Population • Day to day survival • Uneducated • diseases

  9. Titles • Titles were used to indicate social status and ranking • Sir: goes only with a given name • Master: when addressing a knight only by his surname • Lord: implies a Baron or better and only eldest son of one so entitled

  10. Titles Cont… • Territorial Title: associated with land or region • Ex: Henry Southhampton, Thomas Rutland • Lady: woman married to a knight or better • Your Grace: only to someone of royal blood • Common, rustic, good folk, lesser folk: peasants • Refer to class handout for further instructions on titles and formal address.

  11. Chain of Being • An explanation of man’s relationship with his surroundings and the order of power within the universe • Explained the system of power from God to the lowliest creatures on earth • Serves as the basis of conflict in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama.

  12. Chain of Being

  13. The Wheel of Fortune • The idea that man may undergo a change of fortune at any time. At one minute he may be at the top of the wheel, but when the wheel turns he may find himself falling to the bottom, but once the wheel turns he may again find himself at the top. • Ambition: The sin of trying to improve one’s station in the universe by an act of personal will.

  14. Wheel of Fortune

  15. The Times are a Changin’ • Population growth • Concentration of urban population • Education • Re-discovery of the “classics • Increased literacy rates • Exploration • Expansion of the known world

  16. Changin’ Times Cont… • Economy • Rising Middle class • Shift toward mercantilism • Increased social mobility • Retaliation • Desperate attempt to cling to tradition • Clothing Acts http://www.muhlsd.berksiu.k12.pa.us/studweb/middle/Lessons/Shakesphere/Images/cloths2.gif

  17. The World is Out of Joint • Offenses against the social order • transgression against social boundaries • to shirk responsibilities or duties • rebellion • disrespect • These offenses would set the natural world in turmoil and great disasters would occur- storms, droughts, natural phenomenon

  18. For Further Information: • http://search.eb.com/shakespeare • www.clarke.public.lib.ga.us/pathfinders/ elizabethan.html • Or read : Shakespeare: Alive!By Joseph Papp and Elizabeth Kirkland C. 1988

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