Discrimination In The Elizabethan Era

Shakespeare’s context may have influenced his exploration of discrimination towards women and individuals from foreign races. The Elizabethan era is depicted as the golden age in English history, submerged with books, movies and plays throughout the era, with Shakespeare heavily contributing to this renaissance. However, earlier in the 16th century, before Queen Elizabeth came to power, the idea of a female monarch was met with great hostility from the people. In the 12th century, Henry I’s daughter Matilda claimed the throne after her father’s demise, resulting in 18 years of civil war due to the prejudice against women. ­The ­article, Elizabeth I - The Exception to the Rule, written by Helen Castor discusses the partiality against the idea of a female Monarch. “A king was required to preserve order within his kingdom by giving justice to his people and
‘use Desdemona well’ (Act 1, Scene 3, 288). Discrimination against foreigners has been present since the dawn of time due the human nature of disliking the unorthodox. The ­BBC 4’s Shakespeare’s Restless Word – “From London to Marrakech explores xenophobic behavior that was visible during the Elizabethan era when the English and Moroccan forces rescued North African galley-slaves from the Spanish. The queen expressed interest in permitting Moroccans to refuge in England “But despite the queen’s interest in protecting her Moorish allies, Londoners protested and the Moors eventually had to be expelled.” The use of slang, referring to all the darker toned people as ‘Moors’ conveys the neglection of these foreign people, referring them as all ‘Moors’ a word created to describe Moroccans however later changed to describe black people and finally, Muslims. This quote illustrates the power that a group can have over an individual, even if that individual is of higher class than the