Cultural Aspects of Marriage during the Early Modern Period in England as shown through Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure
Reflective Tag
Help Received: In-Class Reflective Exercise
The topic of marriage in England during the early modern period first sparked my interest while watching the British Broadcasting Channel’s version of Measure for Measure. The actual visualization of the complexity the institution of marriage presented during the play intrigued me. I began my investigation in the topic of marriage through selecting it as my short assignment topic for Measure for Measure. Through this, I found that it was considered as the social institution of the time along with the overwhelming amount of gender inequality that surrounded it. When presented the prompt as to which the final essay was to be written I concluded that I would be able to find enough supporting sources to create an in-depth analysis on marriage during the early modern period in England. The most significant discovery I found surrounding this institution was the mass confusion during the conversion from church law to common law presented by Henry III when constituting whether the marriage is legal/not legal. My research into the subject lead to a better understanding of the occurrences in the play Measure for Measure. The institution of marriage during the early modern period varies with what my understanding of marriage is today in our culture, which I believe provided the main driving force behind my fascination into this topic.
Cadet Kyle E. Coons
ERH 321WX
12 December, 2017
Help Received: Microsoft Office, previous short assignment on this topic, Measure for Measure textbook, The Merchant of Venice textbook, JSTOR, Annotated Bibliography, sources included in Works Cited
The cultural view surrounding marriage in England during the Early Modern Period was prominently shown throughout the majority of William Shakespeare’s play writes, in particular, his play Measure for Measure. There are direct correlations with how both the man and woman are viewed inside and outside of marriage. Marriage during this time “was not merely a social institution, but, some would argue, the social institution upon which all others depended” (Kamps and Raber 181). The social institution of marriage was far from simple. The social status each person held during this time was directly related back to marriage. This was particularly true for women in the culture during the early modern period in England as they were viewed as property transferred from father to husband through the ceremony and law incorporated in marriage. According to Richards and Munn’s “New research has shown that more women remained single than married in early modern England, …” which lead to their conclusion “Thus marital status – as virgin, wife, widow or spinster – was one of the most important aspects of women’s identities and determinants of their options” (Richards and Munns 19-20). This excerpt from Gender, Power and Privilege in Early Modern England : 1500 – 1700 provides a solid point behind the importance of marriage in this culture and gives an interesting view as many people (particularly women) would choose to remain single then be subject to the extensive requirements behind a just and lawful marriage. To be included with the social implications marriage had, especially for women, the confusion from the shift to common law from church law sparked legal issues and implicated a stronger societal acceptance of a couple’s attempt to become bonded through the social institution of marriage.
William Shakespeare’s play Measure for Measure provides strong evidence of how women’s social status weighed heavily on marriage during the early modern period and how it may be tangled in grey areas between specific status’s. Specifically, the character’s Juliet and Isabella provided play goers with different aspects women may find themselves in during this time along with the complexities and problems often faced when dealing with social law surrounding marriage. The play reflects the cultural views through the actions Angelo takes about Claudio’s supposed premarital sexual relations with Juliet. Angelo had been hastily commissioned in place of the absent Duke to carry out Vienna laws. This case was the first to be brought to him, and according to the law Claudio was not in fact completely married to Juliet, yet she was carrying their baby. As far as Claudio and Juliet had known they were in fact married but waiting for Juliet’s dowry. The marriage was known within their small group of friends but had yet to be approved by her friends and family. The approval was “remaining in the coffer of her friends, / From whom we thought it meet to hide our love / Till time had made them for us” (I. 2. 124-126). This uncertainty of social status led to Angelo’s decision to have Claudio killed, solely based around the cultural understanding of waiting for marriage to have sexual relations. This cultural understanding is derived from the distinct line drawn between a woman being pure as a virgin to the moment she becomes married to her husband and becomes a wife.
Isabella (sister of Claudio) provides play goers and readers a different social status women during this time held. Although young, Isabella’s social status as a nun in training would be viewed as both virgin and spinster (unmarried woman). According to Nancy E. Wright “these nuns asserted a right to ’spiritual property’ in the manuscripts that in some ways resembles later concepts of rights to ’intellectual property” (Wright 17). This position provided women “properties” which was important to gaining significant social status but in return these women were to devote their lives to God, and were not to be married therefore also not to be a widow. Isabella adds to the complexity of marriage in Measure for Measure in two different instances. The first is derived from when she attempts to defend her brother’s mistake. Isabella attempted to seek mercy for her brother’s actions from Angelo. She asked Angelo “Yet show some pity” (II. 2. 104). Angelo then follows up with a stern stance on his attempt to reinforce the letter of the law by stating “I show it most of all when I show justice; / For then I pity those I do not know, / Which a dismissed offense would after gall, / And do him right that answering one foul wrong, / Lives not to act another. Be satisfied; / Your brother dies tomorrow. Be content” (II. 2. 105-110). It is after this that Angelo gives Isabella an option to save her brothers life. This was to sleep with him in return for the pardon, which is against not only her life devotion to be a nun and retaining her purity but also breaks common law through premarital sexual relations. She also runs into a conflict at the end of the play as the Duke asks for her hand in marriage. This again puts her in a complex situation as she would have to forfeit her devotion to becoming a nun.
William Shakespeare’s demonstration of including how marriage was viewed in the culture of the early modern period was not just limited to his play Measure for Measure. In his play The Merchant of Venice, the cultural implications of marriage were consistent to those in Measure for Measure. The concept of a male dominant culture stood true, as described as “a wife does not even own her body,…” (Kaplan 312). The idea of marriage being “a man’s voyage” is also described by Kaplan. He includes the work from Alexander Niccholes, an early modern writer, and a quote from Niccholes stating “a husband risks ‘his peace, his freedom, his liberty, his body; yea, and sometimes his soul too’” (Kaplan 314). Kaplan writes this in relation to Bassonio’s marriage to Portia, as in the play could be describe as an adventure with constant voyages back and forth to Venice and Belmont and with different relations being tested as he attempted to save his friends life from the Shylock.
This view of marriage being a ‘voyage’ is transparent in William Shakespeare’s play Measure for Measure. In particular, the marriage between Angelo and Mariana. Although the marriage between Angelo and Mariana when compared to the marriage between Bassonio and Portia in The Merchant of Venice are opposite in many aspects, the ‘voyage’ the husbands risk to take are both present. This risk of marriage that Kaplan described was taken by Angelo before the play begins. The play viewer or reader discovers this as the play develops, as Angelo is portrayed to almost avoid the risk he took by marrying Mariana due to a dowry issue. Angelo knew he was risking giving up what Kaplan includes from Niccholes as his freedom, liberty and soul when marrying Mariana, but tries to escape from it. The Duke catches Angelo in this attempt, and with Mariana pleading for his life to be spared and saying “They say best men are molded out of faults, / And, for the most, become much more the better / For being a little bad. / So may my husband” (V. 1. 434-437). This dilemma ends with the Duke declaring Angelo’s life spared so long as him and Mariana were to carry out their marriage. This brings up the issue again of common law versus church law.
The cultural understanding of marriage during the early modern period had an issue with the shift from church law of marriage to common law. Marriage during the time Shakespeare had written this play had been tied into two different traditions. The first, that was presented through the trouble Claudio and Juliet got into, was the rejection of privately spoken vows. This was derived from the changes Henry III made on English common law during this early modern period in England. The contrast came from what was widely accepted through church law. Marriage through the revamped common law required the necessity to be widely accepted and approved from larger social groups. This led to an unaccepting view to be placed upon marital actions taking place before the common law was achieved. As discussed, the status of marriage was particularly essential to women. “Renaissance playgoers believed that women were highly sexual, and likely as the “weaker sex” to give in to their passions; marriage served as a control over this tendency to stray. Husbands were to “master” their wives” (Kamps and Raber 188). This widely acceptance of marriage between a man and a woman led to accusations of unlawful premarital actions. As shown in Claudio and Juliet’s situation, a more extensive marital process was in need to be considered married.
Church Law or Canon was “revised in 1604 to exclude clandestine marriages, that is, marriages that occurred without witnesses and without parental consent, which might describe Claudio’s pre-contract with Juliet” (Kamps and Raber 183). This was the main driving force for issues, as Kamps and Raber again mentions Claudio and Juliet, that arose with marriages during this revision period. The complexity is heightened when Claudio tries to explain that, although he sees the public approval as a necessary step for marriage, the more important part the solidifies the marriage and makes it true happens without the public in private between the two being married. Common law required “‘banns’ or public announcements placed weeks in advance so that marriages might be approved by the larger social group” (Kamps and Raber 182). This, along with “a ceremony with witnesses was necessary to guarantee that the marriage was legal” (Kamps and Raber 182), led to wide spread confusion during the transition from one law to the other.
Marriage in England during the early modern period had a complex structure, with noticeable key differences from what marriage is understood to be in other cultures including ours today. The leading cause behind this difference was the inequality faced by women during this time period and the confusion caused by a transition in marital laws. The actions that took place in response to Claudio and Juliet’s marriage, which almost resulted in Claudio’s head (literally), is a clear and just representation of the issues faced by individuals during the early modern period in England. Women were viewed subordinate to men and in marriage were passed from their father to their husband with an inclusion of a dowry. This conflict with dowry was present in a few of Shakespeare’s plays, prominently in Measure for Measure but also The Merchant of Venice, and showed the vast complexity of marriage which went past just a bind between a man and a woman. Women gained more of a social status change from marriage then that of men due to a very select opportunities presented to them in this culture.
William Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure provides an excellent look into the system of marriage in England during the early modern period. It presents different social status’s women held during the early modern period along with the understanding, or lack thereof, of common law versus church law people during this period were subject to understand in order to properly carry out the action of becoming married. Marriage was not only an institution, yet the institution that weighed heavily among all social status’s during the early modern period. Measure for Measure presented its viewers and readers with a copious amount of marriages, to include Claudio and Juliet, Angelo and Mariana, the Duke and Isabella, and Lucio and Kate Keepdown, viewed from different angles along with different situations adding to its’ complex stature during the early modern period.
Works Cited
Kamps, Ivo and Raber, Karen, ed.. Measure for Measure. By William Shakespeare. New York:
Bedford, 2004. Print.
Kaplan, Lindsay, ed.. The Merchant of Venice. By William Shakespeare. New York: Bedford/St.
Martin’s, 2002. Print.
Richards, Penny, and Jessica Munns. Gender, Power and Privilege in Early Modern Europe :
1500 – 1700, Taylor and Francis, 2003. ProQuest Ebook Central,
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/vmi/detail.action?docID=1757020.
Shakespeare, William. Measure for Measure,. Ed. Ivo Kamps and Karen Raber. New York:
Bedford, 2004. Print.
Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice,. Ed. Lindsay Kaplan. New York: Bedford/St.
Martin’s, 2002. Print.
Wright, Nancy E., et al., editors. Women, Property, and the Letters of the Law in Early
Modern England. University of Toronto Press, 2004. JSTOR,