Hamlet †historical and political context Essay

The semipolitical and religious upheavals in advance and after the death of Henry VIII had left their mark on the people of England. The mogul had d hotshot previous un-heard of things He had divorced two wives and had had two executed. In the brief reigns which followed, persecution, first of the Catholics and indeed of Protestants, split family allegiances and brought very real danger of imprisonment, torture, even execution. Claimants for the thrown jockeyed for position. fagot Elizabeth I came to the throne in 1558 the first successor to her father, Henry eighter from Decatur had been his young son Edward, ten eld of age.As he was silence very much under age, he had to traffic pattern through Regents. They persisted with the Protestant reforms instituted by his father after his break with the Roman Catholic. Edward died six years after coming to the throne. He was succeeded by his half-sister Mary (Tudor), who died childless after five years as puff. She had tried to r einstate Roman universality as the state religion. Elizabeth, Marys half sister, although not considered a legitimate heir to the throne, became Queen in 1558 and ruled for 45 years.Although she had been brought up as a Protestant she understood that in view of the modern religious upheaval some compromises some compromises had to be made. The country take stability and a strong ruler. Her life had been in danger before she became Queen and there were the inevitable conspiracies to usurp her position. The tragic figurehead of one of these and the object of Elizabeths suspicion and jealousy for many years was Mary, Queen of Scots Elizabeth at first kept her under arrest only when eventually had her executed in 1587.Late in her reign, in 1601, the Earl of Essex, formerly her favorite, made his bid for power. He failed in his attempt to cause a popular up rising, was imprisoned and executed. It is not difficult to trace this ambience of suspicion and treachery in Hamlet, nor the re assuring promise to royalty contained in the suggestion at the end of the play that strong and humane rule will be reasserted. There were also serious curses from abroad. In 1588 Phillip II of Spain sent the Armada, a large pilott of ships, sailing up the post in an attempt to conquer England by force.Another inappropriate threat was marriage. Elizabeth constantly resisted attempts by her counselors to contract any politically advantageous marriage and she died unmarried, naming James, her Scottish cousin, already established for many years as King in Scotland, as her successor. Social and Context Elizabeth I build on the foundations laid by her father and grandfather until her power, the power of the Crown, was intimately unquestioned.To help achieve the security which she and the country, needed it was important to encourage an enunciate and educated aristocracy. Education and in particular classical learnership presume a fresh importance. In the grammar schools it is a ssumed that Shakespeare attended the Stratford Grammar school- Latin delivery and literature were studied prose and verse, composition, rhetoric, orations and declamations. Much was learnt by heart and in the upper school Greek was added.Shakespeares knowledge of the classical theatre, poetry and novel is evident throughout his whole body of work. How does this relate to Hamlet? The frauds speech, which Hamlet has remembered, is part of the Dido and Aeneas story, the sack of Troy and the slaying of King Priam. Also, Hamlet and Horatio have been fellow-students at the University of Wittenberg. The others, to address the ghost, call upon Horatio.Hamlet intelligibly wanted to return to Wittenberg, to turn his back on the whole stead at the castle, and possibly to become a perpetual student and scholar until his father demands the revenge which he is unfitted to deliver. Exploration There was vitality a fresh interest in foreign countries in the sixteenth ascorbic acid and explo ration by sea had led to an increase in foreign trade. European foreign countries hardly seemed far extraneous.Laertes lives very happily in Paris, away from his fathers influence. Hamlet is casually packed murder by his uncle to a planned death in England. There was an adjunct of experience and an opening up to fresh influences, which included a sunrise(prenominal) vocabulary of classical and foreign words. Printed books and pamphlets circulated more widely, so that information was more easily obtained. The Elizabethan age was establishing a feeling of national club and confidence. At the same time an increase in prosperity and a raising standard of living for many.This prosperity was also reflected in the impertinently built theatres and the audiences who flocked to entertainments of all kinds This is not to say that dissent and uneasiness did not exist. There will still disputes over religion and new ideas drop be worrying as well as exciting. Persecution of religious min orities of the mainland caused a large influx of refugees from France and the Netherlands. It is also important to remember that some of the entertainments mentioned higher up were public executions. Bloodthirsty pastimes such as bull- and bear- baiting were popular.The streets were filthy and away from the main thoroughfares, in the poorer parts of the city, they resembled open sewers and rubbish dumps. The plague, spread by black rats, struck in 1592 when it ravaged the city for two years, and again in 1603, wiping out whole families and forcing those Londoners who could afford to do so to flee to the country. Theatres and all public places of entertainment were closed down. This student written second of work is one of many that can be found in our AS and A Level Hamlet section.