Dec 31, 2009

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love | Historical Context

Young Women’s Lives in Sixteenth-Century England

“The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” presents an image of courtship that does not have much grounding in reality, but like most poetic works, it reflects some of the issues of the period in which it was created. Young women in Elizabethan England were taught they must obey their parents without question, and when they married, they were expected to obey their husbands absolutely. They were also taught that a good marriage, a well-maintained house, and the raising of children were their primary roles in life. The...