William Shakespeare Group

Question:

corri
corri
Student
High School - 9th Grade

Why were women not allowed to be actors during Elizabethan times and what did the "actresses" wear?

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Posted by corri on Saturday September 26, 2009 at 3:01 PM and tagged with "actresses" of shakespeare's time, actors, literature.

Answers:

  1. mwestwood
    mwestwood Teacher
    Community / Jr. College

    eNotes Editor

    Women were not allowed to appear on stage until 1660.  Before this time, acting for women was considered inappropriate and actually illegal.  For one thing, the acting troops traveled around, sleeping in odd places.  The proximity and lack of privacy certainly contributed to the prohibition of women becoming such itinerant actors.

    Because of the prohibition of women in theatre, young men-- usually prepubescent--played the female roles and dressed in women's clothing.  In reaction to this condition, there was a condemnation of the Elizabethan theatre by some clergymen who contended that it was sacriligeous for men to dress as men, envisioning it as though it were "cross-dressing," a sexual aberration.

    The roles of women who were not young or so very womanly were played by the older male actors.  For instance, this may be why Shakespeare's three witches in "Macbeth" have beards.

     

    Sources:
    http://www.folger.edu/template.cfm?cid=862

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    Posted by mwestwood on Saturday September 26, 2009 at 3:45 PM

  2. hi1954
    hi1954 Teacher

    eNotes Editor

    Excellent answer.  One other reason for the prohibition is that society tended to assume women in acting groups were prostitutes.  Partly this was a prejudice based on the travelling of acting troupes, and on a sort of fear and superstition involving the power of women to bewitch the mind.  A woman who could so easily change her appearance and sway people to believe the character was viewed with alarm by many in this era.  Earlier in European history there were women actors (actresses, actually), but in the early modern age this changed in many parts of Europe.  Of course, some actresses who were prostitutes or of what was considered "loose morals" did not help the situation.  Male actors were not usually looked on very favorably before this time, either, and considered persons of low morals and dissolute character, and often viewed as thieves and wastrels.

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    Posted by hi1954 on Saturday September 26, 2009 at 10:43 PM