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Shakespeare and sex in the 16th century [infographic]

Sex was far from simple in 16th century England. Shakespeare himself wed a woman eight years his senior, a departure from the typical ages of both partners. While some of his characters follow the common conventions of Elizabethan culture (male courtship and the “transfer” of a woman from the care of her father to her husband), others show marked indifference toward appropriate gender roles and sexuality. His plays feature strong-willed and sexually-driven women, cross-dressing, and subtle homosexual relationships, most notably Coriolanus and Aufidius in Coriolanus and Rosalind and Celia in As You Like It. His narrative poetry, namely Venus and Adonis, and his Sonnets are at times highly erotic and involve homosexuality, desire, and sexual love. His work demonstrates that tradition is never as established or inflexible as we think.

ELR_ShakespeareSex_110415 UPDATED FINAL

Download the infographic as a PDF or JPG.

Featured Image: “Olivia, Maria and Malvolio from “Twelfth Night,” Act III, Scene iv” by Johann Heinrich Ramberg (1789). Yale Center for British Art. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

Recent Comments

  1. […] Professor Bradac and we wanted to share a quick article on Shakespeare, sex, and marriage. […]

  2. Early Foxford

    Shake-speare (as it appears some-times) suggests a pen-name that suggests a bawdy joke – the author who is “shaking his spear (wink-wink)” at those who he is lampooning (and who must conceal his identity to preserve their own reputations)

  3. Bob Walters

    Coriolanus/Aufidius?! Strange that I have often read Coriolanus and other plays referenced, even taught a few, and while recognizing bawdiness of the period, see only comaraderie or friendship without coloring it with sexual interest.

  4. […] are getting steamy…. Oup Blog looks at “Shakespeare and Sex in the 16th […]

  5. Larry Schwartz

    Can I get permission to reprint this for use as a bookmark that my library would distribute to students?

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