Women In The Field Of British Drama Between The 16th-17th Centuries

The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were an important period in the development of English drama.With the change of the British society,the English religious drama gradually declined,and the drama became secularized and professional.The participation of British women in the field of drama in the 16 th and 17 th centuries was mainly embodied in the roles of performers,creators and audiences.As performers in the theater,women were mainly active in religious operas before the theater was specialized.After the professionalization of the theatre,women were replaced by boys on the professional stage,while the upper class women continued to play roles in court drama and courtyard drama.With the beginning and end of the English revolution,social consciousness and pattern also changed.First came the puritans,who came to power in 1642 and began an 18-year ban on the theatre,which led to the suspension of apprenticeships.In 1660,when the theatre reopened,there was a severe shortage of boys to serve as apprentices,and administrators had to consider using actresses again;In addition,male actors playing women also encountered a series of doubts;The tradition of audience acceptance of female performers had been revived;The returning monarch,Charles ii,borrowed from continental theater and offered an opportunity for women to return to professional theater.However,due to the influence of the mainstream discourse of patriarchy,women's status and roles in the field of drama had not been treated and evaluated fairly,but had been discriminated against like prostitutes.This inevitably overshadows the actress 'contribution.At the same time,humanistic education improved the literacy of some women in British society.In the English civil war,the abolition of censorship,the popularity of printing and the unprecedented activity of public opinion provided a way for women to speak out.Female playwrights participate in drama by translating plays or creatingcloset plays.In 1660,professional female playwrights were born in time.The works of female playwrights,led by Aphra Behn,came out one after another,creating a series of different heroines.In addition,as the audience in the drama,the consumption of women provided support for the further development of the drama.The most direct influence of women on the drama was mainly reflected in the two classes--the royal family and the aristocracy.On the one hand,queen Elizabeth's policy of legalizing drama clearly reflected the role and influence of the state on the development of drama,on the other hand,it can also be understood as the role of Elizabeth as the general representative and supreme representative of the audience.In this context,women from the upper class continued to support the development of the theatre as patrons.In short,British women in the 16 th and 17 th centuries promoted drama with a variety of roles.Drama also gives women more space and can be said to be an important place for women to exert their social influence in public activities.It enables women to gain access to the public sphere and become a tool for women to express themselves and criticize traditions.However,influenced by the deep-rooted social gender pattern,women still regarded it as their own code of conduct,so there were certain limitations in their understanding of women.In addition,the British theatre stage in the restoration period was closely combined with sex because of the appearance of actresses.The actress became the embodiment of desire,which was actually the exploitation of women,making women commercialized and materialized and became the representative of sex.