The accepted social mores of Elizabethan times are comparatively very different to those of the present day. Speaking generally, people's attitudes, ways of thinking, and expectations have diversified immensely for the better. Males and females are viewed differently by each other and by society in general, and have reached a level of equality never before encountered in earlier times. In Shakespeare's play, women are portrayed as being powerless in their own lives and in everything around them. Males seem to be the domineering and controlling sex. This way of thinking resulted in the inequality experienced over the years by women and men all over the world, and the subdivided roles of each sex.
             When we look at the present time, what are the socially accepted positions of males? We think firstly of the physically stronger sex and the sex relied upon to ensure his family's safety and well being, after that however, everything else isn't strictly male only territory. In Elizabethan times though, the role of ma male was strictly marked out and outlined to a T. Their aim was to marry, make obedient their wives, produce children, provide for him and his family, and then be waited upon hand and foot by their newly conquered possessions. Their pride and dignity mean the world to them, heaven forbid anyone try to rob them of that. Men were the leaders, the conquerors, the providers, 'thy lords'.
             The place of a woman is also well defined. A lady must be gentle and mild, obedient and well mannered, pretty, and loving of her great lord and master. Their place was to cook and clean, keep the house tidy, keep their husbands happy and content, and their children fed and in line. Women were merely pawns in a world so greatly ruled by Lords. Elizabethan women had little say in the running of their lives, and were treated as possessions given to the highest bidder in the battle for their own hand in marriage.
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