Much Ado About Nothing\u27s Criticism of the Renaissance Patriarchy

Conventional beliefs during the Renaissance still supported unchallenged patriarchal rule. Male domestic treatise writers as well as male educators during the Renaissance prescribed silence as a necessary virtue for the ideal woman (Hull, Women 23). The most common rationale for women\u27s silence was religious, and men used Biblical examples - such as the story of creation, the story of the Fall, and the Proverbial descriptions of the good wife - to support their beliefs in women\u27s silence (Kelso 3). Men also prescribed obedience, chastity, and domesticity for women as a strategic method of preserving men\u27s limitless, unchallenged power (Hull, Women 23). Men kept women marginalized and silent to prevent any disturbances or threats to the patriarchy