Sample Solution

Copyright’ simply did not exist. Any form of writing could have been appropriated, edited or shaped to fit the idealised viewpoint of the editor, before it is exchanged. This was the adoption of shared culture. I suggest, that because of this ‘shared culture’, it is incredible that Elizabeth could be questioning rigid, accepted gender roles. As the most read woman of her period, her participation in this ‘shared culture’ demonstrates the significance of the Queen’s role for women writers. It is also important to remember is that, for Elizabeth, ‘only three poems – all written before she became queen – were published (without Elizabeth’s permission) during her life; the rest circulated in manuscript, some during her life, others after’. This is common with many Renaissance texts, and so one cannot fully dismiss this exchange of these poems. As Herman suggests, ‘the attendant textual issues should not obscure either the degree of Elizabeth’s poetic accomplishment or the importance of her verse for understanding the dynamics of authority’ .

The dynamic of authority evidenced in this case is Elizabeth’s playful mocking of the courtier’s lack of innovation and imagination in his poetry addresses a bigger gender issue. Her assumption that Raleigh is hiding behind Petrarchan norms, (he’s ‘so sore afraid’ and ‘dismayed’) is a total reversal of gender roles, positioning the male lover’ as a weakened individual. Elizabeth is exposing Raleigh’s true motive for writing which lay behind the heavily-allegorical sonnets of the courtier. He was vulnerable male keen to preserve favouritism, and thus turned to the literary mode of flattery, with an abundance of friendly banter, to ensure a good relationship with his queen. She however, posits if Raleigh is too stubborn to ask for help as he uses the cloak of Petrarch to instead position the Queen as a mere lover. Marriage, a constant reminder to Elizabeth of her restricting femininity, would not allow her submission. Victor Von Klarwill for example accounts Baron Caspar Breuner as stating that Elizabeth would ‘rather go into a nunnery, or for that matter suffer death, than marry against her will’. Interestingly, one can postulate that this sonnet was either recited to a private audience at court or circulated through a manuscript – perhaps both. Conseq