"Women have been taught that, for us, the earth is flat, and that if we venture out, we will fall off the edge." This particular feminist's belief, exposes a typical attitude that many women during the Elizabethan Era felt: restricted, dominated, and suppressed. John Knox stated in 1958 that a "Woman in her greatest perfection was made to serve and obey man", thus defining the term patriarchy. In a patriarchal society, the "authority in the family is vested in males through whom descent and inheritance are traced" (Ivan 00), and women are expected to conform to the social restrictions by demonstrating reverence and obedience to the males in their lives; they are merely commodities and dealt with as possessions. Shakespeare's tragic play, Romeo and Juliet, explores the effects of patriarchal authority exerted over women and the responses to it. Through Juliet, Lady Capulet, and the Nurse, he establishes...