ABSTRACT
From the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries, Elizabeth I has been presented to popular audiences in a variety of literary, dramatic, and cinematic modes, but these representations have been typically unsuccessful in acknowledging both the political challenges Elizabeth faced as well as the personal and emotional aspects of her life. This is particularly evident when we consider the depictions of Elizabeth as a young princess and in the very early years of her reign. One mode is to portray Elizabeth as capable and wise beyond her years, but devoid of any personal and emotional life, an icon of power rather than a human being. The other presentation of her, alternatively, is as a weak, flighty, romantic young woman who cannot possibly take care of herself, let alone her people. Early modern representations of Elizabeth, particularly John Foxe’s Acts and Monuments (1563) and Thomas Heywood’s play, If You Know Not Me You Know Nobody (1605) focus on the prudent, political Elizabeth, while twentieth-century films, such as Young Bess (1953) and Elizabeth (1998) emphasize a romanticized, even highly sexualized, young woman. Since the historical record has revealed a young Elizabeth who had to learn at an early age how to negotiate both personal and political terrain not only to become an able ruler but even to survive, we must ask why the depictions aimed at a broad audience have been unable to fully realize a more complex Elizabeth, and what this suggests about public attitudes toward powerful women both in Elizabeth’s age and our own.
