Elizabeth Act Of Uniformity Analysis

The Act of Uniformity: Elizabeth’s Plea

Elizabeth (1998) portrays England in the mid-1500s. The main character, Queen Elizabeth (Cate Blanchett), has been handed the crown after the death of her Catholic half-sister, Queen Mary. During her reign, Queen Elizabeth has many setbacks: for example, she refuses to marry and wants to change England’s single faith, both of which cause conflict between her and Parliament, who were members of the Catholic Church. Within the film, Elizabeth delivers a speech to the clergy, asking them to pass the Act of Uniformity, which would create a single Church of England. She wished to create a middle road, hoping that it would allow her subjects to live in peace with each other while restoring Protestantism as

One example is ethos: Elizabeth refers to the people of England as “her own” multiple times. This constant reminder adds to her character and credibility as Queen. In the beginning of the speech, Elizabeth asks the clergy to pass this Act not for herself, but for the good of her people, “who are [her] only care.” This alludes to her character, making it seem as if she really does care for the people, and that this Act is proof of that. It gives Parliament a reason to trust her, and it makes her seem more motherly and as if she is just a normal person trying to do the right thing for those she cares

The Queen uses many illustrations of this in her argument to appeal to their emotion. When the clergymen express that it would all be solved if she would marry, she combats their argument with “aye, but marry who, Your Grace?” Elizabeth wittingly states that she cannot satisfy all of them because of their inability to agree on one suitor, therefore maybe she should just marry more than one. This causes eruptive laughter from the crowd of clergymen, and she draws off of that throughout the rest of the speech. When accused of “making fun of the sanctity of marriage” by a member of Parliament, the Queen exposes his judgment clearly to the crowd in an amusing tone, reminding him that he should not ridicule her because he is the one who has been divorced twice and is now on his third marriage. She then quickly ends the speech by giving them a sense of social responsibility, commenting that the peace and future happiness of the realm is on their shoulders.

The Queen’s speech was effective. She used each of the appeals successfully and in many different ways. By this, Elizabeth convinced the clergy to vote for her Act of Uniformity, and in the end, they passed it by 5 votes. Because the Queen used each of these appeals well, the clergy trusted her character, understood her logic, and connected with her through humor. This gave them ample reason to pass her Act in, which was the purpose of her