Shakespeare worked in a rapidly growing London under Elizabeth I and James I. Public theatres gathered apprentices, merchants, visitors, aristocrats, and labourers in a shared but socially divided space.
The playhouse
The Globe used daylight, a thrust stage, limited scenery, music, costumes, and language capable of changing location in seconds. Female roles were performed by boys or young men, making gender both a social rule and a visible theatrical construction.
Religion and politics
The Reformation, succession anxiety, censorship, plague closures, overseas expansion, and theories of monarchy all entered the imaginative atmosphere. Context clarifies pressure points, but no single fact “explains” a whole play.