How do Shakespeare's plays reflect the cultural, social, and political conditions of the Elizabethan Age ?

A recurring theme, especially in his comedies, was love
and marriage.  Shakespeare reflected the culture and society of his day (and how it was
changing) through his examination of the ways in which his characters decided or gained
permission to marry and the ways in which love affected this
choice.

In Shakespeare's day, love was still pretty
inconsequential a factor when it came to marriage.  For the most part, marriages were
still arranged by families as a sort of business deal or, if the families were important
enough, a political alliance.

Love was not, generally
speaking, the motivating force for marriage in the world around Shakespeare, yet in many
of his plays (and most all of his comedies) lovers are attempting to defy parential or
societal conventions and make their own decisions about whom they will marry based upon
love and not social or political connection.  This was a very new idea at the end of the
16th and beginning of the 17th century, and, as such, was a fascinating subject for
Shakespeare to examine in his plays.

Some of the examples
of this in the plays that jump out are Romeo and Juliet in the play of the same title,
Lysander and Hermia in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Helena and
Bertram in All's Well That Ends Well (in this case, Helena tries to
manipulate political connections in order to marry for love), Valentine and Silvia in
The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Othello and Desdemona in
Othello, and Bianca and Lucentio in The Taming of the
Shrew.  The list could go on, but this gives you an idea of how pervasive the
theme of marrying for love versus social convention was in Shakespeare's
plays.