Title: The dynamics of role-playing in Jacobean tragedy
First published: 1991
Description: Jacobean actors fascinated audiences with their convincingly mimetic performances; often they appeared to assume the identities of the fictional characters they impersonated. A similar dynamic emerges in several tragedies of the period, where dramatic characters are frequently changed--for better or worse--by the roles they adopt within the play illusion. This study discusses how certain plays of Jonson and Middleton reveal the destructive consequences of assuming new personae; how three of Shakespeare's tragedies explore the ambivalent results of characters' experimentation with roles; and how Webster and Ford treat role-playing (including ceremonial behavior) creatively, as a vehicle for expressing and consolidating the dramatic self.
Subjects: History and criticism, English drama, English drama (Tragedy), Role playing in literature, English drama, history and criticism, 17th century, Role playing, English drama, history and criticism, early modern and elizabethan, 1500-1600
Time periods: 17th century, Early modern and Elizabethan, 1500-1600