The Performance of Identity in Selected Plays by Jonson, Etherege, Cibber, and Crown

ABSTRACT\ud THE PERFORMANCE OF IDENTITY IN SELECTED PLAYS BY\ud JONSON, ETHEREGE, CIBBER, AND CROWN\ud by\ud Connor J. Trebra\ud Master of Arts in English\ud California State University, Chico\ud Spring 2009\ud This study focuses on the performance of gender and social identities found in selected plays of the seventeenth-century theater. Primary texts include Jonson???s Epicoene and Bartholomew Fair, Cibber???s Love???s Last Shift, Crowne???s Sir Novelty Fashion, and Etherege???s The Man of Mode. The playwrights of the seventeenth and eighteenth century used theater to delight as well as to instruct and critique its audience members, English culture, and politics. While plays tended to uphold the status quo, portrayals of gender, especially masculinity, also subtly paved the way for changing cultural and societal roles. If gender is, as Judith Butler posits, performative, then gender as performed on the early all male seventeenth-century stage is particularly complex. Furthermore, although the later seventeenth-century introduced women actors to the stage, the complex layers of gender performance that we see in the character of both the libertine and the fop continued to both defend and challenge prevailing masculine standards. This thesis intends to discuss those defenses and challenges seen in the above\ud vii\ud plays in connection with class, gender, and power, and provide readings based on theories from Rom Harr??, Robert W. Connell, Thomas A. King, Andrew P. Williams, and others.CSU, Chic