The Use of Orientalism in the Drama of Elizabeth Inchbald

Throughout the eighteenth century, interest in the East continued to flourish and incentives to travel there increased. As colonial expansion grew, the middle class began touring abroad with their entire families. Returning home full of excitement from their adventures in exotic places, they felt compelled to publish travel books and to share what they had seen. The materials and interpretations of the East that appeared in the travel books captured the imagination of numerous writers in England and created a large body of literature in which the Orient was the background. One of these writers was Elizabeth Simpson Inchbald. This study closely analyzed three of her plays (The Mogul Tale, Such Things Are, and Wise Man of the East) to show how the Orient influenced her writing and to determine how accurate her depiction of the East was. Results of this investigation indicated that Mrs. Inchbald probably got exposed to Oriental literature from her study of the French language and literature. The French were the first to translate Oriental literature. Even though none of Mrs. Inchbald\u27s plays were translations, several Oriental elements were included, such as character names, settings, and customs