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dc.contributor.advisorRhodes, Neil
dc.contributor.advisorSellers, Susan
dc.contributor.authorBenson, Fiona
dc.coverage.spatial401en
dc.date.accessioned2008-05-14T15:46:47Z
dc.date.available2008-05-14T15:46:47Z
dc.date.issued2008-06
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/478
dc.description.abstract‘The Ophelia Versions: Representations of a Dramatic Type from 1600-1633’ interrogates early modern drama’s use of the Ophelia type, which is defined in reference to Hamlet’s Ophelia and the behavioural patterns she exhibits: abandonment, derangement and suicide. Chapter one investigates Shakespeare’s Ophelia in Hamlet, finding that Ophelia is strongly identified with the ballad corpus. I argue that the popular ballad medium that Shakespeare imports into the play via Ophelia is a subversive force that contends with and destabilizes the linear trajectory of Hamlet’s revenge tragedy narrative. The alternative space of Ophelia’s ballad narrative is, however, shut down by her suicide which, I argue, is influenced by the models of classical theatre. This ending conspires with the repressive legal and social restrictions placed upon early modern unmarried women and sets up a dangerous precedent by killing off the unassimilated abandoned woman. Chapter two argues that Shakespeare and Fletcher’s The Two Noble Kinsmen amplifies Ophelia’s folk and ballad associations in their portrayal of the Jailer’s Daughter. Her comedic marital ending is enabled by a collaborative, communal, folk-cure. The play nevertheless registers a proto-feminist awareness of the peculiar losses suffered by early modern women in marriage and this knowledge deeply troubles the Jailer’s Daughter’s happy ending. Chapter three explores the role of Lucibella in The Tragedy of Hoffman arguing that the play is a direct response to Hamlet’s treatment of revenge and that Lucibella is caught up in an authorial project of disambiguation which attempts to return the revenge plot to its morality roots. Chapters four and five explore the narratives of Aspatia in The Maid’s Tragedy and Penthea in The Broken Heart, finding in their very conformism to the behaviours prescribed for them, both by the Ophelia type itself and by early modern society in general, a radical protest against the limitations and repressions of those roles. This thesis is consistently invested in the competing dialectics and authorities of oral and textual mediums in these plays. The Ophelia type, perhaps because of Hamlet’s Ophelia’s identification with the ballad corpus, proves an interesting gauge of each play’s engagement with emergent notions of textual authority in the early modern period.en
dc.format.extent1585000 bytes
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherUniversity of St Andrews
dc.rightsCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
dc.subjectEarly modern womenen
dc.subjectBallads and revenge tragedyen
dc.subjectMadness and suicideen
dc.subjectWilliam Shakespeareen
dc.subjectFrancis Beaumonten
dc.subjectJohn Forden
dc.subjectJohn Fletcheren
dc.subjectHenry Chettleen
dc.subject.lccPR658.W6B4
dc.subject.lcshOphelia (Fictitious character)en
dc.subject.lcshEnglish drama--17th century--History and criticismen
dc.subject.lcshWomen in literature--England--History--17th centuryen
dc.subject.lcshShakespeare, William, 1564-1616. Hamleten
dc.subject.lcshFletcher, John, 1579-1625. Two noble kinsmenen
dc.subject.lcshChettle, Henry, d. 1607? Tragedy of Hoffmanen
dc.subject.lcshBeaumont, Francis, 1584-1616. Maid's tragedyen
dc.subject.lcshFord, John, 1586-ca. 1640. Broken hearten
dc.titleThe Ophelia versions : representations of a dramatic type, 1600-1633en
dc.typeThesisen
dc.contributor.sponsorArts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)en
dc.type.qualificationlevelDoctoralen
dc.type.qualificationnamePhD Doctor of Philosophyen
dc.publisher.institutionThe University of St Andrewsen


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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported
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