Thesis advisor: Caroline Bicks / Routinely recognized as deeply patriarchal, early modern England is an era in which men and characteristics of the male gender are assumed to have held unrelenting sway over their female counterparts. This description is largely justifiable, particularly given the era's legal codes. However, this thesis seeks to enrich discussions on early modern England by examining its male-female relationships through a markedly different lens. By highlighting the close relationships that existed alongside patriarchal mandates in the era - husband and wife, father and daughter, mother and son - a fuller portrait of the period is sketched. Through an examination of how a variety of genres - medical, religious, and dramatic - grappled with moments of union between the two sexes, particularly physical union and its concurrent or resultant emotional bonds, this thesis offers greater insight into how walls to male-female connection were both raised and bridged in the time period. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2008. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: English. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

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The Winter’s Tale (1611) and The Tempest (1611) are two of Shakespeare’s romances, written under the patronage of James I of England. While Shakespeare’s history plays have received extensive critical attention regarding their political commentaries, these have not. History raises political questions by nature; however, it is also important to look at the political dimensions of Shakespeare’s fictional rulers. The Winter’s Tale’s Leontes, and The Tempest’s Prospero, because of their invented natures, allow the playwright to explore contemporary political crises or questions with more freedom than history allows. Shakespeare’s political exploration of these men involves assessing their fitness to rule, comparing their transformations to texts concerning kingship, such James’s political treatises. These texts raise the possibility that Shakespeare is similarly investigating a model of the ideal king. Looking at the elements of power, knowledge, and patriarchy, my thesis focuses on what Shakespeare is suggesting about ideal rule and the ruler.

This thesis considers The Winter's Tale and The Tempest as William Shakespeare's last great plays which foster re-enchantment for an age suffering spiritual disenchantment. Chapter 1 identifies a critical context for studying these between theological studies of the arts and literary-critical studies of Shakespeare and religion. Section 1 surveys David Brown's work on religious enchantment and imagination through the arts. Section 2 takes in literary criticism's turn to Shakespeare and religion. Section 3 explores recent theological studies of theatre and Shakespeare. Section 4 revives overlooked criticism from religious poets of the past. Chapter 2 introduces a progression of theoretical constructs that revitalize these plays as spiritually re-enchanting. Section 1 looks at affect theory as a means to understand the body-spirit relationship in the context of performance. Section 2 draws on Scott Crider's reading of The Winter's Tale as the performance of a complete ethical rhetoric demanding both theatrical and mythical interpretations. Section 3 expands T. G. Bishop's study of the theatre of wonder as Shakespeare's affective convergence of reason and emotion. Section 4 builds on the preceding sections to re-establish Renaissance alchemy as the most directive evidence for reading these plays as spiritually re-enchanting. Chapter 3 is my reading of The Winter's Tale. I argue that a wondrous, alchemical reading of the play suggests Hermione dies and is bodily resurrected in the last scene. Paulina's alchemical art is cryptic, but the resolution is a corporate miracle that re-enchants the audience through the awakening of faith. Chapter 4 is my reading of The Tempest. I identify Prospero as an all-powerful and benevolent alchemist who, instead of imposing vengeance on everyone within his control, at the end relinquishes his potent art in exchange for the less certain but greater spiritual enchantment of redemption through the free and loving act of forgiveness.

This essay explores the adaptation process in ​The Gap of Time ​by Jeanette Winterson, a novel basedon​TheWinter’sTaleb​yWilliamShakespeare.Itisadiscussionandanalysisofthe novel; put in contrast to the play, and an exploration of the different emerging elements and themes in ​The Gap of Time.​ The most prevalent themes in the novel are abandonment, the power of jealousy, and alienation leading to self-invention. By exploring the novel in light of adaptation theories this essay will illustrate how Winterson exposes these themes. A comparative reading of the play and the novel makes it possible to discover various points in the plot where the adaptation process contributes to a different perspective on some of the characters in the story. In addition, the author has a personal connection to abandonment and loss due to being adopted as a child. This may also influence the narrative in the novel. Whilst jealousy is primarily focused upon in the play, the novel uses abandonment as its driving force instead, which is what this essay is focusing on. This in turn leads to self-invention as a tool to cope with loss, as expressed in the novel. Arguably there are other perspectives arising from the major themes, such as alienation and to some extent faith, which is also mentioned in this essay. In conclusion, the divergence between the novel and the play is fundamentally seen in character development. / Denna uppsats har för avsikt att utforska adaptionsprocessen i “The Gap of Time” av Jeanette Winterson som är en adaption av “The Winter’s Tale” av William Shakespeare. Det är en diskussion och analys av romanen, i jämförelse med pjäsen, samt ett utforskande av tematiska inslag i “The Gap of Time”. De mest allmänt förekommande inslagen är exempelvis övergivenhet, hur svartsjuka påverkar oss, samt främlingskap och självuppfyllande. Genom att utforska romanen i ljuset av olika adaptionsteorier så har uppsatsen som syfte att genomlysa hur Winterson fångar dessa olika tematiska inslag i sitt narrativ. En komparativ läsning av romanen och pjäsen gör det möjligt att upptäcka olika vändpunkter i berättandet som gör att läsaren får ett annat perspektiv på de olika karaktärerna. Det skall tilläggas att författaren har en personlig referens till övergivenhet eftersom hon själv är adopterad. Detta kan ha påverkat berättandet i romanen. Det drivande tematiska inslaget i pjäsen är svartsjuka, men i romanen är övergivenhet det som står i centrum, vilket denna uppsats främst handlar om. Detta i sin tur leder till självuppfyllande som ett verktyg för att hantera en förlust eller övergivenhet, vilket framgår i romanen. Min tes är att det också växer fram andra perspektiv ur de tematiska inslagen, så som främlingskap och religiös övertygelse, vilket också nämns i denna uppsats. Slutsatsen är att den grundläggande avvikelsen mellan romanen och pjäsen främst ses i förändringsprocessen hos de olika karaktärerna i berättelsen.

The allegorical representations of authority that reveal themselves in Shakespeare’s work mirror the political landscape of Elizabethan and Jacobean England. As the audience witnesses these reflections they inherently use them to craft an interpretation of the contemporary political and social world. Yet, Shakespeare’s allegorical representations do not simply reflect the political landscape; instead these representations reflect a distortion of reality crafted by Shakespeare. These distortions demonstrate the ability of performance to play a role in the historiographic process, and they illuminate the role of the artist in the shaping of history and memory.

Structures of feeling represent the interaction between personal lived experience and fixed social values and meanings, which are found in interpretations of works of art. Studying various interpretations of any play in performance can provide a point of access into a culture because the choices made in the production can be compared to each other and to the written text and then reveal how the theatrical company views particular issues within their own time period. This study looks at productions of The Winter's Tale between 1981 and 2002 at the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Using numerous versions of this play not only increases the depth of our understanding of the play but also reveals how the actors and directors interact with British culture. Each production reveals a director's vision for the production as well as his or her own experience within the culture. Some issues and ideas that are reflected in these interpretations include both optimism and cynicism with regard to the political situation and public figures, an increase in spectacle, and secularization.

此論文檢視莎士比亞《冬天的故事》中里昂提斯的妒忌，辯證其顯示出了英國文藝復興時期，陽剛身分建構本身的問題性。在誘勸波西米亞國王延長拜訪的結果中，里昂提斯敗給了他的妻子赫美溫妮，他雄辯技巧上的弱勢也讓他的男性尊嚴受損；而赫美溫妮當初對於里昂提斯求婚的延遲回覆，以及本劇中的語言的模糊性引發了他的猜忌，進而帶來了陽剛身分的崩解。除了辯才外，此論文也探討私通的焦慮，其為英國近代早期陽剛身分建構下所暗藏的隱憂。這樣的焦慮引發他不理性的行為以及對妻子貞潔的誤判。為了重建他的聲望，里昂提斯擅用審判來保留駕馭妻子的絕對權力，並恢復他受損的名聲。儘管本劇稍後轉向以年輕一代為主軸，似乎象徵著新的轉變，然而在赫美溫妮復甦後，里昂提斯機智卻又令人感到不安的沉默，反映出他始終無法接受私通焦慮所帶來的汙名。此論文以辯才與私通來檢視莎士比亞《冬天的故事》中的陽剛特質，並以歷史與文化的文獻來佐證。期許能夠闡明英國文藝復興時期所困擾男性的陽剛焦慮，並且辯證主角里昂提斯的妒忌並不是無從解釋的情緒爆發，而是文藝復興陽剛身分建構下不可避免的集體產物。 / This thesis argues that Leontes’ jealousy manifests the problematic construction of masculine identity in Renaissance England. Leontes’ rhetorical inferiority to Hermione in the persuasion work resulted in his injured masculinity, which is exacerbated by the ambiguity of language in the play and Leontes’ sour memories of Hermione’s late acceptance to his marriage proposal, all of which sparkle Leontes’ jealousy and stimulate the collapse of his masculinity. Aside from rhetorics, this thesis also examines the anxiety of cuckoldry, a pre-existent, latent apprehension inherent in the construction of masculinity in early modern England. This anxiety leads to his unreasonable behavior and misjudgment. In order to rebuild his reputation, Leontes appropriates the public trial to retain absolute dominance over his wife and restore his stained honor. While the shift of the play’s focus to the younger generation signals a revision, Leontes’ tactful yet disturbing silence after Hermione’s resurrection reflects his resurfaced masculinity in the context of marriage and his inability to come to terms with the stigma of cuckoldry anxiety. Leontes’ jealousy is triggered by his lack of rhetorical skills essential to male confidence, a lack which is brutally magnified by his wife’s impeccable eloquence; his following accusation of Hermione’s adultery is precipitated and irrevocably executed by his fear of rumor and cuckoldry prevalent in his time. This thesis aims to shed light on the issue of Renaissance masculine anxiety and prove that Leontes’ jealousy is not just an unexplainable outburst of emotion, but rather an inevitably collective product of the construction of Renaissance masculine identity.

This dissertation examines early modern literary engagements with the rhetorical and ethical dimensions of law reform. One of the most important mechanisms of social regulation in late-Elizabethan and early-Jacobean England, law reform was a matter of, first, the “perfection” of the organization and expression of existing laws, legal instruments, and legal processes. However counter-intuitively, these officially-sponsored reforms were calculated to prevent more radical innovations that would generate “inconveniences,” systemic contradictions and uncertainties that threatened the law’s ability to produce just results. Second, law reformers generated a discourse on “execution” that targeted the character of legal representatives. This tradition of character criticism, delivered directly from the Lord Keeper’s mouth or circulated through other legal-political, literary, theatrical, didactic, and religious works, encouraged officers’ conscientious execution of their duties and alerted the English public to the signs of the abuse of authority. Law reform created a distinct critical orientation toward legal and governing activities that was reproduced throughout a system of justice in which an extraordinary number of subjects participated. It was a critical orientation, moreover, that was refracted in literature sensitive to the implications of the socio-political dominance of legal language, traditions, and officers. The principles and practices of law reform—along with the conflicts and anxieties that inspired and sprang from them—were appropriated by amateur and professional writers alike. Close readings reveal that Inns-of-Court revellers, Francis Bacon, John Donne and Shakespeare all engaged deeply with the potential, as well as the ethical and practical limitations, of law reform’s central role in local and national governance. In the Gesta Grayorum and Donne’s “Satyre V,” the reveller and the satiric speaker improvise on legal forms to compensate for the law’s imperfections that threaten the security and prosperity of the English subject. In Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure and The Winter’s Tale, the character of the legal-political officer and reformer is tested as he attempts to put policies and principles into practice.