Jonson and women; or how one man's insistence on his own artistic theory challenges dramatic practices and views of his own gender representations on the Elizabethan stage

TLDR: Hayses as mentioned in this paper analyzed the female characters in the plays Jonson wrote during the Elizabethan period and revealed what prevailing scholarship has missed in Jonson's work: his individuated and layered characterizations of women, his playful use of gender and use of playful gender, his destabilization of gender as an identity category.

Abstract: JONSON AND WOMEN; OR, HOW ONE MAN’S INSISTENCE ON HIS OWN ARTISTIC THEORY CHALLENGES DRAMATIC PRACTICES AND VIEWS OF HIS OWN GENDER REPRESENTATIONS ON THE ELIZABETHAN STAGE by TARA J. HAYES December 2010 Advisor: Dr. Arthur Marotti Major: English (Literature) Degree: Doctor of Philosophy Literary scholars consider Jonson’s treatment of women “uninspiring” and “misogynistic.” Surprisingly enough, however, there are no studies of Jonson’s women to verify this categorization. This dissertation addresses the oversight, analyzing the female characters in the plays Jonson wrote during the Elizabethan period and revealing what prevailing scholarship has missed in Jonson’s work: his individuated and layered characterizations of women, his playful use of gender and use of playful gender, his destabilization of gender as an identity category. With each play and each female character Jonson created as guides, I dismantle the standard consensus on Jonson and women and challenge the generalizations limited focus on and analysis of his texts continues to perpetuate. Attention to his representations of women is not only relevant but long overdue. The texts themselves reward that attention: in description and in detail, with the idiosyncratic speech and behavior patterns, the dramatic women differ recognizably from one another and