Changing Emotions in Early Modern Drama: Individual Agency and Social Frameworks

Student thesis: Doctoral ThesisDoctor of Philosophy

Abstract

In this thesis, I explore moments of emotional change in early modern drama in order to examine the frameworks that were used to conceptualise emotions at the time and to better understand the social construction of emotion in early modern drama and culture. I demonstrate that in these moments, when characters are shown intentionally changing their emotions or the emotions of others, early modern plays directly engage with a range of different cultural and conceptual frameworks which contributed to the early modern emotional experience. I bring specific frameworks and emotions together through close analysis of literary and non-literary texts, demonstrating, first, that individuals used such frameworks to achieve agency over their emotions and, second, that it was predominantly those in privileged social positions who were able to take advantage of these opportunities. Recognising the social restrictions on individual emotional change enables us to reassess those characters who fail to achieve it and to acknowledge that emotional change is dependent on individuals having the opportunity to utilise a range of socially defined emotional frameworks.

I analyse a variety of early modern plays and self-help texts, exploring the interactions between specific emotions and a diverse range of frameworks across four case studies. I begin with a chapter focusing on the humours and Galenic philosophy, looking at moments of change in Ben Jonson’s humour comedies and Coriolanus to argue that, as the humours became both a physical and social experience, it is those characters who society facilitates in achieving self-knowledge who are able to make sustained emotional change. In Chapter Two, I look to fear and temporality in Henry V, focusing on how fear is defined as a future event and how Henry’s supreme social elevation permits him to manipulate both time and fear with equal freedom. In Chapter Three, I focus specifically on the intersection between the female experience of love and materiality in Twelfth Night and The Changeling, in order to understand how greater material independence simultaneously enables greater emotional independence. Finally, in Chapter Four, I explore jealousy in the context of social-emotional ideologies of race, patriarchy and class in Othello. I analyse how jealousy was dependent on the relationship between these ideologies, imagination and reason, and explore how it is those characters in dominant social positions who can use ideologically engendered beliefs to manipulate both imagination and reason in order to successfully change jealousy. This thesis thereby demonstrates that moments of deliberate emotional change are dramatically, historically and socially important as points of interaction between individual agency and different social frameworks, each attempt to change also becoming a point of tension at which the possibilities and limitations of individual agency over emotions are more clearly exposed.
Date of Award1 Jun 2024
Original languageEnglish
Awarding Institution
  • King's College London
SupervisorLucy Munro (Supervisor) & Sarah Lewis (Supervisor)

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