Staging Sex or Fighting Foreignness? Marlowe's Edward II as Xenophobic Drama

<p>Christopher Marlowe’s drama <em>Edward II</em> has long been known for its representation of a close male, arguably homosexual, friendship between King Edward II and his favorite, the French Piers Gaveston, as well as their union’s negative effects on the court. Indeed much criticism exists on the common belief that the characters’ relationship is problematic in early modern England both because the two characters are male and because there is an obvious class divide. However, critics have seemed to overlook Gaveston’s being French, even in light of the massive immigration to England during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. This paper examines Marlowe’s play as a xenophobic portrayal of a Frenchman and as a shrewdly reactionary push against immigrants from Catholic nations. To achieve this goal, Marlowe stages a play whose dealings are as political as they are sexual. Starting with Gaveston’s undue sense of power in the first act and ending with the king’s historically gruesome death-by-poker scene, <em>Edward II </em>leaves its audience aware that a life dedicated to a foreigner ultimately ends in death from a foreigner.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (MA)

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

English

Year dc:date.available

2015

Author dc:creator

• Baker, James D

Contributors dc:contributor

• Eric Tribunella
• Mark Dahlquist
• Jameela Lares

• nationalism
• xenophobia
• sexuality
• early modern drama
• Classics
• Comparative Literature
• English Language and Literature

Repository record dc:identifier

https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/152

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:aquila.usm.edu:masters_theses-1171