Knauss, Elizabeth Patricia2022-12-092022-12-092014https://udspace.udel.edu/handle/19716/31631By combining the fields of literary analysis, rhetorical studies, gender studies, and theatre history, this project argues for a comprehensive understanding of breeches and travesty roles in Restoration and Early 18th Century comic drama. The majority of the past scholars on this topic, from John Harold Wilson (1958) to Pat Rogers (1982) to Elizabeth Howe (1992), have argued that breeches and travesty characters of this time were one-dimensional roles whose only purpose was to sexually excite male audience members and thereby increase paid audience attendance. A closer examination of the theatrical costuming practices of this time, in conjunction with the persuasive language and actions of these characters and the actresses who played them, reveals a far more complicated situation. When dressed as women, these actresses and characters are frequently rhetorically impotent, unable to affect those around them in a way conducive to their own happiness. But when dressed as men, these women, both the actresses and the characters they play, become powerfully persuasive, thereby taking control of their own lives to ensure their future happiness. ☐ Chapter One reviews current scholarship on this topic to demonstrate the serious lack of judicious evaluation of these roles. Further, Chapter One explains the rationale for a sophistic frame for rhetorical analysis, as well as the rationale for focusing on theories of gender performance. Chapter One also details the theatrical costume history of the period and hypothesizes potential costuming choices for these characters. Chapter Two explores ten plays of this time period that feature unmarried virgins who cross-dress; typically, these heroines disguise themselves to ensure their domestic happiness and secure marriages of their choosing. An analysis of these roles reveals the importance of establishing a male friendship before a romantic attachment for these women. Chapter Three takes a similar approach as Chapter Two, but focuses on nine plays with women who have been seduced or women who are already married. In these instances, the societal constraints that were designed to protect these women have failed them, resulting in loss of reputation or desperately unhappy and sometimes dangerous marriages. These women cross-dress in order to regain control over their own lives despite their precarious positions. Finally, Chapter Four examines historically significant instances of travesty roles (roles that are male characters but have been performed by actresses, whether intended by the playwright or not). In addition to these travesty roles, Chapter Four also explores instances of all-female productions of plays; there is evidence of at least four all-female productions in London during this time, and speculation of more. Chapter Four argues that the decision to stage these plays with only actresses significantly impacts the production and meaning of these plays. Through analysis of cross-dressed casting, Chapter Four recovers the power the actresses had in the theater and their impact on London theatre history. By taking an interdisciplinary approach, this project corrects the historical narrative and asserts the possibilities of gender questioning and female empowerment on the Restoration and early 18th Century stage.Travesty roleRestorationCostume historyBreeches roleThesis1350917393https://doi.org/10.58088/1t4e-7r412022-08-11en