Epicene or The Silent Drag Queen ;)

Before I start, I think something needs to be said about the enormous talent of Ben Jonson, creating such crazy and fun characters is quite the task; specifically in this play there are Morose & Mute and La Foole, who are my favourites. La Foole is all together seen as quite funny though Jonson presents him as a very arrogant man. He constantly refers to his wealth and excess which in most instances it can be seen as annoying, but Jonson gives him the curse of often being misunderstood. By having this flaw La Foole is not seen as above the other character’s stations but rather it lowers him down to the same level as the others.

Morose and Mute are by far my favourites in this play; Morose who is absolutely neurotic about noise that he has his servants (ie. Mute) walk around in socks and communicate without words to spare him to pain of noise. This ridiculous behaviour leads him to expect silence from a wife, since others adjust themselves to his wishes. It is interesting that he finds the ideal wife in Epicene, who is a boy dressed as a woman. Marriage is used as a tool for revenge by Morose, he wishes to marry any silent woman regardless of class, in order to cheat his nephew out of inheritance.  

In reference to another marriage, it is also interesting the method in which Mrs. Otter’s arrangement has (accepted) gender roles mixed. Mrs. Otter was married for her wealth and Tom (her husband) looks to her in order to be provided for, he even receives an allowance. As is viewed in other plays it is normally the other way around.

Another method that his play inverts the norms of marriage, is the ways that money is exchanged during a divorce as apposed to during a marriage. Normally there is a dowry exchanged during a marriage but Jonson inverts it for Dauphine to receive money (ie. his inheritance he was cheated from) once Morose wishes to leave his wife.

Overall this was a really good play; Jonson made it to the top of the most enjoyable reading of this term, a lot like he did last year with Bartholomew Fair.

-Matt

The Tragedy of Mariam

I, like a few others in the class, have already read this last year, but I seem to have forgotten most of it. Once the events unfolded I did remember reading it, but I could not, for the life of me, move past that point. Although now that I have read it a second time I really hope that I don’t lose it again because I liked it.

What I will focus on for this blog is: why is it that Mariam dies and Salome lives at the end? And what does this mean?

At first I found it a very hard question to wrap my mind around. Mariam, being presented as a good and chaste wife, is what society expects of her; while Salome is presented as this duplicitous and cunning woman, and is spared. I think that this is due to the fact, that when Herod returns Mariam stands up for herself, and no longer wants to be the good wife to Herod, and wishes to gain freedom from him. This is the really something that would need to be corrected in the society of the day, and as such she must die in the play. But Salome (upon looking deeply into her character) is smart in her rebellion against the male-ruled society. She assumes power over others and manipulates them in order to get what she wants. This attitude seems to be rewarded in the play. She reminds me, in many ways, of Alice (in the Arden of Faversham), but Alice is executed in the end, to right the wrongs that took place in the play, but here Salome is not. Perhaps Cary is giving a message that one needs to work the system (ie. be like a man) to benefit from it, but to simply object or stand up against it and the norms of society will get you killed.

** As a side note this play served a dual purpose for me since on Monday I have a test in one of my biblical studies classes. Hooray for killing two birds with one stone! (though I am apposed to the killing of birds).