“By its nature, the metropolis offers what otherwise could only be given to travel : namely the strange. » –Jane Jacobs. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay In The Roaring Girl and The Witch of Edmonton, the figure of the “other” emerges through the female characters' subversion of normative gender roles. Furthermore, it could be argued that urban space serves to congratulate this break with gender expectations. As evidenced by the differing treatments of Moll Cutpurse and Elizabeth Sawyer; both are examples of aberrant female behavior by Jacobean standards, but Moll resides in the city and appears as the triumphant hero, while Elizabeth inhabits a rural space and is punished as a villain. Another argument can also be made that the otherness of these characters does not come from their gendered defiance, but rather from their inferior social position and the power they retain despite their inferior position. A key point, which merits further exploration, is that the characters of Moll and Elizabeth express not only the gender anxiety, but also the class anxiety that was emerging in the growing cosmopolitanism of the seventeenth century. Judith Butler has described the genre as a series of "performative acts". ”, citing the act of slipping or cross-dressing as a performance tool through which the audience begins to “see sex and gender denaturalized by means of a performance that confesses their distinctness and dramatizes…their manufactured unity.” »[1] Dekker also filters. the norms of Jacobean gender politics through a “performative act” associated with appearance. For Dekker's contemporaries, cross-dressing was highly controversial and often seen as a sign of corrupted femininity. King James famously issued an edict to the clergy of London to preach "against the insolence of our women, and their wearing of broad-brimmed hats, and pointed doublets." , their hair cut short or shorn and some of them wear stilettos and daggers. »[2] It is therefore no coincidence that Moll distinguishes himself primarily as the “other” through his masculine attire. Unlike most characters, Dekker uses detailed stage directions to describe Moll's dress, "a frieze jacket and a black guard", emphasizing the importance of Moll's dress to her characterization. She is distinguished from the other characters by the difference in her clothing, and it is her clothing which constitutes the true locus of her alienation. She is stripped of her femininity and becomes simply “a creature” or “a monster.” Throughout Act 2, Scene 1, Moll is separated from the discussions of the gallants or merchants, except when they want to gossip about her or attempt to deceive her. Characterizing her as a figure of fascination and alienation. Moll is constantly questioned not only by the audience watching The Roaring Girl, but also by the audience she has in the room. It can be argued that this performance of Moll can only work within the confines of the city, in which she has the merchant and tradespeople she needs to create and maintain her costume. This effort is especially evident in Moll's first introductory scene, in which we see her take great care in purchasing clothes and accessories. Therefore, through Moll's costume – a feature that has important theatrical associations – Dekker presents her as an outsider to her own gender and an outsider who can only survive within the confines of urban space. From theSimilarly, The Witch of Edmonton explores an alternative femininity. However, unlike The Roaring Girl, the other woman is framed through the lens of witchcraft rather than cross-dressing. Although the confusion of masculine attributes with the unconventional woman also remains a significant conceit in the play. Orgel argues that "witches, although embodying what was conceived as a specifically feminine propensity toward wickedness, were also regularly accused of being unfeminine or androgynous." »[3] Elizabeth Sawyer, like Moll Cutpurse, can be interpreted as a figure of the non-feminine due to her presentation in juxtaposition with Susan Carter, who embodies the ideal 17th-century woman. Susan is young, beautiful and rich, while Elizabeth is "poor, deformed and ignorant". It is notable that when she questions Old Banks' identification as a witch, "Do you call me witch?" he replies: “Yes, witch, I do; and worse still, I knew a more odious name. Elizabeth is initially identified as a witch, not because she practices this profession, but because, within the small society of Edmonton, her position as an unfeminine woman defies any other classification. This false identification is further compounded by the claustrophobic environment of the village. The majority of characters featured exhibit prior knowledge of "The Witch of Edmonton" and thus there is little room for individual reinvention within the community. Later, when Elizabeth adopts the identity of a witch, it could be argued that, like Moll, she engages in a series of Butler's “performative acts” that serve to subvert her cultural boundaries. Similar to Moll, Elizabeth also alters her appearance, although she does so by harming her own body by sealing her pact with the devil (in the form of the dog) with blood. Highlighting the break with normality, Elizabeth even defies the traditions of her body by bringing what should remain physically inside and presenting it outside. Likewise, Elizabeth also acquires a familiar in the form of the dog and learns Latin incantations, symbols that signify witchcraft and sinful habits to the Jacobean audience. Furthermore, it is through these "deeds" that Elizabeth is able to take revenge on her neighbors, because through them she harms their crops and, in the case of Anne Ratcliffe, drives them mad. Ultimately, Elizabeth fulfills all the stereotypes associated with witches, an emblematic figure of subversive femininity. It could nevertheless be argued that Moll and Elizabeth are not “other” because of its alternative gender presentation, but because they are characters who occupy alternative positions. socio-economic which cannot be classified into the categories of the Jacobean class system. Cross-dressing between women and men was not as seen by the Jacobeans as a sin as some sources (such as the letter of King James) would lead one to believe. First, there was no sumptuary law prohibiting men's clothing. In fact, the only laws regarding clothing that existed in the 17th century prohibited the wearing of silk and velvet unless one was descended from the nobility, suggesting that Dekker's contemporaries were far more concerned about the lower classes becoming pass for the upper classes only by women appearing dressed like men. ] Furthermore, androgynous women were highly eroticized: "The Elizabethan ideal, at least of aristocratic femininity, was what we would call boyish and what they called feminine: thin hips and flat chest." »[5] This sexualization of transvestite women is very eroticized. evident in Laxton's desire to seduce Moll andSebastian Wengrave's sexual arousal like the sight of his fiancée Mary dressed as a page, "I think a woman's lips taste good in a doublet." Thus, although cross-dressing women remain an outsider through their performative act of imitating masculinity, they are offered a certain degree of acceptance, albeit highly erotically charged, from patriarchal society. What many critics have found most interesting about Moll's historical inspiration is "not her successful manipulation of gender codes but her ability to manipulate them within her own class." »[6] Within the Roaring Girl, Moll occupies a liminal space between classes, as is evident. thanks to its ease of movement through the different urban spaces presented in the piece. In her introductory scene, the audience sees her passing from each merchant's shops to the next, an action with which only the other valiants also exhibit, while the merchants remain in the bourgeois and domestic spaces of their shops. In other scenes, Moll occupies more rural, rawer spaces like Gray's Inn Field and, in contrast, the house of Sir Alexander Wengrave, a space associated with the aristocracy. In each, Moll exudes ease and power, thanks to her victory over Laxton in a duel and her foiling of Sir Alexander and Trapdoors' plot to stop her. It is particularly notable that Moll's opponents are presented as powerful men and, in Sir Alexander's case, powerful fathers, thus placing her in complete antagonism with the iconic figures of patriarchy. However, she is not entirely triumphant in her opposition as an element of patriarchal control is placed over Moll's characterization through her decision not to marry, thus ending her lineage. Which serves as a balm for him, because his defiance of cultural norms cannot be continued through inheritance. Ultimately, it was Moll's blurring of class boundaries that reflected some of the anxieties of the time and the threat that the upper classes perceived in the growing middle class that was beginning to wield considerable power and erode structures long-established patriarchal power structures. an outsider, not because she is actually a witch, but because she defies Edmonton's regimented class system. After making a deal with the Devil, he reveals that he cannot allow Elizabeth to "revenge" by killing Old Banks because "he loves the world/And is charitable to the poor." This failure to fulfill her position as a witch is even more evident in her continued mispronunciation of the Latin spell that the dog teaches, and for which Cuddy Banks mocks her throughout their exchange in Act 2, Scene 1. The “acts” by which Elizabeth frames her new identity operate only on a purely superficial level and do little to characterize her as the “other” since she arguably already occupied this position before the action. of the play, due to his social position in Edmonton. Who is characterized as being deeply hierarchical and conservative, as evidenced by Old Carter's wish to "spare the mastery, call me John Carter." Master is a title that my father, and he before him, did not know” and his distaste for city wedding ceremonies, preferring “bread, beer and beef – yeomen fare, we have no rickshaws, complete dishes, entire bellies.” Additionally, this concern for tradition shown by the characters is often associated with land - Old Thorney needs Frank to marry Susan to get her dowry so they can afford to keep their land and Somerton is seen as a better match of marriage than Warbeck because “..141