'Oh London…. You have everything in you to make you the most beautiful, and everything in you to make you the most defiled: for you are dressed like a bride, attracting all who look at you to be in love with you, but there is many a harlot in you. your eyes. (Dekker).Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essayThe plays produced in the early 17th century marked a turning point in the representation of women in literature. Female sexuality and free will were beginning to be seriously explored due to the proto-capitalist urban economy providing more women with economic independence and therefore a greater degree of personal freedom. It could be argued that this is reflected in Dekker and Middleton's The Roaring Girl and their representation of womanhood through Moll Cutpurse, a female character who occupies a position of complete opposition to the patriarchal structures of the 17th century. But it would be inaccurate to suggest that Jacobean theater is progressive in its representation of women. Many writers saw the consumerism that emerged with London's economic rise as a problem rooted in women. They considered the "women of the city" to be less than virtuous, as evidenced in Jonson's Epicene, where women are depicted as deceitful and mercenary characters. The economic upheaval and urban growth of this period began to change the way gender was viewed. These changes also engendered patriarchal anxieties and opposition that are evident in the art produced by Jonson, Middleton, and Dekker. During the 19th century, Baudelaire popularized the literary figure. of the flâneur “Who confuses the dominant uses of the city by strolling casually there” But one could affirm that the character of the “flâneur” who possesses total freedom of the city goes back to the Jacobean “roaring boys” that Orgel defines as “Typically upper class or nobility, their wild behavior is an assertion of aristocratic privilege. It is Dekker and Middleton's appropriation of the character of the "roaring boy" through the character of Moll Cutpurse that allows for the exploration of the shifting boundaries between the sexes brought about by London's adoption of the mercantile and capitalist economy. Like the flâneur, Moll moves with ease through the neighborhoods of the City of London, from the bustling high street to the open space of Gray's Inn Fields. She befriends the courtiers, through her connections with Sebastian Wengrave and Jack Dapper, the sons of the landed gentry, and she also boasts of her affiliation with the pickpockets of London: "I have sat among such vipers. » Moll further occupies the typical position of the educated young man of the city thanks to his displayed financial independence, as evidenced by his desire to buy a "long-haired strawberry". Moll's ability to cross both physical boundaries between neighborhoods and more abstract class boundaries cements her position as a "walker." A controversial position for a woman and one that forces Moll to be denied her femininity throughout the play. She is repeatedly called "a creature" or "a monster", Sir Alexander insinuates that she is a hermaphrodite "'…her birth began/before she was created." She is a woman more than a man, a man more than a woman. Thus, although Moll manages to co-opt the position of "the roaring girl" throughout the play and is able to gain power and authority that would be denied to her if she presented herself as the Jacobean idea of ​​womanhood, we always refuse himher feminine identity. identify. Thus, it can be argued that the site she occupies in the gender politics of the play is not reformative in nature, but rather one of gender exception. Similarly, Jonson also explores the changing gender roles within the city caused by the economic upheavals occurring in London. and the English class system, although framed with a misogynistic mindset. The verbose women of Epicene, particularly the Colleges, although less independent than Moll Cutpurse, are actively engaged in the economic and cultural aspects of the city. Newman argues that “…the women speaking represent the city and what largely motivated the city’s growth – mercantilism and colonial expansion.” Women as the embodiment of consumerism are particularly palpable in Truewit's argument against marriage: "These women are as great consumers of poems and plays as gloves and garters." » Jonson depicts the Collegiate as insatiable consumers through their ruthless colonization of Morose's house, permeating his house with noise, which he compares to "Another flood!" A flood! I will be overwhelmed with noise. Women are also depicted as sources of economic power, with Epicene repeatedly stating that now she and Morose are married and that she will buy a car – a status symbol representing wealth – and Mrs. Otter explains at length the economic control that she exercises control over her home and over her children. husband “Who is giving you your interview?” Arguably, Jonson's alignment with femininity and finance, while demeaning, effectively demonstrates the change felt in England's hierarchy due to the growth of the middle class, as Orgel notes: "Women and children…become both a means of exchange and cultural metonyms for workers. course in general. Jonson's unfavorable portrayal of talkative and greedy women is therefore not only a manifestation of gender anxiety, but also of class anxiety. The pervasive presence of women in the play reflects the nobility's perception that their political and cultural institutions were taken over by the lower classes. Judith Butler has described gender as a series of "performative acts" and that the act of cross-dressing or cross-dressing makes the audience "see sex and gender denaturalized by means of a performance that confesses their distinction and dramatizes...their manufactured unit”. While The Roaring Girl and Epicene are plays primarily concerned with patriarchal anxieties related to the upheaval of gender norms of the time, one can interpret certain aspects of the text as explorations of the artifice behind gender. In Epicene and The Roaring Girl, cross-dressing is a trope present throughout and used by the authors to interrupt normative Jacobean gender boundaries, the most striking example being the titular character Epicene, who for the majority of the room, occupies two places. opposite poles in the spectrum of feminine virtue. When introduced, Epicene represents the feminine ideal, primarily through her silent and submissive personality. Morose both deifies her "divine sweetness" while also reducing her to an object through his clinical listing of her good attributes and his desire to "try" her. After the wedding, Epicène then reveals that this is a facade, revealing herself as a noisy woman and ingratiating herself to the Collegiate Church while disrupting Morose's household. Simultaneously, but not coincidentally, Epicene becomes a site of sexual perversity, with Daw and La Foole claiming to have had sexual relations with her...