Penny Gay's study moves between the influence of theatre and drama on Austen's novels and theatricality itself as a mode of representation. While theatrical performance is considered, Gay's analysis generally emphasizes the impact of dramatic literature rather than theatrical representation, genre rather than performance. Through reference to the work of eighteenth-century women playwrights, Gay also places Austen's work and contemporary theatre in pervasively “masculine” and “feminine” discourses.