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Chapter 5 - Dramatic Character

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 March 2021

James Harriman-Smith
Affiliation:
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
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Summary

This chapter begins by demonstrating that an attention to transition was a key element in some prominent literary critical writing of the later eighteenth century. I then argue that, within such writing, the understanding of transition evolves from that explored in my earlier chapters. Borrowing a term that Elizabeth Montagu, William Richardson, and their contemporaries make frequent use of, one might call this evolution a shift from dramatic transition to ‘dramatic character’. Montagu does this as she argues for the moral impact of Shakespeare’s incessantly enthralling dramatic characters, and Richardson when he claims that Shakespeare’s dramatic characters are such perfect imitations of life that their passions and transitions might serve as the subjects of philosophical enquiry into human nature. I use Maurice Morgann’s Essay on the Dramatic Character of Falstaff (1777) and David Hume's Treatise of Human Nature (1740) to illuminate the tensions inherent in such a critical standpoint, as efforts to explain moments of spectacular dramatic transition in terms of a character's stable identity risk minimising the spectacle that invited such explanation in the first place.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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  • Dramatic Character
  • James Harriman-Smith, University of Newcastle upon Tyne
  • Book: Criticism, Performance, and the Passions in the Eighteenth Century
  • Online publication: 02 March 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108890847.006
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  • Dramatic Character
  • James Harriman-Smith, University of Newcastle upon Tyne
  • Book: Criticism, Performance, and the Passions in the Eighteenth Century
  • Online publication: 02 March 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108890847.006
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Dramatic Character
  • James Harriman-Smith, University of Newcastle upon Tyne
  • Book: Criticism, Performance, and the Passions in the Eighteenth Century
  • Online publication: 02 March 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108890847.006
Available formats
×