| Examining representations of the rogue, witch, and bawd in drama, court cases, ballads, and pamphlets, this dissertation argues that these criminal types function, paradoxically, to support marriage and legitimate reproduction within the patriarchal family. They do this either by brokering marriages and legitimating births or by acting as scapegoats for the bad behavior of family members in order to ensure the reunion of the patriarchal family. In either case, these criminal types operate as "shadow patriarchs" on the Jacobean stage. The texts are ideologically linked by the pervasive desire to protect legitimate reproduction between a married man and woman. In each chapter I focus on one criminal type and examine the specific narrative patterns that emerge around each type. Through these narrative patterns, the family is revealed to be disorderly, and the criminal type is introduced as a way to manage this disorder. Each plot I examine concludes with the restoration of the family and the punishment, reform, or erasure of the criminal type. Thus, the texts in my study critique patriarchy but fail to present an alternative model of order. |
