A revaluation of the serious thematic concerns of three plays of Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher as they are revealed in character development

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Thomas Penn Johnson (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
Advisor
Joseph Bryant

Abstract: Twentieth-century critical assessment of the works of Beaumont and Fletcher usually ranges from charges of decadence to immorality. Modern critics have posited psychological interpretations, maintaining that Beaumont and Fletcher sacrifice plot and character development for the sake of emotional rhetoric and dramatic situations designed to produce maximum audience response. Chapter One of this study seeks to demonstrate that there is an alarming inconclusiveness about the judgment of modern critics. The intention of the entire study is to show how the internal evidence of three plays supports them as serious and creditable, though minor, works of art and overthrows the basic charges of modern criticism against them. In the opinion of this writer Beaumont and Fletcher do give careful attention to character and thematic development and their works do contribute significant insights into the nature of man and his struggle in the universe.

Additional Information

Publication
Thesis
Language: English
Date: 1967

Email this document to