THE RAKE'S PROGRESS: MASCULINITIES ON STAGE AND SCREEN by KATHRYN BRENNA WARDELL A DISSERTATION Presented to the Department of English and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy June 2010 11 "The Rake's Progress: Masculinities on Stage and Screen," a dissertation prepared by Kathryn Brenna Wardell in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degreein the Department of English. This dissertation has been approved and acceptedby: f the Examining Committee Ovalle, Co-Chair of the ExaminingCommittee Date \ Committee in Charge: Dianne Dugaw, Co-Chair Priscilla Ovalle, Co-Chair Kathleen Karlyn John Schmor Accepted by: Deanof the Graduate School l I 7 ., . Ill IV An Abstract of the Dissertation of Kathryn Brenna Wardell for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of English to be taken June 2010 Title: THE RAKE'S PROGRESS: MASCULINITIES ON STAGEAND SCREEN Approved: ---- ---------- Diatmei)gaw, Co-Chair -- t----�-"' ( -··==:=--�"-·'_--·__,") Approved: Priscilla Ovalle, Co-Chair My dissertation analyzes the rake, the libertine male, a figure whose liminal masculinity and transgressive appetites work both to stabilize and unsettle hegemony in the texts in which he appears. The rake may seem no more than a sexy bad boy, unconnected to wider social, political, and economic concerns. However, my project reveals his central role in reflecting, even shaping, anxieties and desires regarding gender and sexuality, race andethnicity. I chart the rake's progress from his origins in the Restoration era to the early twenty-first century. Chapter II examinesWilliam Wycherley's comedy The Country Wifein concert with John Dryden's Ma rriage ala Mode and Aphra Behn's Th e Rover to analyze the rake's emergence in seventeenth-century theatre and show that his transgression of borders real andfigurative plays out the anxieties and aspirations of an emerging British empire. Chapter III uses John Gay's ballad opera v The Beggar's Opera, a satiric interrogation of consumerism and criminality, to chart the rake in eighteenth-century British theatre as Britain's investment in global capitalism and imperialism increased. My discussion of Opera is framed by Richard Steele's early­ century sentimental comedy The Conscious Lovers and HannahCowley's late-century The Belle'sStrata gem, a fusion of sentiment and wit. Chapter N hinges the project's theatre and film sections, analyzing Oscar Wilde's fin-de-siecle comedy Thelmportance of Being Earnest as a culmination of generations of theatre rakes and an anticipation of the film rakes of the modem and post-modem eras. Dion Boucicault's mid-century London Assurance is used to set up Wilde's queering of the rake figure. Chapter V brings the rake to a new medium, film, and a new nation, the United States, as the figure catalyzes American tension over race and gender in early twentieth-century films such as Cecil B. DeMille's The Cheat, George Melford's The Sheik, andErnest Lubitsch's Trouble in Paradise. My final chapter reads contemporary films, including Jenniphr Goodman's The Tao ofSteve, Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz's About a Boy, and Gore Verbinski's trilogy Pirates of the Caribbean for Disney Studios, to assess the ways in which millennial western masculinity is in stasis. vi CURRICULUM VITAE NAME OF AUTHOR: Kathryn Brenna Wardell GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS ATTENDED: University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon University of California, Berkeley, California Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont DEGREES AWARDED: Doctor of Philosophy, English, 2010, University of Oregon Master of Arts, English, 1991, University of California, Berkeley Bachelor of Arts, English, 1988, Middlebury College AREASOF SPECIAL INTEREST: Theatre Film PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Graduate Teaching Fellow, University of Oregon, 2005-2010 L Vll ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to express my sincere appreciation to my co-chairs Dr. Dianne Dugaw and Dr. Priscilla Ovalle and to the other members of my committee, Dr. Kathleen Karlyn and Dr. John Schmor, for their guidance and support during the dissertation process. Additionally, I would like to extend my thanks to my colleagues inthe Department of English andto all the professors andstaf f members of the Department with whom I've worked during my years at the University of Oregon. Finally, I would like to thank my fam ily and friendsfo r their ideas, their insights, and their love, vm TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 1 II. MOBILE DESIRES: THE SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY RAKE IN THEATRE AND THE COUNTRY WIFE....................................................................................... 25 III. CONSUMING DESIRES: THE EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY RAKE IN THEATRE AND THE BEGGAR'S OPERA................................................................ 72 IV. QUEER DESIRES: THENINETEENTH-CENTURY RAKE IN THEATRE . ,........................ 111 AND THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST. ...... .... .... ........... V. EROTIC/EXOTIC DESIRES: THE TWENTIETH-CENTURY RAKE IN FILM . .... 146 FROM THE CHEATTO TROUBLE IN PARADISE.... ................................... ... VI. BOYISH DESIRES: THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY RAKE IN FILM ... 201 FROM THE TAO OF STEVE TO PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN ............. ...... VII. CODA................................................................................................................... 248 . .. .. ... .. ... ... ..... .. .. 251 BIBLIOGRAPHY . ... ... .. .. .... .. .... ...... ..... .......... ..... ......... 1 CHAPTERI INTRODUCTION To introduce the genesis and approach of this project, I begin with an explanation of its title, which gesturestowards the interests andargument ofthe project as a whole. The title is inspired by WilliamHogarth's series of eight paintings entitled "A Rake's Progress" (painted 1732-33; engraved and published 1735) which show the decline of Tom Rak.ewell, its rake protagonist, as he gives in to appetites for sex and alcohol, pays no heed to his purse, scorns his faithful fiancee, and ends his so-called "progress" with madness andimprisonment. Like HogarthI focus on the rake, and, like him, I view this male with a libertinedispos ition aimedat theachievement of sexual pleasure, power, and prestige with an interested, yet critical, eye. However, my investigation roams beyond Hogarth's period and medium to examine the rake fromthe Restoration until now, andit does so in two differentvisual media-theatre and film. This dissertation uses close readings of select texts-from plays of the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries to films fr om thetwentieth and twenty-first centuries-to explore thenature of the pleasures therake figure provides and the needs he fulfills, and to discover why he remains a central part of social and cultural texts despite numerous social, economic, andpolitical changes since his Restoration birth. The overall aim is to use the rake--afigure who remains remarkablyconsistent in his characterization and behavior through the centuries-as a means to explore and critique hegemonic norms of masculinity in Western culture. 2 The key to both Hogarth'sapproach and my own is the conjunction of the word "progress," with its multiple meanings and implications, with the figure of the rake. Hogarth's"progress" references John Bunyan'sThe Pilgrim 's Progress (1660-1672; published 1678), in which a character named Christian leaves his home and family to travela path towards spiritual salvation, tempted as he journeysby characters who encouragehim to stray fromhis goal and beset by numerous crises of faith.1 In Hogarth's hands Bunyan's serious allegory becomes the stuff of satire. In "A Rake's Progress'' Hogarth uses "progress" literally in the sense that the rake progresses or moves through various frames,yet he primarily uses the word ironically. The result is that while "progress" normallyimplies a positive discovery-a sense of cultural, social, and technological advancement-inHogarth's paintings just the reverse happens? Rakewellmoves forward, but only towards disaster-a disaster largely of his own doing, albeit aided by thetemptations of contemporary life. As Hogarthmakes clear, Rakewell's catastrophic end is formed not by some outside force or fate but predicated on his ownmoral weakness and various appetites. These are supported by the corrupt 1 The Pilgrim's Progress was composed between 1660-1672 during Bllllyan'sfrrst imprisomnent for unlicensed preaching, as Roger Sharrock notes in John Bunyan" The Pilgrim's Progress" (20). The story concerns Christian's travels througha landscape in which he encounters diverse characterswho seek to guide andtempt him andincidents that test his faith. As Sharrock notes the metaphor of the journeyor progress was not only well-established by Christianity itself, but particularly pertinent for Protestant believers: "Inone formor another the greatimage of theChristian as way-faringman treading his purposefulroad through a carelessor hostile countryis as old as Christianityitself. It is therein theGospels in theinstructions to the disciplines as to how they must follow Christ. Reinforced by the actual custom of pilgrimage to the Holy Land, it is used in a number of medieval religious allegories including De Guileville Pelerinage de Ia vie humaine and Langland'sPiers Plowman . .. In the Protestant tradition the stress on personal responsibility for salvation gave a new impetus to the pilgrim