Familial Betrayal and Trauma in Select Plays of Shakespeare, Racine, and the Orc Neilles Lynn Kramer University of South Carolina
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University of South Carolina Scholar Commons Theses and Dissertations 2016 Familial Betrayal And Trauma In Select Plays Of Shakespeare, Racine, And The orC neilles Lynn Kramer University of South Carolina Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd Part of the Comparative Literature Commons Recommended Citation Kramer, L.(2016). Familial Betrayal And Trauma In Select Plays Of Shakespeare, Racine, And The Corneilles. (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/3874 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you by Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FAMILIAL BETRAYAL AND TRAUMA IN SELECT PLAYS OF SHAKESPEARE, RACINE, AND THE CORNEILLES by Lynn Kramer Bachelor of Arts Arcadia University, 1994 Master of Arts University of South Carolina, 2001 Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Literature College of Arts and Sciences University of South Carolina 2016 Accepted by: Paul Allen Miller, Major Professor George Geckle, Committee Member Buford Norman, Committee Member Thorne Compton, Committee Member Paul Allen Miller, Vice Provost and Interim Dean of Graduate Studies © Copyright by Lynn Kramer, 2016 All Rights Reserved. ii DEDICATION For my parents, who never got to see me get this far, but always knew I could. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my dissertation committee for their patience and help. Dr. Miller, your willingness to chair this endeavor and to give me encouragement or cattle prods (as the need arose) is much appreciated. I’m grateful that you never gave up on me and you should be nominated for sainthood. Thorne, you have been with me the longest in my academic career and I am more honored and touched than you could ever know for all that you have done to help me, especially this past year. Simply saying thank you seems like far too little recompense for all you’ve done for me. Dr. G, many thanks for all of the talks, advice, and encouragement. You are the best all around professor mentor ever and I want to be like you when I grow up. Dr. Norman, merci beaucoup pour votre aide avec les sections françaises. I learned a lot from you and appreciate it all. Many thanks go to my husband, Michael, for putting up with my rants and raves throughout this entire process. We met when I was just starting the dissertation and it went on far longer than either of us thought it would. Thank you for pushing, prodding, and bargaining. I suppose that means I should also thank Treyvan for being the final goad I needed to get it done. All hail the power of kittehs and the husband who knows how to wield it for the forces of good. Finally, I would like to thank all of my friends and family for their unending encouragement (and sometimes exasperation) in cheering me on. Too many to name in the space that I have left, but know that I will never forget and will always be grateful. iv ABSTRACT In this dissertation I will argue that familial betrayal is a central element in sixteenth-century British tragedy and seventeenth-century French tragedy. Family relationships help to define who the characters are and provide a point of identification between the audience and the play. This identification, as Aristotle argues, is necessary for the arousal of pity and fear and thus creates the possibility of catharsis. Fear is a key component of psychological trauma. This is the main link between Aristotle’s theories and modern trauma theory but there are other overlapping ideas that form a basis as to why old tragedies still resonate with today’s audiences. Two of these key elements are the omnipresent familial and social dynamics that must be navigated. Trauma can be inflicted from these interactions both onstage and in reality. I intend to explore how various events traumatize and influence certain characters’ behaviors and reactions. The actions of the families they should be able to trust above all others ultimately lead these characters to make tragic decisions. I will begin by defining tragedy from an Aristotelian perspective, examining how his formulation is related to the theories held by his more prominent early modern successors. I will then do an overview of trauma theory, specifically Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Betrayal Trauma Theory. Finally, I will apply an analysis based upon these psychological theories to certain characters in my chosen plays. For my exemplary English tragedies I have chosen Shakespeare's Richard III, Hamlet, and King v Lear. For my French tragedies I have chosen Pierre Corneille's Médée, Thomas Corneille's Ariane, and Jean Racine's Iphigénie. These selections were made because, as a whole, these plays represent the various core familial relationships found in early modern tragedies. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION ....................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................ iv ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................v CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………..1 CHAPTER 2 THEORY ..............................................................................................................8 ARISTOTLE ..................................................................................................................8 MIDDLE AGES ...........................................................................................................12 ITALIAN RENAISSANCE ..............................................................................................16 BRITISH RENAISSANCE ..............................................................................................20 FRENCH RENAISSANCE AND NEOCLASSICISM ............................................................28 GENERAL TRAUMA THEORY .....................................................................................44 POSTTRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER (PTSD) ............................................................47 BETRAYAL TRAUMA THEORY ...................................................................................53 CHAPTER 3 MÉDÉE .............................................................................................................60 COUPLES ...................................................................................................................60 CHAPTER 4 HAMLET ...........................................................................................................83 COUPLES ...................................................................................................................83 PARENT/CHILD ........................................................................................................102 CHAPTER 5 RICHARD III ...................................................................................................123 PARENT/CHILD ........................................................................................................123 vii CHAPTER 6 IPHIGÉNIE .......................................................................................................142 PARENT/CHILD ........................................................................................................142 CHAPTER 7 KING LEAR .....................................................................................................159 PARENT/CHILD ........................................................................................................159 CHAPTER 8 ARIANE ..........................................................................................................182 COUPLES .................................................................................................................182 SIBLINGS .................................................................................................................203 CHAPTER 9 CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................212 COUPLES SUMMARY ................................................................................................214 PARENT/CHILD SUMMARY ......................................................................................219 SIBLINGS SUMMARY ................................................................................................222 GENERAL SUMMARY ...............................................................................................225 WORKS CITED ...................................................................................................................227 viii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Theatre is not just about entertaining us; it can also be about teaching us something. Renaissance tragedies do a great deal to teach us something about the human condition. From a theatrical point of view, the characters are not merely theoretical constructs, but are real people reacting to their environment and the events that are unfolding around them. Because of this, the audience can build a personal relationship with the characters (if only through a purely one-sided emotional bond). For Aristotle, one way of doing this is by creating in us a sense of pity or fear for the characters that is relatable to the audience as well.1