Reinforcement of Hegemony through Satire in The Knight of the Burning Pestle and A Midsummer Night's Dream

This thesis examines the social and political functions of the theater in the Jacobean drama, Francis Beaumont's The Knight of the Burning Pestle in relation to William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream Analyzing Beaumont's satiric play in terms of the social context of the jacobean era suggests that the play seeks for a theatrical way in which the conventional authority and be reaffirmed In terms of employing child actors in his play, Beaumont, as a hard-core proponent of the status quo, aims not only to exert his power and authority over his domain, but to solidify his position of literary dominance In addition, Beaumont uses the issues of gender and class to reaffirm a typical social hierarchy Beaumont's farcical language reflects the fear of English upper class against the emerging merchant class as well as against the unruly women In a word, the theatrical parody employed in Beaumont's play carries and ideological function of reinforcing the existing authority and order At first sight, the way in which Beaumont uses satire in The Knight of the Burning Pestle looks like his own creation However, he is greatly influenced by his contemporary, William Shakespeare Beaumont absorbs and modifies the literary structure and the devices of Shakespeare's romantic comedy, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and then gradually develops his own style through which he strengthens the political and social hierarchy effectively Throughout the Renaissance period, the relationship between drama and the Crown was unavoidably reflected in theatrical productions Though they pursue their political intentions in different ways, Shakespeare and Beaumont commonly appear to reproduce the social interests that the Renaissance English upper class wanted to sustain