The dynamics of role-playing in Jacobean tragedy

Jacobean actors fascinated audiences with their convincingly mimetic performances; often they appeared to assume the identities of the fictional characters they impersonated. A similar dynamic emerges in several tragedies of the period, where dramatic characters are frequently changed--for better or worse--by the roles they adopt within the play illusion. This study discusses how certain plays of Jonson and Middleton reveal the destructive consequences of assuming new personae; how three of Shakespeare's tragedies explore the ambivalent results of characters' experimentation with roles; and how Webster and Ford treat role-playing (including ceremonial behavior) creatively, as a vehicle for expressing and consolidating the dramatic self.