The Transformation of the Tragic Vision in Jacobean Drama John Webster, John Ford and Thomas Middleton

Abstract

The object of this study is to examine the transformation of the tragic vision in Jacobean drama. Traditionally, critics have regarded the age as combining decadence in ideals, aesthetic incoherence, and a prodigal inventiveness in the genre of tragedy. In six plays by John Webster, John Ford and Thomas Middleton, there is an alliance between a comprehensive satirical vision with what some have taken to be a diffused and therefore diluted form of tragedy. This study aims to reveal the strengths of that "impure" amalgam by considering the plays in their social context and in the light of recent radical revaluations. It includes a full bibliography of works cited and consulted.