The Moral Stage?

Seminar paper from the year 2004 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - History of Literature Eras grade: sehr gut (10) Free University of Berlin (Anglistisches Seminar) language: English abstract: In the course of this essay I shall focus upon the English playwright Ben Jonson's (1572 - 1637) complex relation to questions of theatricality aesthetic judgment and the ethical value of dramatic production as expressed in his later prose-comedy Bartholomew Fair (1614). By way of a close reading of the most relevant passages of the play I will try to provide a detailed investigation into his moral criticism of contemporary society his conception of theatricality as a vehicle for moral education and the role of distanced intellectual judgment as a crucial factor in this process.