Gothic Stages: The Rise and Fall of English Melodrama 1790-1890

Abstract

'Melodrama' carries pejorative connotations of frivolous and hackneyed entertainment. The origins of these present-day perceptions can be traced back to the genre's generally accepted arrival on London stages in 1802, when Thomas Holcroft translated a French melodrama for English theatre, A Tale of Mystery, A Melo-drame. The genre encountered negative criticism for its sensational plots and perceived illegitimacy, which intensified over the early nineteenth century, and paved the way for present-day connotations of frivolity, and also the clichéd image of the melodramatic antagonist as a high Victorian stage villain. By peeling back the accumulated stereotypes, this thesis demonstrates melodrama's serious content and purpose, as the genre was deployed as a vehicle for theatrical expression of social anxieties throughout the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, which starkly contrasts with modern connotations. Moreover, by re-evaluating the legitimate origins of melodrama, the genre's earlier emergence before 1802 is explored, as stage adaptations of Gothic novels in the 1790s demonstrate that the necessity of projecting terror and sensationalism in theatre generated stage melodrama. The term 'Gothic drama' is used in scholarship to largely delineate plays performed from the French Revolution to the 1820s; yet by reanalyzing melodrama, this thesis proposes that Gothic plays performed from the 1790s are melodramas, and the Gothic inheritance remained within melodrama beyond the 1820s. In melodrama's emergence, playwrights expressed political tensions during the Revolution through emphasis and affectivity, and the genre's receptiveness to public concerns continued throughout the nineteenth century. Melodrama's journey of impressing terror across the century, and representation of social concerns through dark villains, demonstrates the genre's flexible development, as by analyzing political debates and newspaper reports alongside the plays, the engagements between prominent social concerns and melodrama reveal a dynamic relationship between political discourses, the press, and the stage. The cultural receptivity is examined by exploring plays including Fontainville Forest (1794), adaptations of Frankenstein, re-enactments of the Maria Marten murder in 1828, Sweeney Todd's stage life, The Bells (1871), and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1888). These case studies exemplify how melodrama shifted through different platforms, as due to the changing concerns, the genre narrowed down from the global stage's Revolution tensions, to focusing upon the domestic, local stage of murder sensationalism, before constricting even further to psychological explorations. The tracing of melodrama's Gothic stages thereby uncovers the genre's serious role, which has been concealed beneath both contemporary and modern pejorative labelling.

Date of Award	11 Jun 2015
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Northumbria University
Supervisor	Leigh Wetherall Dickson (Supervisor) & Allan Ingram (Supervisor)