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Article: "Unmanly Melancholy": Lack, Fetishism, and Abuse in Timon of Athens.
- Article from:
- Criticism
- Article date:
- March 22, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 Wayne State University Press. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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SINCE AT LEAST 1678, when Thomas Shadwell adapted the script for the earliest recorded performance of Timon of Athens, critics, directors, and playwrights have responded to Timon as an unfinished play--lacking dramatic tension, complex characterization, or compelling rhetoric.(1) But for early adapters like Shadwell, it was above all the lack of female characters that marked Timon as unfinished. Timon's adapters apparently noted that, in sharp contrast to Shakespeare's other plays, women appear only twice here: in act 1 a few women dance and play musical instruments, but never speak; then, towards the end of the play, two courtesans appear and speak six lines between them. ...
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