Masculinities from the Libertine to the Dandy in the Comedy of Manners: GeorgeEtherege’s The Man of Mode, Oliver Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquerand Oscar Wilde’s Lady Windermere’s Fan

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine the historical evolution of the British aristocratic and upper-class masculinities from the Restoration period to the late-Victorian era with respect to the theories of men and masculinities and to make an analysis of the transformation of these masculinities in such representative comedies of manners as George Etherege’s The Man of Mode; or, Sir Fopling Flutter (1676), Oliver Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer; or, the Mistakes of a Night (1773) and Oscar Wilde’s Lady Windermere’s Fan, or a Play about a Good Woman (1892). These plays reflect the specific representations and manners of masculinities of their ages. For this reason, at the beginning of the thesis, concepts in the theories of men and masculinities are introduced in order to provide a theoretical background for the analysis of these male characters.