Politics and Marriage

This book proposes to analyze political conflict and marriage problems in Susanna Freeman Centlivre's The Beau's Duel (1702) and The Busie Body (1709). The argument is that Susanna Centlivre (1667-1723) creates a dramatic kingdom in The Beau's Duel and The Busie Body, both of which mirror and ridicule the political conflict resulting from the contest between Protestantism and Catholicism and the marriage problems caused by patriarchal culture during Queen Anne's reign (1702-1714). Both comedies were published in Queen Anne's reign; therefore, such historical facts as the War of the Spanish Succession (1702-1714), Whig-Tory conflict, clandestine marriage, and legal divorce in this period are investigated in order to weave the background for the claim advanced in this book. The conclusion reveals that Centlivre's dramatization of political conflict and marriage problems in these two plays is political, feminist, critical, satirical, and laughter-arousing.