English Language and Literature Commons^™

Movin' On Up: Sodomy In Service In The White Devil, Kevin Brown, Joanne Diaz, Faculty Advisor

John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference

Renaissance England was marked by change. From the late 15^th century through the early 17^th century, the social atmosphere in England was thrown out of order. The rise of the middle class gave people money who weren’t supposed to have money. This deteriorated the established hierarchies of the time, blurring the lines between classes. Critics of John Webster’s The White Devil (1612) have yet to address these issues in conjunction with the homoerotic tones throughout the play. Webster is using sodomy as a trope to illuminate how mobility in service is a destructive, chaotic force. By exploring these …