Date of Award

8-2009

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

History

First Advisor

Dr. Robert C. Kenzer

Second Advisor

Dr. Woody Holton

Abstract

This thesis analyzes the Revolutionary-era plays of Robert Munford and Mercy Otis Warren. Munford’s two comedies, The Candidates and The Patriots, are compared to Warren’s three earliest satires, The Adulateur, The Defeat, and The Group, in an effort to explain some of the differences between these two authors. The original printings of these plays from the Early American Imprints series, as well as more recent scholarship on Munford and Warren, are used to investigate the plays and lives of these playwrights. Munford’s and Warren’s backgrounds are explored to account for variations in their works. While the gender and geographical location of Munford and Warren played a major role in their plays, it was their individual goals and purposes in writing that more fully explain the distinctive nature of their plots, characters, and themes.

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