An analysis of Peter Grimes through a gender-studies lens

In this thesis, Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes (1945) has been analyzed in the light of gender theorist Judith Butler's ideas. The study has been conducted through primary and secondary sources as well as hermeneutic methods which help interpret concepts related to gender theories. This interdisciplinary research aims to contribute to New Musicology and Gender Studies fields. In this study, important post structuralist concepts such as Performativity, Subject and its relationship with the Other, and Body's Materiality have been analyzed in the context of the Peter Grimes. Linguistic performativity's role in Peter's alienation and social maladjustment have been explored; it has been discussed whether some speech acts in the opera can be considered in the context of hate speech against the main character. The main theme, alienation, has been attempted to be reified through the use of spaces in the opera. Speculative lines which were removed the final version of the libretto have been revisited in an attempt to understand Peter's identity in a greater scheme. The aspects analyzed in this thesis brings to light that performativities in the opera create a sense of essence in people's subjecthoods; and the illusion that things have always been and always will be a certain way. Peter Grimes' main problem in the borough results from his inability to cope with various normative structures. Peter's self-identification with being visionary shows that his identity has a subversive mechanism in the borough. However, his subversive identity gets gradually demolished through various kinds of speech acts directed at him. These speech acts, which resemble the functioning of hate speeches, have been naturalized through perpetual repetitions. Hence, Peter has been exposed to deliberate ostracization by the borough. During this trajectory, Peter's negative relationship with the other has been internalized in his consciousness; and it puts him in a position where he despises his own materiality. The fact that Peter's materiality has been pushed to excluded sites can also be seen through the use of spaces in the opera. As a result of this deliberate efforts of alienation, Peter's subjecthood has been eventually wiped out of existence.