Social Hierarchy and the Carnivalesque in Early Modern English Comedy: William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Thomas Dekker's The Shoemaker's Holiday and Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair

Early modern English society witnessed rapid growth in economic, social, political, and cultural fields, which also reflected on the social structure of the period. This study focuses on the social changes in different types of early modern English comedies reflecting social change and mobility in early modern England. It adopts Mikhail Bakhtin's carnivalesque theory to explore the carnivalesque in three different types of comedy that have been composed in the early modern period, namely romantic comedy represented by William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (1595 or 1596), city comedy represented by Thomas Dekker's The Shoemaker's Holiday (1599) and satirical comedy represented by Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair (1614). It attempts to show how the carnivalesque functions to blur temporarily the boundaries of social hierarchy, giving way to social change. As the carnivalesque breaks down the social order, it provides new perspective on the social classes. To this end, the first chapter, focusing on social history in early modern England and the theoretical background for this study, traces the socioeconomic state, social hierarchy and social mobility in early modern England as well as discussing Bakhtin's theory of the carnivalesque and other literary theories, namely Marxism and Max Weber's social action, dealing with class formations and class consciousness. The three chapters that follow trace the social hierarchy and the carnivalesque in three different types of early modern English comedy that are set at different festival occasions. In A Midsummer Night's Dream, three festivals, namely May Day, Midsummer and Saint Valentine's Day are intermingled to produce a fascinating picture of Shakespeare's festival world. Shakespeare depicts characters from different social classes who are divided into separate social hierarchical groups, in the real world (Athenians) and in the fairy world (supernatural creatures) who are brought together in the dream space of the play (the forest) in which the social boundaries and norms can be blurred temporarily. A Midsummer Night's Dream reveals the tensions between the artisanal and commercial sides of theatrical production reflecting the complex socioeconomic aspects of the theatre with the emerging market economy of early modern England. In The Shoemaker's Holiday, Dekker brings together characters from different classes –the nobility, merchants and artisans to celebrate Shrove Tuesday, which becomes a holiday for shoemakers by the end of the play. Despite presenting this strict division of social hierarchy, the play shows the fluidity of this order by representing Simon Eyre's upward mobility which is the keyword in uniting the classes harmoniously together in love. Thus, the play foregrounds social mobility and the power of communality to overcome social conflict. The Shoemaker's Holiday presents Simon Eyre's communal realm as a response to the commercial economic system of early modern England by depicting an ideal relationship between masters and their employees in which they support each other in commercial harmony. In Bartholomew Fair, an intriguing picture of St Bartholomew's Fair Day is depicted with its chaotic atmosphere. Jonson depicts characters from different social classes, mainly the nobility, the new emerging middle class, and individuals of the illegal underworld, classifying them as being fairgoers and fair-workers. The space of the fair forms a carnivalesque space which combines all the fairgoers besides the fair-workers, offering a picture of the commercialized new economy. Bartholomew Fair presents how in the early modern capitalist society of England everything is commercialized. The fair becomes a competitive marketplace where all social classes gather to sell their goods freely reflecting a market with its intermingling of street noises and commercial activities depicting the interactions between fair-workers and the fairgoers. The carnivalesque elements in the three comedies mentioned above, blur the social hierarchy through their festive atmosphere transgressing the established social order and reflecting the fluid nature of early modern English society.