Theatre Ph.D. Dissertations
Title
Me and My Shadow: An Exploration of Doppelganger as Found in the Music and Text of Susan Glaspell's The Verge
Date of Award
2008
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
Department
Theatre and Film
First Advisor
Jonathan Chambers, PhD (Committee Chair)
Second Advisor
James Forse, PhD (Committee Member)
Third Advisor
Ronald Shields, PhD (Committee Member)
Fourth Advisor
Margaret McCubbin, MFA (Committee Member)
Abstract
This study explores the use of, and reaction to, the music used in Susan Glaspell's The Verge. Through close textual and musical analysis, and by extension, historical investigation, the argument is made that Glaspell's The Verge is a virtual "shadow" play, or doppelganger, of Jacques Offenbach's opera The Tales of Hoffman, from which some of the music is taken. The exploration further contends that through the use of the hymn, Nearer, My God, To Thee, by Lowell Mason and Sarah Flower Adams, Glaspell also extends a vision of gender relations that reaches far beyond Hoffman's misogynistic, patriarchal space insofar as it creates a compellingly powerful religious viewpoint: an embodiment of the Christian Godhead, as a precursor to the late twentieth century social and existential feminist perspective.
Recommended Citation
Brown, Terri, "Me and My Shadow: An Exploration of Doppelganger as Found in the Music and Text of Susan Glaspell's The Verge" (2008). Theatre Ph.D. Dissertations. 11.
https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/theatre_diss/11