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An Analysis of the Treatment of the Homosexual Character in Dramas Produced in the New York Theatre from 1950 to 1968

Loeffler, Donald L.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1554464085294514

Abstract Details

1969, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, Theatre.
The purpose of this study was to analyze the treatment of the homosexual character on the New York stage from 1950 through 1968. The study was concerned primarily with the male character who has been labeled a homosexual by the playwright and who has been presented on the stages in the established on Broadway and off-Broadway theatres in Manhattan. An evaluation of the accuracy with which the homosexual character was presented was considered. Selected publications and scientific investigations concerning homosexuality over the past twenty years were reviewed. The presentation of homosexual characters in productions on the New York stages was surveyed. Seventy­five scripts of dramas pertinent to the study were available and were analyzed with consideration of the homosexual's attitude towards himself, the family's attitude toward the homosexual, and society's attitude toward the homosexual. These seventy-five scripts were compared with the results of published psychological and sociological studies. The most significant conclusion of the study seemed to be that there was a positive relationship between homosexuality as understood in scientific study and the homosexuality as pre-sented by playwrights. Whether by intuition or by a know­ledge of scientific observation, the playwrights had presented an accurate picture of the homosexual on the stage. The homosexual character has interchangeably played a major and a minor role in his relation to the theme and the plot of the pertinent plays of the period. No one trend seemed to predominate in any particular season. The major trends of treatment of the homosexual character in this period may be identified as: the presentation of the homosexual character for local color, the homosexual character fied as a sexual invert, the homosexual character resolving his problems by means of suicide, the homosexual character attempting to become heterosexual, the homosexual character as a third party in a love affair, the homosexual character as establishing a vanguard for his sexual rights and minority status, and the homosexual character for broad comic effect. The homosexual character has been presented in varying degrees of caricature. He has primarily been presented in his late teens, reflecting the archetypal hero, or in his early forties, reflecting the trauma of the homosexual adjustment to middle age and the possible loss of physical attractiveness. The speech and language patterns of the compassionate. It has progressed form a character who spoke in forced inflectional stress patterns to one who utilizes his own personal syntax. It has progressed from the novelty of presenting a "shocking" character to the routine presentation of just another member of complex society. Homosexuality has become an acceptable topic for comedy, rather than appearing only at the opposing extremes of tradedy and farce.
Charles R. Boughton (Advisor)
Theater History

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Loeffler, D. L. (1969). An Analysis of the Treatment of the Homosexual Character in Dramas Produced in the New York Theatre from 1950 to 1968 [Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1554464085294514

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Loeffler, Donald. An Analysis of the Treatment of the Homosexual Character in Dramas Produced in the New York Theatre from 1950 to 1968. 1969. Bowling Green State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1554464085294514.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Loeffler, Donald. "An Analysis of the Treatment of the Homosexual Character in Dramas Produced in the New York Theatre from 1950 to 1968." Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University, 1969. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1554464085294514

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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