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‘And shall we now grow strangers?’: The Cause and Cure of Twinship in The Bloody Brother and Monsieur Thomas
- Parergon
- Australian and New Zealand Association of Medieval and Early Modern Studies (Inc.)
- Volume 34, Number 1, 2017
- pp. 143-161
- 10.1353/pgn.2017.0006
- Article
- Additional Information
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In John Fletcher’s full-length twin plays, a strong connection is made between those who shared the same birth and particular types of behaviour. For Rollo and Otto of The Bloody Brother, twinship is both the reason behind their animosity and the potential resolution to it. For Dorothea and Thomas of Monsieur Thomas, twinship helps them to manipulate each other’s behaviour. Fletcher also uses the twins of both plays to point to broader issues of succession anxiety and identity.