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Breeching the Boy in Marlowe's Edward II
- SEL Studies in English Literature 1500-1900
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 46, Number 2, Spring 2006
- pp. 281-304
- 10.1353/sel.2006.0020
- Article
- Additional Information
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"Breeching the Boy in Marlowe's Edward II" focuses attention on an overlooked figure of the play, Prince Edward. Arguing that the boy is drawn into the homoerotic and sodomitical discourse so prevalent in Edward II, and is sexualized without being a sexual object of desire, this paper presents his sexualization as a strategy with a purpose rather than as an end in itself. This strategy destabilizes the idea that Prince Edward, when he gains control as king at the play's close, really offers any solutions to the problems Marlowe poses.