Resurrection doctrine and the plot of false death in English Renaissance drama

More than one hundred English plays that survive from the period between the rise of the Tudors and the closing of the theaters in 1642 employ a plot of false death: a narrative in which a character dies and returns to life within the play. The use of this type of device essentially died at the Restoration, and it has not since returned to prominence (except in revivals of the period's dramas). The present study attempts to account for this period-specific popularity of this device. To do so, it analyzes thematic resemblances between the dramatic uses of this device and Protestant dogma on resurrection. It concludes that at least some of the popularity of the dramatic device may be traced to its kinship to that belief. In particular, the device proved useful in that it allowed a central focus on values of repentance and reconciliation. Chapters Three and Four apply this argument to two problems, jealousy and prostitution, that were frequently dramatized. It finds that the plot of false death functions in these plays to control and shape those problems in a comic way, to allow for conclusions that highlight repentance and reconciliation. The study concludes that the use of this device plays a marginal role in a process of secularization by converting originally Christian ethical material to secular uses.