The maid who fell silent. Epic structures and gender in Swedish drama 1725-1900
Epic structures such as soliloquies and asides are frequently used in drama. The narrative function served by these dramatic conventions enables characters to provide a running commentary to the plot, and this in turn makes the characters using them a driving force in the drama.
In this paper I discuss gender and social class of the dramatic figures using epic structures in Swedish drama from 1725 to 1900. The material studied consists of 25 plays.
The main characters af interest are the servant figures. The driving force of 18th-century comedy is the cunning maid and, to a lesser extent, her male counterpart. Around 1850 these servants are replaced by other figures, such as the scheming villain, a characteristic male figure in melodrama.
With the emergence of realism and naturalism, the use of epic structures is reduced. Female servant figures in naturalist plays have few lines, and use virtually no soliloquies or asides. They are a necessary part of the bourgeois family, but are no longer the driving force of the drama.