Double Bind Character Analysis

While the majority of Bacon’s “Idols” that “beset” our minds and lead to error are present in Plautus’ play, Double Bind, the Idols of the theater is the most prevalent “Idol” with regards to how male characters both discuss and engage with female characters. The Idols of the theater are used as methods for understanding, which are dramatized (in that they are generalizations or stereotypes), unreal, and are made up or false, all of which ultimately lead to some form of error. Double Bind plays into the stereotypes of women as inherently less than men as they are considered idiotic and stupid, promiscuous, and crazy. This connects to the Idols of the theater because the male characters only see the predominant female characters, such as Dovey and Loveykins, in terms of generalizations or stereotypes of their gender. Male characters in Double Bind, such as Clueless One, Clueless Two, Antiquides, Smug, and Diddley not only discuss females as a generalized form of error, but they also engage with the females in a manner …show more content…
The specific Idols of the theater are used for understanding, and within the context of Double Bind, understanding of the opposite sex, however they actually impede understanding as they are unreal, dramatic, generalized, and made up or false. Bacon states that these “idols… have immigrated into men’s minds” and “[represent] worlds of their own creation after an unreal and scenic fashion” (#44, 96-97). He considers these Idols as “unreal” because “many plays… [are] composed … in [an] artificial manner” (#44, 97). Bacon’s Idols of the theater and their stereotypes and generalizations are depicted through the interactions that Clueless One, Clueless Two, Antiquides, Smug, and Diddley have with the female characters, Dovey and Loveykins, in Double