ABSTRACT
Goldoni's plays work to reinforce the patriarchal idealization of femininity. Goldoni's eighteenth-century emphasis on character and thought in comedy of manners can be seen as the development of a dramatic genre suited to the specific historical, social and cultural context within which he worked. While dramatic male and female characters are often highly developed in their Aristotelian qualities of character and thought, this is not necessarily at the expense of dramatic action or comic effect. The chapter idealizes the female characters is frequently on thought, as they moralize at length in support of their reactive stance of passive obedience in response to patriarchal demands, his artful female characters appear more proactive in promoting dramatic action and precipitating plot movement. These female characters can be described as artful in that they use their wit in proactive and highly dramatic ways to fulfill their aims, rather than languishing in a state of passive acquiescence punctuated by lengthy moralizing monologues and soliloquies.
