ABSTRACT
As the 1775 review of the play indicates, Ernst Lorenz Rathlef's Die Mohrinn zu Hamburg is fundamentally about mismatched couples and the tragedy that ensues when socially and racially inappropriate matches are made. In many ways, the plot of Rathlef's Die Mohrinn zu Hamburg shares similar themes and elements with other German bourgeois dramas of the period. The main theme of marriage and appropriate and inappropriate matches functions as the backdrop of the plot. Homosocial desire emerges as a theme, also found in other bourgeois dramas. Eve Sedgwick explains homosocial desire as "social bonds between persons of the same sex". More specifically, the term also refers to male rivalry, friendship, and their connection to women. Homosocial desire in Die Mohrinn zu Hamburg therefore is represented by Gorden's fascination with seeing Cadige's African lover, Zaduc—physical and moral perfection in male form.
