What role does the aspect of sexuality play in Joe Orton's "Entertaining Mr. Sloane"?

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject Didactics - English - Literature, Works, grade: 1,7, TU Dortmund, language: English, abstract: In Britain homosexuals had a hard time until the Sexual Offences (No. 2) Act was passed in 1967. They had to be afraid of being caught and imprisoned. Nonetheless, many gay men stuck to their love for other men and satisfied their desires as heterosexuals satisfied theirs. One man even dared to deal with the topic (homo-)sexuality openly. This man was Joe Orton, a gay playwright, who became famous in 1963. In 1967 he wrote

a play ¿ Entertaining Mr. Sloane. This paper focuses on that play and tries to answer the question: What role does the aspect of sexuality play in Joe Orton¿s Entertaining Mr. Sloane?

The introduction is followed by an overview of Joe Orton¿s life in which the main stages from his birth to his early death are mentioned and described. In chapter three the play is put into its historical context. There, I will inform about the reasons why homosexuality was forbidden in England and how the Sexual Offences (No. 2) Act came about. The next chapter deals with the three main characters of the play, starting with Mr. Sloane. The second person to be characterized is Kath and the third is her brother Ed. Chapter six focuses on the aspect of sexuality in

Orton¿s play. The former chapters, however, are necessary to

understand in what circumstances Orton lived and wrote and in which way the protagonists¿ characters are vital for answering the guiding question. The sixth chapter is followed by a conclusion on the aspect of sexuality in Entertaining Mr. Sloane. A personal assessment rounds this seminar paper off.

Having given a short overview of this essay, I will now start with the synopsis of Joe Orton¿s life. It is important for the answer of the guiding question, because his life reveals some interesting aspects which are crucial to the way he wrote. Bigsby argues in his book Joe Orton that his sexual identity is crucial to his art.