The aim of this paper is to examine how two types of male characters, "fop" and "molly," are characterised in two eighteenth-century plays: Thomas Baker's Tunbridge-Walks; or The Yeoman of Kent and David Garrick's Miss in Her Teens; or The Medley of Lovers. As I will argue, portrayals of fops and mollies in the two plays are associated with the idea of effeminacy. However, fops' and mollies' associations with effeminacy are different. As well as indicating how differently fops and mollies are effeminate in their behavior, I also intend to understand the necessity of representing the two types of male characters in such a way in relation to the formation of identities of their rather masculine counterparts in the two plays. As I will conclude, by deriding or punishing these two types of effeminate male characters, conventionally masculine can construct their identities and certify the value of heternormativity. Second, Baker and Garrick point out the variety within the discourse of masculinity, for portrayals of male characters are not fixed to one possibility by including fops and mollies in their respective plays.
