Thomas Chatterton - Adopts persona of Thomas Rowley

Adopts persona of Thomas Rowley

Chatterton soon conceived the romance of Thomas Rowley, an imaginary monk of the 15th century, and adopted for himself the pseudonym Thomas Rowley for poetry and history. According to psychoanalyst Louise J. Kaplan, his being fatherless played a great role in his imposturous creation of Rowley. The development of his masculine identity was held back by the fact that he was raised by two women: his mother Sarah and his sister Mary. Therefore, “to reconstitute the lost father in fantasy”, he unconsciously created “two interweaving family romances, each with its own scenario”. The first of these was the romance of Rowley for whom he created a father-like, wealthy patron, William Canynge, while the second was as Kaplan named it his romance of “Jack and the Beanstalk”. He imagined he would become a famous poet who by his talents would be able to rescue his mother from poverty.