Digital Commons Network^™

The English Public Health Movement, 1838-1848, Rebecca Dale

Honors Theses

Parliament passed its first comprehensive public health act in 1848. Prior to that time Britain as well as other European countries had mostly just tolerated insanitary conditions.

In English medieval towns people threw their garbage onto the narrow streets where animals--pigs, cattle, ducks--roamed, Houses were built with projections over the streets which blocked light and ventilation. There were few qualms about slaughtering animals on the streets. The common method of sewerage was by cesspools which in some cases were built underneath the houses and in most cases were cleaned out only once every several years by the "dust-collectors". Even in …

The Status Of Woman Suffrage In Virginia 1909-1920, Betty C. Pitts

Honors Theses

The woman suffrage movement in Virginia, as in other parts of the nation, must be viewed within the total context of reform which pervaded in the first two decades of the twentieth century in America. The evils associated with the industrial revolution, mass immigration, and the urban crisis produced in the minds of men and women a favorable climate for sweeping sociological changes. Despite the receptive attitudes of individual men and women, the woman suffrage movement could never have been successful without "a heroic mustering of effort....," which has never since been achieved by this same group expect during a …

Talleyrand At The Congress Of Vienna, Laura J. Feller

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Government And Life In The Latin Kingdom Of Jerusalem, Jane S. Brantley

Honors Theses

It is the purpose of this paper to look at the government and way of life settlers established in Jerusalem and to investigate problems which led to its fall in 1187.

The Search For Liberty In The Theatre Of Alfonso Sastre, Dorothy Thornton Hunter

Master's Theses

Alfonso Sastre, born in 1926, was a child during the Spanish Civil War. His temperament and personality were shaped by a Spain in the state of transition. He has seen coups d'états, dictatorship, a republic and monarchy. With each change of government Spain was searching for a way to unite her divided self, a self which had been divided since the Moors invaded Spain in the eighth century. Sastre has reflected Spain's search for liberty and has produced what he calls a "Theatre of Social Agitation, "the fundamental theme of which is revolution. With this type of theatre Sastre proposes …

Patterns Of The Negative Epic Quest And Three Modern Novels By Andre Gide, Louis-Ferdinand Celine, And Malcolm Lowry, John Robert Greer

Master's Theses

Many critics have approached the subject of modern epic, but like E. M. W. Tillyard, they dismiss "eccentric" literature from consideration on the claim that the execution of epic requires "balance" and "objectivity." It seems unfortunate to dismiss works that--while remaining essentially negativistic and subjective in their impact-uniquely capture the spirit of their milieu and refract in a singular way a "choric" effect (to borrow Tillyard's term); that is, "the unconscious metaphysic of a group." To accommodate the inverted comparison between epic and certain individuated works by modern authors, I here attempt to define a form I call the "negative …

A Political History Of The Poll Tax In Virginia, 1900-1950, Conley L. Edwards

Master's Theses

The poll tax occupies a unique place in Virginia's suffrage history. Basically a twentieth century device ostensibly originated to provide revenue for the state by requiring payment of a fee before the exercise of the franchise, there was probably no other practice quite as foreign to the expanding suffrage traditions of Virginia's history as the poll tax. The only precursor to this tax was a capitation tax levied intermittently, the first such tax appearing in 1623 in the form of a levy of ten pounds of tobacco to meet the debt arising from defenses against local Indians. Free Negroes and …

Sherwood Anderson, Christopher Sergel, And Winesburg, Ohio, Frank Stoddert Johns

Master's Theses

In 1936, Sherwood Anderson read a stage version of Winesburg, Ohio to his friends Roger and Christopher Sergel. For Anderson the play marked the culmination of his efforts at playwriting. He had adapted his finest collection of stories for the stage, and it would now be the responsibility of the theatre and particularly of his producer, Jasper Deeter, to see that the play succeeded. Deeter produced the play at the Hedgerow Theatre in 1937. Anderson had no doubts concerning the merits of his play.

For Christopher Sergel, however, Sherwood Anderson's reading was only a beginning. Anderson's masterpiece, he felt, had …

Lord Birkenhead And The Irish Question, Robert Allen Armistead Kester

Master's Theses

The life of Frederick Edwin Smith, 1st Earl of Birkenhead (1872- 1930), was fascinating but puzzling. The second Earl of Birkenhead has described his father as "a brilliant failure," a man of tremendous intel­ ligence and talent who failed to reach the pinnacle of success. Most historians have confirmed this assessment but have added a somewhat sinis­ ter element to Birkenhead' s career. Birkenhead is generally depicted as a latter-day condottiere, reckless and unprincipled, who used his great gifts in any expedient or demagogic scheme that would advance his career.

This thesis is not a straightforward biography of Birkenhead but …

Characters As Functions Of Landscape In Seven Poems By Lawrence Durrell, Richard King Leroy

Master's Theses

No single theory explaining the creative process has won the assent of writers and critics. Most scholars agree that the process has sub-conscious origins and that it concludes only when the last revisions reveal the entire finished composition. However, the act of creation is de- pendent upon numerous aesthetic factors, and artists have given credit to various stimuli which have produced their special inspiration.

An Interpretation Of Ecstasy As Found In The Poetry Of Emily Dickinson, Thomas B. Mccary

Master's Theses

Emily Dickinson was indeed used to grief, as the record of her life clearly indicates. She was disappointed in love and and disappointed in her efforts to achieve literary fame. Yet there was moments of happiness and even ecstasy in Emily Dickinson's life. The purpose of this thesis is to examine those moments of ecstatic elevation--the "Soul's Superior instants" as Emily called them--in order to achieve a better insight into the mind of the poet and the nature of often curious verse.

An examination of ecstasy requires a study of Emily's religious background her psychological make-up. It also behooves the …

Characteristicas Psicologicas De "El SeñOr Presidente De Miguel Angel Asturias, Estela Alonso Pandiello

Master's Theses

El objetivo del presente estudio es de llegar a conclusiones sabre las caracteristicas psicol6gicas y alteraciones psiquicas de los principales personajes y los efectos de esas alteraciones en la sociedad, tal como son expuestas por Miguel Angel Asturias eri una de sus novelas de mas resonancia e impacto emocional en el lector y en el estudioso de la literatura hispanoamericana: "El Sefior Presidente".

An Orientation Of The Theoretical Aspects Of Verbs In English, Mostafa Hedayatnia

Master's Theses

Traditional grammar originated in Greece in the fifth century B.C. and has been closely connected with philosophy and literary criticism ever since. Through the course of centuries, numerous grammars have been presented, with new ideas and definitions each "varying greatly in purpose, quality, basic assumption, and method of analysis." Each system of grammar has been productive in its own way as well as erroneous and has been succeeded by other systems still faulty. Consequently, in spite of the tremendous amount of theoretical data processed by investigators and experts, neither an explicit nor a complete grammar of a language has ever …

"Mercy Seasons Justice", Robert Freeman Davidson

Master's Theses

This is a study of the development of the mind of William Shakespeare as it relates to justice which tries to show how certain of Shakespeare's beliefs and theories, those shared by most of his con­ temporaries, were altered in the course of that development. The plays chosen for this treatment of the mind of Shakespeare -- the historically related cycle of Richard II, Henry IV (I and II), Henry V, Henry VI (I, II, and III), and Richard III -- show the ideas in question in greater abundance than any other of Shakespeare's plays. The historical grouping consists …

Chaucer's Criseyde : The Pressures Of The Courtly Love Code, Betty Ann Jaffee

Master's Theses

When Chaucer wrote the poem Troilus and Criseyde, he created a heroine who stands out from other romantic med­ ieval heroines such as Guinevere and Ysolt. He created a heroine of such complexities that critics have debated her motives endlessly and have explored the psychology of her emotions with every literary tool at their command. He created a heroirie whose sin was so damning that it inspired Robert Henryson to provide for her what he considered a fit­ ting punishment; and it inspired Shakespeare to try to salvage the wreck left by Henryson to create his masterful play.

It is …

The Speech Of The Andean Mestizo In The Novels Of Ciro Alegria, Catherine Thorburn Neale

Master's Theses

This inquiry is made and presented from the point of view of a language teacher. After a student has acquired the basic skills of reading, writing, and speaking the foreign language, a most practical medium with which to continue his language study is literature. As well as gaining an understanding of people through literary study, he also may see the language in use as a tool for communication and become aware of some possibilities of it as an artistic medium. This study is concerned with the works of the Peruvian writer Ciro Alegria, who includes in his novels many examples …

Determinism And Freedom Of Choice Operating Through Five Experiences In Psychological Development In The Lives Of Three Of George Eliot's Heroines, Elisabeth Even Sale

Master's Theses

George Eliot's world is a deterministic world. She believed that circumstances and conventions imposed by society control events in an individual life; nevertheless, in the inevitable conflicts between inner desire and outer reality, the individual is responsible for his own choices and the acts which they direct. Furthermore, only in a deterministic world are intelligent, moral choices possible. The explanation or this seeming paradox lies in education or the individual by experience to learn to make satisfying choices and to develop a strong will. Through experience, the individual learns both the hazards of the selfish choice and also the lasting …