Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Austen's Realist Feminine Icon, Sean Mcconnell

Student Works

No abstract provided.

War In Heaven: The Archdeacon's Embodiment Of Charles Williams' Coinherence, Germeen Tanas

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Charles Williams published War in Heaven in 1930, the first of his seven supernatural novels. In War in Heaven, Archdeacon Julian Davenant of Castra Parvulorum is the unlikely hero who embodies calm goodness. War in Heaven’s dramatic arc focuses on a struggle to control the legendary Holy Grail, the chalice that the characters believe Jesus used at the Last Supper, and brutal spiritual warfare. Amid a turning and twisting plot, Williams infuses the text with the theological concepts of coinherence, substitution, and exchange. In pivotal scenes, Williams imbues the Archdeacon’s words and actions with his theological framework. In …

Neil Gaiman's Elevated Fairy Tale: Childhood Trauma Through The Lens Of Postmodernism, Faith Adams

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In The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman explores the influence of trauma on identity formation. In the sinister world of his liminal fantasy, Gaiman’s nameless narrator strives to assemble a comforting sense of identity in the midst of traumatic chaos. Viewed through a postmodern lens, Gaiman’s use of hypertextuality and non-linear storytelling undermines idealized views of objective truth and reality, ultimately suggesting that nothing in life can be reduced to a binary.

The Linguistic Reimagining Of Natural Elements In Gerard Manley Hopkins' Nature Sonnets., Leah Rice

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Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889) was a Victorian poet and Jesuit priest now numbered among the major English poets. When the first edition of his poems was published posthumously in 1918 by his friend Robert Bridges, it “baffled more readers than it converted” (Martin 50). Nevertheless, despite this original reticence to accept Hopkins as a poet, the tests of time and scholarship has proven his depth and continued relevance of study.

The Importance Of Reading In Jane Austen's Novels, Leah Rice

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Reading is a central theme of both Emma (1815) and Pride and Prejudice (1813), two of Jane Austen’s most celebrated novels. The characters are constantly reading books, comparing the sizes of their libraries, and endeavoring to respond to tricky situations based on their readings of them. Mr. Darcy claims that a lady’s education is not complete until she adds to all the usual accomplishments something “more substantial”: the “improvement of her mind by extensive reading” (27). Though reading is regarded as a source of knowledge and even wisdom, these novels are what Bonaparte calls “a map of misreading” (142). Elizabeth …

Folklore-In-The-Making: Analyzing Shakespeare's The Tempest And Adaptations As Folklore, Heather Talbot

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This paper explores the similarities between folklore and Shakespeare's play,The Tempest. Not only is The Tempest an example of a folkloric story, this paper looks at how this play calls to attention the importance of story and the need for story to adapt in order to survive. Folklore is an oral tradition that is living, or continually adapting. Shakespeare's plays, while written are also performances which can be adapted through interpretations and by adapting to new genres. It is this adaptability which allows Shakespeare's works to continue to thrive and it is this adaptability which will determine how …

Music, Shakespeare, And Redefined Catharsis, Megan Jae Hatt

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The definition of catharsis has changed since the time of Aristotle. A person does not only experience catharsis out of pity or fear from theatric tragedies; they also experience it through laughter, love, and simply immersing themselves into the emotions presented by different forms of media. This essay reviews the catharsis one can experience through contemporary music and Shakespeare as they become submersed in the emotions and spectacle of each respective media. In this essay, I compare and contrast contemporary music and Shakespeare text and performance in order to relate them to this new definition of catharsis by including different …

Children As The Power Of Shakespeare, Samantha Rowley

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An dive into how children are used in Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets. While there has been some extensive research on numerous of Shakespeare’s minor characters, some of his other characters, the minors, have been focused on less. Because they fly under the radar, Shakespeare uses these “minor” characters in order to subtly manipulate his audience, using them as a source of pathos in much the same way adults use children to manipulate audiences while silencing the actual opinions of the children they claim to represent. However, though he may often use children for this effect due to their fragility, Shakespeare …

The Divinity That Shapes Our Ends: Theological Conundrums And Religious Scepticism In Hamlet, Kyler Merrill

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This paper proposes that Shakespeare deliberately incorporated speculative theology into Hamlet to stimulate religious scepticism. It explores the troubling implications of the ghost’s behaviour, cinematic adaptations of the murder testimony, and the characters’ moral failings in the purportedly Catholic cosmos of Elsinore.

Monstrosity As A Problem Of Moral Proximity In Shakespeare’S Othello, Kyle Ward

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Abstract

In Othello, Shakespeare explores the idea of monstrosity through his titular character. This paper argues that Othello exemplifies the idea that monstrosity is not an inherent evil, but rather that it is a problem of Moral Proximity. The Problem of Moral Proximity, as it is explained in the paper, is the idea that good and evil are the moderation of or corruption of neutral traits. This paper not only argues that monstrosity is one of these neutral qualities, but also explores how Iago corrupts this monstrosity to bring about Othello's downfall.