English Language and Literature Commons^™

Characters Through Time, Alyssa Venezia

Honors Thesis

T. S. Eliot once wrote that we “often find that not only the best, but the most individual parts of [an author’s] work may be those in which the dead poets, his ancestors, assert their immortality most vigorously” (Eliot 37). By focusing on character adaptations, one comes to understand how authors of children’s books are able to adapt classic literature into age-appropriate texts that retain the merits of the original. Five sets of characters shall be analyzed to demonstrate the success of the adaptations presented in children’s literature. In the first, Sir Bedivere from Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte Darthur …

Innocent Until Proven Guilty: Shakespeare's Use Of Source Material In Three Plays, Alexandria C. Mcqueen

Undergraduate Honors Theses

In my thesis, I discuss and analyze William Shakespeare’s utilization and adaptation of source texts within three of his dramas: Henry IV, Part I, a history; Twelfth Night, a comedy; and Julius Caesar, a tragedy. By comparing Shakespeare’s adaption of sources to the contemporary United Kingdom intellectual property policies, it becomes possible for me to determine whether Shakespeare’s extensive and popular dramas would violate modern copyright law.

The first chapter, “Printing and Writing in the Early Modern Period,” discusses the development of proprietary interests among the Elizabethan people. I break down the individual components of the printing process in …

What A Dream Was Here: An Ontological Approach To Love And Magic In Shakespeare’S A Midsummer Night’S Dream, Brittany May Rebarchik

Theses and Dissertations

This paper takes Heidegger’s notion of world disclosure and uses it for extended thematic analyses of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In contrast to the majority of Shakespeare critics who treat Shakespeare’s use of magic as an epistemological issue, I argue that the main action of the play develops through an inherent contradiction between the magical and non-magical ontological states of the characters and the love that results. Borrowing from German philosopher Martin Heidegger, I demonstrate magic’s role as a catalyst in giving certain kinds of love a “shift of existence.” I show that the characters come more fully into being, …

Genre-Savvy Sonnets: Shakespeare’S Subversion Of Problematic Conventions Of Courtly Love, Kelly Kramer

The Kabod

In an analysis of Shakespeare's 130th Sonnet, Kramer finds that the Bard champions a better way to love rather than the idealization of another that is the convention of courtly love. Actually knowing and loving someone's flaws and oddities is more constructive and enduring in contrast to the courtly love tradition which Shakespeare implies is harmful and misleading in its teaching to value the wrong thing in another.

Shylock Celebrates Easter, Brooke Conti

English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Brotherly Love In Twelfth Night, Sara Heist

The Kabod

Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night draws an intriguing contrast between brotherly love and romantic love. Through the relationships of Sebastian-Antonio and Viola-Orsino, the playwright illustrates these two types of love in the lives these characters, showing that the two distinct types of love may conflict or harmonize, depending on the situation. An analysis of these two relationships provides insight into the tension between the two types of love in the play. The comparison of the motives, characteristics, expectations, and transience of the four characters’ amicable relationships illustrates the benefits and shortcomings of amity.

Ophelia And The Feminine Construct, Lilly E. Romestant

Oglethorpe Journal of Undergraduate Research

In Shakespeare's celebrated tragic masterpiece, Hamlet, one of the most controversial and seminal characters, Ophelia, continues to have a heavy influence on contemporary culture today in some unexpected ways. Her prevalence in mainstream media––including film, literature, drama, and music homages––validates not only her importance now but also reimagines and reinforces her parallel importance at the time of her debut in 1603. Her association with global teenage culture, suicide, and mental illness, puts her in the unique position of being heralded, generation after generation, as an icon of depression in female youth. This can be both positive and negative, as …

“Listen To Many”: Intersectionality, Tragedy, And William Shakespeare, Anna Flores

Honors Theses

Centuries after his own lifetime, William Shakespeare dominates the Western canon and continues to have a profound effect on Western society. As the values of that society shift and social movements progress, so too must critical reception of Shakespeare's work. The purpose of this thesis is to reexamine Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida (1601), Othello (1604), and Antony and Cleopatra (1606) through a feminist lens in order to expose the larger societal issues addressed within the play. This thesis draws on Intersectionality, a modern branch of feminism, to discuss sexism, racism, classism, and homophobia within Shakespeare’s texts and the way in …

Performing Marriage In Shakespeare: The Tempest, Robert B. Pierce

Selected Papers of the Ohio Valley Shakespeare Conference

No abstract provided.

Shakespeare Disenchanted: From Chivalric Court To Elizabeth's And James I'S Courts, David George

Selected Papers of the Ohio Valley Shakespeare Conference

No abstract provided.

Commedia Dell’Arte Influences On Shakespearean Plays: The Tempest, Love’S Labor's Lost, And The Taming Of The Shrew, Amy Drake

Selected Papers of the Ohio Valley Shakespeare Conference

No abstract provided.

Women Wooing Men, Aisha Elizabeth Ratanapool

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Although many early modern English plays portray women courting men, I contend that there are significant resonances between the methods of Rosalind, the female protagonist from a Shakespearean comedy, and those of the Duchess, from a Websterian tragedy. Rosalind and the Duchess woo, propose to, and arrange the marriage ceremony between them and their love interests. The witty dialogue which permeates the wooing scenes helps establish a strong mental connection between Rosalind and Orlando and the Duchess and Antonio. I examine the motives behind wooing and comparatively analyze the strategies of these female characters. Through this analysis, I present Rosalind …

Shakespeare And Boyhood: Early Modern Representations And Contemporary Appropriations, Marvin Tyler Sasser

Dissertations

This dissertation demonstrates that Shakespearean boyhood, both in early modern plays and contemporary reimaginings for young readers, critiques patriarchal and hegemonic ideals through the rhetoric and behavior of boy characters. Although critics have called Shakespeare’s boy characters indistinguishable, I find that they provide Shakespeare a unique resource to offer persuasive skepticism about heroic conventions, education, and political instability. This project begins by examining the lexical network of boy in order to chart its uses in early modern England. The subsequent three chapters establish how Shakespeare uses boys to comment on a range of ideal manhoods, such as the chivalrous …

Who Is Ophelia? An Examination Of The Objectification And Subjectivity Of Shakespeare's Ophelia, Tynelle Ann Olivas

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

William Shakespeare's Ophelia, from his tragedy play Hamlet, has predominately been perceived and depicted as an objectified female with very little purpose other than to support Hamlet's role as protagonist. I explore the ways in which Ophelia was objectified by her brother, father, and Hamlet. I also analyze how Ophelia not only exhibits subjectivity, that is the ability to think, act, and speak for herself, but plays the part of Shakespearean fool. In her interactions with Hamlet specifically, Ophelia addresses Hamlet first, raises questions of the prince, and conducts herself in a way that is not always in keeping with …

From Present To Past: Contextualizing The Sonnet, Nicole Trackman

Understanding Poetry

Students will learn the components of a Shakespearean sonnet by looking at the intentions and figurative language of modern music and tracing it back to Spenser’s blazon “Sonnet XV” and Shakespeare’s response in “Sonnet 130”. This lesson allows multiple entry points into the language, content and form of Shakespeare’s sonnets. This lesson can be used at the beginning of a unit on Shakespeare, Renaissance poetry, or sonnets.

Visualizing Shakespeare: Iconography And Interpretation In The Works Of Salvador Dalí, Emily A. Zbehlik

Student Publications

Although William Shakespeare’s 16th century classical literature is rarely contextualized with the eccentricities of 20th century artist Salvador Dali, Shakespeare’s myriad of works have withstood the test of time and continue to be celebrated and reinterpreted by the likes of performers, scholars, and artists alike. Along with full-text illustrations of well-known plays, such as Macbeth (1946) and As You Like It (1953), Dali returned to the Shakespearean motif with his two series of dry-point engravings (Much Ado About Shakespeare and Shakespeare II) in 1968 and 1971. The series combine to formulate 31 depictions where Dali interprets Shakespeare’s text in a …

From England's Bridewell To America's Brides: Imprisoned Women, Shakespeare's Measure For Measure, And Empire, Alicia Meyer

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This thesis examines the experience of largely single women in London’s house of correction, Bridewell Prison, and argues that Bridewell’s prisoners, and the nature of their crimes, reveal the state’s desire for dependent, sexually controlled, yet ultimately productive women. Scholars have largely neglected the place of early modern women’s imprisonment despite its pervasive presence in the everyday lives of common English women. By examining the historical and cultural implications of early modern women and prison, this thesis contends that women’s prisons were more than simply establishments of punishment and reform. A closer examination of Bridewell’s philosophy and practices shows how …

Shakespeare's Comic Universe, Louis Markos

Resuscitating Paideia: Reading Literature for Wisdom

In this meditation on Shakespeare's comedies, Lou Markos examines, in particular, parallels between grand biblical narratives, such as the Wedding Supper of the Lamb, and Shakespeare's many marriage resolutions.

"Hamlet" And Marginality, Eduardo Barreto

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research aims to explore the place of marginality (or that which is not the immediate focus of narrative) in the context of the play and through the examination of the characters of Fortinbras and Horatio, in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The intended outcome is to encourage diversified perspectives and approaches to the play by focusing on the marginal themes and/or characters.

The chapters address the characters of Fortinbras and Horatio; the first inverts the protagonist/foil relationship by reading Hamlet as a foil to Fortinbras, while the second uses Freud’s “The Uncanny” as a way to understand Horatio’s role in …

Presence In Absence In Shakespeare's King Lear, Kimberly Austin

Student Works

King Lear is imbedded with hidden Christian themes, expressed through characters like Cordelia and the Fool, to show that salvation and redemption can only be obtained in a world with Christ. The audience recognizes the absence of Christian principles in the play and through our desire for Christianity it becomes a present theme.The theory of presence in absence becomes clearer when analyzing Cordelia and the Fool. Their characteristics mimic those of Christ which reminds the audience of his absence in the play. Throughout the play King Lear repeats the theory of “nothing from nothing” and by analyzing this theme through …

The Commodification Of Queer Virgins In Shakespeare, Spenser, And Keats, Laura M. Ortega

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis was to explore selected works from William Shakespeare, Edmund Spenser, and John Keats, in order to expose textual instances of feminist thought. This analysis was aided with feminist theorists falling under the main strains of queer theory, materialism, and gender performance. Specifically, this thesis focused on the ways in which women, particularly virgin daughters, were viewed as property by their male kin. It also looked at how these women engaged in various symbolic masquerades and/or actual cross-dressing as a response to the aforementioned phenomenon. Finally, the thesis exposed how these masquerades can be construed as …

The Mystification Of Christian Salvation: On The Anxiety Of Redemption In Renaissance Poetry And Drama, Kimberly Paige Ambroziak

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

"The Legend of the Red Crosse Knight," "Doctor Faustus," "Hamlet," and "Samson Agonistes" are secular poetic explorations with a common idea: the possibility of Christian salvation. These examples of the redemptive quest seem to reveal the uneasiness of salvation which is representative, if only broadly, of the atmosphere in which their authors were writing. More specifically, the intention of this study is to reveal the possibility and nature of Christian uncertainty as it is firmly rooted in the early modern period. As Christian doctrine proves protean from its beginnings in the first century to Protestant tracts in the sixteenth, these …

The Early Modern Space: (Cartographic) Literature And The Author In Place, Michael C. Myers

HIM 1990-2015

In geography, maps are a tool of placement which locate both the cartographer and the territory made cartographic. In order to place objects in space, the cartographer inserts his own judgment into the scheme of his design. During the Early Modern period, maps were no longer suspicious icons as they were in the Middle Ages and not yet products of science, but subjects of discourse and works of art. The image of a cartographer’s territory depended on his vision—both the nature and placement of his gaze—and the product reflected that author’s judgment. This is not a study of maps as …

James And Shakespeare: Unification Through Mapping, Christina Wagner

ETD Archive

The art of exploration became an important aspect of theater in early modern England. Exploration is typically done through the utilization of a map. The map scene in Lear provides a focal point to peer into the political ventures of King James I. As a proponent for peace, James both unified and divided his kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland through the use of cartography as a way to show the aspirations of a king. Lear, in dividing his kingdom between his three daughters, shows Shakespeare's careful strategic planning of the division of a kingdom and what that means in …

The Battle Of Good And Evil In Shakespeare, Erin K. Miller

Master of Liberal Studies Theses

Drama through the ages—from the Greeks’ Oedipus Rex to the morality plays of the Middle Ages—centers on an exploration of the human condition, and the plays of Englishman William Shakespeare are no different. What starts as the impact of fate on the life of man becomes, by the Middle Ages, a religious spectacle centered on evil’s impact on man. In the late 16th and early 17th centuries, Shakespeare goes much further to develop the concept of evil. A chronological study of four of Shakespeare’s plays--Titus Andronicus, The Merchant of Venice, Othello, and Macbeth--demonstrates that the playwright evolves his portrayal of …

"A Great Man's Madness": An Inquiry Into Sanity And Gender In Jacobean Tragedy, Vittoria Mollo

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis delves deep into an analysis of madness in two seventeenth century tragic plays: William Shakespeare's Macbeth and John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi. The first portion of the dissertation will provide historical background and context. The rest will be a critical literary analysis centered around the argument that both plays present an inextricable connection between loss of mental clarity and gender.

Hamlet #Princeofdenmark: Exploring Gender And Technology Through A Contemporary Feminist Re-Interpretation Of Hamlet, Allegra B. Breedlove

Scripps Senior Theses

Exploring the process of designing, producing, directing and starring in a multimedia feminist re-interpretation of Shakespeare's Hamlet set in a contemporary social media landscape.

The Wisdom In Folly: An Examination Of William Shakespeare's Fools In Twelfth Night And King Lear, Siri M. Brudevold

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis explores the complexities to be found in the characters of Lear's Fool from King Lear and Feste from Twelfth Night. It begins with an investigation of the history behind the taxonomy of fools that William Shakespeare created in his works. The rest of the thesis is devoted to examining the many facets of the two aforementioned fools, with the goal of discovering just how important and influential they are to their respective plots and to the world of literature. Finally, there is a brief coda that explores the other striking similarities that the two plays have in …

Not (Just) Donne: Alchemical Transmutation As Immortality In Shakespeare’S Sonnets, Brandi L. Moody

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Shakespeare, in his sonnets, employs alchemical references in the sonnets that ultimately fail, in order to show how fruitless it is to pursue immortality. The poet urges the fair friend, who himself is like the self-consuming ouroboros, to father a child that will continue his legacy and allow the fair friend to live on via the child. Language associated with the child is alchemical, referencing distillation, vials, flasks, and the renewing power of the philosopher’s stone. The dark lady, the opposite of the fair friend in every way, can be explained as fulfilling alchemy’s union of opposites needed for a …