English Language and Literature Commons^™

Evermore And Evermore: A Discussion Of Spiritual Fulfillment As Found In Stoppard And Kerouac, Duncan Soughan

English Senior Capstone

Mankind has often struggled with the question of who am I? What am I if the institutions speaking into my life cease to adequately represent me? Nietzsche tackled this question and came to the conclusion that man should turn to his desire to fulfill that lack of direction. Tom Stoppard in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead as well as Jack Kerouac in his novel, On the Road, interact with Nietzsche’s proposals in fascinating ways with Stoppard’s work essentially proving Nietzsche’s point, and Kerouac clarifying that yes, outside the self should not be the sole input for direction but it …

To Do Or Not To Do: Anne Elliot And Edith Hope’S Evolving Perceptions Of Marriage In Persuasion And Hotel Du Lac, Jillian Cook

English Senior Capstone

While Anita Brookner might deny a connection between her characters and those of Jane Austen, placing Brookner’s Hotel du Lac and Austen’s Persuasion in conversation with one another reveals how similarly their protagonists are shaped. Edith Hope and Anne Elliot are both characters who make choices based on a high opinion of love that has been cultivated through the various interactions they have with the single, married, and widowed people in their lives. This paper seeks to investigate these relationships to understand why the two women respond so differently to the marriage proposals they receive at the end of their …

“Don’T Stop Believin’”: Dante’S And Christian’S Journey To Heaven, Austin Cochrane

English Senior Capstone

Dante's "Divine Comedy" and John Bunyan's "The Pilgrim's Progress" both encounter a protagonist who is journeying with the goal of reaching heaven in mind. During this journey, they are each met with and guided by various characters. In my paper, I focus on Virgil and Beatrice in "The Divine Comedy", and Evangelist and Hopeful in "The Pilgrim's Progress." Along with these guides, the geography that Dante and Christian each encounter is symbolic of a maturation of faith, as well as many Catholic and Protestant themes that Dante and Bunyan practiced.

Reputation And Reality: Revelations Of Monstrosity In Frankenstein And Six Of Crows, Jordyn Fortuna

English Senior Capstone

The main characters in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows reveal the potential within everyone for Monstrosity. This disregard for humanity can stem from many things, but it can also be prevented through community and sympathy. Monstrosity is often misconstrued due to a false perception guided by a sighted bias. In reality, however, characters’ humanity can be shown to the reader through a greater insight into their traumas and intentions. This paper highlights the idea that reputation cannot be trusted, but instead but be further examined to reveal the Monster within.

The Light And The Nothing: Escapism In Ready Player One And Confessions Of An English Opium-Eater, Katherine Bodkin

English Senior Capstone

In their novels Ready Player One and Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, Ernest Cline and Thomas De Quincey shed light on the individual and societal desire to escape pain and suffering. The drastically different time periods of these two stories show that addiction and avoidance have been plaguing humans for centuries. These characters’ unhealthy use of escapism serves as a warning to readers about the dangers of identifying oneself within a false reality. Ultimately, both characters exemplify that placing one’s agency within a false reality renders one completely powerless. When one accepts their inability to change their undesirable pasts …

"Big Medicine, Strong Magic": Sacrament And Sacrilege In Till We Have Faces And The Wind In The Willows, Kayla Kovacs

English Senior Capstone

Magic abounds as the fantastical and ordinary collide in C.S. Lewis’s final work of fiction, Till We Have Faces, and Kenneth Grahame’s children’s classic, The Wind in the Willows. As these authors weave worlds of profound, yet wonderfully simple beauty, they tell stories that point towards the deep intersectionality between seen reality and myth. This paper aims to show the permeability of the veil separating these realms through the concept of sacrament. While sacrament is seen as a kind of gate through which characters may pass to taste and see with new senses, it is contrasted throughout with …

The Holding On, Lydia Price

English Senior Capstone

“The Holding On” is a work of creative nonfiction, fiction, and poetry that explores the tension that lies at the heart of growing up and departing the world as you have previously known it. Through the lens of reflections on home life and family, this project seeks to honor the unique blend of celebration and mourning that we meet with during the transitions of life. Joy does not undo sorrow, but neither does sorrow undo joy, and the ultimate purpose of these stories is to transport you to that threshold moment— the moment before leaving.

Wait For Me: Finding Eurydice’S Voice In Hadestown And Portrait Of A Lady On Fire, Thomas Creekmore

Women's and Gender Studies Symposium

The traditional story of Orpheus and Eurydice, as featured in Ovid’s epic poem Metamorphoses, never allows the reader to understand Eurydice’s perspective, allowing her no agency as a character and not allowing her to be anything but an object of Orpheus’s desire. Anaïs Mitchell’s Broadway musical, Hadestown, and Céline Sciamma’s film, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, are two modern interpretations of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth that rework the story in ways that allow Eurydice to achieve more agency as a character. Unlike Ovid’s version of Eurydice, Hadestown’s Eurydice and Portrait of a Lady on Fire’s …

The Construct Of English Native Speaker In Hong Kong, Ka Long Roy Chan Dr.

Journal of English and Applied Linguistics

The discussion paper provides a discussion of the construct of English native speakers among Hongkongers. Beginning with a review of the linguistic landscapes of Hong Kong, including English language education and English usage, followed by an introduction of a debate on the construct of English native speakers, this paper demonstrates the potential inclusion of Hongkongers as native speakers of English, with the use of their English varieties, Hong Kong English. Additionally, the paper argues for a revision of the traditional geographically-bounded definition of ‘native speaker,’ drawing upon discussions by Rampton (1990), Kachru (1998), and Hansen Edwards (2017a, 2017b) regarding the …

Textual Variants In Eudora Welty’S "A Piece Of News”, Brooke Derrington, Abby Choe

Seaver College Research And Scholarly Achievement Symposium

Eudora Welty’s “A Piece of News” presents the question, how does one achieve self-actualization? For the protagonist Ruby Fisher, the answer is language, although that answer is not clear in the original 1937 published version of the story. That story’s focal point is Ruby’s tumultuous and complicated relationship with her husband, Clyde. In contrast, the revised 1941 version from Welty’s collection A Curtain of Green shifts the focus from Ruby’s abusive marriage to her interiority. The subsequent increase in word count, shifts in narration, and emphasis on Ruby claiming her name when she reads it in a newspaper elevates the …

Analyzing The Cynical Perspective Of Death In The Book Thief, Dorothy Elizabeth Hollar

Masters Theses

In The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, death is used as a theme and a character to convey the plot of the story. The character of death is used as a device to show the life of a young girl living in Nazi Germany through the eyes of something more sinister and pessimistic. The story explores trauma, friendship, and the power of words when it seems all hope is lost. This thesis will explore the aspect of death as a character and will examine how it works in the story. The creative portion of my thesis will examine the themes …

Rhetorical And Symbolic Form In Hopkins’S ‘To What Serves Mortal Beauty’, Thomas Dilworth

English Publications

[This essay is a revision of an article entitled ‘Hopkins’s “To What Serves Mortal Beauty,” which was published in The Explicator 48:4 (Summer1990), 264-6.]

Hell And Unhappiness In Larkins’S ‘High Windows’, Thomas Dilworth

English Publications

[This essay is a revision of an article entitled ‘Larkin’s “High Windows”, published in The Explicator 60:4 (Summer 2002), 221-3]

The Hidden Date In Yeats’S ‘Easter 1916’, Thomas Dilworth

English Publications

[This essay is a revised version of one with the same title published in Explicator 67:4 (Summer 2000), 236-7, copyright T.D]

“Éowyn It Was, And Dernhelm Also”: Reading The ‘Wild Shieldmaiden’ Through A Queer Lens., Sara Brown

Journal of Tolkien Research

The Éowyn we first meet in 'The Two Towers' is a woman who has been traumatised by the loss of her parents at a young age, the recent loss of her cousin Théodred, the apparent weakening of her uncle Théoden, and her inability to escape the lascivious gaze of Wormtongue. Marginalised by her gender and by social expectation, her desire to find purpose in her life as a shieldmaiden is repeatedly thwarted. Seeking to reclaim control over her life and to make her own choices, she rides out with the Rohirrim not as Éowyn, but as Dernhelm.

Past scholars have …

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Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

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Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

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Milton, Immortality, And Obtaining Eliot's "Significant Emotion", Aaron By Gorner

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

In his essay Tradition and the Individual Talent, T. S. Eliot famously asserts that very few can actually access "significant emotion" in poetry, and do so by understanding where relics of the classical tradition assert their immortality. In my article, I support Eliot's claims by demonstrating two (previously undiscussed) occasions where Milton, via Paradise Lost, inserts Christianity into the classical world: Satan and Abdiel alluding to Virgil's Remulus and Ascanius, and then Eve and Adam with Virgil's Nisus and Euryalus. Ultimately it will be apparent that not only does Milton's poetry obtain Eliot's "significant emotion" and its associated immortality, …

Beyond "His Native Town": Travel And Alienation In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Erin G. Quinn

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein features a surprisingly extensive variety of locations through which Victor Frankenstein travels, ranging from the vibrant cities of London and Oxford to the isolated Orkney islands and Arctic lands. Scholars have analyzed the roles which some of these settings, namely, the Alps and the Arctic, play in the novel, and many have noted the importance of travel to the text. However, little scholarship exists assessing how Victor’s travels as a whole impact him, as well as their collective purpose within the story. Given the prominence of travel in Shelley’s text, as well as the fact …

The “Fruit” Of Success: Christina Rossetti’S “Goblin Market” As An Allegory Of The 19th Century Literary Marketplace, Priyodarshini Ghosh

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market” is probably her most critically acclaimed literary masterpiece. It has been accepted undoubtedly as an allegory of something, but critics have not been able to come to a unanimous conclusion as to what. Some have tried to establish it as a Christian allegory of Fall and Redemption, while others as an allegory of sexual temptation. Certain critics have hinted that this poem could be an allegory of the literary marketplace during the 19^th century, which was wholly dominated by men, women’s entry into that marketplace being either restricted or marked by insurmountable obstacles. Following the …