Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Ahab’S Humanities, Marian Barger

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

In Herman Melville’s Moby Dick Captain Peleg declares, “Ahab has his humanities.” Although many facets of Ahab’s character have been explored, his humanities have not been discussed at length. The Oxford English Dictionary defines “humanities” as “human attributes; traits or touches of human nature or feeling; points that concern man, or appeal to the human sensibilities.” This definition is vague; the specific qualities which should be included must be enumerated, since the humanities of one culture may not be the same as those of another. Ahab has been associated with two cultures – The Western, Christian tradition and the Near …

Antony & Cleopatra: A Study In Polarities, Mary Yarbrough

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

In reading or seeing Antony and Cleopatra, several clear dualities emerge. The first is the polarity between Egypt and Rome as different settings for the action. Rome is cold, mechanical, rational, and businesslike, whereas Egypt is lush, erotic, exotic, and langourous. Antony is torn between the two worlds, and this split of loyalty and interest helps to make the second duality of the play, that of the personalities and attitudes of the main characters. Antony and Cleopatra are both seen in double perspective--as lustful, self-gratifying sinners and as lovers in a truly transcendent sense of love. Both perspectives are …

George Eliot And The Victorian Woman, Vicki Kirkland

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

After an examination of the typical Victorian woman was made from available authoritative sources it was found that George Eliot deviated from this standard and presented several views of the anti-Victorian woman in her novels. While the Victorian woman was pious, content with her role in life, poorly educated, dependent on the man in her life for answers to all problems, frail, feminine, attractive and frivolous, Eliot, on the other hand, contradicted these characteristics at almost every point. She refused to write the sort of entertaining stories the Victorian reader demanded, and furthermore, she viewed the Victorian home realistically.

Eliot …

The Poetic Theory Of T.S. Eliot: An Investigation, Jane Cooksey

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Few critics have had a greater impact upon the theory of poetry than T.S. Eliot. His critical works, spanning the decades of his literary career, embody a theory of poetry and by a careful scrutiny of his many essays, reviews and interviews, it is possible to formulate definite requirements for works in the genre of poetry. Beginning with the essay “Tradition and the Individual Talent” in 1919, Eliot stresses certain aspects of poetry that must be carefully considered by the poet, and Eliot does not radically alter his attitudes throughout his career.

Eliot insists in his earliest essays that the …