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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Absent Characters As Proximate Cause In Twentieth Century American Drama, Sarah Emily Morrow
Absent Characters As Proximate Cause In Twentieth Century American Drama, Sarah Emily Morrow
English Theses
This thesis explores the status of a specific subset of absent characters within twentieth century American drama. By borrowing the term “proximate cause” from tort law and illuminating its intricacies through David Hume’s A Treatise of Human Nature, this thesis re-appropriates proximate cause for literary studies. Rather than focus on characters whose existence remains the subject of critical debate, this set of absent characters presumably exists but never appear onstage. Despite their non-appearance onstage, however, these absent characters nonetheless have a profound effect upon the action that occurs during their respective plays. Highlighting the various ways in which these characters …
The Myths Of The Self-Made-Man: Cowboys, Salesmen And Pirates In Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie And Arthur Miller's Death Of A Salesman, Camille Gros
English Theses
Most books written about American drama concern definitions of masculinity, the American dream, and the family in a society that encourages people to surpass their competences and limits. American playwrights of the twentieth century reveal the anxiety and insecurity of men who do not rise up to the standards of the American dream. In concentrating on these themes, most critics have analyzed the main characters and plots but have left aside hints about other myths. This study aims to analyse the extended use of the cowboy, of salesman, and of pirate in Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie and Arthur Miller’s …