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- Creator:
- Woodmansee, Alexander
- Description:
- Shakespeare’s second tetralogy was given the name The Henriad was given that title by Alvin Kernan in recognition of its epic qualities. This thesis is a study of the uniquely Vergilian construction of Shakespeare’s epic. Vergil’s Aeneid and Shakespeare’s Henriad share s similar format and that support the equally nationalistic intent of both epics. The first six books of The Aeneid constitute an epic of return based on the restoration of Aeneas after the death of his father. The second six books, during which Aeneas prosecutes an all-out war with the Latin natives, are cast in the form of an epic of wrath. Henry IV Parts One and Two form the epic of return and Henry V is an epic of wrath condensed into a single play. The theme of kingship is resolved through the restoration of the English throne at Hal coronation. The theme of war is developed along similar lines in The Henriad and Aeneid. Both epics develop military campaigns from inception to bloody conclusion that focus on the morality of wrathful actions in the name of nation. The theme of kings and their development highlights the moral stance of the authors and the nations they attempt to represent in their epics. Richard II, the first play of The Henriad, functions the same as Book Two of The Aeneid. These stories are used to provide context for the epic and provide the basis of grievous wrongs to be righted by the each of the epic heroes. Examining the plays of The Henriad according to their epic form and function demonstrates Shakespeare’s replacement and often inversion of Vergil’s Roman values with his own Elizabethan ethics.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Stanislaus
- Department:
- English
- Creator:
- Searway, Robert
- Description:
- Elizabeth Gaskell, as a Victorian realist writer, often focuses on descriptions of settings and the exterior world. Through diverse and varied settings, she reveals the influences of rapid social change after the Industrial Revolution. At the same time, such depictions can actually reveal interior character because individuals must interact with and negotiate with the social construction of social space. While environment impacts character development, the opposite also occurs. Individuals subtly negotiate with the influences of space and community, with the oftenunacknowledged influences exerted by a particular area’s culture. The greater scope of Gaskell’s work depicts states of flux and change, where traditional value systems and communal relationships transform and shift with the broader changes of modernizing England. In order to explore the manner in which Gaskell addresses and reveals these alterations, this thesis engages interconnected aspects of spatial conception, community, individuality, and mobility. Gaskell reveals the modernizing effects of new social and physical mobility, and presenting such dual mobility in her work allows a modern perspective for both the characters of Gaskell’s fiction and for her readers. This thesis therefore explores the manner through which she depicts spatial relationships and emphasizes her focus on individual mobility. Mobile individuals negotiate changing spatial and communal dynamics through their ability to inhabit multiple spaces and engage multiple viewpoints.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Stanislaus
- Department:
- English
- Creator:
- Herold, Johnathan
- Description:
- Historically, the thematic concerns surrounding J.R.R. Tolkien’s works of Middle-earth have been oversimplified as static struggles between moral absolutes, base conflicts between forces of good and evil. This narrow approach has overlooked Tolkien’s initial motivations for creating his mythopoeia of Middle-earth, which were shaped in the background of two world wars and grounded in an escapist attempt to preserve an idealistic past threatened by the rapid approach of modernity in the early 20th century. However, as Tolkien collectively wrote The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, and the trilogy of volumes which form The Lord of the Rings over the course of nearly sixty years, his original attitudes toward the passing of time grew and changed. By tracing the evolution of Tolkien’s pervasive use of a vast web of interconnected symbolic dichotomies centered on the concepts of past and future, a parallel shift can be seen to occur over the course of Tolkien’s writing, ultimately revealing a thematic inversion from a longing to retain a fading past to an eventual acceptance of an inevitable future.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Stanislaus
- Department:
- English
- Creator:
- Hollcraft, Jacqueline
- Description:
- Criticism on Titus Andronicus neglects a comprehensive discussion on the play’s grotesque characteristics; likewise, grotesque theorists fail to mention Titus Andronicus when they discuss Shakespearean grotesque. However, Titus Andronicus offers ample images and figures that exemplify the grotesque concepts of hybridity, the comic macabre, the fantastic, the bizarre, and the monstrous, which can be found not only in the script, but also in the play’s source material, Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Ovid significantly influenced the flourishing of the grotesque aesthetic in the Renaissance, as he was extensively read by Nero, whose excavated Domus Aurea contained the “grotto art,” or grottesche, that inspired the grotesque aesthetic. Titus Andronicus particularly exemplifies Mikhail Bakhtin’s detailed exposition on Renaissance grotesque and the carnivalesque, especially the grotesque’s emphasis on feasting, Saturnalias, carnival hell, bodily material, negation, and degradation. Furthermore, the performance history of Titus Andronicus displays an inherent understanding of the play as a grotesque through either a faithful adherence to Shakespeare’s original script and all its grotesque elements or by an avoidance of the grotesque in order to appease the social and artistic sensibilities of particular audiences. The significant performances of Titus Andronicus in the past century reveal that contemporary directors and audiences are now willing to confront and contend with the disruption, shock, disgust, uncomfortable laughter, and wonder that accompanies the grotesque. Special attention is given to productions by Peter Brook, Deborah Warner, Julie Taymor, and Lucy Bailey.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Stanislaus
- Department:
- English
- Creator:
- Dybas, Tara
- Description:
- The main objective of this project is to examine the female revenger in William Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus and Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl. The female revenger often signifies cultural attitudes about a given society, as she exhibits behaviors that indicate male anxieties over what women are capable of. The female revenger is thus an apt vehicle in understanding the shifting status of women through history. Titus Andronicus and Gone Girl are central to this examination. The early modern era is credited with the popularization of the revenger character, and Titus Andronicus presents one of the first developed and central female revengers in an Elizabethan drama. Gone Girl is one of the more recent representations of the female revenger. Both texts rely on similar character tropes as Tamora and Amy utilize motherhood, aggressive sexuality, subjectivity, and several other facets of stereotypical femininity. The differences between the two texts indicate the shift in female subjectivity that allows for success. This examination necessitates a gloss of feminist movements that led to an increase in female agency and subjectivity. Without cultural shifts in attitudes towards women, Gillian Flynn could not have expanded on the female revenger trope popularized by William Shakespeare.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Stanislaus
- Department:
- English