Literature, English

Among the first Old English inflectional forms to vanish were the instrumentals, surviving only in the interrogative pronoun that became the Modern English word "why." Its four synonymous forms were the only Old English words that had exclusively "instrumental" meanings. Despite their apparent importance, in all 30,535 Old English poetry lines, they occur only forty-eight times. This suggests that the Old English poetic instrumental merely imitated the Latin ablative's instrumental usage. Old English poets tried to graft onto it their own dative-instrumentals, anticipating in their meanings the goals of their clauses' subjects and in their forms the invariant preposition-plus-dative caseforms gradually replacing most Old English case inflection. This Latin-Old English discord attends all Old English instrumental interrogative clauses.

Within the remarkable diversity of Doris Lessing's fiction, the author's interest in the interrelation between the individual and the collective remains a constant. Her early works pursued this theme within a socio-political framework; however, her continued explorations have evolved an apolitical ethos which unfolds progressively in all of her work since The Golden Notebook. The impetus of this development, which has encouraged Lessing's experiments with various narrative techniques, is her desire to articulate a formula integrating the self with society; in one form or another, the catalyst of this integration is the creative imagination. By tracing related thematic and aesthetic courses of development in four novels--The Golden Notebook, The Four-Gated City, The Making of the Representative for Planet Eight, and The Good Terrorist--this thesis will demonstrate how Lessing's quest for integration has shaped her present apolitical ethos.

The anti-Semitism of Evelyn Waugh went beyond mere literary characterization. A study of Waugh's attitudes toward Nazism, Zionism, and World War II provides evidence that the Jewish characterizations in Waugh's work were underlined by stable and settled negative convictions regarding the Jewish people. Waugh's anti-Semitism had surprisingly little to do with Christian religious teaching but may almost entirely be attributed to upper-class British snobbism and his view that Jews were agents of capitalism, democracy, and secularism. Before the Holocaust Waugh gave his anti-Semitism free and unrestrained rein in his novels. After the Holocaust Waugh tried to blunt anti-Semitism in his novels, but the anti-Semitic outlook was so ingrained in him that he was not entirely successful. There are ample signs of old prejudices at play in his post-war writings. Waugh also denied many of his Jewish characters an authentic Jewish voice.

In A Room With A View Forster's allusions to the "mediaeval," the pattern of chapter headings which describes the action, the particular use of names and the way the narrative follows the evolving nature of Lucy Honeychurch's soul reveal a structural similarity to a morality play. In addition, the vivid contrasting elements of Light and Darkness and of Art and Nature establish the morality's opposing framework of Good versus Evil. The overtly visual style of Forster's narrative as well as the essentially dramatic structure of the novel provides director James Ivory a means to successfully adapt Forster's thematic structure to film. Ivory does so by translating the use of literary symbols and motifs into their visual counterparts rather than by merely concentrating on the achievement of narrative fidelity to the novel.

Frank O'Connor's stories of family strife effectively incorporate
comic relief to underscore the essential tragedy and frustration
in his protagonists' lives. Through a myriad of Irish
idiosyncracies and traditions, O'Connor examines the conflicts
that emerge when attempts are made to reconcile impulsive instincts
with the bittersweet bonds of family heritage. The first
chapter, "The Marriage Trap," explores the dilemma facing couples
who seek to escape stagnation; the second chapter, "Role Confusian,"
deals with the tragicomic aspects of assuming different
identities; the final chapter, "The Substitute Family," depicts
lonely characters' desperate search for warmth in a family of
their own invention. For O'Connor's families, seeking fulfillment
becomes an anguished search. The author's use of comic
relief temporarily offsets, occasionally balances, and ultimately underscores their strife.

Santayana's thought underlies much of Eliot's poetry. Both Eliot and
Santayana were skeptics, and Eliot's skepticism is documented in the
quartets, a work that is a personal journal of his search for faith.
That search was to be an unsuccessful one, for Eliot realized the impossibility
of union with the Absolute. The symbolism of the rosegarden,
the bedded axle-tree, the still point, and the clematis, when
analyzed, demonstrates Eliot's concept of a clockwork universe, a universe
that is unknowing and uncaring. Eliot reaches that concept,
basically, because of Santayana's influence.

An examination of the dream-vision form and the Hiddle English
lyric clarifies the role relationship in Chaucer's The Book of the
Duchess, a relationship not fully clarified by past scholarship. In
the dream vision a conventional pattern establishes the relationship
between the narrator and his superior guide and, in the English lyric
form, the "chanson d'aventure," the narrator encounters a sorrowing
figure who provides enlightenment through the explanation of his
sorrow. Chaucer employs the dream vision's conventional pattern and,
in the dream portion of the poem, he makes use of the "chanson
d'aventure" form with the added complexities of his own material.
His Narrator has forgotten his nature as man. The sorrowing Knight
reminds him of the need to feel this emotion, both over the loss of
the Duchess and because of man's own fallen state. The Knight, then,
becomes a guide who provides enlightenment for the erring Narrator.

There is a linguistic homoerotic flirtation between the characters of Viola and Olivia in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. Through Jane Gallop's analysis of Jacques Lacan, readers can view the eroticized exchange between these female characters by observing the manner in which each character utilizes both words containing feminine roots or metaphors that are feminine in nature. While Viola and Olivia express female-female desire, they search for their own identities in the patriarchal system that they must exist. They challenge the idea that women need to be both sexually and verbally passive. Viola represents a woman's removal from and re-emergence into the patriarchal system through her disguise. She is able to use the idea of the phallus in her interaction with Olivia, allowing both characters to experience phallic power---both by wielding power and by affirming their feminine characteristics through specific language.

I argue that beauty can be found in both the moral and immoral. The subjects of art, beauty, and morality in Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray are justly explained and beauty is revealed and restored to art when Dorian finally pierces his portrait. Art imitates life, and life must be portrayed in all its aspects of beauty and wretchedness. I also argue that the artist cannot be separated from his art, therefore making us judge both the person and the piece which should not be judged based on morality. I also use Wilde's work as well as critics of Wilde, art, beauty, and morality to prove that art does have a purpose.

Henry James wrote several works fictionalizing ideas of authorship. No critics have yet looked at "The Middle Years" as an affirmation of the role of the author. Julie Rivkin and Joyce Carol Oates are critics I cite as valuable support to my interpretation of "The Middle Years," a short story that gives us insight into Henry James's critical theory. The story deals with the final days of the author---Dencombe and his creation of a work of art also entitled "The Middle Years." This doubling of the title causes authority over the story to become diffused: the real author writes the actual story, while the fictional author owns both the fictional and actual story. Authority is further complicated by the processes of reading and revision. Through these processes, the author and the reader become both creators and spectators. This duality in combination with Dencombe's identification as the ideal author and Dr. Hugh's identification as the ideal reader grants insight into James's stance on the author's role in a work of fiction.