Greer, Allen W.

This study of King Horn, the earliest extant Middle
English verse romance that has chanced to survive,
includes a brief survey of the criticism, both
historical and textual, that is available in English.
It is also an attempt to extend the view that King
Horn, aside from its historical value, is a poem in
its own right , an artistic achievement possessing a
shaped structure and unity. Three themes, those of
exile and return, growth to maturity of the hero, and
the restoration of order, are discussed in order to
reveal their importance to the structure and their
contribution to the poem as a whole.

Despite its vast and ongoing public appeal, Ayn Rand's fiction has received scant critical attention regarding its literary techniques. Such an analysis of one of her works, The Fountainhead, which focuses on the four literary attributes of the conventional novel form, reveals her deliberate weaving of romanticism and realism to create her own genre: romantic-realism. After a broad discussion of the genre itself, which also demonstrates Rand's early literary influences, each of these attributes (plot, characterization, style, and theme) is examined separately. In each case, those specific literary techniques generally acknowledged as being common to primarily one or the other genre (by various critics whom I cite and then by Rand herself) are noted first, whereupon follows a discussion of how these techniques are utilized in The Fountainhead. Finally, I suggest possible non-literary reasons for the frequent negative reactions to the novel and acknowledge Rand's influence on a few specific modern writers.

In three plays in particular of William Butler Yeats tree imagery represents the collective human family. In The Land of Heart's Desire, the tree and its various manifestations symbolize both the constrictions of society and the freedom Mary Bruin seeks. Through Mary's death, the play points the way to a restoration of a purified "collective human family," or the "tree," freed from the corruptions of the world. In At the Hawk's Well, Yeats for the first time introduces elements of the Noh play, and with the bare settings, three hazel trees starkly symbolize the potential for the regeneration of the collective human family. And, in The Cat and the Moon, Yeats metaphorically grafts a separated humanity into a "big ash-tree" overlooking a well in which a Blind Beggar and a Lame Beggar, seek a healing Saint. In these three plays trees link human beings to each other and nature.

In A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Joyce undermines the reader's dependence on an omniscient narrator and demands his active interpretive participation. The reader is no longer led to a knowledge of character by author intrusion but must continuously work towards interpretation. Joyce relies upon imagery and associated symbolism to support the reader's understanding of the novel's central figure, Stephen Dedalus. He incorporates into the work a complex structure of symbolism built upon the repetition of the opposing images of heat and cold. These contrasting images are used to create a series of symbolic associations that not only clarify Stephen's characterization but also intensify the impact of narration on the reader, increasing his recognition of the author's artistic design.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is comprised of hundreds of parallels and polarities which balance, by reflection and contrast, all of its parts: plot structure, tone and style, words and sounds, characterization, settings, symbolism, purpose and meaning. Everywhere one looks, the dualities abound, one part of these pairs serving to illuminate, and at the same time, diminish the opposing part. What results is a tension between the serious and the comic; the poet puts us in a delightful game-like maze of misdirection to teach us that human nature is, at best, a compromise between the antithetical components of spirit and flesh.

In his writings C.S. Lewis expresses a distinctly individual concept of
the significance, nature, and relevance of the romance genre. Viewing the
primary function of literature as the presentation of a transcendent,
absolute reality, he believes that romance fulfills that function better than
any other literary genre. It does so because that reality is best
apprehended by the Imagination, and romance, as o type of mythopoelc
literature. Is the genre which Is most dominated by the imagination. The
distinguishing elements of Lewis's concept of romance include the presence
of the marvelous, reollsm of presentation, the engagement of the reader’s
emotions, the primacy of "story" the typal nature of the characters, and the
importance of setting. These elements Interact to create a kind of romance
which serves a healing function in contemporary society—revealing
meaning, giving wonder, and conveying moral truths.

This study briefly examines the legal and social
position of women in the nineteenth century, with special
attention to Virginia Woolf's own family background and to
the development of her novels, culminating in To the
Lighthouse. A survey of the critics' views of the marriage
of Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay precedes a study of the ways in
which Virginia Woolf dramatizes that marriage in itself and
its effect on other family members as well as on the
family's circle of friends. Finally, it addresses the
relationship of Mrs. Ramsay to Minta and to the artist Lily
Briscoe and the legacy of her death in women's growing
awareness of their new role with the passing of the
patriarchal family pattern.

Through his study of myth, C. S. Lewis concluded that pagan
mythology was a praeparatio evangelica for the ultimate "truth" of
Christianity. To illustrate his conviction, Lewis has retold the
myth of Cupid and Psyche, as transmitted by Apuleius, in Till We Have
Faces. Lewis has, by burying in his novel analogues and allusions to
Scripture, demonstrated how he believed God must have meant this
pagan myth to be interpreted. In his myth, Lewis uses a central
figure, Orual, to show how God reveals Himself to mortals. Before
becoming Queen, she rejects all "signs" and "witnesses" from the gods.
After she is Queen, the same "signs" and "witnesses" are viewed in
retrospect and finally the "veil" of misunderstanding is lifted.

In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the hero sets out
on a journey in which he is forced to make moral choices
that ultimately alter his self-knowledge. Gawain's journey
is the direct result of a challenge offered by the Green
Knight under the guise of a Christmas game. Metaphorically,
his actions are reflected by the pentangle, which although
composed of oppositions, always leads back to itself.
Gawain'3 divided consciousness is further symbolized by
the Virgin-shield, which alludes to caritas, and the magic
girdle, which alludes to cupiditas. Their opposition forms
the basic conflict of the poem: between spirit and flesh.
These symbols initiate two sequences of action wherein
Gawain is tested, fails and is absolved. He returns to
Camelot a new man, wiser for his folly, a true exemplar of
Christianity as symbolized by the pentangle virtues.

Harry Bailly, the Host figure in the Canterbury Tales, is used by
Chaucer as an artistic device to bridge the gap between the worlds of
reality and fiction. His existence is central to the believability of
the entire poem; as he developes as a convincing character, his interaction
with the pilgrims reveals aspects of their characters also.
This investigation examines Chaucer's method of using Harry Bailly an
an "authenticating device" to create an illusion of reality in his
poem, beginning in the first chapter with a review of the background
scholarship concerning Harry Bailly's functions throughout the
narrative. The secon1 chapter considers the Host's interaction with
various pilgrims, as seen in his regular appearances in the frame.
Finally, the third chapter is devoted to two views of Harry Bailly
which serve to depict him at his most real, in his confrontation with
the Pardoner and in his comments on his own marriage.