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A Comparison of Christopher Marlowe's Edward II and William Shakespeare's Richard II: This study purports to examine several areas of similarity between the chronicle history plays by Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare. Edward II and Richard II are alike in many ways, most strikingly in the similarity of the stories themselves. But this is a superficial likeness, for there are many other likenesses--in purpose, in artistry, in language--which demonstrate more clearly than the parallel events of history the remarkable degree to which these plays resemble each other.
Nine Women in the Fiction of Joseph Conrad: The purpose of this study is to show that many of Conrad's women characters were not merely passive factors and that their inclusion in his fiction was more functional than incidental.
A New Approach to Teaching Grammar in the Ninth Grade: By presenting first, statement of theory, and then concrete examples and original exercises, wherever practical, this thesis suggests possible ways to combine linguistic methods with traditional ones to make a more effective approach to teaching language in the ninth grade.
Aristotelian Elements in Tragic Drama from Sophocles to O'Neil: This thesis explores Aristotelian elements in tragic drama from Sophocles to O'Neill. It is limited to a discussion of plot and character with thought, diction, song and spectacle considered only as they apply to the other two.
The Problem of the Artist in Society : Hawthorne, James, and Hemingway: The relationship of James to Hawthorne and of Hemingway to James certainly indicates the close literary relationship of the three writers. This development makes it seem only natural that three such self-conscious artists would have recourse to similar interests and would employ in their writings common themes, ideas, and methods.
A Study of The Vicar of Wakefield: The Vicar of Wakefield is neither a sensational novel directed toward the reform of mankind nor does it mark an advance in fictional techniques. Rather, it is conventional both in form and substance. Despite this literary orthodoxy, the novel has remained popular with critics and the reading public for two centuries. Previous plot studies of The Vicar have concentrated principally on Goldsmithss failure to utilize adequately the cause-effect relationship. With few exceptions, all scholars who have studied this plot find coincidence and accidental meeting the novel's greatest weakness. Most character analyses of the narrative have centered on the chief character. While one critic attributes "typical human naturalness" to the Vicar, another finds him "an impossible mixture of folly and wisdom" and "an inadequate cog in a poorly designed machine.." In thematic studies of The Vicar, critics have attempted with little success to define the major theme. Those themes which have received most extensive treatment are the contrast of appearance and reality, the innate goodness of man, the limitations of contemporary literature, the corruption in government, and the ideal nature of rural life. A few stylistic studies of the novel have concentrated their praise on Goldsmith's spontaneity, some, contradictorily, on his careful diction, and others on his success in handling both humor and pathos.
The Theme of Isolation in the Novels of Daniel Defoe: It is the purpose of this paper to illustrate from the novels themselves that Defoe's protagonists are essentially isolated individuals and that this isolation is the result of the circumstances of their births, the nature of their professions, their spiritually isolating religious beliefs, and their attitudes toward their fellow men.
Differences in Katherine Mansfield and Anton Chekhov as Short Story Writers: The purpose of this study is to examine the extent of Katherine Mansfield's literary indebtedness to Anton Chekhov. Throughout the critical writing about Mansfield there are many suggestions that her work is similar to that of Chekhov, but, these allusions are, for the most part, vague in pointing out specific likenesses.
Dominant Themes in the Novels of Ernest Hemingway: This thesis proposes to show that Hemingway's novels reveal a change of attitude which culminates in an increased faith in the ultimate goodness and dignity of man.
Metamorphosis: William Faulkner's Incorporation of Short Stories into Longer Narratives: This study analyzes these stories in their original and later forms, both to discover the types of changes Faulkner made and to determine whether or not he followed any pattern in the revisions.
Social Criticism in the Works of John Steinbeck: This thesis is a study of John Steinbeck's observations and opinions during twenty-eight years of writing about the relationships between people of difference economics and social classes.
Dostoyevsky's American Reputation to 1930: Undoubtedly, Dostoyevsky's influence upon the novel is great, but, even yet, few concrete studies have been made and no full-length study has been published. It is hoped that this account of Dostoyevsky's reputation in America during the 1920's will be of assistance in the greater task of tracing Dostoyevsky's influence.
The Use of the Mask in the Plays of Eugene O'Neill: The purpose of this thesis is to indicate the use of the mask by Eugene O'Neill. It is probably possible to say that the mask has been used or implied in all of O'Neill's works, but this thesis will be confined to discussion of the works in which the mask or the implication of the mask is specifically evident.
Browning's Literary Reputation: 1833-1870: The purpose of this thesis is to present English opinion of Robert Browning, contemporary with him, from the anonymous publication in 1833 of his first poem, Pauline, through the appearance in 1868-69 of what is agreed to be his masterpiece, The Ring and the Book. This study will consider the acceptance of each of Browning's publications, in chronological order of their appearance.
Characterization of the American Abroad in the Fiction of Ernest Hemingway: With the exception of To Have and Have Not, the novels of Ernest Hemingway are set outside the United States; all, however, contain American characters. These Americans might be divided into three categories: American tourists; Americans who live abroad, but either do not like it or are not completely adjusted to it; the Hemingway heroes, characteristically American expatriates who are completely adjusted to and accepted in their alien environments. Toward the tourists, he maintains an attitude of contempt; toward the middle group, his attitude varies from disgust to sympathy; the heroes are, in various guises, Hemingway the expatriate, himself.
Don Juan in Hell: a Key to Reading Shaw: Since George Bernard Shaw claims that the third act of Man and Superman is a complete commentary on his philosophy, this thesis is a revealing of the philosophy demonstrated in the Dream Scene, and it is an intensive study of the third act based upon a reading of the play.
The Eccentrics of Tobias Smollett's Novels: Tobias Smollet's purpose in writing was twofold: to entertain the reader and to satirize man and his society. To accomplish his aim, the author created eccentric personalities in the old Elizabethan humour convention. This thesis looks at Smollet's characterizations, especially of the eccentrics, in his novels.
Naturalism in the Novels of Frank Norris: Considered as a whole, the seven novels written by Frank Norris contain enough of naturalism to justify classifying him as a naturalist. His failure to fully comprehend the implications of the naturalistic philosophy results in both strengths and weaknesses. He fails in The Octopus to maintain the objective point of view that the naturalists set for themselves, and a looseness of conception and a diffuseness of effect result. By allowing the ranchers freedom of choice in the matter of the means to be employed against the railroad, he achieves something very close to tragedy. Vandover, too, has a choice, and the novel suffers as a study in determinism, but Vandover becomes a more interesting character than he would have been without will.
The Tragedy of Shakespeare's Hotspur: It seems obvious that Shakespeare was interested in Hotspur as something more than a strictly historical character. The firey character found in I Henry IV is no longer recognized as the Ill-fated rebel from Holinshed and Daniel. Holinshed offers only a spark which Shakespeare uses to build a very real flame. The events leading up to the rebellion and the rebellion itself are historical, but the name of Hotspur in Holinshed is no more outstanding than that of Worcester, Glendower, or any of the other rebels. In Shakespeare's drama no other rebel character even approaches the development of Hotspur.
Current Trends in the Interpretation of Othello: This thesis will be mostly concerned with the twentieth-century criticism of Othello; some attention will be given to earlier criticism to determine to what extent twentieth-century criticism fits into patterns of thinking before the twentieth century. Some consideration will be given to the background of Othello before taking up the various aspects and periods of criticism.
The Devil in Legend and Literature: The purpose of this paper is to trace some of the accepted characteristics of the devil to their origins through a study of folklore and ancient religions. The characteristics include the principal form taken by each devil and trace its beginnings through folklore; the animals connected with these devils; powers allotted to these devils; and purposes served by these devils.
Lord Byron's Attitude Toward Napoleon: This thesis is significant for the knowledge it offers concerning the influence of Napoleon Bonaparte's personality and career upon the character and the work of Lord Byron. It is significant because of the light it throws on both Napoleon and the culture of Europe during his era. This study is significant in the insight it indirectly gives into the psychological phenomenon of hero-worship, to which it gives a more universal application through the medium of Byron's attitude toward Napoleon.
Themes in the Edwardian Political Novel: The purpose of this study is to record the political attitudes of the major Edwardian novelists as they surveyed their contemporary world, diagnosed its maladies, offered suggestions for reform, and attempted to predict the course political life would take in the future.
An Appraisal of Structures and Point of View in the Novels of William Styron: This paper, then, purposes to examine these two characteristics of Styron's novel form--structure and point of view--as they are handled in his major works, the novels Lie Down in Darkness and Set This House on Fire, and the novella The Long March.
The Decay of the Yoknapatawpha Aristocracy in the Works of William Faulkner: This study consists of an examination in detail of those facets of character, and conduct arising from character, which specifically account for the decay of the aristocracy of Yoknapatawpha; and by way of emphasis, of the specifically regenerative attitudes and actions which have sufficed to preserve various individuals of this class who have endured as fully adequate human beings.
Horror in the Fiction of Ambrose Bierce: Since horror is so prevalent in Bierce's fiction and since no concentrated study of this important element has been attempted by critics, it is proposed here to examine carefully the sources and nature of the horror in Bierce's fiction in an attempt to arrive at a better understanding of his literary technique and his contribution to American literature.
A Study of the Low-Back Vowels and of Certain Diphthongs in the Speech of Selected Groups in Denton, Texas: American dialect studies have progressed rapidly within the last thirty years, but the progress seems to be concentrated within the Southern and New England areas of the United States. Though there have been studies made in other areas, they are sporadic, no work of any significance having yet been published. Texas, unfortunately, is one area of rich dialectal significance which has been neglected, with the exception of Oma Stanley's work on the dialect in East Texas. Even though that work is somewhat dated in many respects, few scholars have seen fit to undertake a revision of Stanley's work or a study of other areas of Texas which would be comparable to The Speech of East Texas. Several master's theses add to the small number of studies concerned with Texas dialects, notably Roy Elders' study of the stressed back vowels in the speech of Parker County, but such studies are also too few. The present investigation was undertaken for the purpose of adding to that collection of Texas dialect studies an examination of the low-back vowels in stressed syllables, of certain diphthongs in stressed syllables, and of the change in frequency of usage of those vowels and diphthongs, occurring within recent generations in Denton, Texas.
Adjective Negation in English: It is the purpose of this study to provide a survey of the way in which words combine with negative prefixes to form negative adjectives.
Alfred Edward Housman (1859-1936) the Man and His Work: The purpose of this thesis is to "delve into the life and poetry of A. E. Housman to try to discover, not what made Housman the man he was, but why his poetry has appeal." p. 3
Christian Doctrine in the Plays of T. S. Eliot: The purpose of this thesis is to explore the available evidence concerning Eliot's theological beliefs--particularly as that evidence is found in his plays--in an attempt to define with as much accuracy as possible the understanding of Eliot's theology which provides the most adequate understanding of and enjoyment of Eliot's writings.
Feste : The Dramatic Function of the Wise Fool in Twelfth Night: The purpose of this study is to examine the various aspects of the role of Feste in order to determine his function in the play as a whole.
Love and Death in the Fiction of J. D. Salinger: This thesis explores the themes love and death in the fiction writing of J. D. Salinger.
Milton's Concept of God: This thesis explores Milton's concept of God and the controversies surrounding his treatise and doctrines.
Morality in Three of the Later Novels of Henry James: This thesis examines the life and history of author Henry James and discusses morality as a subject in three of his later novels.
Shakespeare's Use of Music: This thesis explores the use of music in Shakespeare's comedies, tragedies, histories and dramatic romances.
A Study of The Lounger: This study analyzes the contents of the "Lounger" to fill the vacuum caused by the lack of critical material on this eighteenth-century publication edited by Henry MacKenzie. This thesis catalogues the content of these one hundred and one essays and record their authorship. Specific areas, such as fashions, manners, morals, and literature, are dealt with in detail with emphasis on their reflecting the attitudes and social conditions of the period. Biographical information on the authors is given.
A Study of The Mirror: Because of the lack of authoritative secondary material on the Mirror, the need for deeper study into the content of the Mirror appears necessary. In order to fill this need, this study has been undertaken to provide basic information about the Mirror's subject matter and the attitudes of its contributors.
The Theology of Charles Williams: Since the publication of Charles Williams' novels, first in England and more recently in the United States, comment has varied between the extremes of "major" and "intolerable." It is desired to confine this study to the seven novels.
Four Adolescents and the Problem of Evil : Redburn, Huck Finn, Nick Adams and Holden Caulfield: The real purpose of this study has been to learn something of the nature of evil as perceived by these adolescents, and to discover something of the American reaction to it as perceived by their creators.
The Conscience of Macbeth: Whatever are the other merits of Macbeth, it must be classed as one of the most penetrating studies of conscience in literature. Shakespeare does not attempt to describe in the drama how the ordinary criminal would react to evil, but how Shakespeare himself would have felt if he had fallen into crime. 1 The ramifications of this conflict between the conscience of a man of genius and the supernatural forces of wickedness, therefore, assume immense dimensions. "Macbeth leaves on most readers a profound impression of the misery of a guilty conscience and the retribution of crime . . . But what Shakespeare perhaps felt even more deeply, when he wrote this play, was the incalculability of evil--that in meddling with it human beings do they know not what."2 This drama displays an evil not to be accounted for simply in terms of the protagonist's will or his causal relationships to evil. It is an agency which is beyond the power of Macbeth's will; and his conscience, as powerful and imaginative as it is, can only warn him that he is involving himself in a force which will cause him unexpected and hideous mental pain. If there is a moral in Macbeth, it is obviously that men should not tamper with evil, for not even a deep-rooted conscience and an ascendant will can contend with its influence.
Eve, the Apple, and Eugene O'Neill: the Development of O'Neill's Concept of Women: It is the purpose of this paper to outline the development of O'Neill's characterization of women from the loving, submissive Mother in the early plays to the Mother turned Destroyer in the later plays. This is accomplished through a chronological examination of the women characters in eight of O'Neill's major plays--Beyond the Horizon, The Staw, Anna Christie, Welded, Desire Under the Elms, The Great God Brown, Strange Interlude, and Mourning Becomes Electra.
Medievalism in Shakespeare: This study will undertake to point out only a few of the many medieval elements used by Shakespeare. It does not purport to do more than to examine briefly a small number of the myriad medieval traits to be found in Shakespeare's writing nor to cite more than a few examples of these traits in a limited number of his plays.
Dostoyevsky's View of the Role of Suffering in Human Existence: In order to establish the views on suffering held by the nineteenth-century (1821-1881) Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky, it is first necessary to determine the viewpoint of his age. In general, it was an age of humanitarianism-- the age of "compassion for the suffering of human beings," the age of optimism, of faith in a morality established by science and reason." Humanitarianism itself was an outgrowth of the Age of Enlightenment, the eighteenth-century intellectual movement which emphasized reason. This age of reason reflected the progress in science, which had weakened the hold of the Church and of faith on men's minds. Dostoyevsky's rejection of socialism made it necessary for him to reject the corollary of socialism: the elimination of human suffering. Thus he was forced to evolve a personal interpretation for the suffering that he would not let be abolished. Critics generally consider Siberia to be the turning point in Dostoyevsky's life, both from a personal and a literary standpoint. Before his imprisonment, Dostoyevskyts values were too immature for him to develop a significant theory illuminating the problem of suffering. It took Siberia to teach Dostoyevsky the meaning of metaphysical suffering-- the search for the meaning of God and reality. This meaning can be traced in the majority of his post-Siberian works in the form of the theory that happiness and ultimate salvation are made available to man through the purifying effects of his metaphysical sufferings.
Lord Byron's Interest in British Politics: The purpose of this thesis is to examine the politics of Byron as they are related to his age. Necessarily, a part of this work will deal with ideas that are somewhat conjectural, largely because of the limitations of time and space as well as the lack of accurate information--particularly that which concerns Byron and the Whig circle.
The Naturalistic Technique of John O'Hara: The thesis of this paper on John O'Hara is that certain of his novels contain sufficient characteristics of literary naturalism to reward a study of them from that perspective. In part, the purpose of this paper is to illustrate O'Hara's merits and, hopefully, to enhance his reputation as a writer of literary worth by viewing his novels from the proper perspective.
The Relationship between the Hunter and the Hunted: Moby Dick, The Old Man and the Sea, and The Bear: The purpose of this thesis is to point out explicitly the rather startling fact that each of these three writers in a novel which is representative of his own art and world view had developed the hunt-quest theme in a pattern and manner which are almost identical.
A Study of Seventeenth-Century Spelling as Represented in the Comedies of William Congreve: This paper is a study of the differences in orthography which are found in contrasting late seventeenth-century written English with that of today.
The Artist in Durrell's Alexandria Quartet: Self-knowledge serves as the basis for further insight into other themes and ideas. The investigation proceeds, then, from the search for self to the somewhat higher plane of the role of the artist in society; it is completed with an analysis of the motivations which lead the artist into an attainment of complete artistic fulfillment.
Alienation and Reconciliation in the Novels of John Steinbeck: The purpose of this study is to show how, in a world with a system of values based on love, the characters in the novels of John Steinbeck are alienated and reconciled.
The Awareness of Evil in the Works of J. D. Salinger: The present study will discuss J. D. Salinger's alienated misfits in direct relation to the psychology of the gifted, creative individual. By analyzing Seymour, Holden and Franny as representatives of a specific intellectual type, this study will provide the reader with a fresh insight into J. D. Salinger's fictional world.

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