Jane Austen’s Anglicanism shaped her works, especially her novels Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, and Mansfield Park. Austen is didactic regarding the future of the clergy of the Church of England through the clergymen in these novels (Henry Tilney, Edward Ferrars, and Edmund Bertram, respectively), but her didacticism is clearest through these characters’ wives, Catherine Morland, Elinor Dashwood, and Fanny Price. Mansfield Park and the marriage of Edmund and Fanny are the most explicit exploration of Austen’s view of what was necessary for the future of the Church as it continued changing in the nineteenth century.

This thesis explores the impact of the cuts to civil legal aid introduced by the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act (2012) (“LASPO”) on the ability of those who are vulnerable to access justice. In doing so it focuses on the experience of UK Law Centres, a network of not-for-profit providers of legal advice and representation. Law Centres were established in the 1970’s as a response to acknowledged deficiencies in the legal aid scheme that existed at this time. Principal amongst these deficiencies was the failure of the scheme to provide legal assistance to those individuals who were most in need of it. Since their inception Law Centres have developed a reputation for specialising in the delivery of legal services to marginalised communities, making them an ideal lens through which to observe the impact of cuts to legal aid on the vulnerable. This thesis explores the relationship between the Law Centres movement and the legal aid scheme; characterising this as one of reluctant yet increasing dependency. By the time LASPO was introduced, contracts for the delivery of legal aid comprised 46% of the funding for Law Centres in England and Wales, leaving Law Centres highly exposed to the swingeing cuts brought about by this legislation. The thesis seeks to understand the impact of LASPO on Law Centres as a movement, and in particular on their ability to deliver services to those individuals who are most vulnerable. In the absence of a consensus definition of what a Law Centre is, the thesis reviews the extant literature on the Law Centres movement to propose an “ideal type” framework of Law Centre values, which can be used as a tool against which to evaluate the impact of different strategies for surviving the cuts. It proposes a novel definition of vulnerability, to assist in assessing whether the strategies adopted by Law Centres in response to LASPO are likely to prove more or less effective in enabling the movement to prioritise delivering their services to those who are in greatest need. The thesis then uses these analytical tools to evaluate the three most popular funding models adopted by Law Centres in response to the cuts, drawing on original empirical research. The thesis concludes that if Law Centres wish to retain both their unique position within the landscape of legal service providers and their ability to support those in greatest need, their response to LASPO must by driven by cognisance of and fidelity to the values that render them distinctive.

Describes a theory of gaming inspired primarily by Jean Baudrillard’s claim that gaming is characterized by a “passion for rules.” Key elements of the theory include that games are an attempt to create a new reality, that games create a space for individuality even in an otherwise homogenized world, and that pain and happiness are not diametrically opposed concepts to the gamer. The theory also emphasizes the importance of the player’s meeting with the “superplayer,” the player’s own constructed ideal that he tries to imitate within the game world. This theory of gaming is then applied to the 14th century British poem, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight both as a demonstration of the theory and to offer a new perspective on the poem. Gawain’s character in the poem is argued as being the archetype of the modern gamer, escaping from an oppressive hegemony by daring to follow the superplayer’s seduction into the passionate world of gaming.

Ihomas Hardy believed that each man should make his own philosophy, and he formulated his own system of thought under the influence of the Bible, the classics, certain of the philosophers, and the Wessex environment. The elements of his thought include religious and philosophical convictions, man's relationship to nature, social institutions, and Victorian limitations. The male characters of his novels set forth his thought just as his female characters reveal his emotions. They show the transition from his early traditional beliefs to his conclusion that the Immanent Will is the governing; force in the universe and that man's ultimate hope is in his own increased awareness.

This study examines the influence of William Morris (1834-1896) upon J. R. R. Tolkien (1892-1973). It concentrates specifically upon the impact of Morris’s romance, The Roots of the Mountains, upon Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. After surveying the scholarly literature pertaining to this topic, it proceeds to discuss their work within the context of the nineteenth-century revival of interest in the medieval period and in folkloric and mythological narratives. It then analyzes numerous parallels between the two works in characterization; plot motifs; archaic diction, syntax, and semantics; and topographical description and reanimation are then analyzed. These parallels demonstrate that Morris’s work had a profound influence upon The Lord of the Rings. Significant differences that do occur between the two texts are evaluated within the context of the Romantic tradition and the divergent ways the two authors interpret the paradigm of the Fall. The study concludes that, while Tolkien’s work surpasses Morris’s in many respects, its achievements would not have been possible without the example of The Roots of the Mountains to build upon. It closes with possibilities for future directions of research pertaining to this topic.

The detailed examination of two of Shakespeare's female leads, Lady Macbeth and Gertrude, is designed to determine whether or not these particular characters were free from the confines of their society, or if they were content within its oppressive grasp. A combination of Feminist Criticism and New Historicism reveals that Lady Macbeth and Gertrude did not overstep the bounds of their gender, but in fact were suppressed within them. The limited rights and freedoms of a woman during the Renaissance is heavily discussed, and aids in giving the reader a vivid impression of Lady Macbeth's and Gertrude's subjugation. As Renaissance women were considered and treated inferior to their husbands in all respects, so are these two characters. Once the supposed driving force behind her husband's actions, Lady Macbeth makes a swift but devastating departure after Macbeth expels her from both his personal and political matters. No longer needing his wife to appease his conscience, Macbeth finds his own aptitude for evil. Torn between her roles as a wife and mother, Gertrude forfeits her happiness to please her overemotional son. Long before her actual death, Gertrude sacrifices a part of her identity to meet Hamlet's expectations. Both women relinquish their hopes and dreams to fulfill those of the men around them. Their blinded selflessness and misplaced devotion result in their ultimate undoing. Though the typical reader of Macbeth and Hamlet sometimes considers these particular female characters to be strong, bold, and selfish, the values of Shakespeare's era and his actual text suggest otherwise. The playwright's time was marked by a bitter gender struggle that pervaded all areas of Renaissance life, including his own work. Upon first glance, Lady Macbeth and Gertrude might come across as women who were strikingly independent. Throughout the progression of the plays, however, both women take a backseat to more important matters, such as politics and war. Even their deaths do not truly belong to them, as they seem to serve as mere asides to the inevitable "manly" action. Striving to meet the expectations of the men they loved, Lady Macbeth and Gertrude lose themselves in the process.

By means of contemporary diagnostic criteria, Prince Hamlet may be demonstrated to be a Bi-Polar I Manic Depressive. Because current genetic research suggests that this disease is inherited, it is logical to ask if Claudius also suffers from this disorder. It can be demonstrated that he does. We may conclude that Claudius murdered the late King of Denmark during a manic episode similar to the one in which Hamlet kills Polonius.

D.H. Lawrence's "leadership" novels, namely Aaron's Rod, Kangaroo and The Plumed Serpent, dealt with the ramifications of industrial civilization. This thesis uses a "Tofflerian" approach, drawing on the works of the futurist Alvin Toffler's "trilogy" of noted books on the rate, direction and consequences of "civilizational" change, Future Shock, The Third Wave and Powershift. This thesis argues that Lawrence recognizes the demise of the "love-urge" that had sustained civilization in Aaron's Rod; seeks and fails to find a solution in the political movements of his time in Kangaroo, demonstrating the impossibility of a modem solution to inherently modern problems; and in The Plumed Serpent, seeks an answer in a way of life apart from industrial civilization entirely.

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In his essay "The Philosophy of Composition," Edgar Allan Poe proclaims that "the death of a beautiful woman is unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world," and this sentiment remains curiously persistent within the literary world. Artists have looked towards their beautiful muses for centuries as a source of inspiration and introspection, and the faces that these muses wear were often swooning, longing, or even dead. Nineteenth-century British aesthetics solidified a gendered ideology that remains prevalent to this day; in particular, one subculture of Victorian aesthetics that emerged during this period was the Cult of Ophelia: a collection of writers and artists who revitalized Shakespeare's heroine for mass consumption, immortalizing her as the zenith of tragedy, beauty, and madness. This thesis examines the origins, conventions, and evolution of the Ophelia trope through the art and literature of the nineteenth century and beyond, paying particular attention to the work of Pre-Raphaelite muse Elizabeth Siddal and twenty-first-century writer Sylvia Plath. By reading Siddal's work in conjunction with Plath's, this thesis positions both women as writers that operate within a literary tradition that reclaims their "madness" from the dominant societies that fetishized their mental illness.