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William Makepeace Thackeray's irony is largely responsible far the ambiguity which roused strongly conflicting opinions about his female characters. Critics have argued about why he wrote so ambiguously, but most likely he was expressing his artistic vision that life is full of incongruities and ironies. A study of specific examples of irony in the portrayal of "good" and "bad" women in his major novels clarifies how he uses it to make his characters life-like. It also illuminates the moral viewpoint and the structure of Thackeray's masterpiece, Vanity Fair.Irony in the characterization of Becky and Amelia in Vanity Fair is rich and complex. Following Thackeray's earlier disposition toward parody, he made both women serve as ironic satires on the stock heroines of popular novels in the early 1800's. Besides parody, there is a great deal of simple verbal irony, which is usually comic, and also much dramatic and situational irony, which is often more serious in tone. The verbal irony is usually at the expense of Becky and Amelia, whereas the other types use the women at the expense of society. Even more frequent are complex combinations of verbal, dramatic, and situational techniques, double meanings, afterthoughts, shifts of the ironist/victim functions, and romantic irony, in which the author seems capriciously to build and destroy his readers' illusions, as well as his own in his role of narrative persona. Both women are used as agents of Thackeray's irony at the expense of the readers, but in different ways. In her parodic function and in Thackeray's shifts of tonein describing her, Amelia is used directly to upset readers' expectations and complacency about their values. Although Becky also serves that function, she is more often used indirectly, as a clever ironist at the expense of the other characters in the book. But these characters, of course, represent an important proportion of the readers.In the novels following Vanity Fair, Thackeray gradually reduces both the quantity and the variety of all ironic techniques in characterizing women. In general he uses a little less irony to characterize "good" women than to characterize "bad." However, as the irony decreases that ratio narrows, and the differentiation between "goodness" and "badness" also narrows. At last, in The Newcomes, Rosey and Ethel, who begin as "good" and "bad," actually switch roles: Rosey deteriorates into "bad" and Ethel grows into "good." Parodic and comic irony are reduced; in Pendennis, Blanche and Laura are occasionally comic, but none of the later major women are. Dramatic and circumstantial techniques used seriously to expose social evil and human weakness are also reduced, but to a lesser degree, so that they seem to become relatively more prominent. Early in the sequence of novels, almost all verbal and romantic forms of irony are eliminated in which Thackeray is the direct ironist. He continues the dramatic method of using fate or circumstance as agents at the expense of the characters and the characters as agents at the expense of themselves or other characters. Only in characterizing Ethel during her "marriage market" years does Thackeray resume the techniques of verbal irony and of author as direct ironist.The increase of direct and verbal irony to make Ethel "bad" indicates that Thackeray uses such direct techniques to characterize bad qualities, as opposed to"bad" people. This fact supports those critics who interpret neither Becky not Amelia favorably. Despite the novel's contrastive structure described by Tillotson it is not necessary to view them as diametrically opposed. Becky's wickedness does not command Thackeray's secret admiration, and the sentimental effusions over Amelia are not serious; in different ways both have bad qualities, ironically revealing the shortcomings of Victorian values.

The purpose of this study was to identify Smollett's use of Quixote figures and of allusions to Don Quixote in his five novels. Smollett was busy translating Don Quixote as early as 1748, and he was very much engaged in or had completed translating Don Quixote when he was writing Roderick Random, Peregrine Pickle, and Ferdinand Count Fathom, Smollett's translation being published in 1755.

Given the expansion of multimedia technology and proliferation of moving projections on the theatre stage in the 21st century, this thesis examines how a virtual or projected character can appear to be present without a physical body on the stage. This study is grounded in the theories of effet de présence (effect of presence) as elaborated by Josette Féral, but also uses other theories to look at how productions can create such an effect for virtual characters. Specifically, this thesis examines the character’s relationship with the real, framing devices and actions of the characters. The specific examples of Rwanda 94 (Groupov), La Belle et la Bête (4D Art) and Les Aveugles (UBU CC) are used as case studies in order to focus on these techniques. Partant de l’intégration des nouvelles technologies et la prolifération des projections vidéo au sein des scènes théâtrales du 21e siècle, cette thèse examine les techniques par lesquel les personnages projeté peut sembler présent en l’absence d’un corps physique visible. Cette réflexion est basée sur l’effet de présence, concept élaboré par Josette Féral, ainsi que d’autres théories et examine comment un effet de présence est constitué pour ces personnages virtuels en considérant leur relation au réel (mimesis), les dispositifs de cadrage dans lesquels ils s’inscrivent de même que leurs actions. Cette analyse sera menée à porter de avec trois étudies de cas : Rwanda 94 (Groupov), La Belle et la Bête (4D Art) et Les Aveugles (UBU CC).

It was argued that the social psychology of person perception, mass communications and cultural studies can be related to viewers' representations of television characters. Mass communications needs to incorporate viewers' interpretations and programme structure. Social cognition could satisfy the former need and cultural studies the latter. A literature review showed little research on viewers' interpretations of television programmes. There is a considerable body of research on person perception, gender stereotypes, the effects of viewing and programme structure. A study of viewers' accounts of viewing soap opera showed that they become involved with the characters and find the programmes realistic. Soap opera plays an important role in their lives. Viewers' representations of soap opera characters were examined using multidimensional scaling. This revealed stable, replicable character representations for Dallas, Coronation Street and EastEnders. The representations were compared with the oppositions which structure the programmes, Implicit Personality Theory and Gender Schema Theory. Dallas characters were represented by themes of morality and power/activity. Power was correlated with gender, with some counter-stereotypic females. Coronation Street characters were organised around morality/potency, gender (matriarchal) and approach to life. This related to person prototypes and contrasted with interaction patterns between characters. EastEnders characters were represented by themes of morality/power, gender and approach to life/centrality. Free descriptions validated the attribute ratings and showed further features of the representation. No socio-structural group differences in representation were found. Viewers' character representations were a constructive integration of programme structure and social knowledge. The application of abstract knowledge to a structured domain was discussed. Textual analysis of a narrative identified the 'role of the reader' and textual openness. This was related to stereotypes, narrative expectancies, myth and character representation. Distinct types of divergence in viewers' interpretations of narrative were discovered. Further, a narrative containing two readings was interpreted in four distinct ways by viewers, depending on their perceived relationships with characters. The conclusions and limitations of the research were discussed. Implications for person perception, stereotyping and textual analysis were examined. A taxonomy of factors relating to the interpretation and representation of television drama was presented.

Plant breeding and the development of new or better varieties of plants are essential parts of modern agronomy, horticulture and forestry. The basis for such improvement is a knowledge of the factors and principles of genetics. A number of genetic studies have been made with barley in recent years. This is partly because of the many distinct heritable characters of barley plants. The cultivated species of barley offers the plant breeder and geneticist a wealth of material for genetic studies. Varieties differ in a great many readily distinguishable characters, species hybridize readily, and their small number of chromosomes make it good material for inheritance studies. The barley genetic work has been divided among the principal workers in the U.S., each being responsible for one linkage group. This station has been assigned group IV of which this study is a part. A study of the inheritance of other genes not located in linkage group IV, but appearing in the crosses used, has also been made. This investigation is a by-product of the cereal breeding and improvement program being carried on the Utah Agricultural Experiment Station.

In this dissertation I develop and theorize an approach to Shakespearean character. I focus on the ways in which characters talk about knowing others and being known; in other words, this is an approach to characters who are themselves approaching characters. The plays I treat in detail are Coriolanus and Hamlet. The words characters in these plays use when they explain their decisions, avoid explaining their decisions, talk about others' decisions, or try to expose others' secrets, are often position-and-movement words. I argue that characters use for these purposes words related by wordplay to the postures and gestures involved in crucial rituals (the "custom of request" in Coriolanus, the fencing match in Hamlet). At the same time, this is a metacritical project: I deal with approaches and attitudes of Shakespeare interpreters. How do we stand in relation to each other? How do editors and critics echo and transform the characters' postural/gestural language, and what are the implications of these echoes and transformations? Why is it worthwhile to work toward awareness of these echoes and transformations? In an extensive introductory section I theorize the kind of reading practiced here as an ethical practice-a practice intended to modify what Michel Foucault calls the rapport a soi. / The project's main original contribution is its way of re-conceiving the relationships among several currents in Shakespeare studies. My discussion engages with recent work in textual studies. Examples include work by Leah Marcus and Paul Werstine. It also engages with historically informed treatments of wordplay. Examples include work by Margreta de Grazia and Patricia Parker. And it addresses work that could be said to be part of a move in the field toward "ethical criticism." Examples include work by Stanley Cavell and John Guillory. As well, my discussion engages with psychoanalytic criticism by Marjorie Garber, Coppelia Kahn, and others. While I do not consider myself a psychoanalytic critic, the affinity my approach has with psychoanalysis has to do with my interest in making explicit some of the implications of unreflectively chosen metaphors, word associations, etc. The implications that concern me most are those that have to do with the ways interpreters relate to each other.

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In this study I hope to clarify some misconceptions about the female characters which appear in the novels of Miguel de Unamuno. The female agonista follows a slightly different pattern than does the male. Unamuno always includes evidence of social limitations which hinder the female agonista's quest for perpetuation. While she may be as ambitious, egoistic and wilfull as her male counterpart, this does not always ensure success. She must also defy conventional thinking in order to achieve her goals. By studying the agonistas and some of the secondary female characters, I hope to prove that Unamuno's characterization of women is deliberate. The two contrasting types, secondary characters and agonistas, are extremes and should be read as such. The repeated inclusion in the narrative of the female social condition indicates that Unamuno is aware of and concerned by gender distinction. The fact that his agonistas, who challenge convention, are granted conditional success is proof that Unamuno validates their attempts.