The heroines in Restoration and Augustan drama traditionally have been divided into the categories of sentimental and witty, with the former quickly dismissed as shallow and unrealistic, and the latter equally dispensed with after being classifies as clever and caustic. Both types of heroines deserve more than a cursory glance, however, because they are complicated, realistic and psychologically plausible characters.The sentimental heroines have never been closely analyzed, so their roles are examined first to establish that they are both realistic and human characters. This analysis is covered in Chapter I: Indiana in The Conscious Lovers by Sir Richard Steele: A Naïve Heroine; Chapter II: Lady Easy in The Careless Husband by Colley Cibber: A Virtuous Heroine; and Chapter III: Jane Shore in The Tragedy of Jane Shore by Nicholas Rowe: A Penitent Heroine. After a summarizing and dividing chapter, a transitional heroine is introduced in Chapter V: Millwood in The London Merchant by George Lillo. Millwood bridges the gap between sentimental and witty heroines. The witty heroines are then analyzed and contrasted in Chapter VI: Harriet in The Man of Mode by George Etherege: A Witty Heroine; and Millamant in The Way of the World by William Congreve: The Ideal Heroine, in Chapter VII. The purpose of the chapters examining the witty heroines is to demonstrate that while both sentimental and witty heroines are realistic, the witty heroines are more likeable, memorable and admirable because they exhibit more positive traits.The order of the plays was chosen for two reasons. The sentimental heroines are presented first because their roles have not heretofore been examined; therefore their explication is of foremost importance. The plays are also presented in ascending order of importance, culminating in the discussion of the ideal heroine of the Restoration and Augustan dramas—Congreve’s Millamant.

The main purpose of this study is to prove that the view on the American Indians, as it is presented in the plays, is determined by two dissimilar sets of values: those related to Christianity and those associated with democracy. The Christian ideals of mercy and benevolence are counterbalanced by the democratic values of freedom and patriotism in such a way that secular ideals in many cases supersede the religious ones. To achieve the purpose of the dissertation, I sifted the plays for a list of notions related to Christianity and, using textual evidence, demonstrated that these notions were not confined to particular pieces but systematically appeared in a significant number of plays. This method allowed me to make a claim that the motif of Christianity was one of the leading ones, yet it was systematically set against another major recurrent subject—the values of democracy. I also established the types of clerical characters in the plays and discovered their common characteristic—the ultimate bankruptcy of their ideals. This finding supported the main conclusion of this study: in the plays under discussion, Christianity was presented as no longer the only valid system of beliefs and was strongly contested by the outlook of democracy.I discovered that the motif of Christianity in the American Indian plays reveals itself in three ways: in the superiority of Christian civilization over Indian lifestyle, in the characterization of Indians within the framework of Christian morality, and in the importance of Christian clergy in the plays. None of these three topics, however, gets an unequivocal interpretation. First, the notion of Christian corruption is distinctly manifest. Second, the Indian heroes and heroines demonstrate important civic virtues: desire for freedom and willingness to sacrifice themselves for their land. Third, since the representation of the clerics varies from saintliness to villainy, the only thing they have in common is the impracticability and incredulity of the ideas they preach. More fundamental truths, it is suggested, should be sought outside of Christianity, and the newly found values should be not so much of a "Christian" as of "democratic" quality. / Department of English

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From Introduction: In the Preface to his book The idea of Coleridge's Criticism, Richard Harter Fogle states: There is... I am confident, a need for such a study as I here introduce; a study of Coleridge's criticism in itself, tentatively accepting the metaphysical assumptions on which it is based and focusing upon its central principles and inner relationship; endeavouring without direct regard for its external connections to the past and the present to see it as a whole, yet at the same time anxiously regardful of its permanent significance and its bearing upon practical criticism. These are the principles on which I have based this thesis, applied more particularly to Coleridge's criticism of drama.

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Call number: LD2668 .T4 1930 C81

This dissertation examines the role of stage properties-props, slangily-in the construction and expression of characters' identities. Through readings of both canonical and non-canonical drama written between 1600 and 1707-for example, Thomas Middleton's The Revenger's Tragedy (1607), Edward Ravenscroft's adaptation of Titus Andronicus (1678), Aphra Behn's The Rover (1677), and William Wycherley's The Plain Dealer (1677)-I demonstrate how props mediate relationships between people. The control of a character's props often accords a person control of the character to whom the props belong. Props consequently make visual the relationships of power and subjugation that exist among characters. The severed body parts, bodies, miniature portraits, and containers of these plays are the mechanisms by which characters attempt to differentiate themselves from others. The characters deploy objects as proof of their identities-for example, when the women in Behn's Rover circulate miniatures of themselves-yet other characters must also interpret these objects. The props, and therefore the characters' identities, are at all times vulnerable to misinterpretation. Much as the props' meanings are often disputed, so too are characters' private identities often at odds with their public personae. The boundaries of selfhood that the characters wish to protect are made vulnerable by the objects that they use to shore up those boundaries. When read in relation to the characters who move them, props reveal the negotiated process of individuation. In doing so, they emphasize the correlation between extrinsic and intrinsic worth. They are a measure of how well characters perform gender and class rolls, thereby demonstrating the importance of external signifiers in the legitimation of England's subjects, even as they expose "legitimacy" as a social construction.