Master of Arts (MA)

<p>A definition of "honour" as seen in the works of Hemingway, and a comparison and contrast of this definition with Conrad's use of the concept. A comparative study of the styles and techniques of the two authors illuminates their views of honour.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

Master of Arts (MA)

<p>This thesis discusses Catch-22 as a modern descent into the underworld. The novel is placed in its historical context to show that Heller uses surrealist techniques to evoke a nightmare world where suffering and death are without meaning and without end. The ambiguous blend of comedy and horror in the novel's first two sections is seen as preparing the way for the grim revelations of the final section. It is argued that Catch-22 is structured around the motif of the labyrinth. At the centre of the labyrinth is death, the real subject of the novel.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>This thesis attempts to show that John Donne arranged his Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions according to a carefully considered, overall plan. A detailed study of shifts in theme, imagery, tone and style throughout the Devotions reveals patterns demonstrating that Donne brought all the stylistic and compositional skills he had as a writer to bear upon the creation of his book. the inadequacy of critical attention given to the Devotions' structure is an important cause of the confusing diversity of presently available scholarship. A secondary benefit of this structural analysis, then, is that it will help focus attention on the better aspects of this scholarship. <br /> Each of the twenty-three Devotions is composed of a Meditation, an Expostulation and a Prayer, but only in the most general terms is it possible to define these three sections as having a uniform nature throughout the book. The important changes that take place show that the Devotions were meant to be arranged into groups-of three, and this may be further arranged into a "three-six-six-three-three-two" pattern. This progression is based on the analogy of a Christian's life with the seven days that are outlined in Expostulation 14. The first three Devotions encompass matters pertaining to the first day, the day of God's visitation of Donne with sickness. The next six involve the temporary stabilization of the disease and Donne's close examination of his conscience. On this second day God affords Donne many helps: Devotions 4-6 deal with the aid of a single physician, and devotions 7-9 invo1 'Ie a 7':1u1 tip1icat ion of this aid. Devotions 10-12 and 13-15 deal with, respectively, a resurgence and an intensification of of Donne's illness, leading him momentarily to dispute God's mercy. However, he performs the duties of the third "day" by preparing himself for a receiving of God I s sacraments. This trial indeed prepares him for the fourth day, the day of his physical dissolution, which almost literally comes in Devotions 16-18 since he claims to die vicariously in the death of the man "for whom the bell tolls." Devotions 19-21 deal with the fifth day, or the day of a Christian's resurrection, which Donne links with his recovery from sickness. The last two Devotions deal with t11e weaknesses of body and soul, both of which are subject to relapses either into disease or sin. However, God's judgement (on the sixth day) has been manifested to Donne, and his sins have been "fully pardoned." With these last words of the Devotions Donne looks forward to the attainment of God's "everlasting Mercy," and an implied twenty-fourth Devotion may be postulated for this seventh, final day, opening out into eternity. Donne strongly suggests that the reader is to associate a possible twenty-fourth Devotion with this final day, since it would not only complete the series of tripartite groupings in the Devotions, but it would also constitute the last hour in God's single day that he speaks of in the introduction to the seven critical days: "Since a day 'is as a thousand yeres with thee, Let, O Lord, a day, be as a weeke to me; and in this one, let me consider seven daies, seven critical daies, and ,judge my selfe, that I be not judged by thee." (Expostulation 14) <br /><br /> Donne effects a unison of homiletic and devotional purposes (a feature of the more personal sermons of several Church Fathers) by using the “text” of his own experience, which is authored by God, as the basis for instruction to his readers. so many portions of the Devotions are similar enough to his sermons that there can be little doubt that the Dean of St. Paul's had his congregation continually in mind during the book's composition. This quality is reflected in the care Donne took in according every aspect of the Devotions to God and to the various forms that His author- ship takes. The precedents acknowledged for the Devotions are stories from the Bible (such as King Hezekiah's); Donne continually associates new aspects of his experience with that of Biblical characters (even his despairing moments echo Biblical precedents; his writing style is an attempted approximation of the Bible's "inexpressible texture"; the tripartite groupings in the Devotions reflect a devotion to the Christian Trinity; and the overall structure of the Devotions is reminiscent of God's seven-day creation of the world. God authors Donne's spiritual progress from the first day of his visitation to the sixth day, where Donne is on the verge of attaining the "Everlasting Saboth". As God's amanuensis, then, Donne takes pains to create an adequate structure in words for his perception of a divine, ordered guidance.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>My purpose in this thesis is to examine the moral nature of the social criticism found in selected novels of Charles Dickens and Elizabeth Gaskell. The works primarily dealt with share a common focus on the quantity of life in mid nineteenth-century industrial society. These are The Old Curiosity Shop (1840-41), Hard Times (1854), Mary Barton (1848), and North and South (1854-55). The exclusion of Sleak House (1852-53) and Little Dorrit (1855-57) is a deliberate one, the limitations of time and space being a major factor. The inclusion of The Old Curiosity Shop is an attempt to evaluate a novel long regarded as a low point of eccentricity in the Dickens canon. The position taken herein is that it represents a major milestone in Dickens' imaginative development. Viewed as an embryonic type of novel, its social criticism can be seen as an initial attempt to come to grips with the world of Victorian society. It both continues the concerns of the earlier novels and anticipates the major developments of the later works.</p> <p>Occasionally in the thesis I refer to novels outside the purview of the primary works, particularly in my treatment of Dickens ideas of "benevolence" and imaginative sympathy. An attempt is made to evaluate the quality of the moral position in contrast to a political radicalism such as that of Marx or Engels. I have tried to do this by means of an analysis of the novels concerned, and by relating these novels to each other, to the moral nature of Dickens and Mrs Gaskell's thought, and to the culture to which both authors belong.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>Dickens' imagination is strongly visual and the visual art it most closely resembles is film. We find, in his work, narrative techniques and methods of characterization which actually anticipate the development of film aesthetics. Sergei Eisenstein, the founder of the principles of film montage, WaS the first to draw attention to this cinematic imagination which Dickens possessed, in his essay "Dickens, Griffith and the film Today" in film form. It is the function of the first chapter of this thesis to document, more fully than Eisenstein, these cinematic techniques.</p> <p>D.W. Griffith, who has been called the creator of film language, claimed that he was influenced by his reading of Dickens' novels. His study, he said, allowed him to develop the technique of parallel cut-back which is the basis of montage. This claim is examined by a comparison of Dickens' novels and Griffith's films. In the final chapter I have compared Dickens' work to that of some contemporary film-makers whose concepts of realism seem to resemble Dickens' own. It is hoped that such a comparison will help to defend the novelist against critics who have attacked his frequent refusal to conform to another aesthetic convention--psychological realism.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

Master of Arts (MA)

<p>The thesis explores one aspect of Tennessee Williams' moral vision -- his concern with the "mendacity" which he sees pervading our society and his conviction that, whereas one cannot endure a life bereft of illusion, man can approach full humanity, effectively deny his incompletion, by a never-ending effort to confront truth within himself and in communication with others. A chapter is given to the study of each play. The four plays discussed are chronologically ordered: A Streetcar Named Desire, 1947; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, 1955; Suddenly Last Summer, 1958; Small Craft Warnings, 1972. Passing references are made to the earlier poetry, short plays, and short stories in an effort to make clear that Williams' work has a peculiarly consistent moral centre. Similarly, an attempt is made to interconnect the single-play chapters by making comparisons and drawing parallels between the plays as the study progresses. In the Conclusion some tentative statements are made regarding Williams' persistent world-view and his contribution to a theatre concerned with its ethical function.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

Master of Arts (MA)