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There are multiple ways in which language and image share one another’s aesthetic message, such as traditional ekphrasis, which uses language to describe a work of art, or notional ekphrasis, which involves literature describing something that can be considered a work of art but does not physically exist at the time the description is written. However, these two terms are not inclusive to all artworks depicting literature or literature depicting artworks. Several scenes and characters from literature have been appropriated in art and the numerous paintings of Ophelia’s death as described by Gertrude in Hamlet, specifically Millais’ Ophelia, is the focus of this project. Throughout this thesis I analyze Gertrude’s account in three sections—the landscape, the body, and the voice—and compare it to its transmutation on the canvas.

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, many British poets attempted to establish a universal poetic image in the European nightingale, often viewing it as a muse or contemporary artist. This use of the songster became so prevalent that it was adopted, along with other conventions, for use in the United States. Yet, despite the efforts of both British and American poets, this imperialized songbird would ultimately fail in America, as the nightingale is not indigenous to the United States. The failure of this nightingale image, I contend, is reflective of the growing need to establish a national identity in nineteenth-century American literature, separate from British convention. In this process of cultural exploration, I believe the northern mockingbird becomes the replacement for the nightingale, and is developed as a distinctly American image through the poetry of Maurice Thompson, Walt Whitman, and others, exemplifying traits of the country through its charismatic song and personality

Jane Austen's attitude toward the position of middle-class women at the end of the eighteenth century is examined in the context of her life and thought and the women characters in her six novels. Comparisons are made with the position of women today regarding marriage, work, and the goals of the women's liberation movement. Jane Austen shared with feminists a recognition of the need for self-fulfillment. Because she was a realist, she provided fulfillment for her heroines through the only vehicle that was available to most women of her time--marriage. The solution she worked out for satisfying this need in her own life was to maintain her identity as single women, a member of a family and community, while writing under the protection of anonymity. This compromise was necessary at a time when women's opportunities for meaningful work were severely limited. Because of the nature of her genius, she was able to work within the confines of society, but she was acutely aware that most women were not so fortunate. The young women in her novels ask repeatedly when men will learn to seek rational women companions rather than elegant females. he latter had been encouraged by men to subvert their intelligence, thereby weakening their integrity, a situation which Jane Austen deplored. were she alive today, she would welcome the widening opportunities for women to develop as complete human beings.

While The Merchant of Venice has long been one of Shakespeare's most popular plays, it has also been one of the most controversial with Shylock being the hub of the conflict. Critics have long been arguing whether this great character is a tragic hero or a larger-than-life villain. Those opting for the first often believe the playwright guilty of anti-semitism, and those following the latter consider Shylock the embodiment of evil. Very few critics have viewed this character as three dimensional, possessing human dignity as well as a capacity for evil. The first chapter reveals the many sources for both the plot of the play and for Shylock's character. Chapter II deals with the subject of usury historically and in relationship to Shylock's character. The third chapter reveals the humanness of Shylock, his supposedly fierce dedication to his values and his relationship with the Christians. Included also in this chapter is Shakespeare's use of imagery, particularly animal imagery in the revelation of Shylock's character, and the Jew's diabolic nature. Shylock as a scapegoat in the traditionally Jewish sense is the topic of Chapter IV. The discussion of these pertinent areas of the play show that Shakespeare did not have to be antisemitic to write about an evil man who happened to be a Jew. It is shown that Shylock may be viewed consistently on three levels: the historic, the archetypal, and the literal. The point being made here is that the modern reader, particularly due to the fact that twentieth century man has perpetrated more atrocities on the Jewish people than all past centuries combined, is perhaps incapable of total objectivity where this play is concerned. We tend to view the play either offensively or defensively on an emotional level rather than intellectually and literally. This reaction is explored in the Conclusion using the philosophy of Jung and his studies of the collective unconscious.

Since little critical attention has been given to the dramas of this period, it would seem that further examination of them would be of value. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to investigate the dramas of the major Romantic poets in order to provide a new critical perspective on their plays specifically and Romantic drama generally. From this it is hoped useful conclusions can be drawn. The study will be limited to the plays of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Percy Bysshe Shelley, William Wordsworth, and George Gordon, Lord Byron. John Keats has been omitted from this group because his only drama was written in conjunction with Armitage Brown, a minor writer. The dramas chosen for this investigation are those which either have been produced on the stage or ware submitted for production. If the author submitted more than one play, the play which the critics consider marks the summit of dramatic achievement of the author has been selected. Included in this study are The Borderers by Wordsworth, Remorse by Coleridge, The Cenci by Shelley, and Cain by Byron. The dramas are presented for discussion according to the chronological order in which they were written. The study will include an examination of the background against which the tragedies were written - the state of the contemporary drama, the stage, the plays and the audiences. Those factors which may have affected the work - the author's thoughts, the facts of composition, and elements of Romanticism - will also be considered. In addition, both contemporary and modern criticism will be included. (The criticism beginning with that of George Bernard Shaw in 1886 will be classified as modern.) These criticisms will form the bases for evaluations of the plays.

Many critics have discovered striking similarities between Samuel Johnson's Rasselas and Voltaire's Candide. Yet, most have failed to describe the links that exist between the works which indicate that similar forces may have spurred the authors to write so similar tales, one quickly following the other into publication. Source studies of the two tales indicate that very little, if any, evidence is available to prove that the works were inspired by the same written sources that Johnson and Voltaire may have relied upon. While source studies of the tales do not reveal any shocking information, they do inform the reader that both men used great effort in writing their tales. Nevertheless, the similarities of Rasselas and Candide are so great that one must turn elsewhere to find explanations. One possible explanation is that both men vehemently hated the popular philosophy of their day, a philosophy advocated by Gottfried von Liebniz under the name of optimism. This philosophy and the concept of the Chain of Being play an important role in the two works since each tale ridicules the ideas. Eighteenth -century optimism allows for no hope. Rasselas and Candide try to answer this dilemma the philosophy proposes. The joint attack on optimism and the Chain of Being cannot be the only reason that the two tales are similar. By examining certain aspects of each man's life, one finds that contrary to popular belief Johnson and Voltaire shared many resemblances. Both were very bright as children, as they were as adults. Both writers had powerful emotions and a strong sexuality. Both were gentle and caring people. These human characteristics can be seen in their works, helping explain some of the mystery surrounding the novels' similarities.

To define the scope of this study, therefore, Harrowing of Hell imagery will be thought of as those symbols peculiar to the pseudo-biblical story, with redemptive activity and triumph as distinguishing criteria. The hero is a Christ figure who has already achieved a degree of self-mastery. His descent into hell represents an act of redemption for others, with victory as the outcome. This delimitation, it will be seen, is not impossibly restrictive. A survey of contemporary literature indicates that Wasserman's use of the descent motif with redemptive implications is far from an isolated instance. Edward Albee in The Zoo Story and Samuel Beckett in Waiting for Godot employ the imagery as a tentative suggestion of redemption, hoped for if unachieved. The same wistful negation accompanies its appearance in Kazantzakis' Greek Passion and Mauriac's The Lamb.

Love and growing old are thematically inseparable in W.B. Yeats' poetry, yet it is the former with which this great Irish poet is often associated. The poet's attitudes toward aging are made clear through his symbolism, complicated Irish allusions, and a sometimes jarring treatment of women. As it turns out, these devices have as much to do with Yeats' concern over aging as they have to do with the infamous Maud Gonne. This thesis attempts to not only expose and analyze these intricacies, but also challenge the way the literary canon typically isolates Yeats’ more famous poems without the context of his other work.

By using adaptation theory and Linda Hutcheon’s depiction of adapters in the process of adaptation as “first interpreters and then creators” (18), this article argues how the original Sherlock Holmes illustrations, penciled most notably by Sidney Paget, are both a canonical element of the Holmes legacy and themselves an adaptation. This creates a means of exploring why and how the television show Sherlock Holmes (1984-1994), developed by Granada Television, uses the original Holmes illustrations as a source of adaptation to create the appearance of fidelity to Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories. Being faithful to the Holmes stories is not a common adaptation practice. Granada’s Holmes chooses to be faithful to the original illustrations and to the Victorian era, not so much to be unique among Holmes adaptations but to be similar to the 1980s heritage cinema trend of faithfully adapting English literature. Heritage cinema, as Andrew Higson states, is a “potent marketing of the past” (1), and through its propensity to adapt literature faithfully to a past time period, heritage cinema reflects a cultural desire for national nostalgia in 1980s Britain. In the case of Granada’s Holmes, this tactic turns Sherlock Holmes into both financial and cultural capital. By being seemingly faithful to the original illustrations, Granada’s Holmes is left vulnerable to the kinds of fidelity or comparative criticisms that adaptation scholars often denounce. Adaptation studies criticizes efforts to compare the source text to the adaptation, saying it will inevitably lead to privileging the source text. Through my investigation, however, I argue that there is a need to use forms of fidelity criticism in order to more fully explore the reasons why Granada’s Holmes hinges its success around fidelity to the original Holmes illustrations.