Examining the modes of characterization and the types of personalities evident in the first seventeen cantos of The Cantos of Ezra Pound, one can perceive that Ezra Pound felt he was composing an epic which was to revitalize for the present the best minds of the past. Pound's method of revitalization has a close affinity Co the doctrine of effluences in Longinus on the Sublime, a classical work of literary criticism. The personalities Pound employs in The Cantos fall into three broad categories: gods (deific), legends (archetypal), and men (historical). By applying Pound's neo-Platonism to their organization, one can further divide the gods into levels of spiritual ascent--Circe and the Sirens (the lowest), Persephone and the gods of the Underworld, Diana and the gods of land, Dionysus and the gods of the ocean, and Aphrodite and the gods of light. Similarly, the legendary figures can be further grouped into the archetypes of advisor, questor, midonz, and metamorph. Historical characters--the primary historical character in these early cantos being Sigismundo Malatesta--represent actualizations and "facts" which support the literary, sociological, and personal values Pound establishes through his presentation of the gods and legends.

There have been a number of books and articles written about the theological underpinnings of the novel Billy Budd by Herman Melville and about the symbolic characters which he created. Several critics have brought some of this material together, but no one has really attempted to correlate the basic studies. This thesis will not only endeavor to do this, but it will add, as well, a personal interpretation of the theological content of the work.

The following study deals with that phase of the life of Irvin S. Cobb that had direct bearing on his creation of Judge Priest; with the causes that influenced him to write the Judge Priest stories; with the life of William Sutton Bishop, who was the original of the fictitious character Judge Priest; and with the stories of Judge Priest and his people.

The affinities which appear in writing styles of Stephen Crane and manifest themselves in their works. raised in religious homes, rebelled the life styles and Ernest Hemingway Both writers were against their religious backgrounds, began newspaper careers as teenagers, traveled and reported war for their respective newspapers, believed that life was filled with violence, confirmed that belief through their experiences and observations, and developed corresponding literary credos. Both Crane and Hemingway believed the writer should experience present manner. the story Both men and observe what he wrote and should in a simple, direct, and truthful used short sentences, irony, dialogue, dialect, repetition, and vivid, impressionistic description to voice truth in a realistic way. Violence, which serves as man's initiation and test in life, is the common and dominant theme in Crane's and Hemingway's work, and the two writers developed a parallel and special kind of hero who reacted to this violence with courage or controlled panic and who sometimes was able to find an inner peace. The Crane hero and the Hemingway hero are often embodiments of their creators in spirit and action. Both writers' characters frequently appear in naturalistic situations to which they react existentially. Through examination and evaluation of specific works of Crane and Hemingway along with the examination of their life styles and writing styles, the affinities become apparent.

Willa Cather believed very firmly in two things: individuality and art. The purpose of this study is to show Cather's intense dedication to the pursuit of individual artistic achievement as depicted by the heroines of seven Cather novels: O Pioneers! (1913), The Song of the Lark (1915), My Antonia (1918), A Lost Lady (1923), My Mortal Enemy (1926), Lucy Gayheart (1935), and Sapphira and the Slave Girl (1940). Cather was concerned about whether or not woman as artist could succeed or be forever bound by sexual limitation. She devoted her life to the worship of art and the belief that one must pursue that spark within, regardless of its form, whether in either the traditional role or in a professional one. The essence of Cather's belief in the individual is the firm affirmation contained in all her works that the real sin against life and against oneself is the failure to realize one's potentialities. She insists upon complete self-sufficiency and self-reliance in devoting oneself to following the only possible life-course one can follow. All of the women discussed in this paper are deeply individual and independent and all are set against Cather's criteria for the artist. They either succeed because of their "dedicated spirit," or they fail because their spirits can not withstand the adversity set against them. Cather's test of greatness in her heroines was the devotion to a life-course that corresponded to the artist's search for beauty in her work. Alexandra Bergson, Thea Kronberg, Antonia Shimerda, and Lucy Gayheart succeed because they seek a worthy channel for their creative vitality and struggle against the mediocrity that threatens the spirit of the individual. Marian Forrester, Myra Henshawe, and Sapphira Colbert fail because their independent spirits thrive, not on the search for beauty in personal fulfillment, but on transient materialism and tarnished images. The differences in the heroines are not in their strength and endurance, but in the goals they set for themselves. Whether she succeeds or fails, each woman still maintains the right to be "herself" in her own inimitable way.

To William Faulkner, art must bolster man; it must somehow remind man of those truths toward which his race has struggled and must continue to struggle if life is to have meaning and significance. Faulkner's works meet this aim by dramatizing the conflict individuals face if they seek to wrench from life a morality that allows them placement within the larder human community. Both The Sound and the Fury and Absalom, Absalom! require a re-examination in light of Faulkner's artistic aim. For at the center of both novels are children inescapably threatened by a corrupted moral tradition--a decayed antebellum southern morality. Such is the legacy Jason and Caroline Compson and Thomas and Ellen Sutpen bequeath their children; that is, the Tompson children and the Sutpen children receive as part of their inheritance a moral tradition stripped of its base -- a concern for the well being of others. The dilemma, then, that confronts these children is whether they choose to adhere to the moral tradition bequeathed them, to deny it, or to endeavor to transcend it. For different reasons, Jason and Caddy succumb to the moral code they inherited. Quentin, Henry, and Judith attempt to transcend but finally embrace the very code they waged war on. What is important, though, in Faulkner's handling of the abusing legacy that each child in The Sound and the Fury and Absalom, Absalom! inherits is not the degree to which each seems irrevocably doomed; rather, what is crucial is the degree to which each struggles to achieve a moral identity that affords placement within the family of man. Courage, strength, honor, pity are truths toward which the individual must aspire: they are the goal of a life-long struggle that cannot be wholly successful because it aims for ideals. But for Faulkner, the struggle itself - not its outcome - is all.

The strongest and best-developed supporting characters in The Portrait of a Lady are the men in Isabel Archer's life: Ralph Touchett, Caspar Goodwood, Lord Warburton, and Gilbert Osmond. Because it is largely through the eyes of these men that the reader sees Isabel, a thorough understanding of their personalities is essential for a clear interpretation of Isabel. James shows the four men in vivid detail--their physical appearance, cultural background, intellect, moral convictions, sense of humor--everything from a habit of keeping hallas in pockets to having a wardrobe which seems to have come from a single bolt of cloth. This study draws together the details James gives the reader about Ralph, Caspar, Warburton, and Osmond along with the critics' comments about them in an analysis which attempts to show how each personality contributes to the development of Isabel Archer.

Because human nature is so often irrational and passional, William Faulkner many times offers portraits of people who are the antithesis of rationality and morality. Thus, it is not surprising to observe Faulkner's extensive use of aberrant, or deviant, characters, especially aberrant women, since the author generally associates this group with the volatile, passional elements in life. These disturbingly abnormal women possess as a group certain characteristics that become a remarkably consistent pattern in the Faulknerian canon. Faulkner's aberrant women invariably have at least one trait in common: they become destructive forces that bring about the ruin of others and often themselves and, hence, are associated with death. Also, these women have, to some degree, fallen short of achieving fulfillment as women by means of sexual love and motherhood, which are natural feminine roles. Another trait that Faulkner's aberrant women have is an incongruous blend of masculine and feminine characteristics, a blend which is taboo in the author's Yoknapatawpha world. Also, they possess an inability to accept the pleasure principle manifested by the erotic impulses. Finally, many critics believe that Faulkner's aberrant women show an affinity for evil. These aberrant traits are manifested in Temple Drake in i, Caddy Compson in The Sound and the Fury, and Joanna Burden in Light in August. Temple Drake is an adolescent temptress, Caddy Compson a social outcast, and Joanna Burden a sterile spinster; these women, along with several others, venture outside of their traditional spheres and, as a result, bring about despair and death. The author may be using this type of character to imply that the corruption of women is indicative of a cultural disintegration, since women generally represent the nucleus of family and community affairs.

Beneath the placid surface of books such as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, there are the seeds of a darker, yet more profound Twain than a cursory reading yields. From a point beginning about 1876 until his death in 1910, there is in Twain's major works a progressively darker, more intensely pessimistic view of the human condition, for Twain increasingly saw man as circumscribed and imprisoned by mechanistic determinism. This study provides a chronological examination of Twain's attempt to resolve the problem of man's sense of moral responsibility in a deterministic world. The development of Twain's thinking or man's conscience and determined behavior falls into three stages that form the basis for the three major chapters of this thesis. In Twain's primary stage he initially grappled with the problem of determinism and moral responsibility. In the second stage Twain recognized the control determinism exercises and the guilt that socially engrained conscience imposes on man, yet he still insisted on man's ability to rise above these things and impose his own concept of morality. In the final stage Twain relinquished the lingering vestiges of his belief in man's control of his life and actions and depicted man as unable to move above his guilt because of circumstances he cannot control.

Nathaniel Hawthorne's life can be divided into four periods each containing a practical and ideal component. These components create a duality containing the dynamic Hawthorne confronted when moving between the practical world of work, family, and politics and the ideal world of art. This dynamic is used to explain the ambiguity of Hawthorne's works, particularly "My Kinsman, Major Molineaux," "The Artist of the Beautiful," and The Blithedale Romance. The movement present in these works between practical and ideal interests is connected to Hawthorne's view of the artist in society, the relationship of tradition and progress, and the issue of slavery. The conclusion shows that Hawthorne's pride and integrity both lifted up and undermined his art--a paradox in keeping with Hawthorne's character as a practical man and idealistic artist.