This paper details a class taught in the Virginia Commonwealth Theatre Department in Fall of 2015 on the works of William Shakespeare. Within both the class and this paper, I attempted to form the beginnings of a pedagogy of Shakespearean literature that incorporated elements of literary criticism, historical context and performance theory. Dramatic literature, including Shakespeare, is a moving target, as the text is reimagine and reinterpreted on stage again and again. My goal with this paper is to examine both how dramatic literature can be taught and the special challenges present in teaching it using Shakespeare as a case study, and to explore what is particularly meaningful about Shakespeare in the classroom.

This thesis investigates D.H. Lawrence’s idea of the “great background” in the context of Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure and how it reappears in a transformed way in Lawrence’s novels Sons and Lovers, The Rainbow, and Women in Love. Through examining the perverse effects of modernism on these novels’ characters, this thesis argues that the “great background” is something that gradually moves inward––from the old, traditional “State” to an internal, inscrutable yet attainable reality.

An analysis of both the placement and the philosophical connections between The Tale of Melibee and The Parson’s Tale suggests that a highly individual spiritual philosophy is being presented within The Canterbury Tales. This philosophy is exemplified via an analysis of both the role of The Tale of Melibee within the work, and the manner in which it is historically developed. The highest form of individual spirituality is revealed within The Tale of Melibee, through the spiritual developments occurring within the character Melibeus and his wife Prudence. This development serves to unify the exemplified extremes of satire and spirituality presented throughout the work, as well as to illustrate the manner in which the individual human being develops his or her own individual spirituality through an active engagement with life, which in turn promotes a unity of the aforementioned extremes.

The motif of twins is one that permeates strongly throughout the Harry Potter series. Fred and George as a pair are immensely popular with fans, and the “very curious” twinship of Harry and Voldemort’s wands is a relationship greatly explored in the saga. In my paper, I shall further explore this prominent Potter motif and delve into the origins and symbolism behind this twinship. I will also recall the dark conclusion to the tale of the Weasley twins. The death of Fred as related to the series’ theme as a whole and the death of Harry in the attempt to remove his parasitic twin, Voldemort’s unintended horcrux, will be discussed. There will also be exploration of missing and broken twins, for example, where is Romulus since we know a Remus? Why are Padma and Parvati in different houses? What is the symbolism of Harry’s broken wand? I will discuss how Voldemort’s creation of horcruxes is an intentional twinning of his self, and thus a mutation of nature. An exploration of numerology in relation to this twin discussion will also be included. This paper will show that the motif of twins is not just an interesting addition to the Potter novels but rather a tie-in to the story’s core of insisting on duality when the truth is in wholeness.

William Shakespeare’s Macbeth is colored with religious overtones. His play incorporates elements of religious beliefs of Renaissance England. Aside from its historical basis, Shakespeare’s Macbeth alludes to stories from Scripture as well as Renaissance religious practices and beliefs, particularly regarding witchcraft, prophecy, and the dangers of sin. Through this myriad of sources, Shakespeare offers a vivid and grotesque depiction of a man demise due to his involvement with sin, offering a profound caution to his audience of the dangers of temptation and sin.

Foreword This paper will be of value in answering continuing questions regarding John Milton's position on war and peace. The questions continue and are valid because Milton's works, as considered in the paper, offer support for both pro-war and pro-peace interpretations. The paper also addresses a middle-ground interpretation-that Milton's position can best be understood in light of the legal theories of Hugo Grotius, the seventeenth-century Dutch scholar who is generally accepted as the father of modern international law. The works considered include, among others, the Nativity Ode, the sonnets, Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, Samson Agonistes (including post 9/11 controversy involving its alleged endorsement of terrorism), Christian Doctrine, and Milton's infrequently cited History of Britain. No ultimate answers are suggested except that more than three hundred years of Milton scholarship have left little unexplored regarding Milton's views on war and peace. Milton will always be known for his admiration of soldiers, particularly his employer, Oliver Cromwell, and for his military imagery, particularly in Paradise Lost. He will also be known as a man who lived in a time of constant warfare, and yet who valued and sought individual inner peace.

A review of the genesis of Frankenstein, it’s narrative form, Gothicism, ideas and contributions to literature.

The Icelandic mantle plume has had a profound influence on the development of the North Atlantic region over its 64 Myr existence. Long-wavelength free-air gravity anomalies and full waveform tomographic studies suggest that the planform of the plume is highly irregular, with up to five fingers of hot asthenosphere radiating away from Iceland beneath the lithospheric plates. Two of these fingers extend beneath the British Isles and southern Scandinavia, where departures from crustal isostatic equilibrium and anomalous uplift have been identified. In this study, the spatial extent of present-day dynamic support associated with the Icelandic plume is investigated using receiver function analysis. Teleseismic events recorded at nine temporary and 59 permanent broadband, three-component seismometer stations are used to calculate 3864 P-to-S crustal receiver functions. The amplitude and arrival time of particular converted phases are assessed, and H-k stacking is applied to estimate bulk crustal properties. Sub-selections of receiver functions are jointly inverted with Rayleigh wave dispersion data to obtain crustal VS profiles at each station. Both inverse- and guided forward modelling techniques are employed, as well as a Bayesian, trans-dimensional algorithm. Moho depths thus obtained are combined with seismic wide-angle and deep reflection data to produce a comprehensive crustal thickness map of northwestern Europe. Moho depth is found to decrease from southeast (37 km) to northwest (26 km) in the British Isles and from northeast (46 km) to southwest (29 km) in Scandinavia, and does not positively correlate with surface elevation. Using an empirical relationship, crustal shear wave velocity profiles are converted to density profiles. Isostatic balances are then used to estimate residual topography at each station, taking into account these novel constraints on crustal density. Areas of significant residual topography are found in the northwestern British Isles (1400 m), southwestern Scandinavia (464 m) and Denmark (620 m), with convective support from the Icelandic plume as its most likely source. Finally, the irregular planform of the Icelandic plume is proposed to be a manifestation of radial viscous fingering due to a Saffman-Taylor instability. This fluid dynamical phenomenon occurs when less viscous fluid is injected into a layer of more viscous fluid. By comparing the thermal and convective characteristics of the plume with experimental and theoretical results, it is shown that viscous fingering could well explain the present-day distribution of plume material.

Through the use of biographical materials, and three selected works from Charlotte, Anne, and Emily Bronte, parallels were found between their lives, character design, and the plot of their works. The lack of a mother figure in the lives of the Bronte sisters caused their upbringing to differ from that of other children, and as a result influenced their perspective of the world. Motherless female characters were found in each of the three novels by the Bronte sisters and in each instance commonalities were shared with the author of the work, to a degree that indicates that the lives that the sisters led, was the inspiration for the stories they created. After investigating whether or not the novels created by the Bronte sisters were influenced by the lack of a mother figure, the conclusion reached, is that this absence had an immense influence throughout their lives, and based on more than one account, helped shape the design of each of their respective works.

A cosmodern reading of David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas creates a positive vision of the future for readers through various techniques of fragmentation including fragmentation of voice, language, and time. By fragmentation, I have in mind the consistent interruption of the novel’s voice, language, and time that requires an active and aware readership. The reader’s interaction with the text makes the novel re-constructive. In fact, the global nature of Mitchell’s novel, its hopeful ending, and its exploration of the effects of globalization can be considered as a means of exploring the dynamic relationships between the characters, the reader, and Mitchell’s authorial voice. Rather than falling back on familiar postmodernist truisms such as the hopelessness of genuine communication or the impossibility of truth, Mitchell creates a hopeful vision of the future of the world, one that champions the life, agency, and personal narrative of the individual.