The Italian composer of operas, Giuseppe Verdi, relied heavily on plays of the Romantic Era as sources for opera librettos. Three such plays were from the Spanish Romantic School: El trovador and Simon Bocanegra by Antonio Garcia Gutierrez, and Don Alvaro o la fuerza del sino by Angel de Saavedra, el Duque de Rivas. The operas which Verdi composed using these plays as sources--Il trovatore, Simon Boccanegra, and La forza del destino--range in popularity from near zenith (Il trovatore) to near nadir (Simon Boccanegra). The study attempts to assess the suitability of the three Spanish dramas as source material for operas, and to determine if this suitability is correlated to each opera's popularity.

In this exposition, the writer has attempted to give a clear idea of the origin, organization, and curricua of the three types of schools of the Mexican public educational system. The information was gathered from first-hand knowledge, from careful study and analysis or publications of the department of Education, visits to schools, Interviews with school pen, and from various earler works on the subject of Mexican education.

This thesis studies the life and the novels of Vicente Blasco Ibanez, including his Valencian period and his Madrid novels

The type of alienation discussed in this thesis is not related to the famous Verfrenidungseffekt attempted by Brecht, where the audiences are prevented from identifying with the characters of the drama in the hope that the public will reflect on the ideas presented more rationally and objectively. "Alienation" in this thesis is a psychological force which acts divisively between the characters in the drama and thus contributes to the development of a tragic situation.

Until the time of Lope de Vega and the Golden Age of Spanish literature, women had always had secondary roles in the Spanish drama. There were two reasons for this: 1) Women were not fully appreciated in the society of the times. 2) Women were prohibited from appearing on the stage for many years, and boys usually took their parts. With the advent of Lope de Vega and his arte nuevo de hacer comedies, the situation was changed. The great genius, Lope de Vega, set the pattern for the drama of the Golden Age.

The primary purpose of this study is to demonstrate that the most consistent themes in the selected novels are love and happiness. The novels are: Bonjour tristesse, 1954; Un certain sourire, 1956; La chamade, 1965; Les merveilleux nuages, 1961; Un profil perdu, 1974; Aimez-vous Brahms, 1959; Le garde du coeur, 1968; and De guerre lasse, 1985. Sagan challanges her heroines, and her readers, to find happiness. Each of the heroines handles the individual search for love and happiness in her own specific way. Throughout the novels, love represents pain and suffering as Sagan describes the emptiness of life in modern society. Her works show the futility of love in a world preoccupied by superficial things.

The purpose of this thesis is to make an intensive study of the dramatic works of Max Aub in order to determine his significance as a playwright.

This thesis illustrated Gregorio Martinez Sierra's social philosophy: motherhood, marital relationships, relationships between parents and children, and the social even of spain.