William Blake's prophetic works are made up almost entirely of a unique combination of symbols and imagery. To understand his books it is necessary to be aware that he used his prophetic symbols because he found them apt to what he was saying, and that he changed their meanings as the reasons for their aptness changed. An awareness of this manipulation of symbols will lead to a more perceptive understanding of Blake's work. This paper is concerned with three specific uses of serpent imagery by Blake. The first chapter deals with the serpent of selfhood. Blake uses the wingless Uraeon to depict man destroying himself through his own constrictive analytic reasonings unenlightened with divine vision. Man had once possessed this divine vision, but as formal religions and a priestly class began to be formed, he lost it and worshipped only reason and cruelty. Blake also uses the image of the serpent crown to characterize priests or anyone in a position of authority. He usually mocks both religious and temporal rulers and identifies them as oppressors rather than leaders of the people. In addition to the Uraeon and the serpent crown, Blake also uses the narrow constricted body of the serpent …

This paper will be a survey of the major American Negro writers from pre-Civil War days to the present time. Background information concerning each major period will be given, along with information about each author and comments about the selections which are appropriate for classroom discussion. Teachers will also be given suggestions for presenting the material to class, as well as suggested questions and assignments. In conclusion, it will be shown how the literature presented can be fused into the eleventh grade course of study for the Fort Worth Public Schools.

The last one hundred years of American literature have witnessed the development of three elemental movements: naturalism, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, represented by such authors as Stephen Crane and Theodore Dreiser; nihilism, predominant in the 1920's and 1930's, represented best by Ernest Hemmingway; and the post-World War II literature which will be called literature of the quest, represented by such authors as Saul Bellow, William Styron, Philip Roth, John Updike, and others. The first chapter will show briefly the historical development of these three movements in American literature, their distinctive features, and their relationship to American moral and social values. Chapters Two through Four will analyze in detail the three distinctive aspects of this emerging literary form--the literature of the quest. The last chapter will focus on one novel, Letting Go, by Philip Roth, as an example of this literature.

The novel concerns the massacre of a small village in Viet Nam and its effects upon those involved, attempting to show that selfishness in men overrides any other concern, even during war.

The purpose of this thesis is to consider Camus's use of the death metaphor and its probable meaning for him.

This thesis is an attempt to evaluate the evidence for and against the presence of a hero in King John. As such, it is actually a search into the artistic abilities which Shakespeare exercised in this drama to determine whether he created a dramatic work of art which merits recognition for its own sake.

The present study will be concerned primarily with an interpretation of Lowell's derivation of Prometheus Bound as he adapted that play from the Greek playwright Aeschylus' version, with a study of the development of his themes in that play, and with consideration of some of the sources upon which those themes are dependent.

The subject of this thesis is concerned with the organization of a course of study for slow learners in the English class using both full-length and short films to stimulate their discussion and writing.

The purpose of this thesis is to point out the three levels of mythic structure contained in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, a novel published in 1958 by the British novelist Alan Sillitoe. The novel has been criticized almost solely in its role as a work dealing exclusively with the English proletariat; the critics have ignored mythic content in the novel, and in doing so have missed valuable meaning and structure which each myth adds to the novel.

This study of the bullfight in Hemingway's life and in his art demonstrates the values by which Hemingway lived and wrote. In Death in the Afternoon he pursues reality with courage and integrity, with grace under pressure. The bullring enhances the light and earth imagery and reinforces the structure and themes of Hemingway's major novels.

This study examines the representation of religion in Ernest Hemingway's fiction. In most of his stories, references to the church are adversely critical. No protagonist finds solace in conventional religious faith.

An examination of the persistent death motif in Twain's literature reveals a strong fusion of his art, personal experience and philosophical conclusions. Death imagery dramatizes Twain's pessimistic view of an estranged humanity existing without purpose or direction in an incomprehensible universe. Twain shows in his works that religious and social beliefs only obscure the fact that the meaning of death is beyond man's intellectual and perceptual powers. In Twain's view the only certainty about death is that it is a release from the preordained tragedies of existence. Illusions, primordial terrors, and mystifying dreams shape man's disordered reality, Twain concludes, and therefore death is as meaningless as life.

The conclusion drawn from this study is that the arrangement of material in Absalom, Absalom! is unified and purposeful. The structure evokes that despair that is the common denominator of mankind. It reveals both the bond between men and the separation of men; and though some of the most dramatic episodes in the novel picture the union of men in brotherly love, most of the material and certainly the arrangement of the material emphasize the estrangement of men. In addition, by juxtaposing chapters, each separated from the others by its own structural and thematic qualities, Faulkner places a burden of interpretation on the reader suggestive of the burden of despair that overwhelms the protagonists of the novel.

The thesis presents Mark Twain's 1601 in the form of a new edition comprising a critical analysis, a photographic copy of the only authorized text of the work, and a glossary.

This thesis is an investigation into the nature of the characterizations of women and Negroes in the fiction of Flannery O'Connor and the extent to which the attitudes, beliefs, and ideas contained in the background of the author influenced such portrayals. The thesis identifies these influences as her native South and the Roman Catholic Church and concludes that her misogynistic treatment of women and sympathetic handling of Negroes proceeds from values placed on both groups in such influences.

This study is a survey of plays of Negro authorship in America from 1858 to 1970. It is intended to give a historical view of the Negro effort in the drama and show general trends during the twentieth century. The paper is arranged chronologically, beginning with the first play by a Negro author in 1858 and continuing through the 1960's. Synopses of plays are offered, but very little historical or sociological information is given and little literary criticism is added.

This thesis intends to point out the religious thoughts that Clemens encountered. It will present the various religious groups with which he dealt the most and the clergymen with whom he associated both casually and intimately. It will also attempt to indicate at least one reason why he never found in religion the peace which he sought.

The purpose of this study is to seek out, examine, and analyze the relationship that Emily Dickinson shared with her sister, Lavinia, and with her sister-in-law, Susan Gilbert Dickinson. All of her letters and poems have been carefully considered, as well as the letters and diaries of friends and relatives who might shed light on the three women.

This thesis is concerned with nature as a source for much of the symbolism and imagery in the novels and short stories of John Steinbeck. The symbolism is examined from the perspective of the philosophy governing Steinbeck's artistic use of nature: that life is a unity and that man is one with nature.

Wuthering Heights is the story of Heathcliff, a psychological study of an elemental man whose soul is torn between love and hate. The Byronic hero is the natural contact with the great heroic tradition in literature. This examination involves the consideration of the Byronic hero's relationship to the Gothic villain, the motivation behind the Byronic fatal revenge, and the phenomenon of Byronic supernatural manifestations.

The thesis of this paper is that Mencken was a better critic than he is credited with being, that he was unusually discerning in his judgment of the fiction of his time, and that his criteria are clearly stated in various of his writings. It is conceded, however, that his taste in poetry was limited and that his contribution to dramatic criticism was not? greatly significant.

Since most teachers have little time to familiarize themselves with a variety of books, this thesis, containing annotations, is designed to acquaint them with a number of books in various areas and to give them an understanding of bibliotherapy, which is one tool of teaching that has been advanced as an aid to students for the past as well as for the future.

This paper discusses the publications of the Tatler and the Spectator and their influences and criticisms of local theater, actors and audiences.

Hegel and Eliot have been chosen for this study not because of their differences but because of similarities in their thought. Although most of Hegel's works are obscure and pedantic, it is possible to show that his early thinking reflects a deep awareness of many of the implications of the new age. A growing number of philosophers and theologians today are apparently "rediscovering" Hegel as one who caught a vision of the transition in man's history and whose insights are valuable today.