The problem with which this investigation is concerned is that of revealing certain liberated female traits that are to be found as early as the seventeenth century in certain plays of Moliere. A study of the major events in Moliere's life and of the social climate and salons of his time, together with a close analysis of the plays themselves, is necessary to understand this important aspect of his works. In essence, this study attempts to show how Moliere's women emerge as independent individuals who refuse the role society usually assigns them. Although these female characters are products of the seventeenth century, their actions and attitudes are used in this thesis to indicate a foreshadowing of the twentieth-century, liberated woman.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the letters of Diderot to Sophie Volland for the year 1759 as they are a source of important autobiographical, social, and psychological elements that shed light on Diderot's private and public life. In fact a turning point in the sentimental relationship between Diderot and Sophie Volland, the death of his father, the difficulties experienced in publishing the Encyclop6'die and consequently the coolness in his friendship with D'Alembert make 1759 a crucial year in Diderot's life. The conclusion reached is that the stylistically beautiful and modern letters to Sophie Volland of this year are self-revelatory for they show that the events of 1759 made a great psychological impact upon Diderot and started a process of maturity in his character. These letters can undoubtedly be considered a major part of Diderot's work and they can certainly contribute to a deeper understanding of this genius.

The thesis states that women characters in the works of Ramuz have much more depth, life and variety than first meets the eye. In order to demonstrate this, it was decided to show women characters, main, secondary and in groups, and to look at their presentation in the novels recognized generally as the most important.

Stéphane Mallarmé, 1842-1897, was driven by a yearning for the ideal, and felt an immense despair when his human attempts to reach up to it, through his poetry, fell far too short. The void (le Néant) into which he fell is the subject of the present study. Sources used were the writer's poetry, as well as all critical works which seemed pertinent to the study of this poet whose symbolism is so wonderfully and yet frighteningly deep and meaningful.

The problem dealt with in this discussion is the various aspects of the theme of purity in Le Voyageur sans bagage, Antigone, L'Alouette and Becket ou l'Honneur de Dieu, by the French playwright, Jean Anouilh. The purpose of this discussion is to clarify Anouilh's concept of the search for purity and to shed light upon the various interpretations of the theme of purity in these four plays.

This study analyzes specific scenes in the novels dealt with in order to determine the type of women characters Mauriac has created. This study covers Mauriac's early, middle, and late periods as a novelist. The heroines are nearly all examined in relation to each other chronologically. The study shows that Mauriac first portrays a religious and simple heroine. The heroines become agnostic, if not atheistic in several of the subsequent novels. Through Therese, they become progressively more psychologically complex. They then become less complicated and, except for the last heroine, are religious. The last heroine is psychologically portrayed but is the least original of the heroines. The examination of Mauriac's women characters seems to show that the author is deeply sympathetic with the majority of them.

The purpose of this study is to ascertain the major aspects of the theoretical structure of Sartrian existentialism and to examine the portrayal of these in Sartre's fiction. The theoretical investigation is based largely on Sartre's "L'Être et le néant" and "L'Existentialisme est u humanisme." The fictional works are "La Nausée," the trilogy "Les Chemins de la liberté," and "Le Mur." The study is prefaced by an examination of the term existentialism and a brief historical comparison of essentialist and existentialist philosophy. The aspects of Sartrian existentialism discussed are: the question of the existence of God and its importance to Sartre's philosophy; the premise of existence preceding essence; the fact of contingency on absurdity and its attendant nausea; the doctrines of freedom and responsibility; the dilemma of choice, anguish, and commitment; and the themes of authenticity, transcendence, and death.