| UMD Department of English

Fall 2013/Spring 2014 Essays

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For characters that appear only briefly within Paradise Lost, Sin and Death have caused a surprisingly large amount of academic controversy. During the eighteenth century, critics considered them an ‘aesthetic flaw’ (White Jr, 337-341); even today, from whatever lens critics view the pair, they never seem to fit. Those who view Paradise Lost as non-allegorical nonetheless view them as an aberration; as Fallon asks: ‘What are these insubstantial beings, these abstractions, doing in a mimetic epic… why is this extended allegory in an otherwise non-allegorical epic?’ (168).

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Spring 2015 Essays

General Essays

Sin, Mother of Monarchy? Medieval Allegory and Republican Polemic in Milton’s Paradise Lost

Jonathan Andrews

For characters that appear only briefly within Paradise Lost, Sin and Death have caused a surprisingly large amount of academic controversy. During the eighteenth century, critics considered them an ‘aesthetic flaw’ (White Jr, 337-341); even today, from whatever lens critics view the pair, they never seem to fit.

The Impossible Figure of Woman in ‘Araby’

Kaitlyn Cummings

What is in a name? In the realm of literature, its absence has the power to silence the voice, suppress the identity, and impose passivity upon the character. The anonymous character occupies a negative space, functioning as an “abstract ‘Other’ whose concrete and tangible distinction is unintelligible, unknowable, inarticulable, and inarticulate” (Frye 996). Historically, anonymity has been employed as a tool of oppression in the gender politics of the unnamed character.

The Trouble of Incest in Shakespeare’s Late Plays: King Lear and Pericles

Elizabeth Boyce

Pericles has been viewed until recent critical history as a solid member of Shakespeare’s ‘romances’, plays which combined both tragic and comic elements. However, more informed recent discussion of the late plays has acknowledged the danger in attempting at all to apply a set genre to this group of plays.

“I believe we must have the sort of power over you that we’re said to have over horses”: Virginia Woolf, Feminism, and Horses

Jemima Hubberstey

‘I believe we must have the sort of power over you that we’re said to have over horses. They see us three times as big as we are or they’d never obey us. For that very reason, I’m inclined to doubt that you’ll ever do anything even when you have the vote.’ (Virginia Woolf, The Voyage Out)

“Wrong, very rightly wrong”: Being wrong in Beckett’s Trilogy and How It Is

Rebecca Menmuir

And truly it little matters what I say, this or that or any other thing. Saying is inventing. Wrong, very rightly wrong. (Molloy 27)

Fall 2013/Spring 2014

Journal Information

Fall 2013/Spring 2014 Essays

Considering Another Side Essays

Citizen Journalism is Not Yet Credible Enough to Carry Out Its Goals

The Truth About Our Mental Health Professionals

Inquiry Essay

"No Big Deal": The Prevalence and Acceptability of Nonmedical Use of Prescription Drugs on College Campuses

#IMFanGirling: Third Party Interest in Relationships and the Growing Lack of Privacy in Social Media

Are You at the Mercy of the Music You Listen to?

Position Paper

A Call for Government Regulation within Medical Field Marketing

A Consideration of the US Trans Fat Ban and its Implications on Society

A Force of Distortion: Effects of Media Bias on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Academic "Doping"

Democracy Denied: The Correlation Between Language, Majority Bias, and Gender Exclusion in Political Debate

Hydraulic Fracturing: A Bridge to the Future

Succor for the Distraught, Support for the Deserted, Solutions for the Deprived Users of Abandoned OSS

Virtually Impaired: The Consequences of Technological Advances in Gaming

Rhetorical Analysis Essays

Lehrer and Gladstone: A Comparison of Rhetoric

Summary Essays

Trust, Civic Engagement, and the Internet

Sin, Mother of Monarchy? Medieval Allegory and Republican Polemic in Milton’s Paradise Lost

Spring 2015

Journal Information

Spring 2015 Essays

General Essays

Sin, Mother of Monarchy? Medieval Allegory and Republican Polemic in Milton’s Paradise Lost

The Impossible Figure of Woman in ‘Araby’

The Trouble of Incest in Shakespeare’s Late Plays: King Lear and Pericles

“I believe we must have the sort of power over you that we’re said to have over horses”: Virginia Woolf, Feminism, and Horses

“Wrong, very rightly wrong”: Being wrong in Beckett’s Trilogy and How It Is

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