BYU English Symposium

Finding Peace in Hamlet and Mama Day

Aubri M. Devashrayee

Patriarchy & Feminism in the Early 20th Century: Finding Middle Ground Through Kate Chopin

Tanner Call

In the decades leading up to women’s suffrage in the United States, feminism began to surge across the nation. While many feminist writers overtly called for an abandon of female gender roles, not all were as polarizing. One of those more covert authors was Kate Chopin.By crafting female characters that are shaped and influenced by their society’s standards (instead of wholly rejecting them), Chopin is able to create a more poignant and effective commentary on gender roles at the time. This paper will analyze three of her short stories and their focus on how the patriarchal society limits independence, creates unrealistic standards for an “ideal woman,” and stigmatizes women who fight against the system. By bringing these problems to the forefront, Chopin shows her readers that these issues need to improve, by finding a solution between traditionalism and feminism, or else women will continue to suffer in their marriages.

"For they were no gods"-- Lawrence's Defiant Magdalene

Madeline N. Hipol

After the social, cultural and national crisis left in the wake of the first World War there was a loss of faith in Reason and in the traditional Christian God. The resulting literature was of disillusionment, doubt and loss. This essay discusses how D. H. Lawrence sought to cope with the darkness of a “godless” reality, critique a disillusioned society, and respond to the rise of feminism through the creation and development of a failed Christ figure and a defiant Mary Magdalene in his short story “Tickets, Please.” As he develops his Magdalene, Annie Stone Lawrence is able to use her to embody all his fears and anxieties in the feminist movement and gender tensions of his day as she is mostly responsible for the failure of his Christ-figure. Just as early twentieth century society waited in vain for a Messiah, Lawrence creates a world where Christ is overpowered by the damned souls He could have saved.

Deformed, Demented, and Deranged: Limited Categorizations of Old Women in Fairy Tale Adaptations

Amanda Smith

Mr. Bunbury, the Abandoned Manuscript, and a “true lover’s knot:” The Price of a Social Identity in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest

Charlotte Scholl

In this paper I argue that in The Importance of Being Earnest, social identity replaces individuality. Algy, Miss Prism, and Cecily each defy the social norms of birth, death, or marriage, which places them outside of society’s boundaries but gives them individuality. Over the course of the play, their mis-performances of society’s scripts are erased. This eradicates the differences of the characters and effaces their individuality, but is also the way in which the characters bargain for a social identity. To demonstrate this, I discuss Algy’s creation of Mr. Bunbury, Miss Prism’s loss of infant Jack, and Cecily’s engagement to Algy.

Radical Words Then and Now: The Historical and Contemporary Impact of Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s The Woman’s Bible

Erika L. Larsen

First published in 1895, Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s The Woman’s Bible was a reaction to Stanton’s dissatisfaction with the way women were oppressed in society; she blamed religion—particularly the Bible—for this inequality. Stanton was a prominent suffragist in the early fight for women’s rights, and although her views were often seen as quite radical in her time, her behavior was warranted given the environment of the 19^th century world in which she lived. At the time of its publication, The Woman’s Bible was rejected and ridiculed by Stanton’s contemporaries, however, this paper will demonstrate how Stanton’s contribution to early feminist biblical criticism can lead a contemporary audience to give her the praise she deserves. By looking to Stanton’s interpretation of pivotal figures, such as Eve, as well as her method of translating and interpreting sexist biblical passages, Stanton’s most controversial work is vindicated.

Charting Columbus' Place in the Literary Canon

Joshua D. Dyer Mr.

It has become commonplace for cities across the United States to pass initiatives to replace the federal holiday celebrating Columbus’ discovery of the Americas with “Indigenous Peoples’ Day.” As a result, Columbus’ legacy has gradually diminished over time and his supposed achievements scorned. This certainly begs the question: Does Columbus deserve a seat in the pantheon of great American historical and even literary figures? To forget the contributions of Columbus, despite any of his misdoings, is to forget one’s origins and identity. Furthermore, Columbus’ literary contributions are foundational to American literature but largely misunderstood. Hence, an adequate defense must be made of Columbus’ legacy by first placing his literary work, especially his Journal of the First Voyage, in context; and second, a defense must mitigate any possible blame on Columbus for the misdeeds later committed by Spanish conquistadors and colonists.

“Misled Good and Partial Truth: Lady Macbeth’s Transformation from Certainty to Uncertainty”

Payden M. Jolley

In Justin Kurzel’s 2016 film adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Kurzel’s use of several vanishing points reveals how Lady Macbeth transforms from a certain and powerful character into an uncertain and weak one. Vanishing point, as a film technique, plays with the point at which the horizon meets an unseen point of view and what lies beyond that point becomes ambiguous or uncertain, leaving for the character, audience, or both to judge what is beyond that horizon for him or herself. Kurzel’s adaptation adds to Shakespeare’s original text as it uses these vanishing points to shed light on one of the plays original themes of the relationship between certainty and truth as the crux of Lady Macbeth’s motivation and how her own interpretation of these vanishing points leads to her own demise.

The Other Side of Biculturalism: Native American Symbolism in the Writings of Zitkala-Ša

Tanner J. Urmston

Citizens of the United States come from a variety of cultures. Authors who come from ethnic backgrounds often find themselves in a middle ground between their culture and that of the dominant “American” culture. One such example is Yankton-Sioux author Zitkála-Šá. Most critics analyze either Zitkala-Sa’s response to mistreatment of Native American peoples, or the influences of Anglo-American culture in her works, thus diminishing her Yankton-Sioux identity and emphasizing Anglo-American Identity. One such example is Catherine Kunce’s essay “Fires of Eden: Zitkala-Sa’s Bitter Apple”, which demonstrates how Christian symbolism informs Zitkala-Sa’s work. I argue that Zitkála-Šá includes Native American symbolism, including seasonal setting, colors, and the unity of opposites, in her autobiographical essays “Impressions of an Indian Childhood” and “The School Days of an Indian Girl”, as well as The Sundance Opera. By doing so, she emphasizes her Native Identity, and brings more attention to minority voices in bicultural literature.

Undergraduate

Derek T. Lange

Many critics do not esteem Hemingway’s novel To Have and Have Not as one of his better novels. J. Donald Adams specifically stated that the novel fails to invoke any mental growth or understanding of life and, therefore, is an empty book. This paper challenges this claim by taking a closer look at Harry Morgan’s revelation, in which he discovers that no man can make it alone, and examines how it resonates throughout many Hemingway works. The paper focuses on the themes presented in Harry’s revelation specifically in To Have and Have Not, The Sun Also Rises, For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Old Man and the Sea, and in Hemingway’s Nobel Prize speech. Harry’s revelation thus redeems To Have and Have Not as a novel that merits greater critical respect.

Woman Transfigured: Sylvie and Ruth in Marilynn Robinson’s Housekeeping

Sarah K. Johnson

Used repeatedly throughout Marilyn Robinson’s Housekeeping, the word “transfiguration” differs slightly from the biblical definition. In Housekeeping, a living person transfigures into a dead one. Through a close analysis of the use of “transfiguration,” I have discovered that Sylvie physically transfigures into Helen, Sylvie’s sister and Ruthie’s mother, who committed suicide when Ruthie was very young. Helen’s death functions as absolute abandonment of Ruthie, and this abandonment initiates a crippling identity crisis in Ruthie. Through a close exploration of how Helen’s death causes both the transfiguration of Sylvie and the abandonment of Ruthie, how the transfiguration is physical rather than mental, and how Sylvie becomes a glorified being, we discover that Sylvie transfigures in order to reverse the abandonment of Ruthie. This “unabandonment” provides Ruthie with a longed-for sense of both belonging and identity. “Transfiguration’s” use in Housekeeping thus illuminates the healing power of both change and feminine relationships.

The Beauty, the Beast, and the Subverted Fairy Godmother Figure

Sarah A. Brown

There are several adaptations of The Beauty and the Beast, but three in particular are intriguing because of their use of a dark female force. The goddess Diana in the film La Belle et la Bête (Cocteau), Bertha Mason in the novel Jane Eyre (Brontë), and Mrs. Bates in the film Psycho (Hitchcock) all qualify as subverted fairy godmothers in their respective tales because of their role as “other,” their exertion of the female gaze, and their ability to undermine the Belle and Beast figures’ ability to love. Though traditional fairy godmothers utilize magic to aid the protagonists, these adaptations incorporate nontraditional, subverted fairy godmothers to revolutionize the role of fairy godmothers and fairy tales in society.

The Man Who Would Be King: Consolidation of Power in Shakespeare's Plays

Maddie Holbrook

Shakespeare argues through his Roman plays that the consolidation of power in a single leader creates a more stable and prosperous nation than any other kind of government. He repeatedly demonstrates throughout Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra that when people attempt to share power, they begin fighting amongst themselves and destabilize the nation they're supposed to protect. Shakespeare does not attempt to conceal the flaws of leaders; indeed, he takes pains to reveal the worst of each individual ruler. However, the fact that these highly flawed leaders are still shown to rule a prosperous and stable country than their more democratic peers suggests that Shakespeare believed strongly that any kind of single leader, no matter how flawed, is infinitely preferable to shared power.

Clashing Modernities: Comparing Treatment of Immigrants in Japanese Internment Camps to Potential Muslim Registry Using Toshio Mori’s The Brothers Murata

Jennifer J. Rollins

Poe’s Gothic Soul in Metzengerstein: An Invitation to Look Inside

Elizabeth C. Peek

The following paper examines Poe’s affair with German tradition, particularly gothic and romantic writing, through an analysis of his short story “Metzengerstein.” This short story is not only rich with the conventions of gothic fiction, but also rings with an autobiographical tone. The added piece of Poe himself in this text implies his own gothic origins. I argue that Poe was a natural romantic, with the purpose of bringing his own terror to a larger audience. The German gloom in “Metzengerstein” was authentic, not an imitation. I come to the conclusion that Poe’s production of literary horror—in the face of horrific circumstances—functioned as an antidote for his own life and an invitation for other disturbed authors.

Conversation in Woman in the Nineteenth Century: A Tool Used to Prepare Units for Union

Camille Pay

In the 1840s, Margaret Fuller’s Woman in the Nineteenth Century was dismissed because of the conversational tone with which Fuller wrote. Since then, critics have tied Fuller’s effort at a conversational tone to her desire for her audience to see the purpose of self-culture in completing an individual’s sense of self. However, examining the history behind Fuller’s conversational tone as well as the dialog Fuller embeds in her text shows that conversation is an application of one’s self-culture, as well as a mode to becoming an integral part of society, thus a “unit that is prepared for union.” When all individuals, male and female, are free to use conversation as a means of education and practice, divisions that promote inequality are closed as male and female individuals have an equal opportunity to become a contributing member of society.

Falling into Kingship: Bolingbroke's Slide into Power in Richard II

Tammy A. Lewis

In this paper, I will propose that there are three bodies of power present in Shakespeare’s Richard II. The first two bodies present, the body politic and the body natural, were introduced by Ernst Kantorowicz in opposition to Carl Schmitt’s Political Theology. The third body introduced is the pseudo body, which is a temporary body used by the body politic to depose the body natural. I will argue that Richard’s actions allow Bolingbroke to become the pseudo body through the backing of the body politic. And that Bolingbroke’s role as the pseudo body enables him to become the king.

Mary Magdalene’s Key, The Witch, and the Parted Wardrobe Female Sexuality and the Occult in Joyce’s “Clay” and Lawrence’s “Tickets, Please”

Nicholas N. Montes

Because both James Joyce and D. H. Lawrence found themselves caught in the trap of a war torn world, new sexuality, the Nietzschean death of God and Religion, and a mass reading public audience being fed the stuff of consumerism, their short stories “Tickets, Please” and “Clay” deal with these shifts occultly in carefully selected symbols, and for Joyce, in puns. Ironically, they discovered this coping mechanism embedded symbolically in the Occult itself and in a Christianity reborn of the blood of sexuality—and for Joyce, drunken Christ figures. In this vein of discovery “Mary Magdalene’s Key, The Witch, and the Parted Wardrobe: Female Sexuality and the Occult in Joyce’s ‘Clay’ and Lawrence’s ‘Tickets, Please’” explores how both Joyce and Lawrence use Mary Magdalene figures (Annie Stone from “Tickets, Please” and Maria from “Clay”) to subvert the established authority of men and discover power over fallen Christ figures. This argument is based in a conversation assuming that both Joyce and Lawrence were responding to similar forces at play in post-Victorian society from parallel but dissimilar angles. Lawrence felt threatened and perhaps fearfully excited by the hypothesis of a society dominated by empowered women and portrays them as tending towards bouts of vengeful sadism followed by inevitable weakness and failure. Joyce, more amused and driven by his own sexual desires than Lawrence, was more ambivalent in his portrayal of women as necessarily empowered, but witch-like in their inability to rise above hegemony conventionally.

Light and Blindness: Decoding Truth in Macbeth

Julia K. Larsen

This paper discusses the uses of vanishing point (the point on the horizon at which objects become unseen) and light in Justin Kurzel’s 2015 adaptation of Macbeth, and how those two filmic strategies contribute to understanding the nature of Truth in the play. Kurzel uses limiting vanishing points and light that blinds rather than illuminates to create visual irony, thus illustrating Macbeth’s and others’ misconceptions about Truth and the dangers of relying on one’s own interpretation of Truth. Furthermore, these techniques reveal the blinding and binding nature of the witches’ prophecy, and create parallels between Macbeth and Macduff, and Fleance and Malcolm that suggest the continuation of similar events beyond the ending of the narrative. By limiting the sight of both the viewer and the characters, Kurzel explores the complicated nature of Truth and the dangers of its interpretation.

The Shadow’s Symphony: Archetypal Awakening in Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring

Rebekah M. Hood

Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring is often hailed as the genesis of a new, abrasive, aesthetic—the clarion call for the modernist movement. While the performance certainly appeals to the modernist ideal of fragmentation with its un-balletic dancers, jarring meter, and dissonant sounds, The Rite’s detachment from intention and convention creates a purely visceral effect that startles the audience. This archaic effect stimulates an encounter with the Shadow, a Jungian archetype that embodies the darkness of human character and evokes primal images that lay hidden within the collective unconsciousness. While the Shadow is indeed troubling, The Rite urges the audience to embrace the archetype, as well as its potential to enrich a world that is unfettered from convention.