The revival of evangelical Christianity encouraged the reinterpretation of Scripture, pushed for abolitionist action, and emphasized the importance of freedom in both faith and republicanism. As a sort of formulaic strategy to impact sentimentalism in readers, Hannah More and other female writers invoked a compassion in their writing that men were wary of approaching within their own writing. Additionally, More used her writing to rebrand Christianity with an emphasis on moral purity, yet her evangelical beliefs and traditional definitions of liberty limited her ability to vie for women’s rights.

Written for Revolt and Rebellion.

William Blake’s “The Tyger” (1794) asks more than just about a Christian God – it reminds readers to question their own creators: those who hold power in, and thus inform, their lives. Blake uses biblical rhetoric to capture attention, asks questions to hold it, and leaves readers in doubt, or at least prepared to think about joining Blake in question.

Written for Revolt and Rebellion.

In revolt, does convincing rhetoric hold more weight than substantial, worthy ideas? Who do you listen to when you fail? In Paradise Lost, John Milton provides an opportunity to witness the aftermath of a failed revolution: the weariness of the rebel angels, the persuasive rhetoric of those in power, and how easy it is to fall into a “manufactured consent,” even within a group of revolutionaries hoping to live in a more equal society than before.

Written for Revolt and Rebellion.

In A Place for Humility, Christine Gerhardt writes that “nothing is too small to merit poetic recognition” when expressing Emily Dickinson’s ability to bring attention to small details of Nature (36). Using Henry Adams’ The Education of Henry Adams, Gerhardt’s A Place forHumility, Susan Howe’s My Emily Dickinson, Robert Kern’s Birds of a Feather: Emily Dickinson, Alberto Manguel, and the Nature Poet’s Dilemma, and Cynthia Griffin Wolff’s Emily Dickinson, I analyze how Dickinson forces readers to pay attention to the smallest parts of life, showcases the amorality of Mother Nature, and finds respect for the chaotic interconnectedness of the world.

Written for Nature Poetry.

Nella Larsen’s Passing (1929) delves into the psychological state of its protagonist Irene Redfield as her world is upended by an unexpected person: her old friend Clare Kendry, who passes as a white woman. Irene develops a curious interest in the otherness of Clare, while also looking down on her choice to reject her identity as a black woman. She resents Clare’s ability to act riskily and cowers at the person inside herself that Clare’s presence draws out: “Irene passed a hand over her eyes to shut out the accusing face in the glass before her” (597). Clare’s colorful and wild energy contrasts with Irene’s desire for control and safety, yet in order to protect that security, Irene ends up mirroring the darker qualities she projects onto Clare.

Written for American Modernists.

Moore’s thesis of a title argues that “The Mind Is an Enchanting Thing,” and she proves it by illustrating how the friction between dueling concepts in the mind is what gives it its enchanting power in the first place. Both the mind and the poem hold in fluctuating tension magic and logic, certainty and possibility, and structure and inconsistency.

Written for American Modernists.

After the sudden death of his sister, Henry Adams must for the first time grapple with his mortality. He introduces this experience as “the last lesson--the sum and term of education” (241).

Written for American Modernists.

Emily Dickinson and Elizabeth Bishop both searched for an answer to the question of home: Dickinson from her house in Amherst and Bishop from multiple countries and states. Though searching in different ways, one self-secluded in her family house traveling only by imagination, the other lacking her own physical house so traveling the world instead, the two poets were able to find a type of home within their writing.

Written for Dickinson and Bishop.

The very absence of female characters in William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, in conjunction with the depiction of Miranda, exposes the play’s perspective on the idea of gender and on a 'proper' woman’s expected behavior. The play expresses the inferiority and objectification of women through an emphasis on the importance of their purity, chastity, and obedience, despite including Miranda’s occasional untraditional behavior.

Written for Literary Theory.

Using psychoanalytic theory, I examine how Victor’s mother’s early death, his inability to fill the void she left, and his unconscious jealousy and anger towards Elizabeth Lavenza, his cousin and quasi-sister, negatively influence his personality and compel him to build his creature, whose actions mirror the repressed desires of his id. 

Written for Literary Theory.