Commonplaces, Aristophanes, and Clouds in Hamlet

Aristophanes on Tragedy

Fifty years before Aristotle wrote his Poetics, Aristophanes had devoted two comedies, Thesmophoriazusae (411) and Frogs (405), to the subject of tragedy. In both plays the plot shows the education of the main character in the nature of tragedy. Euripides learns in Thesmophoriazusae that he must present noble and not base women in his dramas. His depiction of perverse women in the theatre had m...

The Ionian at Aristophanes

Rhetorics of environmental sustainability: commonplaces and places

Although a rhetoric of sustainability is now widely used by government, nongovernmental organisations, and business in addressing the public, there is no evidence of a broad shift of behaviour in response to it. Yet most sustainability programmes at international, national, and local levels require broad public participation if they are to reach their goals. We argue that organisational communi...

Gertrude's Role in Hamlet

Typically, Gertrude's character in productions of Hamlet has been limited by her guilt and sexuality. However, lacking the social and political conventions that confined Elizabethan England, it would seem that there is another possible interpretation of Hamlet's mother. Degree Type Open Access Senior Honors Thesis Department English Language and Literature First Advisor Craig Dionne

Defining the Comic Plot: Genre and Storytelling in Aristophanes