indeed the simple fact that man must die. Herbert J. Muller There should be two kinds of words, knowing and awareness. We know death, but the only way to know short of dying is to drive the nail in as far as it will go through poetry. Mark Van Doren My The inception of this comparative study of drama came during the concurrence of my undergraduate course in Shakespeare and a course in Greek, in which the text was Sophocles' Antigone. major paper that year was a study of "The Tragedy of Revolt" as shown in the Greek Prometheus and Antigone compared with the Elizabethan Coriolanus and Hamlet. The excitement engendered by that study under the stimulating guidance of Professor Martha Hale Shackford has remained a strong motive force throughout my intellectual work, as well as influencing the travels I have undertaken and the courses I teach. The subject of the representation of death in drama has long seemed to me a point of great interest for comparison. Its impact is engendered partly by its intrinsic emotional impact, and partly by a certain inner tension which has been well expressed by Sigmund Freud in his essay entitled, "Thoughts on War and Death."1 He discusses the way in which life is impoverished by modern man's avoidance of the thought of death, and he develops the theory that, while our expressed reactions are colored by our cultural background and individual training, our subconscious attitudes are still primitive and largely unchanged from age to age. To follow this theme through the work of three such diverse dramatists has been an absorbing work. At this time I would like to acknowledge the guidance of my committee; the experienced counsel of Miss Jeanette Eaton, biographer and stylist, and the encouragement and practical accictance 01 |