Date of Award
1973
Document Type
Thesis
Publication Status
Version of Record
Submission Date
October 2026
Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]
Stewart, Gwendolyn O.
Abstract
Browning' s most important concern in The Ring and the Book: is to explore the concept of heroism as it applies to modern man. This interest is manifested in the book's three priest-heroes representing three ages of man and three categories of knighthoods young, virile Caponsacchi, the fledgling Green Knight; the intellectual old Pope, an innocent White Knight; and the poised poet, the involved Red Knight of middle years. The central chapters of this paper, delineating the trials of these three knights, assess them as heroes and determine the relationship of the portraits of Caponsacchi and The Pope to the poet, while the conclusion summarizes the evolution of Browning's heroic ideal: the balanced, out-going man continually striving to encourage human communication and progress as opposed to the vain Renaissance prophet, the "overreacher," whose utilitarian excesses Mario Praz sees in nineteenth-century Comtean positivism and twentieth-century Fordism.
Extent
112 p.
Recommended Citation
REMILLARD, LEANORA A., "HEROES IN ROBERT BROWNING'S "THE RING AND THE BOOK": PRIEST, POPE, AND POET" (1973). Electronic Theses and Dissertations 1970 - 1979. 192.
https://digitalcommons.fau.edu/etd_general_2/192
Identifier
FADT13617
Comments
Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters|Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1973.|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters