Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

1979

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Collins, Robert A.

Abstract

The collapse of a viable world concept of order leaves John Ford's characters with a modern problem--how to behave without demonstrable and reliable principles upon which to base their actions. The individualists among them try to establish order by mere affirmation of opinion. Other personae cling to the sacred, conservative value of the vow or contract, and are either the agents or the victims of the gulf between their avowed principles and the pragmatic demands of a "corrupt" world. Many characters also attempt to find reassurance in the predictable patterns of ritual behavior, only to discover the inefficacy of such ritual to protect them from or console them for a personal loss of meaning in their world. Ford's characters become "existential" figures, even though the models they adopt are often relics of the past (vows, rituals) which they must simply affirm, by their performances, bereft of the metaphysical support they might once have had.

Extent

42 p.

Comments

Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters|Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1979.|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters

Identifier

FADT13980

Format

pdf

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