Someday My PhD will come . . .

So, speaking of Shakespeare . . . I've finally taken some time to get to work on my research paper, one of the many requirements for my grad school applications. I went through King Lear and made a note of every time the word "nature," "natural," or "unnatural" appeared (along with "Nature," "disnatured," etc.). According to the spreadsheet I put together, there are approximately 40 instances of those words in the play — insignificant? coincidence? I think not. But the interesting thing is that it's not just talking about, say, Mother Nature, or just human nature: it's about the natural affection a child should have for a parent, the natural role of royalty, a "natural" child meaning illegitimate, and so on and so on.

Anyway, I need to get to work on it, but I'm not exactly sure how the paper is going to come together. I think I can probably argue that the differences in how the words are used actually come together to form a central theme. Another theme that I think is interesting — but which, I'm sure, has been adequately covered by other writers — is the spoken attitude of characters toward Deity and Justice (along with the apparent attitudes of Deity toward the characters). So one idea I have is to discuss the failures of "nature," in the many ways it is perceived by the characters of the play, and the ways in which divine justice does or does not compensate for those failings.

Anyway, meanwhile I also have to worry about choosing schools to apply to, two GREs to worry about, letters to write for each school, CVs to prepare, and transcripts to request (not to mention the money required for the majority of those). So I'm quite busy.

At any rate, I'm back on my blog! (Maybe I'll do it again sometime.)