Seth Dumas
eNotes Educator
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22
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27
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About
I'm a human being first, writer second. I love using words to craft beautiful sentence sounds. I'm a first-year graduate student at UT's Michener Center for Writers, studying fiction and screenwriting. I'm exploring the inexhaustible variety of life.
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This badge is awarded to all eNotes Educators. Only official Educators can answer students' questions on our site. Educators are teachers, professional researchers, and scholars who apply to our...
Recent Activity
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Answered a Question in Twelfth Night
Truth be told: nobody's a hero, nobody's perfect, and everyone is infatuated. There aren't any real differences between the characters that are owed to gender; differences in motive, however, play... -
Answered a Question in A Separate Peace
Finny is the one who invents the Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session. To become a member in the first place, you have to jump out of the tree (once) and into the river below. Finny and Gene... -
Answered a Question in A Separate Peace
In many ways A Separate Peace is about the loss of innocence through Gene's actions against Finny, which naturally cause a great deal of guilt within him. It's a coming of age story, and as Gene... -
Answered a Question in Romeo and Juliet
Romeo is in love with Juliet, or at least claims to be. Their love, however, is problematic in the sense that Romeo has only recently been enthralled with another woman, Rosaline. It wouldn't be... -
Answered a Question in A Midsummer Night's Dream
The rising action of A Midsummer Night's Dream is pretty straightforward, though we follow three separate groups throughout the play. At the beginning we meet the lovers—Helena, Hermia, Lysander,... -
Answered a Question in A Separate Peace
One of the most significant aspects of Finny's death actually revolves around Gene's transformation into Phineas. He states earlier in the novel that he realized his purpose in life was to become a... -
Answered a Question in A Separate Peace
Although there is no specific reason why Finny's name is significant, we do know that it's short for Phineas, and we're also never given his last name. It seems that John Knowles' objective in only... -
Answered a Question in A Separate Peace
Finny is the Devon school's star athlete. If we're speaking about his work ethic as an athlete and as a socialite among his peers, Finny's at the top of his game, no pun intended. He breaks the... -
Answered a Question in A Separate Peace
This is a lovely proposal with many possibilities. Let's get into some ideas a thesis statement on A Separate Peace might involve. For one, what do we think about the nature of the relationship... -
Answered a Question in Doctor Faustus
There are multiple reasons why Faustus chose the path of destruction, both internal and external. Internally, Faustus was dissatisfied with his studies in divinity, with waiting around for the... -
Answered a Question in Doctor Faustus
Well, Dr. Faustus is a human with the ability to choose good or evil, while Lucifer is the devil incarnate, and in this particular play he is portrayed as absolutely evil and unforgiving. Dr.... -
Answered a Question in Doctor Faustus
It's perhaps difficult to know Marlowe's true motives, since there is much speculation that he was an atheist who did not believe in God, nor hell. But the play itself seems to serve as a universal... -
Answered a Question in Doctor Faustus
Faustus' hesitancy is likely not a strength of his, per se, but it does reveal the inner turmoil that Faustus deals with when deciding which decision will ultimately bring him the most fulfillment.... -
Answered a Question in Doctor Faustus
The most significant decision that Faustus makes is his decision to sell his soul to Lucifer in exchange for twenty-four years of the demon Mephistopheles' dedicated service. Faustus wants to... -
Answered a Question in Doctor Faustus
Despite the fact that Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus is ultimately a tragedy, much of the first half of the play (and some of the latter) are driven by dark comedy. Faustus is both...