Are Elesin's final actions before the ritual suicide, procrastination? Is there textual evidence that supports the idea that he didn't want to die?

I actually do think that Elesin wanted to kill himself. 
He also was naturally a little conflicted about it.  Who would really want to die?  He
tries to live life while he can, and so he marries for one
night. 

Elesin shows both resignation and fear when he
realizes the horse and dog have been killed and he is next.  However he seems truly
disturbed when he is unable to kill himself.  He is angry and talks about honor.  He is
honor bound to kill himself.  He is definitely sad when he learns that his son, whom he
thought was both Europeanized and honoring his roots, kills himself.  Then Elesin
manages to strangle himself with the chains and do his duty.

How is the creature a tragic hero?

The answer to your question greatly depends upon whose
definition of a tragic hero you adhere to.

According to
Aristotle, a tragic hero must possess the following ideals/characteristics: noble statue
and possess greatness, occupy a high position and embody virtue, be considered great
(but not perfect), the downfall is the fault of the hero, misfortune is not completely
brought about by their own actions, their fall increases self-discovery, the hero's fall
does not leave the audience (or reader)
depressed.

According to Shakespeare, (in addition to
adherence to Aristotle's characteristics) a tragic hero must possess the following
ideals/characteristics: downfall due to pride, doomed from the start, typically a leader
(or king), suffering must be for a reason, tragic hero is typically
male.

Therefore, based upon these characteristics defined
by both Aristotle and Shakespeare, Frankenstein's monster would not be considered a
tragic hero if all of the characteristics are used to define him as
such.

On the other hand, the monster does possess some of
the characteristics which define a tragic hero: misfortune is not brought on solely by
the monster (Victor is responsible), he is doomed from the start, and is suffering for a
reason.

Knowledge is usually a source of strength, but how does it turn out to be a weakness in the title character of Christopher Marlowe's play Doctor...

You haven't asked a question, but I am assuming you are
looking for reaction to this statement.

Doctor Faustus
achieved supreme wisdom through his deal with the devil. Possession of great knowledge
would normally be perceived as being a strength, and certainly this was the expectation
that Dr. Faustus had in mind when he struck his agreement with Lucifer. Through the
play, Dr. Faustus uses his incredible powers to conjure individuals and events that
amaze those around him, but that also challenge the morality of his
actions.

Unrepentant, Faustus continues to use his
incredible powers to explore history and the world, compounding his misuse of his powers
by adding to the number of incidents in which he ignores opportunities to use his
knowledge for good. In the end, the actions allowed by the super-natural knowledge of
Doctor Faustus condemn him to the weakness of being powerlessness to save himself from
eternal damnation.

What are some repetitive patterns or sequences in Ethan Frome?Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

While others are present, there are two strong patterns in
Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome:  The passage from and to the Frome
homestead and the pattern of illness that Ethan's mother begins, Zeena continues, and,
finally, Mattie assumes.

Interestingly, the narrator, who
is an engineer, hires Ethan Frome to transport him to Corbury Junction where he is sent
to troubleshoot.  One day this narrator leaves one of his biochemistry books on the seat
of the wagon and Frome skims through it.  However, Frome tells the narrator, "There are
things in that book that I didn't know the first word about," indicating his lost
opportunities for his own hope of becoming an engineer when he stopped his own studies
because of his mother's illness, an illness severe enough to keep Ethan in Starkfield as
a caregiver. 

Zeena Pierce, an older cousin, comes to help
care for Mrs. Frome.  When his mother dies, Ethan is so lonely in the winter that he
impulsively asks Zeena to marry him.  Somehow, then, she becomes ill and is the second
invalid for whom Ethan must care. When Mattie Silver, a relative of Zeena's, comes to
care for Zeena, the pattern of caretakers is repeated.  Then, after the failed attempt
at dual suicide, it is, ironically, Zeena who returns to the role of caretaker and
Mattie who then becomes the invalid.

Just as there is a
circular futility to the role of caretaker, so, too, is there an unending circle of
futile trips to Starkfield and other locations that terminate in the despairing return
to the Frome home.  For instance, Ethan ventures out into the world to study
engineering, but must return home as caregiver; he drives the narrator to Corbury
Junction, but returns home; on several occasions he transports Mattie, but when he
considers leaving Zeena, he realizes that he cannot afford to do so, and even when he
and Mattie try to escape through death, they are returned home.  Never does there seem
to be any passage out of Starkfield and the Frome homestead. 

How did the split between the sensibilities affect thoughts about the role or nature of the body in Renaissance literature?

The human body figures as a topic in many literary texts
from the English Renaissance. Although it is difficult to generalize about such a broad
issue, especially as it appears in so many different texts, it may be useful to comment
on a few specific instances.

• The body was often
  contrasted with the soul, and the soul was typically considered superior to the body. At
  the very end of Henry Howard’s tribute to the dead Sir Thomas Wyatt, for example, Howard
  proclaims that while the earth possesses only Wyatt’s “bones, the heavens possess his
  ghost [that is, his spirit]” (38). The body inevitably died, but the soul was capable of
  living forever. As the speaker of sonnet 79 of Edmund
  Spenser’s Amoretti puts
  it,

readability="9">

. . . onely that is permanent and
free

From frayle corruption, that doth flesh ensew [that
is, outlast]
(7-8)

• The body was
  often considered the source of many impulses and temptations that conflicted with
  Christian ideals of the period. The male speakers in many Renaissance sonnets, for
  instance, are driven by their own bodily desires to want to possess merely the
  attractive, ephemeral bodies of women rather than valuing those women for their truly
  beautiful souls and characters. Thus, in sonnet 52 of Sir Philip
  Sidney’sAstrophil and Stella sonnet sequence, Astrophil is
  foolishly willing to dispense with Stella’s soul in order that he and Cupid may possess
  her “body” (14). Sidney clearly mocks this choice.


• The
  body was mortal and mutable, but the beauty of the body could be preserved in several
  ways, including marriage and reproduction and also including celebration by a talented
  poet. Both of these ways of passing on beauty are extolled in sonnet 18 of Shakespeare’s
  sonnets.


• Although mere lust for another’s body was
  condemned, physical love for (and with) another person was approved, as long as that
  love was true love, rooted in a prior love of God, and as long as that love was
  sanctioned in holy matrimony. This kind of love seems to be praised, for instance, in
  John Donne’s poem “The Good Morrow” (among many other works). Love of another’s body was
  permissible as long as it was the result of prior love of that person’s soul. Thus, in a
  memorable line from John Donne’s poem “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning,” the speaker
  says that if he and his beloved can maintain their spiritual connection, they will “Care
  less, eyes, lips, and hands to miss” if they happen to be physically separated (20).
  Notice that the speaker does not say that they will not miss each
  other physically at all; they will simply miss each other “less” in that way than if
  their connection were merely and completely physical. People whose affections are rooted
  merely in fleshly attraction

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. . . cannot
admit

Absence, because it [that is, absence] doth
remove

Those things [the flesh] which elemented it [their
attraction]

• The
  death of another person’s body could produce great grief in the Renaissance, even though
  people of this period strongly believed that the soul survived the body. Thus, in Ben
  Jonson’s poem “On My First Son,” Jonson realizes intellectually and spiritually that his
  little boy’s soul still lives, despite the death of the boy’s body, but the latter kind
  of death nevertheless produces great grief.


• Ideally,
  then, in the Renaissance the body and soul were expected to be in harmony, not in
  conflict, with the soul clearly superior to the body and in control of
  it.

What does Macduff reveal to Macbeth?macbeth's reaction...

Macbeth is feeling confident because he has been given the
prophecy that man born of woman cannot kill him. This prophecy gives Macbeth the courage
to go to battle against Malcolm and macduff. Macbeth even brags or boasts to Macduff
that man born of woman cannot kill him:

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You’re wasting your efforts.
You may as
easily slice the air that cannot be cut
With your keen sword as make me
bleed.
Let your blade fall on weaker heads;
I have a charmed life,
which must not yield
To one given birth to by a
woman.

Upon hearing
this, Macduff becomes a bit boastful himself. Macduff reveals in a triumphant manner
that he himself was not born of woman:

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Lose hope of your charm;
And let the
genius whom you still have served
Tell you, Macduff was from his mother's
womb
Delivered by caesarean
section.

When Macduff reveals
this bit of information to Macbeth, one can imagine all the color flowing out of
Macbeth's face. He is immediately in fear of Macduff. He had not thought about the
possibility of Macduff being born of cesarean birth.

Macbeth loses his confidence. He realizes he is about to
die at the hand of Macduff. Macduff will have his revenge for Macbeth killing or
having Macduff's family killed. Macbeth's courage fled as he faced combat with Macduff.
Macbeth became a coward. He lost all confidence in the prophecies that actually
destroyed him. Macbeth declares he will not
fight Macduff:

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Curse you for telling me that,
Because
it has intimidated my better part of man!
And let these deceitful fiends be
believed no more,
That trick us with double meanings,
That keep the
word of promise to our ears,
And break it to our hopes! I will not fight with
you.

Macduff will not take no
for an answer. He will have his revenge. He separates Macbeth's head from his shoulders
and carries the head triumphantly to show it to Malcolm.

Why is The Song of Roland called the national epic of France?

Just as Beowulf is the oldest
surviving poem written in English, so also The Song of Roland
(Chanson de Roland) is the oldest surviving poem written
in French. Also like Beowulf, The Song of Roland
is the tale of hero who performs great acts of
courage.

The Song of Roland is the
national epic of France not simply because it is written in French, however. Unlike
Beowulf, which although written in English does not have an English hero, Roland is a
thoroughly French hero. He is the nephew of Charlemagne, leader of the Franks and future
Holy Roman Emperor.

The story is set during a battle
between the Franks and the Saracens (Arabs). Roland has the fatal flaw of hubris, or
excessive pride. When the troops he commands are attacked from the rear, he refuses to
blow the horn to call Charlemagne to come to their rescue because it would bring
dishonor to him as a knight. After nearly all his men are killed, Roland is finally
persuaded to blow the alarm, and he blows the horn so hard that blood vessels in his
head burst, causing his death. Charlemagne does come to the rescue and defeats the
Saracens, but too late to save his nephew.