Time management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Time management - Essay Example INTRODUCTION A lot of people often say and wish they had more time. Time is something that is always out of our reach. We need time like we need water and air. But we can never get enough of it. But is this really true? Or is it just we have time but we don’t know how to make the most of it? We have 24 hours a day, 168 hours in a week and about 480 hours a month less 8 hours of average sleep. We just need to manage it properly and make the most of it. TIME MANAGEMENT Considering our time, we have to balance it to 3 major factors namely work, family and pleasure. We see our work differently. To some people, work is drudgery which is a necessary evil (Koscec, n.d.). To others, work means fame and fortune, or a life’s mission and contribution of love (Koscec, n.d.). These differences on how we see work will affect us on how we do our work. Some people see work as joy, as a monotony, and as an escape. But work should truly become love for our family made visible (Koscec, n. d.). This is the means to support them, the means to send the children to school and even to provide their wants. Thus, it is very important to manage our time to do our job effectively. Many people consider family as the one of the most important things in life. However, there are a lot of times that people cannot manage time effectively that they cannot spend more quality time with their families. This greatly affects family relationship. It is very hard to choose which one to prioritize over the other. But I believe that we don’t need to choose, we just need to know how to manage. Aside from family and work, we also have issues on our personal time for leisure and enjoyment. This is the time that we pamper ourselves after all the stress that we got from work or life. Sometimes, we really need to have a good break from all the stress or even just a short time to please ourselves. Guys usually go to the gym or have good drink and poker night with friends. Women usually pampe r themselves to the spa and go shopping. The question is, do we still have time for all of this? Yes, we do. And this is the reason of this paper. Time management is the art of arranging, organizing, scheduling, and  budgeting  one’s time for the purpose of generating more effective work and productivity (www.wisegeek.com, What is Time Management?). Since we live in a busy world, we need time management to do all our tasks and responsibilities. A lot of researches, books, magazines are dedicated to provide the people steps on how to manage their time. It is very important to all of us to be able to manage our time. Our work, family and our happy selves are all waiting for us to spend our time with them. Time Management at Work There are a lot of steps on how to start managing our time. It is just a matter of setting ourselves that we have to be responsible in following the steps and that it is for our own good. We may have a rough start but getting through the ways will m ake us realize the steps are just so easy to do. We just have to put our minds and hearts to it. Here are the steps to follow on how to manage our time at work. Step one, make a plan. According to Christina Crowe (n.d.), setting a time to plan out our day, whether it is going to be in the morning or later at night is a swift start. We should think about the most important tasks that need to get done and how to get them done. It will help to keep us focused on our tasks if we make a detailed plan.

Sociology of Cultural Differences Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Sociology of Cultural Differences - Assignment Example The two women believe true beauty and success is only attained by being western (Wong). It shows they lack confidence in themselves; thus, convincing them that they are beautiful and attractive they way they are, is an uphill task. Personally, I would not change anything about myself even if I had all the resources to do so. In as much as most people spend most of their time admiring their images in mirrors, beauty entails more than the outward appearance. I believe that success is not measured by the physical appearance of individuals. The yardstick for measuring success should be embedded on an individual’s educational background, talents and capabilities. Therefore, appreciating ourselves the way we are is beauty itself. In addition to that, e should not change our physical appearance to please people. Renee Thompson’s beauty, drive and walks are the essentials required for any model. In as much as the market does not favor her, she struggles to make her career in the modeling world (Haywood). The modeling world and industry considers modeling to be for whites, making Renee Thompson struggle despite her extraordinary beauty, style and glamour. If I were her, I would never give up modeling to look for another profession. I would fight to the end since I have all the profession demands. My drive would be to enlighten the stakeholders in the industry to give everybody a chance as well as stop racial stereotyping. I would make them understand that I did not choose to be born black; and that they should see me as a human being with modeling qualifications, not as a black

Robert F Kennedys Rhetoric

Robert F Kennedys Rhetoric The aim of this thesis is to conduct research into a selection from Robert F. Kennedys 1968 presidential election campaign speeches, in order to outline the key features of his utterances that earned him success in inspiring masses and frightened the power structure. One of the reasons I have decided to conduct research into Robert F. Kennedys rhetoric is personal. The speech given on the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. has drawn my attention to Robert Kennedys unique talent as a public speaker. The other reason is driven by the fact that there is a lack of literature directly discussing the aspects of Robert F. Kennedys rhetoric. With this work I want to demonstrate that the domain of Robert F. Kennedys rhetoric is one worthy to be explored and to suggest the topic for further research. In Chapter 3, entitled Corpus Description and Evaluation I describe the events and the target audiences of the analysed public addresses. In addition I also delineate the main linguistic aspects of the particular speeches and I explain in what terms the analysed material meets the research criteria. In Chapter 4 I describe political speech as an individual genre within the domain of political discourse. I also explain from what perspective Robert Kennedys selected addresses fall under the genre of political speech. I devote Chapter 5 to Robert Kennedys biography, character study and the historico-political background of the time for several reasons. During the analysis of the core research material I lay great emphasis on the contextual meaning (Firth 1957 in Downes 1998: 371) of Robert Kennedys utterances. Therefore I want to make the reader familiar with the context and the so called member resources (Fairclough 1989) within the discourse of Robert Kennedys selected addresses. Fairclough describes these member resources as prototypes which people have in their heads and draw upon when they produce or interpret texts including their knowledge of language, representations of the natural and social worlds they inhabit, values, beliefs, assumptions, and so on. [à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦] they are social in the sense that they have social origins they are socially generated, and their nature is dependent on the social relations and struggles out of which they were generated [à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦] (Fairclough 1 989: 24) I regard Chapter 6 as the body of the thesis. This is the reason why its title is identical with the title of the thesis. Within this chapter I devote separate subchapters to the discourse strategies and different aspects of Robert Kennedys rhetoric. I describe the ways of addressing the target audiences, the forms of interaction between Robert Kennedy and his audiences and the methods of confrontation of the target audiences. I examine the degree of Robert Kennedys subjectivity and personal involvement in the selected addresses and I also introduce to the reader the means of persuasion applied by Robert Kennedy and his rhetorical idiosyncrasies. Chapter 6 as the most complex and most extensive unit of the thesis is intended to provide information essential for answering the research questions formulated in the following chapter. 2 Research Objectives, Hypotheses and Methodology The main objective of the analysis of Robert Kennedys selected public addresses is to point out to what degree are his discourse strategies and rhetorical devices predetermined by factors like the topics covered, the speech events and the nature of the target audiences. According to Stanley Fish there are two ways of language that have shaped the history of Western thought: on the one hand, language that faithfully reflects or reports on matters of fact uncoloured by any personal or partisan agenda or desire; and on the other hand, language that is infected by partisan agendas and desires, and therefore colours and distorts the fact which it purports to reflect. It is the use of the second kind of language that makes one a rhetorician, while adherence to the first kind makes one a seeker after truth and an objective observer of the way things are. (Fish 1989 in Richards 2008:6-7) I will analyse the discourse strategies and the rhetorical devices in Robert Kennedys selected public addresses with an additional intention to prove that in terms by Fish he is a seeker after truth and an objective observer of the way things are. During the writing process I will concentrate my effort on answering the following research questions: Are the discourse strategies and rhetorical devices predetermined by the topic rendered by the speaker? Are the discourse strategies and rhetorical devices predetermined by the speech event and the nature of the target audience? I would like to build my hypothesis on Hallidays statement that all language functions in contexts of situation and is relatable to those contexts. The question is not what peculiarities of vocabulary, or grammar or pronunciation can be directly accounted for by reference to the situation. It is which kinds of situational factor determine which kinds of selection in the linguistic system. (Halliday 2009: 94) Through my research I will attempt to prove that Robert Kennedys rhetorical devices and discourse strategies in his selected utterances are predetermined by situational factors like the topic, the speech event and the nature of the target audience. I hereby underline that I will analyse the contextual meaning (Firth 1957 in Downes 1998) of Robert Kennedys utterances in order to substantiate my theory of predetermination. From the methodological perspective, I subject the research material to a qualitative political discourse analysis. I will conduct a critical reading of the transcripts of the selected public speeches and simultaneously listen to the audio recordings of the addresses in order to outline also those aspects of Robert Kennedys utterances which cannot be exposed only through the analysis of their transcripts. These are especially the paralinguistic features, like the tone of voice, intonation, gestures etc. The audio recordings will help me to clarify ambiguous situations where the question what is said? will not allow for any adequate judgements. In order to avoid lengthy repetitions of the titles of the selected speeches I have decided to deploy an indexing method. Therefore I will further refer to the University of Kansas address as Speech A, to the Remarks on the Assassination of Martin Luther King as Speech B and to the Cleveland City Club address as Speech C. Through the research I will refer to Robert Francis Kennedy as Robert Kennedy or RFK. The core research material has been selected according to the following research criteria: public speeches with a classical rhetorical organizational pattern public speeches delivered to target audiences of different nature addresses with various speech events addresses with various topics of moral values utterances free of partisan agendas In my work I predominantly rely on the following literature: The factual information for Robert Kennedys biography, character study and the historico-political background of the time I retrieve from Robert Kennedy and his Times (1985) written by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. and from RFK: His Life and Death (1968) written by Jay Jacobs. The book RFK: Collected Speeches (1993) edited and introduced by Edwin O. Guthman and C. Richard Allen contains valuable information about the events and the context of the selected public addresses. The theoretical knowledge for the analysis of the discourse strategies and rhetorical devices in Robert F. Kennedys selected public addresses I gain from the following works: Language and Power (1989) by Norman Fairclough is an especially useful source for critical discourse analysis as it contains several demonstrations of discourse analysis in practice. I use his model for the interpretation of the utterance meaning in the analysed material from the position of the analyst. I draw on his conception of the member resources within a discourse, which justifies my decision to introduce to the reader the historico-political context of the analysed material and some biographical facts about Robert F. Kennedy. Meaning in Interaction: an Introduction to Pragmatics (1995) by Jenny Thomas provides me with the theoretical knowledge to decipher the illocutionary forces and the implicit meanings of Robert Kennedys particular utterances. Through the analysis of the selected addresses in Chapter 6 I rely on her model of interpreting illocutionary forces to understand the meaning of Robert Kennedys utterances depending on their context. Language and Society (2009) by M.A.K. Halliday (edited by Jonathan J. Webster) furnishes me with the conceptions of the field, tenor and mode of the discourse, which allows me to identify, what is linguistically important in a given utterance in relation to its context. I build my hypotheses on Hallidays theory that external factors determine the individuals selections in the linguistic system. Through the whole analysis of the selected addresses in Chapter 6 I rely on the above theory to identify to what degree are Robert Kennedys utterances predetermined from a linguistic perspective by factors, like the topic rendered, the speech events and the nature of the target audiences. 3 Corpus Description and Evaluation The analysed resource material of this thesis consists of a selection of three significant speeches of Robert F. Kennedys public addresses during his 1968 presidential campaign. Namely, in chronological order, the speech from March 18th, given at the University of Kansas, the Remarks on the Assassination of Martin Luther King from April 4th, delivered in Indianapolis and the Remarks on the Mindless Menace of Violence in America, delivered at the Cleveland City Club on April 5th. I would like to start the corpus description with some quantitative statistics about the analysed material. The most extensive of the texts in subject is the University of Kansas address which consists of 3942 words and 17 386 characters without spaces, the second text, which is the transcript of remarks on Martin Luther Kings assassination is composed of 618 words, counting 2653 characters without spaces and the last one, the Cleveland City Club address comprises 1080 words and 4700 characters without spaces. In the following pages of this chapter I will describe the analysed texts individually. My description will predominantly focus on the context behind the public addresses, including a portrayal of the setting and the occasion. At the end of the chapter I will also explain the reasons for integrating these particular speeches into the research. The University of Kansas address (further referred to as Speech A, in abbreviated form: SA) was delivered by Robert F. Kennedy just two days after the announcement of his candidacy for the President of the United States. It was the second real public speech of his freshly started campaign. He came to Kansas with doubts about his popularity, since the state was largely rural with a conservative majority, where he, as a liberal and a critic of the military efforts in Vietnam, could not expect much affability. (Kennedy and Guthman and Allen, 1993: 323) To his and his staffs surprise, their warm reception at the campuses disproved their assumptions. With twenty thousand people present, Robert Kennedy drew the largest crowd in campus history. (Kennedy and Guthman and Allen, 1993: 327) He came to the university to talk to young people, the group of citizens his campaign program predominantly aimed at. The purpose of his speech was to express his viewpoint towards the situation within the c ountry and towards the War in Vietnam, to inform and confront his audience with the problems the country was facing and to persuade them to vote for him in the election. As usual when talking to young people he began his address with his famous self-deprecating humour to set a friendly atmosphere and create a positive relationship with the target audience before he moved on to sensitive topics. The points of his argument lined up in the following order: the polarization and violence within the country, the alarming conditions of poverty in certain areas of the country and the progress of the War in Vietnam. The way Robert Kennedy renders the above mentioned issues is descriptive, with linear organisation of the topics covered. The style of addressing his audience could be characterised as direct, confrontational and contemplative. Robert Kennedys interaction with the target audience is most noticeable in this address. This speech is argumentative and demonstrates a high degree of RFKs personal involvement as he frequently asserts his own beliefs, demands and opinion. The persuasive strategy through argument dominates the address. The Remarks on the Assassination of Martin Luther King (further referred to as Speech B, in abbreviated form: SB) was delivered in Indianapolis in the evening of April 4th 1968. RFK was heading for Indianapolis to give a speech to a mostly black American community in the city ghetto as a part of the rally. Before boarding the plane he was told that Martin Luther King had been shot in Memphis, Tennessee. Right after their plane landed he was informed that Martin Luther King had died of the injury. The crowd had been gathering for the rally in the ghetto for one hour before Robert Kennedy arrived. They were already fired up, albeit they could not have heard any official news about the assassination. Some of them were armed and violent. Robert Kennedy was advised by the police representatives not to go there, because they would not be able to defend him if mob violence broke out. RFK decided to face the danger and talk to his audience, thus taking up the unpleasant role to be the first to inform them about the death of Martin Luther King. Robert Kennedys words were meant from his heart. He alluded to the assassination of his brother. He alleviated the tension and literally tranquilized the audience. He asked the people to seek peace in their faith as a tribute to Martin Luther Kings legacy. On this occasion RFK spoke to an audience of mostly black people from the ghetto of the city. His tone of voice was moderate. Every single word of his utterance showed empathy and his personal involvement in the issue. He used simple, but at the same time delicate language and short sentences built up from sophisticated words. He managed to draw the audiences attention to terms like love, wisdom, understanding and compassion toward one another. His purpose was to shift the attitude of the crowd, to move and inspire them. He applied persuasion through emotions and through his own character. The style of the address is lyrical and emotional, obviously determined by the tragic event. This speech was built up solely from Robert Kennedys own words. It was delivered without a written template, only from the memory of RFKs own notes. For this reason this address shows several traits of extemporaneousness. As a reaction to Martin Luther Kings assassination the whole country was in flames that night, there were violent demonstrations, riots and boycotts initiated by African-American communities for revenge. In Indianapolis there were no significant protests registered. The Cleveland City Club Address (further referred to as Speech C, in abbreviated form: SC), was delivered by Robert Kennedy in Cleveland, Ohio on 5th April 1968. After the Indianapolis speech on Kings assassination, RFK cancelled his oncoming campaign appearances. (Kennedy and Guthman and Allen 1993: 358) However he was persuaded by some African-American community leaders to keep his address, scheduled for the next day at the Cleveland City Club and to make it a plea for ending the violence. (Kennedy and Guthman and Allen 1993: 358) RFK addressed his speech to a crowd of mostly white executives at the City Club. As usual, he conveyed his message in a moderate, soft tone of voice. The primary purpose of the speech was to express his concern about the violence in the country and to put the reasons for this growing violence in the country into focus. The overall organisation of the topics is associative. The content of the speech is confrontational and contemplative. The beginning and closing paragraphs are built up from merely simple sentences, while the core of the address consists of complex philosophical units. The style of RFKs utterance is emotive for he attempted to persuade the target audience through emotions and through his own reasoning. This is the most lyrical address of the given selection with numerous examples of figurative language. My decision to include in the research exactly these three public speeches of Robert F. Kennedy during his 1968 presidential campaign was determined by several factors. During the process of selection I took into consideration the previously formed research hypotheses. This approach directed me to choose speeches which adequately demonstrate to what extent were the rhetorical devices used predetermined by the target audience, the speech event and the topics covered in them. My first criterion was to select speeches that are organized according to the classical rhetorical pattern, that include introduction, argumentation and conclusion. Since all of the selected speeches are built on this pattern, they evidently meet the first criterion. The second criterion for the selection was the target audiences character. My firm intention was to analyse several of RFKs public addresses delivered to audiences of a different nature. With the given selection I managed to adhere to the plan. The speech at the University of Kansas was delivered to students, a community of young people the predominant target group of Robert Kennedys campaign. The remarks on the assassination of Martin Luther King addressed mostly black uneducated ghetto people of various age groups. The Cleveland City Club speech was given in front of mainly white executives of a higher social class. The above brief descriptions of the target audiences of the selected speeches indicate substantial heterogeneity from social perspective. The size differences between the audiences are also remarkable, with the University of Kansas crowd as the largest and the Cleveland City Club attendees as the smallest. The third criterion for the selection was the event of the particular speeches. Here I also attempted to seek variability in order to provide more objective evaluations of the rhetorical devices determined by the event of the utterance. The University of Kansas speech was an ordinary political speech during Robert Kennedys campaign rally. He covered the main points of his program: the divisions, the poverty and the War in Vietnam. He explained why he was running for the presidency and asked for the audiences support. The speech on Kings assassination was most affected by the occasion. Robert Kennedy could not deliver his pre-prepared speech instead he transformed the appearance into an honest tribute to Martin Luther Kings memory and legacy. The third speech, the Cleveland City Club address was still influenced by the happenings from the day before. Robert Kennedy again had to reformulate his initial message. Although he spoke about issues also included in his campaign proclamation, one can scarcely call his address an ordinary campaign speech. Not once he did mention his candidacy nor did he ask for any support directly. Briefly we can summarise the speech events as follows: an ordinary campaign rally at a university campus, an extemporaneous tribute to the legacy of an assassinated public leader in a city ghetto and a plea for reconciliation and non-violence in front of an audience of distinguished executives. The fourth and the most important criterion for the selection was the content of the individual speeches. Hereby I admit a relatively higher degree of subjectivity, since in this case the criterion was considerably conditioned by my own interpretation of the messages. I attempted to choose those addresses from Robert Kennedys 1968 campaign speeches which most of all prove the extraordinary phenomena of his rhetoric. The University of Kansas speech was selected for his involvement, objectivity and for the emphasis of moral obligation over material values. The lyricism and spiritualism and the calming effect of the carefully chosen words in the Remarks on the Assassination of Martin Luther King were all factors of great importance that determined my choice for this piece of rhetoric. The Cleveland City Club address is remarkable for Robert Kennedys concern about humanity. It is an emotive call for peace and reconciliation of mankind. I chose this utterance in addition to its many uniq ue qualities especially for the philosophic thoughts and prophetic words it communicates, which more than forty years later still appear to be relevant. The fifth criterion was to select speeches that are free of any partisan agendas and manifestations. Robert Kennedy in the selected addresses does not enforce any programs or any political ideologies he rather draws his audiences attention to the real conditions in the country which affect them all. Nonetheless he categorically distinguishes himself from hiding the truth in illusions and empty promises. I was lead by the above assumptions during the selection of the core research material. I hope the fact that the selected speeches evidently meet all the criteria defined justifies my choice.

Ritalin :: essays research papers

Ritalin Abstract Ritalin (Methylphenidate) is a mild CNS stimulant. In medicine, Ritalin's primary use is treatment of Attention Deficit /Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD). The mode of action in humans is not completely understood, but Ritalin presumably activates the arousal system of the brain stem and the cortex to produce its stimulant effect. Recently, the frequency of diagnosis for ADHD has increased dramatically. More children and an increasing number of adults are being diagnosed with ADHD. According to the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) (Bailey 1995), prescriptions for Ritalin have increased more than 600% in the past five years. Ritalin has a long history of controversy regarding side effects and potential for abuse, however it greatly benefits those with ADHD. Psychological effects of Ritalin Ritalin (Methylphenidate) is manufactured by CIBA-Geigy Corporation. It is supplied in 5 mg., 10 mg., and 20 mg. tablets, and in a sustained release form, Ritalin SR, in 20 mg. tablets. It is readily water soluble and is intended for oral use. It is a Schedule II Controlled Substance under both the Federal and Vermont Controlled Substance Acts. Ritalin is primarily used in the treatment of Attention Deficit/Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) (Bailey 1995). ADHD is a condition most likely based in an inefficiency and inadequacy of Dopamine and Norepinephrine hormone availability, typically occurring when a person with ADHD tries to concentrate. Ritalin improves the efficiency of the hormones Dopamine and Norepinephrine, increasing the resources for memory, focus, concentration and attention (Clark 1996). Ritalin has been used for more than 30 years to treat ADHD. Nervousness and insomnia are the most common adverse reactions reported, but are usually controlled by reducing dosage or omitting the afternoon or evening dose. Decreased appetite is also common but usually transient (Long 1996). According to Clark (1996), children, adolescents and adults diagnosed with ADHD usually report the following effects when successfully treated with Ritalin: †¢Improved concentration. †¢Better "focus". †¢Improved ability to complete their work. †¢Improved intensity of attention and longer attention span. †¢Reduced distractibility. †¢Reduced impulsivity. †¢Reduced restlessness and overactivity. †¢Improved patience. †¢More elaborate expressive vocabulary. †¢Better written expression and handwriting (especially in children). †¢An improved sense of "alertness". †¢Improved memory for visual as well as auditory stimuli. Ritalin's Effect on Neurotransmitter Systems Ritalin exhibits pharmacological activity similar to that of amphetamines. Ritalin's exact mechanism of action in the CNS is not fully understood, but the primary sites of activity appear to be in the cerebral cortex and the subcortical structures including the thalamus. Ritalin blocks the reuptake mechanism present in dopaminergic neurons. As a result, sympathomimetic activity in the central nervous system and in the peripheral nervous system increases. Ritalin-induced CNS stimulation produces a decreased sense of fatigue, an increase in motor activity and mental alertness, mild euphoria, and brighter

Performing Genders in a Streetcar Named Desire Essay

Tennessee Williams’ play A Streetcar Named Desire, considered as one of his most famous works, exposes the relationships between Stella and her sister, Blanche, who has come to visit her. Her arrival reveals the tensions in Stanley and Stella’s couple. Blanche quickly discovers that her sister’s life is not at all the life she believed it to be, and that her sister lives with a violent man, Stanley. But Stanley is not the only one who tries to hide his true identity. Indeed, Blanche’s arrival in New Orleans is not innocent. She tries to escape her bad reputation and comes with her deepest secrets. In this play, the protagonists perform a role to affirm their gender and hide their real true nature. This staging also aims at dramatizing the action of the play. Stella’s husband, Stanley, is the prefect representation of the violent and macho man. He does everything to be seen as a powerful man when citing Huey Long he tells Stella that †every Man is a King! And I am the king around here† (Williams, 77). As Koprince notes: Like most batterers, Stanley believes in male superiority†¦ [He] especially believes in male dominance within the institution of marriage. He is completely in charge of the Kowalski household, calling all the shots and expecting his wife’s acquiescence. (51) Stanley establishes a conjugal life in which his wife is not allowed to say what she wants as he growls: †don’t ever talk that way to me!† (77). However, Stanley is not only arrogant when he speaks to his wife, he also mistreats her. During the Poker Night, he first †crosses to the small white radio and snatches it off the table. With a shouted oath, he tosses the instrument out of the window† and then †charges Stella† (35). Stanley thus intimidates his wife and decreases her as Dutton an alyses: Physical assault may be accompanied by verbal abuse, psychological abuse†¦ This constellation of destructive actions more fully represents a continuum of coercive control and, some would argue, therefore constitutes the proper subject matter for a psychology of interpersonal violence. (6) In reality the way Stanley acts allows him to acquire power and control under Stella. She behaves exactly how Stanley wants her to react that is as a battered and dominated woman:   He [Stanley] didn’t know what he was doing†¦ He was as good as lamb when I [Stella] came back and he’s really very, very ashamed of himself. (41) According to Stanley, showing his feelings to his wife would be intolerable and is not the behavior a man has to adopt. Nevertheless, his violent behavior and the role that he performs convey the feelings he has for Stella. Indeed, he is afraid that his wife can leave him: Stanley: Stella! My baby doll’s left me! Eunice? I want my baby! Eunice! I’ll keep on ringin’ I talk with my baby! (37) Stanley: Stell-lahhhhh! (37) By saying †Eunice, I want my girl to come down with me!† (38), Stanley gets belligerent again and proves that primitive instincts animate him. Blanche, talking to his sister, highlights that Stanley †acts like an animal, has an animal’s habits!† (47). She also asserts that †there’s even something – subhuman- something not quite to the stage of humanity† (47) which implies that her brother-in-law performs the male role to the extreme. Besides, this extreme is reached when Stanley rapes Blanche telling her: †we’ve had this date with each other from the beginning!† (97). Thus this act reminds Blanche of her past of prostitute and reveals what Blanche tried to hide through her staging. Blanche performs the role of the fragile and the romantic woman in order to hide her deepest secrets. Through Stella’s eyes, Blanche appears as a sensitive woman (69) and has always to be complimented. She thus recommends Stanley to †admire [Blanche’s] dress and [to] tell [Blanche] she’s looking wonderful† (17). In this connection, Blanche also highlights that †[she] need[s] kindness† (39). Moreover Blanche’s sensibility is highlighted by her romanticism. She tells Mitch that she has †old-fashioned ideals† (63) and calls him †[her] Rosenkavalier† (57). Related to this idea, Cortade asserts: Blanche DuBois s’accroche aux derniers vestiges de romantisme qui appartiennent à   une autre à ©poque. (209) [Blanche DuBois stay emotionally attached to the relics of romanticism which belong to another time, my translation]. In a sense, Blanche’s romantic ideals allow her to play the role of a modern Emma Bovary. In the manner of Flaubert’s character, Blanche entertains hopes of escaping from reality through love. Blanche idealizes love and describing  the love she had for her husband, Allan, she says that †it was like you suddenly turned a blinding light on something that had always been half in shadow, that’s how it struck the world for me† (66). But like Emma Bovary who lost her lover Rodolphe and fell into depression, Blanche loses Allan and this loss overwhelms her completely. She thus behaves as a desperate woman and loses her mind. By qualifying Blanche as †a refined and particular type of girl†, Stanley unmasks her and reveals the reason why Blanche has to perform. Indeed Blanche stages in order to hide her past of prostitute. Stanley explains to Stella that †[Blanche] moved to the Flamingo! A second-class hotel which has the advantage of not interfering in the private social life of the personalities there† (71). He also adds that †[men in Laurel] got wised up after two or three dates with [Blanche] and then they quit, and she goes on to another, the same old lines, same old act, same old hooey† (71). Besides Blanche is conscious of her act and qualifies herself as †a big spider† (87). Nevertheless, her behavior hides some deeper injuries. As she analyzes †[she was] hunting for some protection† and this †was all [she] seemed able to fill [her] empty heart with† (87). In this connection, Blanche is a desperate woman who †always depen ded on the kindness of strangers† (107). In conclusion, Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire depicts characters that perform in order to hide their true nature. By saying that †Poker should not be play in a house with women† (36), Mitch proceeds to a separation of genders revealing Blanche’s and Stanley’s staging. Indeed, both of them perform the roles of the violent man and the fragile woman. Stella’s husband appears as a choleric man and frightens his wife and his sister-in-low, Blanche. Blanche’s staging allows her to escape reality and she is able to overshadow her past. Indeed her past makes her fragile and facing the reality would be too hard to face. Stanley and Blanche also share the same fear. Indeed, they are afraid to be abandoned. Whereas Stanley depends on Stella’s presence, Blanche needs the kindness of strangers. Although they hate each other, they share several common points. Indeed both of them know that the other hide a secret. Sources: Williams, Tennessee. A Streetcar Named Desire. London: Penguin Modern Classics, [1927] 2004. 218 p. Cortade, Ludovic. Le cinà ©ma de l’immobilità ©. Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 2008. 308 p. Dutton, Donald G. The domestic assault of Women: Psychological and Criminal Justice Perspectives. Canada: University of Washington Press, 2001, 337 p. Koprince, Susan. †Domestic violence in a Streetcar Named Desire† Bloom’s Modern Critical Interpretations: A Streetcar Named Desire – New Edition, Ed. Harold Bloom, New York, 2009: 49-60.

Hamlet: Divine Intervention and the Natural Order Essay

The first part of the theory is that of Divine Intervention – this being the easier of the two parts to explain. This works off the idea that some manner of God or All-Powerful Force does actually exist. Divine Intervention is, therefore, the notion that this God can manipulate the world either through direct or indirect action. In the text and film, for instance, the Ghost comes as a messenger from this God, motivating Hamlet to do its will. This is both an example of direct divine intervention – in the appearance of the Ghost; and indirect divine intervention – as the God uses Hamlet to carry out its deeds. The second part of the concept is the Natural Order of the world. This can be brought down to its base form as: ‘What is supposed to happen.’ Unfortunately, it isn’t that simple. The Natural Order exists always, however is not always followed. This ‘breaking away’ from the Order is usually the result of Human Intervention, developing one of two outcomes. These are: either the Natural Order is re-aligned, or the world remains a corrupt and terrible place until such time as the first outcome is realised. So, the world is repaired, or an unending loop of badness ensues until it is. In the play, the Order was broken when Claudius killed King Hamlet, and from the opening lines the ‘wrongness’ that lingers in the air is noted, setting the mood for the remainder of the play: â€Å"†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢tis bitter cold and I am sick at heart.† (I,1,8-9) said Francisco as he was relieved from watch-duty. Also, in the film, these words are greatly aided in their purpose by the images of snow-covered Denmark. Another line, in the fourth act: â€Å"something is rotten in the state of Denmark† (I.4.67) reaffirms this mood and goes further to place Francisco’s sickness at heart down to a rottenness in Denmark. Now, how the world is realigned with the Natural Order is the link back to the first part of the concept: Humans are the creatures, knowingly or unknowingly, that fix the problems that throw the world out of Order in the  first place. In Hamlet, this is the case. Without Divine Intervention, however, Denmark would have remained in a state of malaise: The Ghost, you see, gave Hamlet the one piece of information that was needed to manipulate him into action: That his father, King Hamlet, had been murdered. With this knowledge, Hamlet was able to mould his grief into anger – albeit slowly – and fulfill the will of the God by realigning the Natural Order in Denmark. There are two parallels running: the first from King Fortinbras to Fortinbras and the second from King Hamlet to Hamlet. Both are disrupted, causing not one, but two interlocking lines of Natural Order to be upset. This is, perhaps, the reason Divine Intervention was necessary to fix it; Claudius’s murder of King Hamlet gave him power not only over Denmark, but Poland also. As can be seen, the major character that the concept of Divine Intervention and Natural Order can be related to is, or course, Hamlet. He is the most interconnected character in the text; the manipulated being used indirectly by God, and also the one to realign the natural order. But why? This quote, from Philip Edwards, explains: â€Å"What is unendurable to heaven is not to be endured by men. Evil is not ineradicable, and heaven may appoint an agent of its justice to pluck it out – Hamlet.† Thus, Hamlet is Divine Justice, charged by the Ghost of his Father – a messenger from God – to cleanse Denmark of evil. â€Å"Revenge his foul and unnatural murder.† (I,5,71) And he goes about it with a passion. From Philip Edward’s essay this quote is taken: â€Å"The voice he hears gives him his mission, which he rapidly expands into a cleansing of the world, a setting right of disjointed time. As the scourge and minister of heaven, he willfully seeks his own salvation by flailing others with his tongue for their moral inadequacies and redirecting their lives as he moves forward to a killing which will re-baptise the state of Denmark.† To which I add, not just one, but seven killings. The realignment of the Natural Order is realised in the final scene in the  final act, just before Hamlet’s death: â€Å"The rest is silence.† (V,2) As there is no definite in-text acknowledgement that the Natural Order was upset, conclusions can be drawn from other lines, the descriptor of rottenness in Demark being one of them. And so it is that, although there is no line saying â€Å"The world is now in alignment with the Natural Order†, we can say â€Å"The rest is silence† is the realisation that the world is right again. There is no more chaos, no trouble, just peace – usually equated with silence and calm. The major impact of the Divine Intervention and Natural Order theory is upon the audience’s perception of the play after its conclusion. The dominant view taken is that Hamlet, although achieving his goal of revenge, caused a chaotic mess of death that was, in itself, meaningless. This view lends itself to a play-given moral of ‘revenge is bad’ or some other similarly droll statement of absolutes. When applying the text to the Natural Order theory, the deaths of the six apparently innocent characters – Gertrude, Polonius, Ophelia, Laertes, Rosencrantz and Gildenstern – can be justified. All were wronged by Claudius’s misdeed, all were in the wrong in some part, and thus, all had been moved out of the Natural Order – even if it was without choice. Their deaths are integral to the realignment of the Order; if they remain, the corruption lingers also. In death, they are no longer tools of Claudius – who is the cause of the disruption – and do not obstruct Hamlet’s duty as divine justice. Rather than a purposeless bloodbath, the deaths of the six were actually a necessity to achieving peace and new Order: Gertrude had married her brother-in-law, and it is quite likely had been seeing him before the death of King Hamlet. Incest, in the time of Hamlet (and, of course, in the current time) was looked upon with great distaste and marrying one’s brother-in-law was seen as incest – unlike now. Rosencrantz and Gildenstern had been enlisted by Claudius to spy on Hamlet and gauge his madness. Spying is an immoral act, and their doing so, even if enlisted by Claudius, put them in line for a cosmic spanking. Polonius had spied on Hamlet as well as having plotted with Claudius to partake in many misdeeds. His faults are, perhaps, the most blatant. Laertes, after the death of his father, consents to follow the whim of Claudius and poison Hamlet. A big mistake, for he ends up taking the life of another human – a cardinal sin. Lastly, Ophelia; although there is no hard evidence in the play, she may have slept with Hamlet. If this is the case, and sex before marriage is her â€Å"wrong†, then Shakespeare’s search for evil – and successive eradication of it – was very thorough. As well as altering the perception of the audience, the play itself can be viewed in a new light: Shakespeare’s Hamlet had yet another underlying meaning. Along with concepts of revenge, ambition, love, marriage, gender, class structure, morality, betrayal and deceit, appearances and reality and madness, the idea that evil does not go unpunished can be expounded to include God as a punisher, hunting down every little transgression and demanding payment in triplicate; payable with ones eternal soul. Finally, â€Å"what about Hamlet’s death?† I hear you ask. Charged with the responsibility of divine justice, it would seem wrong that he should die, right? His death was one big accident, occurring because Laertes was persuaded by Claudius to poison the sword he used to fight Hamlet. No. Such a simple and†¦ slack answer does not support the theory of Divine Intervention and Natural Order. Hamlet’s death was also necessary to fixing a jaded world. As can be seen from the flowchart, King Fortinbras’ power passed to King Hamlet with his death – not to Fortinbras as must be assumed it would have. When Claudius gained power, not one, but two Kings had been wronged – their command stolen by evil. Hamlet dying, after killing Claudius and retrieving the power of the Kings, was the final piece in the puzzle. Control passed to Fortinbras – the only major character not to have committed acts of†¦ poor judgement (to put it lightly), and the Natural Order was truly repaired. Both Denmark and Poland had a ruler of integrity and the eternal loop of badness could be overcome, allowing the world to move into new times of industry and wonder. Bibliography: Coyle, M., (ed.) (1992) Hamlet: Contemporary Critical Essays, Macmillan Education Ltd, London. Muir, K., Wells, S., (ed.) (1980) Aspects of Hamlet, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Shakespeare, W., (ed.) Ridley, M. R., (1964) The Tragedy of Hamlet, Mackays of Chatham. Stockton, C. L., (2000) CliffsNotes on Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Wiley Publishing Inc., New York.

One Thing Leads to Another essays

One Thing Leads to Another essays Karl Marx and Frederick Douglass, although they wrote about distinct issues, there are ties between Douglass' infamous What to the Slave is The Fourth of July? and from The Manifesto of the Communist Party by Marx. Douglass and Marx are marking actual events that flooded the populations' lives, as well as their lives. At first glance there is the assumption that they are non-related, but further analysis will prove that hypothesis otherwise. Douglass and Marx are writing revolutionary ideas for the times in which they live and for which the cultures in which they live. They are writing in societies that have great rifts between rich and poor, powerful and powerless. Both Douglass and Marx were engaged in organizations to help promote their views on civil issues. Douglass existed as a member of the Anti-Slavery Society and Marx was a member of the Communist League. The issues promoted by the two were both discussing current issues in their lives, more specifically, class struggles. Douglass talks about the division of slaves, while Marx talks about the divided social classes. Marx divided the social class into the Bourgeois and the Proletariat. The Bourgeois were modern capitalists, employers of wage laborers, and the owners of means of production, including work ethics and the physical instruments of production. The Proletariat were the class of the modern wage-laborers. They don't have their own means of production and therefore, they must sell their own labor to survive. This is just the same as Douglass discusses the slaves and tyrants. Marx took Hegel's theory that presents history as a "process in which the world becomes conscious of itself as spirit." With that, Marx argued that "as a man becomes conscious of himself as spirit, the material world causes him to feel increasingly alienated from himself. Escape from this alienation requires a revolution." This refers to What to the ...