Pride and Prejudice Essay

Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice (1813) is believed to originate from the manuscript called First Impressions that have been written between 1796 and 1797. The initial title indicates that characters’ behavior and evaluations are influenced by their first impressions. The second title stresses the importance of such psychological traits and mechanisms as pride and prejudice. In a course of the novel personages change a lot so far as they understand that perfunctory attitudes and assessments are false when being devoid of knowledge of the context and understanding of an individual’s character. The present paper tackles upon analysis of Austen’s book as being researched through a lens of psychology. Contemporary science introduced the â€Å"social stereotypes† concept which significantly influences people’s interaction within a given social group. Among many other important contributions, the novel of interest teaches us to approach carefully decisions as related to our interpersonal acting and judgment of group members according to first impressions. The effects, dangers and consequences of premature evaluations as based on social stereotypes will be analysed with specific examples from the book. The novel under review is believed to be an example of psychological writing or novel of human relationships. As Sherry has acknowledged, the writer is always aware of â€Å"the presence of other individuals with whom it is either a duty or a pleasure to mix† (611). The very title of the book consists of two psychological concepts. The one of â€Å"pride† denotes a trait of character associated with high self-esteem. Another one of â€Å"prejudice† refers to a situation when a person makes decisions regardless of the context and relevant features of a case or individual. In regard to the issue of Austen’s psychologism, critic Bloom has cited Ian Watt, an important theorist of literature from Stanford University. The latter has claimed Austen to be â€Å"the commenting narrator† in the sense that her â€Å"analyses of †¦ characters and their states of mind, and her ironical juxtaposition of motive and situation †¦ do not seem to come from an intrusive author but rather from some august and impersonal spirit of social and psychological understanding† (39). In his turn, another literary critic, Ryan, has defined Austen’s psychologism as an â€Å"experiment in schematic psychology† (33). The latter definition with its emphasis on the writer’s schematism in delineating people’s behavioral patterns and analyzing their internal and external drives seems to be really accurate, given the recent developments in psychological science. Just think of the plain statistics: in Austen’s text, there are 48 references to the phenomenon of â€Å"pride,† which is accessible through direct observation, but there are only 8 cases of mentioning the phenomenon of â€Å"prejudice,† which requires a deeper understanding of psychological mechanisms and social contexts. It seems that the writer lacks instruments and concepts to analyze human behavior at a deeper level but this is not Austen’s fault. Being unaware of any of the recent theories of social sciences, she nevertheless hits the very essence of the process that would later be called â€Å"social stereotyping. † Let us prove this hypothesis on the example of the â€Å"pride† concept. First time it is explained in Chapter 5 by Mary Bennet, the most earnest of the Bennets, who is interested in social theory. Upon the ball at which the local society has got acquainted with Fitzwilliam Darcy, the rich and handsome gentleman from London, women start discussing the newcomer and label him as being â€Å"eat up with pride† (Austen 25). On occasion, Mary has demonstrated her education, saying: Pride is a very common failing†¦ human nature is particularly prone to it, and †¦ there are very few of us who do not cherish a feeling of self-complacency on the score of some quality or other, real or imaginary. Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us. (ibid. ) The validity of Mary’s (i. e. , Austen’s) remark has been acknowledged many decades afterwards by contemporary psychologists including Hunyady and Ryan. Whereas Mary Bennet operates the phrase â€Å"opinion of ourselves,† when referring to characteristics ascribed to the self by an individual, Ryan uses the term â€Å"self-ratings† (191), and Hunyady employs the term â€Å"self-image† (189). Both Mary (i. e. Austen) and modern scientists are aware of the complexity of perceptions as featured by the subject and members of the group. To proceed with comparison, whereas in the novel there is made a distinction between â€Å"pride† as a self-rating and â€Å"vanity† as the rating imposed by the community, Ryan speaks about the concept of â€Å"social stereotype. † The psychologist has ac knowledged that it consists of the two basic elements: â€Å"the perceived stereotypicality of a group (i. e. , the perceived extremity of the central tendency) and the perceived dispersion, or diversity, of group members† (191). This point is not Ryan’s unique invention. On the same issue, another social scientist, Hunyady, has stressed the duality of social processes as occurring both within the specific group and outside it. Observing the complexity of relationships in dynamic social contexts, Hunyady has emphasized the following: †¦ [T]he categories of persons and the related stereotypes do not stand on their own but rather are components of some kind of a system. †¦ [S]tereotypes are the mosaic pieces of a picture formed of the whole society. One not only gets to know his individual companions or groups of his companions but also tries to get a comprehensive view of the entire human world and of society, in which he and his fellows have a place and a more or less stable environment. (189) In other words, psychologists argue that in a process of exhibiting the new object to the social group, the behavior of group members in regard to this object is predicted by realistic group conflict theory and social cognition theories of social categorization. Every subject unit of the group obeys to a certain set of normative regulations. An individual does not function on his/her own but clearly fits into this or that community. Subsequently and inevitably, a person evaluates oneself according to the degree of membership, or the extent to which his/her ratings of the self, the group and social processes conform to the summated ratings of other people belonging to that group. As Ryan has indicated, there is a â€Å"central tendency,† or the core perception of the phenomenon that is agreed upon by all group members as being guided by a set of shared norms, and there are also deviations from the mainstream. The latter are allowed by those group subjects who are less inclined to stereotype the phenomena of life due to their intellect and character. Taking this conceptual framework into consideration, we should admit that the stages of the social stereotyping process are brilliantly revealed by Austen in Pride and Prejudice, albeit the narrator employs a simple, non-scientific language. There is a specific group in the countryside 19th century England whose members share the common regulations concerning people and events. The highest value is attributed to the upper class membership, wealth, and appearance. There is â€Å"the aura of a small, enclosed community of talking, visiting, and company† (Sherry 611) that confines every person to the specific role and place. In this social atmosphere, first impressions, which are based on the abovementioned features of appearance and sweet manners (i. e. , those which do not deviate from the central tendency), become the long-lasting tags for an individual. It is extremely difficult to overcome the sustainability of these immediately formed stereotypes. Since the very moment of his entry to the ball room, Fitzwilliam Darcy drew the group’s attention. He is a new person to the community, and at first sight he seems to be in accord with the shared set of norms so far as the man is high, good-looking and enjoys a substantial income of ten thousand a year. However, conforming to the stereotype of a â€Å"good man† in the sense of outlook and social position, Darcy becomes a breacher of discipline in terms of his relationships with other group members. Darcy is claimed â€Å"to be proud; to be above his company, and above being pleased; and not all his large estate in Derbyshire could then save him from having a most forbidding, disagreeable countenance† (Austen 14). The reason for such a shift in attitudes is the man’s denial of the spirit of companionship that is somewhat more important to the community than the characteristics of its individual subjects, however handsome and wealthy they are. The clue to understanding the first impression of Darcy is provided in the scene where young women are discussing him after the ball. Charlotte Lucas, the best friend of the second Bennet’s daughters Elizabeth, who is the main female personage of the story, justifies Darcy by the fact that his high self-rating is understandable so far as he possesses every feature admired within the group: His pride does not offend me so much as pride often does, because there is an excuse for it. One cannot wonder that so very fine a young man, with family, fortune, everything in his favour, should think highly of himself. If I may so express it, he has a right to be proud. (Austen 25) In other words, this is not the man’s high self-esteem that hurts the senses of the locals. His drawback tackles upon not the pardonable attitude of pride but the regrettable vanity, or the overt negligence of the shared persuasion that the given social group is the best environment for any dignified individual. Regarding the eagerness to enter the local community and borrow its toolkit of stereotypes, Darcy represents a sharp contrast to an amiable young officer, Mr. Wickham. The latter is as handsome as the former but is more eagerly accepted by the group so far as he gladly steps into social intercourses with every member of the circle. As the personage himself has confessed, â€Å"I have been a disappointed man, and my spirits will not bear solitude. I must have employment and society† (Austen 98). This weakness and lack of the so to say inner rod is initially perceived as a virtue by group members. Austen’s mastery is made evident in the scenes documenting the usual intercourse between group members so that the reader can get impression of the relationships permeating the group atmosphere and learn the principles which back up the social stereotypes of that time. To make a clue to her heroes’ characters, the writer provides short explanations of the people’s psychological background. People and events are evaluated by many people who exchange remarks on the issue of interest, although Austen takes a particular interest in the phenomena as perceived through the eyes of Elizabeth Bennet. This is a beautiful and intelligent young lady of 20 years old who displays â€Å"a lively, playful disposition, which delighted in anything ridiculous† (Austen 16). She deserves the reader’s appreciation, demonstrating â€Å"more quickness of observation and less pliancy of temper than her sister, and †¦ a judgement too unassailed by any attention to herself† (Austen 20). Due to her intellect and sociable yet a bit absent-minded character, Elizabeth exhibits the perfect ability to deviate from the central tendency in her assessments and evaluations of life matters. The second of Bennet’s daughters is obviously the only group member who could have appreciated Darcy’s ability to let the world slide, if not for the case of personal injustice. She cannot forget the pain that has been caused to her own self-esteem. The thing is that Elizabeth has heard the handsome newcomer admitting that she is not enough beautiful to dance with. The remark is enough for the young lady to start detesting the offender to her pride. As Elizabeth herself has stated, â€Å"I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine† (Austen 25). The first impression of Darcy’s rudeness at the ball is driven by the clash of self-esteems, and negative perceptions color the young lady’s further conceptualization of the hero up to the very moment when he reveals his love toward her in Chapter 34. The futility of first impressions is demonstrated through the description of Elizabeth’s relationships with Darcy and Wickham as well as her understanding of Bingley’s character. As it has been stated earlier, all three men fit the shared group’s concept of â€Å"an appropriate gentleman† in terms of their looks and wealth, albeit Wickham is not as rich as the other two men and pretends to be a man who is unjustly insulted. He pretends to be modest and good-hearted when he says, â€Å"I have no right to give my opinion† or â€Å"I am not qualified to form one† (Austen 96) in regard to Darcy’s background, and immediately afterwards he does his best to ruin Fitzwilliam’s reputation. All Wickham’s envy of Darcy is demonstrated in the following characterization: â€Å"The world is blinded by his fortune and consequence, or frightened by his high and imposing manners, and sees him only as he chooses to be seen† (Austen 97). The remark provides the reader with a hint concerning Darcy’s manner of functioning within the upper class social circle. Among this threesome with Bingley being superficial and Wickham being villainous, Darcy is the only person to be criticized for the lack of that â€Å"agreeable manner† that Wickham demonstrates speaking even about insignificant matters. The intelligent and kind-hearted Lizzy cannot but â€Å"feel that the commonest, dullest, most threadbare topic might be rendered interesting by the skill of the speaker† (Austen 94) when she socialized with Wickham, whereas Darcy’s brisk and unwilling manner of speaking makes the young lady feel uncomfortable. This is true that being compared to his friend Bingley or his rivalry Wickham, Darcy is not the object to readily fall in love and admiration with. He dances only with the two selected ladies and neglects the rest. This manner is regarded an offense to the aura of amiability, and he abstains from the social chit-chat. Besides this gentleman directly expresses his opinions of other people instead of camouflaging them under the veil of behind-the-back gossip. This personage makes it too clear that the local society is â€Å"a collection of people in whom there was little beauty and no fashion, for none of whom he had felt the smallest interest, and from none received either attention or pleasure† (Austen 22). He reveals indignation, boredom, or sarcasm in the situations when other men pretend to be pleased and amused. Judging from first impressions, Charles Bingley is more favored by the locals since he treats them as the nicest people he has ever met. In his turn, Wickham’s reputation is based on the assumption that Darcy has devoid him of wealth, which puts the two men in the positions of a victim and an offender. This is only throughout a course of the plot development that the narrator makes clear that Bingley’s sociality is explained by superficiality, and Wickham is a cheater who has attempted to seduce Darcy’s younger sister. Utilizing the theories of social categorization, one may say that Wickham has been admitted to the local group more easily than Darcy because the former has readily belittled his self-rating in public conversations and demonstrated the greater extent of willingness to share the pre-established social regulations of the given group. Being compared to the sweet Mr. Bingley’s behavior, Darcy’s behavioral pattern is rooted in the wider cognitive scope and finer spiritual development. The latter is strong enough to disregard the central tendency as it exists in the given group. Being cleverer than his friend Mr. Bingley, who has managed to become the crowd puller, Darcy falls into the sin that is not pride per se but rather vanity. The local society would gladly accept him as the most important person if he had been willing to put himself on one leg so to say with other group members. It is only in Chapter 10 when the narrator lets readers learn more about Darcy’s understanding of pride and related concepts. In public opinion, his high self-esteem is a manifestation of haughtiness, whereas Wickham’s seemingly low self-rating is a sign of appropriateness as shown through humility. In his turn, Darcy detests â€Å"the appearance of humility† that is genuinely the â€Å"carelessness of opinion, and sometimes an indirect boast† (Austen 60). Contemporary psychologists would call Darcy’s conceptualizations of â€Å"pride,† â€Å"humility,† and â€Å"boast† as being driven by functional utility of human behavior. According to this hero, this is inappropriate to put down one’s self-esteem just for the sake of being praised by other group members. Throughout the novel this personage remains the vivid example of a person who shares certain believes common to the central tendency of stereotypicality but reveals energy to display also diversity in his ratings of the self and other people. The complexity and dynamism of social stereotypes is shown through Darcy’s and Elizabeth’s attitudes to each other. Whereas Lizzy’s stereotypes in regard to the man remain sort of frozen for a while under the man’s â€Å"satirical eye† (Austen 30), Darcy is being engaged into the fast proceeding process, in a course of which he changes the initial perception of the young lady. The narrator specifies Darcy’s turn toward re-evaluating Lizzy Bennet as follows: But no sooner had he made it clear to himself and his friends that she hardly had a good feature in her face, than he began to find it was rendered uncommonly intelligent by the beautiful expression of her dark eyes. To this discovery succeeded some others equally mortifying. Though he had detected with a critical eye more than one failure of perfect symmetry in her form, he was forced to acknowledge her figure to be light and pleasing; and in spite of his asserting that her manners were not those of the fashionable world, he was caught by their easy playfulness. Austen 29) In other words, Darcy’s first rejection of the second daughter of Bennets has been caused by the incongruity between Elizabeth’s outlook and his own classical perception of beauty as a reckless symmetry of forms and elements. It is clear that the gentleman has initially been blinded by both his personal and group set of stereotypes that required women to conform to certain standards. Elizabeth does not seem to be classically beautiful, and her gaiety during the first meeting has poked the man away as a manifestation of social inappropriateness.

Charles Dickens’ Satire of Victorian Culture in Oliver Twist

In the novel Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens ridicules Victorian society; he focuses on the Poor Law system, orphans, workhouses, and the characterization of Oliver and Nancy, using sarcasm, and the comparison between the real world and the world of Oliver. When Dickens was just a child, a lot of traumatic things happened to him. At twelve, his father went to prison. He then had to work in a shoe blacking factory. He knew poverty and that’s why he was aware of social problems and had deep feeling of social commitment. Dickens was one of the most important social writers of history.He criticized moral, social, and economic problems in the Victorian era through his fiction works (â€Å"Charles† 1. ) The emotional and symbolizing power that Oliver Twist has is he value in Dickens life (Linsay 172. ) While writing the book, Victorian themes like poverty, injustice, mean characters, and punishment were all live issues in the world. Dickens didn’t like the 1834 New Poor Act, which criminalized the poor. He didn’t like the harsh utilitarian ethics of it. The Poor Law Board thought that people that could do work didn’t get anything better than the poorest worker.Due to the emergence of trade unions, the Poor Law system fell into decline. There were liberal welfare reforms during the twentieth century; it wasn’t until 1948 when it was officially abolished. Illustrated in Olive Twist, Dickens showed the reading society the harsh symbol of realities in the Victorian era. In the novel, there are a lot of orphans. Dickens depicts them as poor, underfed, oppressed, and severely punished (â€Å"Charles† 1. ) The fear of destitution and poverty was always present in the minds of adults, and children alike in Victorian society.There were many orphans, and one in fourteen of many towns population of children were classified as paupers in 1863. Most of the needy population relied on the parish system through the Poor Law. A Board of Directors was elected, and in many occurrences, Dickens doesn’t put them across as the â€Å"best fit†, even though the goal in the Acts was to help these paupers. Dickens uses sarcasm to write about the Board. It was once a Poor Law system that encouraged work ethic (â€Å"Poverty† 1. ) He describes them in the novel as â€Å"very sage, deep philosophical men† (Dickens 11.)Dickens talks how two orphans, Oliver and Rose, are tried with adversity which teaches them the virtues for others and love. It’s the life of pain and alienation that help them become pure characters, contrasting the fact of the stealing, wild paupers of the Victorian era (Baldridge. ) In the novel, Charles based the character of Oliver on eighteenth century characteristics. Charles’s daydreams of childhood were at bay, and it gave him an emotionally true picture of the exploited children of his own time (Linsay 179. ) In the workhouses that orphans were sent to, there wa s strict discipline.They were given just barely enough food to survive, and were punished harshly if they didn’t follow strict rules. In the novel, Dickens explains what happens to Oliver when he asks for more food. ‘Please, sir, I want some more. ’ The master was a fat, healthy man; but he turned very pale. He gazed in stupefied astonishment on the small rebel for some seconds, and then clung for support to the copper. The assistants were paralyzed with wonder; the boys with fear. Dickens shows the reader through Oliver’s hunger how bad it was for him.Everyone around the food master thought surely Oliver was to be hung for asking such an explicit question. Instead, Oliver is sent to immediate confinement, awaiting a new master. Laborers had tasks like stone breaking, oakum-picking, sack-making, and corn-grinding. Work conditions were tough, even though they were required to be moderately clean. Patricia Pulham and Brad Beaven explain in their article enti tled â€Å"Poverty and the Poor† how in his journal, Workhouse Words, Dickens investigates the conditions of the workhouse conditions.When he went to the workhouse debate in the 1850s, he witnessed poverty, misery, starvation, and all around death these defined the lack of the workhouse system. Dickens achieves the simplicity of the characters because the way he presents them and describes them doesn’t contain any indistinctness. To some, Oliver might seem sentimental, and Nancy a prostitute with unsure feelings, but these depictions are conventional, and are the marks and representations of a tragedy. Oliver is looked at as an â€Å"item of mortality† who will be a new responsibility for the parish and is only worth selling to the general public when he misbehaves for 5 pounds.Society views Oliver, with its money ethic, as a liability, for he really doesn’t portray a soul or spirit in the Board’s eyes. Oliver’s characteristic development mi ght seem pompous, because he doesn’t really act or talks like the other children. Dickens removes him from the natural speech of all other characters, and gives him the emblem of susceptible innocence and exposure. Oliver is managed by anyone who comes in contact with him. He’s like a puppet, influenced beyond his view. Actually, through most of the novel, Oliver often doesn’t know where he is or who he is.Social order is shown through the rough unimportance of Oliver’s concealed humanity (Duffy 5. ) Oliver never learns how to juxtapose the alabaster and pitch social vocabularies in his story in any way that he might earn about the realities of Victorian culture (Baldridge. ) Dickens depicts Nancy as forced into prostitution by poverty, her peers, and her corrupt environment. Dickens knew of the victimization of Victorian women and wanted to show that Nancy’s sweet character was corrupted by this and that she didn’t deserve her fate (Charles 1.)Even at the cost of her life, Nancy feels change in her heart. She is loyal to her friends, and she goes to save Oliver and Rose. Dickens isn’t emotionalizing iniquity and crime. The truth of life is being represented (Al- Mahdi 3-4. ) Charles Dickens successfully takes the harsh realities of the Victorian era and employs them into the novel Oliver Twist. Through his satire and characterization, he creates a negative image of the cruel things that happened to people in workhouses, orphans, and children. Charles Dickens will always be remembered as one of the best social commentators in history.

3 Types of Word Treatment

3 Types of Word Treatment 3 Types of Word Treatment 3 Types of Word Treatment By Mark Nichol Spelling, capitalization, and italicization are three aspects of writing that careful writers will attend to. This post discusses the importance of recognizing standards and making conscious decisions when contemplating deviating from them. Spelling Employing proper spelling is one of the fundamentals of composition. Unfortunately, the explosive increase in writing opportunities afforded by the internet and social media makes it easier for careless writers to spread viral errors. Where in the past, few print publications would allow mistakes like definately and predominately, today, such misspellings are rampant on websites and blogs and in texts, not to mention in some professionally produced print publications and on occasional television broadcasts- including in chyrons, the electronically generated captions that appear below talking heads on TV. Deteriorating writing skills and declining editing standards result in frequent spelling errors, and the only effective defense is a good offense: Proactively double-check spelling- using not just spell-checking functions (which are not infallible) but also print or online dictionaries (which are virtually perfectly reliable). Dictionaries and other writing resources also protect writers from using incorrect or outdated word forms. For example, the few remaining hyphenated compound nouns are undergoing an evolution, as writers increasingly omit the hyphen and treat these terms as closed compounds- sometimes in a conscious decision to accelerate what is almost always an inevitable process but far more often simply out of ignorance. Changes from, for example, mind-set to mindset and start-up to startup are inevitable, but the former choice in each case is still the form listed in most dictionaries, so avoid the variant until it becomes the norm. Capitalization Capitalization, which, with few exceptions, denotes a proper noun, in such usage distinguishes the specific from the generic, but it is employed erroneously primarily in two contexts. First, generic job titles are often mistakenly capitalized. When Jane Smith is identified as a senator, capitalize the job title if it appears before her name: â€Å"Senator Jane Smith.† And when the job title substitutes for the person’s name in direct address- when someone says or writes, for example, â€Å"Excuse me, Senator, do you have a moment?† the word is capitalized. In government or legal documents, the â€Å"publisher† may insist on capitalizing the job title even in isolation: â€Å"The Senator abstained.† But in all other usage, the term is generic- Jane Smith is being described as one of those entities designated as a senator. Take care, too, about capitalizing only exact job titles. When referring to Thomas Jones, whose official designation is director of communications and marketing, write â€Å"Director of Communications and Marketing Thomas Jones,† to be formal, or â€Å"marketing director Thomas Jones,† in more casual contexts, but not â€Å"Marketing Director Thomas Jones.† (And after the name, the job title is almost invariably not capitalized; a rare exception is the exact name of an endowed professorship. Capitalization is also standard after names on lists, on rà ©sumà ©s, and so on.) In addition, descriptions of people that identify their profession or role but are not formal job titles are not capitalized: â€Å"The truck belongs to electrician John Smith†; â€Å"She thanked team captain Mary Jones for her support.† Similarly, a term identifying a nonliving entity should be capitalized only as part of the full name: for example, â€Å"the Mississippi River,† but â€Å"the river† (with exceptions for poetic license, as when such an entity is personified), or â€Å"the Development Committee,† but â€Å"the committee† (again, in legalese, such terms may appear capitalized). Italicization Italics serve to call attention to a word, phrase, or sentence; two primary functions are to identify a foreign term and to emphasize one or more words the writer wishes the reader to notice. However, the pitfall in the case of both functions is overuse. In the case of apparently foreign words or phrases, double-check that the term is in fact still technically considered foreign; many such words and phrases have been assimilated into English (evidenced by their inclusion in English dictionaries) and are no longer considered to require emphasis. (Note, too, that some writers and publishers decide that when a foreign term is used repeatedly in one piece of content, and it is defined or explained on first reference, it is italicized only in that first instance.) And when considering whether to italicize a word, phrase, or sentence to make it stand out, think twice about whether the emphasis is merited or helpful; frequent employment of any tool or technique can diminish its effectivenes s. A third common function of italics is to call attention to a word being used to name itself rather than the concept for which the word stands; compare â€Å"Moron originally denoted a mildly retarded person† and â€Å"A moron is a stupid person.† Because of this distinction, italics should not be employed to introduce a term unless the word is described as a word, as in the disclaimer â€Å"In observing the historical context of psychiatry in the early twentieth century, we use moron according to its original medical definition: ‘a mildly retarded person.’† In spelling, capitalization, and italicization, as in any aspect of writing, the writer or publisher may choose to deviate from accepted standards, but the ultimate consideration should be whether the reader is being served by a decision that affects one or more aspects, or whether communication is being compromised rather than enhanced. In addition, a writer may ignore these standards for artistic reasons, such as in representing dialect or a fictional character’s illiteracy or overly emphatic speech patterns. Again, however, the writer should weigh the consequences of such a decision and practice moderation. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Style category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Useful Stock Phrases for Your Business Emails45 Synonyms for â€Å"Old† and â€Å"Old-Fashioned†9 Forms of the Past Tense

The Flashback Scene Essay Example

The Flashback Scene Essay Example The Flashback Scene Paper The Flashback Scene Paper Is it Impossible for a Director of The Flashback Scene in The Restaurant, pages 73-93 of Death of a Salesman to Show Willy as a Tragic Hero? Discuss. In Your Answer You Must Discuss how the Scene Could be Played and Base Your Answer on Textual Analysis of Character, Plot and Stage Direction Commenting on The Context of The Play. The play Death of a Salesman was written in 1949 by Arthur Miller and is one of his most successful plays. At Millers time, America was deemed to be a land of opportunity and all Americans had the right to be successful. However his fathers prosperous living as a clothing manufacturer had been ruined by the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The play examines the cost of blind faith in the American Dream, closely related with the theme of manifest destiny. There was much belief in the American Dream, and this would be achieved through hard work, courage and determination by every American. Death of a Salesman is based around the main protagonist, Willy Loman an elderly man. He is an insecure, self deluding travelling salesman. Mr Loman is past sixty years of age and dressed quietly, nonetheless he is a man with massive dreams, a mercurial nature and turbulent longings within him. He never comes to terms with reality for the reason that he is lost in an illusion and false hopes, for example Willy cannot see who he and his sons, Biff and Happy, are and he just believes that they are great men who have what it takes to beat the business world and be successful. However, he is mistaken. In reality, Willy and sons are not, and cannot ever be successful. Mr Loman is unable to see through his own delusions of the American Dream, which he perceives as the ability to become great by obtaining enormous material wealth without any apparent effort, to wander into the jungle and walk out a few years later unspeakably rich. As a result to this, he is trapped in distortion of the American Dream promoted by a capitalist, materialistic modern society. In the play, although Willy does seem to show love and care towards his wife, Linda and two sons, he often becomes confused and angry unnecessarily. He shows trouble distinguishing his past and present, or his ideal life and reality. Due to this, many parts of the play are transcribed to the audience by the insertion of flashbacks, which show us some of the most significant moments in Willys confused life that have happened in his past. These flashbacks, each of which do somehow relate to the present, show an inability for Willy to see his reality. The flashback Willy experiences in the Restaurant scene, which I will be studying, is extremely significant in view of the fact that at this point, the illusions Biff has about Willy and his lies, come to an end. The use of this flashback depicts Willys affair with the Woman and Biff then comes to know about it. By using this scene, this essay will discuss whether Willy is that of a tragic hero or not. In Shakespearean tragedy, tragic heroes will be men of rank, and the calamities that befall them will be unusual and exceptionally disastrous in themselves (taken from http://global. cscc. edu/engl/264/TragedyLex. htm). In other words, Shakespearean tragic heroes should be of noble birth, have a fatal flaw, learn from their mistakes and lastly due to their flaw, this will lead to their downfall. However, the initial idea of the tragic hero had originated in Greek tragedy and it was outlined by Aristotle, who once said a tragic hero must be one of noble character and must fall from power and happiness (taken from http:// www. ccd. rightchoice. org/lit115/poetics. html). In Arthur Millers Tragedy and the Common Man, Miller argues that the common man could also be regarded to that as a very highly placed king and noble man. If this is the case and that the common man could be a tragic hero, I should be able to answer a simple question: Can Willy Loman be considered to be a tragic hero or not? To begin the first part of this essay, it is impossible to represent Willy as a tragic hero in the traditional sense. As I mentioned above, there are patterns into which Shakespearean or Aristotelian tragic heroes should fit into, and clearly Willy does not fit into these principles in one important way- he is not of noble birth or aristocracy. Willy is just a common man. According to the Collins English Dictionary, the word noble has three meanings: 1showing or having high moral qualities, 2impressive and magnificent, and 3member of the nobility (which again, according to the Collins English Dictionary, means either 1quality of being noble or 2a class of people holding titles and high social rank). Oedipus Rex, a Greek tragedy written by Sophocles, and The Oresteia, a trilogy of tragedies written by Aeschylus, both contain protagonists whom are of aristocracy and nobility. This too follows in Shakespearean tragedies. In Romeo and Juliet both protagonists originate from high, aristocratic upper class families, as do the protagonists in Macbeth, Hamlet, Richard II and King Lear. As an audience, from the flashback Willy undergoes in the Restaurant, we learn that he is having an affair with The Woman in the Boston hotel room and therefore he is cheating on his wife, Linda. Come on inside, drummer boy. Its silly to be dressing in the middle of the night. (Act Two. Page 88. The Woman) Then once knocking is heard, Willy orders The Woman to stay in the bathroom as he thinks theres a law in Massachusetts about it (it being adultery) and he finds Biff standing at the door. Biff has come to tell his dad that he flunked math and does not have enough credits to graduate. Just as Willy promises his son that he will speak to Birnbaum, and Biff is about to leave the Hotel room, he discovers The Woman and knows instantly that Willy has been having an affair. Biff becomes increasingly more saddened knowing that Willy has given The Woman Mamas stockings! Wheres my stockings? You promised me stockings, Willy! (Act Two. Page 90. The Woman) It is at this point that Willys mercurial nature becomes evident. He threatens to abuse his son if he does not follow his orders to apologise, before Biff refers to his father as a fake, a phoney little fake! However it is not only just at this moment in the scene where Willy does not coincide to being that of a tragic hero by abusing his son. In reality, when Willy and his sons are in the Restaurant talking about Biffs meeting with Bill Oliver, Willy presumes that Biff spites him, so he then strikes him and carries on downgrading his son by calling him a rotten little louse!

Sojourner Truth Quotes

Sojourner Truth Quotes Sojourner Truth was born a slave and became a popular spokesperson for abolition, womens rights, and temperance. A history-maker from the start - she was the first black woman to win a court case against a white man when she won custody of her son after running away - she became one of the eras best known figures. Her famous Aint I a Woman? speech is known in several variants, because Sojourner Truth herself did not write it down; all copies of the speech come from secondhand sources at best. It was delivered at the Womens Convention in Akron, Ohio on May 29, 1851, and was first published in the Anti-Slavery Bugle on June 21, 1851. Truths public life and remarks contained many quotations that have endured throughout time. Selected Sojourner Truth Quotations And aint I a woman?There is a great stir about colored men getting their rights, but not a word about the colored women; and if colored men get their rights, and not colored women theirs, you see the colored men will be masters over the women, and it will be just as bad as it was before. So I am for keeping the thing going while things are stirring; because if we wait till it is still, it will take a great while to get it going again. Equal Rights Convention, New York, 1867It is the mind that makes the body.If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.Truth burns up error.Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.Religion without humanity is poor human stuff. Two Versions, One Speech Truths most famous speech, Aint I A Woman, was passed down through history in a decidedly different version than the one she originally delivered. During the American Civil War, her remarks regained popularity and was republished in 1863 by Frances Dana Barker Gage. This version was translated into a stereotypical dialect of slaves from the South, whereas Truth herself was raised in New York and spoke Dutch as a first language. Gage also embellished Truths original remarks, exaggerating claims (for instance, claiming that Truth had had thirteen children when the real Truth had five). Gages version includes a framing device depicting a hostile crowd won over by Truths almost miraculous speech. It also contrasts the regular English spoken by bystanders with the heavy dialect of Gages version of Truth: Dat man ober dar say dat womin needs to be helped into carriages, and lifted ober ditches, and to hab de best place everywhar. Nobody eber helps me into carriages, or ober mud-puddles, or gibs me any best place! And raising herself to her full height, and her voice to a pitch like rolling thunders, she asked And ant I a woman? Look at me! Look at me! Look at my arm! (and she bared her right arm to the shoulder, showing her tremendous muscular power). I have ploughed, and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ant I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear de lash a well! And ant I a woman? I have borne thirteen chilern, and seen em mos all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mothers grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ant I a woman?  Ã‚   In contrast, the original transcription, written down by Marius Robinson (who attended the convention where Truth spoke), depicts Truth as speaking standard American English, without markers of an accent or dialect. The same passage reads: I want to say a few words about this matter. I am a womans rights. I have as much muscle as any man, and can do as much work as any man. I have plowed and reaped and husked and chopped and mowed, and can any man do more than that? I have heard much about the sexes being equal. I can carry as much as any man, and can eat as much too, if I can get it. I am as strong as any man that is now. As for intellect, all I can say is, if a woman have a pint, and a man a quart – why cant she have her little pint full? You need not be afraid to give us our rights for fear we will take too much, – for we cant take more than our pintll hold. The poor men seems to be all in confusion, and dont know what to do. Why children, if you have womans rights, give it to her and you will feel better. You will have your own rights, and they wont be so much trouble. I cant read, but I can hear. I have heard the Bible and have learned that Eve caused man to sin. Well, if woman upset the world, do gi ve her a chance to set it right side up again. Sources History of Woman Suffrage, ed.  Elizabeth Cady Stanton,  Susan B. Anthony, and  Matilda Joslyn Gage, 2nd ed., Rochester, NY: 1889.Mabee, Carleton, and Susan Mabee Newhouse.  Sojourner Truth: Slave, Prophet, Legend. NYU Press, 1995.

An in-depth study of behavioural problems and the impact these have on Research Proposal

An in-depth study of behavioural problems and the impact these have on learners in Manchester (uk) primary schools - Research Proposal Example hools can be quite comfortable with looking after children with physical disabilities - but when it comes to behaviour problems, they also have to weigh up their responsibilities to other pupils †¦It is the issue where conflicts between meeting individual needs and â€Å"efficient education for other children† are the most difficult to reconcile† (BBC). The problem of disruptive behaviour and its negative effect on learning is also emphasised in the Ofsted’s Annual Report of HM’s Chief Inspector of Schools 2003/2004 issued in February 2005 (Steer 5). It is well known that behaviour management is high on the UK education policy and practice agenda for many years. The UK government and school staff have a great deal to support pupils in managing their behaviour, but it is not easy, and classroom behaviour problems are still one of the major difficulties of all teachers, including junior ones. Chaplain argues that emotional and behavioural difficulties (EBD) are wide ranging, at one level they even can be classified as a special educational need (162). But it is important to understand that pupil showing behavioural difficulties may be very different with different teachers, and it is seldom the case when they exhibit behavioural difficulties with all teachers. That’s why the UK government policies tends to encourage school principals and stuff to include as many pupils as possible within mainstream schools, nesting specialist approaches in school policies for those children who might be considered to have EBD. The term â€Å"emotional and behavioural difficulties† has a long and complicated history, as well as it is a broad label covering a whole range of specific difficulties. Modern understanding of EBD was proposed in the first time in 1992 by the National Mental Health and Special Education Coalition as follows: â€Å"(i) The term emotional or behavioural disorder means a disability characterised by behavioural or emotional responses in school programs

Interior and Spatial Design Contextual Studies Essay

Interior and Spatial Design Contextual Studies - Essay Example Generational change has also led to continuous shift in tastes. Spatial design comes in handy to sort these problems. For these reasons, this essay seeks to research and discuss the relationship between abstract painting and interior spatial design. Furthermore, the essay will include empirical studies of various artists and professionals in the field of fine arts and design. Through various reviews, I have learnt that painters and spatial designers are making immense contributions to the society. I have hence learnt that I will be in a position to create aesthetic appeal of homes. Through expertise in spatial art and interior design, I will be able to restore happiness and satisfaction to myself and the human race. Through appraisal of beauty, the field has enabled me to value specific objects in the society. I have also learnt the strategic use of interior design in drawing building plans taking into account interior spaces and probable rooming. In eventuality, they should award space appropriately to each section of a building. In my study of abstract paintings, I realized that they draw interests from everyone. On the contrary, I realized that a person who possesses a piece of an abstract painting could keep it for ages without having interpreted its meaning. Therefore, the value of such a work of art increases as time progresses in the sense that, it portrays not only its aesthetic value, but also the mysterious thought behind its conception. This misery behind the artistic works drew much interest from me, making me to relate commodities to their ideal values. Using an example of the value of money, I realized that everyone understands the importance of money and its value. However, people seem not to understand the real value of the money which is reflected by the purchasing potential as opposed to indicated numerical value indicated. In this respect, I have come to the conclusion that some abstract