The Student’s Guide to Writing an Essay on Shakespeare

The Student’s Guide to Writing an Essay on Shakespeare Shakespeare is one of the best-known names when it comes to English literature. Even though he wrote his literature hundreds of years ago, his name still comes up in popular culture. Every few years, there seems to be a new movie based upon one of his plays. In fact, Shakespeare is credited with having the most movies based on his work. In fact, there are over a dozen movies currently in production based on his work. Even though his name is famous, it can sometimes be difficult to know how to write an essay on Shakespeare or his works. Let’s look into some of the best ways in which a student, either in high school or college, can write a great essay on Shakespeare. What is a Shakespeare Essay? According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, an essay is defined as an analytic or interpretive literary composition usually dealing with its subject from a limited or personal point of view. Using this definition, it is safe to assume that you are allowed to write about your opinion of Shakespeare or his works. Of course, with any high school or college essay, you are also going to want to back up your opinion with fact. If you have any questions about specific ways to compose your essay (some of these ways will be discussed later in this article) make sure to ask your teacher or consult the assignment rubric. Assignment rubrics will usually have the guidelines for the essay written out in an easy-to-understand way. It is also in the rubric that you will likely find the length your paper needs to be and the general topic of your paper. How to Choose Your Topic: Secrets of Our Academic Writers Sometimes, topics are assigned to students in the rubric or directly by their teacher or professor. Sometimes the topics may be specific, other times there may only be a general topic. Some general topics that students may need to use in Shakespeare essays include Shakespeare biographical essays, essays on his plays, or essays on his sonnets. Many essays are likely to focus on the character relationships, dialogue, and symbolism of elements in Shakespeare’s plays. This is because people are more likely to have a debatable opinion on these features of the play. There is little room for opinion in biographical essays or essays based on the themes of the play. However, when it comes to how characters interact with each other, there can be speculation between why the characters act a certain way of what the dialogue might be translated to if the play was performed in today’s time. Since it can become difficult to pick a topic for writing a Shakespeare essay (since there are so many to pick from) we have provided a list of topics with examples of how they might be used. Feel free to use any of these topics in your own essay. Comparison and Contrast between the Leading Men in Romeo And Juliet: Romeo and Paris. Romeo and Paris are much different in age, with Romeo being much closer to Juliet’s age. Paris is a friend of the family, and Capulet approves of his seeking a relationship with Juliet. Romeo is a Montague, a member of the Capulet’s rival family. However, with all of their differences, they both want Juliet to love them. Many Older Versions of Othello Used Blackface, as African Actors Did Not Act on Stage. Would it be Good or Bad to Continue This Practice? When the plays were originally produced, blackface (a practice in which white actors cover their faces in brown paint to pretend to be African) was commonly used. However, blackface is frowned upon today for being racist. Would it be better to keep using blackface to keep with tradition or would it be better to hire African actors to act as African characters, like in Othello? Was the Fool In King Lear Actually Foolish or Was He Intelligent? How Would This Impact the Play? The fool in King Lear often talks to the king. The king likely assumes the fool is an idiot. However, is he actually an idiot? Who is more foolish: the king or the fool? Thinking about the play in this way, how does it affect its interpretation? The Original Hamlet Play Was Set in Denmark. However, in Recent Movies, the Story is not Always Set in Denmark. So, Does the Setting Matter to the Context of the Play? Hamlet is set in Denmark in the original play. New adaptations of the play aren’t always set in the same place. Does this make any real difference in the play’s impact? Why or why not? Who is More Influential in Macbeth: Macbeth or Lady Macbeth? Why? In MacBeth, Lady MacBeth is the mastermind behind everything, while MacBeth is more likely to take action. Because of this, who had more influence over the actions of the play? Why? Pre-Writing Tips You Can’t Skip Once you have a topic picked out, it is time to plan out your paper. There are a few steps that you should take before writing your paper. These steps will make you spend more time in planning, but if you do them correctly, they are sure to help you to save time when you are actually writing your paper. Let’s take a look at some tips that can help. Find Sources While parts of the essay will rely on the author’s opinion, these opinions need to be backed up with facts if they are to be reliable and believable. One of the first sources you should use if you are writing about Shakespeare’s life are Shakespeare biographies. If you are writing about the plays of sonnets, then using those writings (written in the original English) is best. To find a complete list (with links) of Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets, you can use this link. Shakespeare’s actual works would be primary sources for your paper. Primary sources, in the case of writing a Shakespeare essay, would be anything that Shakespeare wrote himself. Other sources you might want to consider for your essay are secondary sources. These are sources that in some way discuss or interpret a primary source. Examples of secondary sources you could use for your paper include a biography written about Shakespeare, commentary made on his plays, or an interpretation of what certain words could mean in today’s English. Take Notes This tip is helpful whether you are writing an essay or a larger paper. Whenever you find something that you want to remember, make sure to write it down. Students tend to remember things more easily when they write on paper, rather than typing. You will also want to write down vital information, like the books or websites you used to find the notes, the page number of the information, and who wrote the information. This will be useful in finding the source again later. When you take your notes, you do not need to write a complete first draft. Simply, write down the important interpretations and commentary you find in secondary sources and interesting quotes you find in your primary source. You may even want to add notes on your own opinion to these pages so you remember them when you begin writing your paper. Outline While this step is not necessary to writing a paper, some students may find it useful to begin their paper by writing an outline. Even this article was written beginning with an outline! This shows that knowing how to use an outline can be practical, not only in school but in a career. There are several online outline makers that you can use to start you off with. One great outline maker is the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School Outline. Click on the link to go to their website. To use this tool, you can simply fill in the text boxes as labeled. Once you are done, click â€Å"Create Outline.†Ã‚   Below is a sample outline we made with the website that could be used for a Shakespeare essay. Romeo and Juliet: More Tragic than Romantic Jane Doe I.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Introduction A.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Background B.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   When Romeo and Juliet was originally written, it was meant to be portrayed as a tragedy. Over the years, viewers have begun to see the play as more romantic. This essay will discuss what moments makes the play a tragedy. II.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Young Love Gone Wrong A.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Juliet was supposed to be with Paris, a much older man. However, she could not talk to her father about this, which may have prompted her to seek a relationship with the much younger Romeo. Essay Formatting Most essays are formatted in the same way. Below is a short list of the components usually included in an essay. Keep this list in mind as you are writing your paper. Once you have looked them over, skip down to the next paragraph to learn more about each section. Title Thesis statement/introduction Body paragraphs Conclusion Reference Page Title Writing the title can be a daunting task. Some students get so caught up on writing a title that they don’t get started on their paper. To avoid having this happen to you, simply wait until you are finished writing your paper to make up a title. Once you have everything written, it should be much easier to think of a title. If all else fails, simply make the title the name of the play you are looking over, or even a quote from the play. Thesis Statement/Introduction Like the title, an introduction can also be hard to write at first. After all, how are you supposed to write a paragraph on what your essay is about when you haven’t even written your essay yet? Like the title, you can wait until you have finished the rest of your paper to write the introduction. Just go back and write it in. It’s as simple as that. The thesis statement is always a part of the introduction. It is usually one of the last sentences in the introductory paragraph. Dictionary.com says it best when they write that a thesis statement is, â€Å"a short statement, usually one sentence, that summarizes the main point or claim of an essay, research paper, etc† So, try to state the main point of your essay. It doesn’t need to be too long, just so long as the reader knows what the essay is about by reading your thesis statement. Body Paragraphs Body paragraphs will make up the bulk of your paper. This is where you will state your opinions, or main points, and back up your claims using either lines from the plays/sonnets or with information from a secondary source. The first sentence of each body paragraph (most essays have three) should contain the main point of the paragraph; the middle sentences should back up your main point with information; and the final sentence should summarize the paragraph. Conclusion Conclusions are usually easy enough to write. As the name implies, you will conclude your essay in this paragraph. In a way, it’s almost like your introductory paragraph. Restate the main point of your whole paper, as well as the main points of your body paragraphs, and that’s it! Reference Pages Depending on your teacher’s requirements, you are likely to need to have a reference page at the end of your paper. Most English classes will require you format your paper with the MLA (Modern Language Association) formatting. However, other teachers or classes may require you to use another style guide. For a list of all style guides, with links on how to use them, click here. Post-Writing Tips Once you are done writing your paper, there are a couple of things you can do to make sure your essay is great. The first thing to do is to go over a general edit of your paper. There are a few ways to do this. You may want to begin by reading over your essay or having someone else look over your essay, to see what mistakes you can catch. After that, you can use a grammar/spelling checker, like Grammarly, to catch and fix those kinds of mistakes. The next thing you will want to do before you turn in your paper is to make sure that you have put in all of your references. Some classes may only require you to have a references page, while others will require you to also use internal citations. You can use this link to find the requirements for doing either of these tasks with whatever style guide your teacher requires you to use. We hope that this guide on how to write a Shakespeare essay helps you to write your paper, whether it be for a college or high school class. Using our   Shakespeare essay tips and topic ideas above, you are sure to have a great start on your paper already. Good luck!

Why the New Hampshire Primary Is so Important

Why the New Hampshire Primary Is so Important Soon after Hillary Clinton announced to the world Im running for president  in the 2016 election, her  campaign made it clear what her next steps would be: She would travel to New Hampshire, where she won in 2008, well ahead of the primaries there to make her case directly to voters. So whats the big deal about New Hampshire, a state that offers up only four electoral votes in the presidential election? Why does everyone - the candidates, the media, the American public - pay so much attention to The Granite State? Here are four reasons why the New Hampshire primaries are so important. The New Hampshire Primaries Are First New Hampshire holds its primaries before anyone else. The state protects its status as first in the nation by maintaining a law that allows New Hampshires top elections official to move the date earlier if another state tries to pre-empt its primary. The parties, too, can punish states that try to move their primaries before New Hampshires. So the state is  a proving ground for campaigns. The winners capture some early, and important, momentum in the race for their partys presidential nomination. They become instant frontrunners, in other words. The losers are forced to re-evaluate their campaigns. New Hampshire Can Make or Break a Candidate Candidates who dont do well in New Hampshire are forced to take a hard look at their campaigns. As President John F. Kennedy famously said,  If they dont love you in March, April and May, they wont love you in November.   Some candidates quit after the New Hampshire primary, as President Lyndon Johnson did in 1968 after winning only a narrow victory against U.S.  Sen. Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota. The sitting president came within just 230 votes of losing the New Hampshire primary - an unprecedented failure - in what Walter Cronkite called a major setback. For others, a win in the New Hampshire primary cements the path to the White House. In 1952, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower won after his friends got him on the ballot. Eisenhower went on to win the White House against  Democrat Estes Kefauver that year. The World Watches New Hampshire Presidential politics has become a spectator sport in the United States. Americans love a horse race, and thats what the media serve up: Endless public-opinion polls and interviews with voters in the run-up to Election Day. The New Hampshire primary is to political junkies what Opening Day is to Major League baseball fans. That is to say: Its a really big deal.   The Media Watch New Hampshire The first primary of the presidential election season used to allow the television networks a trial run at reporting results. The networks compete to be first to call the race. In  Martin Plissners book The Control Room: How Television Calls the Shots in Presidential Elections,  the February 1964 New Hampshire primary was described as a  media  circus and, therefore, the center of the political worlds  attention.   Over a thousand correspondents, producers, technicians and support people of all kinds descended on New Hampshire, its voters and its merchants to confer the special franchise they have ever since enjoyed ... Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, New Hampshire was the first test in every cycle of the networks speed in declaring winners of elections. While networks continue to compete against each other to be first to call the race, they are overshadowed by digital media in reporting the results first. The emergence of online news sites has only served to add to the carnival-like atmosphere of news coverage in the state.

The Transfer of Japanese-Style Management to American Subsidiaries Research Paper

The Transfer of Japanese-Style Management to American Subsidiaries - Research Paper Example Firstly, the organization should desist from over-depending on personal relationships. Within Japanese sales situations, personal relations with customers are the single most crucial aspect of sales. This is hardly ever the case in the US. Although personal relations are essential in the US, they are not as vital as in Japan (Beechler and Yang 482). Americans are more independent than the Japanese and do not conform to a culturally established need to seek out personal relationships. Often, Americans find it vital to deter the appearance of favoritism opting to conduct business strictly on an emotionally distant basis. It is, therefore, critical that the Japanese realize that they should conduct business primarily on the basis of price, product fit or quality regardless of personal relationships. A notable benefit to the Japanese company is that, as a consequence of the natural interpersonal distance in the US business relations; the conventional Japanese requirement of sending expen sive seasonal gifts to potential, current, and past customers is not necessary. In truth, many Americans consider Japanese gift-giving practices as expensive, excessive and reason for ethical concern. In addition, the Japanese company will also need to change its culture of disparaging the company. In order to show humility and proper hierarchical status, Japanese businesspeople often criticize, disparage and demean themselves, their own products and company. Although this form of outward humility is a norm in Japan, it can result in diminished sales in the US. A Japanese customer automatically understands that a Japanese businessperson demeaning his company or product does so out of cultural behavior even in the event that the product is the best in the industry (Beechler and Yang 486). This is not so in the US, hence in order to attain success in the US production industry, Digital Frontier should express confidence by touting the strength of its  products and services.

Constantine I The Great Emperor Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Constantine I The Great Emperor - Essay Example The right of choosing one’s religion earned him a place in people’s hearts and his actions earned him great public support. Not only did he ‘legalize’ Christianity, he took deep interest in their matters and formed the Ecumenical Council of Catholic church which was the first of its kind (Odahl). To make worship easy for the public, he constructed a lot of Churches in his empire which was previously only filled with Roman temples. The property that was seized during the great persecution was returned to the rightful owners and the Christian officials were restored to their ranks (Kousoulas). All the wrongs done by his predecessors were corrected and a new era started which offered a promising future for the Christians. All of his actions not only allowed the Christians to practice their religion freely and proudly but it also created a scenario in which it was advantageous to be a Christian. The political image of Constantine improved after Galerius recogni zed Constantine as an emperor. As a customary act, a portrait of Constantine was brought to Rome as recognition of his emperorship. Maxentius was the son of Maximan, the former emperor and also the son-in-law of the emperor Galerius. He had an arch rivalry with Constantine and wanted to take over the empire as his own. Maxentius was full of hatred and jealousy and he could not bear his powerlessness while Constantine having so much authority. The empire faced serious threats from the side of Maxentius when he seized the title in 306. Galerius did not recognize Maxentius as an emperor but he was not strong enough to depower him. Galerius sent a military force against Maxentius under the leadership of Severus but they were defeated and Severus was taken... The political image of Constantine improved after Galerius recognized Constantine as an emperor. As a customary act, a portrait of Constantine was brought to Rome as recognition of his emperorship. Maxentius was the son of Maximan, the former emperor and also the son-in-law of the emperor Galerius. He had an arch rivalry with Constantine and wanted to take over the empire as his own. Maxentius was full of hatred and jealousy and he could not bear his powerlessness while Constantine having so much authority. The empire faced serious threats from the side of Maxentius when he seized the title in 306. Galerius did not recognize Maxentius as an emperor but he was not strong enough to depower him. Galerius sent a military force against Maxentius under the leadership of Severus but they were defeated and Severus was taken prisoner. Constantine tried to reestablish old ties so that empire does not suffer from bloodshed and chaos. Maximan offered Fausta, his daughter to Constantine which wou ld promote him to the rank of an Augustan. In return, Constantine offered his support for Maxentius and the family ties were reformed. During his rule, Licenius also had to suffer defeat. Licenius’ defeat symbolized the defeat of the pagan practices prevalent in the East. In order to integrate the East into the Roman Empire, it was suggested that a new capital of the empire should be formed. Constantine planned a strategic campaign in companionship with the Sarmatians against the Goths.

Dr Nick Mercer Essay Example for Free

Dr Nick Mercer Essay 1. Explain the logical positivism principle and how it leads Ayer to reject claims about values, God, and the afterlife. The cornerstone of LP beliefs was the principle of verification. This claims that a statement only has meaning if it is either analytic or empirically verifiable. An analytic statement is true (or false) just in virtue of the meaning of the words; â€Å"a bachelor is an unmarried man† is an analytically true, while â€Å"a square has three sides† is analytically false. A statement is empirically verifiable if empirical evidence would go towards establishing that the statement is true or false. For example, if I say â€Å"The moon is made of green cheese†, we can check this by scientific investigation. If I say â€Å"The universe has 600 trillion planets†, we can’t check this by scientific investigation in practice, but we can do so in principle. We know how to show whether it is true or false, so it is â€Å"verifiable† even if we can’t verify it. The principle of verification entails that claims about values, about what is right or wrong are meaningless. They are neither true nor false because they do not actually state anything. If I say â€Å"murder is wrong†, this is not analytic,  nor can any empirical investigation show this. We can show that murder causes grief and pain, or that it is often done out of anger. But we cannot demonstrate, in the same way, that is wrong. 2. What objection to logical positivism is based on ethics? â€Å"Statements of value† are empirical propositions – they are statements about our psychology or sociology. For instance, let’s try a though experiment. This one is from Jonathan Haidt. Julie and Mark are brother and sister and they go up to a cabin they know and spend the night there. While spending the night there they have sex with  each other, Julie in on the pill and Mark uses a condom so there is no chance that Julie will have a baby. The next morning they felt pretty good, they don’t feel shameful at all. Is what they did wrong? Incest thought experiment: people have in-built ‘yuck’ instinctive reaction towards incest (evolutionary psychology: evolved to have certain responses that lead to rapid judgments without being subject to reason). This statement of value describes a fact about our evolutionary psychology. 3. What four parts does a typical â€Å"system of ethics† have? State which parts are  philosophical and which are not, and explain why. 1. Definitions of ethical terms (i. e. the â€Å"good†, the â€Å"right†) 2. Descriptions of moral experience (feelings of approbation and disapprobation towards certain acts and certain people) 3. Exhortations to moral virtue (prescriptive commands that commend you to act in a certain way or have a certain character) 4. Ethical judgments (the process by which we come to decisions on whether an act or person is moral) Only the first one is philosophical. This is because in defining ethical terms one is an attempt to establish foundations for the claim that there is moral  knowledge. Defining the â€Å"good† in terms of the â€Å"right† or in terms of â€Å"value† is a properly philosophical inquiry because Descriptions of moral experience can be assigned to psychology and sociology. Exhortations to moral virtues are not propositions, they are commands designed to provoke the person into action. Ethical judgments have yet to be classified. 4. Why does Ayer reject the idea that â€Å"good† is definable in empirical terms? If we try and define the â€Å"good† in empirical terms, i. e. , the â€Å"good† is what is pleasurable (what is pleasurable can be empirically verified), or the â€Å"good† is  what is desired (what we feel towards people and acts can be empirically verified), in both cases we can show that some pleasant things are not good and that bad things are desired. By doing so we are demonstrating that it is not self-contradictory to say that pleasant things are not good. Empirical statements can be show to be true or false – X is Y, or X is not Y, but they can’t be both true and false – this is a contradiction. Pleasure can be both good and bad; desire can be both good and bad; without contradiction, so it is not definable in empirical terms. 5. Why does Ayer reject the idea that moral judgments can be known by intuition as self-evident truths? Intuitionism is moral theory that claims that basic judgments about what is good are intuitions. A self-evident judgment has no other evidence or proof but its own plausibility. Intuitionism is a form of moral foundationalism; our intuitions about what is good are self-evident judgments that require no other beliefs to support them. G. E. Moore argued that the â€Å"good† cannot be defined in any other terms as this would be committing the naturalistic fallacy: equating â€Å"good† with any natural  property like â€Å"happiness† Ayer rejects intuitionism on the basis that people disagree about what is intuitively self-evident. 6. How does Ayer analyse moral judgments? What does â€Å"Stealing is wrong mean†? Are such judgments true or false? â€Å"Stealing money is wrong† has no factual content. It is like exclaiming â€Å"stealing money! † It is an emotional expression, like saying â€Å"boo† to a team you don’t like. Expressions of moral sentiments can’t be true or false, just as feeling in love is not something that can be said to be true or false – your feelings can be misguided but they are not false. 7. Besides expressing feelings, what do moral judgments do? Arouse feeling on others. They can be prescriptive: â€Å"It is your duty to tell the truth† is both an emotive expression and an expression of the command â€Å"Tell the truth†. 8. What is the proper citation for determining the validity of a moral judgment? Moral judgments have no objective validity. They are not propositional and cannot be said to be valid or invalid, true or false. The correct citation for a moral judgment is to think of them as emotional exclamations: â€Å"Boo-hurrah! † 9. On Ayer’s view, does â€Å"Stealing is wrong† mean â€Å"I disapprove of stealing† or â€Å"I  dislike stealing†? To say â€Å"I disapprove of stealing† or â€Å"I dislike stealing† are subjectivist positions. To say â€Å"stealing is wrong† is to assert how you feel about stealing, and these statements are propositions about the speaker’s feelings (it is true or false whether the speaker has these feelings or not). For Ayer, the statement â€Å"Stealing is wrong† has no propositional content. It gives no indication of the truth of the speaker’s feelings but rather it is just an emotive expression. 10. To what extent are ethical disagreements resolvable by rational means? We attempt to show that someone is mistaken about facts. Emotivists suggest that we can argue over facts. For instance, I had an argument with my father when he came to Singapore as he refused to eat in a restaurant that was selling Shark Fin soup. His reasoning was that the practice of cutting fins of sharks and throwing them back into the water is cruel and causes great suffering to the shark. I then asked him if he shops at Woolworths which stock eggs laid by battery hens: hens kept in tiny cages their whole lives which is cruel and causes great suffering. The disagreement could be potentially resolved if my dad excepted that it was  logically inconsistent to say that he wouldn’t eat at a restaurant that sold shark fin soup but he would shop at a supermarket that sold eggs laid by battery hens. But once we agree on all the facts in a moral disagreement there still might be a dispute over attitudes. For example, I might hold the attitude that human beings are much more sophisticated animals than sharks or hens and so the suffering of these animals for our purposes is justified. You might hold the attitude that while human being are more sophisticated animals than sharks or hens this does not justify the suffering of these animals for our purposes.

Sea-Cucumbers :: Personal Narrative Writing

Sea-Cucumbers I have always found sea-cucumbers to be strange. If you have ever been snorkeling, you may or may not have noticed these elongated vegetables on the sea floor. I suppose I shouldn’t call them vegetables though, because they are slightly more ‘cognizant’ than garden-variety greenery. Instead I have dubbed them ocean-turds, because honestly, they do look the great defecation of a marine mammoth. They are also well-shaped, perfectly cylindrical turds at that! I am rambling again. Forgive me. In eighth grade, my parents and I took a trip to Japan. My dad is a baseball scout, and instead of flying over solo to give the Kyoto Carps the once-over, he decided to make the scout into a family vacation. I was skeptical. I don’t like seafood, and here we are, going to a country that eats raw fish and that names its baseball teams after blunt-nosed marine life. The city itself seemed a bouleversement of day and night. Humanity’s great invention, the lightbulb, mocked with overwhelming voltage, density, and quantity nature’s celestial fireballs. Bulbs, the imitators, the pupils of fusion, now ridiculed night with flashes from across the spectrum. As we drove into Tokyo, I couldn’t believe that its citizens were able to sleep at night, what with such lambent pollution. But I was eager to walk the streets, to run into the shops that beckoned to me with signs for Sony and with gadgetry that inhabited the display windows. The hotel room had paper walls! As an American used to a room’s noiseless seclusion, I liked the idea that here, rooms were not meant to be space with a relentless fixation on privacy. I promptly made my mark. Restless after the long plane flight, I was bouncing off the walls when I literally poked an extremity through one. You can image my surprise at discovering such fragility. I am in the holy land of ninjas and samurai, and I have just punched my way through a wall. Awesome! I felt like ‘the kid’ from â€Å"Karate Kid.† All that was missing was the exotic, ruminative twang and non-western modality of Asian music. Of course, my ninjas-and-gadgets glorification of the place was, alas, not meant to be. My fun and games had to be extinguished; a foot had to be put down and that foot was Japan’s ooey-gooey cuisine. My dad was interested in one of the Carp’s players, and as was customary, the team’s owner felt a strong sense of duty to take us out for a traditional Japanese dinner, so that the two of them could discuss arrangements for the trade.

Nineteen Eighty Four Essay

Nineteen Eighty Four is George Orwell’s nightmare vision of the future. Written in 1948, at the end of World War II, Orwell simply switched numbers for his future view. The opening chapter is very effective in the way that it straight away lets the reader know the style of the novel. The opening is a description of post-war London, and the introduction of the main character. Orwell saw the evil in the war just passed, and wrote about it. The imagery used can all be linked to the war or London. The novel is not personal, with more reference to the party and regimes, Orwell was a political writer, an extreme socialist. He is criticizing any political regime, socialist or fascist. Right from the outset the author intends to draw attention to the setting. The chapter is typical of the book as a whole; describing Orwell’s dystopia. The main character we are first introduced to is Winston Smith. This is a common, English name, showing that Winston is in no way separate from the majority. The name â€Å"Winston† can be linked to Winston Churchill, who had just lead England through the war. Along with the name, Winston is not presented as a hero, as one would expect of a main character. Winston is â€Å"thirty nine and had a varicose ulcer above his right ankle† and is incredibly unfit, â€Å"resting several times† on his way up the stairs. We are not, however, given a personality for our hero; we have to wait until part II of the novel to get personal detail. The opening passage introduces us to life for Winston. The settings described are not pleasant. Outside, there is a â€Å"vile wind† and â€Å"a swirl if gritty dust. † Inside Victory Mansions, where Winston resides, for it cannot be said that he â€Å"lives†, it is not much better. â€Å"The hallway smelt of boiled cabbage and old rag mats. † This gives the impression of rotting and deterioration. Everything is rationed; this is a reference to the war. â€Å"The present electric current was cut off during daylight hours. † Winston uses â€Å"blunt razor blades† and â€Å"coarse soap. † There is no colour described in the opening, the picture of the settings in the reader’s mind are black and white, therefore giving a sense of a grey, unhappy world. The people of London are not free. There is an imposing poster everywhere one turned, bearing the caption, â€Å"BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU. † The man in the poster, â€Å"the face of a man of about forty-five, with a heavy black moustache and ruggedly handsome features† could very well be Hitler or Stalin, another reference to the war. There is a sense of being watched, â€Å"the enormous face gazed from the wall. It was one of those pictures so contrived that the eyes follow you about when you move. † The notion of Big Brother is introduced to us in the first ten lines of the novel, this clearly shows us where Orwell’s intentions lie. We are introduced to the concept of â€Å"Hate Week,† although no further detail is given. Orwell writes of it as though it is an every day event and nothing obscure should be thought of it. Big Brother is the antithesis of Winston, strong and powerful vs. frail and weak. The reader gets the impression Winston could never overthrow the party, although we are not yet introduced to his rebellious side as he does not yet have a character. We are introduced to the party slogans. The set out of them is a triangle, representing hierarchy, authority. The words are oxymorons, War and Peace, Freedom and Slavery, Ignorance and Strength. The words are ironic when used next to each other. They are each the antithesis of the other. If you take away people’s knowledge, you can tamper with their minds, as shown in the last slogan. Once inside Winston’s flat, we are introduced to the telescreens, furthering the notion that no one is free. There are helicopters that look into the houses and the telescreens that watch you. There is a description of a â€Å"dulled mirror† but mirrors cannot be dull, or the view would be distorted, this is another message from Orwell showing us nothing was clear. We get more description of Winston, still nothing personal, and still anti-heroic, â€Å"a smallish, frail figure, the meagerness of his body merely emphasized by the blue overalls which were the uniform of the party. † We get the impression he is not well. Everything he can see from his window is unpleasant, â€Å"the world looked cold,† it was â€Å"torn† and â€Å"harsh. † References to the war are frequent. The â€Å"Ninth Three-Year Plan† is ironic, because it would not be possible, and the Three-Year Plan relates to the plan Germany had after the war. The houses are describes as â€Å"rotting,† and â€Å"their sides shored up with baulks of timber, their windows patched with cardboard and their roofs with corrugated iron. † This is war-torn London. The place Winston lives, Oceania is at war. Orwell suggests the war is just a tool used by the party to keep the people oppressed. We are introduced to the Ministries. Their descriptions are the antithesis of the houses described. They are described as â€Å"startlingly different† and they are a wonder to look at. The Ministries are of Truth, Love, Peace and Plenty. The irony lies in the fact that the Ministry of love was the frightening one. Things were done with military precision, even the time is in twenty-four hour clock. The Ministries were guarded by uniformed, armed guards, â€Å"gorilla-faced guards. † Orwell uses alliteration to emphasize how imposing and horrible they looked. Another war image. The opening chapter is very effective in making the reader wan to read on, as it makes you feel you are reading history. This is because we are reading with hindsight. The reader feels they want to get to know Winston better because of what they have so far read. Orwell is effective is his opening because the settings are so well described that you instantly get a mental picture and are intrigued by the contrast between the war-torn London so well known and the surreal idea of helicopters looking in windows. It makes the reader wonder what might have happened had the war turned out differently, and Orwell’s Big Brother, Hitler or Stalin, had been successful.

The Way You Speak

Yelling, making snarly comments, talking in what as well be a different language to most people are just parts of the way you speak. Depending on the situation you are going to speak differently. If you are at Work, with your friends, or with your family more than likely you talk almost as a different person. At work you should be acting professional and speaking in a more proper way. Using more of a â€Å"Yes sir† way of speaking is the way to talk.However different jobs would call for a certain way to talk. My job for example isn’t very formal or even professional. I work with people I’ve known for years, so I really don’t change the way I talk unless customers are around; then I become a completely different person. I become a cheerful, nice, and talkative person which isn’t really me at all. Loud, offensive, funny, rude, or downright wrong more than likely you’re talking with your friends.The things you say around your friends might seem mean to other people but to you and your friends it’s normal to you. For example, with my friends we say things that seem stupid and out of context to most people but to us it makes perfect sense. Every group of friends is going to speak differently, completely informal for the most part. If your family is anything like mine, nothing is off limits. I talk almost the exact same to my family as I do with my friends.Maybe less swearing, but virtually the same language. Unless I’m around my grandparents then I turn into a kid again and don’t say anything they wouldn’t approve of. Obviously every situation calls for different language, whether it be talking to someone new, your friends and family, or your boss. Every way is going to be different from the last. Friends and family usually don’t care how you talk, but your boss is a completely different story.

This essay discribes the roman bathing system.

This essay discribes the roman bathing system. Many Romans visited the Thermae or the public baths, as we know them. Bathing was a very important in Italy, as there were over 900 baths by 300 AD.The baths were huge buildings built by emperors or by the public. On the inside, they looked luxurious. An average bathhouse would have mirrors on the wall, ceiling covered in glass, rich marble lining the pools and complicated mosaics decorated the floor.Here is a picture of a small privet bath. All baths consisted of mainly the same things, and would be visited in this order. First, they went to the Apodytarium. This is were you would get undressed and oils would be rubbed on your body. Then after bathing you would scrape it of with an instrument called a strigil. Next, you would enter the Tepidarium. This was a warm room with a warm pool. It would prepare you for the hotter rooms.English: The tepidarium (lukewarm bath) of the Old...After this, you would proceed to the Caldarium. When your body temperature got used to the Tepidarium her e is where you'd come. This room was very hot and as well as steamy. It consisted of hot water bathes and some even had a Laconium (a steam bath) which was extremely hot and very dry. Finally, you would go to the Frigidarium. This was a cold room with a cold pool. The main function of the Frigdarium was to cool you off after sweating in the hot rooms.To keep the baths and rooms hot the Romans used a system called the Hypocaust system. This was an underground heating system, which heated hot air from basement fires. The hot air flows through the wall ducts into the rooms and baths heating them quickly. In some bathes, the floors would be so hot that bathers had to wear wooden...

The Unexpected Presidency of Gerald R. Ford

The Unexpected Presidency of Gerald R. Ford Becoming vice president or President of the United States are no small feats. But between 1973 and 1977, Gerald R. Ford did both- without ever getting a single vote. How did he do that? In the early 1950s, when Michigans Republican Party leaders urged him to run for the  U.S. Senate  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ generally considered the next step to the presidency – Ford declined, stating that his ambition was to become  Speaker of the House, a position he called the ultimate achievement† at the time. â€Å"To sit up there and be the head honcho of 434 other people and have the responsibility, aside from the achievement, of trying to run the greatest  legislative  body in the history of mankind,† said Ford, â€Å"I think I got that ambition within a year or two after I was in the House of Representatives.† But after over a decade of putting forth his best efforts, Ford continually failed to be chosen as a speaker. Finally, he promised his wife Betty that if the speakership eluded him again in 1974, he would retire from Congress and political life in 1976. But far from returning to the farm, Gerald Ford was about to become the first person to have served as both Vice President and President of the United States without being elected to either office.   Suddenly, its Vice President Ford In October 1973, President  Richard M. Nixon  was serving his second term in the White House when his Vice President  Spiro Agnew  resigned before pleading no contest to federal charges of tax evasion and money laundering related to his acceptance of $29,500 in bribes while governor of Maryland. In the first ever application of the vice-presidential vacancy provision of the  25th Amendment  to the U.S. Constitution, President Nixon nominated then House Minority Leader Gerald Ford to replace Agnew. On November 27, the Senate voted 92 to 3 to confirm Ford, and on December 6, 1973, the House confirmed Ford by a vote of 387 to 35. One hour after the House voted, Ford was sworn in as Vice President of the United States.   When he agreed to accept President Nixons nomination, Ford told Betty that the Vice Presidency would be a nice conclusion to his political career. Little did they know, however,  that Fords political career was anything but over.   The Unexpected Presidency of Gerald Ford As Gerald Ford was getting used to the idea of being vice president,  a spellbound nation was watching the  Watergate scandal  unfold.   During the 1972 presidential campaign, five men employed by President Nixons Committee to Re-elect the President had allegedly broken into the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington D.C.s Watergate hotel, in an attempt to steal information related to Nixons opponent, George McGovern. On August 1, 1974, after weeks of accusations and denials, President Nixons Chief of Staff Alexander Haig visited Vice President Ford to tell him that the smoking gun evidence in the form of Nixon’s secret Watergate tapes had been exposed. Haig told Ford that conversations on the tapes left little doubt that President Nixon had taken part in, if not ordered, the cover-up of the Watergate break-in. At the time of Haigs visit, Ford and his wife Betty were still living in their suburban Virginia home while the vice presidents residence in Washington, D.C. was being renovated. In his memoirs, Gord would later say of the day, Al Haig asked to come over and see me, to tell me that there would be a new tape released on a Monday, and he said the evidence in there was devastating and there would probably be either an impeachment or a resignation. And he said, Im just warning you that youve got to be prepared, that these things might change dramatically and you could become president. And I said, Betty, I dont think were ever going to live in the vice presidents house.   With his impeachment almost certain, President Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974. According to the process of presidential succession, Vice President Gerald R. Ford was immediately sworn in as the 38th President of the United States.  Ã‚   In a live, nationally televised speech from the East Room of the White House, Ford stated, I am acutely aware that you have not elected me as your president by your ballots, and so I ask you to confirm me as your president with your prayers.   President Ford went on to add, My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over. Our Constitution works; our great Republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here, the people rule. But there is a higher power, by whatever name we honor Him, who ordains not only righteousness but love, not only justice but mercy. Let us restore the golden rule to our political process, and let brotherly love purge our hearts of suspicion and hate.   When the dust had settled, Fords prediction to Betty had come true. The couple moved into the White House without ever living in the vice presidents house.   As one of his first official acts, President Ford exercised Section 2 of the 25th Amendment and nominated Nelson A. Rockefeller of New York to be vice president. On August 20, 1974, both Houses of Congress voted to confirm the nomination and Mr. Rockefeller took the oath of office December 19, 1974.   Ford Pardons Nixon On September 8, 1974, President Ford granted former President Nixon a full and unconditional presidential pardon absolving him of any crimes he might have committed against the United States while president. In a nationally televised TV broadcast, Ford explained his reasons for granting the controversial pardon, stating that the Watergate situation had become â€Å"a tragedy in which we all have played a part. It could go on and on and on, or someone must write the end to it. I have concluded that only I can do that, and if I can, I must.† About the 25th Amendment Had it happened prior to the ratification of the 25th Amendment on Februayr 10, 1967, the resignations of Vice President Agnew and then President Nixon would have almost certainly triggered a monumental constitutional crisis.The 25th Amendment  superseded the wording of Article II, Section 1, Clause 6 of the Constitution, which failed to clearly state that the vice president becomes president if the president dies, resigns, or otherwise becomes incapacitated and unable to perform the duties of the office. It also specified the current method and order of presidential succession. Prior to the 25th Amendment, there had been incidents when the president was incapacitated. For example, when President Woodrow Wilson suffered a debilitating stroke on October 2, 1919, he was not replaced in office, as First Lady Edith Wilson, along with the White House Physician, Cary T. Grayson, covered up the extent of President Wilsons disability.  For the next 17 months, Edith Wilson actually carried out many presidential duties.   On 16 occasions, the nation had gone without a vice president because of the vice president had died or had become president through succession. For example, there was no vice president for almost four years after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. The assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, prompted Congress to push for a constitutional amendment. Early, erroneous reports that Vice President Lyndon Johnson had also been shot created several chaotic hours in the federal government. Happing so soon after the Cuban Missile Crisis and with Cold War tensions still at a fever pitch, the Kennedy assassination forced Congress to come up with a specific method of determining presidential succession. New President Johnson experienced several health issues, and the next two officials in line for the presidency were 71-year-old Speaker of the House John Cormack and 86-year-old Senate President Pro Tempore Carl Hayden. Within three months of Kennedys death, the House and Senate passed a joint resolution that would be submitted to the states as the 25th Amendment. On February 10, 1967, Minnesota and Nebraska became the 37th and 38th states to ratify the amendment, making it the law of the land.

Lifes Greatest Lesson Learned (must also include 1 direct quote from Essay

Lifes Greatest Lesson Learned (must also include 1 direct quote from book tuesdays with Morrie so reading this book is required) Read FULL Directions - Essay Example I learned from experience that there is something to the non-violent ways of many of our greatest leaders, from Martin Luther King to the Dalai Lama, that allows people to take control of their lives and to be immune from harm. I learned that non-violence is the only sane way to live. I see for instance that many on-going fights are the result of people retaliating from perceived or real hurts inflicted on them by others. I witness this daily. Each is a never-ending downward spiral of violence and pain, to the point where those fighting forget where it all started. The way to stop this is to stop retaliating. To nip it in the bud, the best policy is to not begin the cycle of hate, and to respond to negativity with its opposite. I know this is hard to practice, but in practical terms, those who are non-violent also are less likely to get into trouble with the law because they make it a policy not to harm others. They have peace in their lives, and are not afraid to go anywhere thinkin g that someone will come hurt them out of revenge. Being a peaceful person is simply the best way to live on earth (Albom, 1997). I learned too that living by the rules of love also means doing the work that we love, rather than aiming for work that gets us to a better place in terms getting ahead in life, or making more money. In a way this is a form of self-love too, to be in tune with what we really want to do, rather than allowing material considerations dictate how we are to spend our lives. I learned that when I do things out of a genuine interest and love, rather than to show off or to gain something in the short term, I do poorly. My heart is not in it, and I hurry to finish. I do not feel good about the work that I do in this spirit. I want to move on to other things right away. On the other hand, with some activities that I love, time seems to fly, and my

Maximizing profits in market structures Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Maximizing profits in market structures - Essay Example Monopoly – The monopoly is the only producer of a particular good or service; therefore, it has a downward-sloping demand curve. If the firm sells its product at a high price, it will be able to sell only a small quantity because few people would be able to afford it, and there are not substitutes. If the firm would wish to sell more units of the product, it will have to lower its prices (Mankiw, 2009). The type of product may be homogeneous or differentiated and the monopoly firm has full control over its price (Jain & Khanna, 2009). Oligopoly – An oligopoly is a market with only a few suppliers. Because they are so few, actions taken by one seller creates an impact on the other sellers, such that they become interdependent upon each other. They therefore tend to behave pursuant to certain strategies depending on the actions of the other firms (Mankiw, 2009), and there are situations that alternatively present opportunities for conflict and for cooperation. The product may be homogeneous or differentiated (Jain & Khanna, 2009). ... For monopolies, P > MR = MC (price exceeds marginal costs). The firm first determines the output quantity at which it will produce, at the point where marginal revenue and marginal costs are equal. The demand curve is thereafter used to determine the highest price the firm may charge in order to sell the quantity determined. This is so because the demand curve tells the quantity buyers are willing to buy at a certain price. Oligopoly – For oligopolies, the profits a firm makes depends to a great deal of what its competitors make, because there are so few of them supplying the market. Based on this observation, game theory has been developed, the method by which a firm in an oligopoly tries to predict how its competitors will react if it makes a strategic move. For instance, in an oligopoly it is generally observed that firm will lower their price in response to a price reduction by one of the other firms, particularly if the product they produce is homogeneous. However, if one of the firms raises its prices, the other firms do not automatically follow. The reason for this is that the firms whose prices are viewed as too high in comparison with its competitors would lose its buyers to those firms with lower prices, because their products are deemed to be easily substitutable with each other. The result is a kinked demand curve. Barriers to entry Competition - In a competitive market, the barriers to new entrants are low and few, if any, thus the market is open to many sellers and the products are undifferentiated as to be easily substituted. Everybody sells at the same price, and there is always demand at that price. Monopoly - For natural monopolies, barriers to new entrants are high because the