Othello †its Appeal Essay -- Othello essays

Othello – its Appeal  Ã‚        Ã‚   Let us examine the William Shakespeare drama Othello for the purpose of determining exactly what characteristics of the play are the outstanding ones which give it such universal appeal.    Othello would appear to have a beauty about it which is hard to match. Helen Gardner in â€Å"Othello: A Tragedy of Beauty and Fortune† touches on this beauty which enables this play to stand above the other tragedies of the Bard:    Among the tragedies of Shakespeare Othello is supreme in one quality: beauty. Much of its poetry, in imagery, perfection of phrase, and steadiness of rhythm, soaring yet firm, enchants the sensuous imagination. This kind of beauty Othello shares with Romeo and Juliet and Antony and Cleopatra; it is a corollary of the theme which it shares with them. But Othello is also remarkable for another kind of beauty. Except for the trivial scene with the clown, all is immediately relevant to the central issue; no scene requires critical justification. The play has a rare intellectual beauty, satisfying the desire of the imagination for order and harmony between the parts and the whole. Finally, the play has intense moral beauty. It makes an immediate appeal to the moral imagination, in its presentation in the figure of Desdemona of a love which does not alter ‘when it alteration finds’, but ‘bears it out even to the edge of doom’. (139)    The ability of the audience to identify with the characters in Othello– this is of primary importance. M.H. Abrams in The Norton Anthology of English Literature attributes the dramatist’s universality to his characters as well as to the relevance of his themes:    One preliminary document in the First Folio is by Shakespeare’s great... ...inceton University Press, 1965.    Gardner, Helen. â€Å"Othello: A Tragedy of Beauty and Fortune.† Readings on The Tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1996. Reprint from â€Å"The Noble Moor.† British Academy Lectures, no. 9, 1955.    Heilman, Robert B. â€Å"The Role We Give Shakespeare.† Essays on Shakespeare. Ed. Gerald Chapman. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1965.    Levin, Harry. General Introduction. The Riverside Shakespeare. Ed. G. Blakemore Evans. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1974.    Shakespeare, William. Othello. In The Electric Shakespeare. Princeton University. 1996. http://www.eiu.edu/~multilit/studyabroad/othello/othello_all.html No line nos.    Wilkie, Brian and James Hurt. â€Å"Shakespeare.† Literature of the Western World. Ed. Brian Wilkie and James Hurt. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1992.

Psychological Conflicts In Literature(1) :: essays research papers

We all experience psychological conflicts, knowingly or unknowingly. They involve psychological conflicts among our thoughts, emotions, and rational thinking. It may be the most dangerous conflict of all due to the battleground in which it take place in -- our mind. There are many examples of psychological conflicts in the stories we have read. In "Leiningen Versus the Ants" by Carl Stephenson, Leiningen battled not only on his South American plantation, but in his mind. He struggled with the issue of running away and letting the ants take over his plantation. He wasn't a quitter and enjoys the mental aspects of things. But when the ants and the reality of death came, he had to resolve the conflict whether to stay or flee. This was especially true when he ran to the dam wheel. He could of fled then or died, but he chose to try to save the plantation and workers. He was faced with the conflict living or, perhaps the greatest psychological conflict, which he resolved when he chose to run to the wheel. In "The Contents of the Dead Man's Pockets" by Jack Finney, Tom also faced a psychological conflict. The story was mainly focused on his physical conflict, but near the end he experienced psychological conflict. As with Leiningen, Tom faced the choice to die or to live, and he realized with that conflict how much his wife meant to him. He overcame the conflict when, as we read, the yellow paper flew out the window again, but he left to be with his wife. In "Blues Ain't No Mockin'bird" by Toni Cade Bambara, Granny experienced a psychological conflict with her past treatment and her current conflict with Smiley and Camera. She struggled to break and maybe actually kill them or fall into depression, but she was successful in winning the conflict.

Hamlet Exam Study Guide Essay

What should Hamlet do? Explain the moral theories of each philosopher: Plato, Aristotle and Augustine. For each, determine the right thing for Hamlet to do. Then, assess the prince’s actions from the perspective of each recommendation. Plato Plato’s moral theory consisted of the concept of the soul and the concept of virtue as function. To Plato, the soul has three parts; reason, spirit, and appetite. The reason we do things is to reach a goal or value, our spirit drives us to accomplish our goal, and our desire for things is our appetite. The three virtues that must be fulfilled to reach the fourth, general virtue are temperance, courage, and wisdom, which correlate with the three parts of the soul. In order to achieve inner harmony, every part of the soul must be fulfilling its proper function. In Plato’s theory, Hamlet needs to look at the big picture of achieving inner harmony. In order to reach the goal of achieving inner harmony, Hamlet has to figure out another way of easing his anger other than the vengeance of his uncle. The virtues of temperance, courage, and wisdom need to be incorporated into Hamlet’s actions, and he would be able to reach his inner harmony. By keeping his reason in control of his will and appetites, he can use the dialectic to fulfill the knowledge on how to deal with the situation. Hamlet’s big picture of inner harmony was the death of his uncle. He wasn’t concerned about the consequences he would have to face in result, such as not achieving his goal. He was more concerned about feeding his appetite of revenge, and not re-evaluating his virtuous life. Although he held out on murdering his uncle a couple of times, he was still in rage and trying to please his father’s ghost, whatever the consequences were. He loved his mother, and wanted to save her, but he was more concerned with killing his uncle. Hamlet was not able to achieve inner harmony, since he did not have a proper functioning soul. Aristotle Aristotle’s moral theory involves the idea of living your life to the fullest happiness that can be reached. In order to achieve this final, we need to live a virtuous life according to the Golden mean, which is finding the middle grounds of the virtues we live by. Aristotle explains that we should continuously act in accordance with virtues, which are acquired from our upbringing and experiences. Because Aristotle believed in teleology, he said that by aiming our actions toward an end (happiness), our souls need to work in the way of excellence. Like Plato, Aristotle also gears toward reaching a goal. In order for Hamlet to achieve the goal of happiness, he needs to follow the golden mean to live the ideal life. Hamlet and Aristotle had the same question; what does it mean to be? Hamlet’s famous statement â€Å"to be or not to be† meant he did not know exactly how to put his feelings into action. Is it better to live with the knowing of the murder of his father, or is it better to die in the act of revenge. Aristotle would have Hamlet evaluate how he can fulfill the function of being a good person. To do this, Hamlet needs to act on the rational part of his soul and make the right choice in dealing with his knowledge of his father’s murder. Hamlet needs to live by the virtues of courage, temperance, justice, and wisdom. If Hamlet makes rational decisions based on these virtues, he will understand that he needs to be able to communicate to Claudius and let him know that he will not get away with what he has done. As the Prince, he needs to take action as a ruler and set a good example for the people of Denmark and other kingdoms. Then again, Aristotle gave a pass of negative behavior to the involuntary acts that are done as a result of external compulsion. So, as he may say that everyone has the potential to be good, they may still slip up due to impulses such as revenge against the uncle who killed Hamlet’s father and re-wed his mother. In the act of aiming toward an end, Hamlet may choose whether or not to follow the instrumental road or the intrinsic road. Since Hamlet had a couple of chances to kill the King, he kept holding out until he thought he would have a perfect opportunity. In the beginning, he was following a virtuous life, and toward the end, when he claimed to have â€Å"bloody† thoughts, he was gearing more toward the impulsive irrational part of his soul. He eventually followed this road, but his soul was dying anyways. Augustine In order to have faith, we need to understand the reason for spirituality. To know universal truth, we have to go beyond human reason to discover God. Since the soul cannot find peace among bodily pleasures or sensations, we need to understand what will bring happiness to our lives and how we can succeed as humans. Since God created us, we will find happiness only in him. We have free will to choose the City of God or the City of the World. In choosing the City of God, we are putting our faith in God to guide us to make the right choices in finding happiness, not materialistic things or other people. By devoting our ultimate love to God and having faith that God can provide us with happiness, we can fulfill our destiny. For Augustine, Hamlet needs to start praying. He needs to open his heart and have faith in God to take care of the situation. Since we are Gods people, only God can bring justice. The king may have done something horrible, but he has to answer to God in the end. Hamlet needs to stay on the right track and pray that God can save him from his horrible thoughts of having revenge on the king. God is the only one who can bring happiness to our lives and help us to succeed as humans. Hamlet needs to choose the City of God, and make the right choices to not worry about punishing other people. This is the only way that he will achieve the goal of happiness. Unfortunately, Hamlet did not look to God for the answer. He may have said some prayers, and asked for guidance, but he certainly did not follow what he knew he was supposed to do. Instead, he listened to the ghost of his father and aimed towards revenge. Hamlet may have thought he achieved what he was out to do, but in the end, his mother was poisoned to death, his lover, Ophelia, died along with her brother, Laertes, as well as his other two friends he had killed in England, the king died, and so did Hamlet himself. If he would have put his trust in God to deal with the murder of his father, he could have saved himself along with everyone else he cared so deeply for. God always has a plan.

Cyberbullying Essay

Many teens across the world are facing issues with cyber bullying. Not only are the teens being affected but their families too. People wonder what to do with this situation. With technology increasing, it’s making kids easier to bully one another online and through many different forms of technology. As cyber bullying has become the number one type of bullying, many lives are being affected. Cyber bullying is the use of the internet, cell phones, or other electronic communication devices to spread harmful or embarrassing information about another person (cyberbullying 1). It can also take many forms including, repeatedly sending emails to people who have said they don’t want contact with the sender. It includes sending threats, making sexual remarks, using offensive language or labels, or posting humiliating photos or videos, as well as spreading rumors or lies about the victim (cyberbullying 1). Numerous reports of cyber bullying have states questioning whether they s hould take action or not. In today’s society it is extremely easy to abuse the use of technology. Many teens and young adults express anger and other emotions toward one another through some type of media. As the number of cases rise, schools and states are passing more and more laws to protect the children and citizens of their community. Some people are arguing that we don’t need cyber bullying laws, that we already have laws against bullying and that should be enough. â€Å"Laws may be imperfect and enforcement may be difficult and spotty, but that’s better than nothing. I’d rather have anti-bullying laws that protect kids 90% of the time and have difficulties 10% of the time, than have no laws to stop cyber bullying and leave kids vulnerable 100% of the time† (Leichtling, 2013, pg. 2). One reason that people don’t think its necessary to create a law–for cyber bullying–is because speech is constitutionally protected (Murphy 1). We, as citizens of the United States of America, have the right to freedom of speech. But with the right to freedom of speech comes a price. A price we all have to live with, and that’s the price of someone’s life. No matter what, there will always be that one person who has to be better than someone else. There comes a point in life where we have to realize that sometimes the laws need to be broken. In this case, it’s for the better. No one’s life is worth the protection of speech. If we keep on letting cyber bullying go because of the person’s â€Å"rights† then we need a major wake up call. No matter what we do we won’t be able to stop it, but if we stand up and take  action then we can lessen the amount of cyber bullying that happens. Only 18 states have a cyber-bullying law that protects kids from electronic abuse, while 47 states have laws against physical bullying (State Cyberbullying Laws). As schools realize the effect of cyber bullying, they have stepped up and are ready to fight. Schools are passing laws in and out of school. The schools are stepping in and monitoring the students’ social accounts. If a student bullies someone during school break (like spring break, summer break, etc.) the school can intervene and suspend or even expel the student. In a survey taken in 2005 16.2% have been reported that they’ve been a victim outside of school (Uhls 2). Another way to protect students from bullying is Title IX. Many people don’t think too much about Title IX because they think it’s just to equalize the students. Title IX is to help prevent gender discrimination, sexual harassment, and sexual violence (Murphy 2). â€Å"Schools rarely acknowledge sexual harassment when they see it, and even when they do, they avoid getting involved when some of the conduct occurs off-campus. They tell parents they only have jurisdiction over harassment that occurs â€Å"on campus† or in connection with a school-sponsored activity.† (Murphy 2). Not anymore though, many schools are stepping up and taking action even when school isn’t in session. Schools need to take Title IX more seriously and use it to help the families that are facing issues with cyber bullying. Title IX can do many things to help prevent students from being bullied or sexual harassed by other students. Most families don’t know about it, so they don’t think to bring it up in court. If schools and courts advertised Title IX more often than the number of suicides–due to cyber bullying–would drop d ramatically. People need to know that there is a way to get help and that they are not alone. In a recent study of 2,000 random middle-schoolers, 20% of them were seriously thinking about attempting suicide, while 19% reported attempting suicide. That means 39% of the 2,000 kids wanted to end their life (Hinduja 1, 2). The most commonly-reported form of cyber bullying was: â€Å"posted something online about another person to make others laugh† while the most frequent form of victimization was: â€Å"received an upsetting email form someone you know† (Hinduja 2). Cyber bullying takes a toll on everyone’s life. For some teens it can make them depressed and hate themselves. For others it can cause them to turn to drugs or alcohol. Teens are easily influenced by media and what  their peers say. So when cyber bullying occurs, it’s easy for the teen to believe it and think negative things. We need to stand up and take action. Have more campaigns about positive things and not so many negative things. Teens need to feel safe at school, but sadly that’s one of the last places teens feel safe. Teens that are cyber bullied usually have no where to turn to. The small but significant variation found in suicidal thoughts and actions based on bullying and cyber bullying suggests that all forms of adolescent peer aggression must be taken seriously–both at school and at home (Hinduja 2) There are many different ways we can help protect students from being bullied. Schools have hotlines that students can call anonymously if they want to report bullying. A major reason why kids don’t report cyber bullying is because they are scared of getting bullied themselves. Schools need to pass stricter laws and parents need to start monitoring their children’s social activity, even if they are the ones being bullied. In cases of cyber bullying you can never be to protective. So many kids have died because they have felt useless and worthless due to cyber bullying. How would you like it if you were being told daily that you meant nothing to world, and that it would be better off with out you. Eventually it would get to your head and effect you. Even some of the strongest people are bullied and it kills them–in and out. Girls however though, are more likely to be bullied than boys, just like girls are more likely to bully than guys are (Cyberbullying 1). If given the chance, people will be mean, nasty and vicious to others, especially if they can act anonymously or the target can’t fight back effectively (Leichtling 2). No matter there will always be mean people in this world. Nothing will change that, it’s just part of life. But it doesn’t justify for all the lives that it has cost. Things need to change. Schools and states need to pass stricter and more serious laws that help protect kids and young adults from cyber bullying. As technology increases, bullying becomes easier and kids are getting away with it. It’s time to take a stand and fight for the kids who couldn’t fight back.

A mom before the Prom Essay

Teen pregnancy has been gravelly increased in the last few years. Bad media influences (Many programs at TV programs or sexual content movies as well as other mediums) can be the factors that teen girls nowadays are getting a wrong advice that teen motherhood can a common way to live. Partners and friends’s bad influence is making them think that is right to have sex at a young age and will make them feel more popular. In that regards, this essay by Cristina page is restating the issue that more forms of bad media and wrong people’s influences are available today than ever before and consequently teens girls are much more exposed to a lot of information and these sometimes switch teen girl’s mind to do something wrong when they think is totally normal and it also has made teen girls to believe that having children at a young age might be beneficial because they think giving a child for adoption might improve their fortune giving them away for millions of dollars , so it can’t ruin her adolescence too but in reality it can really affect them. – Personally I can share the view of the author in this essay: Teen pregnancy is in reality one of the most difficult experiences a teen girl might ever face when that can interrupt her education or other plans such as getting a better career or maintain fathers with them, but most of the time it doesn’t work and that’s when the situation gets worse. Children usually grow without a father figure when their parents have them at a very young age or sometimes they don’t even live with both parents because they can’t take care of them or support them economically. So when this children start to live without a parental guide , they grow adopting a bad behavior and getting the wrong advices from other bad people and turned into criminals , stealers, or other people of bad reputation because they live in a poor ambient without having a parent who can guide and help them to raise their levels of education. – Most of the time, when teen moms decide to have a baby, teen girls don’t really take care of their babies when they are still formatting inside their body as old mothers and because of their immaturity, sometimes they don’t realize the huge damage they cause to their babies if they start smoking and drinking or working so hard because now they need to support themselves economically carrying heavy stuff when they have to rest the most during their pregnancy. Children are tending to born prematurely, with a disease, a mental retardation or even born death. – Usually we think that there’s not any difference of acquiring the same standards of education or a good life when a kid’s parents are so young and the other’s parent are more mature. The children of teen parents can suffer more of abuse at home and at school or disregard from their parents and grow more with farness or adopt a bad behavior, so that implies that they could not do so well at school, they could get lower grades and repeat their classes or drop out from High School without completing their education. This might increase the raise of poverty in families with young parents too and this leads society into decreasing its economy too. I really enjoyed reading this essay because it deals with a controversial issue and restates the causes of why teen pregnancy is becoming a worldwide problem, it must be thought in class so we can share our own viewpoints about it. 10-) – I encourage people to consider more this issue because if we want a better life for our

Forgotten Fire

Forgotten Fire is a fictional book that is based on a true life story of a boy’s life that was destroyed by the Armenian genocide. Adam Bagdasarian the author of Forgotten Fire, uses Vahan Kenderian’s life story to show the disaster that the Armenian Genocide had brought on to this race. Forgotten Fire is about a boy named Vahan Kenderian who grew up in a very affluent family and was very well know. Vahan never expected to have to lose everything he had including his family. His father had always told him that lacked character and that sooner or later he would have to wake up and mature in his ways.He never expected for it to come so soon in the summer of 1950. Vahan had been arrested, malnourished, separated from family, beaten, and had seen his family killed. The Armenian soldiers took his father and then beat up his uncle and shot his older brother. His mother, grandmother, siblings and him were kept in cells without food or water. They were forced to walk miles in a single file line in order to get to the next camp site. They were finally allowed to drink but whoever drank was killed and he witnessed his grandmother die.He ran away from the camp leaving behind his sister and mother only having his brother left. He later lost his brother to malnutrition. He became the slave of an Armenian governor but later ran away only to find a tribe that thought he was deaf and mute. He fell in love with the chief’s daughter and knew that her father was out to kill him. So he ran away to find refuge in a town that was abandon other than a steel worker who helped him into a girls home. The head mistress, Mrs. Fauld, brought him to a doctor’s home who lived on a farm and worked as a slave towards the Germans.He met Seta who was in the house of the German governor. She was later kicked out because she got pregnant, Vahan took Seta in and she had her baby but she died a week after she gave birth. The governor later took the baby boy. Later that ye ar the wife of the doctor died. After she passed Vahan decided to leave so he left to Constantinople. That is where he found peace and place where the war had not touched. In the 1950’s there was a lot of prejudice all over the world. This included turkey although it was to a more extreme extent. The 1950’s was right inthe time of the civil rights movement in America. I was surprised to learn that the Turkish were so brutal with the Armenians they had no respect for them at all they would beat them to a pulp with no regard to them. They considered them as trash they did not look at them as people, they were less than people they had no value what so ever. I learned that many of the genocide happen just because a race does not like a specific race because of what they look like or because of what they have in their cultures or they seem to have the idea that one race is superior to the other.In turkey the Turks ran Armenia they ran the government and the military. Altho ugh most of Armenia had a huge population of Armenians they ran many of the shops in small towns. Up until the Armenian Genocide the people had been somewhat settle about their dislike of each other. They had not brutally beaten one another up just for the fun of it they respected each other until the leader decided to promote the violence against the Armenian nation. I also learned that during the genocide they killed all the boys from the age of sixteen and older because they have the possibility of revolting.They only allowed the women and children to survive because it was easier for the soldiers to overpower them then the men because they were weaker and they tended to cower in fear of them so it was easy to take control once they showed fear. The Armenian culture is very family oriented because of the Armenian Genocide they are very community based they keep themselves within their race like the Hispanic culture they are very family oriented and put family at a very high stake .Armenian enjoy music, dancing, art , and their literature plays a huge role in their race. Over the years many of the stories were passed down this way and are passed down through many generations they have many stories to tell to their families that have been passed from generation to generation. The Armenian culture tries to stay within their race when it comes to marriage they don’t really marry outside of their race The Hispanic culture is loves to dance and to have music playing, hanging out with their whole family.Forgotten Fire is a great book in the way it was written and told. I really liked that they stayed really close to the actual story rather than going on ends trying to make it interesting when they don’t have to because the story is interesting already. It was really cool to see that in real life he was able to reunite with some of his family. He was able to reunite with his uncle I thought it was really cool how they told his end of the story but they also added a twist onto it.The twist really provided hope for the main character allowing you to see that all his trials are over and that all he had gone through is finally done with and he can be at peace where he is at. Although this book was graphic it really helps you understand only slightly what he is going through even though you may never be able to fully comprehend what had happened to him during his life and during that time period they did a really good job on helping you understand how he was feeling. The only thing I didn’t like about the book was how they split it up into sections it made the book to seem to go on for a really long time.

Peter Smythe vs Vincent Thomas Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Peter Smythe vs Vincent Thomas - Case Study Example The fall of the hammer in a traditional auction is complete when the auctioneer announces its completion by the fall of the hammer or in another customary manner—and until any such announcement is made any bidder may retract his or her bid. The equivalent of the fall of the hammer in an eBay auction is the automatic close of bidding at a fixed time and the generation of an eBay advice headed â€Å"won† appear to have been accepted by the parties to an eBay auction. An order for specific performance of the contract was appropriate because of two reasons: 1) the Wirraway was not at the time in flying condition, and 2) the plane was in a hangar owned by a third party. It was ruled that a binding contract was formed between the plaintiff3 and the defendant4 and that it should be specifically enforced.5 Further, the two parties would be given a chance to reach agreement on the precise nature of the agreement. McMuffins Ltd is a fast food company. Yesterday, before work had started, an argument arose between three kitchen hands: Tom, Dick, and Harry. Over the weekend, Tom had offered to sell his motorbike to Dick for $5000. Dick said this was far too much but he would pay $4000. Tom refused. Before Tom left for work this morning Dick phoned to say he would buy the motorbike for $5000 but Tom said he had already sold it to Harry for $4,500. It was not a good day for Dick: he was one of the six employees of McMuffins Ltd that buy a weekly lottery ticket, each contributing an equal amount of money. Every week the money is collected by Lotty, the office junior, who also buys the lottery ticket. The group has always agreed to share any winnings equally. Lotty discovered this morning that the lottery ticket has won $1,000,000, and tells the other members of the group that she intends to claim the money for herself and leave McMuffins Ltd. According to Tom, he has already sold the bike. If there is a bill of sale6 made out to Harry, the bike has technically already been sold.