Biblical Figures and Ideals in Shakespeares Richard II Essay -- Richa

Biblical Figures and Ideals in William Shakespeare's Richard II William Shakespeare's Richard II tells the story of one monarch's fall from the throne and the ascension of another, Henry Bullingbrook, later to become Henry IV. There is no battle fought between the factions, nor does the process take long. The play is not action-packed, nor does it keep readers in any form of suspense, but rather is comprised of a series of quietly dignified ruminations on the nature of majesty. Thus, the drama lies not in the historical facts, but in the effects of the situation on the major characters and the parallels drawn by Shakespeare to other tales. The outrage felt by Richard and his fellow royalists is not due from a modern sense of personal loss, but from the much more important sense of loss of order, which came most predominately from the strictly Catholic sensibilities of the time. In Richard's time kings were believed to be divinely appointed and "not all the water in the rough rude sea can wash the balm off from an anointed king" (III.iii, 54-5). T his disparity between the perceived will of God and the way in which the events unfold creates trouble in the minds of the characters and the audience. Shakespeare makes it clear that this is not just a simple switch of power, rather a series of events whose meanings and effects penetrate far deeper than the mere surface of the story. Although not as advanced in its stagecraft as many of Shakespeare's other plays, the intricate web of metaphor and poetry in Richard II makes it perhaps the most meaningful and intense of the historical plays. Richard is not the sniveling villain a lesser playwright might have made him, but a philosopher and a poet whose ideas of majesty have been c... ...49-50), desiring to repent his sin toward Richard in Jerusalem. The historical reality of this story is merely that a bad king was replaced by a better one. However, Richard II is not merely a play about a few men long dead; it is about betrayal, dignity, sacrifice, and redemption. Seen through Shakespeare's eyes, the story is not even only about the characters contained in it, but about biblical figures and ideals that enrich the play, allowing this drama to speak to its readers no matter their location in time and space and enticing all to say, of Richard, as of Christ of Shakespeare: the King is dead, long live the King. Work Cited Shakespeare, W. "The Tragedy of King Richard the Second." The Complete Classic Shakespeare. Toronto: Harcourt Brace Johanovich, Publishers, 1997 The Holy Bible, New International Version. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992.

Paradise Lost

Strictly following the tradition of classical epic, Milton made his Paradise Lost, a work that roused the interest of all men in all ages. We can even claim that by his creative genius, he has modified and ennobled that tradition. Though its form is classical, its content tends to be on the scriptural side. The very opening lines exhort its central theme –â€Å"Of man’s disobedience†¦Ã¢â‚¬  The bone of contention between the critics of all ages is about whom the hero of this epic is –God, Satan or Adam. Undoubtedly we are forced to say that a good number of passages, especially in the first two books of Paradise Lost, give a heroic stature to Satan, the major among the fallen angels. Gradual diminution of Satan’s glory and grandeur is an integral part of Milton’s epic-design. The Satan of Books I and II is a creature of such dynamic energy and colorful splendor that many of the epic’s readers are tempted to consider him as the hero of the poem. That Milton did not so regard him and that, in rejecting the Satan of the earlier part of the epic, Milton was not being false to his poetic self, is clear from Satan’s opening soliloquy in Book IV, at least the first ten lines of which were written before Books I and II. In this and subsequent soliloquies Milton is able to present the character of Satan more fully and in a partly dramatic form, by placing him in a situation which denies him an outlet for his rhetoric and invites introspective self-examination. Milton, no doubt, intended Satan – at least in the early books – to be representative of the old heroic values which were to be superseded by ‘the better fortitude of patience and heroic martyrdom’. Unfortunately for Milton, readers of Paradise Lost have not been able to shake off the heroic qualities of Satan in the first two books. Along with that, three other factors contributed to the result. In English, the word ‘hero’ has the meaning of a ‘central figure’, and this Satan is definitely in these early books. Milton was strong and fresh creatively when he characterized Satan in these early books; and he never succeeded in producing a rival hero of similar stature but opposed ideals. Milton lavished all his power, all his skill, and the greater part of his sympathy on the splendid figure of Satan. Many critics have agreed to the fact that the epic value of the whole epic is centered in the achievements and characterization of Satan. His unyielding agony represents the insightful antinomy of the modern consciousness. Satan expresses, as no other character in the epic does, something in which Milton believed strongly, that is, heroic energy. It is through Satan that Milton’s own heroic energy has been so powerfully shown forth. This is expressed through conflict and endurance. The odds are against him, he has to wage war against the Omnipotent, but still he persists and struggles, and wins our profoundest admiration and sympathy. No doubt, his energy is unreasoning, no doubt it is devoted to his wicked passion for revenge, and certainly he is carried away by hate and envy, but still we cannot help admiring him for the heroic energy with which he persistently struggles against heavy odds to achieve his aims. Milton’s Satan is not a comic or grotesque figure like the Devil or Vice of medieval writers or the demons of other epic poets. Being a principal figure of an epic, if a certain amount of grotesqueness was drawn in the character of Satan, it would have definitely impaired the dignity of the poem. Many predecessors of Milton have done the same but in this respect too Milton was daringly original. On the other hand, it cannot be denied that by attempting at proving himself ‘self-begotten’, Satan‘s behavior tends to the comic and contradictory. Moreover, only a fool would pit himself against omnipotence and thus invite certain disaster. But Milton’s Satan is neither a fool nor a clown. He definitely has the beauty of sublimity and the grandeur and majesty and dignity of bearing. The poet drives home this nobility and greatness of his bearing in wonderfully mentored fine passages which can be hailed as the best among those that have been ever written. The following passage confirms the point: â€Å"†¦Black it stood as Night, Fierce as ten Furies, terrible as Hell, And shook a dreadful dart, what seemed his head The likeness of a kingly crown had on. Satan was now at hand, and from his seat The monster moving onward came as fast With horrid strides: Hell trembled as he strode. †(II 495-501) Courteously and fearlessly Satan addresses himself to the monarch of the nethermost abyss. His speech contains no threats; he asks for guidance in his quest; and, with politic fore-thought, promises that quest, if successful, shall restore an outlying lost province to Chaos. In the war on the plains of Heaven, Satan ranges up and down the fighting line, like Cromwell; he fortifies his comrades to endurance, and encourages them to attack. In Hell he stands like a tower: â€Å"His form had yet not lost All its original brightness, nor appeared Less than Archangel ruined, and the excess Of glory obscured†¦Ã¢â‚¬  I (591-4) In his contests with Michael in heaven and with Gabriel on earth, he never falls below himself: â€Å"If I must contend†, said he, â€Å"Best with the best – the sender, not the sent; Or all at once. † IV (851-3) His followers are devotedly attached to him; they admire him ‘that for the general safety he despised his own’; and the only scene of rejoicing recorded in the annals of Hell, before the Fall of Man, is at the dissolution of Stygian Council, when the devils come forth â€Å"rejoicing in their matchless chief†. The allure of free will is where the attractiveness and power of Satan's character lies. Satan may be quite useless when it comes to fighting the ten thousand thunders of Christ's fury, but in his will he is free and in his mind he is supreme: ‘What though the field be lost? | All is not lost; the unconquerable will' (I. 105). † (Zen g, Nicholas http://www. christs. cam. ac. uk/darknessvisible/about_us/nicholas_zeng. html) As if to set purpose to raise Satan high above the heads of other archangels, Milton devises a pair of similar scenes in Heaven and in Hell. In the one Satan takes upon himself the unknown dangers of the enterprise that has been approved by the assembly. In the other, which occurs in the very next book, the Heavenly powers are addressed from the Throne, and asked – â€Å"Which of ye will be mortal, to redeem Man’s mortal crime, and just, the unjust to save? III (214-5) None in heaven is ready to take the risk; but Satan takes upon himself the dangerous task of traveling through Chaos and seducing Man. There is no doubt in the fact that Satan’s over-mastering passions are hate, ambition and desire for revenge, but he is not presented as a monster of wickedness or an unredeemed villain. Milton has skillfully humanized his character. Hence, though Satan in the enemy of God and Man alike, he is not entirely devoid of gentler characteristics. He is deeply remorseful at the thought of the ruin in which he has involved his followers and this remorse actually brings tears to his eyes. In the second book, we see him showing forth a noble sense of the duty of self-sacrifice incumbent on him owing to his position as king of hell, by sacrificing his own safety for the general cause and as a result, undertaking alone the difficult enterprise which daunted the courage of the mightiest of his followers. This trait of Satan’s character is maintained in the later books. We see him twice melted with compassion seeing the harmless innocence of Adam and Eve whose ruin he is plotting in book IV (389. 462-66). These softer feelings are to be seen as only occasional touches introduced to relieve the grandeur of a character essentially terrible, a character who is, though not totally devoid of gentle traits, on the whole most like a mighty tempest, or an avalanche, or any other force of nature that is a harmonious blending of beauty of sublimity and immense destructive power. With due sympathy and dramatic power, Satan’s character has been drawn which further revealed Milton’s proud spirit of independence and superiority to the utmost. Satan is certainly a self-portrait, a rebel against tyranny and injustice like Milton himself. The sentiment which he expresses – ‘courage never to submit or yield’; â€Å"better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven’, raises his stature to that of an epic hero. Satan is such a magnificently drawn character and such is the fascination he has exercised on the readers of the great epic of all times, paradise lost, that ever since Dryden has christened Satan as ‘Milton’s hero’, critic after critic has taken him to be the hero of the epic. There is no doubt that he dominates Books I and II of the epic in which he towers head and shoulders above his followers, but after that there is a progressive degradation and shrinkage in his character. His gradual loss of physical brightness is accompanied by a corresponding deterioration of character. The audience, however, does find someplace to invest its sympathy, and that place is in the character of Satan. The audience first sees Satan waking in Hell where he and the other fallen angels despair. Through his despair, however, Satan claims, â€Å"All is not lost — the unconquerable will,// And study of revenge, immortal hate,// And courage never to submit or yield — . . . That glory never shall his wrath or might// Extort from me† (I. 104- 111). † (http://www. essortment. com/all/satanparadisel_rsng. htm) It is by his own will that he becomes a serpent in Book IX. In Book X, he is a serpent whenever he wants to wear its garb. This degradation that is progressive is drawn home most effectively. His beginning is shown as fighting for liberty, however it is misconceived. But very soon his stature goes down as he starts fighting for â€Å"Honour, Dominion, glorie, and renounce’. But it is seen that he is defeated in this in no time. Then he resorts to the great plotting that forms the essence of the epic – the ruining of two creatures that are in no way harmful to him, but this is not at all keeping in front a serious expectation of triumph, but only to annoy the enemy who is beyond his reach for a direct encounter. This makes him stoop to the level of a spy coming into the universe, that too as a low level spy who peeps into the privacy of a man and wife, and it is there that he is described for the first time as ‘Devil’, not the fallen Archangel nor the dreaded emperor of Hell. If we take into account not merely Books I and II, but the epic as a whole, Satan cannot be regarded as the hero. As he is carried away by his passion for revenge, envy and hatred, to use ‘guile’ and cunning to achieve his end, Satan is the villain of the piece and not the hero. Closely woven with the story of the fall of man is the story of the fall of Satan and his followers. Their fall also bears out that the theme of the epic is the victory of passion over reason and its terrible consequence. Satan falls not because he is a lesser being, but due to his giving priority to passion over reason. He is proud and is carried away by inordinate ambition and lust for power. He claims absolute equality, foolishly imagines that he is self-created, regards god’s rule as tyrannous, rebels against him and is consequently overthrown and hurled into hell. He is the very embodiment of unrestrained passions which ultimately bring no satisfaction. Debates are still going on about the fact that Satan is such a driving force within the great epic. It ranges from William Blake’s comment that Milton â€Å"wrote in fetters when wrote of Angels and God, and at liberty when of Devils and Hell, is because he was a true Poet and of the Devil’s party without knowing it† (Black 2007, p. 996) to the plea that this poem is nothing more than a christian tale in which milton is unsuccessful in portraying what he intended to do. (Marshal 1961, p. 19) Paradise Lost Strictly following the tradition of classical epic, Milton made his Paradise Lost, a work that roused the interest of all men in all ages. We can even claim that by his creative genius, he has modified and ennobled that tradition. Though its form is classical, its content tends to be on the scriptural side. The very opening lines exhort its central theme –â€Å"Of man’s disobedience†¦Ã¢â‚¬  The bone of contention between the critics of all ages is about whom the hero of this epic is –God, Satan or Adam. Undoubtedly we are forced to say that a good number of passages, especially in the first two books of Paradise Lost, give a heroic stature to Satan, the major among the fallen angels. Gradual diminution of Satan’s glory and grandeur is an integral part of Milton’s epic-design. The Satan of Books I and II is a creature of such dynamic energy and colorful splendor that many of the epic’s readers are tempted to consider him as the hero of the poem. That Milton did not so regard him and that, in rejecting the Satan of the earlier part of the epic, Milton was not being false to his poetic self, is clear from Satan’s opening soliloquy in Book IV, at least the first ten lines of which were written before Books I and II. In this and subsequent soliloquies Milton is able to present the character of Satan more fully and in a partly dramatic form, by placing him in a situation which denies him an outlet for his rhetoric and invites introspective self-examination. Milton, no doubt, intended Satan – at least in the early books – to be representative of the old heroic values which were to be superseded by ‘the better fortitude of patience and heroic martyrdom’. Unfortunately for Milton, readers of Paradise Lost have not been able to shake off the heroic qualities of Satan in the first two books. Along with that, three other factors contributed to the result. In English, the word ‘hero’ has the meaning of a ‘central figure’, and this Satan is definitely in these early books. Milton was strong and fresh creatively when he characterized Satan in these early books; and he never succeeded in producing a rival hero of similar stature but opposed ideals. Milton lavished all his power, all his skill, and the greater part of his sympathy on the splendid figure of Satan. Many critics have agreed to the fact that the epic value of the whole epic is centered in the achievements and characterization of Satan. His unyielding agony represents the insightful antinomy of the modern consciousness. Satan expresses, as no other character in the epic does, something in which Milton believed strongly, that is, heroic energy. It is through Satan that Milton’s own heroic energy has been so powerfully shown forth. This is expressed through conflict and endurance. The odds are against him, he has to wage war against the Omnipotent, but still he persists and struggles, and wins our profoundest admiration and sympathy. No doubt, his energy is unreasoning, no doubt it is devoted to his wicked passion for revenge, and certainly he is carried away by hate and envy, but still we cannot help admiring him for the heroic energy with which he persistently struggles against heavy odds to achieve his aims. Milton’s Satan is not a comic or grotesque figure like the Devil or Vice of medieval writers or the demons of other epic poets. Being a principal figure of an epic, if a certain amount of grotesqueness was drawn in the character of Satan, it would have definitely impaired the dignity of the poem. Many predecessors of Milton have done the same but in this respect too Milton was daringly original. On the other hand, it cannot be denied that by attempting at proving himself ‘self-begotten’, Satan‘s behavior tends to the comic and contradictory. Moreover, only a fool would pit himself against omnipotence and thus invite certain disaster. But Milton’s Satan is neither a fool nor a clown. He definitely has the beauty of sublimity and the grandeur and majesty and dignity of bearing. The poet drives home this nobility and greatness of his bearing in wonderfully mentored fine passages which can be hailed as the best among those that have been ever written. The following passage confirms the point: â€Å"†¦Black it stood as Night, Fierce as ten Furies, terrible as Hell, And shook a dreadful dart, what seemed his head The likeness of a kingly crown had on. Satan was now at hand, and from his seat The monster moving onward came as fast With horrid strides: Hell trembled as he strode. †(II 495-501) Courteously and fearlessly Satan addresses himself to the monarch of the nethermost abyss. His speech contains no threats; he asks for guidance in his quest; and, with politic fore-thought, promises that quest, if successful, shall restore an outlying lost province to Chaos. In the war on the plains of Heaven, Satan ranges up and down the fighting line, like Cromwell; he fortifies his comrades to endurance, and encourages them to attack. In Hell he stands like a tower: â€Å"His form had yet not lost All its original brightness, nor appeared Less than Archangel ruined, and the excess Of glory obscured†¦Ã¢â‚¬  I (591-4) In his contests with Michael in heaven and with Gabriel on earth, he never falls below himself: â€Å"If I must contend†, said he, â€Å"Best with the best – the sender, not the sent; Or all at once. † IV (851-3) His followers are devotedly attached to him; they admire him ‘that for the general safety he despised his own’; and the only scene of rejoicing recorded in the annals of Hell, before the Fall of Man, is at the dissolution of Stygian Council, when the devils come forth â€Å"rejoicing in their matchless chief†. The allure of free will is where the attractiveness and power of Satan's character lies. Satan may be quite useless when it comes to fighting the ten thousand thunders of Christ's fury, but in his will he is free and in his mind he is supreme: ‘What though the field be lost? | All is not lost; the unconquerable will' (I. 105). † (Zen g, Nicholas http://www. christs. cam. ac. uk/darknessvisible/about_us/nicholas_zeng. html) As if to set purpose to raise Satan high above the heads of other archangels, Milton devises a pair of similar scenes in Heaven and in Hell. In the one Satan takes upon himself the unknown dangers of the enterprise that has been approved by the assembly. In the other, which occurs in the very next book, the Heavenly powers are addressed from the Throne, and asked – â€Å"Which of ye will be mortal, to redeem Man’s mortal crime, and just, the unjust to save? III (214-5) None in heaven is ready to take the risk; but Satan takes upon himself the dangerous task of traveling through Chaos and seducing Man. There is no doubt in the fact that Satan’s over-mastering passions are hate, ambition and desire for revenge, but he is not presented as a monster of wickedness or an unredeemed villain. Milton has skillfully humanized his character. Hence, though Satan in the enemy of God and Man alike, he is not entirely devoid of gentler characteristics. He is deeply remorseful at the thought of the ruin in which he has involved his followers and this remorse actually brings tears to his eyes. In the second book, we see him showing forth a noble sense of the duty of self-sacrifice incumbent on him owing to his position as king of hell, by sacrificing his own safety for the general cause and as a result, undertaking alone the difficult enterprise which daunted the courage of the mightiest of his followers. This trait of Satan’s character is maintained in the later books. We see him twice melted with compassion seeing the harmless innocence of Adam and Eve whose ruin he is plotting in book IV (389. 462-66). These softer feelings are to be seen as only occasional touches introduced to relieve the grandeur of a character essentially terrible, a character who is, though not totally devoid of gentle traits, on the whole most like a mighty tempest, or an avalanche, or any other force of nature that is a harmonious blending of beauty of sublimity and immense destructive power. With due sympathy and dramatic power, Satan’s character has been drawn which further revealed Milton’s proud spirit of independence and superiority to the utmost. Satan is certainly a self-portrait, a rebel against tyranny and injustice like Milton himself. The sentiment which he expresses – ‘courage never to submit or yield’; â€Å"better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven’, raises his stature to that of an epic hero. Satan is such a magnificently drawn character and such is the fascination he has exercised on the readers of the great epic of all times, paradise lost, that ever since Dryden has christened Satan as ‘Milton’s hero’, critic after critic has taken him to be the hero of the epic. There is no doubt that he dominates Books I and II of the epic in which he towers head and shoulders above his followers, but after that there is a progressive degradation and shrinkage in his character. His gradual loss of physical brightness is accompanied by a corresponding deterioration of character. The audience, however, does find someplace to invest its sympathy, and that place is in the character of Satan. The audience first sees Satan waking in Hell where he and the other fallen angels despair. Through his despair, however, Satan claims, â€Å"All is not lost — the unconquerable will,// And study of revenge, immortal hate,// And courage never to submit or yield — . . . That glory never shall his wrath or might// Extort from me† (I. 104- 111). † (http://www. essortment. com/all/satanparadisel_rsng. htm) It is by his own will that he becomes a serpent in Book IX. In Book X, he is a serpent whenever he wants to wear its garb. This degradation that is progressive is drawn home most effectively. His beginning is shown as fighting for liberty, however it is misconceived. But very soon his stature goes down as he starts fighting for â€Å"Honour, Dominion, glorie, and renounce’. But it is seen that he is defeated in this in no time. Then he resorts to the great plotting that forms the essence of the epic – the ruining of two creatures that are in no way harmful to him, but this is not at all keeping in front a serious expectation of triumph, but only to annoy the enemy who is beyond his reach for a direct encounter. This makes him stoop to the level of a spy coming into the universe, that too as a low level spy who peeps into the privacy of a man and wife, and it is there that he is described for the first time as ‘Devil’, not the fallen Archangel nor the dreaded emperor of Hell. If we take into account not merely Books I and II, but the epic as a whole, Satan cannot be regarded as the hero. As he is carried away by his passion for revenge, envy and hatred, to use ‘guile’ and cunning to achieve his end, Satan is the villain of the piece and not the hero. Closely woven with the story of the fall of man is the story of the fall of Satan and his followers. Their fall also bears out that the theme of the epic is the victory of passion over reason and its terrible consequence. Satan falls not because he is a lesser being, but due to his giving priority to passion over reason. He is proud and is carried away by inordinate ambition and lust for power. He claims absolute equality, foolishly imagines that he is self-created, regards god’s rule as tyrannous, rebels against him and is consequently overthrown and hurled into hell. He is the very embodiment of unrestrained passions which ultimately bring no satisfaction. Debates are still going on about the fact that Satan is such a driving force within the great epic. It ranges from William Blake’s comment that Milton â€Å"wrote in fetters when wrote of Angels and God, and at liberty when of Devils and Hell, is because he was a true Poet and of the Devil’s party without knowing it† (Black 2007, p. 996) to the plea that this poem is nothing more than a christian tale in which milton is unsuccessful in portraying what he intended to do. (Marshal 1961, p. 19)

Facilitating the Transfer of Knowledge to Long-Term Memory

Recommend key Instructional strategies geared toward facilitating the transfer of knowledge to long-term memory. Next, suggest approaches that instructors may use In order to compensate for the challenges of storage Information storage and retrieval that occur with age. A key Instructional strategy geared toward facilitating the transfer of knowledge to long-term memory would be to develop a lesson plan that accommodates all learning styles. The lesson plan should relate to all students from experiences which would trigger long term feeling, emotions and thoughts.This would help when it comes to facilitating learning. An approach I would suggest would be before every lesson has the learners write out some of their most memorable memories that they have experience in life and incorporate those memories into learning which would compensate for the challenges of storage information and retrieval that occur with age. From the e-Actually, compare the results of the two (2) quizzes / tests that you have taken. Dullness's the common thread(shore lack thereof?that the results yielded. Next, suggest which type of knowledge?I. , procedural or procedural?would yield the best results with an adult learner like you. Provide a rationale for your response. Http://move. Utopia. Org/multiple-intelligences-assessment Interpersonal This test showed that my learning style closely correspond with the interpersonal intelligences. I agree with this test because I am aware of my feelings and others feeling. Also I am an introvert. I have all these thoughts, feelings and emotions bottles up Inside and at times are afraid to share them with others because I'm not ere how they would react to them.I prefer being alone because I like focusing on myself and Improving myself as a person. I enjoy being alone that give me time to plan my next move and strategies on how I want things to go. So I agree with the test http://www. Bark-learn. Com/English/results. Asp Kinesthesia: 13 This shows that I'm was a kinesthesia learning and I wasn't quite aware of it. I agree with this to a certain extent. I'm not good at sports but I am in touch with my hand eye coordination and have quick reactions. And at times I have a high level of energy.But while in high school and undergrad I never participated in any sports other than trying out for cheerleaders. But while in my sports class I found that I was pretty good at playing volleyball. After being In so many classes throughout my life I've found that I learn more through visual aid. By seeing how to figure out formulas or given examples on how to write papers I've become successful at learning and processing information. So I enjoy lectures, step by step pictures and charts and

Death of a Salesman Essay

Discuss the role and importance of the first â€Å"flashback† scene in Death of a Salesman. This scene is the first in the play which gives us any real insight into the past of Willy, the protagonist of the play. Its purpose is to show the audience of some of where Willy went wrong; we see some of his mistakes through his memories of his own past. We see the way that he treated his sons, and how this relates to what they are like now; we witness the difference between what the impression of himself he gives and the failure he really feels; we discover his affair with the woman, why he had it, and the terrible guilt that overhangs him because of it. This then explains some of the tension and unhappiness that we have seen so far in the play. This, though, only takes us so far; we do not learn the full story, of why he and his son do not now share the bond we see in the flashback scene, and of why he becomes so depressed. He does not want to see the truth – he is not ready to realise where he went wrong. The scene gets more and more dramatic as it gets on. At first, it shows us an idyllic, happy time; Willy is apparently a fantastic success, who is idolized by two loving sons. The eldest son, Biff, is popular with the others at school and with girls, a great sportsman, and generally â€Å"well liked†. They all live in a beautiful house, surrounded by fields. But we then find about Biff stealing and then his poor academic achievement, that Willy lies about how successful he really is, and finally the affair with the woman before the whole thing spirals out of control and turns into some kind of terrible nightmare. We move into Willy’s memories using a number of stage effects – the lights brighten, we hear soft music, possibly flute music, and the background turns from the harsh orange of the brick apartments to the cool green fields of the countryside. This has a calming, nostalgic sense on the audience, who are therefore encouraged to share Willy’s feelings at the start of the flashbacks; we feel that we are entering a happier, more pleasant past. When he talks about himself to his sons, he presents himself as a great success; he uses lots of boxing language, such as â€Å"knocked ’em cold† and â€Å"slaughtered them†. He knows that his sons praise athletic ability, and so likens himself as a boxer, and a winner. Phrases like â€Å"open sesame† suggest that success in his glamorous job comes easily to him; he is a person who takes coffee with the Mayor of Providence, who deals with â€Å"the finest people†. But Willy, although he does not realise it, does a lot of harm to his sons through the lessons that he teaches them. In congratulating his son on taking the ball from school, he teaches them that, so long as you are â€Å"well liked†, you do not need to obey the rules, that popularity is more important than honesty and integrity. He also teaches them that the key to success is not in schoolwork, but in being popular, and in turn, the key to being popular is through good looks and sporting skill. He tells them that Bernard will not go far, because, although he is good academically, he is not well liked, but Biff, being as popular as he is, will become a success. Bernard is â€Å"anaemic† and a â€Å"pest†, whilst he is clearly proud of his own son, Biff. This, of course, is unrealistic – Bernard’s hard working attitude is more likely to render him a success than Biff’s sport aptitude and looks, and we see this in the play. In the next episode, with Linda, what he tells her contrasts greatly with the story he told his two sons. This does not happen immediately though; firstly he tells her he â€Å"was sellin’ thousands and thousands†; then he says he sold â€Å"five hundred gross in Providence and seven hundred gross in Boston†, before revealing that he actually sold â€Å"roughly two hundred gross on the whole trip†. When he is talking to his sons, he is trying to gain their love and respect, but he knows that he already has Linda’s, and so does not try to impress her. After claiming to his sons that he is â€Å"well liked†, he reveals to Linda that the other sellers laugh at him behind his back, and refer to him as â€Å"walrus†. He greatly exaggerates his successes; his earlier claims of easy access to wealth contrasts with his resignation that he has to be â€Å"at it, ten, twelve hours a day†. Linda is lovingly loyal and caring to Willy; she accepts and is used to his exaggerations. She patiently ignores the lies, and awaits the true answer to her question. She attempts to comfort him and make him feel good about himself, to display her love for him. When he tells her that he talks too much, she replies â€Å"you’re just lively†. She tells him that he is, to her, â€Å"the handsomest man in the world†. We are then presented with the Woman from Boston, whom Willy has the affair with. Firstly, we hear her laugh, progressively loudening, whilst the Willy continues his conversation with Linda. She appears on stage through the use of a scrim, a fabric sheet which, with the use of lighting, can make whatever is behind the scrim gradually fade onto the stage. The use of the scrim and the laughter is reminiscent of a haunting ghost. This makes the audience feel like this is not a welcome memory; it plagues Willy’s thoughts like a ghost, a memory Willy would like to be rid of, but cannot leave behind. The memory of Linda darning some old stockings after he buys this Woman shows the audience his guilt over what he is doing, and we feel some sympathy for him. He appears to be having an affair with this woman simply because it makes him feel respected. He wants someone to laugh at his jokes, to compliment him, and to make him feel that he is not worthless. He looks pleased when she tells him that she â€Å"picked† him. What he has forgotten, of course, that he has the respect he so greatly desires from his wife, Linda. The Woman and Linda both appear on stage simultaneously, which gives us the feeling that although he doesn’t want to between them, he needs both; he has a burning need for attention, which is provided by the Woman, and needs support from Linda. From when he tells Linda to throw away the stockings that she is repairing, the end of the scene becomes less strictly realistic, and more a nightmare, spiralling out of control. Both Linda and Bernard become very out of character, seemingly unceasingly listing problems with his son Biff, despite his cries of â€Å"Shut up! † and â€Å"Get outa here! â€Å". He is dramatically trying to shut out the memories, to prevent him from coming to the realization that Biff was not perfect, and a lot of it was his fault. Willy is in between Bernard and Linda with a verbal onslaught of complaints about Biff. This peaks with an explosion of anger, with Willy telling himself that Biff was not a failure, comparing his son with Bernard. He finally just denies it – â€Å"I never in my life told him anything but decent things†. This scene is not, by any means, simply a memory. Its purpose is to provide us with an insight into the workings of Willy’s mind. It helps us begin to understand how Willy got into the mental state that we have seen in the play. As we have seen, the use of staging, language and structure have all been important for us to begin our understanding. But Willy does not completely confront the whole truth about his son, but he shuns it, leaving us wondering when he will inevitably confront his past mistakes, and how he will react.

Convicted felons in the workforce vs human resource management Research Paper

Convicted felons in the workforce vs human resource management - Research Paper Example This paper is about individuals who possess criminal records, and how their chance to work in the workforce is a notch more difficult than their other peers who have a clean record. In this paper, the researcher would like to focus on a certain type of individual who has been excluded from the rest of society because of their misbehaviour. In legal systems, a felon is someone who has been accused of performing a serious crime and has been legally condemned of doing so. There exist a long list of crimes that can brand a person a criminal, and the ones that are considered to be felonies are not restricted to the following- grand theft, tax evasion, robbery, rape, murder, fraud, kidnapping, violent assaults, treason, arson, illegal drug abuse and drug trafficking, and espionage. Felonies can be considered as a felony under various circumstances, and a convicted felon can only be convicted by a person of legal authority such as a judge (Eisenstein and Jacob, 1991). In this paper, the researcher would like to discuss the reasons regarding preferred characteristics of a potential employee. In the case of felons who decide to join the workforce after serving their time in prison, the researcher would like to investigate how the human resource department in organizations deal with such cases, should they decide to hire a felon. Naturally, hiring a previously convicted criminal can affect an organization’s operations, so companies must be extremely cautious in such cases. For instance, planning employee activities might have to be planned in a different way, or controlling such employees might have to be done in a different manner. The researcher would like to investigate social views on such a controversial topic, and also what can be done to help these felons find their own niche in the workforce. In 2007, reports were made that there are en estimate of 2 million convicted persons in prison serving their time.

Research Topics with Explanation Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Research Topics with Explanation - Assignment Example uld be changed to factor in the changes that have occurred over the past two decades since the law was passed to meet the needs of employees (Glynn, 2013). As such, the appropriate audiences that are targeted by this discussion are the employees, the employers and the legislatures who are responsible for making the laws. Certainly, although Americans workers have benefited from the law, it should be changed to incorporate the changes that have occurred in the past years since the signing of the act into law as will be demonstrated in the paper. The issue of tax has often been characterized by the strong debate. In 2012, President Obama proposed that the tax rate on earnings above $250,000 be raised (McArdle, 2012). Accordingly, I have chosen this topic because the tax is an issue that is of great concern to all American workers. Whenever a tax is raised or reduced, it affects Americans workers directly, thus a need to understand the effects of any changes in the tax proposal (Kasprak, 2012). This discussion will be addressed to the stakeholders who are impacted with the tax proposals, including the American middle class, lawmakers and the public at large. Accordingly, the paper will analyze the impacts that raising the tax on earning above $250,000 will have on the Americans who earn above this amount and its overall effect on the U.S. economy. According to American law, a criminal defendant can only be convicted of an offense when all the jurors agree and vote guilty as charged (Mackenzie, 2013). This ruling was handed by the Supreme Court in 1972 in which the court found that the 6th Amendment requires that unanimity in the countries federal courts (Jones, 2010). However, I found this topic interesting to study because it highlights the controversy between the federal and state courts since some state courts do not require unanimity in a criminal conviction. Therefore, studying this topic can be of value to the state and federal courts, the convicts, and the

Arab economic integration Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Arab economic integration - Research Paper Example All of these aimed at enhancing the economic development of its member states (Hakimian & Nugent, 2005). The Gulf cooperation council member states had a notable difference in regard to the economic growth and also difference in the gross domestic product per capital where Kuwait has the lowest figure of US$ 1000 compared to the United Arab Emirates which has over US$25000 (United Nations, 2009). With these disparities in the level of per capita income the Arab economic integration has to engage in an intra-industry trade and economic activities which is guided by the product differentiation. The reason of choosing this market driven by product differentiation is to gather and accommodate the existing income and GDP differences as well as preference. The major characteristic and influence that has been introduced by the Arab economic integration is the reduction and the elimination of the trade barriers that exist in between the member states, the reduction of the standard trade barr iers include the non tariff barriers and the general costs of real trade (Hakimian & Nugent, 2005). The economic analysis and the evaluation of the Arab economic integration can be taken into account in two different dimensions where the first dimension is about the focus on the goods and services market, this dimension can be used to evaluate and assess the suitability and the desirability in regards as well as the context of the Arab integration. The second dimension comprises the reasoning in terms of the vicious circle; this provides that the idea of Arab economic integration has not been that effective because of the little intra regional trade due to the lack of organized...This paper mainly focuses on initiation of the Arab economic integration, more specifically on the countries, which are active members of the Gulf Cooperation Council. It provides a clear description of the market environment in these countries and the strategies that the governments of the respective membe r states have put into place to enhance the efforts of integration. The paper further focuses on both the major challenges that limit the implementation process and the possible approaches that can be adopted, so as to achieve optimum economic integration among the GCC member states. Regional economic integration among the Arab countries especially for the GCC countries has been a notable phenomenon. Efforts of regional economic integration in these countries started earlier than any other developing region in the world at around 1950s, The Arab states resolved on adopting numerous regional economic agreements that aimed at lifting up trade barriers mainly on preferential basis. These initiatives of economic integration had a significant economic impact on these integrated countries. The studies and analysis of this Arab integration indicated that the slow accomplishment and realization of the integration is due to the low intra-regional trade of goods among the member states. The key challenge in the pursuance of the economic integration by Arab countries is the efforts to establish a common market or a custom union. This has not been made possible due to its implementation nature where it requires agreement and harmonization of policies and regulations between the states. There is a need to establish institutional mechanisms, that will promote regional economic integration, in these counries.