How does William Shakespeare's The Tempest reflect society at the time?
How does William Shakespeare's The Tempest reflect society at the time? William Shakespeare's The Tempest is a pastoral Tragicomedy that was written during the Elizabethan period in which society was expanding and extracting ideas from many other cultures. Even though King James was on the throne for a good part of the Jacobean period it was still considered as the Elizabethan period as not much changed at first. It is Shakespeare's last play that he wrote on his own that contains some of his most complex ideas that coincide with his theatrical balance. The metaphor for the theatre is in fact the play itself with Shakespeare as the leading role, "break my staff" laying down his pen and bringing his world to a dénouement. This play is very much concerned with the emotion and overall behaviour of people. There is a sense of ambiguity with the actual Tempest as its meaning is that to a real - life event. Many critics have found that there is a great chance that Shakespeare may have been influenced by the news reports of a boat journeying to Jamestown, in which a new settlement was to be created. This happened during 1609 with the written accounts of the actual survivors containing much detail in to their adventure. "Though the seas threaten, they are merciful". This shows a great reflection back upon this real event that occurred in Shakespeare's time as the survivors on the
To what extent has the UK political system become more democratic in recent years
To what extent has the UK political system become more democratic in recent years In recent times the in the UK we have seen the more frequent use of referendums. These are votes where the electorate votes on a specific issue such as devolution. It is thought of as a good way of including elements of direct democracy in our representative system. Although this method does seem to infringe on the principal of parliamentary sovereign if in the UK our representatives our supposed to put forward the views of the electorate it cannot be seen as bad idea. However some critics of referendums argue that its frequent use in recent years has actually detracted from the democratic process. They argue that the questions used can be worded to influence voters, no matter how carefully they are phrased they will always have an element of bias to them. Also they argue referendums are expensive and disrupt the government. Others argue that because referendums are held at a time of the ruling party's choice, they have the biggest influence on the outcome of the vote. If these criticisms are true then obviously the use of referendums are actually degrading from the democratic process, however others disagree. Supporters of referendums argue that there use in our political system will re-connect voters, after having participated in this process they will take more notice of real issues, rather
Lord Tennyson’s“The charge of Light brigade ” and Wilfred Owen’s “Dulce et Decorum Est”.
The comparison of poems I am going to look at Lord Tennyson's"The charge of Light brigade " and Wilfred Owen's "Dulce et Decorum Est". Tennyson wrote this poem during the Crimean war, which was in 1854. He wrote it because he was the Poet Laureate at that time, he needed to write the poem because the government told him to do so to act as propaganda and the turn what was a disaster into a success. He needed to tell how well the English troops had fought even they were slaughtered, and how glorious they were when they were trying to get the English cannons back. Wilfred Owen was a war poet in the 1st world war. He had stayed in trenches for some time and all of his poems are about the actions in 1st world war. In both poem, they are set out in 3 sections. In Tennyson's , he is saying the army goes into the valley where the enemy are. Then it is some close battle of sword fighting, at last it is the troops retreating. In Owen's, the English troops that stayed up in the trenches are going back to their home base. Then there is a sudden gas attack, and he describes a single person dies horribly. Owen then reflects that it is not sweet and glorious to die for your country after you have seen what had happened in the war. Tennyson's poem is like a hymn, with verses and sentences are repeating to emphasis the words. At the end of every verse, he says "The six hundred"
Weapons and Armour - Most civil war soldiers carried a rifled musket, which had quickly replaced the smoothbore muskets.
Civil War Assignment By John Jang Yr10 Weapons and Armour Most civil war soldiers carried a rifled musket, which had quickly replaced the smoothbore muskets. Te old smoothbore muskets had very limited range and were not very accurate. In places where soldiers on firing lines were more than a hundred yards apart a smoothbore musket wouldn't do much damage. Mass numbers of soldiers would often charge next to each other towards the defensive line and use bayonets and their superior numbers to wipe out the enemy. However rifled muskets changed the way that soldiers fought. It was a muzzleloader and had grooves inside the barrel that guided the bullet much more accurately. A charging mass of soldiers would be caught in enemy fire half a mile away and so it was impossible for them to get to the defending enemy and kill them. But these new rifles could not be fired very fast. Before a soldier could fire his musket, he had to bite open a paper cartridge, pour powder down the musket barrel, push the bullet in with a ramrod, cock the hammer, and set the percussion cap. New soldiers spent weeks trying to learn how to do t his quickly, but even the rifle fire from experienced soldiers was slow Heavy guns were also loaded by pouring in the powder and then the charge. Between shots the barrel was swabbed out. If a spark remained from the previous shot, the new powder being poured in
Swift's main purpose in Gulliver's Travels.
In the novel Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift comically describes a world of political and social stupidity in a way that satirizes the English world that Swift himself lived in. According to Arthur E. Case, Jonathan Swift "conceived himself as a positive moral and social reformer. [...] There is plentiful evidence of his conviction that he knew not only what was wrong with the world, but also the means by which the world could be brought nearer to perfection" (16). Swift's intentions are to reform the weakness and inability of the English government and political world through the different places that he has artfully created in this novel. He also criticizes the inappropriateness of war, the fickleness of the English social atmosphere, and the corruption of the legal universe in Swift's era. In the novel, Lemuel Gulliver, the main character as well as an English physician and sea captain, is swept away on many distant voyages all over the world. Gulliver explores several different worlds that all separately portray the many types of corruption in the English empire that Swift intends to reform. Swift's main purpose in Gulliver's Travels was to illustrate how the English government and society needed a reformation. As an Irish patriot and a former admirer of the English government and life, Swift now sees England and all its glory in a very different way. One of
Shang Dynasty - 1570 - 1045 bc
Shang Dynasty I INTRODUCTION Shang Dynasty (1570?-1045? BC), Chinese dynasty with the earliest-known written records. It is the most ancient of the Chinese dynasties for which documents are known to exist, marking the beginning of China's written history. The cultural, religious, and political practices of the Shang elites strongly influenced the Zhou, who conquered the Shang in about 1045 BC and established the Zhou dynasty. The Shang texts exist primarily in the form of carvings in the Shang script on animal bones and shells. These inscriptions recorded the king's divinations (ritual acts designed to forecast the future). They provide an account of the daily concerns of the last nine Shang kings, from the 21st king, Wu Ding, to the 29th king, Di Xin. Their period of rule, from about the late 1200s to about 1045 BC, is known as the Late Shang. The Shang state was centered in what is now called the Huabei Pingyuan (North China Plain), an expansive lowland area extending across north central China. Significant population growth and cultural interaction had been taking place there in the 3rd millennium BC, during China's Neolithic Period, or New Stone Age. The Shang culture that emerged in the 2nd millennium BC, during China's Bronze Age, was a product of that interaction. II HISTORICAL RECORD Archaeological excavations of sites tentatively identified as early Shang
Discuss official statistics with regard to how useful one might find them when conducting sociological research
Offical Statistics Depending on whether the sociologist is a positivist or an interpretivist, official statistics may be worthless. Positivists see official statistics as valuable sources of quantitative information that can be used to investigate cause and effect relationships, like Durkheim did when investigating suicide. According to positivists, official statistics are hard, social facts that are separate from an individual, yet affect their behaviour. Most positivists accept the validity and reliability of official statistics. An interpretivist does not take the same view as a positivist. They believe that they are not measurements of facts, and are rather social constructions created by the meanings people attach to behaviour. Police may attach meanings to murder or burglaries and it is the job of a sociologist to understand how those meanings are constructed. Marxists take yet another view. They believe that official statistics are tools created by the bourgeoisie to enforce their ideology onto the proletariat. These tools can be used to mask the true inequalities of society and capitalism. They will take note of Conservative governments switching the methods use to measure unemployment over 30 times, in most cases resulting in a fall in unemployment. Using official statistics is good for the sociologist as they cost very little to use whilst being readily
Blake's idea of Innocence
Seminar Leader: Ben Hickman Jo Devanny, jd307 (R) 5 November 2008 School of English E325 Romanticism Question 1. 'The Romantic conception of innocence is full of complexities and ironies; the difficulty for the reader is to gauge whether these are conscious or not.' Discuss with reference to Songs of Innocence and of Experience. The subject of innocence and youth is an integral part of Blake's 'Songs of Innocence and Experience,' these poems are generally associated with children and their innocence without experience, as we see in 'The Eccohing Green' in Songs of Innocence as 'The Sun does arise', and the short line length gives the happy imagery of children playing without restrictions in the idyllic setting where nature and happiness are in synchronicity. As the 'sun does descend' in the final stanza and the language changes the mood to 'weary' and 'darkening' with a longer line length, the reader could assume that this is signifying how short lived youth is. Also that Blake is marking the loss of innocence as sport is 'no more seen' and the green no longer 'Ecchoes' the youth of the on looking past generation. When debating whether or not Blake was aware of the ironies in his work it is important to look at his ever-recurring theme of the church and God. In 'The Divine Image' we are told that 'all must love the human form/ In heathen, turk or jew:' Yet
With Reference to Act I, show how Leontes Jealousy reveals him to be in rebellion with himself
With Reference to Act I, show how Leontes' Jealousy reveals him to be "in rebellion with himself" Although the play ultimately presents itself as a comedy, I believe The Winter's Tale remains a multifaceted presentation of a man's attempt to destroy himself based on a misconception. Shakespeare often toyed with the idea of appearances and reality. In The Winter's Tale, the exploration of this concept enables him to examine a number of underlying ideas. Perhaps one of the most interesting of these, is Shakespeare's presentation of Leontes' journey through the stages of jealousy in the first act until he is, "in rebellion with himself". I believe this "rebellion" that Camillo refers to is both figurative and literal. Figuratively, Leontes is questioning two people who make up a huge part of himself: Mamillius and Polixines. The tangible consequences of this are revealed in the effects on Leontes' sanity, and are reflected in other character's responses. Leontes' jealousy clearly reveals him to be figuratively "in rebellion with himself", as he questions two people who make up an essential part of himself: Polixenes and Mamillius. In the very first scene, Leontes and Polixines are presented as being extremely close, almost like brothers. This bond is reflected in the relationship between Archidamus and Camillo, lords from Bohemia and Sicilia respectively. Their
Discussion of Discourse in Nabokov's Lolita
IB Extended Essay English A1 How does the discourse between Humbert Humbert's authorial strategy as the first person narrator of 'Lolita' and Vladimir Nabokov's own strategy as the book's author affect our reading of the text? Candidate Name: Natasha Frost Candidate Session Number: 000434-033 School: Kristin School 000434 Supervisor: Mrs. Meryl Noyes Word Count: 3,994 Abstract This essay explores the relationship between authorial strategy and the strategy and defence of the narrator within the book Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. It also considers how the discourse between these two elements affects the reader's perception of the narrator and our judgment of his crimes, coming to the conclusion that we must consider the bare facts presented by Nabokov and prevent ourselves from becoming swayed by Humbert's rhetoric and powerful aesthetics. It considers this in light of the views of previous readers in order to understand how Humbert's manipulation can at times be successful. The essay investigates in some depth the notion of Nabokov's description of events and the subtle tools he uses that undermine the story we are told by Humbert Humbert. It considers the psychological tools Humbert uses to inspire pathos and understanding and the nuances to his character that make him considered 'reputable', such as his scholarship and seductive use of language, making reference to
