During this project our focus was on the inclusion and exclusion of people on the basis of a criminal record.

INTRODUCTION AIMS AND OBJECTIVES During this project our focus was on the inclusion and exclusion of people on the basis of a criminal record. We dealt with a minority of prisoners; specifically on the experience of a male ex-prisoner. Following an interview to be held with one such individual, we aspired to: . Acquire information about the experience of life in prison and what it means to spend time there. 2. Get a clearer picture of what goes on within a correctional facility. 3. Gather information on the way one feels regarding inclusion and exclusion during the time spent in prison. 4. Become familiar with how an ex-prisoner feels on returning to the community. 5. Explore the views of an ex-prisoner with regards to how he feels society can integrate these individuals better; not making them feel unwanted. QUALITY OF LIFE Correctional facilities are institutions there to exclude individuals; as a form of punishment for acting in opposition to the laws, rules and regulations of a particular society. As a result, inclusion doesn't form part of such a facility. Consequently, the prisoners' quality of life suffers, together with their psychological health and personal identity. In terms of relationships; while completing the prison term, the prisoner may feel that he/she is lacking the past connection with family and friends, as visiting hours are restricted.

  • Word count: 9076
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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The Portrayal of Shakespeare's Hamlet in Cinema

Chapter One Introduction This dissertation is an exploration of William Shakespeare's play, Hamlet, on film, looking into the beginnings and history of Shakespeare on film and studying three famous and very different films of Hamlet; Laurence Olivier's Hamlet made in 1948, Franco Zeffirelli's Hamlet made in 1990 starring Mel Gibson in the title role and Kenneth Branagh's full text Hamlet made in 1996. I have decided to look at Hamlet on film because I believe film is relatively new medium and is interesting to see Shakespeare that was originally written for the stage to be brought to a mass audience in different and innovative ways. It is also important to discuss the different interpretations of Hamlet by different directors. I have chosen my three focus films because Olivier's was the first big cinematic work of Hamlet, Zeffirelli's was the first all-star Hollywood Hamlet and Branagh's was the first full text Hamlet. This therefore shows the various original ways in which Hamlet has been exposed to the film world. I also intend to illustrate why film is an appropriate medium for modern day Shakespeare fans and critics. My first chapter will outline and explore the dawn of cinema, the transition from theatre to cinema and the role of Shakespeare's plays in early cinema referring specifically to Hamlet. I will look at the earliest films of Hamlet and how they were

  • Word count: 8868
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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Based on your study of the first two Acts, how well does Shakespeare present us with characters we can dislike?

Based on your study of the first two Acts, how well does Shakespeare present us with characters we can dislike? Lyndsay Scott From the initial study of the first two acts, it is evident to see that Shakespeare is presenting his audience with a variety of personalities, many of which we, as an audience are actively encouraged to dislike. A Major theme within "King Lear" is the force of Good opposing Evil, so therefore it makes sense to suggest the presence of those perhaps stereotypical "Evil" characters causing trouble, whilst disrupting and shaping the course of the play. Throughout this essay, I hope to show and account for the reasons behind how some characters are portrayed very differently from other characters, and how this effects an audiences' interpretation of them. Whilst studying the play, we should be aware that Shakespeare manipulates events and prose, using various techniques in order to fulfil a certain purpose. Shakespeare moulds his plays in order to have a certain and very predictable effect upon an audience. His use of language that is used by individual characters and the sequence of events that take place throughout the play is by no means coincidental. Shakespeare in actual fact had a very clear purpose when writing his plays. The way in which the play is written serves to guarantee that his audience, ultimately, in light of the evidence shown

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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Review and interpretation of King Lear

BACKGROUND OF THE IDEA In creating the tragedy play King Lear, William Shakespeare used many sources in getting the base-line story, but it required his genius and intellect to place them together to create the true tragedy with its multiple plot lines that his play turned out to be in the end. The story of King Lear (or as it started, King Leir) is first seen in literature in the year 1135, contained in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae. Other authors placed King Leir into their stories including; John Higgins in A Mirror for Magistrates (1574), by Warner in Albion's England (1586), by Holinshed in The Second Book of the Historie of England (1577), and by Spencer in The Faerie Queen (1590). The most influential of all was probably The True Chronicle History of King Leir, which was anonymous. This play was performed as early as 1594, which is when it showed up in the "Stationers' Register." Kenneth Muir even suggested that Shakespeare "may have acted in it". Shakespeare took the best of all the sources of King Leir, added his touches and personality, and created the masterpiece we enjoy today. Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae, gave the description of King Lear and his three daughters, and also the basis for the love test. One major difference is that unlike Shakespeare's Lear, Geoffrey's Leir does not appear to be insane and has not lost

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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Henry V - History of a Hero?

Henry V - History of a Hero? In act one, scene one of Henry VI Part 1 some of the remaining characters from Henry V stand, following the death of King Henry V, and discuss the nature of their former monarch. King Henry the Fifth, too famous to live long! England ne'er lost a king of so much worth. England ne'er had a king until his time. Virtue he had, deserving to command.1 Their memories of the young king seem to sit well with some of the opinions of characters in Henry V, "I love the lovely bully", and indeed with history itself, "a military leader with a clear idea of virtue and leadership"2. However other characters in Henry V offer us less favourable opinions, "I'll never trust his word after", "Aye he said so, to make us fight more cheerfully. But when our throats are cut he may be ransomed, and we ne'er the wiser." Audience members are showing executions, foul language and scant regard for human life, promting Gerald Gould to ask Is it seriously maintained that Shakespeare means us to admire Henry here?3 So what is it about both the play and the character which makes him so open to debate? Why can some people see him as "the mirror of all Christian kings", whilst others accuse him of being a "brutal opportunist", and "subtle protagonist"? Henry has himself always occupied a special place in the annals of English history. Literature, including, though not

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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HOW DOES DRAMATIC IRONY AFFECT THE AUDIEDIENCE IN ROMEO AND JULIET?

HOW DOES DRAMATIC IRONY AFFECT THE AUDIEDIENCE IN ROMEO AND JULIET? The tragedy, 'Romeo and Juliet' was written in the year of 1593. The play includes a number of universal themes such as love, hate, death and loyalty so as to capture the imagination of a range of audiences. In this essay I am going to start by including a very brief history of the Globe Theatre. Then I am not only going to go through the play act by act to highlight the main examples of dramatic irony in each act. But also I am going to say how it affected the audience at all times. Finally, I am going to end with a conclusion, which sums up the main points that will be included in the essay. The Globe Theatre was built in 1598-99 by the Chamberlain's Company, it stood on the Southern shore of the Thames River in London. At this time Shakespeare was a member of the Chamberlain's Company. The first recorded performance was of Julius Caesar in September 1599. Many of Shakespeare's plays were written for and performed at the Globe, which burnt down in 1613. It was rebuilt in 1614, only to be destroyed by Oliver Cromwell's Puritan troops thirty years later. But if you want to get an idea of what the original Globe Theatre was like, the best thing to do is to visit the new Globe Theatre which was opened in 1997 about two hundred yards from the original site. It has lime plastered walls and a thatched roof,

  • Word count: 5764
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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Macbeth's Likely Suspects: the Practical, Psychological, and Mystical Utility of the Three Murderers

Macbeth's Likely Suspects: the Practical, Psychological, and Mystical Utility of the Three Murderers Erin Connelly English The series of slayings that characterize Macbeth incites an intricate sequence of suspicions and allegations, engendering a leitmotif of culpability. The play's only killers to be identified, unequivocally, as such, arrive in Act 3 scene 1. The Murderers of Macbeth are interlopers; in a cast of opinionated participants, these seemingly emotionless, poorly differentiated desperados are engaged to accomplish a specific, circumscribed task. The object of surprisingly limited recent critical attention, Macbeth's nameless consociates effect one of the play's pivotal actions, Banquo's murder, while serving as figures onto whom Macbeth displaces his own considerable anxieties. Arrival of an enigmatic Third Murderer enlists the three accomplices in the play's tradition of mystic, fate-endorsing trios, including the Weird Sisters and the three apparitions. Addressing the question of why Macbeth involves the three surrogate Murderers, this essay appraises the practical, psychological, and mystical utility of the Murderers vis-à-vis the greater system of murder and murderous accusations at work in the drama. In their Act 3 debut, the First and Second Murderers of Macbeth are presented as disenfranchised itinerants, alleging histories of insurmountable

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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Mother Courage and her children by Brecht

Mother Courage and her children Exploration notes * Plot and sub-plot Anna Fierling is a canteen woman who bears the name, "Mother Courage" and travels in her wagon along with her children serving the Swedish Army during the Thirty Years War, (1618-1648 ). Although she has been warned that war can never be all take and no give she intends to make a living from the war whilst keeping her children out of it. > Sweden, spring 1624 A truce has occurred in the Swedish-Polish war, a recruiter and his Sergeant are seeking without success to enlist new troops for the Swedish campaign in Poland. The recruiting officer attempts to enlist Eilif, her son, into the army. Courage sees her brave son being seduced by the officer and demands he leaves her children alone. The Sergeant protests and asks why; since Courage wishes to live off the war should she not give it something in return. When Eilif admits he would like to sign up, Mother Courage tells the recruiter's fortune and then prophesises his early death. Manipulating the situation and installing fear into her children, Courage then draws black crosses out of the hat signifying her children's death, telling them that Eilif will die for his bravery, Swiss Cheese for his honesty and Kattrin for her kindness. As the play progresses we find this "prophesy" is fulfilled. Whilst Courage is distracted, the recruiter officer takes

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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Comparison of Two Productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream

GCSE English/English Literature Assignment Shakespeare's 'A midsummer Night's Dream In this assignment I am going to study William Shakespeare's 'A midsummer night's dream'. Which I will watch be performed by two different theatre company's. The first show is to take place at the Royal exchange theatre, on the 8th April. Directed by Lucy Bailey. The second performance is to take place on the 16th May, at the Salford Lowry theatre. Performed by The Royal Shakespeare Company. Directed by Richard Jones. In this assignment I will describe the two different theatre designs. I will also look closely into one chosen key scene, giving a brief plot of the scene and discuss key characters from this scene. I will comment on how the two different directors, directed my chosen scene and the differences between them while commenting on how affective they were. I will then compare the two different productions overall and specifically in my chosen scene saying which one I preferred and why. As well as any other thoughts on the play. The theatre design of the Royal Exchange is a theatre in the round. A road ran from one side of the theatres across to the opposite side. Although this was a fixes scene it was multi-per phased a lamppost stood in one corner of the theatre. This was very affective as it gave the audience the idea of being in the middle of nowhere. A if it was just one on going

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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Can we write about the tragedy of Hamlet in any meaningful fashion

Can we write about the tragedy of 'Hamlet' in any meaningful fashion? It is highly problematic to use the word 'tragedy' when referring to Shakespeare's works. 'Hamlet' has long been considered the best example of what one would call a tragedy out of all Shakespeare's plays, yet this generalisation, as it proves to be, is the most troublesome of all. Perhaps the reason for this lies in the unknown extent of Shakespeare's familiarity with what one would call traditional tragedy, whose routes lie in the principles set down by the Greeks and Aristotle. Aristotle, in setting down the so-called rules of tragedy in his 'Poetics' talks of an essential element; 'Hamartia', fundamental in the downfall of the prominent (usually this prominence is reflected in a high up hierarchical figure, perhaps of the nobility)'tragic hero' and which, furthermore the character must recognise. This fall from grace marks a reversal of the character's fortune, placing great emphasis on an element of fate; the 'strumpet fortune' that Hamlet so frequently refers to. Aristotle, echoing the Greek view that tragedy is didactic also talks of a fundamental element, Catharsis, at the tragic hero's downfall where the audience's emotions are purged and purified. Taking this into account, the links between Shakespeare's dramatic works and Greek tragedy are nevertheless unproved and tenuous. It is likely,

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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