Explore the ways in which Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth and Browning presents the speakers in Porphyria’s Lover, My Last Duchess and the Laboratory Essay Example for Free

Explore the ways in which Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth and Browning presents the speakers in Porphyria’s Lover, My Last Duchess and the Laboratory Essay Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth in such a way that she is shown as a strong and powerful woman. Her ability to manipulate Macbeth to murder Duncan in order to get more power is a key example of this aspect of her character. Browning also presents his speakers in a similar way to Shakespeare through their need to control. The main way that both authors achieve this is through the use of language. Techniques such as rhyming couplets and semantic fields are used to emphasise the control that the characters have or want to achieve. Additionally, a range of imagery is used throughout all of the texts, allowing the reader to gain an understanding of the characters. In their writing Shakespeare and Browning don’t follow the general patriarchal society which makes the murders so horrific and odd as women weren’t generally thought of as thinking of murder or committing a murder. Lady Macbeth tries to gain power by pushing Macbeth to murder Duncan, when she says she would have ‘dash’d the brains out, had [she] so sworn as [Macbeth]/ [Has] done to this’. This shows Lady Macbeth using horrific imagery to manipulate Macbeth into murdering Duncan as she is saying if she would ‘das[h]’ the brains out of her own child, he should be able to murder Duncan. Lady Macbeth wants to be more masculine so she feels more superior to Macbeth. Lady Macbeth uses violent imagery, which proposes that she isn’t the stereotypical woman that society suggests. The phrase ‘das[h] the brains out of her own child’ shows she is prepared to do anything to gain power. In the 17th century women were seen as nurturing and caring so to be thinking about murdering her own child would be seen as horrific. In a similar way Browning’s poem ‘The Laboratory’ also uses a variety of imagery; however here he particularly focuses on the imagery of death. The use of an exclamation mark at the end of ‘And Pauline should have just thirty minutes to live!’ shows the speaker is excited at the prospect of murdering her partner’s mistress as it is as though she is speaking in a loud or excited tone. The use of imagery ‘just thirty minutes’ shows that she likes the  pressure and the short time scale for murder. By doing this it emphasises the woman’s psychotic behaviour as women were generally not meant to even be thinking about murder never mind excited for it. In all three of Browning’s poems the speakers use self-justification for their actions. In ‘Porphyria’s Lover’ the speaker justifies murdering his lover. When the speakers says ‘From pride, and vainer ties dissever,/ And give herself to me forever,’ he justifies murdering his lover; he believes that, because she is a higher class than him, she cannot truly love him and is too proud to be with him. As there was no proof that the woman was going to love him he is using his deluded personality as an excuse for murdering her. In a similar way in ‘The Laboratory’ the killer also uses self-justification. The speaker describes ‘The soul from those masculine eyes’. This shows the speaker criticizing the enemy to make it look more acceptable that she is murdering someone. In society a woman is not generally thought of as a murderer, so by her describing the victim as a ‘masculine’ person she is trying to make her a ctions reasonable. Shakespeare and Browning both use semantic field of love and death with Browning particularly focusing on possession in ‘Porphyria’s Lover’. When the speaker says ‘she was mine, mine’ he implies he loves her so much that he wants to kill her so that no one else can have her. This is showing the speaker’s narcissist personality because he would rather her be dead so she can’t be with anyone else. This is similar to Shakespeare’s work as Lady Macbeth and Macbeth see the power as their possession. An example of semantic field of death in Macbeth is when Lady Macbeth says ‘who should against the murderer shit the door’. This contrasts with the semantic field of love in Macbeth. Through this juxtaposition, Shakespeare shows that lady Macbeth is willing to use her love as a means to manipulate Macbeth; she will use her love to control him, no matter what the cost. In both Macbeth and Browning’s ‘The Laboratory’, the speakers use masks, both literal and metaphorical, to cover up their psychotic behaviour. An example of this is in ‘The Laboratory’ where the speaker says ‘Now that I, tying thy glass mask tightly.’ Here, her mind is becoming fragmented and she is  literally hiding herself from others as she protects herself from the fumes. In Macbeth Lady Macbeth urges Macbeth to put the mask of a murderer back on- ‘Was the hope drunk/Wherein you’d dress yourself?’ –which suggests Macbeth is feeling guilty. If he adopts a faà §ade he’ll be able to kill without feeling remorse and no one will suspect them. This also implies that they are hiding their true personality and putting on a mask to hide what they are really going to do. People today still put on an act to hide their true feelings; Shakespeare and Browning’s texts allow the modern audience to relate t o this universal concept. Browning and Shakespeare both present their speakers as mentally disturbed but use rhyming couplets as a way to create stability to cover up their true personality. In ‘The Laboratory’ the speaker and her motivations are seen as troubling and sinister so using rhyming couplets, which creates a predictable pattern acts as an attempt to mask their true personality; the pattern attempts to impose a structure in her life. Browning also uses rhyming couplets in ‘My Last Duchess’ to also create stability to mask the speakers deranged personality; the couplets are limited, as is the Duchess’s life, so it suggests that the Duke has a level of structural control although he was unable to control her behaviour. In a similar way Shakespeare also uses rhyming couplets but uses them to show lady Macbeth’s firmness of decision: ‘Away, the mock the time with fairest show:/False face must hide what the false heart, doth know.’ Here Macbeth has giv en into Lady Macbeth’s persuasion and had made his final decision on murdering Duncan. Using rhyming couplets seems misplaced as they are orderly yet a murder isn’t. Shakespeare was influenced by The Gunpowder Plot as the link between Guy Fawkes’s plan to kill the king and Lady Macbeth’s idea to kill King Duncan was very similar in a way that it was unnatural to kill the king and go against what God has chosen. Shakespeare shows Lady Macbeth thinking and talking about murder; Browning also uses a woman as a murderer in ‘The Laboratory’. Both authors use women to show how horrific the murder really is, as women were seen as caring, mother figures who were automatically seen as kind and loving- so for women to be thinking of murder shows their psychotic personality and rebellion  against social expectations. An example of this is when Lady Macbeth says ‘unsex me here,’ which shows Lady Macbeth wanting to become more masculine, so she will be more capable of murder. By Shakespeare presenting Lady Macbeth in this way shows us that Lady Macbeth is capable of anything which is seen as unusual because women weren’t generally seen as being able to do a lot of things men were. Another example of this concept is in ‘The Laboratory’ when the speaker says ‘Sure to taste sweetly. This shows that the speaker finds pleasure in murdering someone. The speakers in ‘My Last Duchess’ and Lady Macbeth are both controlling and possessive. In ‘My Last Duchess’ the speaker says the metaphor ‘Taming a sea-horse.’ which suggests that the Duke has a controlling personality as it is like he is treating the Duchess as a slave and modelling her into what he wants her to be. The Duke shows he is controlling possessive as he says ‘That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall’; by using the possessive ‘my’ the Duke show us his true personality as he is saying the Duchess was, and still is, his. An example of possessiveness from Macbeth is ‘Only look up clear;†¦leave the rest to me.’ This shows Lady Macbeth being assertive and taking charge showing us her controlling and manipulative personality. By doing this it shows us that Lady Macbeth is the one who was the most power hungry as she is taking control and sorting everything out; it also shows that Macbet h is quite timid when it comes to Lady Macbeth because he just follows her orders. As women were seen as weaker than men, Lady Macbeth has to use Macbeth to get what she wants. In conclusion both Browning and Shakespeare present the characters as powerful and manipulative. Browning uses pronouns in both ‘The Laboratory’ and ‘My Last Duchess’ in order to show the relationships between the characters. Shakespeare also uses role reversal as he uses a woman telling a man what to do instead of the other way around; this could therefore be seen as subverting traditional gender roles. In this century a woman telling a man what to do is not seen as unusual but in the 17th century it wasn’t seen as the standard thing.

Macbeth Essay -- essays research papers

Does the statement "Fair is foul, and foul is fair" thoroughly expresses the many themes of Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’? The first time we hear the statement is very early in the play when the witches say the exact line "Fair is foul, and foul is fair" only for Macbeth himself to repeat it very closely two scenes later. This repetition of the lines shows me that the characters themselves believe that there are many foul events taking place. In this essay I will endeavour to prove that the above statement doesn’t express ‘Macbeth’ thoroughly. Firstly I will show the fair Macbeth himself degrading into a foul inhuman monster. Secondly, I will compare the witches to Macbeth to demonstrate the real foulness in these characters. I will then show why I believe that there simply isn’t any fairness existing in ‘Macbeth’. Then I will point out that there are simply too many themes in Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’ to be summed up in one line. Macbeth, in the beginning, is a man of valour, honour and nobility. By his loyal traits he helps maintain Scotland’s stability. Macbeth, on the outside, seems to be the fairest man in all Scotland, however we know better. Under the cloaking shadows of his skin, Macbeth hides his one weakness - that is ambition. His wife knows of his ambition and stirs him to act on it. Macbeth struggles with a choice; should he let the witches prophecies realise themself, or should he take steps to the achieve them. He knows that the latte...

Dialectics

Dialectics has been considered as one of the three original liberal arts known to classical philosophers as the Trivium, with the other two as rhetoric and grammar Dialectics Dialectics has been considered as one of the three original liberal arts known to classical thinkers as the Trivium, with the other two as rhetoric and grammar. During the ancient times in Greece, dialectic's forte was at the affairs of persuasion, very much like its sister counterpart rhetoric. Dialectic's purpose was to resolve discrepancies and disagreements through logical and rational discourses.The simple approach and explanation to how dialectics work is through the three step process of thesis-antithesis-synthesis, which was postulated by a German idealist philosopher named Georg Wilhelm Freidrich Hegel. He identified that for which, say a given premise, would be the emergence of a proposition (the theses) only later to be refuted (hence the anti-thesis of it). Being in this state of unacceptability, the only alternative is to arrive at a higher understanding or denial of the supposed presupposition of the thesis and anti-thesis forming a third proposition termed as the synthesis.A more simple and un-Hegelian example to understand dialectics is, let's suppose you just got a hold of a brand new cell phone. Being new to you, you have a limited understanding of it. You start on a state of ignorance knowing that its only purpose or the only reason for having one is to enable you to communicate. (thesis) Sooner or later, one way or another, the batteries will run out(assuming it is not a solar powered device) and it will stop functioning, hence the opposite of communicating or not being able to communicate. anti-thesis)Only then when you have a deeper understanding that for a cell phone to work and operate it needs a power source and learning the concept of recharging/changing the power source(a synthesis is reached and you gain a higher knowledge about the cell phone)will you get it to function properly again. Frederick Engels and Karl Marx, two very well-known revolutionary thinkers during their time applied this philosophical thought in studying the ideal and material condition of the world.It has been the theoretical foundation of Marxism which led to the development of dialectic materialism, which is simply the combination of Hegel's theory of Dialectics and Materialism and Historical Materialism, the application of dialectic materialism in studying history. The first principle of dialectics according to Frederick Engels is that everything, be it physical and material objects to real world processes, is made of opposing forces or opposing sides. (Fleck) To elaborate on this principle just look at everything around you.Everything works like a magnet. Objects hold each other because of the opposing forces that keep them from flying separately. The chair you sit on tries to break away from the earth, but the planet's gravity keeps it from doing so, the sun is he ld together by gravity which counteracts the nuclear reaction from its core. Even seemingly abstract concepts are made of opposites. For instance, to have an idea of the concept of bad, we need an idea of what is good, to have an idea of what is hot, we need an idea of what is cold and so forth.This is what Engel called the interpenetration of opposites which he frequently referred to as the unity of opposites. Many critics have argued on this property of dialectics which up to until now, many thinkers, new and old alike have yet to settle. Another important principle of dialectics that Engel stated in his work about dialectics is that in everything, gradual changes lead to turning points. (Fleck) What happens is that the two opposing forces in a process of change push against each other. Change would be gradual if one side is stronger than the other one.But when the other side becomes stronger, there is a turning point, much like when too much trees is cut down in a mountain slope, a mud slide occurs (turning point), you heat a kernel of corn until it turns into popcorn (turning point). This is what Engel referred to as the principle of the transformation of quantity into quality. Quantitative change results from the steady but continuous dominance of one opposing side or force. Things then follow a qualitative change when the other or opposite side dominates the other.The third principle of dialectics is that changes moves in spirals, not circles. (Fleck) Around us processes of change are cyclical in the sense that at first, one side dominates, then the other as in the cycle of day and night, breathing in and breathing out, one opposite then another. Engels claims things turn in cycles. However, it is not indispensable that they would return to where they came from and how they started. It is therefore cyclical but not circular. Change is ever-changing, moving in spirals.This principle is referred to by Engels as the law of negation of negation. This seeming ly complex principle, according to Engel goes on and on in everyday life. This happens when one side overpowers the other making the first negation. The dominated side then overpowers the dominating side at some point making the second negation. This is what law of negation of negation explains. In real-life drama, dialectics play a crucial role, in communication specifically in day-to-day normal conversations more than we ought to think.Traditionally, dialectics has been considered as a linguistic process that leads to generation of new ideas and thought by one's apprehension of a contradiction and paradox between two or more opposites. It layman's term, a conversation starts with stating a point of view followed by the others verification of its validity or questioning it from other points of view. In this whole conversation process, the clash of ideas or propositions trying to reach a consensual agreement which in turn is still ultimately questioned from other perspectives.Much l ike dialectics, in dialogues there is an imminent clash of ideas that are going on between individuals which ultimately lead to a consensus. The use of the dialectical approach or method in analyzing our history has long been used by its pioneer thinkers, more notable in arts, philosophy, science and religion. This may have been due to the analytical and critical capability of dialectics in explaining why and how changes occur which is essential for historians in probing the past.By pinpointing what stream of thinking and clashing ideas during a particular epoch, much can be surmised to wisely presuppose what will would or could happen next. Dialectics is essential in understanding fully the how's and the why's of how things happen. It provides the tool that gives wisdom on knowing the factors of change in a society and how it is ultimately molded and formed. Another concept that is noteworthy in the field of dialectics is called the â€Å"principal contradiction†, termed by Mao Zedong.This is defined as the contradiction in all things that needs to be resolved first and foremost. In determining what the principal contradiction in a thing, it is necessary to look at the overall or main goal of it. The three principle of dialectics namely. (1)the unity of opposites,(2)quantity into quality, and (3)negation of negation fits clearly on how to identify and possibly solve the principal contradiction in our society though it does not give a clear blueprint on what should be done.

Cause Of Death And Devastation Throughout Europe - 898 Words

Epidemics have been one of the leading causes of death and devastation throughout known history. Their effects impact the world on a broad spectrum, further than just the looming fatality as they spread. One that is notorious within western civilization, The Black Death, was described as an epidemic, possibly of bubonic plague,† devastated more than half of Europe’s population during the 13th century, initiating â€Å"almost three centuries of epidemics.† The implications of the plague reverberated throughout Europe and it’s neighboring lands, causing mass panic for those fortunate to avoid it, while changing the shape for both politics, as well as the economies (Noble et al. 304). The cause of the plague has been identified in contemporary times as the bubonic plague. Believed to have spread from near the coast of the Black Sea, traders and sailors traveling from regions east of Europe carried the plague with them. 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