Free Macbeth Essays: The Impact of Act 2 scene 2 :: Free Essay Writer

The Impact of Act 2 scene 2 of Macbeth  Ã‚      Act 2 scene 2 is the most violent and intense part of Macbeth although we do no actually witness the murder of King Duncan. It is interesting that Shakespeare chooses to have Macbeth kill Duncan offstage. We can only guess why he wrote the scene that way, I think that Shakespeare wanted to focus not on the murder but on Macbeth’s reaction to it; the bloody details supplied by the audiences imaginations will be much worse than anything that could be done onstage. It is also the most crucial part of the play; it is the first of many murders. This scene takes place at night; I feel the darkness represents what is unnatural, cruel and evil. Everything that happens within the play appears to revolve around this particular scene. Not only is this important because it contains the murderous act, it also conveys to the audience the rapid disintegration of the relationship between the two main characters, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. In act 2, scene 2, the murder of Duncan takes place. The audience should be on the edge of their seats by now, wondering if Macbeth will actually have the nerve to murder his king. The tension increases dramatically when we see Lady Macbeth pacing about in a nervous but excited state, awaiting Macbeth’s return increases the tension dramatically. We get a peek at Lady Macbeth’s softer side. She says that she would have killed Duncan herself, but the old man looked too much like her father. This small reminder of Lady Macbeth’s humanity will be important to our understanding of what happens to her at the end of the play. As she waits she decides that she heard a screech owl, and she takes that as a good omen, because the screech owl is nature’s own ‘fatal bellman’. A ‘fatal bellman’ would emphasize the idea of death/ execution in the audience’s minds, which makes it all the more eerie, ‘He’s at it’. This particular part of this scene has to be the climax of the play. When Macbeth and his wife are re-united they are both highly charged with nervous energy and excitement. Macbeth and his wife at first do not speak in sentences. Their speech is syncopated and highly charged emotions tell the audience all is not well. The fact that Macbeth still has hold of the daggers intensifies the tension felt in the scene.

Political Philosophy and Major Theme Machiavelli Essay

Machiavelli had a true and abiding love for Florence. He wanted to make Florence great and also find himself a job, as he lost his when the Medici family came into power. He dedicated his book on political science, The Prince, to Lorenzo Medici in the hopes that Lorenzo would be impressed and offer him a job. However, Lorenzo ignored the book and Machiavelli. The Prince is a didactic examination of political power, how to achieve it, maintain it, and expand it. Machiavelli does not take into consideration what is morally right, or amoral, only what is useful and useless. The book is more like a technical manual, and technical manuals only state the facts. The book defines what turns a mere man into a great ruler and what turns a great ruler into a mere man. Machiavelli’s book of politics is unique because it is so realistic. He does not place man in a false utopia where man live in eternal peace and harmony, everyone doing good to one another for the good of the public whole. Rather, he writes a manual where there are political conflicts and tensions. Machiavelli writes how a prince should deal with these conflicts and tensions. He condones cruelty, punishment, religion, rewards, compassion, and integrity to achieve power. Whatever means to achieve the end. QUESTIONS 2. Discuss Machiavelli’s â€Å"heroes†. Select one and discuss the traits that he finds admirable in that person. Be specific. Machiavelli’s heroes are Moses, Cyrus, Romulus and Theseus. They all formed civilizations. When Machiavelli talks about his heroes he is speaking of how to acquire a princedom. As Isiah Berlin says in his essay, Machiavelli admired these heroes because they were high-minded, tough, and tough enough to use brutality against the few, to help the public good of the princedom. He especially admired Moses because he was worthy to talk to God. Moses had the opportunity to create a new civilization with the Israelites because they were being treated badly by the Pharaoh . Therefore, Moses took advantage of their discontent with their new master and led them in a revolt. Eventually creating a new civilization. Machiavelli admired Moses because of his strength of character that carried him through the difficult trouble of gaining power. 3. Discuss Machiavelli’s opinions on the uses of cruelty to accomplish certain goals. The Prince is about the ways to achieve political power, with no preference for the way in which it is achieved. Machiavelli does not advocate unnecessary cruelty. His book is only about how to obtain and keep a princedom. Machiavelli believes that cruelty is sometimes necessary to acquire or/and keep political power. Machiavelli recognized that in the time he lived a political ruler would have to use cruelty, he writes, â€Å"The new prince, above all princes, cannot possibly avoid the name of cruelty†. He also states in Chapter VIII that cruelty may be useful sometimes in achieving certain ends, but it would bring no glory. 1. What does Machiavelli think of â€Å"the people† in the course of human history? Machiavelli refers to â€Å"the people† as â€Å"the masses†, lots of times. He realizes that â€Å"the people† are a dominant force in politics, whether it is a democracy or a republic. When a princedom is added to an already established kingdom, he writes that the customs must be the same between the two and that no new taxes or laws should be enacted. To do so would cause the people to revolt and the recently acquired princedom would be in jeopardy. Machiavelli realizes a prince cannot keep political power if his people hate him. A hostile population may abandon him or turn against him when hostile noble attack, then the prince will lose the kingdom. Machievelli also believed that a prince may â€Å" make an example of a very few† be execution of severe punishment, but that letting the population bring disorder among themselves was bad for the whole community. Therefore, Machiavelli was wary of â€Å"mob rule†. Machiavelli realizes that â€Å"the people† have to be relatively happy for a princedom to be healthy. 4. In general, what is Machiavelli telling his â€Å"Prince† with regard to the use of power? Machiavelli’s entire book is about power. How to achieve a princedom with power. Power over â€Å"the people† with cruelty (or punishment); power over other princes with deceit or a bigger army or powerful friends; power over the army with cruelty and/or money. He speaks of control over captured cities by dividing them into factions, disarming the people or forming hostilities among the people. All of these things achieve power. A prince must also be more powerful than his counselors, listening and gleaning knowledge but making his own decisions; because a weak prince will do whatever his counselors tell him and then his counselors will take over the princedom. EVALUATION OF BOOK I think this is one of the most interesting books I’ve read in a while. It’s dry, realistic, terse, and to the point. It’s also very easy to read (I was pleasantly surprised). All of the historical connotations are especially interesting. I read that Hitler, Mussolini, and Lenin found Machiavelli valuable reading; I would like to delve more into that one!! In the Renaissance religion and learning were beginning to be thought of as separate and Machiavelli was a man of his time. His book was entirely didactic and did not have a trace of religion. He spoke of cruelty and deceit in matter-of-fact tones and kept his book strictly a manual, with no judgements. In our modern time, we have to discern his book in the same manner that he wrote it. If we do not, we will not understand what he was writing.

Nature VS nurture †Issues, perspectives and debates in psychology Essay

NATURE refers to our innate potential that is influenced entirely by physiological and genetic factors. NURTURE refers to the influence of the environment into & all the learning experiences we have after we are born. The nature-nurture debate has been hotly debated in psychology. At the outset of psychological research the nature-nurture debate was a point of argument between researchers from the behaviourist tradition and other approaches. More recently it has divided researches with regard to social and racial differences in intelligence. Nowadays it’s hard to believe that something as complex as human behaviour can be completely explained by either side of the argument, it’s more likely to be a product of both, as suggested by the Psychologist Robert Plomin. He would like to see the nature-nurture debate end as he says most human behaviours are not influenced by nature or nurture but by nature and nurture. He makes the point that twin and adoption studies have provided evidence for the fact that there is a genetic component to personality, intelligence and general behavioural disorders such as Schizophrenia and Autism. However the genetic influence on these traits and behaviour is only partial, genetics account for on average half of the variance of most traits therefore the environment must account for the rest according to Plomin. This means that they are interdependent. An approach that belongs on the interdependent side of the argument is the cognitive-developmental approach. A key assumption of this approach is that development occurs through the twin processes of nature and nurture. Piaget believed that children were innately curious and programmed to learn (nature) but they needed the right sort of stimulation and environment to be able to do this adequately (nurture). However a criticism to this approach is that Piaget underestimated children’s abilities, this produces a difficulty in his theories and suggests that children are not the way he envisioned them. This could indicate that they are not innately curious and even if provided with the right environment, don’t learn. This can be compared to the Leaning Approach; a criticism with this approach is that it doesn’t consider the effect of nature, similar to a criticism of the physiological approach, which doesn’t consider the effect of nurture. If the theories are proved false it’s tempting to say that that indicates nature and nurture have no effect individually, but must work together. An approach that believes that nurture is entirely responsible for our behaviour is the learning approach. The learning approach presents the assumption that all behaviour is learnt, through interactions with the environment, and at birth we are a blank slate ready to develop. Evidence for this comes from Watson’s study of little Albert. Albert was an 11-month-old baby when the study began; Albert was presented with a white rat, to which he responded with curiosity. After several sessions the presentation of the white rat was accompanied with a loud noise to which Albert responded with fear. After several sessions Albert displayed fear as soon as the rat was presented even without hearing the loud noise. This showed Albert had learnt to associate the rat with a loud noise, which he was frightened of. Albert generalised this fear with other things similar to the rat such as a white rabbit and a white beard. Albert had learnt this behaviour. So according to the learning approach it therefore follows that nurture is solely responsible for human development. Watson’s study was On the other hand is the physiological approach. This approach presents the assumption that genetics are responsible for human behaviour. For example research into genetics has shown there to be genes responsible for certain type of behaviour and characteristics for example tongue rolling and eye colour, and more controversially research has been carried out to find a gene responsible for homosexuality and criminality. Evidence to support this theory comes from research into Schizophrenia. This research has shown there to be an excess of dopamine in the brains of schizophrenics. Schizophrenia has been shown to run in families, 10 out of every 100 children who have one biological parent with schizophrenia go on to develop schizophrenia whereas only 1 or 2 in every 100 in the general population develop schizophrenia. Twin studies on monozygotic (identical twins) have also indicated that genetics are responsible for schizophrenia, as if one twin is schizophrenic there is between a 35 and 58% chance of the other twin also developing schizophrenia. Of course this is only a correlation and this relationship could be caused by another variable. Twin studies are hard to conduct because the necessary situation doesn’t occur particularly frequently in the population, therefore the sample is limited and difficult to generalise. This affects the reliability and validity of the results. The idea of the causes of schizophrenia is explored further in clinical psychology. Schizophrenia is the most commonly diagnosed form of mental illness; 1% of the whole population will be diagnosed at some point in their lives has having schizophrenia. Schizophrenia doesn’t seem to have one single cause but is rather the product of a relationship between biology, psychology and culture. Which suggests both nature and nurture play a role in the development of schizophrenia. As I said earlier twin, adoption and family studies give the clearest indication that genetics play a role in the development of schizophrenia. 10% of children with a schizophrenia parent will go on to develop the disease. This however, because it’s only a correlation, could be caused by another factor, for example the environment. Studies have been carried out using twins to find out the concordance rate of schizophrenia in twins. The increased risk of developing schizophrenia could be the result of difficulties that have arisen during the rearing of a child by a parent with such a disorganised personality. However adoption studies have been carried out which also suggest that genetics are responsible for schizophrenia. Heston (1966) compared the adopted children of 77 schizophrenic mothers with the adopted children of 50 normal mothers and found the former to be 5 times more likely to be admitted to hospital with schizophrenia. This study also shows that those children of schizophrenic parents were more likely to go on and be diagnosed as psychopaths, behaviourally disordered or neurotic. The study by Heston rules out the possibility that the experience of being adopted leads to the development of schizophrenia as the control group didn’t go on to develop higher levels of schizophrenia. However the sample isn’t large so is difficult to generalise and this type of situation doesn’t occur frequently so it is hard to do this type of investigation.

A Comparison of Benvolio and Mercutio

A Comparison of Benvolio and Mercutio Free Online Research Papers It was a hot summer day in the town square of Verona when the two households came face to face, both feeling and showing their emnity. In the play of Romeo and Juliet, written by Shakespeare, Tybalt wishes to fight Romeo and since Romeo is refusing to battle him, Mercutio steps up and takes Romeos place. Benvolio is, like always, begging and pleading for them to keep the peace. All through the tale, Romeos best friends, Benvolio and Mercutio, try to help Romeo with their own particular methods. Surprisingly, there are no characters that differ from each other more than Benvolio and Mercutio. Although Benvolio and Mercutio are alike because they are both very loyal to Romeo, they are different because Benvolio is calm, level-headed, and honest and Mercutio tends to be a sarcastic, wild person who follows his emotions more than his common sense. Mercutio and Benvolio express loyalty and companionship toward Romeo. Mercutio battles Tybalt in order to defend Romeos honor, when Romeo has already made it clear that he doesnt want anyone to fight. Mercutio bravely faces the furious Tybalt and says O calm, dishonorable, vile submission! Tybalt you rat-catcher will you walk? (Scene Five). Benvolio also shows he is faithful to Romeo when he devises the brilliant plan of crashing the Capulets ball, in an attempt to cure his friend Romeos depression. When he says Supper is done, and we shall come too late. (Scene Two), hes convincing Romeo to go to the ball to have some fun or else itll be too late and hell stay heart broken. Mercutio and Benvolio are different because Mercutio is a wild person that likes to pick fights even though they arent his battles. When Tybalt is looking for Romeo, Mercutio steps up and declares Here is my fiddlestick; heres that shall make you dance. (Scene Five), thus making Tybalt even angrier and causing a fight. You can see Benvolio is a peace-keeping person especially when he states I do but keep the peace: put up thy sword (Scene One). He says this mainly because he doesnt want anyone to get hurt or get in trouble with the law. Although Mercutio and Benvolio are really close to being antithesis of one another, they are also similar because they are both incredibly loyal and faithful to Romeo. Though they are an oddly matched pair, they somehow combine to add their own unique flavors to Romeo and Juliet. Benvolio and Mercutio are two symbolic characters. Benvolio is supposed to represent the beatific person or the good path to take; on the other hand, Mercutio is the jokester or the unwise path to take. Benvolio tries to stop a fight when he says Put up your swords (Scene One) and Mercutio is encouraging a fight when he says, Tybalt, will you walk? (Scene Five). It is clearly seen that Mercutio and Benvolio are different in many ways, but it is their differences that symbolize that their will usually always be two paths you can take, a wise and an unwise. They also show that the strength of a family, like the strength of an army, is in its loyalty to each other (Mario Puzo) Research Papers on A Comparison of Benvolio and MercutioWhere Wild and West MeetHonest Iagos Truth through DeceptionThe Hockey GameHarry Potter and the Deathly Hallows EssayThe Spring and AutumnUnreasonable Searches and SeizuresTrailblazing by Eric AndersonQuebec and CanadaThe Effects of Illegal ImmigrationAppeasement Policy Towards the Outbreak of World War 2

Guns in School Article Essay Example

Guns in School Article Essay Example Guns in School Article Essay Guns in School Article Essay l A bill currently in the Florida Congress would, if passed, give counties the ability to designate school employees to carry a firearm. In an obvious response to the Sandy Hook shooting, legislators are using this bill to try to increase safety in schools, and prevent more school shootings. National Rifle Associate spokesman Wayne Lapierre claims that â€Å"the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun,† but who gets to decide who is good and who is bad? Merely having a teaching license in the state of Florida does not necessarily make someone a â€Å"good guy†.The 40 hours of training that will be required for any arm-bearing teachers, is not nearly enough to ensure good gun conduct. Unfortunately, public schools are not exactly known for weeding out the dregs of society when hiring employees. All across the nation teachers are arrested every day for various crimes, oftentimes felonies, involving drugs and sex crimes. Just this year Polo Par k Principle Scott Blake was arrested for soliciting sex from a fifteen year-old boy. It is difficult enough for anyone to expect a fifteen year old to defend himself against a 46 year old teacher, even when the teacher is unarmed.Now giving teachers weapons, and further empowering them over their defenseless students, could increase the frequency and scale of these sick and disturbed acts. Even teachers that normally would not exploit students can sometimes lose their cool. Often students and teachers can get into physical fights. These conflicts could escalate quickly if guns are added to the mix. Not only could a frightened teacher draw and fire on an aggressive student when lethal force is not necessary, students could potentially overpower teachers to seize their weapons.Furthermore, a public school teacher is a low-pay, high-stress job, and certain teachers may be vulnerable to a breakdown. Some of these scenarios may seem rare, or even farfetched, but they are very possible in the multitude of schools across the nation. While this bill may limit the damage of mass school shootings by students or outsiders, is it worth the potential of teacher’s harming their students? That said, schools do need to be made safer. Students should feel secure when they go to school n order to succeed, but armed teachers do not necessarily increase that security. Perhaps instead the government could reallocate some of the money spend on senator’s pension plans to paying for school security guards. These out-of-classroom guards would provide the security against outsiders while still keeping students safe from any potentially unstable teachers. In addition, having multiple security guards would protect against any possible breakdowns by any one guard, as opposed to having one teacher, one gun, and thirty children in the same room.

Britan Industrial Relations Sytem Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Britan Industrial Relations Sytem - Essay Example In the 19th century Britain was at the peak of its power it ruled over a huge territory. In fact the whole world. It is the leading industrial and naval power of the 19th century; it led the way in developing parliamentary democracy and in advance literature as well as science. The British industrial relations system has a long history and has gone through much change in recent years. Industrial relations are also known as employee relations. Employee relation is are partly concerned with groups of employees who are represented by trade unions (Ed 2004 p 4). There are three phases in the evolution of employee relations since the end of the World War II, the third one being the partnership approach. Until 1979 (date of the election of the Conservative Party), work relations were based on collective bargaining and collective agreement aiming to determine and regulate, in varying degrees, the terms on which individuals will be employed (Flanders 1968 p35), with a strong voluntarism encouraged massively and informally. The trade unions (basically, it is an association of wage earners, totally independent of employers pressure, who struggle to improve work conditions) had a lot of power and everything was negotiated through deals. A Trade Union, through collective bargaining can force employers to deal with labour as a collective identity, rather than isolated individuals and so, secure better the terms and condition of employment. Nevertheless, in 1979when the conservative party won the election, everything changed. The new government used a lot measures to restrict the role of trade unions. In addition, it introduced an enterprise culture in which individuals and organisations, rather than government, were to be held responsible for economic performance. Thus, as well as rejecting the maintenance of full employment as a major policy objective, they in effect abandoned the commitment of their

International law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words - 1

International law - Essay Example This means that the decisions made do not have precedents on the other courts, which means that the provisions of international rules will continue to be applied inconsistently. A good example of a rule, however, is the responsibility to protect doctrine, which necessitates intervention in cases of genocide and other widespread human rights abuses. That said, even this doctrine is applied inconsistently, as seen in the case of Sri Lanka, a nation which has been at war for 30 years. This nation has not been the target of R2P intervention, and has, for many years, been largely ignored by the United Nations. This case study shows the limits of international rules of law, and demonstrates the need for a more comprehensive approach to be taken on the international stage. The Traditional Meaning of Sovereignty The United Nations' attempts to establish an international rule of law meets a stumbling block in the form of the concept of state sovereignty. State sovereignty is a powerful and tr aditional concept, and has traditionally been the bedrock of world order and interstate relations. (Supplement to the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty). What state sovereignty means is that every nation-state has the right to rule its people, and dispose of its resources, by its own independent edicts (International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, p. 12). Because of the concept of state sovereignty, the protected and respected norm, even by the United Nations, is one of non-intervention. State sovereignty is such a paramount concept that, if one nation violates it, then the offended nation can defend itself by right, and the United Nations protects this right to defend (International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, p. 12). That said, state sovereignty is not absolute, and is subjected to international rules and regulations. Moreover, in today's globalized world, state sovereignty has become ever-more tenous. The reali ty of today's world is that national borders are often breached by environmental, cultural and economic influences through technological and communication advances (Supplement to the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty). State sovereignty is also limited in that nations agree that, in order to maintain their sovereignty, to protect their citizens, and this enables the international community to hold wayward nations accountable for their own actions towards their citizens (International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, p. 12). In other words, if a nation is committing atrocities against its citizens, then that nation effectively relinquishes its own sovereignty, and the international community has the right to step in and intervene when this occurs. International Rule of Law The other concept that should be understood in this context is the concept of an international rule of law, and the brief historical basis for this. Chesterman (2008) h as explored this concept in depth. He states that the international rule of law has been promoted through international treaties, development actors (including donor States), and security actors (such as the U.N. Security Council). The latter has promoted the rule of law as a form of conflict resolution, claims Chesterman. He sees the international rule of law operating to protect human rights by issuing human rights treaties, as well as international codes