Analysis of selected passages from Othello by William Shakespeare Essay Example for Free

Analysis of selected passages from Othello by William Shakespeare Essay When William Shakespeare made use of the stylist devices he thus tried to paint a multi-dimensional image of his perceptions that he extended in his characters till the limits of reality and belief. And to design variety in this frame of multi-dimensionality Shakespeare not only expressed through the words in the lines which the characters uttered rather the formation of the words and the lines also revealed certain patterns that could be decoded to detect even more subtle reasons and justification behind those expressions. Such flow and expertise of expressing the conceptions cannot be taught easily through the science of writing rather it required the unschooled instinctive ability like Shakespeare’s to play with the words with a unique skill of potency that can metamorphosed the words to survive as the animated version of Shakespeare’s intellect and vision even after being uttered by the characters in the play. In the following excerpts from the play ‘Othello’, there is a variety of Shakespeare’s usage of stylistic devices to arrange words in order to express the difference of thoughts, moods, intensions and beliefs of the protagonist (Othello) and also how the use of such words in a specific style cater in constructing the plot and developing the characters. Theres magic in the web of it. A sybil that had numbered in the world The sun to course two hundred compasses, In her prophetic fury sewed the work; the worms were hallowed that did break the silk, And it was dyed in mummy which the skillful Conserved the maidens hearts. These lines are from the IV scene of the Third Act of the play, and they are uttered on the grounds of misunderstanding that is set by Iago in the mind of Othello. If we observe closely these lines summarize the truth that Othello is ignorant about and the words reveal the irony that Othello has become a victim of. The use of the words like â€Å"magic† and â€Å"web† are justifiable elements of the speech of a contaminated brain and the word â€Å"magic† can be the symbol of Iago’s spell of poisoning Othello’s mind with suspicion and â€Å"web† can be the symbol for the perplexed state of Othello’s mind, which lost the ability to think and trust his own reasons. And the two hundred years old â€Å"sibyl† can be a metaphor for the evil master minded Iago, whose â€Å"prophetic fury† fabricated the whole chaos to take his revenge. The â€Å"silk† can be speculated as a metaphor for the love of Desdemona that came out of her â€Å"hallowed† trust and faith. And the word â€Å"dyed† can be taken as a pun (when analyzing these lines from symbolic references), as the faithful and sacred love of Desdemona ‘dyed’ or â€Å"died† within her â€Å"maiden heart†. The worth and value purposely exaggerated by Othello is a fine example of hyperbolic fantasies that Shakespeare is capable of designing. And thus the handkerchief becomes the symbol of the thin threaded relationship of Othello and Desdemona that was based on superficial beliefs and yet sought the possibility of sustenance of their love. It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul, Let me no name it to you, you chaste stars It is the cause, Yet Ill not shed her blood, Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow, And smooth as monumental alabaster, The above mentioned lines are from the Act V Scene II and anaphoric beginning of this passage is Othello’s expression for his exalted emotional dichotomy of disbelief and love for Desdemona. The repetition of the phrase â€Å"it is the cause† are the words that come out of Othello’s weeping brain that has been so badly eclipsed by the poisoning suspicion injected by Iago that it had totally become impotent of thinking on its own. As these lines are uttered during the climax of the play thus it is quite typical of Shakespeare that he lends his protagonist with an ample energy to utter dramatic and highly emotional phrases which let them have catharsis. The desperate utterance of â€Å"my soul† by Othello shows that perhaps the only salvage left for his consolation is to confide in to his soul. Or â€Å"my soul† can also be taken as Othello’s address to Desdemona as it can be observed that Othello still loves her in these lines. And from the ironic aspect the first line also conveys the meaning that it is the â€Å"soul† of Othello that can be taken as the â€Å"cause† of the whole tragedy, because if Othello had really loved Desdemona from his soul he would have had a complete trust in her love and honesty but since he believed more what he listened to and less what was known to him thus he became the victim of suspicion that proved fatal for him and his love. In the proceeding line the address to the â€Å"stars† is made by Othello to mock at Desdemona’s infidelity. â€Å"Stars† have been used as a metaphor for their heavenly status for chastity. It can also be a reference to the Greek tradition of naming the stars by the names of their gods and goddesses. Thus as Othello has completely lost his trust in his wife thus he consider her reference to be an insult for the stars. These lines depict the imbalance of Othello’s power to reason and think and express in coherence with his flow of emotions. In the later lines he reveals his intension to kill Desdemona, but unlike his valiance as a general, he prefers to strangle her because her physical beauty still absorbs his feelings in love and compassion for her. And being a black man himself he admired her fair skin and he refers to her with two different categories of symbols. The use of â€Å"snow† as a simile conveys the softness and coldness of her fair physique which Othello never wanted to distort by killing with a weapon and the metaphor of â€Å"monumental alabaster† can be referred to the stiff and lifeless beauty of Desdemona that laid with no worth for Othello anymore. I have seen the day That with this little arm and this good sword I have made my way through more impediments Than twenty times your stop. But O vain boast! Who can control his fate? Tis not so now. Be not afraid, though you do see me weaponed. Here is my journeys end, here is my butt, And very seamark of my utmost sail. These lines are uttered in the Act V Scene II which is almost the resolution of the play and it is one of Shakespeare’s special characteristics that his tragic heroes lose the intensity and the energy of their rhetoric in the last scenes of the play. It is because of the reason that Shakespeare develops his tragic heroes to attain the status of being larger than life and thus speech loses its value when the characters become paranormal. In the above lines the most important aspect that one can notice is the tone of submission and retreat which is conveyed by the choice and arrangement of words like â€Å"little arm† â€Å"But O vain Boast!† and â€Å"Who can control this fate?† by Othello who was a valiant and unbeatable general but in these lines appears to be the defeated and subjugated one in the hands of fate. These lines though do not consist of any special rhyme scheme that would help in bringing an effective poetic impact whilst delivering these lines on the stage but the second line does show some signs of alliteration as the words â€Å"made my way through more impediments† as well as in the third line where the words â€Å"twenty times† are stressed and can be delivered with some high pitched voice by the character. But after these lines the tone changes as the desperation and despondency appear in the words. The last three lines are symbolically referred by Othello to his death. And despite he is â€Å"weaponed† yet he is incapable to fight as he desires death due to his lamenting guilt and in vain repentance. In the last line the use of the metaphor â€Å"seamark† is an appropriate expression for Othello’s choice of vocabulary as it adequately represents his experiences and knowledge as a sailor and warrior.

‘Gilmore Girls’ TV Show Getting Back :: Gilmore Girls Television TV Essays

‘Gilmore Girls’ TV Show Getting Back â€Å"Once a good show loses its way, can it ever truly regain it?† As I read that first sentence, I wondered what they were talking about, I didn’t know that one of my favorite shows; Gilmore Girls, wasn’t doing too good. As I read on, I saw that there are many daytime shows not doing as good as they used to. The West Wing is doing better than it was the past couple of seasons but its not as good as it was when it first came out. The writer compares crying because the show was so good when it first came out, to crying now because it’s not as good as it used to be and viewer miss that. As television shows run through the years, they change, obviously the plots have to change as the characters change and the years go by. The author starts the article by introducing other television shows that are also having trouble with making their plots interesting enough so that their audience keeps watching. The author explains that although the shows are still good, they are not as good as they used to be and that they could use a little something to improve the shows. Although he doesn’t specify what the shows need, he does say that â€Å"a down season for The Sopranos is still better than almost anything else on TV.† The author used pathos by showing his emotions to how different shows are doing. At the end of the article, he says that his â€Å"relationship with the Gilmore Girls is by no means over-good TV relationships are too hard to come by for that.† In other words, just because the series was doing bad and now that it is finally getting better, doesn’t mean he should just stop watching the show, the fact that the show is getting better, should tell any person that it’s worth watching again. Some background on the characters and the show will help you understand what the article is really saying. Gilmore Girls is about a mother, Lorelai , who had her daughter, Rory, when she was sixteen. Lorelai’s parents are very well off, meaning rich, they pay for Rory’s schooling and because of that, they make Lorelai and Rory come to their house for dinners on Friday.

Self

We tested this evolutionary hypothesis on 166 college students by measuring self-deception using both a questionnaire and a series of hypothetical helping scenarios. The results showed a positive correlation between self-deception and moral oscilloscope, which was moderated by private self-consciousness. Among participants with high, but not low, self- consciousness, high moral self-concept individuals were more willing to help hen potential selflessness were present than low moral self-concept individuals, whereas there was no difference between the two groups concerning helping without self-benefit.These results support the evolutionary view that self-deception serves to maintain optimal moral self- concept, especially for individuals with high solicitousness. ? 201 1 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Humans are social animals who pursue selfish interests in a cooperative context in which public interests are also observed. There are subsequent conflicts between pu rsuing self-interests and protecting public interests. Solving and balancing these conflicts has resulted in specific adaptations to group living.On the one hand, various group-oriented colonization processes help to shape the development of moral self-concept among group members that serves to maintain the cooperative group context by curbing selfish interests and promoting public interests. Individuals of high moral self- concept thus behave more altruistically. On the other hand, altruism operates among other adaptive forces, such as deception and self-deception, which allow one to claim or believe to be acting altruistically while actually acting elfish (Commodes & Toby, 2005; Cummins, 1999; von Hippie & T rivers, 201 1; Drivers, 1976).In deception, self-interests replace public interests in the conscious mind; in self-deception, self-interests are pushed to the unconscious and the individual is Only aware of public interests (Alexander, 1987). The factor regulating deception an d self-deception may be self- consciousness, which is the extent to which individuals are inclined and able to examine their inner thoughts and feelings (Finessing, Cashier, & Buss, 1975). Low moral self-concept individuals may openly deceive others by maintaining Corresponding author. Address: Department of Educational Psychology, The Chinese university of Hong Kong, Satin, N. T. Hong Kong. Tell. : +852 2609 6936; fax: +852 2603 6921. E-mail add [email  protected] Du. Husk (L. Change). 0191-8869/$ – see front matter ? 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. DOI:1 0. 1 016/j. Paid. 2011. 07. 014 self-interests in the conscious mind, while high moral self-concept individuals may self-deceive by pushing self-interests to the unconscious. Self; consciousness may serve to regulate these two silvering strategies. The purpose of the present study is to examine the relations among moral self- incept, self-consciousness, and self-deception in an effort to better understand self-dec eption within an evolutionary framework.Unlike philosophers who are concerned about the existence, realization, and intentionality of self-deception (e. G. , Davidson, 1985; Demos, 1960; Vinaigrette, 1969; Melee, 1 997), or mainstream psychologists who focus on the mechanism and functionality of self-deception (e. G. , Greenland, 1988; Smacked, 1983; Phallus & John, 1 998), evolutionary psychologists are interested in how self-deception has evolved as a fitness-enhancing strategy.The evolutionary view holds that self-deception has evolved in an uncongenial world as a result of an â€Å"arms race† between deception and deception detection (Drivers, 2000). In human group living, conflicts of interest are present most of the time (Alexander, 1987), and deception has become a ubiquitous strategy to manipulate group members in order to maximize self- interest and exploit public interests (Mitchell, 1 986; Drivers, 1985). Detection of deception evolves to guard against personal exp loitation and public encroachment. In response, self-deception evolves to escape detection.During deception, maintaining both true and false information in the consciousness while presenting only falsehoods to others results in extra cognitive load for the deceiver (von Hippie & Drivers, 201 1). Conscious awareness about the truth may result in the deceiver unintentionally exposing clues about the truth. A self-deceiver keeps only false information in the consciousness H. J. Lu, L. Change / personality and Individual Differences 51 (2011) 845-849 and leaves no clues about the truth, which is kept in the unconscious, and thus avoids detection completely (Drivers, 2000).Whereas self-deception was originally construed mainly as an interpersonal strategy to facilitate deception of others (Drivers, 1976, 1985), it also is an interpersonal variable that, as part of the self-system, entails chronic misrepresentation of the self without immediate or explicit reference to others (Exurban & S kittish, 2007; Surrey, 201 1; von Hippie & Drivers 2011). In such a self-directed and deceptive state of mind, a person may selectively access certain information about, and deny other information to, the self in ways that convince both the self and others of aggrandize clarifications (Greenland, 1 988; Phallus & Reid, 1991Interpersonal self-deception therefore continues to serve the interpersonal goal of deceiving others (von Hippie & Drivers, 201 1). Consistent with the interpersonal origin of self-deception, preferential access to, and misrepresentation of, different aspects of the self are fashioned by active interpersonal interactions within a group context that informs the individual of his/her fitness conditions, including cooperation needs and opportunities.Often referred to as selfsameness in morality or altruism (Phallus & John, 1998), interpersonal self-deception is self-serving because it facilitates and maintains cooperative relationships with other group members (Surre y, 2004; Surrey & McNally, 1997). Individuals are more inclined to be altruistic if they are unaware of the selfish intentions of themselves and others (Nesses & Lloyd, 1 992; Surrey, 2011). By the same logic, congenial altruism suppresses selfishness and engenders altruism in others, which actuates and perpetuates reciprocal altruism and cooperative group living (Alexander, 1987).As part of the self-system that emphasizes proportioning, representing, and misrepresenting different aspects of the self (Markus & Hurl, 1987), interpersonal self-deception contributes to the development and maintenance of self-concept (Greenland, 1 980; Skidded & Crosslink, 1997), specifically the moral or altruistic aspects of self-concept relevant to social interactions and group living. Being altruistic and unselfish, and seeing others behaving likewise, is a core feature of colonization in most societies (Keller, Deleting, Sauerkraut, If-xi, & Ge, 2005).This colonization, in turn, shapes and reinforc es individuals' self-concept, specifically the moral self- concept. Interpersonal self-deception is thus vital to self-conception because t enables or facilitates the initialization of group or altruistic values that help form an individual's moral self-concept. Thus, there is a functional association between moral self-concept and self-deception; regarding oneself highly in terms of morality and altruism necessitates that negative and selfish aspects of the self are inaccessible, and this is achieved through self- deception.In this respect, self-deception is necessary for, and instrumental to, the development and maintenance of moral oscilloscope. In other words, people attaining or maintaining high moral ground may be more self- exceptive and, thus, more successful in suppressing selfish thoughts, whereas people of low moral self-concept view themselves in less-than- optimal moral light because they are not inclined to deceive themselves about their selfish thoughts.Whether or not self-deception is used to maintain high moral ground may depend on one's ability to attend to inner thoughts and feelings, including the morally undesirable aspects of the self. Such self-consciousness, especially private self-consciousness, may serve to regulate self-deception. Highly self-conscious individuals are more aware of their inner self (Finessing et al. 1 975), including blemishes in their moral self- conception. To maintain the same level of moral self-concept, these individuals will require more interpersonal self-deception to suppress moral imperfections.In contrast, the moral self-concept of those low in self- consciousness may depend less on self-deception because they are less aware of their inner selves, including selfish thoughts and moral impurities. Thus, increasing self-consciousness may increase the strength of the correlation between moral self-concept and self-deception. To test the hypothesis that self-deception facilitates the maintenance of oral self-con cept by suppressing negative aspects of the self, the present study examined the associations among selections (SIDE), moral self- concept (MS), and self-consciousness (SC).We hypothesized a positive correlation between moral oscilloscope and self-deception. We also expected MS-SIDE association to be stronger among high, rather than low, self- conscious individuals. In addition to examining questionnaire measures, we also included another measure of self-deception by having subjects respond to different helping scenarios from which we derived two helping intention rabbles – altruistic helping intention without self-benefit and self-deceived helping intention with potential self-benefit.

A New Leaf By F. Scott Fitzgerald - 980 Words

Abuse on Alcohol â€Å"A New Leaf† By F. Scott Fitzgerald Alcohol abuse can cause so many affects on a person’s life. â€Å"Alcohol kills more teenagers than all other drugs combined. It is a factor in the three leading causes of death among 15- to 24-year-olds: accidents, homicides and suicides.† With those statics right now, it is more than obvious that alcohol is abused way more often than it needs to be. Just like in the story â€Å"A New Leaf† the character Dick Ragland has a serious drinking problem where he will drink all night till the next morning. â€Å"There in the outer hall stood a man whom she thought she had never seen before. His face was dead white and erratically shaven, his soft hat was crushed bunlike on his head, his shirt collar was dirty, and all except the band of his tie was out of sight.† (Fitzgerald). This quote from the story where Dick shows up at Julia’s door after being out all night drinking is an example of alcohol abuse. Sta tics, signs, and treatment all have to do with alcohol abuse. â€Å"Nearly 88,000 people (approximately 62,000 men and 26,000 women) die from alcohol-related causes annually, making it the third leading preventable cause of death in the United States.† (niaaa.nih.gov). In â€Å"A New Leaf† at the end of the story, Dick Ragland dies. He did not have Julia anymore and he did not have alcohol anymore and he decided that he could not do it anymore with out alcohol so he took his own life at sea. â€Å"Alcohol is involved over a quarter of all suicidesShow MoreRelatedGender Roles in A New Leaf1292 Words   |  6 Pages19, October 2010 Fitzgerald, Prompt 1 Introduction A. Intro hook, Quote from honeymooners B. Thesis statement: Gender roles in â€Å"A New Leaf† portray men as the providers and dominant, females as subordinate caretakers, and it vastly limits decision making to choices that are deemed â€Å"appropriate† for men and women alike. How are male and female characters portrayed? A. 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