The Importance of Setting in Developing a Theme for...

When Emily Bronte wrote Wuthering Heights England was going through a time of great change. It?s past agrarian society was changing and the common man was able to obtain wealth. Setting helps us to further understand the conflict between the natural world and cultured humanity, through the two main houses in text, and the social situation on the English Moors. Wuthering Heights uses this time of social unrest to develop the theme of the natural world in conflict with cultured humanity. An example of the natural world is the house, Wuthering Heights which the text is named after. It is a place of violent emotion inside, and violent weather outside. The narrator, Lockwood describes it through the medium of his diary ?pure bracing†¦show more content†¦and located in a pleasant valley, sheltered from the harshness of nature. This house shows us the upper-class civilised humanity. The Linton?s, who live at the Grange are of a higher-class than Catherine and Heathcliff. The valley in which the Grange is located protects the inhabitants from the raging emotion that is nature. In our first encounter with Thrushcross Grange, we are told that, ?the light came from thence,? and we see Thrushcross Grange as a educated civilised place, filled with books, music and other lovely things. Religion was an important aspect of the setting, to the contextual reader religion was a important aspect of their daily life. The inhabitants of the Heights disregard for cultured religion would have been seen as shocking and blasphemous and is an example of nature in opposition to civilisation. While the inhabitants of Thrushcross Grange have the standard appreciation for religion at the time, Catherine and Heathcliff have their own version of heaven from the start when Mr Earnshaw dies no ?parson in the world ever pictured heaven so beautifully as they did, in their innocent talk.? This foreshadows Catherine?s dream, ?I was only going to say that heaven did not seem to be my home, and I broke my heart with weeping to come back to earth, and the angels were so angry that they flung me out into the middle of theShow MoreRelatedNelly Is Confronted By.2436 Words   |  10 Pagesheart and an empty stomach, said I. Proud people breed sad sorrows for themselves. But, if you be asha med of your touchiness, you must ask pardon, mind, when she comes in. You must go up and offer to kiss her, and say - you know best what to say† (Bronte, 47). (Nelly and Heathcliff are speaking) Nelly is talking to Heathcliff about Heathcliff’s relationship with Catherine. Heathcliff share’s his personal emotion with Nelly, who tries to understand the situation. She knows of Heathcliff’s love ofRead MoreVictorian Novel9605 Words   |  39 Pagesmentioning the importance of the expansion of railways. In a short time it greatly influenced not only the landscape of the country but also the perception of the space and time. Books, journals, reviews, magazines, papers became the portion of travelling. Even libraries, like those of Edward Mudie and W.H. Smith, thanks to the railways could send different forms of literature to provinces and overseas. Changes in the industry and society were equal to the changes in the novel. Themes like sea adventuresRead MoreRise of the English Novel5132 Words   |  21 Pagesoriginality and apply them to literature. Their stories were completely unique and used realism to show how people actually live (Watt 14). As the English novel developed the idea of characterization changed dramatically. A wide variety of characters and settings began to be used like â€Å"a man on an island, a servant-girl under siege, or a solitary eccentric oddly recapturing his prenatal past† (Longman 3067) Another characteristic of the novel is the use of ordinary names for people instead of symbolic namesRead MoreInterpretation of the Text13649 Words   |  55 PagesYet in analyzing works of fiction it might be useful to adhere to a certain scheme, like the one given in the box below. In studying fiction, use the following questions as a guide: What are the theme and the message? How does the title relate to them? What is the plot structure like? What does the setting contribute to it? What central conflict drives the plot? What are other conflicts? How is the story told? What does the particular type of narrator contribute? Which narrative modes are used? How

A Midsummer Nights Dream as an Elizabethan Comedy Essay

A Midsummer Nights Dream as an Elizabethan Comedy A Midsummer Nights Dream could have turned out as a tragedy; it can be compared to Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet. Lysander and Hermia love each other but Egeus, Hermias father, wants her to marry Demetrius. This means they have to disobey Egeus and escape Athenian law to be able to marry. These are comparable characteristics of Romeo and Juliet, an Elizabethan tragedy. In Romeo and Juliet, Romeo, a Montague, falls in love with Juliet, a Capulet, but there families do not allow them to marry. The conditions are very similar in both plays but Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy whereas A Midsummer Nights Dream unfolds into a comedy. This is†¦show more content†¦Later in the play Puck, causing mischief, puts an ass head on Bottom, this makes the unlikely fling with Titania even more comical. The other working men, Peter Quince, a carpenter, Francis Flute, a bellows-mender, Tom Snout, a tinker, Robin Starveling, a tailor and Snug, a joiner, add to the humour of the play. Like Bottom, they all take the play very seriously but with no acting ability they end up looking ridiculous. Quince tries to use long words but uses them wrongly, Bottom, thou art translated, he is referring to when Bottom returns to the rehearsal with an ass head and must mean transformed. The rehearsal shows greatly their lack of acting abilities; they pronounce words from the script incorrectly, Thisbe, the flower ha odious savours sweet; Quince prompts Bottom, odorous!. Also, they do not know when they are supposed to speak, Flute says, Must I speak now?. Their choice of play is not appropriate as it is meant to be performed at a wedding and is the tragedy of two lovers that are forced to speak through a chink in a wall and commit suicide. Luckily the performance turns out to be rather comical and laughed upon by the nobles. The scene that Pyramus and Thisbe is performed in is probably the most comical scene of all. Their complete misunderstanding of acting and performance is clearly is clearly displayed, how they use an actors to play the parts of aShow MoreRelatedRole of Supernatural in Shakespeares a Midsummer Nights Dream1547 Words   |  7 PagesWitches Brew and Fairy Dreams: A Genre Study of Shakespeares Use of the Supernatural (Penn State University, English 444.2: Spring 1998) by Fred Coppersmith Near the end of the opening scene of Macbeth, Shakespeares three Weird Sisters proclaim in unison that fair is foul, and foul is fair, providing us, as readers, with perhaps the best understanding of the plays theme and the tragic downfall of its central character. That this revelation -- this pronouncement that all is not well in ScotlandRead MoreA Midsummer Nights Dream - Bottom and Puck. Who is the protagonist?1539 Words   |  7 PagesThough Bottom often steals the show in performance, Puck is u sually considered the most important character in A Midsummer Night’s dream. Beginning with the importance of the characters and their roles, firstly Puck is the mischievous goblin through-out the play and Bottom is part of the craftsmen who are of lower class then the rest of the characters. These two characters are completely different, coming from separate environments; Puck from the fairy world and Bottom from the working class, howeverRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s A Midsummer Night s Dream1397 Words   |  6 PagesShakespeare’s comedies, like those of most Renaissance playwrights, involve love and its obstacles. Much of the comedy in A Midsummer Night’s Dream derives from the attempt of Lysander and Hermia to remain together while overcoming the adult authority figure who attempts to hinder the love of a young couple. The overcoming of an obstacle functions as a common motif in Renaissance comedy. The audience must wonder, however, whether Lysander and Hermia, as well as Demetrius and Helena, actually loveRead MoreA Midsummer Nights Drea m Essay1482 Words   |  6 PagesA Midsummer Night’s Dream: by William Shakespeare William Shakespeare was born in April 1564. He had married at the age of eighteen to a twenty-six year old woman named Anne Hathaway in 1582. He had a daughter named Susanna and twins, Judith and Hamnet. Hamnet, his only son, died at age eleven. Shakespeare died in April 1616. Despite the fact that Shakespeare wrote some thirty-seven plays, owned part of his theatrical company, acted in plays, and retired a relatively wealthy man in the cityRead MoreA Midsummer Night’s Dream, by William Shakespeare1368 Words   |  6 PagesA Midsummer Night’s Dream A Midsummer Night’s Dream is an enchanting comedy that presents many dominant views widespread in the society of Shakespeare’s time. Ideas of love and romance are central to the play, and notions of gender and male-dominance prevalent at the time surface throughout the text. Modern audiences may find such notions confronting, whereas Jacobeans might find other elements of the play such as the rampant disorder, uncomfortable. Love is one of the central ideologies presentRead More A Cubist Perspective of Shakespeares A Midsummer Nights Dream2475 Words   |  10 PagesShakespeares A Midsummer Nights Dream      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The great cycle of the ages is renewed. Now Justice returns, returns the Golden Age; a new generation now descends from on high. - Virgil, Eclogues 1.5    As Virgil stated so many years ago, history is a cyclical phenomenon. The experiences of one age tend to be repeated in future generations. Knowing that, we should not be surprised to find the seeds of modern styles and philosophies sprouting in earlier ages.    Elizabethan EnglandRead MoreRobins Epilogue in A Midsummer Night’s Dream3107 Words   |  13 PagesIn A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare masterfully crafts a play with three very different viewpoints that can be interpreted, when woven together, in a number of ways that range from seemingly obvious interpretations to ones much more subtle. He ends the play with an apology that is just as elusive as the play’s interpretation. If one looks past the obvious, however, one can begin to piece together a possible message that mortals, no matter the power they hold on earth, are subject to far greaterRead MoreShakespeares Midsummer Nights Dream is An Elizabethan Era Play with a Greek Twist712 Words   |  3 Pages An Elizabethan Era Play with a Greek Twist William Shakespeare wrote the play, A Midsummer Nights Dream, sometime in the 1590s. The play, a romantic comedy, portrays the adventures of four young lovers, an amateur actors group, their interactions with a Duke and Duchess, and with fairies in a moonlit forest. Although Shakespeare used certain themes in this play to portray Greek aspects, the reflection of Elizabethan England is dominant in several different ways. ShakespearesRead More A Comparison of Romantic Love in A Midsummer Nights Dream, The Tempest, and Twelfth Night1505 Words   |  7 PagesRomantic Love in A Midsummer Nights Dream, The Tempest, and Twelfth Night In all of Shakespeares plays, there is a definitive style present, a style he perfected. From his very first play (The Comedy of Errors) to his very last (The Tempest), he uses unique symbolism and descriptive poetry to express and explain the actions and events he writes about. Twelfth Night, The Tempest and A Midsummer Nights Dream are all tragicomedies that epitomise the best use of the themes and ideologyRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s A Midsummer Night s Dream1404 Words   |  6 PagesWritten in the mid 1590’s, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of William Shakespeare’s most delightful and eccentric pieces of work (The Life of William Shakespeare). While some of Shakespeare’s contemporaries disregarded the play as â€Å"insipid† and â€Å"ridiculous†, this romantic comedy has been successful in the theater from its first production to the present day† (Worthen 186). Shakespeare lived during the Elizabethan age, and during this era, learning and literature were thriving in London under Queen

The Role of Religion in Presidential Elections Free Essays

The Role of Religion in Presidential Elections â€Å"The relationship between faith, reason, and fear sometimes resembles†¦rock, paper, scissors (45). † This is the opening sentence in chapter two of Al Gore’s book, The Assault on Reason. In this chapter Gore talks about how fear takes over reason, reason challenges faith, and eventually faith defeats fear. We will write a custom essay sample on The Role of Religion in Presidential Elections or any similar topic only for you Order Now This is the way that our society worked when he wrote the book, and it has not changed for the better since then, although it has not necessarily gotten substantially worse. Today religion is still a huge player in political debate because people are guided, for the most part, by their morals and it is commonly held that morals come mainly from religious teachings. This is a complex subject because that also opens the door to the idea that atheists, agnostics, etc are not moral people because they are not religious. By that logic, only the religious should be allowed to lead our country because they are the only moral people. Do we believe that all religions are good, though? Are some better than others? Ideally, and under our Constitution, no; all religions are equal in the eyes of our laws. However, there are stigmas attached to certain religions, and to many non-religious people there is a stigma on religion itself. So why, then, does religion play such a large role in political campaigns? It’s simple; because we view religion as having a direct correlation with morals, politicians, political parties, and interest groups can use fear to override our reason in order to sway our opinions. Historically, here in the United States, our citizens have elected white Christian men to the office of the President. To go even further, we have elected Protestant Christians to office. It is apparent that, political parties aside, we have a preference as to what our President should be, religiously. We have only had one Roman Catholic President, John F. Kennedy; during his campaign there were fears that he would follow the wishes of the Bishop rather than the people. To some degree we still hold these beliefs. If we did not, religion wouldn’t be used as a fear tactic. The colonists who came from England were escaping religious repression, and were the inspiration for our freedom of religion. In modern times, we seem to have lost sight of that. Four years ago, Barack Obama was running for office for the first time. Among many other controversies, i. e. whether he was actually born a U. S. citizen, was the rumor that Obama is a Muslim and not a Christian as he has time and time again identified himself to be. In the United States, where we have the freedom of religion outlined in our Constitution, people were worried that someone of a Muslim background would be able to become the most powerful man in the world. A large part of that fear certainly stems from the attacks on September 11, 2001 but surely there is no legitimate reason to fear Muslims other than the combination of our ignorance of Muslim culture and faith, and the fear that is instilled in us not only by political parties but by non-affiliated extremist groups as well, that say all Muslims are terrorists. Barack Obama went on to win the election, which is not surprising because the public could see right through these shaky scare tactics. However, this has not stopped people from trying to use it in the current election. In a ninety second audio clip taken from a call between a Republican volunteer and a constituent, the volunteer calls Obama a Muslim and says that he wants to take away their Medicare (Dixon, 2012). So even though this tactic has not worked in the past, it doesn’t do much to stop people from trying to spread these rumors again. Between the 2008 election and the upcoming election not much has changed, although in this year’s election the religion card will likely play a larger role in who will win the electorate. Mitt Romney is a Mormon, and while the small outcry claiming Obama to be a Muslim was never on firm ground, there is no question of Romney’s religion. This is where we fall back to the days of Kennedy’s campaign. People are worried that Romney will place his religious views before the welfare of our nation. The accusation that people are making is that he is incapable of leading our country because he is a Mormon. Some of the big issues on his plate currently involve women’s rights. As a Mormon, he does not believe in abortion and has made it clear that he would try to pass legislation that sets the beginning of life at conception. While there are certainly non-Mormon people who do not believe in abortion, this is being attributed to his religion. Fifty years ago, or even twenty-five to thirty years ago, this would have been a non-issue. Romney’s beliefs would have been more in line with the more conservative nature of the time period. Needless to say Mitt Romney faces an uphill battle on his quest for the White House. Given all of this information, it would seem very apparent that religion plays a huge role in presidential elections. This is true, but not necessarily in the way that one might think. According to an article in the Huffington Post, most Americans say that it is important for the President to have strong religious beliefs, even if the beliefs differ from their own. This information seems to undermine what the media would have us believe. In addition, constituents tend not to know or be confused about the candidates’ actual religion. Only four in ten citizens could correctly identify Mitt Romney’s religion and forty-six percent of American’s said they did not know (Neroulias, 2011). This goes back to the idea of morals; those who have religion are moral and good, while those who do not cannot be moral and therefore should not lead our country. In the end, politics have not done much to change for the better. We still fear religions that we have no need to fear, and this is largely because fear tactics are used every day by political parties as well as extremists who have the ability to make it into mainstream media. Absolutely anyone can start a rumor that a candidate is Muslim and can’t be trusted, and that could catch like wildfire, or it could be blown off for the most part. It is also exponentially easier to take a candidates religion and a single belief, and then convince the country that he should not be President. Another thing that we see is that citizens place a large emphasis on religion itself, but there is still a large stigma on religions that are not traditional Christian. Until we become collectively more knowledgeable about other religions and debates become more informed, not much could possibly change. References Dixon, M. (2012, September 27). Call from clay county gop:obama is a muslim who’ll take away medicare. Retrieved from http://m. jacksonville. com/news/metro/2012-09-27/story/call-clay-county-gop-obama-muslim-wholl-take-away-medicare Gore, A. (2007). The assault on reason. (p. 45). New York, NY: Penguin Group. Neroulias, N. (2011, September 24). How religious identity is influencing the presidential election. Retrieved from http://www. huffingtonpost. com/2011/07/25/presidential-candidates-religious-beliefs_n_908858. html How to cite The Role of Religion in Presidential Elections, Essay examples

Christian Doctrine free essay sample

What is Christian Doctrine? Christian doctrine is that system of teachings by which the church defines what is means to be a Christian. The word â€Å"doctrine† comes form the Latin ‘doctrina’ which means teaching or instruction. Doctrine is not just a church word. Every form of learning has its doctrines. Doctrine can represent both self-understanding and communication. When it comes to â€Å"Christian doctrine† it’s referring to the Christian system of belief and the common core of Christian teaching. There is a certain flux to the doctrines. Sometimes, new discoveries eliminate previously held doctrines. The data of Christian doctrine is Jesus and the events related to him. Everything concerned with Christian self-understanding and teaching rests ultimately on Jesus. One issue with Christian doctrine is that the Bible does not contain the raw data for doctrine. The data itself had already been interpreted. Human interpretation or doctrine must begin and end with the data in the Bible. We will write a custom essay sample on Christian Doctrine or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The Bible provides both the foundation on which doctrine is to be judged. Doctrine is also related to Christian devotion or by our public worship prayer and preaching. In the early church devotional relationship to God in prayer and worship was inseparably linked with the theoretical study of God. There’s been debate about doctrine with other Christians and non-Christians. Christian doctrine reflects the ongoing debate between divergent groups within the church. Those groups were labeled heretics. But, they arose from within the church itself. The other challenge is the church world debate. The challenge comes form a confrontation between groups, each having their own separate history which support their own symbolic universe. Greek philosophers discussed God and his nature, but their views on those God issues differed tremendously from the church. Understanding the important issues around Christian doctrine is directly related to how those early Christians understood the same issues. Doctrine involves our understanding of what it means to be Christian, and has practical relevance for every Christian.