Journal on Hamlets quote Essay Example for Free

Journal on Hamlets quote Essay Hamlet is one of Shakespeares most discussed plays. The drama has a lot of figurative language to be interpreted in various meanings. Among the famous quotes taken from Hamlet, perhaps the one bringing a wide range of different opinions is the line Hamlet said to his friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Why, then, tis none to you; for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so: to me it is a prison. (Shakespeare, Hamlet, II, ii, 249.) There is a deep concept in this saying, which perfectly represents the reality and the values of right and wrong. In the context, despite Hamlet saying this line does not refer to the moral values in the society; it does reflect the theme of the play. In this scene when Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, his old friends directed by King Claudius to come and check on his madness, Hamlet simply is mocking his fake friends naiveness. However, this quote does not only have this joking effect, but also foretells the theme of the play. Hamlet is the play of revenge, of finding the truth, of defining what is right and what is wrong. The way the prince thinks about life is going to help him deciding on his actions. . . . for there is nothing either good or bad implies in this world, nothing being is given a low or high value, a righteous or foul reason to exist. The way people look at it, react to it, and perceive it make it good, or bad. For instance, killing is always considered a horrible crime, but in the play Hamlet has to decide to murder his own uncle. However in that situation it is not completely a crime. It may either be right or wrong, depends on each persons view on what is more meaningful, a life, or the elimination of bad deeds. The decision to defy something as right or wrong also depends on a lot of different background like historical, cultural and other aspects. Hamlet considers the marriage between his mom and his uncle two months after King Hamlets death is unethical. The truth is in other nations, relatives do get royal marriage right after death of a family member to remain the stability within the royal clan, which is considered great wisdom and of great moral. In each persons view, an event has various personal relations to his belief and moral conception; therefore the definitions of right and wrong, good and bad vary among people. The argument of right and wrong, or good and bad, perhaps is the main theme  of the play. Is revenge a good excuse for murder? Is Hamlet not doing the same thing as Claudius did to his father? The answers lay upon each audience and his own opinion, as the truth lays in thinking makes it so Work Cited Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Rpt. in Compact Literature Reading Reacting Writing. By Kirszner and Mandell. 6th ed. 2007.

The concept of earning ones citizenship Essays -- essays research pape

The Concept of Earning One’s Citizenship Citizenship is defined as a being a citizen or a person owing allegiance to and entitled to the protection of a sovereign state. Citizen preferred for one owing allegiance to a state in which sovereign power is retained by the people and sharing in the political rights of those people. The concept of which in one of its earliest was given to us by the Romans, who had just began to understand the importance of a populace contributing to the decisions of its own fate. Modern American citizenship as we know it today was defined for us in the constitution of this nation by the founding fathers. Citizenship as they had envisioned it even back then was not free, but came with a price. A citizen was expected to carry out certain civic duties and responsibilities such as the defense of the republic, participating in state and local government, and voting on affairs of the nation as a whole. Benjamin Franklin once said, â€Å"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunc h. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!† Given all the communication technology; receiving and sending information has never been easier, however civic involvement is at one if its lowest points in the past 100 years. Eleanor Roosevelt once wrote of her husband, that Theodore Roosevelt taught by precept and example that men owed something at all times, whether in peace or in war, for the privilege of citizenship and that the burden rest equally on rich and poor. He said that, no matter what conditions existed, the blame lay no more heavily on the politician and his machine controlling city, state, or nation, than on the shoulders of the average citizen who concerned himself so little with his government that he allowed men to stay in power in spite of his dissatisfaction because he was too indifferent to exert himself to get better men in office. In order to maintain such a jewel of democracy, a new superior breed of citizen is required, one that has stepped forwa rd and reached out to carry the torch of freedom and guard it from those that would seek to extinguish it. He or she must wear his or her citizenship like a badge of honor. For citizenship to be so greatly prized it must be earned. One should have to make great sacrifices in order to be awarded the status quo of a class that steers and maintains the republic for the greate... ... â€Å"Democracy and the Public Service† Oxford University Press 1968 The scope of this book is to tie in â€Å"protected† non-electoral public service with being responsive to the public, and operating in a manner compatible with a democratic society. It explains how public service is the last industry to grow and take advantage of the increasing knowledge of every generation of workers’ and changing advances in regards to technological, and social concepts. Noteworthy: this book looks at the problem from both the publics and the public servants point of view. Eleanor Roosevelt â€Å"Good Citizenship: The Purpose of Education† Pictorial Review, April 1930: 4,94,97 Reprinted Online. Internet. Available http://newdeal.feri.org/er/er19.htm 4 oct. 2002 Eleanor writes to us about the problems she saw already manifesting in the civil populace of her time. She provides us with insights and lessons from her husband and his political career. Her ideas and concerns are not that far removed from the quotes that evolved in the hearts and minds of our countries great theologists. Bolie Williams IV â€Å"Robert A. Heinlein† 7 August 2001 Online. Internet. Available 4 oct. 2002   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  

Compare and Contrast Suffering Shown in Six Poems Essay

The first thing you think when you are told the word suffering is torturing and death and yes this is a big aspect of the topic and it is included in the poem mother in a refugee camp by Chinua Achebe but there is also other parts of it that is not just physical but involves mental suffering and it is this section that is rarely associated with the word in question, Hide and seek by Vernon Scannell is a good example of how this piece comes into play. From this evidence we can explore different forms of suffering and by the time I have reached my conclusion we will have a better understanding of the term. To help us get a better perspective of the word I have used three main poems that demonstrate different elements of suffering War photographer is a poem by carol ann Duffy and he is looking through the pictures he has taken and looking back on their deaths he also talks about how the public react and their lack of care and understanding and what individual has gone through to get just one picture. You can also look at the poem Dulce ET decorum EST which is similar in that it involves the public, Wilfred Owen was a writer from world war one and he disliked how war was displayed to the public that everyone was a hero and they always won. So Owen met some friends and they wrote poems about what the war was really like and this is where he wrote this poem and in it uses the phrase â€Å"the old lie Dulce et Decorum Est Propatria Mori†, In war photographer instead of showing the public the reality of war through poetry he has done it through vivid images that really hit the public and show them what war is really like and although they are separated by almost a 100 years you can see how they are connected. From the start of war photographer you get the feeling of quietness and solitude and if you had to link this with a colour it is quite possible that most people will say something along the lines of blue or green but Carol Ann Duffy has used the colour red and somehow connected it to quietness the colour red is mentioned as it was the colour used when developing a photograph so the room had to be pitch black with the faint red glow. Another example that gives the poem the feeling of tranquillity is the line that uses a religious example. A priest preparing to intone a mass† this technique has also been used in ‘War photographer.   Ã¢â‚¬Å"No Madonna and child could touch†, this is referring to Mary and her son Jesus in the bible and is used as a sign of peace and love which is how the mother in this poem feels towards her dying child. The religious mention in ‘war photographer also represents peace but in this is example it is more to do with the quietness as the photos are developed. he phrase used in the second line is used to represent the people in front of the firing squad waiting to be shot â€Å"spools of suffering set out in ordered rows† and he has used the word suffering in this line as you can imagine the pain of knowing you are about to die and yet you are hopeless in terms of the outcome there is another example where hopelessness is mentioned and this is in ‘Dulce et decorum est’ when there is an â€Å"Ecstasy of fumbling† as everyone tries to put there gas mask on and the one guy who is a bit slow who runs out of time, this guy was helpless to what was going to happen to him is exactly like the men standing up against the firing squad as they are both powerless On the next line Duffy uses four lines to start of the poem and yet there are four full stops, this is to e mphasise on each of the areas mentioned that he has been to and taken pictures of war and it makes the reader pause and think about each individual word, â€Å"Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh†. The last line of the Stanza is taken from the bible â€Å"all flesh is grass† there is dying and suffering everywhere.  As you read onto the next stanza Duffy talks about the war photographer going home to Rural England he has used caesura here again and it has been used to make â€Å"Rural England† sound really blunt and plain and she says â€Å"to fields that don’t explode beneath the feet of running children in a nightmare heat† this makes you think how much suffering there would be in the world if it was all like these places Beirut and Phnom Penh and the planet was a war zone. On the last stanza Duffy talks about a hundred agonies in black and white and it is said that black and white photographs are the most powerful and effective forms of capturing the moment of suffering. This poem has a very effective ending and it is going back to what I said at the start â€Å"From the aeroplane he stares impassively at where he earns his living and they do not care† and she is talking about the public and what they have all gone through to get these photographs all for maybe five or six that will be picked out to be published and used in tomorrows newspaper and yet when they read it as he says they do not care. This is not the only poem that has a really effective ending many of the poems have a really strong ending to put there point across, and to make the reader feel emotion towards the victim of suffering. Seamus Heaney’s Mid term break has left a line all by itself to serve as the ending, Mid term Break is about an older brother who has come back to school to find that his younger brother has been hit by a car and it is about how the older brother reacts to this experience, this piece of poetry is autobiographical so it makes the storyline even more moving. A four foot box a foot for every year† this line puts the poem in to perspective when you think just how small this child is and helpless he was, this comes back to the point made in ‘War Photographer’ and ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ and you can see this part plays a big role as it very important and is one of the most frequent forms of suffering. Vernon Scannell has used a sense of mystery just like war photographer it doesn’t mention any names but it says â€Å"but where are they who sought you? You do not know who the people were same as in war photographer . Hide and seek is all about playing a typical childhood game that everyone knows about and it is through the eyes of a small child and how quickly excitement can turn to a type of suffering. This means of seeing the world through the eyes of a child can be very effective in portraying loneliness and this is exactly what this poet is trying to exploit in using a younger victim. Throughout the start of the poem the writer has expressed the boys excitement using various methods the first technique Scannell has used is the rhyming couplets every forth and fifth line to show just how eager he is to play the game and to win and outsmart his friends also the writer has used caesura, this has been used when there is a change in tension â€Å"Don’t breathe. Don’t move. Stay dumb. Hide in your blindness. † This has been used when the seekers are just at the door to the shed and there is a sudden tense moment when he realises that he must stay quiet to not be caught. Then unexpectedly there is a time jump and we now have this change in atmosphere as the boy is suddenly at a discomfort â€Å"the dark damp smell of sand moves in your throat† also Scannell helps us feel empathy towards the boy as even the weather seems to be against him â€Å"the cold bites through your coat† whereas you had the feeling of warmth at the start where he talks about a beach which is not associated with the cold. Then you get the feeling of excitement again suddenly as he reveals himself only to be brought back down again as he finds out that there is no-one there and everyone has gone and this is where you get the feeling of loneliness which is directly related to suffering and is used in other poems such as half past two by U. A. Thanthorpe. Half past two is about a seemingly sweet and innocent boy who is almost in a dream state throughout the poem and is about him â€Å"escaping into the clockless land†. U. A. Thanthorpe has also used the technique of seeing the world through the mind of a child to portray loneliness just as Scannell has done in his poem. There comes no worse than a death of a child especially your own, you may say this poem demonstrates death more intensely than war photographer or Wilfred Owens poem this is similar to Mid term break where Seamus Heaney talks about the death of a younger brother and they are similar in that a child is used to amplify the sympathy from the reader. Although Heanny’s poem is autobiographical you can say that mother in a refugee camp displays a more depressing feeling as the little child is not the only one suffering as everyone in the refugee camp is almost suffering equally and some of the mothers have even given up on their Childs and the one person you usually look to for comfort is your mother and to not have that support is a disheartening thought. And this really creates an empathy link between the reader and this mother and the victims of this dreadful area in which the whole place is enclosed by death. Achebe uses techniques just as the other poets have, to express torturing in the poem. The main thing he has used is vivid imagery which is a excellent method of really painting a picture in the readers mind about what it would have been like, â€Å"Behind blown empty bellies† he has also used alliteration so once you understand this picture that he is portraying it also sticks in your mind so that you don’t forget it. Then you really start to feel the mothers love for her child near the end as she uses the phrase ‘humming in her eyes’ which suggest she is close to tears and this is a really emotional part of the story and then Achebe really ends the story effectively â€Å"like putting flowers on a tiny grave† this means that even though she knows her son is going to pass away she still feels the love for him that any mother will always do. And this phrase really helps you sympathise with the mother and Ac hebe has helped us understand how she is really feeling and the suffering that she feels inside. So as you can see these six different poets have expressed their feelings on suffering in lots different ways in their poems. Suffering can come in many forms. The ones used in this poem are just a few of the many aspects of suffering. It can come in the form of death and war which was what was used in most of the poems and you can say this is the most extreme form but as I have proved suffering can also come in the form of loneliness and helplessness which is not what you would first expect when you think of suffering, but when you look into it more closely you get a greater understanding of the word and how it can be expressed differently for different situations.

Dr. Maria Montessori, Founder of Montessori Schools

Maria Montessori (August 31, 1870–May 6, 1952) was a pioneering educator whose philosophy and approach remain fresh and modern one hundred years after her work began. In particular, her work resonates with parents who seek to stimulate children through creative activity and exploration in all its forms. Children educated in Montessori Schools know who they are as people. They are confident, at ease with themselves, and interact on a high social plane with peers and adults. Montessori students are naturally curious about their surroundings and eager to explore. Fast Facts: Maria Montessori Known For: Devising the Montessori Method and founding Montessori SchoolsBorn: Aug. 31, 1870 in Chiaravalle, ItalyDied: May 6, 1952 in Noordwijk, the NetherlandsPublished Works:  Montessori Method (1916) and The Absorbent Mind (1949)Honors:  Nobel Peace Prize nominations in 1949, 1950, and 1951 Early Adulthood An extraordinarily gifted person with the scholarly bent of a Madame Curie and the compassionate soul of a Mother Teresa, Dr.  Maria Montessori was ahead of her time. She became Italys first female doctor when she graduated in 1896. Initially, she took care of childrens bodies and their physical ailments and diseases. Then her natural intellectual curiosity led to an exploration of childrens minds and how they learn. She believed that environment was a major factor in child development. Professional Life Appointed Professor of Anthropology at the University of Rome in 1904, Montessori represented Italy at two international womens conferences: Berlin in 1896 and London in 1900. She amazed the world of education with her glass classroom at the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition in San Francisco in 1915, which allowed people to observe the classroom. In 1922 she was appointed Inspector of Schools in Italy. She lost that position when she refused to have her young charges take the fascist oath as the dictator Mussolini required. Travels to America Montessori visited the U.S. in 1913 and impressed Alexander Graham Bell who founded the Montessori Education Association in his Washington, D.C. home. Her American friends included Helen Keller and Thomas Edison.  She also conducted training sessions and addressed the NEA and the International Kindergarten Union. Training Her Followers Montessori was a teacher of teachers. She wrote and lectured unceasingly. She opened a research institute in Spain in 1917 and conducted training courses in London in 1919. She founded training centers in the Netherlands in 1938 and taught her methodology in India in 1939. She established centers in The Netherlands (1938) and England (1947). An ardent pacifist,  Montessori escaped harm during the turbulent 1920s and 1930s by advancing her educational mission in the face of hostilities. Educational Philosophy Montessori was profoundly influenced by Friedrich Froebel, the inventor of kindergarten, and by Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, who believed  children learned through activity. She also drew inspiration from Itard, Seguin and Rousseau. She enhanced their approaches by adding her own belief that we must follow the child. One does not teach children, but rather creates a nurturing climate in which children can teach themselves through creative activity and exploration. Methodology Montessori wrote over a dozen books.The most well known are  Montessori Method and The Absorbent Mind. She taught that placing children in a stimulating environment will encourage learning. She saw the traditional teacher as a keeper of the environment who was there to facilitate the childrens self-conducted learning process.   Legacy The  Montessori Method  got its start with the opening of the original Casa Dei Bambini in the slum district of Rome known as San Lorenzo. Montessori took fifty deprived ghetto children and awakened them to lifes excitement and possibilities. Within months people came from near and far to see her in action and to learn her strategies. She founded the Association Montessori Internationale in 1929 so that her teachings and educational philosophy would flourish in perpetuity. Montessori Schools have spread throughout the world. What Montessori started as a scientific investigation has flourished as a monumental humanitarian and pedagogical endeavor.  After her death in 1952, two members of her  family continued her work. Her son directed the AMI until his death in 1982.  Her granddaughter has been active as Secretary-General of the AMI. Article edited by  Stacy Jagodowski.