Wednesday, October 30, 2019
Unnatural Causes Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words
Unnatural Causes - Movie Review Example Social class and racism are not natural causes for sickness and hence the title of the film ââ¬Ëunnatural causesââ¬â¢. The film is similar with other media that I have seen, read, and heard on the issues of health disparities and how it relates to oneââ¬â¢s social class in that people in the lower social class are prone to disempowerment. Their economic status is low due to lack of the necessary resources and opportunities and hence they tend to get sick more often and their life expectancy is low. The people in this class are subject to chronic stress and cannot have access to better medical care services. They tend to get sick more often and hence live shorter lives. Exposure to chronic stress of race in a lifetime often leads to delivery of premature babies thus affecting health and life expectancy (California Newsreel, 2008). The film confirmed biases I had in regards to being poor rich, that wealthy people lead better, longer and healthy lives as compared to the poor (Haitkin, 2008). The question that surfaced for me during the film that I would like to know more about is how the health status of the low social class can improve. With America having the highest gross national product in the world, how can the poor have access to medical care and training on health issues? The statement that best describes what I learnt from the film is that health inequalities are not natural. This is because, health disparities that are because of racial and class inequities arise from the decisions the society makes (California Newsreel, 2008). As a future nurse, I propose that the society or the government should try to ensure that everyone gains access to health care regardless of their wealth in order to live longer and healthier
Monday, October 28, 2019
African Americans in American Films Essay Example for Free
African Americans in American Films Essay Following the violent racism prevalent at the beginning of the turn of the twentieth century, African American cultural elites, struggling to articulate a positive identity for the black, developed a middle-class ideology of racial uplift. Insisting that they were truly the representative of the races potential, black elites espoused an ethos of service and self-help to the black masses and distinguished themselves from the black majority as the agents of civilization; hence they referred to it as the uplifting the race. A central assumption of racial uplift ideology was that African Americans moral progress and material would diminish the white racism. à à à à à à The ââ¬Ëupliftââ¬â¢ of the black community referred to the struggle of African Americans living in the 19th and early 20th century to forge and maintain positive identity in the U.S. society that reduced their existence to that singularly alienating phrase ââ¬Å"the Negro problem.â⬠This is very demining and thatââ¬â¢s why they had to fight. What historians refer to as racial uplift ideology describes a prominent response of black middle-class spokespersons, leaders and activists to the crisis marked by the assault on the political and civil rights of African Americans primarily in the united statesââ¬â¢ South from roughly the 1880s to 1914. A generation earlier, the end of slavery and emancipation had fueled African Americansââ¬â¢ optimistic pursuit of education, economic independence and full citizenship, all crucial markers of freedom. à à à à à à Advocates of African American political and civil rights fought a lonely and tough struggle with few allies in a national climate of anti-black racism. White southern politicians and elite opinion leaders defended white supremacy and proclaimed the mental, moral and physical depravity and inferiority of blacks from the pulpit, press and university. The consensus was that blacks were unfit for citizenship of the U.S., and that neo- slavery, or the plantation slavery of menial labor and sharecropping, was the natural state of black people and that is where they belong. Guided by southern apologists for lynching, many whites, regardless of education or income, viewed the aspirations of black men and women through the warped lens of crude racial and sexual stereotypes that accused all blacks of immorality and criminality. à à à à à à Given the occurrence of such frightening representations of shades of black, Africa America management and community spokespersons, a growing, but portion of the whole Africa America population, were under constant pressure to defend the picture and honor of dark men and ladies. Black management in the North were much freer to engage in governmental demonstration and condemn national oppression in stronger conditions than those management in the southern part of, where governmental outspokenness could outcome in lynching or permanent exile. Obviously, then, dark management differed on strategies for dealing with ââ¬Å"the Negro issue.â⬠So-called ââ¬Å"radicalsâ⬠endorsed demonstration and frustration against lynching and disfranchisement, challenging complete citizenship rights; traditional management recommended accommodation, self-help, and the desire of property-ownership. The issue of what type to train and learning was best suited for s hades of black was a super rod of argument. Some management, in the southern part of the U.S., preferred commercial knowledge, which highlighted manual training for farming and skilled jobs. Other dark management reinforced college for Africa Individuals, to ensure the development of a management and professional category. With opportunities for knowledge of any type restricted by the white-colored Southââ¬â¢s anger, and with the preference of northern white-controlled philanthropy for commercial knowledge, what were basically complementary forms to train and learning became a source of intense issue. à à à à à à Despite these governmental variations, dark management generally countered anti-black generalizations by focusing category variations among shades of black, and their essential role as competition management. From their perspective, to ââ¬Å"uplift the raceâ⬠featuring their function as elites to change the character and manage the behavior of the dark community. Against persistent statements of dark immorality and pathology, knowledgeable shades of black battled a battle over the representation of their people, a strategy with uncertain effects and results. They knew as themselves as a ââ¬Å"better classâ⬠of shades of black, and required identification of their respectability, and blessed position as providers of European improvement and society. But in doing so, they brought in a state policies of internal category department (See also panel 53 in Edward Lawrenceââ¬â¢s The Migration of the Negro.) that often seemed to internalize popular thoughts of dark social depravity and backwardness even as they desired to battle racial discrimination. In other words, this method of opposing racial discrimination tacitly echoed popular ideas of category and sex structure. Their view that community improvement for shades of black was preferably calculated in patriarchal conditions of male-headed families and homes created stress between knowledgeable men and ladies. Such objectives of women deference to men authority and management were challenged by many knowledgeable dark females, such as Old Julia Cooper and the anti-lynching capitalist and reporter, Ida B. Bore holes. à à à à à à This version of national uplift philosophy as an anti-racist argument employed by knowledgeable shades of black is best understood as a complicated, varied and sometimes defective reaction to a situation in which the range of governmental options for Africa America management was restricted by the aggressive and persistent racial discrimination of the post-Reconstruction U. S. Declares. By reinforcing their respectability through the moralistic over stated claims of ââ¬Å"uplifting the competition,â⬠and suggesting the ethical guidance of the dark community, Africa America middle-class management and spokespersons were marginalizing the idea of uplift in its more democratic and inclusive sense of combined community progression and requirements for equivalent privileges. Many dark spokespersons desired to resolve this tension between personal and team position by insisting that personal success helped the whole competition. However, many Africa Amer ica men and ladies considered the over stated claims of uplift as a call to community support. They introduced values of self-help and support to the team in building educational, reformist community gospel chapels, social and fraternal organizations, settlement houses, magazines, trade labor unions, and other community institutions whose beneficial community impact surpassed the ideological limitations of uplift. à à à à à à à In the last decade, movie students have focused an increasing amount of crucial attention on Oscar Micheauxs 1920 silent movie Within Our Gateways as an essential Africa America reaction to D. W. Griffiths infamously improper movie, The Beginning of a Country (1915). Oscar Micheauxs milestone movie offered a rebuttal to Griffiths interpretation of dark assault and crime with a story of the injustices faced by Africa Individuals in a improper community. While Griffiths movie symbolizes dark men attacks on white-colored women cleanliness, Micheauxs movie sets the historical record straight with its interpretation of the attempted sexual attack of a dark woman by a white-colored man. But the national reversals in the plot of the movie are not the only difficulties that Within Our Gateways presents to Griffiths movie. à à à à à à à Within Our Gateways also surfaces The Beginning of a Country in the state policies of its appearance, specifically in its very different use of similar modifying. Griffiths movie uses crosscutting to existing a very simple resistance between white-colored virtue and dark villainy; in contrast, Micheauxs movie uses a complicated modifying pattern to existing a larger community vision of many different, competing governmental roles within both white-colored and Africa America community. The complicated design of Micheauxs modifying is efficient in making up a viewer who is more politically crucial than the viewer constructed by the traditional The show biz industry design of Griffiths movie. Series in Micheauxs movie crosscut among five or six different locations and twice as many characters; consequently, Micheauxs movie requirements an engaged and innovative viewer to identify inconsistent and contrary community and governmental statements about the power structure of competition relations in the U. s. Declares. à à à à à à à The Negro Knight is a 1944 documented created by the U. s. Declares Military during World War II.[1] The movie was created by Honest Capra as a follow up to his successful movie series Why We Fight. The army used this movie as a means of propaganda to persuade Africa Individuals to solicit in the army and battle in the war. A lot of people regarded the movie very highly, some going as far to say that The Negro Knight was one of the finest factors that ever happened to America.[2] Due to both high reviews and great cinematography, The Negro Knight proved to be a large movie that affected army members and citizens of all competitions. à à à à à à The Negro Knight affected later Africa America movies and its viewers in different ways. The movie performed a considerable part in changing the types of roles that Africa Individuals received in following movies. For example, instead of showing shades of black only as slaves or sub servants, this movie showed Africa Individuals as lawyers, artists, athletes, and other valued careers. In different movies during this time frame, Africa Individuals were often represented as comical figures. However, after The Negro Knight, Africa Individuals performed more decent and popular roles in movies. à à à à à à à Furthermore, people came to realize how essential and significant a tool, movies were for telecommuting saves gas. Messages within movies, if indicated the correct way, could influence viewers greatly. The message within The Negro Knight hard the notion and offered visual proof those national equal rights was a validated idea and should be approved. Africa Individuals around the country were very pleased with this movie. à à à à à à à à In both movies, the meaning of uplift was extremely competitive even among those who shared it is designed. Ultimately, top level ideas of the philosophy retreated from more democratic thoughts of uplift as community progression, leaving a heritage that becomes smaller the Americansââ¬â¢ ideas of privileges, citizenship, and community justice. One of the significant limits of national uplift philosophy was that the attempt to restore the picture of dark people through category differences trafficked in statements of national and sex structure. The appeal implied in national uplift philosophy for the identification of dark elitesââ¬â¢ capacity for citizenship had overshadowed post-emancipation justifications by shades of black and white wines that posited inalienable privileges as the foundation for dark men citizenship, financial privileges, equivalent protection, and team power. à à à à à à The dark top level made uplift the foundation for a racial top level identification declaring Negro improvement through category stratification as competition improvement, which required an associated idea of bourgeois certification for bigger roles in the movie industry, among other factors. Elites basically approved the conditions of the debate, recognizing that some are more deserving than others are. Instead of competition, though, they suggested that it was acculturation and display of western culture and knowledge. References Capra, F., Moss, C., United States., United States. (1994).à The Negro soldier. Hollywood, CA: Craven Home Video. Hitchcock, A., Macgowan, K., Swerling, J., Steinbeck, J., Bankhead, T., Bendix, W. Slezak, W. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, Inc. (2005).à Lifeboat. Beverly Hills, Calif: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. Micheaux, O. (1994).à The conquest: The story of a Negro pioneer. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. Micheaux, O., Thomas, P. A., Cram, B., Bowser, P., Taylor, C., Johnson, B., Northern Light Productions. PBS Video. (1994).à Midnight ramble: Oscar Micheaux and the story of race movies. Alexandria, VA: PBS Video. Source document
Saturday, October 26, 2019
Stress Types Essay -- Papers Exploratory Stressing Problems Essays
Stress Types There are three types of stress that will be explained. At various times in our lives, one or more of these stresses may overcome us. The first of these is ?Type A? stress, which is both foreseeable and avoidable. For example, going on a roller coaster is both foreseeable and avoidable, thus, it is considered a ?Type A? stress. A ?Type B? stress is defined as something that is neither foreseeable nor avoidable. A good example of this is being hit by a baseball while watching the game. The last type of these stresses is called ?Type C? stress, and is defined as stress that is foreseeable, but not avoidable. A good example of this would be a teenager staying out too late and knowing that when she comes home, she will get into trouble with her parents. At certain times in our life, such as marriage, we may be confronted with ?Type A? stress (foreseeable and avoidable). We know, of course, that when we get married, we will have to endure this added stress. It is foreseeable because we know whether or not we will ask someone to marry us. It is avoidable because you ...
Thursday, October 24, 2019
Nuclear Disarmament
Nuclear technology has been widely used in the past, especially among nations seeking to dominate or to at least secure their positions as a country able to defend itself against its enemies or launch a military offensive. It is no hidden fact that nuclear weapons pose a great amount of threat to the security of human and animal lives in many ways. There may be other purposes for nuclear technology other than harnessing a sizeable amount of military weaponry, such as for generating power which will be distributed to households and infrastructures.à Yet the apparent threat to the lives of humanity remains an utmost concern in the international community. More recently, many nations have already acquired nuclear facilities in creating nuclear weapons such as India, the United States of America, Russia and North Korea just to name a few. The availability of these weapons of mass destruction has prompted many concerned individuals and groups to raise their opposition and seek a nuclear disarmament internationally, regardless of national status. There are also those who barely limit their calls for nuclear disarmament to nations which they perceive as threat to the international community such as North Korea. One of the many arguments behind the call for nuclear disarmament is the idea that the very presence of nuclear weapons creates not only tension among nations which have them like USSR and America in the past. It also creates fear among nations and citizens, especially those which do not have the capability to produce nuclear weapons and make their presence felt as a nation capable of defending itself. Moreover, there is also the fear towards the health risks posed by nuclear weapons. Among the risks, perhaps the most known is that of nuclear fallout caused by the testing of nuclear weapons. Nuclear explosions during these tests create residual radiation hazards or radioactive dust which can largely affect the health of people in many ways. On the other hand, the manufacture of nuclear weapons can also pose dangers when accidents occur. For the most part, the Chernobyl nuclear reactor accident gives us a rough impression on the drastic consequences which can be brought about by nuclear accidents. In essence, there should be nuclear disarmament precisely because the availability of nuclear weapons is enough reason to believe that sooner or later these weapons will be used. The very fact that there are nations creating nuclear weapons is enough to presume that there is a purpose or motive behind the manufacture of these weapons. It would be irrational to presume that these nations will manufacture nuclear weaponsââ¬âweapons that cost huge financing and environmental and health risksââ¬âwithout having the thought of using the weapons at some point in time. Indeed, if there is at least one essential reason why these weapons are being built, it would have to be the reason that these weapons are most likely to be used. In the first place, one can pose the question as to whether there is an apparent and high need for nuclear weapons. Given the contemporary global situation, there are parts in the world where there are unrest like Tibet and there are regions in the world where there is a tension among nations like that of Israel and its neighboring countries just to name a few. These events in the world indeed require efforts of mitigation and resolution. To say that the amassing of nuclear weapons is one key to putting a stop to these global concerns is to say that efforts to propagate weapons of destruction can curb destruction altogether. Yet there is strong reason to believe that the opposite is more likely to be true. Significant historical events from around the world teaches us quite a number of things, one of which is that nuclear disarmament should be met in order to halt further damage from being done. Tensions across the world should be basically addressed not with another move which will further cause tension but with a real solution that will limit and eventually dissolve these tensions. The past two world wars literally obliterated the lives of thousands, and the further proliferation of nuclear weapons will create a similar scenario in the years to come if more and more nations will make use of nuclear weapons to further strengthen their military capabilities and if several nations will continue to harness nuclear weapons as we speak. Another point that deserves attention is that if we have many nations manufacturing and keeping nuclear weapons, there may come a time when these nations engage themselves in a nuclear warfare. The most likely result will be that of a mutually assured destruction where even the non-participating nations will be greatly affected especially the nations which are incapable of defending themselves against nuclear weaponries. It should be noted that even when there is no actual nuclear warfare, there remains the impending threat of its actual use, causing nations to panic to a certain extent and resort to measures to thwart off these threats temporarily. Although not exactly a crisis which involves nuclear weapons, the case of the Cuban missile crisis spawned fear from the United States of America. This was during the time of the Cold War between the former USSR and America, a time when both nations were stockpiling nuclear weapons, racing against one another in the desire to outnumber the quantities of nuclear weapons of one over the other. As Samuel Walker puts it, ââ¬Å"the first two decades of the Cold War era, most scholars, like most Americans, regarded postwar tensions as a result of Soviet expansion and aggression (Walker, 1995, p. 1653).â⬠The Cuban missile crisis was a crisis which did not strictly involve nuclear weapons. Then again, the fear and tension it created was overwhelming, which makes us think what more if the crisis had involved nuclear weapons. Apparently, the case of North Korea in more recent times reminds us of how the world has reacted against a nation harnessing nuclear weapons and testing these weapons right at their backyard. The presence of nuclear weapons does not essentially nor significantly assure peace. Nor does it promote peace in one way or another. Rather, what it does is to heighten the political and military tension among countries, pushing these nations to increase the pressure on the nation wielding nuclear weapons or engaging such nation into military intervention some time in the future. The cases of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are perhaps the most suitable and compelling examples to illustrate the point that nuclear weapons can indeed wipe-out an entire civilization and event the entire humanity. The bombing of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan is claimed to be the last nail during the Second World War. Apart from being the last nail, the bombings were also destructive in nature, destroying two key cities in less than a minute with destructive effects lasting even up to this very day. These only show that the dangers posed by nuclear weapons are very real and can bring havoc to an entire nation. Nuclear disarmament requires nations with nuclear weapons to dismantle such weapons, such as the case of the several treaties that paved the way for the United States, the Soviet Union and many other countries to make certain prohibitions. Some of these treaties include but is not limited to: the Partial Test Ban Treaty in 1963 which sought to prohibit all forms of nuclear testing except when done underground, the Interim Agreement on Offensive Arms or SALT 1 which was agreed into by America and the Soviet Union way back in 1972 in order to freeze the actual units of intercontinental ballistic missiles as well as submarine-launched ballistic missiles that may be released or deployed by either of the two nations, and the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty or SORT which was signed in 2002 and enforced a year later which aimed to reduce the strategic nuclear warheads of the United States and Russia. However, even though there have already been numerous treaties designed to control the proliferation of nuclear weapons among nations, the achievement of the goal of a total nuclear disarmament remains to be seen. Ken Rigby, Jacques Metzer and Biruta Dietz (1990) point out that ââ¬Å"the attitude of world-mindedness has emerged asâ⬠¦related to both attitudinal and action tendencies to promote nuclear disarmament (p. 328).â⬠Thus, it can be asserted that the efforts to finally achieve a total nuclear disarmament may rest on a world-minded attitude. That it, the concerns of each individual aiming at a total nuclear disarmament should be parallel to a mental framework which is global. There should be no exclusions as to who can still be permitted to keep nuclear weapons even after treaties of nuclear disarmament have taken shape. On a larger sense, history tells us that the proliferation of nuclear weapons in the past and even more so to this very day has resulted to the further realization of the dangers largely attributed to nuclear weapons either resorting from accidents or deliberate use of these weapons. Nevertheless even if these dangers have already been realized, several nations still seem cannot find an easy way out of the complexity of the nuclear issues which beset them. It appears that while there are treaties being engaged into by nations with nuclear capabilities they, too, have remained unable to fully submit themselves to a total nuclear disarmament. One can argue that perhaps one of the reasons why there is the failure for several nations to engage in a full nuclear disarmament is the idea that there are persisting threats to the sovereignty of these nations and that one way to curb these dangers is by wielding nuclear weaponry. Despite the underlying drawbacks that go along with the possession of nuclear weapons, it appears that the United States, Russia, North Korea and many others remain oblivious to the call for full nuclear disarmament perhaps because the purposes of having nuclear weapons outweigh the odds of falling on their drawbacks. One indubitable purpose of the possession of nuclear weapons is the attribution of power and respect that goes with it. However, even if these nations can be able to project an image of power and hegemonic dominance, history teaches us that ââ¬Å"public concern over the dangers of nuclear war has increased dramatically in both Western Europe and the United States (Boutwell, 2002, p. 12).â⬠Ironically, these increases in public concerns come from the citizens who live in the nations who have the capabilities to launch nuclear warheads. This goes to show that, to a certain extent, nations with nuclear warheads also have a corresponding concerned body of the public sector well-aware of the dangers of nuclear weapons at the least and a nuclear war at the most. There is a strong reason to presume that the public sector raises its concern over the issue of nuclear weapons precisely because that sector is able to see and understand the harsh implications it brings with it. Further, the concerned public sector has strong basis for their claims, substantiating their claims on the experiences of the nation in terms of history. Nuclear disarmament requires more than just disarming nuclear weapons for the moment. The crucial part is that such measures of disarmament should be sustained and should be kept as a lasting solution. It is admitted that there have been previous efforts from various nations and the international community to lessen nuclear arms and eventually entirely abolish these weapons of mass destruction. But up to this day, it remains a fact that several nations are still harboring nuclear weapons and that some are even continuing production of these weapons. A contemporary example to such a situation is North Korea which has recently gained much criticism from the international community in its recent testing of nuclear weapons, one of which is the Taepodong-2 ballistic missile. It is also a fact that at some point in time certain nuclear missile tests would have to be made in testing the feasibility of the weapon. It has been the case that the United States has tested some of its nuclear weapons in its own soil while North Korea and India have tested their missiles at sea. These tests may only last for a few minutes or so, yet the impact it leaves behind to the marine life in the cases of India and North Korea are long lasting. As with the case of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings years ago, physical deformities were not only felt by those who were directly exposed to the radioactive substances present after the nuclear explosions. These physical deformities caused by alterations in the bodyââ¬â¢s genes persisted down to the third generation from those who were directly affected by the nuclear bombings. Nuclear disarmament is one big step in realizing the goal of dissolving the current tensions created in the past and should not be taken as a long-term goal, for the longer it takes for nations to disarm themselves with nuclear weapons, it may be the case that more and more nations may resort to the creation of nuclear weapons for themselves. Indeed, if nations are truly serious with their desire to preempt a nuclear war and bring mutually assured destruction to these ââ¬Ënuclearââ¬â¢ states and the rest of the world, it should be the case that efforts of nuclear disarmament should be realized as soon as possible. The world cannot afford a third world war from happening and destroying the welfare of the nations and the development of a larger part of the world. Indeed, nuclear disarmament should be the only option and that such an option should be taken and enacted the soonest possible time, if not now. The dangers of nuclear weapons are real and that history has taught us of the insurmountable destruction it brings with more than anything else in the world. References Boutwell, J. (2002). The Many-Sided Nuclear Arms Debate. Bulletin of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 36(1), 12. Rigby, K., Metzer, J., & Dietz, B. (1990). Factors Predisposing Individuals to Support Nuclear Disarmament: An International Perspective Journal of Peace Research, 27(3), 328. Walker, S. (1995). The Origins of the Cold War in United States History Textbooks. The Journal of American History, 81(4), 1653. à à Ã
Wednesday, October 23, 2019
Hamlet Theme of Appearance vs. Reality Essay
Shakespeare examines the theme of appearance and reality in his book-Hamlet. The dilemma of what is ââ¬Å"realâ⬠is established at the very beginning of the play. Hamlet doesnââ¬â¢t know what to believe and devises a plan to find out. The old king Hamlet appears to be bitten by a snake, but in reality he was poisoned, the ghost appears as an apparition, but itââ¬â¢s actually real, and the play-with-in-a-play strongly depicts the theme of appearance vs. reality. The dead King appears to have been bitten by a snake. In reality, he has been poisoned. Everyone believes that the king died from snakebite, but once Hamlet knows the truth he is unsettled by the revelation. When Hamletââ¬â¢s dead father directs his son to, ââ¬Å"Avenge him of his foul and most unnatural murderâ⬠(1. 5. 25), Hamletââ¬â¢s response shows determination to act and a curiosity to know all the facts surrounding the murder: (1. 5. 29-31) ââ¬Å"Haste me to knowââ¬â¢t, that I, with wings as swift, as meditation or the thoughts of love may sweep to my revenge. â⬠Hamletââ¬â¢s choice of image is significant here. A person who wants to take revenge rarely has ââ¬Å"thoughts of loveâ⬠but only concentrates upon thoughts of revenge, but Hamletââ¬â¢s thirst for revenge is immediate and deep. Shakespeare also develops the theme of appearance vs. reality when Hamlet resents his motherââ¬â¢s insinuation that he is putting on a show of being grief-stricken. Strangely, he is the only one in the family who is truly mourning his fatherââ¬â¢s death. He replies that all outwardly signs of his grief, such as his black cloak of mourning, his tears, and his sighs, are mere appearances, not even close to the depth of the real grief in his heart (1. 2. 70-80). This theme of appearance vs. reality will play an important part in the entire play. Another example of appearance vs. reality is the Ghost that appears as an apparition from the depths of hell, when actually he is the medium of reality, revealing the facts to Hamlet. The ghost tells Hamlet that his father was murdered, ââ¬Å"Revenge his foul and most unnatural murderâ⬠(1. 5. 25). Since Hamlet doubts the sincerity of the Ghostââ¬â¢s revelation, he decides to put on the appearance of being mad to see if this is true, ââ¬Å"Iââ¬â¢ll wipe away all trivial records ? and they commandment all alone shall liveâ⬠(1. 5. 99-102). Hamletââ¬â¢s decision to simulate madness as a means of enacting his revenge is important. The news that Hamlet received about his father and his mother could drive anyone insane. As a result, the line between appearance and reality becomes notably distorted as the play progresses. Guildernstern says in Act 3 lines7-9, ââ¬Å"But with a crafty madness keeps aloof when we would bring him on to some confession of this true state. â⬠At times it also seems that Hamletââ¬â¢s appearance of madness has become a reality, (3. 1. 201-203) ââ¬Å"You should not have believed me, for virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it. I loved you not. â⬠Hamlet loved Ophelia so this is definitely not true, but during the course of the play, his madness seems so genuine that one wonders if he is acting. The most obvious symbol of ? appearance vs. realityââ¬â¢ is the play-within-a-play. The actors appear onstage and act out the events that actually happened in reality. Hamlet has carefully orchestrated this play so that he can gauge the degree of reality by Claudiusââ¬â¢ reaction, ââ¬Å"For murder, though it have no tongue will speak with most miraculous organ? Before mine uncle Iââ¬â¢ll observe his looks? If ? a do blench, Iââ¬â¢ll know my courseâ⬠(2. 2. 605-610). Besides furthering the plot of Hamlet, the play-within-a-play also again develops the theme of appearance vs. reality. The fictional drama being presented before the King is a parallel to the past reality of the King, and will serve to shape the future reality of the King and several other characters. Hamlet, as director of this great deception on stage, cautions the players not to exaggerate their expressions and emotions, stating that only uncivilized ââ¬Å"groundlingsâ⬠(3. 2. 10-11) are impressed by excessive over-acting. In Act II, Scene 2, Hamlet had asked the players to give a passionate presentation of the killing of Priam by Pyrrhus. Now he specifically instructs the players to ââ¬Å"beget a temperanceâ⬠in the ââ¬Å"whirlwind of passionâ⬠in order to give it ââ¬Å"smoothnessâ⬠(3. 2. 1-9). He tells them that the aim of the play is to hold ââ¬Å"the mirror up to nature,â⬠(3. 2. 23-25) saying that the representation of action should be a realistic reflection of life, with moderation as the keynote (3. 2. 1-45). Hamletââ¬â¢s advice to the players is important, because it reveals his state of mind before the staging of the play indicating that Hamletââ¬â¢s own mind has finally reached a reasoned balance. In summary, the theme of appearance vs.reality is so well developed that everything in the play must be questioned, for nothing appears certain. Hamlet doesnââ¬â¢t know who is telling the truth because of the appearance of some things. Hamlet lives in a reality that appears to be true, but appearances can be deceiving. Hamlet learned that reality is completely different from appearance. The old king Hamlet appears to be bitten by a snake, but in reality he was poisoned, the ghost appears as an apparition, but itââ¬â¢s actually real, and the play-with-in-a-play strongly depicts the theme of appearance vs. reality.
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