Lear and Family Essay - 973 Words

The Importance of Family Family is what defines ones character and identity. Shakespeares tragic play, King Lear, presents a ruling family and how its members relationships affect one another. The crumbling relationship between King Lear and his daughters exemplifies his struggle to maintain his role in his family and his identity within the state. Lear explains that human nature is marked by a desire for more than just the necessities one already has. Lear needs more than the necessities of life not only to survive but to keep his identity. However, Lear mistakes these needs and misidentifies himself based on his titles than what he truly needs: his family. King Lear gives a prime example of how†¦show more content†¦He then becomes lost and confused and falls into a state of insanity. Need is defined as a necessary duty or an obligation. Lear has given his two eldest daughters all that he has, but Goneril and Regan do not fulfill Lears needs as dutiful daughters. Although Lears daughters have all the material possessions that they need, Lear presents them as unnatural hags (276). The state of nature is defined by animalistic themes and insanity within the play. Lear explains that animals need just the bare necessities. By presenting his daughters as unnatural, Lear reinforces that his daughters live with more than the bare necessities. His desire to retire and spend his days with Goneril and Regan do not work out as he plans. Goneril and Regans failure to comply with their obligation as faithful daughters is evidenced by their cruelty towards their father which establishes the fact that he is no longer recognized as the head of the household. Goneril and Regans failure to comply with their obligation as faithful daughters is clearly evident. Lo! ve is heavily inflected by duty, but Goneril and Regans profession of love in the beginning of the play proves to be false. Lear discovers that his necessity to keep his identity is merely a desire to keep his status and recognition in the family. His role as a father diminishes after he divides his lands between his two eldest daughters. Though he is their father, GonerilShow MoreRelatedTheme Of Family In King Lear858 Words   |  4 Pages Family In this paper, I will discuss the importance of family in the story of King Lear, written by the wonderful playwright William Shakespeare. I believe that the message of this book is based upon family. The writer is telling us the true inner workings of a family. In most families, you have those who are loyal until the end such as Kent, Edgar, and Cordelia. However, you also have those who are highly deceitful such as Edmund, Goneril, and Regan. My honest opinion is that Shakespeare explainsRead More The Dysfunctional Family of King Lear Essay1631 Words   |  7 PagesThe Dysfunctional Family of King Lear    In his tragedy King Lear, William Shakespeare presents two families: a family consisting of a father and his three daughters, and a family consisting of a father and his two sons, one of which is a bastard son. While he has the sons basically come out and admit that one of them is good and the other evil, the Bard chooses to have the feelings of the daughters appear more subtlely. At no point in King Lear does Shakespeare come out and blatantly tell hisRead MoreTheme Of Family Dysfunction In King Lear718 Words   |  3 PagesUnfortunate Events King Lear is play about a king who decided to step down from his throne and split his kingdom evenly among his three beautiful daughters. He put them through a test to see who loves him the most to his surprise only one loves him the most out of all three. Gloucester have one illegitimate son and one by law but soon knows that they both want him dead. Throughout the play, not only did King Lear had family problems but other people that was surrounded around King Lear was having problemsRead MoreEssay The Dysfunctional Family of Shakespeares King Lear2578 Words   |  11 PagesThe Dysfunctional Family of King Lear      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   One of the reasons why Shakespeare is so thoroughly read today is because of his ability to portray human nature so accurately through his characters.   Shakespeares play, King Lear shows us that humans are treacherous and selfish.   We can also relate to the play because of the family issues that Shakespeare incorporates throughout the work.   Lears family is definitely a dysfunctional one.   However, the disrupted family unit is the basisRead MoreFamily Ties : William Shakespeare s King Lear1258 Words   |  6 PagesFamily Ties At the heart of the play King Lear by William Shakespeare lies the theme of the relationship between father and child. Lear and Cordelia’s relationship is strong and it is very different than the relationship between Lear, and Cordelia’s sisters, Goneril and Reagan. Lear and Cordelia have different views of what is important in the world, these different views is what ultimately causes their bond to break. The separation of Lear and Cordelia ultimately causes a rift in the play and conflictRead More King Lear - Disruption Of Order In King Lear And The Causes Essay878 Words   |  4 Pages Shakespeares King Lear is a play which shows the consequences of one mans decisions. The audience follows the main character, Lear, as he makes decisions that disrupt order in his Kingdom. When Lear surrenders all his power and land to his daughters as a reward for their demonstration of love towards him, the breakdown on order in evident. Lears first mistake is to divide his Kingdom into three parts. A Kingdom is run best under one ruler as only one decision is made without contradiction. AnotherRead More Essay on Blame in Shakespeares King Lear581 Words   |  3 Pages King Lear is To Blame nbsp; In William Shakespeares play, King Lear, the main character, King Lear, claims to be a man more sinned against than sinning(3.2.60-61). Though a good king, King Lears own actions cause his family and kingdom to fall apart. The sins committed against King Lear are a result of his personal faults of rashness, blindness, and foolishness. nbsp; King Lears hot temper and hasty decisions play a significant role in his fall from grace. His old age has causedRead MoreSamurai : Strict Code Of Samurai1599 Words   |  7 Pages(Dictionary.com) Tragedy in a dramatic sense – a story with the main character dealing with disastrous circumstances which usually affect the every aspect of their life (Dictionary.com) Response 1 In the 1985 film, Ran depicts several themes such as family, power and war. In the prologue of the film, respect and honor is shown by Hidetora’s sons as they listen to him make an announcement in regards to his kingdom and his retirement (Ran). He states he is to maintain his title as Great Lord and liveRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s King Lear846 Words   |  4 PagesShakespeare s King Lear, families are torn apart and are dysfunctional. Dysfunctional meaning that they don’t interact with each other properly or normally as would be seen in other families. The families are also dysfunctional in the way that they stray from normal social behavior. In the play King Lear ,families are against each other. There are many causes for this, these causes make family members act harshly against each other, and finally their actions leave negative effects on the family as a wholeRead MoreKing Lear And Tuesdays With Morrie1507 Words   |  7 Pagesassociated mutually with the e lderly people. In both texts, King Lear by William Shakespeare and Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom, one of the main characters in both texts, King Lear and Morrie Schwartz, were experienced to develop intelligence afterwards undergoing suffering and troubles. However, both these men began their investigations in different ways. Morrie infinitely emphasized the worth of community and comfort, meanwhile King Lear drill these as light as a feather pursuits which nothing should

The Scarlet Letter And Young Goodman Brown - 1206 Words

Influenced by his Puritan background, Hawthorne focused on individuals and their relationships within their community. Works by Nathaniel Hawthorne such as The Scarlet Letter and Young Goodman Brown focus on the issues and hypocrisies of a Puritan society. Hawthorne explores the view that many fundamentalist religious groups have in regard to the alienation of members of a society who have been judged as sinful, while also uncovering the hidden evil in everyone, including the most honorable of preachers. He accomplishes this by developing plot lines, which focus on interactions of ignorant but wicked religious characters with sinful but relatable protagonists. Throughout these two stories, the forest serves to represent evil and the unknown; however, it also represents truth, as it is the place where secrets come out and people express their true selves. In the very beginning of Young Goodman Brown, Goodman Brown’s wife Faith, advises him to wait until sunrise of the next morning to start his journey into the forest instead of leaving at night time, suggesting that Brown is traveling towards, and into the ominous darkness. This darkness represents everything evil, or the devil’s abode, so by having Faith urge her husband not to travel during the dark nighttime, it can be inferred that she is attempting to help him avoid the devil. However, Brown does not listen to the advice of Faith, and ventures deep into the path of sin, eventually coming to a terrifying realizationShow MoreRelatedCompare And Contrast Scarlet Letter And Young Goodman Brown1485 Words   |  6 Pageshumiliate her and Goodman Brown’s hopelessness af ter seeing people he trusts conversing with the devil. In Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Hester gains a new strength from the letter A after recognizing the evil nature of Puritan society. Whereas in Hawthorne’s â€Å"Young Goodman Brown,† witnessing Puritan’s hypocrisy first hand, Goodman Brown falls into despair and confusing. Although depicted in different lights, Hawthorne’s characters in The Scarlet Letter and â€Å"Young Goodman Brown† ultimately revealRead More Romanticism in Scarlet Letter, Ministers Black Veil, and Young Goodman Brown2077 Words   |  9 PagesAmerican Romanticism in The Scarlet Letter, The Ministers Black Veil, and Young Goodman Brown      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Nathaniel Hawthorne took elements of the European romanticism and reshaped them into a new literary form that is called American Romanticism. The American Romanticists created a form that, at first glance, seems ancient and traditional; they borrowed from classical romance, adapted pastoral themes and incorporated Gothic elements (Reuben 22). Some of the definable elements of romanticismRead More Hawthorne Critiques Puritan Society in His Works, Young Goodman Brown and The Scarlet Letter1773 Words   |  8 PagesNathaniel Hawthorne Critiques Puritan Society in His Works, Young Goodman Brown and The Scarlet Letter Many American writers have scrutinized religion through their works of literature, however none had the enthusiasm of Nathaniel Hawthorne. A handful of Hawthornes works are clear critiques of seventeenth century Puritan society in New England. Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown and The Scarlet Letter illustrate his assessment by showing internal battles within characters, hypocrisy in religiousRead MoreThe Scarlet Letter, By Nathaniel Hawthorne979 Words   |  4 Pageswell-known dark romanticist and author of â€Å"Young Goodman Brown,† and â€Å"The Scarlet Letter,† displays a love for story and symbols. Goodman Brown in â€Å"Young Goodman Brown,† chooses to question his faith and sells himself out of everyone because he does not believe in anyone. Whereas Hester in â€Å"The Scarlet Letter,† was thrown away from everyone because of her actions. Hawthorne’s usage of light and dark imagery in both, â€Å"The Scarlet Letter,† and â€Å"Young Go odman Brown,† represents good and evil, and the difficultyRead MoreEssay Sin, Guilt, and the Mind of Nathaniel Hawthorne1490 Words   |  6 PagesHawthornes family and specific events in his life influenced his writing. Readers can easily recognize how Young Goodman Brown incorporates facts about his Puritan ancestors. Father Hooper in The Ministers Black Veil may be symbolically paralleled to Hawthornes ancestors, trying to hide a sin they have committed. His descendants remarks on him in The Custom House introduction to The Scarlet Letter mix pride in Hawthornes prominence and a sense of inherited guilt for his deeds as judge. HawthornesRead MoreNathaniel Hawthorne s The Scarlet Letter1631 Words   |  7 Pageshis The Scarlet Letter and â€Å"Young Goodman Brown†, illustrates the difference between good and evil as well as the separation between the new and old generation and how the youth challenges the way of traditional Puritan society. This can be seen by Goodm ans Brown’s character, the younger women at Hester Prynne’s public condemnation, Roger Chillingworth and Arthur Dimmesdale, and Hester’s relationship with her daughter Pearl. Nathaniel Hawthorne is most famous for writing The Scarlet Letter, whichRead MoreThe Scarlet Letter, By Nathaniel Hawthorne1422 Words   |  6 Pages The eighteenth-century author, Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on July 4, 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts. He was most famous for his writings The Scarlet Letter, â€Å"Young Goodman Brown,† â€Å"The Minister’s Black Veil† and an abundant array of other books and short stories. The stories that are mentioned contain a copious amount of symbolism throughout the entirety of each book. All the stories that he ever wrote have an underlying meaning and the symbolism was hidden within in the names, characters, placesRead MoreEssay on Young Goodman Brown769 Words   |  4 Pagesmain focus of the story â€Å"Young Goodman Brown† by Nathaniel Hawthorne is the triumph of evil over good. A supposedly good man is tempted by evil and allows himself to be converted into a man of evil. This is much like the situation that ari ses in Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, where two people are tempted to sin and give in thus submitting themselves to the power of the devil. In this novel, the area where the devil resides is strictly parallel to that in â€Å"Young Goodman Brown†. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;AsRead MoreSymbolism Is The Use Of Symbols To Signify Important Meaning1305 Words   |  6 PagesNathanial Hawthorne). In the Scarlett Letter, there are several references to symbolism. The first and the most obvious symbolism used in The Scarlett Letter is the scarlet letter â€Å"A† on Hester’s chest. This letter has the meaning of sin and Hester wears it as punishment. The â€Å"A† stood for adultery, the crime Hester committed. The society she lived in went against these things and had strict punishment for it. Another form of symbolism in The Scarlett Letter is Hester’s daughter, Pearl. Hester namesRead MoreEssay Theme of Alienation in Literature929 Words   |  4 PagesHawthorne, such as Young Goodman Brown, The Ministers Black Veil, and The Scarlet Letter, all contain characters that face these types of conditions. Goodman Brown, Minister Hooper, and Hester Pryne are isolated from society because of their guilty consciences, and desire to hide their shame. Eventually, each character is given a chance to redeem themselves and avoid damnation. In the short story, Young Goodman Brown, the character of Goodman Brown has an experience

Obamacare Free Essays

At this point I think that the Healthcare reform is something that is needed and Obamacare is trying its best to improve. There is a major need for Healthcare reform. Thousands of people die in America each year because of the lack of health insurance. We will write a custom essay sample on Obamacare or any similar topic only for you Order Now Many people without health insurance die when they could have had a chance to live if they had insurance. The problem is that health insurance is too expensive. Not for those who can afford it but for those who cannot. It has to be horrible to catch the flu and have to suffer because you fear debt from a trip to the emergency room. Obama’s plan is vital to the advancement of healthcare. Private insurance is rising constantly and Universal healthcare in America will add more competition to the market, it will be beneficial for everyone and we know that it has already worked in other countries. Private medical insurance is valuable to have, but can come with many disadvantages for the consumer. The article â€Å"the U. S. Healthcare system† focused on the faults of the United States healthcare system when compared to other countries with Universal healthcare. America has the most expensive healthcare system in the world. One reason for the rising cost of healthcare in America is that an estimated â€Å"19. 3 to 24. 1 % of the money is spent on administration cost. Obama wants to make sure that America is not being taken advantage of by insurance and prescription drug companies. Some insurance companies are overcharging doctors for their malpractice insurance, which is causing patients to have to pay more in order to be seen by a doctor. Obama’s healthcare reform will provide healthcare and preventative services to millions of Americans, give American’s a safety net to ensure that they can’t be denied for a preexisting condition, or dropped when sick, millions of lives will be saved, it will grow jobs, help small business and is projected to cut the national deficit by over $1,000,000,000,000 dollars over the next two decades. This is the type of reform our healthcare system needs How to cite Obamacare, Papers

Canterbury Tales A view of t Essay Example For Students

Canterbury Tales A view of t Essay In discussing Chaucers collection of stories called The Canterbury Tales, an interesting picture or illustration of the Medieval Christian Church is presented. However, while people demanded more voice in the affairs of government, the church became corrupt this corruption also led to a more crooked society. Nevertheless, there is no such thing as just church history; This is because the church can never be studied in isolation, simply because it has always related to the social, economic and political context of the day. In history then, there is a two way process where the church has an influence on the rest of society and of course, society influences the church. This is naturally because it is the people from a society who make up the church.and those same people became the personalities that created these tales of a pilgrimmage to Canterbury. The Christianization of Anglo-Saxon England was to take place in a relatively short period of time, but this was not because of the success of the Augustinian effort. Indeed, the early years of this mission had an ambivalence which shows in the number of people who hedged their bets by practicing both Christian and Pagan rites at the same time, and in the number of people who promptly apostatized when a Christian king died. There is certainly no evidence for a large-scale conversion of the common people to Christianity at this time. Augustine was not the most diplomatic of men, and managed to antagonize many people of power and influence in Britain, not least among them the native British churchmen, who had never been particularly eager to save the souls of the Anglo-Saxons who had brought such bitter times to their people. In their isolation, the British Church had maintained older ways of celebrated the major festivals of Christianity, and Augustines effort to compel them to confor m to modern Roman usage only angered them. When Augustine died (some time between 604 and 609 AD), then, Christianity had only a precarious hold on Anglo-Saxon England, a hold which was limited largely to a few in the aristocracy. Christianity was to become firmly established only as a result of Irish efforts, who from centers in Scotland and Northumbria made the common people Christian, and established on a firm basis the English Church. At all levels of society, belief in a god or gods was not a matter of choice, it was a matter of fact. Atheism was an alien concept (and one dating from the eighteenth century). Living in the middle ages, one would come into contact with the Church in a number of ways. First, there were the routine church services, held daily and attended at least once a week, and the special festivals of Christmas, Easter, baptisms, marriages, etc.. In that respect the medieval Church was no different to the modern one. Second, there were the tithes that the Church collected, usually once a year. Tithes were used to feed the parish priest, maintain the fabric of the church, and to help the poor. Third, the Church fulfilled the functions of a civil service and an education system. Schools did not exist (and were unnecessary to a largely peasant society), but the Church and the government needed men who could read and write in English and Latin. The Church trained its own men, and these went to help in the government: writing letters, keeping accounts and so on. The words cleric and clerk have the same origin, and every nobleman would have at least one priest to act as a secretary. The power of the Church is often over-emphasized. Certainly, the later medieval Church was rich and powerful, and that power was often misused especially in Europe. Bishops and archbishops were appointed without any training or clerical background, church offices changed hands for cash, and so on. The authority of the early medieval Church in England was no different to that of any other landowner. So, the question that haunted medieval man was that of his own salvation. The existence of God was never questioned and the heart-cry of medieval society was a desire to know God and achieve intimacy with the divine. Leading a life pleasing to God was the uppermost concern, and the wide diversity of medieval piety is simply because people answered the question, How can I best lead a holy life? in so many different ways. Beginning with The Pardoners Tale, the theme of salvation is truly paramount. Chaucer, being one of the most important medieval authors, uses this prologue and tale to mak e a statement about buying salvation. The character of the pardoner is one of the most despicable pilgrims, seemingly along for the ride to his next gig as the seller of relics. For myn entente is nat but for to winne,/ And no thing for correccion of sinne, admits the pardoner in his prologue. As a matter of fact, the pardoner is only in it for the money, as evident from this passage:I wol none of the Apostles countrefete:I wold have moneye, wolle, cheese, and whete,Al were it yiven of the pooreste page,Or of the pooreste widwe in a village Al sholde hir children sterve for famine. Nay, I drinke licour of the vineAnd have a joly wenche in every town. In his tale, the Pardoner slips into his role as the holiest of holies and speaks of the dire consequences of gluttony, gambling, and lechery. He cites Attila the Hun with, Looke Attila, the grete conquerour,/ Deide in his sleep with shame and dishonour,/ Bleeding at his nose in dronkenesse. The personification of the deadly sins, along with his story of the three greedy men that eventually perish at the hands of their sin is a distinct medieval device. The comic twist that Chaucer adds to the device, though, is that the Pardoner in himself is as the personification of sin, as is evident from the passages of his prologue. At the conclusion of his tale, the Pardoner asks, Allas, mankinde, how may it bitide/ That to thy Creatour which that thee wroughte,/ And with his precious herte blood boughte,/ Thou art so fals and unkinde, allas?. He then goes on to offer each pilgrim a placefor a price, of course. Data Compression EssayHindsight has blurred our vision of the Medieval monk and the result is that the modern Christian mindset has condemned him for his selfish escapism from the world and for his apparent neglect of those who needed Christ outside of the cloister. The Medieval mindset was very different. The monastery was an integral part of the local community it probably owned most of the farming land in the area- and the fortunes of the people in any area were bound up with the spirituality of its monastic house. The monks were on the front line of the spiritual battle-it was they who did battle in prayer for their community, who warded off devils and demons and who prayed tirelessly for the salvation of the souls of those in their community. Rather than being the cowards of Christianity unable to take the strain of living a Christian life in the real world, the monks were like spiritual stormtroopers interceeding for an area against its supernatural enemies in mudh the same way as a local lord in his castle protected an area against its physical enemies. The people gave gifts to both lord and abbot in return for a service. The Pardoner also represents the tradition of faith in respect to the church of his time. The Pardoner is representative of the seamy side of the corrupt church and a broken or twisted (if you will) faith. The faith of a bureaucracy, which is what the church had become. The Pardoner was a church official who had the authority to forgive those who had sinned by selling pardons and indulgences to them. Although, the Pardoner was a church official, he was clearly in the church business for economic reasons. The Pardoner, a devious and somewhat dubious individual had one goal: Get the most money for pardons by almost any means of coercion necessary. A twisted and ironic mind, has basically defined himself through his work for a similarly corrupt church. In contrast, the Plowman has nothing but a seemingly uncomplicated and untwisted faith. The Plowman has the faith of a poor farmer, uncomplicated by the bureaucracy of the church. The Pardoner is probably on this journey because he is be ing required to go by the church or he sees some sort of economic gain from this voyage, most likely from selling forgiveness to the other pilgrims. The Plowman on the other hand is probably on this voyage because of his sincerity and faith in its purpose. While this was the story of religion at grass-roots level, at the organisational and hierarchical level, the church developed along a different line. It became more organized, more bureaucratic, more legal, more centralized and basically more powerful on a European scale. This process was spearheaded by the papacy and reached its pinnacle under Pope Innocent III in the early 13th Century. He embodied what became known as the papal monarchy a situation where the popes literally were kings in their own world. The relative importance of spiritual and secular power in the world was a constant question in the middle ages with both secular emperors and kings, and the popes asserting their claims to rule by divine authority with Gods commands for Gods people proceeding out of their mouths. The power of the church is hard to exaggerate: its economic and political influence was huge, as its wealth, movements like the crusades, and even the number of churches that exist from this period truly show its greatness. By the early 10th century, a strange malaise seems to have entered the English church. There are comments from this time of a decline in learning among churchmen and an increase in a love for things of this earthly world. Even more of these lax standards had begun a decline in the power structure of the church which included a decrease in acceptable behavior amongst churchmen and a growing use of church institutions by lay people as a means of evading taxes. Christianity affected all men in Europe at every level and in every way. Such distances however, led to much diversity and the shaping of Medieval religion into a land of contrasts. One can also see how mans feelings of extreme sinfulness and desire for God are quite evident in these tales. Still, we are told that history repeats itself because nobody listens to it, but more realistically history repeats itself because man is essentially the same from one generation to the next. He has the same aspirations, fears and flaws; yet the way that these are expressed differs from age to age. This is why each period of history is different. The fact that man is the same yet different is what makes the study of the people who formed the medieval church directly applicable to Christians lives and experiences today.