The ends of the 3 short stories Essay Example for Free

The ends of the 3 short stories Essay Who or what do you think is to blame for the tragic events at the ends of the 3 short stories? In your answer you should compare the effects of the following contributing factors:   Values and attitudes of 1800s   The characters and personalities of the females   The attitudes of the community towards the female characters The role and influence of men The tragic events at the end of the three short stories The Withered Arm by Thomas Hardy, The Melancholy Hussar also by Thomas Hardy, and The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, are not the consequence of any one cause in particular. There are many different causes that could explain the tragic events, and these will now be investigated. A womans activities and learning completely depended on how well off they were; whether they were a rich lady or a poor woman. In Hardys The Withered Arm and in another of his books The Melancholy Hussar, we see examples of both: Gertrude Lodge and Phyllis are the well off ladies, and Rhoda Brook is the poor milkmaid. They didnt choose what they wanted to be, they were just born that way. There are clear differences between a lady and a woman: a poor woman was not educated (which was very bad in the 1800s), but the rich lady was educated (but only on the skills that she would need to help her get a husband); the poor woman married a working man for a better money income and chose who she married, but a rich lady would usually marry someone that her father chose. By these two facts, it is clear to see that women were simply thought of as possessions of men, nothing more. This is illustrated in Hardys The Melancholy Hussar: she considered herself likely to become a possession of another. Wealthy men had to go through a ladys father even to make her acquaintance: made her fathers acquaintance in order to make hers. Rich women hired poorer women to work for them as housecleaners and maids. This is an example of how class was considered to be important in Victorian society. In The Withered Arm, the tragic event which was Rhodas sons execution is a consequence of societys division of classes. Rhodas son was poor, like Rhoda herself, thusly putting him in the lower class. This is reflected in the clothes that he wore. Gertrude brings a new pair of boots round for him because his old ones would not keep my feet dry if it came on wet, because they were so cracked. The state of his clothes signifies his class. Presumably, the people who had caught Rhodas son were fairly wealthy. Therefore, it is possible that they may have jumped to the conclusion that since he was a poor, lower class boy, he must have been doing something wrong. The second tragic event at the end of The Withered Arm is Gertrudes death. There is somewhat of a mystery of how she died. It could have been the impact of her being thrown against the wall, or it could have been the medical cure she was attempting that could have killed her. Her choice to attempt this cure was influenced by society and by her own personality and character. She is a very pretty lady: rosy-cheeked, tisty-tosty body and this is what attracted Farmer Lodge to her. But when she got the skin discolouration, her own personality makes her take measures against it. She is very eager to please Farmer Lodge: hoping against hope to win back his heart again by regaining some at least of her personal beauty and when their relationship gets worse and worse because of Farmer Lodges obsession, she tries to regain her beauty by any means necessary. This is also brought about by societys reaction. Since Gertrude is in the higher classes, she is held in better respect than, say, Rhoda. Therefore, society expects a pretty, intelligent lady. When she gets the skin discolouration, society doesnt have the pretty lady anymore. Gertrude becomes more desperate and finally, on Conjuror Trendles advice, she goes to try one last cure: placing her discoloured and disfigured arm on the neck of a hangman just when he has been cut down. Rhoda appears when Gertrude is conducting the cure and then throws her against the wall. In a way, it is Rhodas fault also that Gertrude died. Rhoda had plenty of reasons to be angry with Gertrude. Gertrude came along and married Farmer Lodge, taking Rhodas place as it were. She caused Rhoda to have the vision in which Rhoda grabbed her and threw her to the ground and, to top it all off, Rhoda now finds her with her disfigured arm on her dead son. It pushed her over the limit and caused her to react with violence. The tragic event at the end of The Melancholy Hussar, is the shooting of Matthi us Tina and his friend Christoph Bless. The actions of Phyllis and her personality explain why they were shot, but society can explain Phyllis personality. Phyllis Grove is extremely isolated and secluded living with her father in a half farm, half manor-house. The mention of a manor house suggests that she is wealthy and a member of the higher classes of society. Society enforces the characteristic that all high-class ladies should have a husband. She was being owned by her father, as it was with all daughters and fathers. She had not yet got married because she does not want to become a possession of another. However, she ends up falling for and getting engaged to marry Humphrey Gould, which was not socially common considering that he was of lower class than her. He had to leave town for a while to tend to his sick father because there were no other relations nearer. He promised he would return to Phyllis in a few weeks. However, these few weeks pass, followed by the next season but he didnt return. Phyllis was not very inquisitive when the German Hussars camped near to the town, because she became very shy living in seclusion in the manor house: became so shy if she met a stranger she felt ashamed at his gaze, walked awkwardly, and blushed to her shoulders. She came to know a German Hussar called Matthi us Tina because he frequently walked past a wall on which Phyllis usually sat. Since Humphrey Gould was not back yet, her character allowed her to get to know Matthi us. The community started to gossip about rumours that Humphrey Gould may be having an affair: he was not sure, indeed, that he might not cast his eyes elsewhere. Phyllis believes the hearsay and she and Matthi us along with Christoph and two other men try to take a boat from the harbour, in order to row to France then travel to Germany. Matthi us and Phyllis were going to live together and leave Humphrey behind. Though, at the last minute, Humphrey Gould returns. She hears him talking and she discovers that he has been living in truth the whole time. She reproaches herself for believing the hearsay. The failed escape attempt got Matthi us and Christoph captured. They were tried for court-marshal and then shot as deserters. If Phyllis had stayed and gone with Matthi us then he may not have been caught. The pressure on her from society to do the right thing cost Matthi us, Christoph and the two companions their lives. The tragic event at the end of The Yellow Wallpaper is the main female becoming insane and completely losing her mind. Society is primarily to blame for this, but also so is her husband John. The main character is apparently ill, according to her husband John who is a physician. She takes tablets and steroids but nothing is working very well. They rent out an old house to live in for 3 months whilst the old one is refurbished. The main character is forced to live in a room for these 3 months with horrible yellow wallpaper. She is a member of the high class in society. This is attainable due to the amount of technical terms, for example, that she using whilst describing the wallpaper: debased Romanesque delirium tremens isolated columns of fatuity. She never leaves the room for most of the three months and is forbidden to do practically everything by John. This is basically what is called the Rest Cure which was developed by Silas Weir Mitchell, an American physician who became famous for his work on nervous disorders. Patients of the Rest Cure were usually condemned to bed for six weeks to two months. They are not allowed to sit up, sew, read, or write. They are only allowed to clean their teeth, and sometimes they were not allowed to turn over by themselves. Silas did this because he found no motion desirable. In these cases, the patient is lifted out of bed in the evening onto a couch and given a sponge bath. The main character in The Yellow Wallpaper was allowed to get out of bed and walk around a bit, but was told not to read or write by John her husband. Still, she wrote down what is read in the story and keeps it hidden from him. In all cases of weakness, a nurse fed the patient. In many cases, Silas allowed the patient to get out of bed to go and use the toilet. After about a fortnight, Silas would allow the patient to read one to three hours a day, and frequently nervous and anaemic women jumped (not literally! ) at the chance. He says in a written account of himself: The moral uses of enforced rest are readily estimated. From a restless life of irregular hours, and probably endless drugging, from hurtful sympathy and over-zealous care, the patient passes to an atmosphere of quiet, to order and control, to the system and care of a thorough nurse, to an absence of drugs, and to simple diet. The result is always at first, whatever it may be afterwards, a sense of relief, and a remarkable and often a quite abrupt disappearance of many of the nervous symptoms with which we are all of us only too sadly familiar. The Rest Cure and the way that John her husband has acted to her illness are examples of how men have authority over women. The main female becomes more and more interested with the yellow wallpaper, slowly discovering new things about it. Her mental condition continues to worsen and she starts to think that she can see people behind the wallpaper, a woman, trying to get out. This woman could be a representation of the main character in society. Trapped, and unable to break free of all the laws and regulations. Eventually, she becomes nearly completely insane due to her being trapped in he room for three months, having to constantly look at the yellow wallpaper. She starts tearing bits off, trying to free the women behind, but also to get rid of it because it was driving her insane. At the end of the story, the main character loses her mind and speaks as though she was the women she had seen behind the wallpaper, and she had finally got out and couldnt be put back: Ive got out at last Ive pulled off most of the paper, so you cant put me back!

TV violence :: essays research papers fc

A beautiful young girl is found dead, blood all over her face, wrapped in a plastic garbage bag. A mill goes up in flames, trapping two people who were lured there by the killer who hopes they burn to cinders. The bullet-ridden body of a detective lies on the floor, the deed done by a mysterious killer. A purported drug dealer is strangled to death; his body flailing and contorted with pain. Two people commit a brutal rape and leave the victim for dead. Why the fascination with violence? The Amount of Violence on Television According to the renowned psychiatrist Karl Menninger, " We not only tolerate violence it is part of our life. Why over one third of our television programs use it for amusement. There are more than 200 million television sets in America. The average American watches over seven hours a day. For many children, this is more time than they spend in school. The world of television has been alternatively called entertainment and a vast wasteland. It serves as a model of the world around us. What kind of world does it depict? The message is often one of violence. In 1973, the Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Pennsylvania, devised a "violence profile" to measure the amount of violence shown on television. The analysts watched over 33 hours of entertainment programs in a sample week and monitored specific acts of violence. The results indicated that some violence was contained in 70 percent of the programs! The violence could be categorized into three types: - Violence for its own sake - Overtly graphic views of brutality and human suffering - The portrayal of anti-social behavior Later studies found that even shows specifically geared towards children have violence in them. Cartoons averaged eight episodes of violence a show. The Effect of Television Violence on Children What effect does television have? Television acts as a cross-cultural influence cutting across nationalities and class. It gives people with different values and background common information. Because of the immediacy of the message, it is often seen as another member of the family. What a person sees in terms of images is bound to have an impact on their beliefs and attitudes. Concern about violence on television began in the earliest days of the medium in the late 1940's. Killings and violence were staples of the early television shows, which featured cowboys and Indians, cops and robbers, detectives and murders.

Heart of Darkness/Blood Diamond

Greed is the Root of All Evil Greed exists at the centre of evil on not only an individual level, but also that of a communal and global level. Contextually there is a superficial alteration in the stimulus (Ivory vs. diamond) for greed and of global awareness towards the issue, although in the century that separates Joseph Conrad’s exploration of colonial regime in his novella Heart of Darkness and Edward Zwick’s post-colonial film Blood Diamond, the values driving the major characters and factions from the different texts are comparably similar.In both texts, there are individuals showcasing major facets motivated by greed, obsessed with the stimulus that is presented in either century. In Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, the character ‘Kurtz’ is primarily stimulated by greed. His obsession with ivory was at an extreme where main character ‘Marlow’ refers to his physical appearance as â€Å"like a ball- an ivory ball† and as having a n â€Å"ivory face. † These respective simile and metaphors encapsulate how Kurtz had become gripped by ivory to the point where it was taking over his very being.This description that Kurtz is placed in is carried through to his dying moments where â€Å"The brown current ran swiftly out of the Heart of Darkness-Kurtz’s life was running swiftly, too†¦Ã¢â‚¬  This indirect juxtaposition links the ideas of Kurtz’s life with the Heart of Darkness, not being a physical location, but an internalised nature representing Kurtz. These links of the rapacious Kurtz to a being of pure immorality is an insight into the overtaken existence of greed within individuals of evil.In similarity, is ‘Colonel Coetzee’ from Zwick’s Blood Diamond. This individual has a lust for wealth, one so overbearing that it blinds him from the fact that he destroys masses of lives to achieve his personal benefit. A scene that best represents this mindless mass murder fo r a cause that results in selfish profit is the Colonel’s order from the helicopter, â€Å"I don’t give a damn who’s down there, kill them all! † A low angle close up shot of the centre framed helicopter is used, presenting it as an overpowering, menacing presence.The line itself poses an emphasis on the Colonel’s voracious motives, suggesting he would kill his friend, and main character ‘Danny Archer’, if it means his war is won and his seldom benefits are received. There is considered intertextuality between this quote and that of Kurtz from Heart of Darkness. At the complete loss of morality from Kurtz, a quote marks this points â€Å"Exterminate all the brutes. † These quotes juxtapose the two characters from the individual texts together and with it, their greedy purposes and malevolent natures, proving that the greed of an individual is the root of their co-existing evil.Greed driven corruption is also existential on a com munal level, both in Heart of Darkness and Blood Diamond. In Heart of Darkness, the Company is the centre of trade in the Congo, a seemingly legitimate industry, although with hidden voracious motives. â€Å"She talked about weaning those ignorant millions from their horrid ways-I ventured to hint that the Company was run for profit. † This understatement made by Marlow expresses the Company’s care, or lack of, for the natives of the Congo, but in fact they only care to exploit the natural resources.We are consistently hinted that their work isn’t â€Å"out there in the luminous estuary† but â€Å"within the brooding gloom. † These binary opposites are repeatedly used in the novella to separate the ideas of light and dark with good and evil respectively, an extreme use of irony that Conrad persists with throughout the book. This mindless exploitation is an example of how greed can negatively affect a community. The communal effects of evil driven b y rapacity in Blood Diamond, is displayed through the actions of the R. U.F, the Revolutionary United Front. Their turning of native children into child soldiers and other locals into slave labourers, marks their negligence to human life so that they can gain wealth from the diamond trade. A heavily symbolistic scene in the film is the celebration following the overtake of Freetown in Sierra Leonne by the R. U. F. The loud, scratchy music accompanying the low key lighting in contrast to the bright blurred flames creates a sense of chaos and lack of morality, emphasised by the fast cuts and camera movement.The chiaroscuro lighting on the character’s faces and the silhouettes juxtaposed to the bright fiery background symbolises their consummation by darkness. Several presentations of immoral acts are shown, dead bodies being strung, children consuming alcohol and drugs and the destruction of property, linking to the classical allusion of Dante’s Inferno, exemplifying poi ntless suffering and destruction. This, among other scenes, symbolises the complete carelessness for human life in the voracious scramble for Africa’s resources.Although in the century that separates the two texts, awareness has grown dramatically, the global scale of corruption due to acts of greed are present in both texts. In Heart of Darkness, the novella ends back aboard the boat with Marlow and his crew as they are â€Å"lead into the heart of an immense darkness. † The physical connotations of this quote is that the effects can be seen on the other side of the world in England, although ironically the Heart of Darkness doesn’t lie in both the Congo and the Thames but man himself, whose actions have a global effect; the actions of Kurtz. Upon the whole, the trade will suffer. I don’t deny there is a remarkable quantity of ivory-mostly fossil†¦Ã¢â‚¬  This quote demonstrates the global effect that Kurtz’s actions undertake, making a histo rical allusion to the fossil ivory that ended up in Siberia. This demonstrates the global effects that branches out from the corrupt actions of a greedy soul. In contrast, the global awareness to the situation in Blood Diamond was comparably increased to that of the nineteenth century, although the global effects of gluttony driven evil were evidently more severe. The third world is not a world apart† is an ironic statement represented by the heavily juxtaposed scenes between a G8 conference and the diamond fields of Sierra Leonne. The high key lighting of the conference opposed to the overcast lighting of the diamond fields along with the respective modern colour scheme and the dirty, unappealing colour scheme is contrasted with quick scene cuts to juxtapose the sheer difference between the two ‘separate worlds. ’ Although these two locations seem so distant, the effects are carried through from one to the other.The conflict diamonds reach the stores of the first world but â€Å"are not ours to steal in the name of comfort, corporations, and consumerism. † This captures the global effects that man’s greed enfolds, taking advantage of the actions of corruption for our own consumerism, or greed. So in the century that separates Joseph Conrad’s exploration of colonial regime in his novella Heart of Darkness and Edward Zwick’s post-colonial film Blood Diamond, there is sufficient evidence to remark that greed is the root of all evil in man, the effects spanning not only the heart of man but within its community and on a global scale.

Performance Management - 1106 Words

Performance Management and Organizational Goals Jeanette Lashley Dr. Marie Line Germain, Ph. D. HRM 538 Performance Management April 28, 2013 Using the concepts of performance management and organizational goals, develop an argument regarding the relationship between the two (2) concepts. Be sure to include discussion regarding the impact of one to another and the challenges presented. Organizational goals are the overall objectives, purpose and mission established by the leaders/owners of a business. These goals are typically focusing on the long range operational goals of the company. These goals should and generally are communicated to each employee at the beginning of their employment with the company. By clearly†¦show more content†¦As a college recruiter at a for profit school, customer service skills and a strong work ethic are two of the major skills needed to be successful. It is unfortunately difficult to find employees who are willing to put in the hours and time needed to make phone calls, schedule appointments, interview and give tours to potential students. As a supervisor, I find that so many t imes instead of being on the phone or doing what is needed to get students in, recruiters are on Facebook, Pinterest and taking care of personal activities instead of doing work related duties. I have even come across employees playing games on their cell phones and work computers instead of working. I was raised and taught that if you are at work, you are to be involved in duties related to your job and to the success of the organization you work for. I have found that this thought is no longer the norm, and this is disheartening. This has indeed become an issue when finding the number of recruiters needed to make our department and school as successful as it should be. Our campus was rated top campus in 2011, out of 132 campuses across the nation, this was not the case in 2012 and we are currently not in that position here in 2013. In order to make budget and continue to grow, Human Resources is having to dig even deeper to find employees who not just give lip service in the interviews, but actually come out of training running to beShow MoreRelatedPerformance Management Performance Management Performance Management2240 Words   |  9 PagesTo look into the performance measures for a hospital and also an electrical goods retailer. From this I will look into a few companies of each and write what sort of performance measures they use and if their management priorities. Management Coursework Performance Management For this assignment I have been assigned to look into the performance measures for a hospital and also an electrical goods retailer. 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