The Symbols In The Awakening English Literature Essay

The Symbols In The Awakening English Literature Essay In Kate Chopins The Awakening, the underlying meaning is imparted to the reader through the use of explicit symbolism. The major role of the use of symbolism in the novel is to attempt to draw a link between the world that Edna knows and her several awakenings and make that link more powerful and compelling. Analyzed in this essay are three prominent symbols of interest which are birds, the ocean and the houses Edna resides in. The avian allusions and symbols that are present throughout the story serve to represent the ability to fly and the freedom it enables. The references to oceans and seas within the novel are symbolic of freedom and empowerment as it relates to Edna. Further houses allow the reader to observe the different transformations that Edna undergoes. The Awakening, written by Kate Chopin, is filled with numerous symbols and motifs that allow the reader to develop a deeper understanding of its message. The first symbol to be analyzed is the recurring sign of birds present throughout the novel. When birds appear in the novel they serve as a reflection of Ednas self, and her thoughts. The novel opens not with a main character speaking but with parrot, Allez vous-en! Allez vous-en! Sapristi! (pp. 3). This declaration from the bird translates to Go away! Go away! For heavens sake! It can be inferred that these lines are representative of the thoughts that are passing through Ednas mind for much of the novel. Much like the parrot which could speak a little Spanish, and also a language which nobody understood, (pp. 3) Edna is unable to communicate her true desires and her true feelings to anyone else because they could not understand. Edna wishes to abandon her role as a compliant wife, and acquiescent mother that the Creole society demands she be. Further the bird discussed above is caged symbolizing the entrapment of Edna by society and its expectations for females of that era. Perhaps the only other character in the novel that understands Edna is Mademoiselle Reisz, who stirs Ednas soul with music, and gives advice to her. Edna informs Arobin that Mademoiselle Reisz: Put her arms around me and felt my shoulder blades, to see if my wings were strong, she said, The bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings. It is a sad spectacle to see the weaklings bruised, exhausted, fluttering back to earth. (pp. 103) It appears that Reisz knows beforehand that Edna will attempt to fly and expresses an uncertainty as to whether or not Edna is strong enough to succeed. Mademoiselle Reisz is warning Edna in this passage that her flight may ultimately end in failure but Edna does not receive this message for she is not thinking of any extraordinary flights. I only half comprehend her. Reisz is attempting to help her with this flight by inferring that she is perhaps not strong enough, and may fail but it falls on deaf ears as Edna does not comprehend what Reisz is trying to do. The reader encounters birds towards the conclusion of the novel during a pivotal moment in Ednas life, All along the white beach, up and down, there was no living thing in sight. A bird with a broken wing was beating the air above, reeling, fluttering, circling disabled down, down to the water. (pp. 113) Edna observes this as she is about to walk into the ocean and go through her final awakening. This bird with a broken wing em bodies Edna representing that she, much like the bird, is unable to fly away and escape from the things that confine her. Further it also illustrates that Edna is already dead before she enters the water like the bird that is doomed to death. The second symbol to be analyzed is the frequent appearance of the ocean/sea. Of all the symbols in the novel, the ocean appears most regularly. Edna consistently connects the ocean with a certain personal free will even when she is a child, [a meadow] seemed as big as the oceanà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦she threw out her arms as if swimming when she walked. (pp. 21) Clearly Edna feels freedom and excitement in the above passage illustrated through the reference to the wide open ocean. Further, it is in the ocean located off from the Grand Isle where we observe on of Ednas awakenings. Before this awakening she has already learned how to swim, and when she attempts to swim out into the ocean for the first time a certain metamorphosis occurs, A feeling of exultation overtook herShe grew daring and reckless, overestimating her strength. She wanted to swim far out, where no woman has swum before. (pp. 37) This scene is critically important in the progression of the novel because with her discovery o f her ability to swim she also realizes that her life is an empty shell. Perhaps this realization serves to assist her in the changes that she will encounter later in the novel. But there is an aspect of foreshadowment in the line she grew daring and reckless, overestimating her strength. Though swimming in the ocean gives her many positive feelings of freedom she has not the strength to swim for longer periods of time and as a result will drown. Her desire to swim far out, where no woman has swum before is a noble desire to escape from her entrapment due to Creole society, and she somewhat accomplishes this wish but ultimately fails with her demise. The ocean in the novel allows Edna some of the feelings of freedom, but it also serves as an instrument of her demise; Exhaustion was pressing upon and over possessing her. Good-bye, because I love you à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ He did not know; he did not understand. He would never understand à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ it was too late; the shore was far beh ind her, and her strength was gone. (pp. 116) Edna believes that the ocean allows her to express herself and escape from the power that is exenterated over her by society. But she realizes that no matter what she attempts to do she will always be trapped by society, for she lacks the ability to change the way her life is. After coming to this realization she decides that she will retire where she feels the most free and away from being influenced; into the ocean. The third and final symbol to be analyzed in this paper is the dynamic symbolism of the houses that Edna resides in. These houses are a direct reflection of the numerous mental and emotional states that Edna experiences throughout her journey. The cottages that are located on the Grand Isle have several symbolic meanings. They serve as separate cages for Edna and also are a reflection of the families that reside within them. Further, all of the cottages at places like this are nearly identical suggesting that all families that dwell in them are identical according to the traditions of the Creole society. Perhaps the most iconic and important house that is encountered during the novel is Ednas pigeon-house. The imagery relating to this house instantly gives the reader insight into why this house is so important to Edna, In a little four-room house around the corner. It looks so cozy, so inviting and restful. (pp. 79) This pigeon house serves to provide Edna with the comfort and indepe ndence that her old house with her husband never provided. Her freedom she experiences allows her to realize how much control she can have over her life, she had resolved never again to belong to another than herself. (pp. 80) This can be considered one of her many awakenings for she realizes that she does not need a man in order to fulfill and complete her life. It is also important to note the contrast from her previous feelings to the new feelings and abilities that arise after Edna moves into the pigeon house; before when she kisses Arobin in the house of her husband she has feelings of reproach looking at her from the external things around her which he had provided for her external existence. (pp. 84) Yet when she engages with Arobin at her new pigeon-house she experiences no feelings of reproach or regret. This illustrates how she is now more free in this house than she has been in any other setting. There are many symbols in the novel The Awakening, and in this essay three of the most prominent have been examined leading us to a huge conclusion. Clearly it is necessary in this novel, and most others to analyze and apply the occurrences and meanings behind symbols scattered throughout the work. Birds serve as an allusion to Edna herself and as an instrument of foreshadowment in regards to her own demise. The ocean is used numerous times throughout the novel as a source of freedom and self expression that allow Edna a release from everything going on in her life. The last symbol was the many houses that Edna was in during the novel that were representative of her current feelings and were a reflection of her. Without the analysis and acknowledgment of these symbols the story becomes just a simple piece of writing and lacks significant deeper meanings.

By The Time Macbeth Murders Duncan He Has Already Lost The Battle For His Soul Essay

Introduction ‘By the time Macbeth murders Duncan he has already lost the battle for his soul’. In this essay I am going to discuss this statement and examine the factors that lead to his decision to kill the king. I shall divide the essay into 3 main parts, these are; 1. The battle for his soul 2. The factors which lead Macbeth to kill the king 3. Conclusion The Battle For His Soul This play was written for James 1 in 1606. Shakespeare’s children were now deceased and this had put him into a mood where he would only write tragic plays instead of the usual comedies. Shakespeare included the theme of witches for James 1 as he was into witchcraft and had even wrote a book about it. The target audience of Macbeth would have been a very superstitious Christian crowd. The King was believed to have been put on the throne by God, and to kill the King would be a great sin. The belief in the existence and power of witches was widely believed in Shakespeare’s day. The practice of witchcraft was seen to subvert the established order of religion and society, trying to corrupt people and making them sin against God. Witch hunting was a respectable, moral, and highly intellectual pursuit through much of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries. If someone lost their soul, they would be lost to God and would be condemned to hell for eternity. Here is a definition of a soul taken from the oxford dictionary; 1. A person’s soul is the spiritual part of them that is supposed to continue after their body is dead. 2. Somebody’s mind, character, thoughts or feelings. From the beginning of the play, Macbeth undergoes a complete change in character – from a virtuous nobleman into a monster. He has a tragic weakness – ambition – which, when released, draws him into a web of evil and corruption that finally leaves him with none of the noble human qualities he possessed at the beginning of the play. Before being transformed into a murderous monster, Macbeth is a popular noble and also a good friend with the King. This is shown when Duncan calls him his ‘worthiest cousin’. He shows great loyalty and devotion to both King Duncan and his country in his fight against the Thane of Cawdor. Duncan is grateful for this. He says; ‘I have begun to plant thee and will labour / To make thee full of growing.’ He also fights with great courage, which he draws from knowing that he serves a good and virtuous King. This is proved when he says; ‘Duncan / Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been / So clear in his great office, that his virtues / Will plead like angels.’ He is modest when confronted with his achievements, in contrast to the arrogance that he displays after becoming king. He loves Lady Macbeth, an emotion he will eventually lose by the end of the play. Most of all, he fears what his greed and ambition can lead him to become, and he feels dubious about acting on them. When he kills the King he does it in cold blood, which shows his change after the incident with the witches. Macbeth doesn’t want to kill the King but is convinced by Lady Macbeth that only good things will come from it. But just after he does kill the King, guilt overcomes him and he is left regretting the whole idea. This shows that he still wants God’s blessing. Also he says; ‘But wherefore could I not pronounce ‘Amen’? / I had most need of the blessing and ‘Amen’ / Stuck in my throat.’ At that time it was believed that if you could not say ‘Amen’, God would not bless you and you were doomed to eternal damnation. Ultimately he regrets killing the King. Here are some quotes that help to solidify this; ‘I had most need of blessing’ ‘I am afraid to think what I have done’ ‘To know my deed, ’twere best not know myself’ ‘Wake Duncan with thy knocking: I would thou couldst’ You should be thinking the obvious question: Why does Macbeth decide that he has to kill the King to become King? And, anyway, why is he not sufficiently happy with the high social position he occupies and the honoured status he has acquired among his peers? There is a very simplistic answer to this, and that is to say he is too inpatient and too ambitious. Both of these are sins and therefore Macbeth must be punished for them. As he believes that he is damned for eternity this breaks him down until he doesn’t care or feel anymore. Banquo was also present when the witches’ predictions were made which makes Macbeth insecure. There are two reasons for this; 1. Banquo’s children will become Kings and †¦ 2. †¦Banquo may suspect that Macbeth murdered Duncan. Macbeth is now in too deep to be repented for his sins and he knows this. To maintain his Kingship he decides to hire murderers to kill Banquo and his son, Fleance. This takes Macbeth beyond the murder of Duncan; it demonstrates that he will spare no one – not even a close friend – to secure his illegitimate kingship. He has turned his back on his closest companion and doesn’t feel any guilt. This suggests that he has now become just as evil as the witches. Shortly after the murder of Banquo, the dead noble appears at Macbeth’s feast. The terror of seeing Banquo’s ghost makes Macbeth more paranoid and insecure than ever, which leads him to seek answers from the three Witches; ‘And betimes I will – to the weird sisters. / More shall they speak. For no I am bent to know / By the worst means, the worst †¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ This suggests that he still wants more and is still unhappy. He has tasted blood and now he wants more. He believes that he will lose his position as King unless he continues to kill. Eventually he has the blood of Duncan, Banquo, the two servants, Lady Macduff and her children on his hands. Blood is a very realistic image that helps people to relate blood and evil together. The Factors Which Lead Macbeth To Kill The King The witches play a vital role in Macbeth’s thinking about his own life, both before and after the murder of Duncan. Banquo and Macbeth recognize them as something supernatural, part of the landscape but not fully human inhabitants of it. They have malicious intentions and prophetic powers and yet they are not active agents. When I say active agents I mean that they don’t do anything other than talk and offer ‘answers’. They have no power to compel. The most obvious interpretation of the witches is to see them as manifestations of evil in the world. They exist to tempt and torment people, to challenge their faith in themselves and their society. Act 1 scene 3 suggests that the witches have power but not enough to kill. This is shown when they are talking among themselves about a woman who would not give one of the witches a chestnut. The witch tells her sisters that she will make the winds blow strongly against her husbands ship. They work on Macbeth by equivocation, that is, by ambiguous promises of some future state. These promises come true, but not in the way that the victim originally believed. Macbeth takes his first step toward losing his soul when he is confronted with the knowledge that he will be king. The witches tell him; ‘All hail, Macbeth! that shalt be King thereafter!’ When they say this he makes the mistake of letting his ambition overrule his judgment. If his judgment had remained intact in the face of the witches’ powerful prophecy, he certainly would have decided not to let his actions be dictated by a prophecy given to him by three strange witches who evade most of the questions he asks. The witches, appeal to what Macbeth wants to believe. They don’t make him believe it and they do not tell him what to do in order to achieve what they prophesise. They say nothing about killing Duncan (or anyone else). In that sense, they cannot be the origin of the idea of the murder. They may be appealing to that idea, but they do not create it. The witches are said to be able to take possession of people and make them do wrong. This, seeing visions and going into trances are signs of this. The later two of these are shown, the second when Macbeth sees the ghostly dagger before he kills Duncan and the third, when he is described as ‘rapt’. These witches exist as constant reminders of the potential for evil in the human imagination. They are ineluctably part of the natural world, there to seduce anyone who, like Macbeth, lets his imagination flirt with evil possibilities. They have no particular abode and might pop up anywhere, momentarily, ready to incite an eternal desire for evil in the human imagination, the evil which arises from a desire to violate our fellow human beings in order to shape the world to our own deep emotional needs. Guilt plays a strong role in motivating Macbeth, and causes Lady Macbeth to go insane, until she commits suicide. Throughout the story, there are many different types of guilty feelings that play a role in Macbeth’s fatal decisions and bring Lady Macbeth to commit suicide. Although there are many instances that show the power guilt has played on the main characters, there are three examples that show this the best. One is, just after the murder of King, Duncan. Guilt overcomes Macbeth where he can no longer think straight. A second example is soon after that, where all the guilt Macbeth feels at first, changes into hate after he decides that Banquo must be killed as well. The last example is just about at the end of the play, when we see Lady Macbeth sleepwalking, and then later committing suicide; this all because of the burden of her guilt. All of these examples build the proof that in this play, guilt plays a very large role in the characters’ lives. Perhaps one of the strongest evidences that show guilt, is how it affected Lady Macbeth. Act 5 begins by re-entering Lady Macbeth; this time though, she is not at all the woman we were first introduced to. It begins with a discussion between a doctor and a servant about the failing health of the lady herself. Lady Macbeth enters sleepwalking. She starts to rub her arms, in a washing motion and says; ‘Out damned spot! Out, I say!’ She also says; ‘†¦Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?’ The word blood, is really a image that we can use for the enormous guilt she feels and her action, in trying to get rid of the guilt by ‘washing’ and rubbing it away. In the second quote, the ‘old man’ represents, King Duncan. Her sleepwalking continues as she talks about the death of Lady Macduff; ‘The thane of Fife had a wife. Where is she now? / What, will these hands ne’er be clean?’ After the continuous rubbing motion, Lady Macbeth cries out; ‘Here’s the smell of blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.’ She realises that nothing could ever get rid of the smell of the blood and the guilt caused by all the murders committed by Macbeth. It’s also shown here that she feels fully responsible for every person killed by her husband. Just several scenes later, Lady Macbeth commits suicide. The reason was just a build up of all the guilt. Another big influence on Macbeth is Lady Macbeth. She puts considerable pressure on Macbeth and he is eventually persuaded to commit the murder of King Duncan. Driven by Lady Macbeth, he then orders the assassination of Banquo and Fleance and of Lady Macduff and her son. The attempted murders of Fleance and Lady Macbeth’s son make it clear that Macbeth has no problems about killing the innocent. Being so deeply immersed in murder and death takes away his ability to feel; when Lady Macbeth dies, he reacts only by musing that; ‘She should have died hereafter’. One of the chief functions of Lady Macbeth in the early part of the play is to keep the vision of Kingship alive within Macbeth by any means at her disposal. She taunts him to act on his desires. What she is saying, in effect, is that he must not let his conscience stand in the way of his desires. Part of her tactics with Macbeth is to urge him to be more of a man. She identifies him as something unmanly. Lady Macbeth should not be blamed for the actions of Macbeth. He freely chooses to kill Duncan in response to his own deepest desires. Neither his wife nor the witches compel him to do what he does, and he is free at any time to refuse to carry out the murder or, having carried it out, to seek out various courses of new action. But his decision to carry out the deed is marked by his, perhaps evil mind. In a way, Macbeth is never entirely satisfied with what he needs to do to become king or what he really wants to do. After the murder of Duncan Lady Macbeth has thought that a little water and a few lies will clear them, but she cannot evade the psychological consequences of what she has encouraged Macbeth to do. She lacks his will power, his determination to continue, and his ability to withstand the inner torment. And so as he becomes more and more determined to keep killing his way to some final solution, she falls apart. This begins with her fainting spell as soon as the news of Duncan’s death becomes public, continues in her anxious fussing before and after the banquet scene, reaches its clearest expression in her sleepwalking, and concludes in her suicide. This lack of inner will to confront the consequences of her and Macbeth’s actions makes her story one without the tragic significance of her husband’s. The phrase ‘lack of inner will’ in the last paragraph is not meant to indicate some limitation in Lady Macbeth. She had thought that she could unsex herself, push away any of her deepest feelings about the love of others, and become a pure agent of destruction. So long as the murders have not started, she plays that role with great rhetorical effectiveness (especially in her taunts about Macbeth’s manhood). In a way her reference to Duncan looking like her father does take on an important resonance. What’s particularly noticeable, too, is the way in which, following the murder of Duncan, their relationship becomes divided. We have every reason to believe that before Duncan’s murder, they are very close. Certainly Macbeth shares all his thoughts and feelings with her, and she speaks to him about what her deepest thoughts are even if it is to defy Gods decision. They are at first a very close and loving couple but as more people are being killed by Macbeth (who mostly keeps them to himself and doesn’t involve Lady Macbeth) Lady Macbeth is falling apart and being unable to cope with the guilt she commits suicide.

Bribery †the Dilemma - 1696 Words

Everyday U.S. managers in developing countries face the dilemma of furthering their business concerns in countries such as India, China, Russia and Mexico where bribery is commonplace while at the same time trying to ensure that they do not violate their companies code of conduct or worse the government’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). It is a fine line they walk. This paper will help those managers by explaining what bribery is, why it is thought to be an issue, show recently where companies have bribed and been caught as well as offer suggestions that will enable the U.S. manager in Mexico to accomplish what bribery accomplishes but is not unethical or illegal or in violation of a company policy that prohibits bribery. Bribery†¦show more content†¦As noted, corruption is prevalent in these markets, but bribery is not necessarily perceived as a serious crime in some places. It is just the way of doing business and it has enabled companies to expand globally regardless of the means. For those managers doing business in Mexico they should understand that the bulk of retailers pay bribes and Mexican firms are the third most likely to have to pay bribes, right after Russian and Chinese ones. (Josh, 2012) â€Å"La Mordida† translates to â€Å"the bite† which in Mexico is the term used for a bribe. It is the customary and traditional way of getting things done. In Mexico to get things done and to keep projects moving forward it is normal to have to bribe a cop, judge or permit agent, it is a way of life instead of as in the U.S. where it is considered an aberration in the system. In Mexico almost all agencies of government: Treasury, immigration, customs, commerce commissions, police, judges, planning departments and even lawyers are used to receiving bribes for their services, it is the customary way of doing business. 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Deep Earthquakes Why They Happen

Deep earthquakes were discovered in the 1920s, but they remain a subject of contention today. The reason is simple: they arent supposed to happen. Yet they account for more than 20 percent of all earthquakes. Shallow earthquakes require solid rocks to occur, more specifically, cold, brittle rocks. Only these can store up elastic strain along a geologic fault, held in check by friction until the strain lets loose in a violent rupture. The Earth gets hotter by about 1 degree C with every 100 meters of depth on average. Combine that with high pressure underground and its clear that by about 50 kilometers down, on average the rocks should be too hot and squeezed too tight to crack and grind the way they do at the surface. Thus deep-focus quakes, those below 70 km, demand an explanation. Slabs and Deep Earthquakes Subduction gives us a way around this. As the lithospheric plates making up Earths outer shell interact, some are plunged downward into the underlying mantle. As they exit the plate-tectonic game they get a new name: slabs. At first, the slabs, rubbing against the overlying plate and bending under the stress, produce shallow-type subduction earthquakes. These are well explained. But as a slab goes deeper than 70 km, the shocks continue. Several factors are thought to help: The mantle is not homogeneous but rather is full of variety. Some parts remain brittle or cold for very long times. The cold slab can find something solid to push against, producing shallow-type quakes, quite a bit deeper than the averages suggest. Moreover, the bent slab may also unbend, repeating the deformation it felt earlier but in the opposite sense.Minerals in the slab begin to change under pressure. Metamorphosed basalt and gabbro in the slab changes to the blueschist mineral suite, which in turn changes into garnet-rich eclogite around 50 km depth. Water is released at each step in the process while the rocks become more compact and grow more brittle. This dehydration embrittlement strongly affects the stresses underground.Under growing pressure, serpentine minerals in the slab decompose into the minerals olivine and enstatite plus water. This is the reverse of the serpentine formation that happened when the plate was young. It is thought to be complete around 160 km depth.W ater can trigger localized melting in the slab. Melted rocks, like nearly all liquids, take up more space than solids, thus melting can break fractures even at great depths.Over a wide depth range averaging 410 km, olivine begins to change to a different crystal form identical to that of the mineral spinel. This is what mineralogists call a phase change rather than a chemical change; only the volume of the mineral is affected. Olivine-spinel changes again to a perovskite form at around 650 km. (These two depths mark the mantles transition zone.)Other notable phase changes include enstatite-to-ilmenite and garnet-to-perovskite at depths below 500 km. Thus there are plenty of candidates for the energy behind deep earthquakes at all depths between 70 and 700 km, perhaps too many. The roles of temperature and water are important at all depths as well, though not precisely known. As scientists say, the problem is still poorly constrained. Deep Earthquake Details There are a few more significant clues about deep-focus events. One is that the ruptures proceed very slowly, less than half the speed of shallow ruptures, and they seem to consist of patches or closely spaced subevents. Another is that they have few aftershocks, only one-tenth as many as shallow quakes do. They relieve more stress; that is, the stress drop is generally much larger for deep than shallow events. Until recently the consensus candidate for the energy of very deep quakes was the phase change from olivine to olivine-spinel or transformational faulting. The idea was that little lenses of olivine-spinel would form, gradually expand and eventually connect in a sheet. Olivine-spinel is softer than olivine, therefore the stress would find an avenue of sudden release along those sheets. Layers of melted rock might form to lubricate the action, similar to superfaults in the lithosphere, the shock might trigger more transformational faulting, and the quake would slowly grow. Then the great Bolivia deep earthquake of 9 June 1994 occurred, a magnitude 8.3 event at a depth of 636 km. Many workers thought that to be too much energy for the transformational faulting model to account for. Other tests have failed to confirm the model. Not all agree. Since then, deep-earthquake specialists have been trying new ideas, refining old ones, and having a ball.