An Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream Essay Example for Free

An Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream Essay Renaissance humanists believed that if you want to build a moral society, you must begin with the facts of human nature. Basically, this means that their beliefs are rooted on what can be seen, touched, and heard. Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream crossed the boundaries of humanism and Shakespeare actually put in the play elements which humanists believe did not exist. For humanists, â€Å"Nature itself constitutes the sum total of reality, that matter and not mind is the foundation-stuff of the universe, and that supernatural entities simply do not exist. † (Lamont 145). This follows naturally that people then were with little, if at all, imaginative, and creative tendency. They were not keen to elements in literature such as fairies, or other supernatural beings; elements which are present in Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In the century preceding Shakespeare, â€Å"humanist† plays were often considered dull and moralistic, as they were often in didactic form. Also, another attitude of Humanism towards the universe â€Å"like its judgment as to the nature and destiny of man, is grounded on solid scientific fact.† (Lamont 145). They believed that man was the cream of the crop of God’s creation, and that the earth and everything that revolves around it are the center of the universe. Again, it’s not difficult to imagine that consequently, this philosophy not only affects the scientific aspect of the era, but also the culture, including literature and other arts. People also took a belief in the interconnectedness of things, for example a physician administering a medicine according to the position of the planets. But A Midsummer Night’s Dream, written sometime in the late 1500s seemed to have crossed boundaries. First of all, there are supernatural elements in the play which sort of went against the Humanist philosophy about supernatural entities not existing. Actually, the play is nothing short of magical. Not only do the mortals in the play associated with fairies, but the plot is manipulated by Puck, a hobgoblin. Bottom, on the other hand symbolizes a culture that survived from the Middle Ages until the Elizabethan times wherein â€Å"reign donkeys dressed up as bishops or dogs with Hosts in their teeth would appear in court masques.† (Bloom 73).   Ã¢â‚¬Å"Spirits and fairies cannot be represented, they cannot even be painted,   Ã¢â‚¬â€they can only be believed.† (Bloom 87). Apparently, this is not in line with Humanist philosophy, and this is what Shakespeare’s play brought people to believe also after the play’s publication. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is â€Å"Shakespeares first period of experiment with comic form.† (Bloom 7). Compared to his tragedies, this comedy not only was a trailblazer for rediscovery of classical literature, it also â€Å"knits together a number of different historical times and places, literary traditions, character types, and modes of thought.† (Bloom 7). Humanists also believed that â€Å"whatever he does man is a living unity of body and personality, an inter-functioning oneness of mental, emotional and physical qualities.† (Lamont 274). Apparently, in the play, when Puck put the magical love juice in the eyes of Demetrius, Lysander, and Titania, this premise is not evident anymore, as they were not in their â€Å"right minds† when pursuing different love interests. However, while Shakespeare challenged Humanism through his play, he also showed his influences through the characters, the plot and the sub-plot. Italian Renaissance was an event which influenced Shakespeare in a lot of his works, but Italian Renaissance differs slightly from the English Renaissance, aside from the fact that it preceded the English Renaissance. Italian Renaissance was centered more on visual arts but sonnets also bloomed through Petrarch and Boccaccio. By the time Italian Renaissance was coming to an end and English Renaissance was blooming, writers were then rediscovering the classical literatures from the Italian Renaissance and picked up the sonnets. Shakespeare apparently was one of those writers. Shakespeare’s influences with regard to some elements in the play come from Italian artists like the poet Ovid and the author Apulieus, which show Shakespeare’s rediscovery of the classical literature coming from the Italian Renaissance. For example, the story of Pyramus and Thisbe is told in Ovids Metamorphoses and the transformation of Bottom into an ass is descended from Apuleius The Golden Ass. Elements such as these show how vast Shakespeare’s influences are, and how experimental the play has become compared to his previous tragedies in terms of the characters and the plot.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   I can say that through Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream, people looked at themselves differently, and appreciated more the beauty of the arts. Before Shakespeare, people seemed stuck-up and were conformed to being moralized by their literature. While it was necessary at that time, change is really inevitable. And through Shakespeare’s experimentation in the said comedy, different discoveries and rediscoveries enabled people to try out new things. Throughout the Renaissance, there was a significant change in the way people looked at the interconnectedness of things. Writers and thinkers questioned the connections, while retaining a sense of their beauty as symbols. A major change which this era experienced is that people interpreted the correspondences of things from literal to symbolic, and appreciated more the beauty of the symbols. Works Cited: Bloom, Harold, ed. William Shakespeares a Midsummer Nights Dream. New York: Chelsea House, 1987 Lamont, Corliss. Humanism as a Philosophy. New York: Philosophical Library, 1949. A Midsummer Nights Dream. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.

Ernest Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast Essay -- Ernest Hemingway A Moveab

Ernest Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast In Ernest Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast he tells the tale of his early career and life in Paris. He tells of his meetings with famous writers, poets, and the times that they had. He spoke especially of Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, and Ezra Pound. He did have a tendency to portray them a little bit unfairly. He was a little critical of them because of the fact that he shared so much time with them. Usually when people spend lots of time with each other they begin to be annoyed by their habits.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The first of the authors he spoke of was Gertrude Stein. He portrayed her as a talkative, outgoing, and somewhat overbearing person. She was very critical about writing. She said that she really liked most of his writing, but he could tell she didn’t understand his idea of prose. She was kind of uppity and would talk about paintings and art a lot. She told him that you could do one of two things. Either buy nice clothes, or buy nice paintings. She herself opted for the paintings. All in all he liked her and enjoyed her company, but he grew apart from her after a while.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The second writer he talked about was Ezra Pound. He begins his chapter on Ezra Pound by saying that he â€Å"was always a good friend and he was always doing things for people';. He also said that Ezra was a kinder and more Christian person with people than Ernest was. He was very impressed by how Ezra could write so perfectly and hit things just right. He was ve...

South Africa During and After Apartheid

South Africa is a land blessed with natural resources including fertile lands, metals and mineral resources such as platinum, gold and diamonds. The climate is mild which is ideal for land activities.The richness and potential of this country attracted Dutch and English in the seventeenth century. South Africa has one of the unique histories in the world. It is evident how colonial racism emanated from Europe. The whites invested power and politics which is still manifested today.In the seventeenth century, South Africa was colonized by English and Dutch. Boers and Afrikaners were the English domination of the Dutch descendants. The discovery of diamond and other mineral resources in 1900 motivated the English invasion as a result of Boer War. Racial discrimination in Africa started with the enactment of Apartheid laws in 1948.Apartheid was invented when an uneasy power- sharing between the Boers and Afrikaners held sway until 1940’s. Since Afrikaner National Party was able to gain strong majority, they established Apartheid as a means to reinforce their control over the social and economic system. Initially, the objective of the apartheid was to maintain white domination and leadership while extending racial separation (Chokshi, Carter, Gupta, Martin and Robert, 1995).The term Apartheid is from the African word for â€Å"apartness† was actually coined in the 1930’s and later used as a political slogan of the National party. The social and political custom of Apartheid was materialized under law after the primarily Afrikaner Nationalists came to power in 1948 (â€Å"Apartheid†).When Apartheid was institutionalized, racial discrimination started. Apartheid, as racism made law, consisted of numerous laws that denied basic human rights and political rights for black people. They were obviously exploited and their lives were segregated with the white people.People of mixed race like Asians and Coloureds were also exploited and terrorize.    It was a system dictated in the minutest detail as to how and where the large black majority would work, live and dies (â€Å"Human Rights, Historical images of Apartheid in South Africa†).The ultimate goal of Apartheid was to establish â€Å"racial separation legally† and to maintain the guarantee of white authority. The restrictions formulated by the Apartheid laws and effects placed the black people in the difficulties regarding land issues, living areas, jobs, personal relationship, political rights, constitutional and human rights.The Group Acts of 1950 divided the lands in which blacks and whites resided into distinct residential zones. The best urban, agricultural and industrial areas were expectedly given to whites while blacks were given only some distinct areas in South Africa. Blacks were not allowed to live and occupy areas that were named as â€Å"white zones†.Even marriage and relationships were so extensive and encompassing for blacks. It is illegal and against the law to marry a person of different race. Couples and families were strictly required by law to obtain state permission before they could live together and authorities had given any right to refuse such permission.Every black South African has their own passbook issued by the government that will determine where they could live and work which they have to carry every now and then.   In terms of Education, the Bantu Education Act of 1953 was instituted to provide black pupils with different way of learning than white students. Black students were given different orientation, expectations and future goalsWorks Cited:Chokshi, Monal., Carter, Cale., Gupta, Deepak., Martin, Tove and Robert Allen. 1995 â€Å"The history of Apartheid in South Africa†. Stanford Universityhttp://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~cale/cs201/apartheid.ethics.html  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Africa-Apartheid†Africana, The Encyclopedia of the African and African American   Experience.http://www .africanaencyclopedia.com/selections.htmlâ€Å"Human Rigths, Historical images of Apartheid in South Africa†. United Nations 2008 http://www.un.org/  Spindle, Tim., Shafer, Rachel., Joliff, Kevin.,Henderson., Sarah.,Bradford, Stephanie   and David Weigman.†Laws and Effects of Apartheid†http://home.snu.edu/~dwilliam/f97projects/apartheid/Document5.htmlâ€Å"Apartheid, South Africa†.Wander the Planethttp://www.wandertheplanet.net/SouthAfrica/apartheid.htm

Bullying Those with Special Needs and Disabilities Essay

Bullying is mean and mean stinks. Bullying, however, goes well beyond mean. The term is commonly defined as the use of force or coercion to abuse or intimidate others. In order to be considered bullying, the behavior must be aggressive and include an intentional act to hurt or harm someone, an imbalance of power and repetition† (Lohmann). However defined, bullying is ugly and hurtful and cruel and should be taken very seriously. Children with disabilities are at an even greater risk of being bullied, and it is not only ugly, hurtful and cruel, it is against the law and all steps necessary to eliminate bullying in this population ought to be taken. Bullying occurs in many different ways. Physical abuse can include hitting, kicking,†¦show more content†¦In 1999, the topic of bullying came to the forefront when two students at Columbine High School in Colorado killed twelve classmates and a teacher. The shooters had allegedly been bullied in school for years. Victims of bullying are usually those who stand apart from those that are considered â€Å"normal.† They are often those students who look different, speak different, and act different from the â€Å"normal† kids. Special needs students, those with developmental, learning and intellectual disabilities, are not considered â€Å"normal† and are oftentimes the targets. One study claims that almost 75% of special education students report being bullied. The members of this vulnerable group is vast, and includes, for example, children with ADHD, children with physical disabilities like cerebral palsy and muscular dystrophy, children who stutter, children that are on the autism spectrum, and children with learning disabilities. Students with disabilities and special needs are more likely to face peer rejection. They are at an increased risk of being bullied because of their differences and in part due to their vulnerability and challenges relating in social situations. Most students with disabilities are already addressing challenges in the classroom as a result of their disability. Bullied disabled students have to deal with verbal, physical and/or emotional attacks whileShow MoreRelatedBullying in Schools Essay1512 Words   |  7 PagesBullying is not something that can just be addressed inside one teachers classroom, it requires a comprehensive community effort to effectively stop bullying and the tolerance of bullying. Research shows only 4% of teachers intervene in a situation where a student is being bullied yet 50-75% of students with special needs are the main targets of bullying. These percentages do not add up. With more adult involvement and awareness of what to look for with students educators possess the power to notRead MoreBullying Interventions That Support Exceptional Education Students914 Words   |  4 Pagesexist in the school system today is bullying. This type of misbehavior can cause the school climate to be unconducive to learning. 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