Friday, February 28, 2020
Discuss some of the more cosmological traits of early Hebrew religion Essay
Discuss some of the more cosmological traits of early Hebrew religion - Essay Example They also believed in animistic worship, the worship of nature such as trees and other natural objects, eventually becoming anthropomorphic, that is god or gods took the human forms. In later Hebrew religion, Yahweh became a figure that transcends both human and material worlds. It is believed that individual tribes probably worshipped different gods, as there is no evidence of only one God being worshipped during that time. (2) Despite a few Babylonian texts that associate power with Maduk, Hebrew was the first religion to insist that their god was the only universal god. Judaism is known as one of the earliest monotheistic religions. It is believed that the Hebrew monotheism began with the introduction of Yahweh cult according to Exodus during the 1300-1200 BC in the migration to Egypt. It gave a concept of rule of law and also the concept that covenant that the god has a good relationship with the community of people (1) The Jews were also forbidden to idol worship or represent god in any sculpture or form and regarded Yahweh as the creator or god. Earlier Hebrews worshipped other gods but emphasized that Yahweh was the ruler of the universe. Another innovation by the prophets is righteousness where Yahweh became the ââ¬Ëgod of righteousnessââ¬â¢ and in the eyes of Yahweh the good were always rewarded and the evil were punished. In this religion, ritual practices became unimportant and the requirem ent of doing right things, punishing evil was a means to produce and build a harmonious society. The monarchy brought about differences in wealth, poverty, subjective power and centralized state. The most cognitive crisis in the Hebrew History was the Exile. The Hebrews were exiled by Babylonians and Romans into wide spread colonies around the world and the scattering is often termed as Diaspora. (2) The most intense revolution in Hebrew religion took place during the migration from Egypt and Moses became the greatest
Tuesday, February 11, 2020
Reading Questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words
Reading Questions - Essay Example Education is the foundation of our current global economy which is driven by knowledge. Many Americans enjoy the privilege of obtain student visas to study in renounce universities outside the United States. Student visas foster professional development by allowing foreign people to study in the United States. The knowledge economy of the 21st needs more people to sacrifice themselves studying in order to improve themselves. There should be any imposition on student visas and the government should create new mechanism to make it easier for foreign student to stay in the US once the graduate. There is a shortage of talent in the US, thus keeping these professionals contributing to our economy once they graduate is in the US best interest. Based on the assumption that immigrants created cost for US taxpayers a remedy for this situation is to create a special tax bracket for illegal immigrants so that can contribute to our fiscal situation. Another way for immigrants to contribute to our economy is by creating special programs in which immigrants would have to volunteer their time free of charge to contribute towards social causes. Another way to generate income towards the national economy is to place a price on visas. For example a visa can cost a person $10,000; the money would not have to be paid up front in order to eliminate discrimination against poor people. The immigrants would have to pay the fee by working legally in the United States while their visa is valid. These strategies would be independent of the criteria to become a legal resident. There are differences between the immigrants now and the immigrants from a century ago. A100 years ago the United States was not as populated and it actually needed the immigrant labor to meet the demand for jobs. Nowadays the US economy is not even able to create jobs for its own residents. The
Friday, January 31, 2020
The Horror Genre Essay Example for Free
The Horror Genre Essay The horror genre is based on fear, predominantly visual, psychological and atmospherical. A very good horror may even be able to affect you physically, making you too scared to go to sleep, turn the light off or the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. The Blair Witch Project uses suspense in the way that you never get to see what is actually following the students in the woods, making you use your imagination, which can be much scarier than anything you can see. It also sets the scene at the start of the film when they ask people on the streets about the woods, and when they all say bad things you now something bad is going to happen. This happens in a similar but different form in The Superstitious Mans Story. At the start of the story it straight away sets William Privett up to be a bit strange, not in the literal sense, but in a way that he has a strange presence. The narrator says, and I quote: if he was in the house or anywhere behind your back without you seeing him, there seemed to be something clammy in the air, as if a cellar door was opened close by your elbow. The Sexton (church caretaker) says that: hed not known the bell go so heavy in his hand for years and he feared it meant death in the parish. This is like the towns-people at the start of Blair Witch; you are given the feeling that something bad is going to happen. In Silence of the Lambs after the killer, Buffalo Bill, takes a victim he puts a moth inside their mouth. Although William Privett was not murdered, a miller-moth flies out of his mouth when he is found dead in The Superstitious Mans Story. The strange thing about this is the fact that he hasnt worked in a mill for several years. At that same time Philip Hookhorn (a towns-man) was at Longpuddle Spring and saw William there, and this was peculiar because William never went there, on account that that was the place his only son drowned as a child. So it could be said that the miller-moth that came out of his mouth could have been his soul or spirit escaping from his body. His spirit may have been out of his body earlier on in the story also, because his wife Betty could have sworn that she felt him go past her while she was ironing, even though she never looked or exchanged words with him. Nancy Weedle, a friends daughter, also says that she saw William out at the same time. But Nancy saw him going in to the church on Midsummer Eve, and any faint shapes of all the folk in the parish who are going to be at deaths door within the year can be seen entering the church. The people who recover from their illness come out after a while. Notice the way that Betty felt William go by her, indicating that the unexplained, clammy aurora that he seems to have could actually be his spiritual being. This story gives me the impression that you have to be in touch with your spiritual side, believing in ghosts and other strange phenomena. But this of course was written in the eighteenth century, around the same time that Edgar Allen Poe wrote the poem The Raven, which features a talking Raven and angels. Nowadays with scientific knowledge and facts, and better common sense you dont get many people finding supernatural stories believable, but the intended audience of the time would have been affected by it. IT is a good horror film. It shows us that anything can have a dark-side, as the killer in it is a clown, which is usually a happy, entertaining character. If you look at it in a certain way, Night Fears is also like this, dealing with the other sides to the human psyche, but it has other factors that conform to the horror genre. The situation that his job as night watchman has put him in, all alone at night with a fire the only light available, plus the fact that hes uneasy about taking the job, is something that is often seen in horror films. You get the impression hes unsettled with the job practically straight away, when it says just four lines into the story: Two days ago, when he first took the job, he was in inclined to suspect the light; it dazzled him, made a target of him This shows that he feels vulnerable when he is alone at work, that the small source of light he has in front of him simply makes every where else seem darker. While walking around on patrol he find himself dozing off, but one time when he reawakens he sees that there is a person sitting on the barrier to his enclosure. He straightaway finds something unusual about the man, the fact that he did not hear him approach or sit onto the barrier. I feel that he didnt hear him coming could have something to do with him dozing off slightly as he was walking. He reacts to his presence calmly, assuming that hes a drunk, and tries to usher him on his way home. Then the stranger says the first thing that spooks the watchman. When he says: A fine night, the stranger replies by saying, Yes, but cold; it will be colder before morning. At this point the night watchman turns to his brazier, and he suddenly realises that his coke supply is not as much as the previous nights, and that it is running out. When the watchman tells the stranger that this is the reason for the lack of heat coming from the fire, he begins to attack him further. how easily men forget? This coke of yours, I mean; it looks as if they didnt care about you very much, leaving you in the cold like this. This statement strikes the watchman particularly odd as that thought had just crossed his mind, and eerily the stranger picked up on it. The watchman tries to get that thought out of his mind quickly, by dismissing the strangers suggestion by saying that they probably just forgot to leave him any as they were rushing to get home. But then he contradicts himself by admitting that he doesnt know his co-workers that well, and that he has a feeling that the one they call Old Bill doesnt like him, and it was Old Bills task to leave him the nights supply of coke. The watchman then reveals that he is growing impatient with the stranger: How I would like to push him off, the night-watchman thought, irritated and somehow troubled. The two of them carry on like this for quite a while, with the stranger bringing up problems like money, sleeping during the day and not spending time with his family. With the problem of sleeping during the day the stranger says: People have done themselves in sooner than stand the torture This is an important part of the story as it is the first time that death is mentioned, and this is the main point you would when explaining why the night watchman killed himself. He thought that the blue blinds that his wife were making him would solve his insomnia, but this statement by the stranger even puts doubts in his mind about this, something that he once described as a Sovereign remedy. Then the stranger starts to get personal when he starts talking about his family: What about your children? You wont see much of them theyll grow up without knowing you not that you miss them much if children dont get fond of their father while theyre young, they never will At this point I feel that the watchman is starting to lose it, as he doesnt defend himself by saying how good the kids were, even though before the thought of his children and wife was the only this getting him through the night. The stranger then suggests that he should find another job; maybe the stranger is after the job as night watchman and is trying to scare him out of the job. The stranger seams to actually be taking control as the next quote shows: I was never brought up to a trade fathers fault It struck him that he had never confessed that before; had sworn not to give his father away. What am I coming to? This sudden control that the man has over the mind of the watchman strongly shows that the stranger was probably in his head all along, and that the doubtful side of his conscious has taken the form of this stranger. This, getting into his mind, by the stranger happens again as the watchman realises that he is soaked with perspiration: I shall get a chill, thatll be the next thing such an idea hadnt occurred to him since he was a child. This indicates that the stranger is getting deeper and deeper into his thoughts, and has now got so deep it has reached thoughts that he had not conceived since he was a child. The stranger then says: Its a pity youre under contract to finish this job As the night watchman did not mention anything about a contract, this is a pivotal moment if you are trying to understand who or what the stranger actually is, as it narrows it down to two possibilities. He is either a man after the watchmans job, as he has found out from somewhere that there is a contract involved, or he is the watchmans imagination, and he knows about the contract from the watchmans memory. The night watchman soon after starts to walk and stumble around his confinement aimlessly, banging his own head as random thoughts start to go through his mind. Then one particular thought stands out from all the confusion, as he reaches into his pocket for his knife to kill himself. The stranger then turns around for the first time and sees the watchman dead on the floor. He then warms his hands on the brazier before crossing the street and starting down an ally and did not return. Just a few moments ago when I narrowed the stranger down to two possible things, I have now decided that the stranger was the night watchmans conscious. I feel this way because I dont think that it could have been a man after his job because of the fact that he went into the ally-way and did not return. If he were a real person this would suggest that he was a homeless man, and therefore would not be after a job. The Superstitious Mans Story is a story that requires you to believe in ghosts for you to really get the effect of it. At the time it was written it was common for people to believe in that kind of thing, as there was no way to prove that ghosts didnt exist. Night Fears how ever is a more recent story and is more of a psychological story, not telling you clearly what happens at the end and leaving you to make up you own mind. In conclusion I think that Night Fears is a more effective horror story as it is more up to date and in touch with my generation, as the idea of a psychological horror is still used even in the films of today.
Thursday, January 23, 2020
Navajo Tribe Issues Essay -- American History Native American
Residing in the Southwest United States, the Navajo Indian tribe is one of the largest tribes in America today. In their own language, they refer to themselves as Dinà © which means ââ¬Å"the peopleâ⬠. They are an old tribe with descendants tracing their roots back to the thirteenth century. The first contact that the Navajos had with white settlers was during the Mexican American War in 1846. The United States conducted peaceful relations with the Navajo for over fifteen years. Forts were built to help protect the Navajo from Spanish/Mexican raids on the Navajoââ¬â¢s cattle. Eventually, a new military commander, James H. Carleton, was named in New Mexico and he began to raid Navajo lands with a vengeance. He ordered the Navajo to surrender. When the majority of the Navajo refused, their crops were destroyed and they were forced to leave their lands in what is called ââ¬ËThe Long Walkââ¬â¢. They were forced to a reservation in Fort Sumter, New Mexico some 300 miles away. The reservation failed because it was designed to support four to five thousand but there were nine thousand Navajos that were displaced onto the reservation. Finally a treaty was developed that included parts of their homeland as the reservation and the Navajo were then allowed to return to the new reservation. For the most part, the Native Americans prospered with a few skirmishes from white settlers. The prosperity didnââ¬â¢t last as the U.S. government decided that the Navajo cattle were overgrazing the land. Immediately, over eighty percent of all the livestock was exterminated in what was called ââ¬ËThe Navajo Livestock Reductionââ¬â¢. This was a low blow to the Navajos, culturally and economically. The government then started to try to mainstream the Navajo tribe by placing childre... ...28, 2010, from http://jn.nutrition.org/content/127/10/2114S.full The Navajo Nation - Services Page. (n.d.). The Navajo Nation - Home page. Retrieved November 27, 2010, from http://www.navajo.org/services.htm#news The Technology Opportunities Program. (n.d.). National Telecommunications and Information Administration. Retrieved November 28, 2010, from http://www.ntia.doc.gov/otiahome/top/index.html World Facts and Figures - GDP per capita by country. (n.d.). World Facts and Figures. Retrieved November 28, 2010, from http://www.worldfactsandfigures.com/gdp_country_desc.php Yurth, C. (n.d.). The Navajo Times Online - Education: For 40 years, an Indiana University program has provided dedicated teachers to Navajo. navajotimes.com - The newspaper of the Navajo People. Retrieved November 28, 2010, from http://www.navajotimes.com/education/2010/0810/081910teach.php
Wednesday, January 15, 2020
Professional Resume and Cover Letter Essay
Create a professional resume and cover letter for a position within your selected industry, and attach a copy to this discussion forum. Respond to at least three of your classmatesââ¬â¢ posts by Day 7, providing both positive and constructive feedback. If you do not have a resume or cover letter, you may access helpful resources by logging into your Ashford University Student Portal. From the Student Portal homepage, locate Career and Alumni Services (look for the blue ââ¬Å"Careerâ⬠word cluster image) and click on the link to My Career: Career and Professional Development Center to review resume and cover letter resources. If you would like additional assistance, Career Services is available to critique your resume and/or cover letter. You may contact Career Services directly at careerservices@ashford.edu, or call the appointment line at 1.866.711.1700, ext. 1876. Please allow adequate time (2-3 business days) for a Career Services Specialist to respond to your request. Ashford 3: ââ¬â Week 2 ââ¬â Assignment Critiquing Internet Sources Today, the Internet provides an unprecedented amount of information by way of blogs, videos, and podcasts. Conduct a critique of one blog, one video, and one podcast, which provide information that addresses the topic of your Final Research Paper. Assess the authorsââ¬â¢ use of bias, validity, and applicability of information. Examine the influence of web-based information on global citizenship and multicultural understanding. Then, compile a list of three factors you believe should be considered when evaluating Internet sources for use in researching information. The paper must be three to four pages in length (excluding the title and reference pages) and formatted according to APA style. In addition to the three multimedia sources you are analyzing, support your points with atà least two scholarly sources. One of the scholarly sources must be from the Ashford Online Library. Cite your sources within the text of your paper and on the reference page. For information regarding APA, including samples and tutorials, visit the Ashford Writing Center within the Learning Resources tab on the left navigation toolbar.
Tuesday, January 7, 2020
The Modernist Movement And Its Influence On Art - 1688 Words
The Modernist movement was an intellectual and cultural movement that began at the start of the 20th century and lasted until around 1945. One of the factors that helped shaped Modernism was the development of modern industrial societies as well as the rapid growth of cities. Modernists rejected Enlightenment thinking and some even rejected certain religious beliefs. One characteristic, possibly the most important one, of Modernism was the idea of self-consciousness (Farah). The Modernist movement would influence the literature written such as novels and poetry and would also have an influence on art work during this time period. Three people who were influenced by the modernist movement include F. Scott Fitzgerald, T.S Eliot, and Georgia Oââ¬â¢ Keeffe. There would also be a movement called the Post-Modernist Movement. Post-Modernism was a departure from modernism. This movement took place during the mid-twentieth century. One characteristic during the post-modern movement was that there was no absolute truth. Postmodernists believed that truth is an illusion misused by people to gain power over other people. The postmodern movement is identified with deconstruction and cultural criticism. Cultural criticism questions the notions of high and low cultures and tends to treat all works of art as equally legitimate cultural expressions. Deconstruction questions the notion of a single, unified meaning in a literary work. The deconstructionists attempt to show that texts areShow MoreRelatedEssay about Walter Gropius and The Bauhaus Movement1312 Words à |à 6 Pageshouse of construction was the most influential art school that combined the fine arts and the crafts as one. The Bauhaus was a modernist movement founded in 1919 by Walter Gr opius in Weimar Yet, the Memphis Group was a post modernist movement. Established by Ettore Sottsass, the Memphis Group was a group of Italian designers and architects. 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Its exhibits have been a major influence in creating and stimulating popular awareness of modern art and its accompanying diversity of its styles and movements. The museumââ¬â¢s outstanding collections of modern painting, sculpture, drawings, and prints range from Impressionisms to current movements. Moreover, there are exhibits of modern architecture, industrial design, sculptureRead MorePostmodernism : What Is Post Modernism?1389 Words à |à 6 Pagesascribe one broad meaning to any ââ¬Å"thingâ⬠. Postmodernism has often been referred to as the destruction of the Metanarrative. Thought-out all cultural eras society has usually had a focal point in their cultures. The age of enlightenment used God, modernists used technology, postmodernism seems to have disregarded structure all together. We can only truly understand what postmodernism is if we can understand the ideas that modernism portr ayed. Postmodernism is the rejection of the ideas and structure
Sunday, December 29, 2019
Macbeth Quotes Explained
Macbeth, William Shakespeares bloodiest play, is one of the most quoted dramatic works in the English language. Memorable lines from the tragedy explore themes like reality and illusion, ambition and power, and guilt and remorse. Famous quotations from Macbeth are still recited (and sometimes spoofed) today in movies, TV shows, commercials, and even the daily news. Quotes About Reality and Illusion Fair is foul, and foul is fair:Hover through the fog and filthy air.(Act I, Scene 1) The Tragedy of Macbeth opens with an eerie, supernatural scene. Amidst thunder and lightening, three witches moan into the wind. They tell us that nothing is as it seems. Whats good (fair) is evil (foul). Whats evil is good. Everything is strangely reversed. The witchesââ¬âalso called weird sistersââ¬âare odd and unnatural. They speak in sing-song rhymes, but describe filth and evil. Theres an unexpected rhythm to their words. Most ofà Shakespeares characters speak in iambs, with the emphasis falling on the second syllable: da-dum, da-dum. Shakespeares witches, however, chant inà trochees. The emphasis falls on the first syllable: Fair is foul, and foul is fair. This particular quote is also a paradox. By pairing opposites, the witches disrupt the natural order. Macbeth aligns himself with their twisted thinking when he echoes their words in Act I, Scene 3: So foul and fair a day I have not seen[.] Shakespeares witches are fascinating because they force us to question the natural order of things, as well as our notions about fate and free will. Appearing at key moments in Macbeth, they chant prophesies, spark Macbeths lust for the throne, and manipulate his thinking. Is this a dagger which I see before me,The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.Art thou not, fatal vision, sensibleTo feeling as to sight? Or art thou butA dagger of the mind, a false creation,Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?(Act II, Scene 1) The witches also set the tone for moral confusion and hallucinatory scenes like Macbeths encounter with a floating dagger. Here, Macbeth is preparing to murder the king when delivers this haunting soliloquy. His tortured imagination (heat-oppressed brain) conjures the illusion of the murder weapon. His soliloquy becomes a chilling apostrophe in which he speaks directly to the dagger: Come, let me clutch thee. The dagger, of course, cannot respond. Like many things in Macbeths distorted vision, its not even real. Quotes About Ambition and Power Stars, hide your fires;Let not light see my black and deep desires.(Act I, Scene 4) Macbeth is a complex and conflicted character. His comrades call him brave and worthy, but the witches prophecy has awakened a secret longing for power. These lines, spoken by Macbeth as an aside, reveal theà black and deep desires he struggles to hide. Lusting for the crown, Macbeth plots to kill the king. But, on reflection, he questions the practicality of such an action. I have no spurTo prick the sides of my intent, but onlyVaulting ambition, which oerleaps itselfAnd falls on the other.(Act I, Scene 7) Here, Macbeth acknowledges that ambition is his only motivation (spur) to commit murder. Like a horse spurred to leap too high, this much ambition can only result in downfall. Ambition is Macbeths tragic flaw, and its possible that nothing could have saved him from his fate. However, much of the blame can be placed on his wife. Power-hungry and manipulative, Lady Macbeth vows to do whatever it takes to advance her husbands murderous plan. â⬠¦Come, you spiritsThat tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,And fill me from the crown to the toe top-fullOf direst cruelty! make thick my blood;Stop up the access and passage to remorse,That no compunctious visitings of natureShake my fell purpose, nor keep peace betweenThe effect and it! Come to my womans breasts,And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers,Wherever in your sightless substancesYou wait on natures mischief!(Act I, Scene 5) In this soliloquy, Lady Macbeth braces herself for murder. She rejects Elizabethan notions of womanhood (unsex me), and begs to be rid of soft emotions and female visitings of nature (menstruation). She asks the spirits to fill her breasts with poison (gall). Womens milk is a recurring motif in Shakespeares play, representing the soft, nurturing qualities Lady Macbeth renounces. She believes that her husband is too full o the milk of human kindness (Act I, Scene 5) to kill the king. When he waffles, she tells him that she would rather murder her own infant than abandon their murderous plan. â⬠¦I have given suck, and knowHow tender tis to love the babe that milks me:I would, while it was smiling in my face,Have pluckd my nipple from his boneless gums,And dashd the brains out, had I so sworn as youHave done to this.(Act I, Scene 7) In this shocking rebuke, Lady Macbeth attacks her husbands manhood. She implies that he must be weakââ¬âweaker than his wife, weaker than a nursing motherââ¬âif he cannot keep his vow to take the throne. Elizabethan audiences would have been repulsed by Lady Macbeths raw ambition and reversal of traditional sex roles. Just as her husband crossed moral boundaries, Lady Macbeth defied her place in society. In the 1600s, she may have appeared as weird and unnatural as the witches with their eerie incantations. Todays attitudes are very different, yet ambitious and powerful women still arouse suspicion. Critics and conspiracy theorists have used the name Lady Macbeth to deride public figures like Hillary Clinton and Julia Gillard. Quotes Aboutà Guilt and Remorse Methought I heard a voice cry Sleep no more!Macbeth does murder sleep.â⬠¦What hands are here? ha! they pluck out mine eyes.Will all great Neptunes ocean wash this bloodClean from my hand? No, this my hand will ratherThe multitudinous seas in incarnadine,Making the green one red.(Act II, Scene 2) Macbeth speaks these lines immediately after murdering the king. To murder sleep has a double meaning. Macbeth has killed a sleeping man, and hes also killed his own serenity. Macbeth knows that because of this action, he will never be able to rest peacefully.à The guilt Macbeth feels stirs hallucinations and gruesome visions of blood. Hes shocked by the sight of his murderous hands. (They pluck out mine eyes.) In his tormented mind, his hands are soaked with so much blood, they would turn the ocean red.à Lady Macbeth shares Macbeths crime, but does not immediately show guilt.à She coldly returns the daggers to the crime scene and smears blood on the kings sleeping grooms so that they will be blamed. Seemly unruffled, she tells her husband, A little water clears us of this deed (Act II, Scene 2). Out, damned spot! out, I say! ââ¬â One: two: why,then, tis time to dot. ââ¬â Hell is murky! ââ¬â Fie, mylord, fie! a soldier, and afeard? What need wefear who knows it, when none can call our power toaccount? ââ¬â Yet who would have thought the old manto have had so much blood in him.â⬠¦.The thane of Fife had a wife: where is she now? ââ¬âWhat, will these hands neer be clean? ââ¬â No more othat, my lord, no more o that: you mar all withthis starting.â⬠¦Heres the smell of the blood still: all theperfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this littlehand. Oh, oh, oh!â⬠¦Wash your hands, put on your nightgown; look not sopale. ââ¬â I tell you yet again, Banquos buried; hecannot come out ons grave.â⬠¦To bed, to bed! theres knocking at the gate:come, come, come, come, give me your hand. Whatsdone cannot be undone. ââ¬â To bed, to bed, to bed! (Act V, Scene 1) The king is only one of many killings during Macbeths bloody reign. To hold onto his ill-gotten crown, he orders the slaughter of his friend Banquo and the entire household of Lord Macduff, the Thane of Fife. Macbeth suffers fits of hysteria and hallucinates Banquos ghost with blood-clotted hair. But its the hard-hearted Lady Macbeth who eventually collapses under the weight of guilt, and she is the one who gives this monologue. Sleepwalking, she wrings her hands and babbles about the stain of so much spilled blood.à The phrase Out, damned spot! can seem comical to modern readers. Lady Macbeths distraught words have been used in advertisements for products ranging from household cleaners to acne medicines. But this is the raving of a woman who teeters on the brink of madness.à Parts of Lady Macbeths monologue, like the incantation of the witches, depart from the traditional iambic pentameter. In a metrical pattern called a spondee, she strings together syllables that have equal weight: Out-damned-spot-out. Since each one-syllable word is equally stressed, the emotional tension is heightened. Readers (or listeners) are more likely to feel the impact of each word. The words themselves seem nonsensical. They are non sequiturs, jumping from thought to thought. Lady Macbeth is reliving all the crimes, remembering sounds, smells, and images. One after the other, she names murder victims: the king (the old man), Macduffs wife, and Banquo. To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,Creeps in this petty pace from day to dayTo the last syllable of recorded time,And all our yesterdays have lighted foolsThe way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!Lifes but a walking shadow, a poor playerThat struts and frets his hour upon the stageAnd then is heard no more: it is a taleTold by an idiot, full of sound and fury,Signifying nothing.(Act V, Scene 5) Unable to recover from her guilt, Lady Macbeth kills herself. When this news reaches Macbeth, hes already in deep despair. Abandoned by his noblemen and knowing his own days are numbered, he delivers one of the most desolate soliloquies in the English language. In this extended metaphor, Macbeth compares life to a theatrical performance. Days on earth are as short-lived as the candles that illuminate the Elizabethan stage. Each person is nothing more than a shadow cast by that flickering light, a silly actor who struts about and then vanishes when the candle is snuffed. In this metaphor, nothing is real and nothing matters. Life is a tale told by an idiotâ⬠¦ signifying nothing. American author William Faulkner titled his novel The Sound and the Furyà after a line from Macbeths soliloquy. Poet Robert Frost borrowed a phrase for his poem, Out, Out ââ¬â. Even the cartoon Simpson family embraced the metaphor with a melodramatic rendition by Homer Simpson. Ironically, Shakespeares tragedy ends soon after this somber speech. Its easy to imagine audiences blinking from the theater, wondering, Whats real? Whats illusion? Are we part of the play? Sources Garber, Marjorie. ââ¬Å"Shakespeare and Modern Culture, Chapter One.â⬠10 Dec. 2008, www.nytimes.com/2008/12/11/books/chapters/chapter-shakespeare.html. Excerpted from the book, Pantheon Publishers.Liner, Elaine. ââ¬Å"Out, Damned Spot!: The Best Pop Culture References That Came from Macbeth.â⬠26 Sept. 2012, www.dallasobserver.com/arts/out-damned-spot-the-best-pop-culture-references-that-came-from-macbeth-7097037.Macbeth. Folger Shakespeare Library, www.folger.edu/macbeth.Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Macbeth. Arden. Read online at shakespeare.mit.edu/macbeth/index.htmlThemes in Macbeth. Royal Shakespeare Company, cdn2.rsc.org.uk/sitefinity/education-pdfs/themes-resources/edu-macbeth-themes.pdf?sfvrsn4.Wojczuk, Tana. The Good Wife ââ¬â Hillary Clinton as Lady Macbeth. Guernica, 19 Jan. 2016. www.guernicamag.com/tana-wojczuk-the-good-wife-hillary-clinton-as-lady-macbeth/.
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