King Lear By William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616) Essays - King Lear

King Lear by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616) King Lear by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616) Type of Work: Tragic drama Setting Medieval England Principal Characters Lear, King of Britain Cordelia, his faithful daughter Regan and Goneril, his two mean-spirited daughters The Dukes of Cornwall and Albany, their husbands The Earl of Gloucester Edmund , the Earl's treacherous son Edgar, the Earl's true son (later disguised as a madman) The Duke of Kent, Cordelia's loyal helper Lear's Fool, a comical character Story Overveiw England's aged King Lear had chosen to renounce his throne and divide the kingdom among his three daughters. He promised the greatest portion of the empire to whichever daughter proved to love him most. Goneril lavished exaggerated praise on her father; Regan even outdid her sister with a wordy show of hollow affection Cordelia, however, refused to stoop to flattery, and insisted that she loved her father no more and no less than was his due. Lear exploded at what seemed to him her untenderness and immediately disowned her. Moreover, Lear banished the Duke of Kent from the castle for defending Cordelia. Two suitors had come to the British court to seek Cordelia's hand: the Duke of Burgundy and the King of France. After Lear had disinherited Cordelia, Burgundy suddenly lost interest in her he aspired to a wealthy bride. The King of France, however, was delighted by Cordelia's honesty and immediately asked for her hand. They departed for France, without Lear's blessing, and Cordelia's part of the kingdom was divided between Goneril and Regan, who were all too happy at their sister's fall from grace. Furthermore, these two daughters decided that Lear had succumbed to a sort of senility, and they set upon a plan to exploit his weakness to their own advantage. Meanwhile, in the Earl of Gloucester's castle, Edmund, Gioucester's bitter and cunning illegitimate son, was fretting over his father's preference toward the legitimate brother, Edgar. Edmund now forged a letter in which Edgar supposedly expressed his intent to murder their father. Gloucester immediately believed the letter and fled in distress from the palace. Then Edmund, in mock concern, went and warned his brother that someone had turned Gloucester against him. Edgar, too good at heart to suspect his brother's treachery' accepted the story and escaped to the forest. Thus, with two clever strokes, Edmund had managed to supplant his brother in his father's affections. After dividing his kingdom, Lear decided to lodge for a time at Goneril's palace. Now that she had her half of his kingdom, however, she no longer feigned love for him. In fact, she so distained her father that she ordered her servants to mistreat and insult him. Accordingly, her servants began to deal with him as a senile old man rather than as a king. In the meantime, the banished Duke of Kent disguised himself and presented himself to the king at Goneril's palace. Lear failed to recognize the disguise and hired Kent as a servant. Then, with the help of the King's Fool (whose biting jibes and puns provide some of the finest moments in all literature), Kent began hinting to Lear that he had acted unwisely in dealing with Cordelia, until the King began to perceive his folly. As Gonerit continued to humiliate him, Lear, bemoaning his fate ("How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is / To have a thankless child!"), determined to move on to Regan's household. He did not know that Regan was at that moment on her way to visit Gloucester. (In fact, all of the characters were now converging on Gloucester's castle). Near Gloucester, Edgar, still convinced that his life was in peril from his father, lingercd in a local wood, disguised as a madman - Tom o' Bedlam. Soon Regan and her husband, the Duke of Cornwall, arrived at Gloucester. They were followed by King Lear not long after. When Goneril and her household also appeared, the two sisters united to disgrace their father, ordering him to dismiss all his servants. But this humiliation proved too much for the old King, who, in a fit of anger and shame, rushed out of the castle into a furious storm, where he wandered about madly, screaming and cursing. Their plan having succeeded, the daughters locked the doors behind him. Then follows a most famous and stirring scene: Lear raged and cursed in the midnight storm, with his frightened Fool cowering beside him, uttering the most biting and ironic jokes, while Kent watched in disbelief. Fortunately, Gloucester found them and led them to a little hovel, where they encountered Edgar, still disguised as Tom O'Bedlam and pretending derangement. Lear, now half mad himself, set about conducting a bizarre mock trial

Tree at my Window Essay Example

Tree at my Window Essay Example Tree at my Window Paper Tree at my Window Paper Robert Frosts Tree at my Window and The Sound of the Trees both share common grounds with regard to their structure, sound devices, tone, and imagery-not to mention the central leitmotif which is the tree. Frosts Tree at my Window begins as follows: Tree at my window, window tree (line 1). What immediately catches our attention is the mirror-structure in which the first line is presented. This deliberate syntactical symmetry carries the implicit notion that the tree may be more than a provision from Mother Nature but an object of profound self-reflection. These first few lines of Frosts The Sound of the Trees reinforce a sense of delicacy. The sense of delicacy is derived primarily from Frosts repetitive use of words that contain relatively long and complaisant vowel sounds. Tree and window, for instance, reinforce this sense of tenderness that is closely associated with nature-as trees are a part of nature. In fact, The Sound of the Trees has a similar beginning with regard to Frosts use of sound devices. His first three lines contain three words with the letter w, which is a sound element technically referred to as glides, suggesting duration and weight. His wonder[ing] about the trees, therefore, is one characterized by the narrators profound and serious attitude. Nonetheless, there is something that differentiates the beginning of The Sound of the Trees from that of Tree at my Window: tone. His use of tone in Tree at my Window, initially, is more casual. But his use of tone in The Sound of the Trees, especially enhanced by the serious attitude of the narrator, carries an immensely contemplative and, simultaneously, sentimental feeling. The Sound of the Trees is simply more evocative in the beginning due to Frosts command of sound elements that reinforce the slow, contemplative attitude of the narrator. And the choice of this contemplative mood fits this poem perfectly because a large idea that underlies this poem is the narrators trajectory towards death. Subsequently, from line 2 onwards, Frost humanizes the tree as he writes: But let there never be curtain drawn between you and me (lines 3-4) Not all your light tongues talking aloud could be profound (lines 7-8). Not only does Frost reinforce the tree as the narrators existential equal, but by writing, [b]etween you and me, Frost draws our attention to the intimate (more than simply nature-versus-human) relationship between the tree and the narrator. He also draws our attention to the physical wall, that is the sash; and perhaps also to the narrators sound resolve that he will not lose sight of the tree by letting the curtain [to be] drawn. And the narrators resolve is one that springs from his awareness, a realization that, should the curtain cover the sole lens through which he sees the tree that is his source of reflection and satisfaction, he will have lost something tremendously valuable. Therefore, lines 3-4 reinforce the significance of the tree to the narrators mind, reaffirming the trees role in this poem as a central leitmotif. On top of all this, Frost uses certain techniques to instill in us a sense of familiarity and connection for this leitmotif that is the tree. Firstly, anthropomorphism of the tree establishes a sense of connection between the tree and the narrator. The narrators direct and explicit address to an abstract and nonhuman entity-the tree-effectively humanizes the tree, thereby establishing a stronger connection between the two. Secondly, by associating the tree with an entity as ubiquitous and diffuse as cloud, Frost establishes a sense of familiarity and tenderness. The association of the leaves with diffuse clouds also evokes in us the notion of physical maneuverability and, conceptually, freedom. Whereas Tree at my Window evokes in us these positive emotions that comprise the narrators psychic experience, Frost runs with a far gloomier picture in his poem The Sound of the Trees. As can be seen in both poems, Frost has a penchant for nature, and namely the kinds of revelations into human thoughts derived from his observation of nature. In The Sound of the Trees, we are introduced to an emotionally debilitated narrator who is inclined to make the reckless choice as he sees the trees sway, from the window or the door (lines 17-18). The reckless choice is most probably suicide, taking into consideration the overall context of the poem. What starts off as the narrators complaint about the noise of these trees soon develops into a more serious and depressing contemplation. With the final line, But I shall be gone, the narrator forebodes his death. The Sound of the Trees is not a tale of perpetual gloom and despair; for instance, as is clear from lines 15-16, My feet tug at the floor/And my head sways to my shoulder, there are lyrical representations of a trees movements. And Frosts close attention to the trees swaying movements is yet another commonality between the two tree poems. In The Sound of the Trees, these tree movements reflect clearly a need for contentment, which has to be pursued by a change, but the roots which tug at the floor perhaps are illustrating the limitations of that end.

Trust within EU Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Trust within EU - Essay Example There have been a number of things that make the EU members to mistrust each other. This is especially so between the older members and the new members. The fact that most of these countries in the EU have different standings on different issues such as the economic and judicial systems makes trust a serious issue in the EU. Those countries in the EU which are former communist members of the soviet have been accused of not being collaborative enough in implementing the right economic and the legal system. This has led to the mistrust which is in twofold. First, the older members of the EU do not trust the newer members, most of them having been former members of the Soviet Union. They feel that these newer members may not be desiring to bring in to the union as much as they should. The newer member states at the same time have also been mistrusting the older members because they feel that they may be taken advantage of, especially with regard to economic exploitation. This has led to high, tensions and this mistrust has led to the some of the members being suspended from the union. New members have been required to fully conform to EU standards (Lewis, 2000, p.116). At the same time, the role and mandate of EU in the region continue to change and increase (Woolcock, 2009, p.149). According to Molle (2006, p.12) all forms of integration requires some form of permanent agreement that will bind the different members together. These agreements scan lead to mistrust when some members feel that they are being put to a disadvantage. Mythology To be able to get the data regarding the issue of trust within the EU, the study will look for various sources of information ranging from the fallowing; Websites The issue of trust in the EU has been abundantly evident, and there are professional websites that have published and publicized the issue over time. Most professional websites have provided credible information about the issue and have also given enough data and statis tics regarding the factors that have made trust an issue. These statistics revolve around issues such as, democracy, economic systems, and the level of corruption, especially with regard to ex-communist members in the EU. These websites will provide useful and credible information with regard to the issue of trust. Books Since the EU was formed, a lot of authors, both academic and professional, have written about the issue of trust in the EU. These books tackle various topics ranging from economics to politics of the EU. Both positive and negative information has been written about the EU, and this provides a good research ground to understand the internal workings of the EU. Some have criticized the EU by saying that its goals are just big pink elephants that will never be realized. Similarly, there are those who have given praise to the union and see it as a savoir in the European continent. These books will provide a good research foundation for this study. Journals and magazines Journals and magazines have also published information about the EU since it was formed. The current issues of trust within the union have been a difficult topic covered by the many journals and magazines available. These journals and magazines also provide good insights and understanding about the issue o