Although “Romeo and Juliet” Was Written by William Shakespeare in About 1600, Its Themes of Fate and Death, Love and Hate Are Enduring Concerns for Us Today. Discuss. Essay Example for Free

Although â€Å"Romeo and Juliet† Was Written by William Shakespeare in About 1600, Its Themes of Fate and Death, Love and Hate Are Enduring Concerns for Us Today. Discuss. Essay 3. Although â€Å"Romeo and Juliet† was written by William Shakespeare in about 1600, its themes of fate and death, love and hate are enduring concerns for us today. Discuss. ~ â€Å"Romeo and Juliet† is a tragedy, written by the renowned Shakespeare in the 1600’s, which has remained a popular play for many people today. It tells the story of two star crossed lovers whose fleeting romance is ended by tragedy. The reason that this play is so appealing to audiences’ today lies within the main themes of the play – love and hate, death and fate. Because of the enduring the components of these themes, the lessons and experiences found in the book can be easily relatable to the people of our time. The themes of love, which we will see comes in many forms, are all easily related to situations that many people will face in our times. Hate is also a theme which has continued from Shakespeare’s time to now and largely effects communities today. Death is a theme that everybody can relate to, and the reasons for the deaths in Romeo and Juliet can also be applied to certain people’s death. The theme fate is not so easily applicable to today’s society as the other themes, but there are many exceptions and the concepts behind fate can still apply to us today. But the first theme to be discussed will be that of love. One of the most obvious themes in the play is Love. Within the play, there are a couple of types of love displayed – a fleeting infatuation and a genuine love. The fleeting love can be seen at the opening of the play where Romeo claims to be in love with the maiden Rosaline. His crush on Rosaline leads him to do thoughtless things, which Montague tells us when he says: â€Å"Away from the light steals home my heavy son and in his private chamber pens himself, shuts up his windows, locks fair daylight out, and makes himself an artificial night.†(Act 1, scene 1, page 29) Romeo locks himself in his room and weeps over her, but as soon as he sees Juliet, his love for her instantly vanishes. Many people can relate to this today because growing up they are bound to have brief infatuations that, although fleeting, may also make them do some unwise things. And secondly, the genuine love of Romeo and Juliet. For these two, it was love at first sight, but evidently  it was an e verlasting love. In comparison to Romeo and Rosaline’s love, Romeo and Juliet show a much deeper, passionate love. They speak to each other in poetry and are even willing to risk their lives and kill themselves for each other. In the balcony scene, Romeo even says to Juliet: â€Å"I am no pilot yet, wert thou as far as that vast shore washed with the farthest sea, I should adventure for such merchandise† (act 2, scene 2, page 52) This means that he would go to the ends of the earth, no matter how dangerous or difficult it was, just to reach Juliet. One modern example of this love would be from September 3rd 2010. Brian Wood and his pregnant wife Erin were driving to meet family when a car raced head on towards them. Brian immediately spun the wheel to the right, making sure that only he would be hit with full impact from the car. Brian was killed, but Erin walked away with only a few bruises. That is only one of many thousands examples of love that we see today. Love is a concept that can be grasped by people from around the world at any time in history. On the other hand, â€Å"Romeo and Juliet† also provides us with the theme opposite of love – hate. Hate is a strong theme in â€Å" Romeo and Juliet†, ultimately leading to the death of several characters. The opening scene of the play shows us the rivalry between the two rich families, the Montagues and Capulets. The long-lasting feud causing destruction and havoc within the city of Verona. There are many gangs today that share the same behavioural traits of the Capulets and Montagues back then. For example, there were many fights fought in the play over small issues. For example, in Act 1 Scene 1 when Sampson and Gregory see people from the house of Montague approaching, they discuss ways of provoking them to start a fight, saying things such as: â€Å"I will bite my thumb at them, which is a disgrace if they bear it† and â€Å"Draw, if you be men.†(Act 1, scene 1, page 26) The people of the Capulet house go purposely looking for a fight. Whereas the gangs today will fight over matters such as territory, respect and drug turf and will purposely go out looking for fights so they can look more superior to other gangs. Another scene where we see this theme is in the scene when Mercutio dies and Romeo says: â€Å"Away to heaven respective lenity, and fire-eyed fury be my conduct n ow!† (Act 3, scene 1, page 71) Here Romeo wants to avenge Mercutio’s death by killing Tybalt, even though he originally did not want to fight Tybalt because of his marriage to Juliet, Tybalts cousin. This can be compared to gangs, who  will not leave any type of disrespect unanswered in fear of losing their reputation or respect. Sometimes, when the hatred of one another gets out of hand, it can lead to the next theme, death. The death of six characters throughout â€Å"Romeo and Juliet† makes death significant theme, as well as presenting the play as a tragedy. All of the deaths in the play were a result of the feud between the Montagues and the Capulets, whether it was suicide or murder. The theme of death is universal theme Shakespeare highlights in his plays that has not changed through the years. Death is an everlasting concept and there will always be application for it in the world, whether it is today or 411 years ago. In order, there were the deaths of Mercutio, Tybalt, Paris, Romeo, Juliet and finally Lady Montague. The two most prominent deaths were of Romeo and Juliet who, after a failed plan to avoid Juliet’s marriage to Paris, commit suicide. Friar Laurence explains after both are found dead in the tomb, saying: â€Å"But when I came, some minute ere the time of her awakening, here untimely lay the noble Paris and true Romeo dead†¦ And she, too, desperate, would not go with me.† (Act 5, scene 3, page 115). One modern application of this happened in October 2010. In that month, there were over five cases of teenage suicide because of harassment at school due to their sexual orientation. This applies the same concepts of the suicides of Romeo and Juliet when they were not able to be with one another because of opposition. The other deaths are results of murders by the opposing side of the quarrel. There have been so many wars and gang fights in our time, it would be almost impossible to name them all. Much like the grudge between the Montagues and Capulets, many have died as a result of the fighting, when it could have otherwise been solved. The reason behind the grudge between the Montagues and Capulets had been long forgotten, as has the reasoning behind the conflict between gangs. Another factor that can also be blamed for the death of certain characters is fate. Fate is perhaps one of the most important factors in the death of the two protagonists. â€Å"Romeo and Juliet† is a tragic play where the characters have no awareness of their ensuing downfall. In the time the play is set, fate and destiny were huge concepts that were definitely factors that affected the decisions made in their lives. But in today’s society there are less and less people who think that there is anything that is meant to be or supposed to happen, and instead think about ways to get around problems and that  there are many different outcomes for each of our actions. They believe that they have their own free will and their futures are determined by the decisions they make. This theme, although not very directly, is still applicable to us now. There are still people who do believe in fate, just as in the 1600’s. There are many people such as psychics or fortune tellers who make their living out of telling people their destinies. But the majority of society may not think of their lives as being predetermined by some force, many decide to follow their gut feeling in making decisions. Before going to the Capulet’s party and meeting Juliet, Romeo says: â€Å"I fear, too early. For my mind misgives some consequence, yet hanging in the stars†(Act 1, scene 5, page 42) Here Romeo is scared and doesn’t feel as if he should go to the ball because he thinks there is an event destined by the stars that is going to happen that night. Similarly, today there are people who will base their decisions on how they feel and the consequences of that action. Almost every single person at some point in their lives will question themselves, asking things such as: What is my purpose in life? Having a purpose in life is like having a destiny. You may not know what it is, and you may not know how to find out. There are many different opportunities and choices that are met, but as you live your life, every decision that you make up to a certain point leads you to the answer of your question. There are many ideas behind the themes of Romeo and Juliet, all of which have endured down to today. With the universal concepts of the themes of love, hate, death and fate we fi nd that the lives of the Montagues and Capulets were much like the lives that we live today. Of course the situations they were in were different, but the same lessons can be learned and the same themes are applied to daily life. So as Juliet said in the balcony scene: â€Å"What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other word could smell as sweet.† (act 2, scene 2, page 51). Just as a rose would smell just as sweet if called by any other name, the themes of â€Å"Romeo and Juliet† and its lessons are just as impressive when applied to the different situations in different time periods.

Nikola Tesla Essay -- essays research papers fc

"Were we to seize and eliminate from our industrial world the results of Mr. Tesla's work, the wheels of industry would cease to turn, our electric cars and trains would stop, our towns would be dark, our mills would be dead and idle. Yes, so far reaching is his work that it has become the warp and woof of industry... His name marks an epoch in the advance of electrical science. From that work has sprung a revolution..." -B.A. Behrend If you were to go to an encyclopedia and tried to find out who invented the radio, X- rays, and the tube amplifier, this is what you would find: radio was invented by Marconi, X- rays by Roentgen, and the tube amplifier by de Forest. While you're there, look to see who invented the fluorescent bulb, neon lights, the speedometer, the basics of radar, and the microwave oven. I don't know who the encyclopedias say invented those things, but I bet it won't give any mention of a man by the name of Nikola Tesla. In fact, I bet they won't give much mention of Tesla for any of the many things he invented. We can thank Thomas Edison for this. Nikola Tesla was born in Smiljian, Croatia at precisely midnight on July 9/10, 1856. Not a lot is known about his early childhood. His father was an orthodox priest, and his mother, though unschooled, was highly intelligent. Tesla had an extraordinary memory, and he spoke six languages. He Spent four years studying math, physics, and mechanics at the Polytechnic Institute at Graz. Tesla first came to America in 1884, when he was 28. He worked for Thomas Edison. Edison, at the time, had just patented the lightbulb, and needed a system to distribute the electricity. One of Tesla's gifts was an understanding of electricity. Edison promised Tesla large amounts of money if he could work out the kinks in Edison's DC system of electricity. In the end, Tesla saved Edison over $100,000 (which would be millions today), but Edison refused to live up to his end of the bargain. Tesla quit, and Edison spent the rest of his life trying to stifle Tesla's reputation. Tesla devised a system for electricity, AC, which was better than Edison's DC system of electricity. AC (Tesla's system) is what is used in our homes today. AC offered many advantages over DC. AC could be transmitted over large distances through thin wires. DC electricity required a large power plant every square mile, and the transmission t... ... if he had had the money to finance the experiments he always wanted to? ``We are confronted with portentous problems which can not be solved just by providing for our material existence, however abundantly. On the contrary, progress in this direction is fraught with hazards and perils not less menacing than those born from want and suffering. If we were to release the energy of the atoms or discover some other way of developing cheap and unlimited power at any point of the globe this accomplishment, instead of being a blessing, might bring disaster to mankind... The greatest good will come from the technical improvements tending to unification and harmony, and my wireless transmitter is preeminently such. By its means the human voice and likeness will be reproduced everywhere and factories driven thousands of miles from waterfalls furnishing the power; aerial machines will be propelled around the earth without a stop and the sun's energy controlled to create lakes and rivers for motive purposes and transformation of arid deserts into fertile land...'' -Nikola Tesla BIBLIOGRAPHY PAGE 1. http://home.nycap.rr.com/useless/tesla/tesla.html 2. http://www.neuronet.pitt.edu/~bogdan/tesla

Essay Dramatistic Analysis on Breaking Bad Essay

Cady is going to encounter psychological struggle and unwritten social rules that teenage girls face today. Through the Marxist perspective, the movie will be analyzed in order to show how sometimes the pull to conform to hegemony is so important that we have no choice that letting us be dragged to respect the established hierarchy. Mean Girls is an excellent artifact, worthy of investigation in the way that it shows how we expect teenage girls to act, but also how difficult it is for them to refrain from acting that way. When using the Marxist perspective, we begin by identifying the subject positions, as models or anti-models. Mean Girls provides clear subject positions about the models – characters that viewers are encouraged to want to be like, and the anti-models – characters that viewers are encouraged to no want to be like. Thus, the models appear to be â€Å"The Plastics†, a group composed of the three teenage girls Regina George, Gretchen Wieners and Karen Smith. By analyzing â€Å"The Plastics†, it seems like teenage girls need to follow a specific pattern in order to be popular. That is to say, on a physical standpoint, teenage girls need to be thin, pretty, and wear tight and revealing clothes, while on a behavioral standpoint, they spend their time gossiping, partying, dating, and talking about boys, rather than focusing on their academic success. On top of the hierarchy is Regina George, and the two other â€Å"Plastics† are her subordinate. On the contrary, the anti-models, challenging the status quo and considered as abnormal or undesirable are represented by Janice and Damien. Both of them are belonging to the oppressed group, or the group that is considered as â€Å"inferior† and â€Å"subordinate† to the dominant group. Mean Girls depicts how easy it is for a dominant group (â€Å"The Plastics†) to impose its ideology on other groups. The interests of the empowered group are then promoting as being natural. Indeed, in Mean Girls, the dominant social group keeps the control over the other groups because nobody dares challenging the authority claimed by â€Å"The Plastic†. â€Å"The Plastics† keep their status quo by oppressing and manipulating the other subordinate groups. They dictate how things should be. The positive power of popularity combined with the negative disempowerment of being unpopular and rejected ultimately reinforces hegemony. That is to say, those who are popular are empowered even if popularity is just a facade for these teenage girls, and those who are not popular are disempowered. By focusing on Cady Heron, and observing how from an innocent teenage girl, she becomes a terrible â€Å"Plastic†, we can deduce that once accepted by the dominant group, people have trouble in seeing the flaws and drawbacks of the hegemony they are in. In order for them to be aware of it, they have to become a member of the subordinate group. Only the anti-models characters are able to see how wrong is the hierarchy they live in, and are willing to change it in order to create a more equal system. Mean Girls proposed both a preferred and an oppositional view on the hegemony. Indeed, from the beginning to the middle of the movie, Mean Girls brings a preferred reading with Cady altering her original beliefs, joining the dominant group and becoming a â€Å"Plastic†. Cady’s desire to respect conformity can be explained by a need to fit in and avoid ridicule. As a consequence, the viewers, siding with her, support the status quo. On the other hand, from the middle to the end of the movie, Mean Girls gives an oppositional reading by considering that â€Å"The Plastics† ought not to be empowered, in order to have a more equal system. Indeed, by the middle of the movie, Cady understands that her destructive behavior made her loose her two closest friends (Janice and Damien). She also realizes she needs to stop acting like a â€Å"Plastic† and to categorize people according to superficial traits, and that she should start considering people according to different characteristics (intelligence over beauty for example). As a consequence, Cady, desirous of putting things right, starts to think how she could readjust the hegemony around her. Thus, she considers destroying the hegemony reigning at school in order to challenge the status quo. At that time, the movie gives the viewers an oppositional reading rejecting the hegemony. In spite of the casualty and frivolity of the topic addressed (teenage girls movie), Mean Girls is still interesting to study because it gives us some interesting and engaging acumen into Marxist perspective and hegemony. Mean Girls shows us how hard it is to resist hegemony when everyone else is subjected to it. Mean Girls also makes viewers being more critical about how hegemony is reproduced in regular patterns of life, like the passage in high school for example.

I Hear About The Teenage Gunmen Laughing - 1612 Words

Taylor Keasey Mr. Pappas Composition 12 31 April 2016 I Hear Them†¦ All I could hear is bang bang. I hear children screaming . I hear this boys voice asking the girl next to me, do you still believe in God? I could hear her settled voice saying yes! That s when I heard the next gunshot. My world turned upside down on April 20, 1999 when Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris came into our school with the worst intentions. I will never be able to forgive them. I can t get it out of my mind. I can still see the teenage gunmen laughing before shooting at the teachers and students in Columbine High School. Around 11:10 a.m. Eric talks to a student outside the west entrance of the school. According to the student, Eric had told him†¦show more content†¦Get down. Get under the tables, I yelled at the students that were in there. I had found a phone, and that s when everything started to happen. Jefferson County 911, what is your emergency? I am a teacher at Columbine High School. There is a student here with a gun. He has shot out a window. I believe one student- uh...umm...umm... I ve been-- I could hear shots, and I heard bombs go off beneath us, it sounded like World War 2. I knew we were going to die. Dispatcher: Who is the student? I don t know who the student is Dispatcher: ok I saw a student outside, I was in the hall-- (sound of shots and bombs being fired out in the hall) Oh, dear God! Okay! I was on hall duty, I saw a gu n. I said What s going on out there? And the kid that was following me said it was a film production, probably a joke. I said Well, I don t think that s a good idea and I went walking outside to see what was going on. He pointed the gun straight at us and shot and, my God, the window went out and the kid standing there with me, I think he got hit They re in here. They re killing all my students I need to go now. I had crawled underneath the desk that was in the library. I did not see the shooters. But I could hear them. I could hear them taunting all the kids and laughing at them when they would ask for mercy then bang. They called a black