...One of Shakespeare's longest, most perplexing, and, for a lot of people, most frustrating play, Hamlet stays one of his most convincing and the most read play and it lives up to expectations, too. Hamlet can be better seen by analyzing Hamlet's soliloquies. The majority of Hamlet's monologues demonstrate Hamlet's self-loathing and even a readiness to bite the dust. The soliloquy "To be, or not to be: that is the question" shows up in Act 3 Scene 1. It is, maybe, one of the best-known soliloquies by Hamlet in the play, which produces significant scholarly investment even today. Hamlet is feeling profound agony and distress in light of his father's passing. It appears that he is not able to acknowledge this partition. He would like to live. Considering suicide, he doubts himself rationally in the event that it is legitimized to live with so much agony and anguish or if finishing his own particular life is the best conceivable choice. "To be, or not to be: that is the question" Hamlet makes this a stride further and works on the supposition that everybody would rather be dead than living, and is alive simply because he has a trepidation of slaughtering himself. Hamlet is no more addressing whether he needs to die, yet just whether or he finds himself able to slaughter himself, on the grounds that murdering himself clashes with his religion. Hamlet’s sadness over his father's demise and his mother's snappy marriage made him wish for death even before he discovered that his uncle...
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...Character Monologue It destroys me that they all come running up to me when they need someone to listen to them whine. They just carelessly suspect that I'm immune to sadness and depression. What they don't know is that I'm just like them. To them, I'm this person filled with joy and God knows nothing can drag me down. They assume I don’t have any troubles in my daily life, nope, all just rainbows and sunshine. They don't stop to consider that maybe all this depression surrounding me gets me down once in a while. No, how selfish of me, they've got their own problems to deal with first. They want to hear me say that everything will be okay, and that things really aren't as bad as they seem to be. You know, generic bullshit that’s on every page of social media. I’m having to listen to them ramble on about their crushes not liking them and their boyfriends not spending every minute of every hour of every fucking day with them. Maybe, it's my fault. I put on this front like I'm always so happy and cheery, so they naturally gravitate to the happiest person they can find within a mile radius. Maybe they're hoping a little bit of what’s left of my happiness will be passed onto them. Maybe they think that they'll be happier if they're like me. Oh, God. Stop me. I'm going on an ego trip again. But they wouldn't want this happiness spared onto them, it’s not happiness, quite the opposite. I can barely handle it anymore. People say that I'd make a good psychologist, and maybe they're right...
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...Monologue 7/19.15 Monologue He was a man, cold like his steal knife. I could still feel it on the tip of my skin…so sharp…so lifeless. The blood dripping down my flesh, tears streaming down my face. He could have got me? Oh no…he could have. But did he? She was the first one to go. Who’s she you ask? Hmph…That does not matter anymore. I could hear her screaming as she called for help she grew limp, her voice cracking as he dragged her away. Do you think I am crazy? Doctor. Do you? The blood, the lives. Oh no but she came back, she came back but I knew it wasn’t her. The skin was there, but it was being worn by someone else, someone whom wanted to be her. I knew he wanted to smile, but her skin wouldn’t let him. He wore it, he wore what was hers. I stayed silent as he played dress up. The mirror he stared at was covered in dust, and each day I stared with him. He must have forgot about me? Though he enjoyed her skin a lot more than the others. He continued to wear it as if he knew I was watching, dolling her up as if she was his own. As he was her. This man wasn’t the prettiest, the lights dimming down on his harsh features, even with someone else’s face he couldn’t achieve beauty for he was a monster. How long did it take me to leave you ask? You tell me Doc am I really here or are you the one who’s...
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...MONOLOGUE Ten seconds left. I can barely hear anything. I feel the vomit creeping up in my throat as the milliseconds go by. Everything is getting very blurry. Tension is rising. Who would have thought that we would be down by one point and I would be the one trusted to hold this basketball? Why did my coach want me to shoot the last shot in the first place? What do I bring on this court that is any different from what my teammates would bring? Every face on my bench is almost frozen, their eyes locked on to me and the ball. There are hundreds of people in the stands watching my every move. Deep breath. Every little thing has to be on point. Nine seconds. I just want to pass the ball away over to my teammate, get rid of it. Why not? Who cares what my coach says? He’s the one who put me in this situation anyways. Eight seconds left. Its just too embarrassing to miss THE final shot in THE final game of the season. I have earned every second I stepped foot on this court and worked too hard for this shot to be a miss. All the time spent practicing and all the injuries, I just cant let myself and everyone down. Seven seconds. I see everyone in the stands jumping up and down but can barely hear them. What do they want from me? i’m 18 years old for crying out loud! It’s not like I’m in the NBA here! I want to see them try and step foot in my shoes right now... Nonsense, focus. My defender looks really intimidating. His muscles contract as his thumbs rub against his fingertips...
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...states of mind in two or three works of fiction you have studied. Introduction: Throughout both novels, The God Small Things by Arundhati Roy and As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner, characters often lack rational thought and, speak in Most authors have distinct styles, and in both novels, Roy and Faulkner embed a deeper meaning within them with the use of a subtle and discreet narrative manner, such as stream of consciousness and interior monologues. This is particularly true in As I Lay Dying, a novel of a dysfunctional and unstable family told through fragmented chapters. Each character reveals their perspective in different chapters, but the perspectives are true to life in that they all reveal information about the Bundren family and their struggles to exist. Although stream of consciousness proves to be prevalent in the progression of the plots, a series of flashbacks and flashforwards unfold the secrets of these characters' unhappiness. Through the use of literary devices such as stream of consciousness, interior monologue and analepsis and prolepsis, Roy and Faulkner allow for the flow of impressions coming through a character’s mind to be represented on the surface. Outline: I. Stream of Consciousness A. As I Lay Dying 1. Faulkner imitates the way the human brain works; the progression of thoughts passing through the mind as they occur represents a selective omniscience a. I am I and you are you and I know it and you dont know it and you could...
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...due to the fact that Amanda of an affluent decent and so such things as table manners when she was growing up, would have been of more importance than perhaps to Tom and his current financial situation. Tom does not appear in the second scene and so this could elude to the idea that Tom is trapped by financial burden. As we have discovered from Toms opening monologue, his father disappeared leaving Tom to be the sole provider for the family. This could perhaps suggest, through the theme of being male, that Tom is perhaps trapped by his gender, as in 1937 it was the role of the man in of the house to provide for the women. As a result of this societal norm, tom had to take work wherever he could find it, and so works in a low paid, low skilled job in a shoe factory. Perhaps the shoes are a metaphor to the running he is so longing to do away from his family, but more specifically, Amanda due to the burden of expectations she places on his shoulders to be the perfect gentlemen in a social class where, perhaps such thing does not exist. It could be argued that in scene three, the pivotal moment is not in the monologue when Tom breaks Laura’s glass menagerie, but the prior conversation he has with Amanda. Tom confirms the...
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...Electric guitars and staggering statistics shared a Central Park audience of more than 60,000 people on Saturday at the Global Citizen Festival, a five-hour concert held on Central Park’s Great Lawn devoted to ending extreme poverty worldwide. The music line-up—which included Neil Young with Crazy Horse, Band of Horses, The Black Keys, The Foo Fighters, K’Naan and surprise guest John Legend—performed free-of-charge to the public to highlight issues of hunger, poverty, polio and malaria. But while the simulcasted event’s intention was to increase awareness of worldwide social inequity, the overall message of altruism fell flat. Two hours before the concert’s start time, the attendees flooded the Great Lawn. Petition holders representing UNICEF, Half the Sky, The End of Polio and Charity Water descended upon the crowd to collect signatures to encourage future involvement in their respective charitable causes. Surprisingly, the charity volunteers were not well received by the music lovers. Many attendees walked away, or, responded with “leave me alone” before the volunteers could utter a word. The apathy, and the resulting cold responses, lasted from the time of admission to when the opening band stepped foot on the stage. It is odd that attendees shrugged their shoulders at the ambassadors; yet, they lit up when the musicians advocating for the same charities began performing, especially given the timely message. The concert was scheduled around the meeting of the United...
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...Comparative essay on ‘My last Duchess’ and ‘Porphyria’s lover’ Robert Browning was born in May 1812 and died at the age of seventy. Browning was an English poet who has become known as the person to invent and popularise the dramatic monologue. This made him the foremost Victorian poet; two of his most successful dramatic monologues are those of ‘My last Duchess’ and ‘Porphyria’s Lover’. The reoccurring theme within the two monologues is murder as they show the idea of men killing a lover Dramatic monologues are significant in that there is only one point of view expressed throughout. In Victorian times dramatic monologues were very popular; Browning was seen as the innovator of this style of writing along with other eminent Victorian poets such as Rossetti and Tennyson. The dramatic monologue takes its style from Shakespeare’s soliloquies were a character speaks their thoughts and feelings aloud. This idea and style has been extended to the preset day, with Alan Bennett’s ‘Talking Heads.’ The speaker in ‘Porphyria’s Lover’ is the lover himself, residing in a cottage in the countryside at the beginning of the poem. The mood of the narrator is established right at the start as he talks about “the sullen wind’ ‘tore,’ ‘vex’ and ‘spite.’ He is clearly angry and unhappy. However as soon as Porphyria ‘glided’ in, the mood changes and she ‘ shut the cold out and the storm.’ The narrator feels warmed by her presence. At once the reader sees that Porphyria has taken control...
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...White Man’s Burden (Handout) Summary & Annotation: A straightforward analysis of the poem may conclude that Kipling presents a"Euro-centric" view of the world, in which people view society from only a European cultures point of view. This view proposes that white people consequently have an obligation to rule over, and encourage the cultural development of people from other ethnic and cultural backgrounds until they can take their place in the world by fully adopting Western ways. The term "the white man's burden" can be interpreted simply as racist, or taken as a metaphor for a condescending view of non-Western national culture and economic traditions, identified as a sense of European ascendancy which has been called "cultural imperialism". A parallel can also be drawn with the charitable view, common in Kipling's formative years, that the rich have a moral duty and obligation to help the poor "better" themselves whether the poor want the help or not until according to Europeans, "they can take their place in the world socially and economically." The term "white man's burden" is a phrase that became current in the controversy about the United States acquisition of the Philippines after the Spanish-American war of 1898. It was a concept that was the responsibility of white Europeans to bring "proper" European civilization to the nations (mostly brown, black, red or yellow) that did not have it. The underlying thought was that Europeans were correct in their beliefs and...
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...“Porphyria’s Lover” by Robert Browning contains perturbing imagery throughout the poem that leads to the main focus of control. Primarily, the controlling aspects that will be focused on are the murder of Porphyria, the lies that the narrator/ speaker tells, and possession. Describing these aspects will furthermore aid in distinguishing the control in the poem. The speaker in “Porphyria’s Lover” had thoroughly controlled Porphyria in many ways. First, the speaker takes control of Porphyria through murder. He wanted her for himself. In lines 21 to 25, “Murmuring how she loved me-she/ Too weak, for all her heart’s endeavor, / To set its struggling passion free/ From pride, and vainer ties dissever, / And give herself to me for ever”, the speaker told of how Porphyria was full of too much pride to love him. He felt that she wasn’t all the way his; that she didn’t only love him. But, the speaker loved Porphyria, he wanted her forever, so he killed her. In lines 27 to 28, “A sudden thought of one so pale/ For love of her, and all in vain”, he felt that Porphyria loved him in vain. In other words, the speaker felt used for her affections, and that she didn’t really felt the way she stated. In lines 33 to 34, “Porphyria worshipped me; surprise/ Made my heart swell, and still it grew” he contradicts himself. He stated before that she may not love him like she says she does, but then he makes this statement as if she really is in love with him and he feels guilty for thinking she didn’t...
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...cues. In Robert Browning’s My Last Duchess, the author employs interesting line breaks and enjambment to help the reader get a true sense of the Duke, despite the way the he portrays himself as an honorable, kind man who had no choice but to kill his young wife. The poem takes place in the sixteenth century and is loosely based on Alfonso, the Duke of Ferrara, whose wife met an untimely death. In this dramatic monologue the Duke is speaking to an emissary negotiating another marriage. Portraying himself as a good man, and a worthy candidate for a new young bride the Duke takes the emissary on a tour of his house. He shows himself to be a man of good taste by “modestly” showing his collection of art work. When arriving upon a painting obscured by a curtain the Duke begins to reminisce about his late wife; as he describes her he tells of her disrespect. She constantly disobeyed him and even went so far as to flirt with other men by smiling at them and accepting their gift. The Duke is a wronged man whose wife took advantage of his position and generosity. As the monologue progressed however, the Duke begins to show his true colors. When one digs a bit deeper and reads between the lines it becomes obvious that the duke is a very controlling individual; all of his actions give away his true nature. The first instance in which the Duke’s selfish nature is reveal is in the fact that he has the picture of the duchess hidden behind a curtain. He exerts control by being the sole individual...
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...The story focuses on the key events of the painting, the marriage between the Duke and the past Duchess, the possible murder of the Duchess and the yet to be new wife. The story being told is of the relationship between the Duke and former Duchess. Browning adopts numerous narrative techniques. Browning uses the form of a dramatic monologue to help the story progress. For instance 'That's my Last Duchess' shows that there is one speculator although there is an implied audience. The effect of this is that it shows that the poem tells a story that consists of much more than the words spoken by the one giving the monologue. To evaluate, the dramatic monologue makes it engaging with the reader. Additionally, Browning uses rhetorical questions as part of form to help tell the story. For example, 'Who'd stoop to blame..' is a clear example of the Duke trying to persuade his audience. The effect is that it reveals more about the Duke's character as the rhetorical question reinforces the impression that the Duke is haughty and self-important. To evaluate, Browning uses rhetorical questions effectively, revealing more about his character. Browning uses a lexical field of jealousy, ownership, artistry and love in order to aid the progression of the story. For instance, 'my Last Duchess painted on the wall' shows that the Duchess is objectified. The effect of this is that it allows the reader to sympathise with the Duchess and forces the reader to think of the Duke in a negative manner...
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...Personalities of the Duke in “My Last Duchess” “My Last Duchess" is a poem by Robert Browning, frequently anthologised as an example of the dramatic monologue. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Last_Duchess) In this poem, Browning establishes the personalities of its speaker—the duke indirectly but distinctly through his monologue alone. By reading the monologue, readers can find a duke who is apparently gentle and cultivated, but actually imperious and selfish. This essay is an analysis of the duke’s personalities and how does the poet establish them through monologue. At the beginning and the end of the poem, the duke shows the guest two of his valuable collections. The first one is the portrait of his wife painted by Fra Pandolf. The second one is the Neptune cast by Claus. By showing these valuable masterpieces, the duke wants to prove his love and pursuit of art and to show his good taste. He seems himself as a noble and cultivated gentleman. However, he shows his real personalities such as arrogance, jealousy, hypocrisy and selfishness through his monologue. The poem opens with the duke showing the painting of his dead wife to his guest. The duke calls “that piece a wonder” for his wife looks “as if she were alive”. And he specificly mentions that this painting was done by Fra Pandolf who is an imaginary famous painter. But he immediately says that he mentioned Fra Pandolf “by design” lest his guest fail to appreciate the significance of this painting. At the same...
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...My Last Duchess and Greek Mythology Robert Browning’s poem “My Last Duchess” contains a wide variety of rhetorical devices and includes some symbolism. One piece of symbolism that has gone relatively unnoticed is the allusion to Poseidon because of the mention of his Roman counterpart Neptune; both aid in making Browning’s point clear. Neptune and Poseidon both have strong connections to the main speaker (the assumed Duke of Ferrara). Browning is trying to make the point that unfaithful women and quick-tempered men should be avoided. Browning’s poem is about a nobleman showing an emissary of a potential new wife around the nobleman’s art gallery. The nobleman points out the portrait of his last Duchess and talks about her flirtatious nature and other qualities that annoyed him “her looks went everywhere” (24). He talks about the duchess being too easily impressed and liking whatever she saw. He then goes on to talk about a confrontation and the smiles stopping, implying that she died and that he was likely the one to command her death. The Duke says she is always smiling so the smiles represent her life, “but who passed without/ Much the same smile” (44-45). He let the behavior continue and finally “gave commands” (45), ending the confrontation when the smiles stopped. The way the speaker talks about the painting, “as if she were alive” (2) tells us that she is not alive. Then he shows the emissary a statue of Neptune, which is also one of his favorites. The defining quality...
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...Discuss Browning’s Presentation of Failure in ‘Pictor Ignotus’. Robert Browning’s ‘Pictor Ignotus’, which is Latin for ‘unknown painter’, is a poem detailing the thoughts of an early renaissance painter. The speaker is an old, traditional artist who is struggling to compete with the younger painters of the day and who seeks to explain his perceived lack of success. Browning explores the effects of fame, criticism and, crucially, failure on the anonymous artist whose thoughts are scrutinised as he discusses his life and work. Browning conveys to the reader the underlying bitterness of the unknown painter and his anger at the sense of failure which he feels. The dissatisfaction of the artist is made clear throughout the poem through his own speech. In describing how he chose his ‘portion’ in life, he also expresses the pain it now causes him as his ‘heart sinks’ whilst he paints repetitive religious works, an occupation forced by his failure to become a commercial success in the competitive art world of renaissance Italy. His bitterness s further emphasised through his aggressive manner of speech described by Browning’s use of sibilance. The use of sibilance, ‘saddens while it soothes’, gives the words of the painter a malicious edge as they are spat out venomously showing his frustration at his failure. The speaker’s asperity is also illustrated by his scornful remarks about his contemporaries. He belittles the success of another, younger artist whom he sarcastically alludes...
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