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Table of contentsBibliographyPrimary Source:Secondary Sources:Why has Hamlet cap ...

Table of contents

  1. Bibliography
  2. Primary Source:Secondary Sources:

Why has Hamlet captivated actors, critics and audiences for centuries? What makes Hamlet himself so mysterious? Unlike most characters, who are defined by what can be seen on stage, Hamlet appears to be “constructed around an unseen or secret core.” Shakespeare characterizes Hamlet extensively, but it still seems that something is missing –passages contradict each other, accounts of scenes change, and at times it appears that not even Hamlet himself could explain himself. In this paper I argue that a traditional character analysis cannot define Hamlet; rather, what identifies him best is the lack of a clear-cut identity. Hamlet’s changing mood, state of mind, and behaviour are not simply devices to confuse his enemies, but rather the manifestation of his endless search for his true self. Hamlet fascinates us because we see ourselves and our searches in him.

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In general, Hamlet is observed – and thereby characterized – by nearly everyone who speaks. Every person in the court is observing him and trying to figure out who he is. However, these accounts present very different images of him. At times, the differences between two perceptions of the same man could not be greater. Would we take all these versions of one character into consideration, it would be hard to believe all of them being one man. In this sense, Brian O. States’ notion of character may help understand Hamlet. States (among others) believes that a character is composed of several little units, or “traits”, which form the character of a figure. In this theory, a character does not change or gain traits. What happens when a figure reacts in a way that is untypical for his or her character is that an extreme situation generates an extreme response. However, according to States, all of these extreme responses are already “pre-planted” in the character traits. The tension in Hamlet is created through this discrepancy between Hamlet’s “dispositional attributes” of character and the variations of “responsive traits”, which include cruelty, irony and self-isolation (39).

The theory of traits would be especially suited for an analysis of Hamlet’s character before the play (somewhat of a reconstruction of his former self), since it claims that his traits must have remained the same below the surface of his external actions. Indeed, Shakespeare allows us to see a few “refracted glimpses of a more normal man”, as Granville Barker phrases it. However, I think, the theory of traits is not enough to account for the changes Hamlet goes through after he meets the Ghost. The prince assumes madness and more than once deliberately oppresses his one character to exchange it for another. In fact, during the play, Hamlet seems to be constructed of personalities rather than of traits of one personality. For this reason, I like the concept of character presented by Habib better. He claims that the moment of great shock (meeting the Ghost) destroys Hamlet’s outer shell of personality (a definitely shaped expression of his character) and brings out what is inside, an indefinite, shapeless self. Because Hamlet lacks his definite shell, he is now open to be reshaped and re-identified (117-120).

I do not agree with everything in Habib’s theory. To me it seems more plausible to say that all people are constantly being reshaped and re-identified. It does not need a shock to induce that reshaping. However, in Hamlet’s case, the shock induces something else and that makes him completely lose control over his self. Habib calls this “the spinning characterization”. It refers to the main protagonist’s painful questioning of his own nature and the universe that surrounds him. This questioning leads to chaotic actions and causes the figure to spin from one personality to another with an “intense and disturbed rapidity” (111ff). This notion of a disturbed character accounts for the fact that so many different observers, including Hamlet himself, fail to find out the truth about the prince.

The events in Hamlet’s life disturb him and lead him to question his own existence. After being melancholy for a long time, which gradually distanced him from reality and the people in it, he is especially susceptible to this spinning motion. He goes through a variety of personalities and roles: he is cruel, sarcastic, silly, funny, evasive, melancholy, and drastic. He is a philosopher, an enthusiastic theatre lover, the avenger of his father’s murder and the actor who feigns madness. He likes changing personalities, as it helps him to escape the unpleasant events in his life while remaining in the middle of them. The line between taking on a new personality and being overpowered by one is thin, and undoubtedly Hamlet himself cannot account for all his actions or dispositions. He knows about the changes he undergoes, but he cannot always control them. As he explains to a baffled Ophelia:

‘I am myself indifferent honest; but yet I could accuse me of such things that it were better my mother had not borne me. I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious, with more offences at my beck than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to give them shape, or time to act them in. What should such fellows as I do crawling between earth and heaven? We are arrant knaves, all; believe none of us.’ (III, i, 123-129)

Of course, even in this speech it is not clear how much of this he actually means and how much he adds for dramaturgic reasons. Still, he clearly states that he knows about his unstable character and the spinning from character to character.

In the spinning between roles and personalities, one role emerges as the basis of all others. It is the role of the player who assumes one personality after another. Hamlet expresses his admiration for actors and the stage on several occasions – most notably in the scene II, ii, 527-582, where he feels inferior to the actor who portrayed a figure on stage and seemed to experience more emotions than himself. To Hamlet, the answers to his constant self-questioning lie in acting. Since he fails to make up his mind, he decides to at least act as if he already did. This musings about the actor’s true emotions are a true turning point, since before the players, Hamlet was only musing over what he should or should not do. Then, before and during the play-within-the-play, Hamlet is still partly in the role of the philosopher, but he also has the actual plan to find out whether or not the King is guilty. Additionally, the prince seems to come alive and explore his silly and sardonic sides more. Finally, after the play-within-the-play, the audience is presented with a changed and still rapidly changing Hamlet. He becomes more active and energetic.

Harley Granville Barker describes Hamlet’s abstraction from himself in an interesting image. He says that Hamlet’s mind is composed of mirrors and Hamlet has to constantly observe himself . Such a constant observation leads to him constantly feeling self-conscious. If a person sees his or her every move monitored, the behaviour inevitably changes. The person assumes certain attitudes and thereby deforms the truth about him- or herself. By pondering his self-image in every move he makes, Hamlet moves further and further away from ever finding his true identity. The distance between contemplating and existing becomes wider and wider until it finally becomes insurmountable.

In the end, the search for identity remains fruitless. Not only is Hamlet a mystery to others, but also a mystery to himself. He spins from one personality to another, acts out parts or tries to find the truth in philosophical musings. He himself does not know who he is and therefore gives all his energy to a presumably suitable part (‘the reckless revenger’), but does not even mention his father after killing Claudius. This may signify that he lost his perspective and even forgot what part he was playing. In the end, all that seemed to matter was that he discharged all that energy that has been building up inside of him during his transition from one role to another.

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Now the question remains of whether people really value this complex character because they see themselves in him. Michael Goldman states that “An actor is a man who wants to play Hamlet”. However, he also says – and I agree wholeheartedly – that “every private man [or woman] is an actor too.” We all experience moments in our life when we want “either to express or conceal […] or true self” (Goldman 239). The questioning of one’s own identity has undoubtedly crossed the minds of many, if not most, men and women and that is a crucial part of what makes us want to watch and recognize ourselves in that ‘observed of all observers’. The melancholy Danish Prince is the personification of the ever-changing, diverse, self-contradicting character of human nature that screams, “define me!” and in the same movement eludes any possible definition.

Bibliography

Primary Source:

  1. Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. 1600. The Norton Shakespeare. Eds. Stephen Greenblatt et al. New York and London: W. W. Norton & Company, 1997. 1659-1756.

Secondary Sources:

  1. Goldman, Michael. “Hamlet an Our Problems.” Shakespeare: The Theatrical Dimension. AMS Studies in the Renaissance: No.3. Eds. McGuire, Philip C. and David A. Samuelson. New York: AMS Press, 1979. 239-255
  2. Granville Barker, Harley. Prefaces to Shakespeare, Hamlet. Prefaces to Shakespeare. London: Nick Hern Books, 1993.
  3. Habib, Imtiaz. Shakespeare’s Pluralistic Concept of Character: A Study in Dramatic Anamorphism. Selinsgrove: Susquehanna University Press, and London and Toronto: Associated University Presses, 1993.
  4. Kaaber, Lars. Staging Shakespeare’s Hamlet: A Director’s Interpreting Text through Performance. Studies in Performance, Volume 1. Lewiston, Queenston and Lampeter: The Edwin Mellen Press
  5. States, Bert O. Hamlet and the Concept of Character. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992.

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Humans, being inherently selfish, will attempt to exploit one another if this ki ...

Humans, being inherently selfish, will attempt to exploit one another if this kind of behavior is not discouraged. Today, nations have collections of laws and codes which their citizens are expected to follow. Laws are a tradition that reach back thousands of years into the past, often grouped into collections of recorded judgements called “codes.” One of the most historically relevant examples is a series of codes from an individual known as Hammurabi. (“law code”) Hammurabi’s Code dates back to approximately the 18th century B.C.E from a group of people known as Babylonians who lived in Mesopotamia (Andrea #13), which is located in modern day Iraq. (Mark) According to the Code, which was recorded for posterity on a large stone pillar, (Andrea #13) Hammurabi established “Right and Justice” “for the good of the people.” While the Code fulfilled these promises, the rule of law during the time of Hammurabi does not match up with that of today, as the version of justice in the code lacks the assurance of equality that modern laws contain.

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When reading through the code, a sense of “justice” does emerge. The code establishes crimes which people commit against one another and also prescribes punishments for these crimes. For example, the code specifies “If a man has perpetrated brigandage, and has been caught, that man shall be slain.” This declares that the crime of brigandage, or robbery, (“brigandage”) shall be punished by death. To provide justice to the wronged party, in the case where the perpetrator cannot be found, the governor of the region where the crime was committed will restore the stolen property. In another example of justice, a life is established to have value. In the case of a murder, the code prescribes “half a mina of silver,” to the family of the deceased. While the code specified a value to lives, different people could hold different value. For example, one who causes destruction of the eye of a free man is ordered by the Code to have his own eye destroyed. However, the destruction of the eye of a peasant only requires the payment of a mina of silver to him. The destruction of the eye of one’s slave requires payment to the owner equating to half the value of the slave. These steps in value show during the time of Hammurabi, men of different classes were valued differently.

Women in Babylonian society held value in a different way than men. Women’s value was similar to that of property, and this is supported by the Code. Men, who controlled the household, were able to rent their wife and children to others as payment for a debt for a period of three years. Once that three years passes, they are freed once again to be part of their original family. Another notable case is that of a man killing “the daughter of a free man,” where as a consequence the murderer’s daughter, even if unrelated to the crime, must be killed. In a way, this is justice for the men, as the man who caused another to lose a daughter is stripped of his own daughter. However, this doesn’t bring justice for the murdered daughter, as the other person who stripped her of her life is not stripped of theirs. This is an example of how Babylonian society could be considered patriarchal, as Hammurabi’s code was written in such a way that male heads of households were given the most control over their family, but also the most responsibility for their household.

Heads of the household were granted control over their children and wives, but this control was not absolute. The Code allowed both a husband and wife to divorce one another, however the man was given much more freedom. When divorcing his wife, a man’s responsibilities were based on whether his wife given birth to his children. The code specified that a wife who presented children to her husband must be presented with her dowry and allowed “use of field, garden, and property,” with the requirement that she raise her children. Once her children were grown, her husband was required to provide her with an equal portion of what he gave to his sons. In the other situation, a husband was required to grant the dowry and bride-price, or payment to the family of the bride, (“bride-price”) to a wife who had not given birth to children. In the case of a marriage where there was no bride-price, the Code specified that the divorced wife be given a mina of silver. The Code ensured that the divorced wife was not helpless to her situation and was still able to live a reasonable life.

While women and children were considered by the Babylonians to be lesser people than heads of the household, they were not considered worthless. Instead, the laws protected them while also respecting their position below that of their men. Women who became sick were not allowed to be abandoned by their husbands, even in the case that those husbands “decided to marry another.” Their husbands were required to provide them housing and support until death. Women seeking to divorce men were able to receive their dowry and return to her father’s house, once their grievance was heard and they were cleared of fault. In addition to wives, sons receive special consideration from the Code. It specifies that fathers looking to disown their sons must present their reasoning to a judge, and the judge would make a decision about the validity of the claim. Sons were also allowed to make one serious offense against their father, but after that were permitted to be disowned.

The Code of Hammurabi ensured that the people of Babylonia were ruled under a common set of laws and that the consequences of crimes were clear. It also provided laws for relationships between men, their wives, and their children. Various classes of people were valued differently, and the value of each class of person determined the punishment for harming them. While the Code established that men, women, and children were not equals, it provided protections to ensure women and children were able to have their grievances heard and a sense of justice be provided for them as well, however different from the justice and equality of today.


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If you are food lover and looking for international food trends, Bravojoy is the ...

If you are food lover and looking for international food trends, Bravojoy is the place for you. The South Korean novel ‘The Vegetarian’ is a feast of chilling violence, nightmares and simmering tensions. Before the dark dreams. Yeong-hye, along with her husband was living an ordinary life. In her husband’s words, Yeong-hye was totally remarkable in all ways. However, she was an attentive spouse, diligent homemaker, driven by no passion. Their simple lives soon turned out to be more fragile that they had expected.

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Things started to worsen when Yeong-hye threw all the non-veg from freezer decided to be a vegetarian. The explanation she had wasn’t even satisfactory. Just because of a dream she announced to be a vegetarian. Violence breaks out in her world when her father forced a piece of pork in her mouth and she stabbed herself in revolt.

The vegetarian story has three parts:

The first one shows the decision of Yeong-hye and reaction by her family.

The second part focuses her brother in law who was obsessed with her body.

The third one is about In-hye, cosmetic store manager, who tried to find a way to deal with the family fallout.

Throughout the story, we are standing against the society’s inflexible culture, working of institutions, behavior expectations and we see them fail one by one. Explore a world of international cuisines with Bravojoy, top online library of mouth watering content.

Are you feeling Exhausted? Stressed? Or Lazy? It is the time to feed your soul with the positive energies:

Always spend at least 10 minutes of your day with yourself. Take time to meditate right after you are awake.

Serve the needy wherever or whenever you can. Visit hospitalized orphans in intensive care and return home inspired. Your visit is the boost for sick children.

Relax yourself while reading good books with the comfort of your bed. Whether you enjoy sci-fi or travel or sports novels, just commit 15 minutes of reading every day. Spending time on reading truly relaxes your mental and physical health. If you are a food lover, Bravojoy brings you updated food trends from around the world.

Why not lift burden off your shoulders by forgiving people! A study shows that participants who forgave were able to jump higher that those who didn’t. Forgiving helps us carry less stress, retain energy and perform better.

Doses of nature nourishes you body, mind and soul with basic components of Earth such as chlorophyll, oxygen, view perspectives, panoramas, microbes in soil and the satisfaction that comes with experiencing natural joy. A study shows that even a few minutes spent in natural environment helps improve mood and health. So, A walk or run in your local garden must keep the doctor away. Start reading today with Bravojoy, the best online hub of interesting titles.


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Table of contentsWhen Are Hand Sanitizers Useful?Can It Kill All Germs?Hand Sani ...

Table of contents

    When Are Hand Sanitizers Useful?Can It Kill All Germs?
  1. Hand Sanitizer vs Hand Washing
  2. Conclusion

Hand sanitizers are consumed as a sterilizing substance in the form of liquid, gel, or foam that fights against infectious bacterias on the hand. They comprise 60% of rubbing alcohol that kills the germs present on the surface of the skin. They are a good replacement for soaps and hand wash. But is hand sanitizer enough to kill all the germs and is it as productive for health as it is assumed to be? The answer is obviously no and they are not a true replacement for handwashing, though they can kill most of the viruses and bacterias if there is 60 to 95 percent of alcohol in them but there are some germs that are immune to alcohol and still stay in our skin which does not make it a reliable selection when it comes to strengthening your hygiene.

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Nevertheless, there are some benefits of using sanitizer:

  1. Sanitizers are helpful if the water is not easily accessible;
  2. They can kill most of the bacteria present on hands and decrease the spread of infections;
  3. Many sanitizers are good to improve skin conditions as well;
  4. They are portable so anyone can disinfect hands anywhere, anytime.

When Are Hand Sanitizers Useful?

They are practical because they are portable and keep hands tidy if someone is on vacation or a job where water is not accessible. Microorganisms prevail everywhere so sanitizers can avert illness by annihilating most of the germs that everyone gets from getting intact with the surfaces around. It is a handy backup when we don't have water and soap around.

Can It Kill All Germs?

Hand sanitizers have to be more than 60% alcohol-based otherwise it will not work. Although it can kill most microbes but not all of them that can be harmful to health like:

  1. Cryptosporidium infections which cause gastrointestinal and breathing problems;
  2. Clostridium difficile that upsets the intestines and causes inflammation;
  3. Norovirus causes diarrhea;
  4. Giardia parasite that can result in diarrheal infection.

Hand Sanitizer vs Hand Washing

Water and soap is a useful option to maintain hygiene than relying on hand sanitizers only, as all professionals suggest to wash hands for a minimum of 20 seconds. Water can cleanse the germs from our skin while using hand sanitizers can kill them but can not wipe out them from our hands. Sanitizers can only fight against germs but cannot combat dirt and grease which soaps or hand wash can do much better because they can clean oil and microbes thoroughly without letting them remain on your skin. Soaps are a better solution than sanitizers and there is no difference between using a plain soap or antibacterial soap as they are equally effective in keeping germs away from our hands as compared to sanitizers.

Conclusion

It is proven through research that sanitizers are not capable of eradicating all germs but they can improve protection from many diseases when we cannot wash hands. Nevertheless it is not 100% of protection, that is why we need to wash our hands as soon as we find water and soap.


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Germs can be spread from one surface to another through various means such as ou ...

Germs can be spread from one surface to another through various means such as our hands, contaminated containers, or even through the air. However, most common ailments that arise from the result in diarrhea and aching stomach come as a result of bacteria and other worms being transmitted from the contaminated surfaces to the mouths of the hosts through their hands. As a result, it is of key importance that hands of both the patients and caregivers are washed thoroughly and effectively to emit any chances of spreading the bacteria by 99%. This essay will hugely focus on the reason why washing hands inappropriately result in further transmission of ailments.

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Hand washing is the deed through we associate our hands with water to make them clean. Using soap makes hand washing more effective because all available bacteria on the sides will be brushed out. It is of high hygiene to wash hands to remove maybe dirty or even microscopic organisms on the hands. We know very well that harmful bacteria are harmful to our health because they can cause sickness when they enter our body systems.

Hand washing is essential in every field may it be in homes, schools, hospitals, offices among other places, mostly this should be much observed in the medical facilities by medical offices like nurses and doctors. We understand that time to time nurses and doctors associated with patients when giving them medical attention like injecting so they should always wash their hands. This will be corrective measure in that it will minimize chances of them transferring illness from one patient to another or even from them being infected by the patients. There are also diseases which originate from dirty hands; the likes of cholera can be a concern if hands are not washed mostly when handling foodstuffs. We have some accrued advantages in washing hands regularly like, preventing infection of diarrhea, preventing diseases which can be transferred through a handshake, healthy growth of upcoming infants, minimized rates of deaths among other benefits.

By washing the patients’ hands with the aid of the qualified personnel aids in the attainment of these aims. This is because the nurses have the necessary skills and training, such as washing them for about 15 to 30 seconds using clean water enhances patient’s safety. This practice ascertains that the patients are given the chance to be served first as they are in an unsuitable condition more than other persons thus being patient-centered. It is equitable if their hands are washed and/or aided in washing by the authorized nurses in that the nurses have the standards to be met in their minds and it is easier to meet them. In summary, washing of the patients’ hands by the qualified caregivers makes sure that all the STEEP aspects are met.

The STEEP is basically a framework laid down that aims at meeting the proposed Triple Aim that includes population health, better per capita cost, and care experience. These aspects of STEEP include the likes of Safe, Timely, Effective, Efficient, Equitable, and Patient-centered in particular. Safety comes in by ascertaining that the nurses have enough training, time aspect comes in by making sure that the nurses are available 24/7 for the patients and efficiency in that the nurses are capable of making sure that can provide their patients with care that is evidence-based. Efficiency comes in through the affirmation that the nurses are always at the bedside of their patients delivering care, equitability through the assurance that the care delivered meets the set standards of care, and patient-centered in that all services delivered put the patient at the frontline.

As discussed earlier on, having a dirty hand, especially to the ill, is a huge assurance of more contamination and a possible cause of additional ailments that may affect the mouth, esophagus, and the stomach. As a result, keen and effective washing of the hands of the patients and other persons not only reduces the chances of contamination by also assures the well-being of a person. After washing of these hands, drying them in bacteria-free areas may aid in the total reduction of the contamination to other people.

Here we are looking at the process to be followed for the hand washing practice to be perfect and also useful at once, there are some steps which can be technically followed for it to work out. These steps are recommended by health organizations to be very useful when it comes to outdoing bacteria and any other microscopic organisms from our hands. In the first step, we are advised to put enough soap to our hands so it can cover the whole surface of hands. It will ensure even distribution of soap hence making it useful, second step is to rub the hands nicely this will be effective enough if it is done on palm to palm way, the rubbing of palms should be done for a while until clean, step three place one hand on other with fingers intermingling and this will help to wash thoroughly in between the fingers and then you interchange the sides, step four interlock the finger ends which enables you to clean the ends and nails, step five is rubbing of the thumb fingers and finally step six you rinse hands with clean water and then dry it thoroughly with a single-use paper towel.

The evaluation of the effective hand washing plan can be done with a cheap method that focuses on key clinical guidelines. These guidelines may involve patient involvement, external assessment of the plan, systematic searching of evidence that the washing was conducted, and making sure that the plan implementation is updated accordingly. The cost of implementing this plan is cheap but it may cost about $50, 000 in the assessment especially if the assessment team comes from an external source. Method of Evaluating the Process ChangeHere the evaluation of hand washing efficiency is carried out to know whether there is change or not. It will be difficult to tell whether there is that efficiency but some factors like reduced cases of cholera, influenza and reduced mortality rate in infants among others will explain.

Hand washing is of much economic impact in any country, if any health organization should advice all people to wash hands this will minimize chances of illness in the state, and this will alternatively reduce the amount used to cater for medical expenses. So the hand washing will significantly impact the economy positively.

Through world health organizations, it is simple to perform the method of issue of hand washing depending on the health status of the country; resources can be provided in health departments to carry out seminars to educate citizens on the importance of hand washing. The government also can avail things like soaps to the citizens as a way of implementing the plan too.

The prediction schedule for improvement here refers to the strategy to be put in place to higher the levels of hand washing; the government can decide to implement a plan or project that will encourage people always to remember to wash their hands. The world health organization can also venture into administering a strategy to ensure hand washing is efficient.


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Table of contentsAbstractIntroductionExisting SystemProposed SystemConclusionAbs ...

Table of contents

  1. Abstract
  2. Introduction
  3. Existing System
  4. Proposed System
  5. Conclusion

Abstract

In the modern world, there is a huge increase in traffic congestion and the rate at which people are buying vehicles significantly rises every year. Traffic Signals are used to control the flow of traffic and are the most essential component of road safety and traffic control. The main objective of this paper is to propose a solution for controlling traffic signals automatically based on traffic density. This will be done by analyzing traffic density through an Infrared Sensor. A threshold value will be set above which traffic density will be considered ‘high’ and below which will be considered ‘low’.

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A maximum value will also be set, above which time a signal cannot remain open. When a particular road has a high traffic density, it will have more time in the green signal compared to the roads that have a lower traffic density. Once the desired operation is chosen, it is sent directly to the traffic signal, which changes the timer and lights accordingly. The coding for the image processing is done in MATLAB and the main concepts used are Image Processing, Image Cropping and Conversion.

Introduction

The concept of text recognition has been around since the early 20th century. Text recognition is commonly known as OCR (Optical Character Recognition). Early Optical Character Recognition can be traced back to as early as 1914. These devices were mainly used to aid the blind.With the passing of time and the great advancements in the field of technology, these devices too have seen massive improvements of their own. The devices can now be used to translate printed text into various languages.

The system that has been proposed in this paper recognizes hand written text and converts it to a printed format that can then be viewed on screen. Despite the various advancements in the field of character recognition, studies involving the conversion of handwritten text have been quite rare. This is mainly because, unlike in the case of printed text conversion, handwriting varies from person to person and therefore, the software will have to identify and recognize each person’s handwritten character individually. Since the characters that have to be converted are handwritten texts, it is virtually impossible to create a database that contains the handwritten characters because, as mentioned before, handwriting varies from person to person.

The system that has been proposed in the paper uses the convex hull algorithm to identify and convert the handwritten text. This method is extremely effective as it greatly reduces the computation time and this can also recognize each person’s handwritten text individually. The proposed system uses Convex Hull Matching (CHM) to individually differentiate each letter. The paper also highlights the various steps used during the recognition and conversion of the handwritten text to a printed text format.

Existing System

Development and progress in various aspectsto the extraction of text information from an image have been around since the 20th century. These developments have been used for specific applications such as extraction from printed pages. Even though extensive research has been carried out, it is however not easy to design a series general-purpose system. That is because there many possible sources of variations and outcomes when extracting the text from the source. The Shaded contents from the textured background orfrom the low-contrast,complex images or images with variations in font size, style, color, orientation, and alignment. These variations make the problem very difficult which in turn makes drawing automatically very hard.

The commonly usedtext-detection methods can be classified into three categories. The first category consists of connected component-based methods, which assume that the text regions have uniform colors and satisfy certain size, shape, and spatial alignment constraints. These methods are not effective when the text have similar colours with background,so this would most likely result in improper detection.

The second category consists of texture based methods, which assume that the text regions have special texture. All these methods are less sensitive to background colors, so they may not be able todifferentiate between texts and the text-like backgrounds.

The third category consists of the edge-based methods. In this the text regions are detected under the assumption that the edge of the background and the object regions are sparser than those of the text regions. This kind of approaches is not very effective and suitable for detecting texts with large font size. When compared with theSupport Vector Machines (SVM) based method with the multilayer perceptions (MLP) based for textthe verification over four independent features which includes the distance map feature, grayscale spatial derivative feature, constant gradient variance feature and the DCT coefficients feature. Better results in detection are obtained by using SVM rather than by MLP. Multi-resolution-based text detection methods are often adopted to detect texts in different scales. Texts with different scales will have different So, in this paper we present and effective and alternative way for recognizing handwritten text.

Proposed System

The system which we have proposed in this paper is an advanced version of the existingSystem, with better text detection and recognition capabilities.The proposed structuralimprovements are:-Text Detection: This phase takes image input and decides whether it contains text or not. It also identifies the text regions in image using the convex hull method. Text Localization: Text localization merges the text regions to formulate the text contents and define the boundary around the text content.

Text Binarization: This step is used to segment the text contents from the background in the bounded text contents. By converting the given image to a grayscale image, then the binary value is determined. The output of text binarization is the binary image, where text pixels and background pixels appear in two different binary levels.Character Recognition: The final module of text extraction process is the character recognition. This module converts the binary text object into the convex hull image for which a value is determined.

The aim of Optical Character Recognition is to classify optical patterns for the handwritten text corresponding to alphanumeric or other characters. This done using the process of OCR which involves several step like segmentation, feature extraction, and classification. In principle, any standard OCR software can now be used to recognize the text in the segmented frames. A hard look at the properties of the candidate character regions in the segmented frames or image reveals that most OCR software packages will have significant or much difficulty to recognize the handwritten text. Documented images are different from natural images because they contain mainly text with a few graphics and images.

The determination of samples in the convex-hull of a set of high dimensions,is a time-complex task. To simplify this, a simple algorithm to compute an approximate convex hull is used. The algorithm used has the following advantages: it uses only one threshold which makes it is a deterministic algorithm, independent of the vertices initially considered; it also ensures that samples which correspond to maximum and minimum points for each dimension are present in the generated convex hull.A robust approach called convex hull matching (CHM) technique is used for registration of text contained images that differ from each other with Euclidean transformation. This method involves two steps, in the first step, point sets on the surface of the text image are extracted, and then the 3-D convex hull is constructed from the point sets and triangle patches on the surface of convex hulls are specified by predefining their normal vectors.

In the second step, each edge of the referenced triangle is compared with all the edges of the triangle in other point set to find the equal pair set and also to obtain the scaling factor. The transformation parameters of each triangle pairs including rotation and translation are optimized by minimizing the Euclidian distance between the corresponding vertex pair. Using these values the handwritten text is converted to the machine format text.

Algorithm

  1. Start
  2. Scan the handwritten text
  3. Convert the color image into grayscale
  4. Do segmentation, separatinglines from textual image
  5. Apply Convex Hull to the scanned text
  6. Compare the results to the closest match in the database
  7. Load the matched data into the database.

The process of detection and recognition of hand written text is a series of orderly steps:

The hand written text is detected through an image input device (camera/video camera). This verifies if a legible text is present or not. If the text is not clear then the process is brought to a halt.

The colored image is converted into its corresponding grey image which makes it easier to be processed.

The recorded image of the text is then segregated, letters from blank spaces. The blanks spaces are removed and only the text part is sent further for recognition.

Convex hull algorithm is applied to the segmented result. Dimensional values are generated and sent for classification.

The alphanumerical characters are classified in their domain according to the values obtained in the convex hull procedure. CONVEX HULLConvex hull is a geometrical problem that can be solved computationally. The algorithm is about circumscribing a set of points by a polygonal figure called convex polygon. In other words convex polygon is a polygon that can house all the points in the given plane.Convexity of a polygon is measurable trait that is amenable to the analysis of its shape. In the text recognition procedure all the letters are associated with certain points that act as guidance points, they then form convex polygon. The database consists of separate unique values corresponding to each alphanumeric. The convex polygon is processed and a ratio value is obtained corresponding to its dimensions, these dimension ratios are compared to the values that are stored in the database and the closest match is picked and displayed.

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Conclusion

The process of image processing makes it possible to detect hand written text. Now hand written documents can be scanned and made into computer typed document. This in the long run is of huge importance as people now don’t have to type the entire text to upload it into the cloud.The concept of image processing has a lot of merits and could have a lot of future applications


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The philosophy of Milton’s time focuses primarily on the idea of hierarchy. Hi ...

The philosophy of Milton’s time focuses primarily on the idea of hierarchy. Hierarchy is necessary in thought because all the categories of being indicate how things are ordered and demonstrate degrees in all the dimensions (Kuntz 8). The ideas of Plato and Aristotle had a pervasive influence in Western thought, and both contributed greatly to the ever-evolving history of ideas. Plato’s Idea of the Good is more or less equated to the concept of God. The Good differs in its nature from everything else in that the being who possesses it always and in all respects has the most perfect sufficiency and is never wanting of any other thing. The fullness of the set properties - self-sufficiency, adequacy, and completeness - is what distinguishes the Absolute Being from all others. God eternally possesses the Good in the highest degree. Whenever anything reaches its own perfection, it cannot endure to remain in itself, but generates and produces some other thing (Lovejoy 62). We see this in Milton’s Paradise Lost as God, the summit of the hierarchy of being, creates another universe outside of Heaven. The not-so-good - not to say the bad, but not in any sense at the same level of good as God - must be perceived as derivative from the Idea of the Good. God is the ultimate and only completely satisfying object of contemplation and adoration. Therefore, he is the goal of all desire as well as the source of the creatures that desire Him (Lovejoy 42, 45).

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The Great Chain of Being rests upon three foundational principles. The first principle is that of plenitude. The extent and abundance of the creation must be as great as the perfect and inexhaustible source from whence it was created, and the world is better the more things it contains. Hence, the universe that God created must be a plenum formarum in which the range of conceivable diversity of kinds of living things is exemplified (Lovejoy 52). The principle of continuity is another feature of the Great Chain of Being. This principle states simply that all quantities must be continuous. That is to say, between any two given natural species there exists an intermediate type; otherwise, there would be gaps in the universe and the universe would not be as full as it might be. This, of course, could not be so, because it implies that the Author of such a universe is not perfect. The third principle is the principle of linear gradation.

According to this principle, the infinite series of forms of which the universe is comprised range in hierarchical order from the barest type of existence to the ens perfectissimum, or God. Aristotle suggested to naturalists and philosophers of the time the idea of arranging all animals in a single graded natural scale according to their degree of perfection (Lovejoy 58). Through the Middle Ages and into the late eighteenth century many philosophers, men of science, and educated men in general accepted the structure of the universe as a Great Chain of Being. They believed that the universe was composed of an infinite number of links ranging in hierarchical order from the lowliest forms of existence (which barely escape non-existence) of every possible grade to the absolute highest kind of creature. Every creature differs from those immediately above and immediately below it by the least possible degree of difference (Lovejoy 59). The hierarchy of beings is a dominant theme in Paradise Lost. Milton implements his philosophical acceptance of the Great Chain of Being to establish a firm cosmology within his epic poem.

The most obvious, yet exquisite, application of the Great Chain of Being in Paradise Lost is seen in the character of Satan. This character physically experiences a falling from the highest link in the chain to the absolute lowest. Satan begins as one of the highest angels in Heaven. He could even be considered God’s right-hand man before the Son is created. After his fall, he is still a massive figure compared to the “sea beast / Leviathan, which God of all his works / Created hugest that swim th’ ocean stream” (1.200). Although Satan maintains his size at this point, his luster has faded. When Satan is caught trespassing on the newly created Earth, he is shocked and appalled that his former fellow angels do not recognize him. The angel Zephon replies to him:

Think not, revolted Spirit, the shape the same,

Or undiminished brightness, to be known

As when thou stood’st in Heav’n upright and pure;

That glory then, when thou no more wast good,

Departed from thee, and thou resemblest now

Thy sin and place of doom obscure and foul (4.835-40)

Satan is growing further and further away from God in a spiritual sense as well as in a literal sense. As this spiritual degradation occurs, Satan also begins to take the form of beings further and further down on the Great Chain of Being. Satan takes the form of a toad to whisper a dream into Eve’s ear. Milton emphasizes Satan’s change in form by describing him as “squat like a toad...”  "Squat" implies that Satan is very close to the ground. Toads are essentially creatures of the earth, thriving in the mud and dirt and grime. In addition, Satan takes the form of a serpent. This creature is one of the lowest of animals on the Earth because it does not stand, walk, or crawl; it grovels on its belly. Satan takes this form at his lowest moment, when he goes to the Garden of Eden to tempt Eve to eat from the Tree of Knowledge. However, there is another form, which is lower than all of these previous forms. After Satan has already been discovered by the angels guarding Paradise, he must conceal himself even better than before. Therefore, he chooses to wrap himself “in mist / Of midnight vapor...”  and glides undetected in the night air. In this case, Satan takes the form of something lower than all beasts: a mere vapor. At this point, Satan is so low in the hierarchy of beings that he is barely in existence.

The relationship between God and Man is also a prominent point where the Great Chain of Being comes into play. Man is created in God’s image to rule over all the rest of God’s creations. On Earth, Man is the closest to God in reference to the hierarchical chain; therefore, he is closest to God’s image. When Satan first arrives on Earth he notes all kinds of living creatures that he has never seen before:

Two of far nobler shape erect and tall,

Godlike erect, with native honor clad

In naked majesty seemed lords of all,

And worthy seemed, for in their looks divine

The image of their glorious Maker shone... (4.288-92)

The most significant difference between God and Man is self-sufficiency. God is completely self-sufficient, and theoretically has no need for the service of others. He is not in need of affection or social life, since he is capable of living alone  . Adam tells God that he cannot be happy or find true contentment in solitude. He asks for a companion “fit to participate / All rational delight, wherein the brute / Cannot be human consort...” . God does not seem to understand this concept, despite his inherent omniscience. God claims that He is alone for all eternity because He knows none second to Him, or like Him in any way, yet He is happy. Adam then replies to God in this way:

Thou in thyself art perfect, and in thee

Is no deficiency found; not so is man,

But in degree, the cause of his desire

By conversation with his like to help,

Or solace his defects. No need that thou

Shouldst propagate, already infinite,

And through all numbers absolute, though one...

Here, Adam is explaining that Man is only perfect in his station, which is one that requires a partner. God has complete and infinite parts manifested as one. Man, on the other hand, is imperfect and his unity is defective. In consequence, Man requires another being to multiply his image. In this sense, Man does not achieve the essence of Good in ordinary human experience, because he is not self-contained but instead seeks dependence upon that which is external to his individual self . Upon hearing Adam’s request, God assents to create a partner for him.

The creation of Eve provides another link in the chain. Although Adam and Eve are considered the same species, they are not made as equals. The way Eve is made from Adam’s rib resembles Adam’s creation from God. In this way, Adam acts as an intermediary between Eve and God:

Whence true authority in men; though both

Not equal, as their sex not equal seemed;

For contemplation he and valor formed,

For softness she and sweet attractive grace,

He for God only, she for God in him...

Adam’s role as a mediator between the heavens and Eve continues. When Raphael comes down from Heaven to answer Adam’s cosmological questions, Eve excuses herself from the discussion. She does not excuse herself because she is intellectually unfit to understand and participate in the discussion, but because “her husband the relater she preferred / Before the angel, and of him to ask / Chose rather...” .

Milton strongly suggests that the Chain of Being is full; nothing can be altered because everything is linked to everything else. In Paradise Lost, when a character attempts to alter his position on the Great Chain of Being, terrible consequences befall him. The first example follows the actions of Eve. The serpent tells Eve that if she eats the fruit of the forbidden tree, then her degree of life will increase. This appeals to Eve, since she desires to be Adam’s equal. After eating the fruit, Eve inwardly debates whether she should tell Adam of the power of the fruit:

Shall I to him make known

As yet my change, and give him to partake

Full happiness with me, or rather not,

But keep the odds of knowledge in my power

Without copartner? So to add what wants

In female sex, the more to draw his love,

And render me more equal, and perhaps,

A thing not undesirable, sometime

Superior; for inferior who is free?

Because Eve chose to disobey God so that she could move up in the hierarchy of beings, she caused the entire race of Man to fall as well. She tried to alter God’s perfect creation, and consequently allowed Death and Sin to enter the world. Nimrod is another character who sought to climb the Great Chain of Being and claim a higher link. Nimrod was not content with fair equality and hence claimed “dominion undeserved . Over his brethren...”  . He did not stop at tyranny over men, but proceeded to build a tower “whose top may reach to Heav’n...” . However, because Nimrod attempted to elevate himself to the level of God, God set “upon their tongues a various spirit to raze .Quite out their native language, and instead .To sow a jangling noise of words unknown” so that Nimrod and his men could not complete the erection of the tower. Adam responds to this story of Nimrod with distaste:

O execrable son so to aspire

Above his brethren, to himself assuming

Authority usurped, from God not giv’n:

He gave us only over beast, fish, fowl

Dominion absolute; that right we hold

By his donation; but man over men

He made not lord...

God has authority over where each being falls in the Great Chain of Being. Therefore, if any being tries to alter the hierarchy of links and climb higher, God will only cause the being to fall back to his original placement, because God is perfect and every link is where it should be. God is incapable of creating an imperfect universe, since it is made in His image.

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Milton defines the Great Chain of Being in Paradise Lost as three-dimensional. The first dimension encompasses the hierarchy of beings in terms of self-sufficiency and completeness. In other words, the hierarchy is set up as the fittest at the top and the least fit at the bottom. The hierarchy ranks all beings: nothingness in the inanimate world, the realm of plants, animals, humans, angels or other immaterial and intellectual beings, and God (Mahoney 1). The second dimension is in respect to a being’s physical placement in the universe. God dwells high in the Heavens, Satan is confined to the depths of Hell, and Man finds himself below the sky and above the Earth (Kuntz 5). The last dimension of the Great Chain of Being focuses on a particular being’s level of spirituality. As a character grows closer to God spiritually, he will be higher on the chain. For example, if Man had not eaten the forbidden fruit, it is thought that he would eventually have reached a more God-like state. However, if an individual breaks away from God, such as Nimrod and Eve did, he will encounter a fallen state, where he will experience degradation.

Works Cited

  1. Kuntz, Marion L., and Paul G. Kuntz, eds. Jacobs Ladder and the Tree of Life. New York: Peter Lang, 1987.
  2. Lovejoy, Arthur O. The Great Chain of Being. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1961.
  3. Mahoney, Edward P. “Lovejoy and the Hierarchy of Being.” Journal of the History of Ideas 48 (1987): 211-230.
  4. Milton, John. Paradise Lost. The Complete Poetry and Essential Prose of John Milton. New York: The Modern Library, 2007. 292-630.

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The myth of “happily ever after” has pervaded Western culture for centuries. ...

The myth of “happily ever after” has pervaded Western culture for centuries. Nearly all of our fairy tales and bedtime stories conclude with the hero and his beautiful bride riding off into the sunset. Because of these stories, the idea that marriage is the final goal in life and the source of all happiness is held intact. This is especially true in the case of literature involving female protagonists. In the words of Carol L. Bean, “the traditional conventions of the genre of fiction – whether popular or elite – have taken finding true love (with marriage as its signifier and happiness as its inevitable reward) as the major goal of women’s quests.” (Bean 330) It is this concept that Alice Munro so passionately battles in her fiction. While laden with themes of religion, sex, and other heavy topics, Lives of Girls and Women serves as a testament to Monroe’s belief that marriage does not equal happiness.

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We see in Lives of Girls and Women that the world of Del Jordan has already been tainted with an “Angel in the House” mentality. In fact, Munro gives us Del’s own view of and longing for the conventional fairy tale. In “Changes and Ceremonies,” Del finds out that this year’s operetta will be The Pied Piper, and finds herself “disappointed, thinking there would be no court scenes, no ladies in waiting, no beautiful clothes.” (Munro 138) Not only is the young Del enamored with the idea of fairy-tale romance, she also wishes for her real life to reflect the conventions set forth by “happily ever after” fiction. When listening to tales of her mother’s life, Del is anxious to hear of her parents’ marriage in the way that tradition has taught her to expect it: “Now I expected as in all momentous satisfying stories – the burst of Glory, the Reward. Marriage to my father? I hoped that was it. I wished she would leave me in no doubt about it.” (Munro 89)

While the preservation of naivety is certainly an aspect of traditional views on happiness, Munro opens our eyes to another, perhaps even more dangerous, side of these concepts. In an attempt to perpetuate the importance of marriage in our society, many people resort to scare tactics. These people mislead their children into believing that any attempt to build happiness without marriage can have disastrous consequences. In “Changes and Ceremonies,” Naomi, working from the teachings of her mother, informs Del about the consequences of having children out of wedlock: “if a girl has to get married, she either dies having [the child], or nearly dies, or else there is something the matter with it. Either a harelip of clubfoot or it isn’t right in the head. My mother has seen it.” (Munro 132)

Whether women fear the mutilation of their unborn children or, simply because they are raised to be ignorant of untraditional happiness, they succumb to the idea of marriage and family as life’s final reward. Such is the case with many of the women in Del Jordan’s life. Through these women, Munro shows us how detrimental it can be to view marriage as the sole source of happiness. Early on in Lives of Girls and Women Munro gives us the image of Aunt Moira, a woman broken and decayed by traditional female constraints: “it seemed that the gloom spreading out from Aunt Moira had a gynecological odor, like that of the fuzzy, rubberized bandages on her legs. She was a woman I would recognize now as a likely sufferer from varicose veins, hemorrhoids, a dropped womb, cysted ovaries, inflammations, discharges, lumps and stones in various places, one of those heavy, cautiously moving, wrecked survivors of the female life, with stories to tell.” (Munro 47) In contrast to this decaying victim of tradition, Munro gives us Aunt Elspeth and Auntie Grace. Although they seem to live for Uncle Craig, these two women have been spared from the trials of marriage and motherhood. In Del’s eyes, ”Not much could be said for marriage, really, if you compared [Aunt Moira] with her sisters, who could still jump up so quickly, who still smelled fresh and healthy, and who would occasionally, deprecatingly, mention the measurement of their waists. Even getting up or sitting down, moving in the rocker, Aunt Moira gave off rumbles of complaint, involuntary and eloquent as noises of digestion and wind.” (Munro 47-8)

As depressing and horrifying as these warnings of physical damage might be, they are merely symptoms of a deeper mental damage. Monroe’s writing is full of stories of inhibited ambition. One of the most striking aspects of this constraint is society’s unwillingness to educate females. In the world depicted in Lives of Girls and Women, the desire for knowledge is viewed as “a habit to be abandoned when the seriousness and satisfactions of adult life took over.” (Munro 131) Del’s mother had to educate herself out of used textbooks, waiting for her chance to run away to high school. (Munro 87) Indeed, in much of Munro’s fiction, “self-education through books becomes indicative of an experientially and imaginatively empowering quest.” (Stich 125) Once marriage and family came into the picture, women were meant to be content with what they had. A thirst for knowledge would be seen as frivolous and extravagant.

Munro shows us how society upholds this notion of the traditional woman in other stories as well. In “Meneseteung,” from the collection Friend of my Youth, Munro writes about a woman who forgoes marriage to write poetry without “the distractions of housewifery.” (Hedin 594-95) After the death of Amelda, the story’s poet, “the Vidette publishes a thinly patronizing obituary, which acknowledges her ‘sensitive, eloquent verse’ but is quick to atone for it by noting ‘her labours in former days in the Sunday school’ and ‘noble womanly nature.’” (Hedin 595) We see here that even when a woman manages to break the mold, society continues to try to confine her within the constraints of traditional female roles: those of the wife, the teacher, and the spiritual guide.

The constraints of these traditional female roles rob Munro’s characters of their values and desires. Addie, Del’s mother, was once a proud young woman who defied societal norms in order to continue her education. She tossed away traditional religion in favor of her own system of beliefs and values. As Del listens to stories of her mother’s better days, she remarks, “Oh, if there could be a moment out of time, a moment we could choose to be judged, naked as can be, beleaguered, triumphant, then that would have to be the moment for her. Later on comes compromise and error, perhaps; there, she is absurd and unassailable.” (Munro 87) And compromise did indeed come in time. Addie is not allowed to continue to college and, in the end, her only intellectual pursuit comes in the form of selling encyclopedias. Her defiant views on religion give way to the more traditional views of her husband. As Del tells us, “We belonged – at least my father and my father’s family belonged – to the United church in Jubilee, and my brother Owen and I had both been baptized there when we were babies, which showed a surprising weakness or generosity on my mother’s part; perhaps childbirth mellowed and confused her.” (Munro 103-4)

It is this compromise that forms a divide between Del and her mother. Viewed once with reverence, Addie is now seen by her daughter as washed out. In fact, Addie begins to give in to traditional ideas about female life. In “Lives of Girls and Women,” Addie gives Del, who is still fairly young, a picture to save for her children. Del, knowing about her mother’s past defiance of these ideas, reacts with surprise, “Her speaking of my children amazed me too, for I never planned to have any. It was glory I was after, walking the streets of Jubilee like an exile or spy, not sure from which direction fame would strike, or when, only convinced that it had to. In this conviction my mother had shared, she had been my ally, but now I would no longer discuss it with her; she was indiscreet and her expectations took too blatant a form.” (Munro 158) Even at this young age, Del recognizes how hindering traditional life can be, and feels betrayed by her mother’s acceptance of it.

However, Munro is not warning women against getting married or having families. Munro herself is married. The danger Munro shows women through her writing is in defining oneself as a mother or wife. She does not believe that women should not desire families husbands, or male companionship, simply that those things should not be a woman’s only desire. Munro shows us what happens when women live solely for others. After the death of Uncle Craig, Aunt Elspeth and Auntie Grace, who lived to support the man and all his efforts, begin to whither. Their jokes and routines became stale and artificial. As Del describes it, “This was what became of them when they no longer had a man with them, to nourish and admire, and when they were removed from the place where their artificiality bloomed naturally.”(Munro 68)

Even Del, so proud, defiant, and independent, nearly succumbs to the traditional constraints of womanhood. After her marriage to Garnet French, Del almost lets herself be baptized into a religion in which she does not believe. Not only would Del betray herself through this act, but she would be allowing Garnet to “consecrate his sense of ownership” over her. (Stich 128) Fortunately, Del sees her mistake before she allows it to become her life and “Walking out of the river away from her would-be baptizer, she ‘cut through the cemetery’ and, entering Jubilee, ‘repossessed the world’ as well as ‘my own self.’” (Stich 128)

Through Lives of Girls and Women and other writings, Alice Munro shows us the dangers of succumbing to societal norms. While the values held by society can certainly help enrich life, a life defined by them is pointless and unsatisfying. Munro shows us that we must defy whatever conventions stand in the way of our own true happiness, no matter what we must leave behind to do so.

Works Cited

Bean, Carol L. "The Pursuit of Happiness: A Study of Alice Munro's Fiction." The Social Science Journal 37.3 (2000): 329-345.

Hedin, Benjamin. "Alice Munro: Scraping the Dirt off Gravestones." Gettysburg Review 20.4 ( Winter 2007): 593-600.

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Stich, Klaus P. “Monro’s Grail Quest: the Progress of Logos.”Studies in Canadian Literature. 32.1(2007): 120-140


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The goal of this “Happiness and success” essay is to pull together evidence ...

The goal of this “Happiness and success” essay is to pull together evidence consistent with the argument that happiness may precede and promote success. Since the majority of people spend a large percentage of their life at work and many derive some sort of identity from it, it is often considered a relevant domain when people asses their level of success in life. Therefore, here is a literature review that will focus on the effect of subjective well-being on career success.

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In the past, the vast majority of psychological research around emotional states has been on the negative aspects of human life. This so called ‘disease model’ has proven very useful over the years, but also has numerous downsides. One of the major disadvantages of such an approach as described by M.Seligman is that it often ignores the relatively untroubled people and how to improve their ‘normal’ lives. Positive Psychology, as introduced by Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi,, rather focusses on the positive emotions and their importance in long-term flourishing.

The rise of positive psychology has legitimized research into happiness and other positive states as opposed to negative outcomes and experiences from the previously dominant disease model. As such, over the last decade, multiple studies have proven a robust relationship between success – including career, marriage and friendship – and happiness. The question remains whether this is because successes engender happiness or rather because positive affect bolsters success.

Until recently most research has posited that reaching certain levels of success ultimately result in an overall feeling of happiness: work hard, become successful and then one will be happy. This intuitive formula is baked into us by society from the day one is born. However, an important caveat of such reasoning is that once one reaches his/her goals, he/she will redefine what success looks like in the hope that reaching those newly set goals will bring even more happiness. Moreover, research suggests that this pattern of belief is likely broken because it is backward. Research over the past decade in the fields of positive psychology, management and neuroscience has proven that this basic formula works the other way around: happiness as a precursor to, rather than just a result of, success. In his book The Happiness Advantage S.Achor states that one’s brain works significantly better at positive than at negative or neutral states. This ‘happiness advantage’, as he calls it ,improves both business and educational outcomes and can be the difference between leading a successful life and not living up to your potential.

Evidence for the effect of happiness on success has become widespread over the last decade and can be divided into 3 main categories: cross-sectional, longitudinal and experimental.

Cross-sectional studies examine people at a specific point in time. Although such research can provide evidence of a link between happiness and success, it is important to note that it cannot determine the direction of the causality. An extensive study of the cross-sectional literature validates the hypothesis that happy people are more likely to succeed in a workplace environment compared to their less happy peers. To start, this proposition was confirmed by Frish as he was able to show that happy students are more likely to graduate. Moreover, it was successfully demonstrated by Wright and his colleagues that happy people receive on average more favorable ratings from their managers and coworkers. These positive evaluations provide a good indicator that happy people are performing better. However, as stated by Boehm & Lyubomirsky, one should to some extent weaken this results since there is always the possibility of the so called halo effect: people with a high positivity affect are more likely to receive additional positive characteristics from the people around them. Furthermore, several studies provide evidence that people with higher levels of subjective well-being are in general more satisfied with their work than unhappy people. Another way to examine whether the performance of individuals high in positive affect is superior is by examining their work engagement. Happy people show greater interest in and commitment to their job. Compared to happy people, employees with lower levels of subjective well-being typically suffer more from absenteeism and burnouts. More evidence for the relative success of employees who experience greater positive emotions is provided by Greaen’s findings that happy individuals are more likely to be in supervisory groups. Furthermore, several studies suggest a positive impact of being happy on income that is even stronger than the one between education and income.

To conclude, the cross-sectional empirical literature reveals robust and extensive correlations between numerous factors of career success and happiness. However, as stated earlier, this cross-sectional evidence cannot answer the question whether happiness causes success or vice versa.

Hence, the question remains whether successes bolsters happiness or is it the reverse. In order to establish the temporal order of happiness and career success, the longitudinal literature is reviewed. Although the longitudinal research is far less extensive than the cross-sectional one, it does validate the hypothesis that happiness results in increased career success. As demonstrated by Haase, Poulin & Heckhausen among others, happy people are characterized by higher levels of job search success. In general, they are more likely to receive follow-up interviews and find subsequent employment. Furthermore, longitudinal evidence shows that the advantages of being happy extend to job satisfaction and career success. A study by Roberts, Caspi & Moffitt demonstrated that adolescents who were happy were more likely to be working in prestigious jobs later in their life. At the same time, they observed that those young adults who acquired higher status also became happier because of it, suggesting a bidirectional relationship between happiness and success. The proposition that happy people are more successful is also more or less reflected by Zelenski, Murphy & Jenkins. Their research provide evidence that happy directors are more productive compared to unhappy ones. However, an important caveat of their investigation is the self-report nature as happy managers have the intention to rate their own productivity more favorably than unhappy directors even though they might not have been more productive. Just like the cross-sectional literature, the longitudinal literature provides evidence that happy people engage in less withdrawal behaviors and supports the notion that happiness results in higher income.

In summary, the longitudinal research provides evidence that happiness might lead to success in the workplace and in this way helps to disentangle the ‘which came first’ chicken-or-egg type of question. 

The risk with/of both the longitudinal and cross-sectional research is that they might suffer from the third variable problem which is a type of confounding where a third variable leads to mistaken causality between two other variable. To avoid such mistakes, experimental studies are introduced/were reviewed as well.

The experimental literature is consistent with the cross-sectional and longitudinal research in providing evidence that happy people are more successful than their less happy peers. According to Baron and colleagues, happy people are better at/in negotiating in a cooperative and collaborative way. Moreover, as demonstrated by Forgas, they are more likely to honor their deals. Furthermore, research shows that happy people experience higher levels of self-efficacy without being unrealistic. This increased confidence in one’s own abilities drives self-fulfilling prophecies that ultimately result in an increased productivity and superior performances.

Besides all the psychological research, also neuroscience provides evidence that happiness precedes success. A study by Stanford researchers conducted in 2018 demonstrated that positive feelings make the brain work better since they trigger the release of the serotonin and dopamine. Those chemicals play an important role in problem-solving and mental focus.

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To end up, all types of research together, provide considerable evidence for the hypothesis that happiness precedes career success. This explains why more and more firms try to create an atmosphere of fun in the workplace. Some well-known firms have a strong corporate culture that emphasizes pleasure in the work environment – including Marriott, Walt Disney World and Google. However, opinions regarding the importance of fun in the workplace are mixed. According to Collins & Porras it has become a necessary mean to stand the test of time, as described in their book Built to Last. Moreover, once again, Fredrickson’s broaden-and-build theory can be used to explain the advantages of experiencing positive affect at the workplace. Nevertheless, criticisms against fun in the workplace also bear some truth. Several studies argue that work should always remain about work and not about fun. Moreover, Fleming demonstrated that employees often experience it as fake and inauthentic and are therefore reluctant to participate in such activities.

Works Cited

  1. Achor, S. (2010). The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work. Crown Publishing Group.
  2. Baron, R. A., Cullen, J. B., & Bateman, T. S. (1992). Intraindividual Consistency and Consistency Between Individuals in Perceptions of the Work Environment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 77(4), 406-416. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.77.4.406
  3. Boehm, J. K., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2008). Does Happiness Promote Career Success? Journal of Career Assessment, 16(1), 101-116. doi:10.1177/1069072707308140
  4. Collins, J. C., & Porras, J. I. (1994). Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies. HarperCollins.
  5. Forgas, J. P. (1998). On Feeling Good and Getting Your Way: Mood Effects on Negotiator Cognition and Bargaining Strategies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(3), 565-577. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.74.3.565
  6. Fredrickson, B. L. (2001). The Role of Positive Emotions in Positive Psychology: The Broaden-and-Build Theory of Positive Emotions. American Psychologist, 56(3), 218-226. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.56.3.218
  7. Haase, C. M., Poulin, M. J., & Heckhausen, J. (2012). Happiness as a Motivational Construct and a Vital Sign: Exploring the Nexus of Subjective Well-Being, Progress, and Stagnation in Daily Life. Motivation and Emotion, 36(3), 257-267. doi:10.1007/s11031-011-9250-z
  8. Roberts, B. W., Caspi, A., & Moffitt, T. E. (2001). The Kids are Alright: Growth and Stability in Personality Development from Adolescence to Adulthood. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81(4), 670-683. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.81.4.670
  9. Seligman, M. E., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000). Positive Psychology: An Introduction. American Psychologist, 55(1), 5-14. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.55.1.5

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Happiness and money, both are an important role in human’s life. There is a qu ...

Happiness and money, both are an important role in human’s life. There is a question that many people will argue about the impact from them, which have more benefit to people, it also means which is more important for people between happiness and money. I hope that when people work to make money, they can live a happy life. I go to the website that is authoritative with a lot of academic journals. And I found some data that relate to happiness and money, which shows that happiness is more important than money for people. The final purpose that people make money is that they can live a happy life. When people have the most basic material life, happiness is more important than money for them. If they want to earn more money, and they will lose many things, like family companionship, the companionship of friends and the companionship of children, which influence them to have a happy life. From my research, I hope that people have a new understanding of the importance of happiness and money and that everyone can have a happy life while working to make money.

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With the development of social and economic development, our life also becomes more and better. However, there is a question that what’s the purpose of we live? We live for making much money or we live for happiness? Which one is more important for us? Is it important whether money is more important than happiness or happiness is more important than money?

Different people have different ideas. For some people, money is more important than happiness, because they think that they need more money to buy more things if they have more money, and then they can buy a more expensive car, clothes, and they can buy many things they like. In that case, they can feel happy. However, there also is some people think that they don’t need too much money and they can also fell very happy. They can stay at the home cook with their family together, they would feel very happy. In their opinion, happiness is very easy, accompany is an easy way that can make them feel happy. What’s more, playing with their friends, traveling with the people they love and have a healthy body would also make them happy. In fact, happiness doesn’t need too much money, happiness is the biggest driving force for us to live, not money.

Nowadays, many young people, they fight for their life, they think if they have more money, then they can live a better life and they will feel happy. However, whether money can make us feel happy? Maich (2008) did a research about money and happiness, he found that there is no doubt that money is inextricably linked with happiness because money provides freedom and power. What we do with that freedom and power is all about our personal values. That’s undeniable, much money can buy many things you like, and make you live a better life, but it doesn’t mean make you live a happy life. On the contrary, happiness can influence us and make our life become better. Happiness is important for our family, temperament, and health. Happiness is easy and it doesn’t need too much money, but it’s important for us.

Happiness is important for temperament. Holder and Klassen (2010) did a research about the happiness’s influence on people, they found that happiness has a great impact on people’s temperament, happiness can make people become more active. Happiness is not only influenced by the character of the child, but also on the character of the adult. For each person, we all have the childhood, and happiness takes a great impact on the establishment of character and growth. Shiner (1998) found that in the course of the child’s growth, happiness can affect the child’s psychology. If one child feels happy in childhood, which may effectively help the child’s healthy growth and the establishment of character. Holder and Coleman (2008) found that happiness can make children free from anxiety. Because anxiety will have a negative impact on the children’s learning and life, therefore, happiness is good for the growth of children. Besides, happiness can also influence the temperament of an adult. Costa and McCrae (1980) found a strong and consistent finding is that adults’ happiness is associated with personality. Happiness is positively related to an outgoing person and the people who are more positive, they will be more active to their life and work, finally, their life will be happier. Therefore, if one person lives a happy life, which can influence him to become positive to life, and then his character will be more extrovert, which is a benefit to their life.

Happiness is important for our family. Happiness has a positive impact on children’s learning and growth and can promote a more harmonious and happy family. Bele´n, Janice and Michaela (2016) did a research about the Children’s and Adolescents’ Conceptions of Happiness, they found that the children have different understandings of happiness at different ages, but there is a one thing is the same, happiness takes a great role in their growth. Sternberg and Nigro (1980) found that happiness can play a positive role, the feeling of happiness is like a positive feeling. If children have a happy childhood, which is helpful to their study. What’s more important is that when child grows up, which can also help them to have a happy family and help their children has a happy childhood.

Is money the key to happiness? The short answer would be “Yes.” Money does bring happiness, but after acquiring a certain amount of wealth, the correlation between happiness and money slowly fades out. Money does bring happiness when spent on the right things. Supporting certain lifestyles contribute towards the overall wellness and general happiness level of a human being. Certain lifestyles do require more money, and this is precisely the reason everyone links happiness to money.

Works Cited

  1. Maich, K. (2008). Money, happiness and freedom. Canadian Business, 81(3), 62-64.
  2. Holder, M. D., & Klassen, A. (2010). Temperament and happiness in children. Journal of Happiness Studies, 11(4), 419-439.
  3. Shiner, R. L. (1998). How shall we speak of children's personalities in middle childhood?: A preliminary taxonomy. Psychological Bulletin, 124(3), 308-332.
  4. Holder, M. D., & Coleman, B. (2008). The contribution of temperament, popularity, and physical appearance to children's happiness. Journal of Happiness Studies, 9(2), 279-302.
  5. Costa, P. T., & McCrae, R. R. (1980). Influence of extraversion and neuroticism on subjective well-being: Happy and unhappy people. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 38(4), 668-678.
  6. Bele´n, M. L., Janice, D. H., & Michaela, G. (2016). Children’s and Adolescents’ Conceptions of Happiness. Journal of Happiness Studies, 17(6), 2291–2312.
  7. Sternberg, R. J., & Nigro, G. (1980). Developmental patterns in the control of emotional expression. Child Development, 51(4), 989-1002.
  8. Diener, E., Oishi, S., & Lucas, R. E. (2003). Personality, culture, and subjective well-being: Emotional and cognitive evaluations of life. Annual Review of Psychology, 54, 403-425.
  9. Luhmann, M., & Eid, M. (2009). Does it really feel the same? Changes in life satisfaction following repeated life events. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97(2), 363-381.
  10. Dunn, E. W., Aknin, L. B., & Norton, M. I. (2008). Spending money on others promotes happiness. Science, 319(5870), 1687-1688.

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