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The world we live in is full of instability and risk. Individuals, families, companies, property and assets are exposed to different types and levels of risk. These include risk of loss of life, health, assets and property, etc. While it is not always possible to prevent unwanted events from occurring, the financial world has evolved into making products that protect individuals and businesses from these losses by compensating them with financial resources. Insurance is a financial product that reduces substantially or eliminates the cost of loss or the impact of loss caused by various types of risk. Regardless of the protection of individuals and companies from many types of potential risks, the insurance sector contributes very significantly to the general economic growth of the nation, mainly by providing stability for the work of companies and generating long-term financial resources for industrial projects. Among other things, the insurance sector also promotes the savings between individuals and generates jobs for millions, especially in a country like India, where savings and employment are important.
Get original essayIt is a way to confront the risks that a person is exposed to in his being or his money during his life in order to mitigate its risks. The goal of this medium is the cooperation that is achieved with the participation of persons at risk in facing the effects that result from achieving it for some of them, by paying each of them for a contribution or installment, and the collected amounts are collected and then distributed to the people who suffer the disaster. In this way, the effects of the disaster will be achieved on those involved in this cooperation. Let’s understand in detail how and why Insurance as a sector is key to development of any economy. Human life in all its forms has boundless social and economic value. Since ancient times, humans have tried many systems to preserve prosperity in the face of adversity and prosperity. In modern times, life insurance is one of these financial arrangements that provide social and economic security for individuals and societies. (1)
Insurance provides financial support and reduces the uncertainty faced by individuals and companies at every stage of their lives. It provides ideal servicesto mitigate risks against events that could cause a financial problem for individuals and companies. For example, with medical inflation growing at 15%, for example, annually, even simple medical procedures cost enough to break a well-calculated family budget, but health insurance will ensure family financial security. In the case of commercial insurance, financial compensation is provided for the financial loss due to theft, fire, accidents related to marine activities, other accidents, etc.
The insurance sector greatly affects the general economy by mobilizing domestic savings. Insurance converts accumulated capital into productive investments. Insurance also reduces losses and financial stability and supports trade and commercial activities that lead to sustainable economic growth and development. Thus, insurance plays a major role in economic growth.
Insurance facilitates the transfer of the insured's risk to the insurance company. The basic principle of insurance is to spread the risk among a large number of people. A large population gets insurance services and pays a premium to the insurance company. When a loss occurs, it is compensated from the pool of funds raised from millions of policyholders. (2)
The main function of risk management is to ensure an optimal relationship with risk and return through a variety of available risk management methods. Risk retention usually complements the transfer of risk to insurance, and this type of hedging is applicable in cases where the risk potential and severity of negative penalties are small. Commercial insurance means the insurance of companies such as (producers, distributors, commercial companies and wholesaling) and other companies. (3)
Term Insurance plans are the simplest and most helpful form of life insurance.
Term insurance plans are life insurance plans that promise to pay a benefit only if the insured dies during the insurance period. Usually there is no entitlement or entitlement under the plan. Therefore, separation plans are called pure protection plans. (4)
Development of supervision and control of insurance funds the historical development of insurance funds in Egypt:
Private insurance funds or aid funds are considered a type of mutual or cooperative insurance company, which is known as fraternity associations in many countries. Egypt has known brotherhood societies thousands of years ago, when ancient Egyptians formed societies to face the costs of burying the dead, and historical documents indicate that since more than 4,500 years BC, the ancient Egyptians established insurance societies that pay certain amounts to their members upon death. Romanians have similar societies that perform almost the same purpose, during the era of the Roman Empire there were also societies that give the heirs certain amounts of money upon the death of any of its members. Private insurance funds in Egypt are deemed a translation on the ground of the principle of social solidarity between workers in their work entities and it is noted that their work is minor on people insurance mainly. (5)
Treatment with credibility: Insurance companies must deal reliably by fulfilling their financial and legal obligations in accordance with the relevant laws and regulations, and provide special services to their clients, especially low-income, elderly, and people with special needs, from both sexes.
Non-discrimination: Insurance services and products must be provided to insurance company clients without distinction as to race, sex, or religion.
To keep customer information confidential: Protecting customer financial, personal and insurance information and using it for specific professional purposes with the consent of the client, and not to disclose that information to any other party without prior permission from the institution except the relevant authorities.
There are many rights that make a person to contract with insurance companies because they have many advantages that make a person tend to contract.
Insurance is a way to face the risks to which a person or his money is exposed during his life in order to alleviate its impact. The essence of this method is the cooperation that is achieved with the participation of persons at risk in facing the effects that result from its realization with respect to some of them, by paying each of them for a contribution or a share, and the collected amounts are collected and then distributed to the people who suffer the disaster. In this way, the effects of the disaster will be achieved on those involved in this cooperation. Insurance is a practical reality, and it is one of the best means that enables a person to mitigate the effects of disasters, whether these disasters occurred by the person himself, with his negligence or negligence, or by the action of others. It is a means of safety that matches the spirit of the modern era.
Life is full of obstacles and challenges that occasionally require help from family and friends, and steps that we all must take. As human beings, we are constantly learning throughout these steps and challenges. So in this sense, life is similar to a game of soccer because just as in everyday life we go through the same obstacles, and have people there to support us. In a game of soccer, players, acquire cuts and scrapes just as we gain experiences throughout our lives, and once the game is over we celebrate with our team, or with family. Life is like a game of soccer in terms of important people, accomplishments, obstacles, and perseverance.
Get original essayWhile there are many similarities in life and a game of soccer, they do have their differences. For an example, when hurt during a game of soccer, players could easily recover from those injuries compared to the injuries given to us in life, such as a broken heart. In soccer, there is always a definite winner and loser, while in life the lines of winning and losing are defined. In a game of soccer, you can severely injure yourself you can be out for the rest of the season or for life but in life if you injure yourself for an example if you lose your legs in the military you have to still manage how to live without them for the rest of your life. In life, family will remain with us for their entire life, teammates, however, will leave and move on after time. In life, you always have different accomplishments compared to soccer there is only one accomplishment and that is winning the game. Life is reality and serious unlike soccer, it’s made for fun and it’s just a game. The lines of winning and losing are less defined in life, while in soccer there’s always a winner and a loser. Lastly, there will be at times where you will have no one in life whereas in soccer you will always have members on your team.
The first similarity between life and a game of soccer are important people. In a game of soccer, there is teammates, referees, and a crowd. In soccer, the team is a single unit, they plan together and play together working off each other. Teammates will always be on the field to help you get back up if you have fallen for an example if you someone from the other team pushed you down, your teammates are there to give you a hand and help you up. The referee in a game of soccer makes sure the game is fair and give us penalties if we break a rule and could sit us down. Teammates can teach you new tricks or give you a few tips during practice to help you be a better player. In life, the important people to us are our family, teachers, and friends. In life, our family help us through break ups, when were sick, nurture us, and give us the love we need. Family, also teaches us what’s right and wrong. Teachers teaches us the consequences for an example if we cheat on a test we will get a zero or suspended or if you’re in college kicked out of college. In life, our friends are there to get us advices such as what to wear or what to do when your in a tough situation. In life, no matter what our family friends or teachers are there to lead us in the right direction when we are starting to go into the wrong direction. Both family and teammates are similar by showing their support and providing the encouragement that is needed.
Secondly, life and a game of soccer are similar in the sense of accomplishments. When your team gets a goal or win the game, they go out and celebrate as a team. The crowd can sometimes cheer us on when you or a teammate heads to the goal or they can either boo us. In life, friends, family and teachers are always there to celebrate our accomplishments from walking across the stage, to getting accepting into the college you want. . Teachers teaches us to become educated and prepare us to the next level in our school career so we can achieve our future goals.
Thirdly, life and a game of soccer are similar through the obstacle we go through. In a game of soccer, there are defenders who try to block you or your teammate from making a goal. In soccer, you to learn how to play in different types of fields and weather conditions, for an example, if the field is muddy you have to learn how to use the mud to your advantage such as sliding. In life, we have to avoid the people who will lead us down the wrong path. In life, if our plans do not go our way we have to find another way to get to what we want, for an example if you wanted to college but you ended up getting pregnant and having a baby you can always push college back till you get settled in with your new life style and go to school.
Lastly, life and a game of soccer are similar due to perseverance. In a game of soccer, there will be games where you lose but there’s always the next game to try harder. In soccer, you could get seriously injured but with the right athletic rehabilitation, you can get back on the field. In life, if we don’t accomplish our goals we soon get over it with other goals or accomplishments in life. In life, if we get terrible news we mourn but we soon overcome it and block that part out of our past. If we become injured we can always find ways to get better or learn a new way to live, for an example, if you are in the military and you lose your leg they get the rehabilitation they need but they also learn to live life without their legs. In conclusion, we learn in life we have to face these challenges in each accomplishment to give us a sense of unity through our family members. In life, we have to go through these challenges everyday and some days it will be easy and some days it will not but as long as we have our friends, family and friends to point us to the right direction we can achieve basically anything we want too. Life there will be things that will hurt us or we can’t be able to due, but we will soon overcome all these challenges in life and it will open a new doors for us.
Edith Wharton challenges the notion of knowledge and understanding, even of one’s own personal experience, in her short story “Roman Fever.” The application of Jackie Royster’s scenic analysis to Wharton’s “Roman Fever” perpetuates the idea that an understanding of the reality of human life and existence is never attained by any individual due to the nature of human discourse and tendency to assume.
Get original essayTo employ Royster’s tactics one must start with a depiction of the story or scene at hand. “Roman Fever” takes place on a balcony restaurant in the heart of Rome. Two women, Grace Ansley and Alida Slade met years ago in Rome as young women transitioning from adolescence to adulthood. Since then, their lives have constantly been interwoven. For years they lived across from each other in New York. Their daughters are friends and both of their husbands are deceased. The women watch the sunset over Rome and begin to delve into their lives together over the years. They discuss with each other and privately reflect on Roman experiences, love, social status, family, and even perceptions of each other. Over the course of the scene, it is revealed that Ansley had an affair with Slade’s fianc?, and eventual widower, long ago. Through a series of deceptive occurrences the women dealt with this event in different ways and each were cognizant of only half of the story; neither woman was completely aware of the full context of the affair. Along with the unfolding of this event the women share a series of assumptions that they make about the other, most of which are based on pure observation or appearance.
The root of Wharton’s suggestion that life is never as it seems to the individual is manifested in the rhetorical issue that the story presents to the reader. The rhetorical issue outlines a narrative in which individual perspectives and motives, both Ansley’s and Slade’s, disallow the two to have a true dialogue in which the members listen to and understand each other. The words the share are carefully selected to only reveal certain aspects of the truth of their character. Even then, the woman listening and watching her companion react to her own speech fails to reflect on the opposite woman’s life, experience, and words. The two are fully enveloped in their own perspectives, so much so that active listening as key component to rhetoric is completely lacking. The women, despite their extensive and long history together, are not open to each other’s perspectives and as a result do not know or understand the truth of their human experiences. Therefore, a lack of listening and invasion of personal, egocentric thinking prohibits the individuals from true dialogue and knowledge of a comprehensive reality.
Royster highlights the importance of personal reaction as a part of the process of fleshing out suggestions, like those Wharton makes on the human experience. After reading the short story a second time, over a year later than the first reading, I found it impossible to ignore the commonality of the relationship between Ansley and Slade. Too often people grow, work, go to class, and even live with individuals that they know very little of. One may believe that they understand or personally connect with the other, but in truth their version of reality is immensely skewed. Personal objectives and the emphasis on individuality or independence, especially among young women, puts pressure on the individual to focus solely on one’s own strengths, weaknesses, and goals. The other people that surround the lives of these individually driven personas act as false companions and a means to egotistical ends. I think that it is clear that Alida Slade is so consumed with this self-motivated way of thinking that she cannot and will not ever truly listen to and dialogue with Grace Ansley.
Furthermore, a key principle to revealing life beyond the surface of appearance is the ability to set aside the personal agenda that refutes active listening. Slade cannot grasp this concept in the story, but rather, embraces her selfishness and fails to disband her envy for Ansley. The root of her envy lies in the realization that Ansley was in love with Slade’s fianc?. She claims that “I found out – and I hated you, hated you. I knew you were in love with Delphin…I wanted you out of the way…" (Wharton 17). This envy, or hatred, is a major factor in the relationship of these two women as their lives unfold. Slade, never able to truly forget the jealousy and hatred she held for Ansley upon this realization, fosters hardened feelings for her long-time companion. The initial jealously motivated Slade to become selfish and do all in her power to be rid of her competition. Slade does not consider the outcome or consequences that Ansley may have to suffer through due to her selfishness. She falsifies a letter to Ansley, hoping that she will go to the Colloseum at night and become humiliated when Delphin does not meet her there as promised in the letter. She hopes that this humiliation and failure would trigger Ansley to give up on Delphin and no longer be an obstacle for Slade. Selfishly she considers these benefits to herself, but does not think twice about the pain she causes Ansley. She even claims “I remember laughing to myself all that evening at the idea that you were waiting around there in the dark…" (Wharton 19). As Ansley is shaken to silence, shock, and saddened words by the truth Slade shows no remorse or regret for her childish and self-centered actions in the past, but reflects carelessly without sparing the feelings of Ansley. The lack of shame attributed with this behavior further proves that the selfishness that Slade emits prohibits any true relationship to form between her and Ansley.
Again, a lack of active listening disallows the women from a revelation of the reality of their situation as they briefly discuss their daughters, Barbara and Jenny. Ansley does not appreciate her own daughter Jenny because in her opinion Barbara is a far more interesting individual. Slade admits that she would rather be Barbara’s mother. She speaks of her daughter as if she has been cheated stating, “I always wanted a brilliant daughter…never quite understood why I got an angel instead” (Wharton 12). Slade wants what she cannot and does not have. Barbara is exciting, fresh, and vivacious, while Jenny is dedicated, simple, and boring. The only person that Slade considers in this thought process is herself and her own source of pride. Ansley dismisses the conversation by claiming that Slade “overrates Babs” (Wharton 12). Ansley believes her companion to be brilliant, yet in retrospect she denotes Slade’s life as one full of disappointment. She pities the woman but never works to reveal the root of Ansley’s unhappiness amidst her privileged life. If Ansley had done so, then in hearing Slade’s desire for Babs she may have realized sooner that Slade is not unhappy with the way her life turned out, but rather consumed by jealousy for the way Ansley has been blessed. Of course, it follows, that this jealousy is rooted in the realization that Ansley held the heart of Slade’s husband. My immediate reaction to this is that if Ansley realized the truth in Slade’s words, and the hatred that her companion holds for her, she would be less likely to sympathize with Ansley’s constant disappointment.
Additionally, the assumptions that Slade makes about Ansley disallow her to know the truth of Barbara’s lineage. Slade assumes that Ansley is dull, simple, and predictable. She sees no reason to suggest dishonor or scandal in the life of her companion, though finds Barbara’s vivacity enthralling when contrasted with her mother’s supposed reverence to social convention. This assumption leads her to believe that her deceptive tactics in eliminating Ansley as competition for her lover were successful. According to her perspective, the fact that Barbara is the result of Ansley’s passionate affair with Slade’s fianc? never crosses her mind. If it had, the assumptions she makes about Ansley would be shattered and the innate spirit of her fun-loving daughter would be better understood. Ansley ignores the words and actions of her companion of the years due to the assumption that she won the prize by marrying Delphin.
Following the examination on Ansley and Slade’s personal reactions to the effects of the rhetorical issue at hand and, subsequently, my personal reaction to the rhetoric, one is prompted by Royster to consider the cultural lessons extrapolated by the text. It is clear that the two women have consistently failed to view life from the other’s perspective. This is a result of their equally self-motivated goals and actions and failure to participate in active listening. Culturally, this suggests that people propelled by egocentric values and backgrounds are not likely to understand life in a comprehensive manner. Instead, the failure of the human condition manifests itself as an inability to truly empathize, rather than sympathize, with another. Empathy allows humans to feel and know what another feels and knows. According to Wharton, the structure of dialogue in which self-motivating influence muddles revelations of the truth prevents complete understanding and instead leads to an incomplete view of reality. Therefore, no matter how much one experiences or knows, the life they lead is not truly defined solely by what it seems to them alone. A comprehensive definition of the happenings and reasons for any given life is not fully rendered until all perspectives are accounted for.
The cultural lessons suggested by “Roman Fever” is one that outlines a structure of human interaction that promotes individualistic assumptions, limits true discourse, and leaves much for one to question. The notion that one cannot fully understand his or her own life is a daunting one. Even at the end of the story, when the truth of the affair is revealed to both parties, do Ansley and Slade finally understand each other or know the truth of their lives? This argument suggests that they do not, as this is one singular event, and still not a comprehensive study of perspectives. Additionally, by accepting the suggestion made in this text, one lacks a solution to the problem at hand. Knowing that life is never as it seems, can one properly or fully live life or connect with another human being? Is it impossible to avoid the assumptions that humans perpetuate amidst a need for independence and individual success? Finally, if it is possible to overcome these assumptions will life no longer be concealed under a false reality, or will a lack of listening remain as the prohibiting force in human communication? These questions will emerge in the minds of Wharton’s readers as they delve into her short story and proposed rhetorical issue.
Jackie Royster’s scenic analysis of Edith Wharton’s “Roman Fever” allows readers to reflect upon the notion that due to the nature of human interaction and self-motivated assumptions, knowledge and experience can never fully reveal the truth of an individual’s life. Wharton makes an explicit move to challenge the way in which people interact by suggesting that this interaction is failing to foster honesty and progress to the human condition. One is left with the realization that life, as often noted, is truly a mystery. One may claim to know much, and yet, there is a perspective, an idea, or a lifestyle that they know nothing about which bears meaning on their own life. Ironically, this lack of knowledge and understanding is even true among the closest of companions.
Works Cited
Royster, Jacqueline. “When the First Voice You Hear is Not Your Own”. D2L. Marquette U. Web. 20 April 2011.
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Get custom essayWharton, Edith. Roman Fever and Other Stories. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1964.
There is a Latin phrase “Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur,” which translates to “The world wants to be deceived, so let it be deceived” (Sebastian). These words resonate particularly well when applied to Albert Camus’ The Stranger. To conform to and become insiders in society, the characters in The Stranger deceive themselves into believing that the world is explicable by blindly accepting established social constructs. In doing so, they delude themselves into rationalizing Meursault’s motivations for his murder and accepting Meursault’s execution by replacing the pursuit of justice with the spectacle of entertainment. Those in the minority, including Meursault, are rejected by society because they refuse to yield to social constructs. Camus uses Meursault’s trial and execution as symbols of society’s willingness to deceive itself, choosing entertainment over truth. Camus warns the reader that this subversion distracts us into feeling more comfortable with inexplicable events of the world by allowing us to ignore the absurdity of our customs and conventions.
Using the trial as a symbol of self-deception in society, Camus shows that the legal system is a flawed coping mechanism that insiders use to rationalize actions in an illogical world. Before the trial begins, Meursault, an outsider observing the insiders’ world, notices that the jury “joked and laughed and looked completely at ease” (85). The jury, representative of society, comes to the trial for entertainment rather than to objectively observe and judge it. This implication is further supported by the news reporters, who have “somewhat snide look[s]” (85). Although they are also expected to be unbiased, their faces indicate otherwise. Instead of looking for truth, the reporters bring their prejudices to the trial. Additionally, the newspapers “blow open [Meursault’s] case a little . . . [since] summer is the slow season for news” (84), showing again that the trial is less about justice for Meursault and more about an entertaining story - a mere distraction. Instead of seeking veracity, the insiders, including the reporters and the jury, care more about remaining at ease, even if this requires deception. The prosecutor sets up a comfort zone for himself and the insiders in the courtroom by articulating that Meursault’s soul has become “an abyss threatening to swallow up society” (101). Instead of basing his speech on legitimate evidence, the prosecutor is spurred by society’s need to rid Meursault, the source of discomfort. The prosecutor’s words provide rationalization for the jury and allow it to reject Meursault's defense. As a result of the prosecutor’s speech, the jury can feel more comfortable sentencing Meursault to death. Indeed, after explaining that Meursault has no soul, the prosecutor speaks for society when he says, “I ask you for this man’s head . . . and I do so with a heart at ease.” (102). Though society views Meursault’s murder of the Arab as morally wrong, the prosecutor has no qualm about taking Meursault's life. This hypocrisy shows how society deceives itself into accepting Meursault’s execution while being repulsed by his homicide. Additionally, the prosecutor’s long and dramatic speech is about amusing the audience and jury with dramatic hyperbole. When the judge asks Meursault for his motivation for killing the Arab, Meursault “[blurts] out that it was because of the sun” (103). This assertion amuses the audience, which rejects Meursault’s explanation with laughter. Instead of accepting the discomforting absurdity that Meursault attributes his impulse to murder to a natural and ordinary phenomena, the jury listens to the prosecutor. Even the defense attorney is complicit in the verdict since he fails to adequately defend Meursault, as the attorney chooses to “not file any motions [for overturning the verdict] so as not to antagonize the jury” (106). The insiders, such as Meursault’s defense attorney, the prosecutor, and the jury, accept Meursault’s death sentence. Using the trial as a symbol representing society’s ability to deceive itself, Camus shows that the insiders justify incomprehensible actions in the irrational world and find comfort in thinking that all events can be reduced to and understood through flawed human logic, whether it is by attributing Meursault’s murder of the Arab to his outsiderness status or justifying Meursault’s death through a trial.
In the symbolic trial, Camus further shows that insiders classify those who do not abide by the same rules as themselves as outsiders to reaffirm their own sense of belonging. Before the trial begins, Meursault, an outsider and detached observer, notices that “everyone was waving and exchanging greetings” (84). He does not take part in these greetings as he himself is an outsider. Meursault makes this more explicit when he explains that it was like “[those in the courtroom] were in a club where people are glad to find themselves among others from the same world” (84). This statement captures how justice is as exclusive and superficial as clubs are. By rejecting Meursault, the insiders can find consolation in the fact they are not like Meursault and that their social constructs create reason in the world. However, this consolation is deceptive. Since Meursault attributes his murder to the sun and the prosecutor attributes the murder to Meursault’s soullessness, this shows that logic in this particular case is an illusion. Meursault isn’t the only one to be bounced by the club – society ostracizes Meursault’s associates as well. For example, Marie is rejected simply by her association with Meursault. When she first enters the courtroom, the prosecutor immediately paints her as an outsider when he forces her to admit that her “liaison” (93) with Meursault started the day after Maman’s funeral and that she watched a comedy movie with Meursault that same afternoon. By associating Marie with Meursault’s supposedly illogical behavior, the prosecutor portrays her as cold and uncaring. In a final theatrical act, the prosecutor shames her, criticizes her actions with Meursault, and emphatically states, “I have nothing else to say” (94). Through melodramatic actions and words, the prosecutor separates Marie from society. Once society determines Marie to be an outsider, no one listens when she says, “that she knew [Meursault] and [he] hadn’t done anything wrong” (94). The judge then orders the bailiffs to physically remove Marie from the courtroom, an action symbolic of her estrangement. Similarly, Raymond, Meursault’s “pal” (96), is detached from the insiders as well. The prosecutor, in the same dramatic language, accuses Raymond of being a pimp and friend of Meursault, who committed “the basest of crimes, a crime made worse than sordid by the fact that they were dealing with a monster” (96). The phrases “worse than sordid” and “monster” denote Meursault and Raymond, by association, as pariahs. Rather than obtain more information about Meursault, the prosecutor seems to put Raymond on trial for the entertainment of the jury. The prosecutor’s words “[seem] to have a strong effect on the people in the courtroom” (96), suggesting that the speech was for theatrical impact. This drama distracts the jury from the purpose of the trial, which is to offer Meursault due process. Through Meursault, Marie, and Raymond, Camus continues to use the trial as a symbol of self-deception and shows that insiders create outsiders to feel more comfortable with themselves.
Camus uses the execution as another symbol of society’s self-deceit to show how insiders value comfort over justice. To feel at ease, the insiders are left with no choice: they must rid themselves of Meursault, who challenges social norms. When the prosecutor delivers his final tirade against Meursault, he proclaims, “the wholly negative virtue of tolerance must give way to the sterner but loftier virtue of justice” (101). Though society obtains comfort by believing that it is obtaining justice and restoring order, in reality, the execution is a farce. Rather than punish Meursault for his act, society punishes him for his non-compliance of societal rules and for being an outsider. Additionally, the execution is a farce since the guillotine is a vehicle of entertainment rather than justice. In his essay Reflections on the Guillotine, Camus states that the guillotine is “a terrible spectacle” (Camus). Meursault wishes for “a large crowd of spectators [on the] day of [his] execution” (123), suggesting that society sees his death as a show. Rather than a way to avenge the Arab’s death, the trial and execution are society’s methods of confirming that Meursault’s actions are wrong, and that therefore, its own constructs and norms are correct. Camus uses the guillotine as a symbol to represent the self-deception of society that continues to choose comfort rather than justice.
Using Meursault’s trial and execution as symbols of society’s willingness to deceive itself, Camus emphasizes the idea that insiders prefer to be comfortable rather than seek justice or question their social customs. Society rejects and persecutes the indifferent Meursault, who seemingly commits murder without rhyme or reason, in order to maintain the illusion of rationality in their universe. By executing Meursault, the insiders uphold their sense of belonging in society. Ultimately, Camus suggests that looking for rationality in an absurd world leads to self-deception, a skewed view of justice, and an inability to see the truth.
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Get original essayIn this passage by Harriet Jacobs, located in the slave narrative Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, the character Linda directs her thoughts to the reader in response to comments made by an ignorant slave owner. The man goes on about how he knows what slaves want and how hard it is to be maltreated and thought of as less due to one's own physical features. In a time of oppression and dehumanization achieved by white people through slavery, often time slave owners would speak for their slaves to assert their power even more so.
Get original essayBecause this passage promptly follows a moment in which a slaveholder does exactly that, Jacobs makes it seem as though Linda is confident enough in what she has to say that at that moment in time, that she is the one in a position of power and not the white male. This makes the passage picked incredibly powerful because not only does Jacobs make it clear why the slave owner does not understand the perspective of slaves, but gives numerous glimpses into what it truly means to be a slave. She is able to recount the horrors she has witnessed and stuns the reader through recalling gruesome and awful accounts of dehumanization. Through the initial line “what does he know,” (Jacobs 64), the italicizing of “he” strips the slave owner of credibility, making it clear to the reader that Linda knows more about being a slave than he does. He has no reason to be speaking on behalf of slaves when in reality, he will never face even half of the terrible things many Africans witnessed. Jacobs also questions the reader using repetition, further establishing her role as the dominant voice. The questions that are asked give glimpses of the horror many slaves had to face during the years of forced oppression and further give the reader feeling that Jacobs is sure of what she is saying and therefore, the dominant voice in this situation.
Through this passage, Jacobs is able to portray the strong will that Linda possesses and displays throughout the entire story. She shows the perspective of a slave who has suffered while also alluding to the fact that even though she has suffered, she’s survived through different a number of different coping mechanisms.
Long time ago, the ones who reigns supreme are men. But as the time evolves and changes into something positive, many problems arise from that single conflict.Way back then, women are degraded regardless of their race, age, color and stand on the society. Those mentioned problems were somehow resolved but also in that moment, discrimination rose from that solution. How? The moment white women are starting to gain confidence and authority to speak for themselves, they are starting to belittle those who does not blend in to their colors. And that is what Hidden Figures is all about.
Get original essayThis is a story of the three significant and powerful African-Americanwomen who stand against all odds and rose above the challenges in life to be the champions of their destiny. Going back to the first time I have watched the film, I thought it was just a story of three mothers who are trying to prove themselves that even though they are starting to get old, they can still accomplish something big that they can be really proud of.
One of the examples is Mary Jackson, a mother who felt the need get a degree in Engineering to fulfil her greatest dream of becoming an aerospace engineer at NASA. But as the film progressed, there is so much more than what the eyes can conceive and mind can comprehend. It is not just a story of three black women who are doing their best to make a name in their chosen fields. It also highlighted their struggles that because of their colors, they are being discriminated. Not just them but also those who shares the same color with them. We are blinded and manipulated by those “labels” that we put on everyone around us.
In the film, black people and white people are separated. Black women are entitled only to use “colored restroom” and those who are white, are free to use regular bathrooms. Even outside the company, black people are controlled and hindered by labels. Discrimination limited them to act as a free individual in the United States because of the less privilege that are receiving. But these three women disregarded those barriers and break the rules to change the old system.
Mary Jackson enrolled herselfin an all-white school and head-high, received her degree. Dorothy Vaughan secretly studied and learned programming and later appointed as the Supervisor of the Analysis and Computation Division at Langley. And last, Katherine Goble successfully calculated the trajectory and motion of Project Mercury. The film is presented in the best way possible that it can make you shed a tear and feel like you are part of their success. A film for all ages that embodies equality, women empowerment and above all, respect for having diversity and unique differences.
Pablo Escobar was a latter day Robinhood and a terrorizing criminal rolled into one. By the mid 1990s, Pablo Escobar emerged as the foremost emblem of the drug-related violence that fired Columbia during the 80s and early 90s. Pablo Escobar and other drug lords rose to prominence in Medellin and Cali. With the instatiable demand of cocain from America, their fortune grew at a rate that seemed nothing short of a miracle. And with this demand grew their ambition. Ultimately leading to overpowering ideas and their implementattion.
Get original essayPablo Escobar was such a figure, with the power and voilence and sucess, that he is a suitabel structure in the current times of how ambition can be over turned. He ruled the medellin cartel with trememdous voilence. He encouraged corruption at every level of the government. He stole, killed and destroyed the mostly innocent lives of the people who became addicted to or died from cocain addiction, including those who tried to either terminate this buisness or conquer his position. At the same time, Escobar was a supremly generous man for the poor people of columbia. He enjoyed giving to others and thus was seen creating infrastructures like soccer fields etc. He was supremly generous to the poor poeple of columbia Portrayal of event in History was based on perspectives of few that gained ground in the vast arena of the world.
Power, Money and Violence captures the imagination more quickly than routine sublimation of art and culture. Even technology unbiquitously enters r lives, outdating the earlier versions. The media has evoled from the scroll, lithograph, newspaper, television state run to privatised conlomerates to modern day netflix versions of history. Swamped with options probably user still reigns superme with his/her choice to pay monthly subscriptions. Net series like Narcos? spread across 20-30 episodes in 3 seasons definitely will keep user choice in mind. The plit can be what is acceptable to the US govt with only its treatment left to the producers and Directors to ring the cash registers. In short only Govt accepted if not tacity approved narratives will see the light of day. What can sell is well! Any govt will hold a major part in approving the context of whatever is being potrayed. As in the earlier time we had the historical narrative which was more controlled by the States, and the buearucracy and the aristocracy, now it is money and the govt defenitly affect the cen.
Pablo Escobar was such a figure, with the power and violence and success, that he is a suitabel structure in the current times of how ambition can be over turned and the Americans have their perspective of trying to contain the drugs that finally made their way into Miami and other parts of US. Mackenzie Dawson (2015) in his review in the New York Post commented about the reality-based drama: “You cannot make this up. People say that all the time, but in this case, you simply cannot. While some dramatic liberties have been taken in this show, particularly with the timeline, all of the major events actually happened, and you can Google them after each episode to read up on them. ” Despite the amount of harm he caused the country, Escobar continues to be a subject of morbid curiosity for the Colombian audience and for audiences around the globe (Pobutsky, 2013)
More often than not, these narconovelas end up skimping on history, and celebrating the extravagant lifestyle that drug trafficking allowed (Pobutsky, 2013) Netflix’s Narcos seems to fall under this new subgenre, where the lives of famous drug lords such as Escobar are depicted under the impression of an accurate historical framework, but in the end, glorify the “achievements” that drugs enabled them. It was also important for the audience to satisfy their sense of curiosity; crime dramas exposed a world they weren’t familiar with and they wanted to find out more (Brown et al. , 2012). In addition, Brown et al. (2012) were able to find that social interaction, having something to talk about with other people, is also a primary motivation for people and drives them to watch shows that can become topics of conversation.
Stevens Aubrey et al. (2012) found that college-aged viewers are attracted to reality programming to satisfy instrumental needs. These needs include the ability to use media as conversation fodder, allowing them to further interact with viewers their own age who are also attracted to reality programming. Previous studies argued that current events and news programming were more likely to satisfy these needs (Rubin, 1983). Narcos as a web show attracts audience from both countries and can be studies within an audience-centered framewokr for both audiences. Simon Bolivar is viewd as a national icon in much of modern South America. He is considered one of the great heros of the Hispanic independence movements of the early 19th century In recent years, “narco novelas” have become a staple of Spanish-language television, and I have avoided them like the plague. (Bernardo Aparicio García)
While surfing through the critics commenting on the web series of Narcos, one may find comparisons of Narcos being made with Breaking Bad, Goodfellas and other such series, however the question to deal here with is that could a columbian view the story of Pablo Escobar as entertainment? Pablo Escobar and other drug lords rose to prominence in Medellin and Cali. With the instatiable demand of cocain from America, their fortune grew at a rate that seemed nothing short of a miracle. And with this demand grew their ambition. Ultimately leading to overpowering ideas and their implementattions. A formidable combination of intelligence and street smarts enabled Pablo Escobar to rise above his comtemporaries “By the late 70s, cocain became more fashionable as the disco era got into full swing. It became a club drug as well as a powerful pick me up for Wall Street executives. The demand was enorfumus, and Pablo Escobar wanted in on as much of the business as possible”. “Despite its claims to “historical accuracy. ” Narcos creators have in stea hijacked history, car bombed it, and then mixed and matched its thousands of pieces, events and characters together in the name of artistic license and in pursuit of new markets. More generally, the Netflix series reflects the deeper problems of relegating the culture, politics, and the history of Columbia to a site for commercial purpose. (Lina Britto)
History has a charatier of repesting itself without copyinhamerica-safeguard society India- udta punjab national interest-territoral distaance. Cocaine was hugely profitable in Colombia, and it has been suggested that in 1985 the profits made from the cocaine trade represented 8. 7 percent of Colombia’s GDP. An important way in which Columbians remember Pablo Escobar has been the strong national desire to separate contemporary Columbia from its more violence past. Many Columbians have repeatedly been concerned about the fact that their nation continues to be strongly associated with the drug trade, and drug-related violence, on an international platform. Although drug related violence continued to affect certain sectors of Colombian society after 1993, this violence once again returned to the peripheries – geographical, cultural, and social – of Colombia’s landscape. The desire to distance Colombia from its most notorious era of violence has encouraged the transformation of Pablo Escobar into an emblematic memory.
Throughout the novel Life of Pi by Yann Martel, the protagonist, Pi Patel struggles with survival yet manages to maintain a level-headed outlook on his situation. He does not lose his belief in God, in whatever form He may take, although physically he begins to lose hope. He is able to remain rational through believing the irrational. He maintains his humanity throughout the entire novel, and as a result is able to survive both physically and emotionally and eventually be assimilated back into society and normal life.
Get original essayAs one’s physical body breaks down, his or her mind automatically turns to survival and only survival. This change in mindset has caused people throughout history to make choices in a time of distress that they otherwise would never have even considered. The body and mind turn to the most basic needs: food, water, and shelter. Basically, anything other than those three essential elements of survival loses precedent in terms of overall priorities in one’s existence. There have been many historical instances where a boat sank and people became stranded, and they turned to cannibalism to survive. One of these cases was the case of Richard Parker, a cabin boy who was eaten by two other crew members after they became stranded in a lifeboat together. That case became famous after the crew members were tried and convicted for murder, and the cabin boy is the partial namesake of the tiger Richard Parker in Life of Pi.
Pi has many “tactics” that he uses during his time at sea in order to maintain his sanity, morals, and humanity. He constantly occupies his brain with a wide range of thoughts, from God to new methods of fishing. He turns to believing the irrational, but instead of allowing it to construe his perception of reality, he uses it as a portal to escape from his current existence, and as a way to occupy his brain with thoughts other than the barbaric thoughts of survival that he is trying to avoid. According to Pi himself, “Only fear can defeat life,” and so he uses these irrational thoughts and ideas, as well as his love and belief in God, to avoid fear and occupy his days (Martel 161). It is possible that his entire journey was a case of him believing the irrational, as he presents a new story without a tiger after he reaches Mexico. Because he is an introvert and has an ability to occupy himself through only his thoughts, he is able to survive and maintain a stable state of mind throughout the ordeal.
There are times, as there would be with any human, that Pi’s faith waned and he struggled to uphold his morals. The difference between him and people of other doomed journeys who reverted to things such as cannibalism was that he was able to recognize and immediately put a stop to these moments of barbaric behavior. At one put he recognizes his eating habits are becoming animalistic, and he states, “It came as an unmistakable indication to me of how low I had sunk the day I noticed, with a pinching of the heart, that I ate like an animal, that was this noisy, frantic, unchewing, wolfing-down of mine was exactly the way Richard Parker ate” (Martel 225). It is said the first step, and the most important, to solving a problem is recognizing it, and Pi is able to recognize this problem of him becoming animalistic, and take steps to solve it. One of his methods for solving this problem is he makes sure that whenever he is forced to eat an animal, he always says a prayer for it before he eats it. This helps him to accept that he is eating a living creature.
Although it took him somewhat of a heroic effort, Pi managed to maintain his humanity throughout his journey. His belief not only in God, but also in the irrational, occupy his time without distorting his reality. Although he does lose sight of his humanity and begins to revert to barbaric methods, he is able to keep these actions under control, and when he finally reaches Mexico, he is still a sane and rational person. Many people might say he did not maintain his humanity, but because he was assimilated back into normal life, and still had a sense of morals, there is no argument that he was not able to. His ability to right his course when he begins to lose sight of his humanity is essential to his mental survival, and he uses it to enable himself to remain sane and keep his mind sharp.
Uniqueness is a struggle to find throughout literature, especially within recreations of previously published stories. Once a story is told, the originality begins to dissipate and the audience skews the story. Popular novels transforming into films can be altered as well. This is specifically noticeable in the critically acclaimed story, Life of Pi, originally written by Yann Martel and then produced into a film by Ang Lee. Life of Pi focuses on the life of an intelligent and charismatic man named Piscine Molitor Patel, however, he goes by the nickname of Pi. His family and himself owned a zoo, but sold it to move to Canada, they traveled through a freighter and brought along a few of their animals; however, a storm had hit the sea and the only survivors were Pi and a Bengal tiger, known as Richard Parker. After the devastating storm, Pi and Richard began to learn about survival. The transformation of the novel being produced as a film has minor similarities and significant differences, hence Ang Lee’s theatrical version of Life of Pi does not reflect Yann Martel’s original artistic vision well. For instance, the film includes a lover associating with Pi, excludes a distinctive introduction to his life, the tone set, and his discovery of a new religious study.
Get original essayTo begin, Yann Martel avoids introducing a character that is infatuated with Pi, although the expression of love still exists in his life. Throughout the entire novel, it is evident Pi has love to share, but not towards a female figure. He expresses love towards his family, with respect, also to animals, with interacting, and of curiosity, by taking all opportunities to learn. For example, in the introduction Pi confesses his opinion of life, “Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it, a jealous, possessive love that grabs at what it can” (Martel, 6). He acknowledges that life is extremely desirable that even a horrid matter, such as death, wants it. Thus, the only love clearly shown in the novel is Pi’s admiration for what is in his life.
Dissimilar to the text, Ang Lee’s film creates a character that infatuates with Pi for a short period. During one of his drumming lessons, there is a dance class occurring as well and he meets a young female. They form an intimate relationship with each other, yet he breaks up with her before he leaves India with his family. However, Ang Lee kept the presence of Pi’s admiration towards Richard because their relationship is the most significant one in the story. Despite the inclusion of Pi’s love that is noticeable within the text, the inclusion of a romantic aspect was not necessary. The moral of the story regards Pi and his interaction with life, specifically with the environment and animals. Therefore, the addition of a romantic aspect does not reflect the original story of Life of Pi since it is irrelevant to the moral.
Furthermore, Yann Martel incorporates a descriptive introduction to Pi’s life, which is entitled as part one. Within part one, his childhood is brought upon and the life of him that occurred prior to the family’s flee. In particular, the narration includes details of his study of three-toed sloths, the teasing of his name, the zoo his family took care of, his arrival in Canada, and his religious studies. Hence, part one is to describe his life in Pondicherry, India and Toronto, Canada. The details support who Pi Patel is as a person, such as his characteristic traits, beliefs, and facts. It helps to build the character of Pi. Yet, this was not taken into consideration by Ang Lee.
The film’s introduction of Pi’s life is too vague and consists of unnecessary detail. For instance, the film excludes the details of Pi’s study of the three-toed sloths that is significant evidence of his intelligence, yet the film only includes the scene of a class teasing his name to show the life of education in reference to Pi. With the lack of detail of his education, the audience is absent to his brilliance and determination. In addition, an unnecessary detail that was mentioned previously, such as the romantic aspect of Pi having a girlfriend, is not definite to express his childhood in India. Thus, Ang Lee’s in consideration of major details did not positively influence the original story.
Moreover, the tone of the book and movie were very dissimilar to each other. The tone is the representing mood within a story, and the tone of the book is quite sad because of the numerous experiences of suffering, specifically when the storm hits and he loses the lives of his family members. The dialogue in the book includes the thoughts of Pi, which creates a stronger acknowledgment of his suffering and feelings towards what occurs in his life. Despite the film having minor similarities in scenes, it did not set the same tone.
The movie sets a tone of glory and beauty, regardless of the suffering that Pi experiences. The tone is positive because the Pi’s thoughts are not in consideration and the special effects, such as the hallucinated whale that jumps out of the water at night. The involvement of modern technology enlightens the mood of the audience, especially with the whale because it is astonishing graphics and helps the audience to disregard the bitter moments. Therefore, the tone enlightens as well. Due to the tone having disparity from the original tone set in the book, it clearly does not display Life of Pi correctly.
Finally, a significant discovery is found by Pi, which is his acceptance of the Catholicism, religion; however, it is found differently in the novel and the film. For instance, in the text, Pi, and his family travel to Munnar and visit the Catholic Church. Pi is exposed to Jesus Christ and continues to have sessions with the priest, Father Martin, to increase his knowledge of the religion. Pi respectively considers the religion and learns of it with an open mind; this reveals positive personal attributes of him, such as tolerant and charitable.
Contradicting to the text, the film acknowledges Pi’s Christianity from his brother daring him to trespass into the Catholic Church and to drink the holy water, which he does. He then meets with the priest and learns about Jesus Christ. Hence, there is a significant dissimilarity and Ang Lee’s version forms a negative image of Pi, such as being a foolish and quite repulsive person for trespassing and accepting a childish dare from his brother. Considering Pi was a scholar and a prestigious man, the scene did not express the life of him from the novel appropriately.
Overall, Ang Lee’s abstract version of Life of Pi did not display the authentic written version created by Yann Martel. This is due to the differences that occur between the two literary works, which is evident throughout an addition of a romantic element, the description of Pi’s life before and after the incident, the general attitude that the audiences can create, and lastly, Pi’s approach towards the religious study of Catholicism. Hence, the creation of visuals can ruin the authenticity of the words.
“Books and dreams were what I lived in and domestic life only seemed to buzz gently around, like bees about the grass,”
Get original essayAt a time, when poetry was considered a noble art worthy of a man’s intellectual supremacy, a handful of women poets ventured forth to make their own mark in the 19th century’s History of English Literature. Women were expected to write, if ever, only about love, nature or spirituality, none of which demanded much intellectual fervour. Consequently, when Elizabeth Barrett Browning challenged that very conservative notion of the Victorian society with her dealings of significant social and political scene of the day, – that included war, nationalism, gender equality, industrialisation, slavery, religious controversy, manipulation of power and the strive for freedom on various fronts- she was marked at first as unconventional and combative, but when the quality of her work surfaced, was received with utmost reverence and highest critical esteem among them all.
Eldest among 8 brothers and 4 sisters, Elizabeth Barrett Moulton-Barrett (nicknamed ‘Ba’) was born on 6th March 1806, in Coxhoe Hall, between the villages of Coxhoe and Kelloe in County Durham, England to Edward Barrett Moulton Barrett and Mary Graham Clarke.
Elizabeth was blessed with a lavish upbringing amidst a wealthy family, her father being an extensive sugar-plantation owner in Jamaica and the proprietor of “Hope End”, a 500 acres land, in Herefordshire between the market town of Ledbury and the Mavern Hills. Mr. Barrett turned their old house of Georgian architecture into stables and set up, for them, an opulent mansion adorned with ornate Turkish designs, which his wife couldn’t help comparing with that of the fairy tales of Arabian Nights.
Elizabeth spent her early days riding her pony in the lanes around the Barrett estate, which constituted of farmers’ cottages, gardens, woodlands, ponds, carriage roads, and had an overall feel of serenity to it. She would go out for walks and picnics to the countryside with her siblings and meet other county families for tea. The Barrett children also participated in home produced theatrical acts. Elizabeth, however, unlike her other siblings, preferred the company of her books over socialising, and would immerse herself in that luxury whenever she could free herself from the social obligations.
She belonged to an unfortunate time when the need for educating women was still being debated upon, not that it could stop her from acquiring the knowledge she desired; Elizabeth received education at home from her oldest brother, Daniel McSwiney, and an array of jewel books were at the constant disposal of her never-quenching thirst for reading. Consequently, before crossing the threshold of age 10, she had read the histories of England, Greece and Rome; several of Shakespeare’s plays, including Othello and The Tempest; portions of Pope’s Homeric Translations; and passages from Paradise Lost. At an autobiographical sketch written when she was 14, she said that at 11 she “felt the most ardent desire to understand the learned languages”. Except for some lessons on Greek and Latin from a tutor who came to teach her brother, she was, as spoken of later by Robert Browning, “self-taught in almost every respect”. Having mastered the languages it took her but a few years to go through the works of noted Greek and Latin authors, the Greek Christian fathers, several plays by Racine and Moliere, as well as a portion of Dante’s Inferno- all in their original languages. Meanwhile she also wrapped her mind around enough Hebrew to read and understand the entire of the Old Testament.
The words possessed her at the very tender age of four and thus began her literary journey. At age six, she received from her father, for “some lines on virtue penned with great care”, a ten-shilling note addressed to “the Poet-Laureate of Hope End”. At twelve she presented to her family her own Homeric epic in four books of rhyming couplet, “The Battle of Marathon”, and it was privately printed by her proud father, in 1820. Elizabeth later on commented on this composition of hers saying that it was “Pope’s Homer done over again, or rather undone”. It is now considered as one of her rarest works, with only a handful copies known to exist. Her mother’s compilation of her poetry of this time, as “Poems by Elizabeth B. Barrett”, forms one of the largest collections extant of juvenilia by any English writer. Mary Russell Mitford, a contemporary writer who later on became a close friend, described young Elizabeth of this age, as having “a slight delicate figure, with a shower of curls falling on each side of a most expressive face; large, tender eyes, richly fringed by dark eyelashes, and a smile like a sunbeam”.
It is said that Elizabeth met an accident at 15 while saddling her pony and suffered grave head and spinal injury, the effect of which haunted her physic for the rest of her life along with lung problems that developed later in her life, which diagnosed by modern science leads to Tuberculosis. She was prescribed laudanum (an opium concoction) followed by morphine, which made her dependent to them from an early age to much of adulthood, leading to the frailty of her health in the long run. Alethea Hayter, a biographer, has suggested this dependence on drugs as resulting in her vivid imagination and the poetry it produced.
Elizabeth lost her mother in 1828 and was, along with her siblings, taken under the care of her aunt. In 1831 her Grandma passed away, and shortly afterwards her father faced lawsuit and the abolition of slavery, which in turn led him to sell “Hope End”. Although the family never hit rock bottom in terms of financial strength, they did suffer a great deal of financial loss with the added embarrassment of having to sell their beloved estate. The eleven children and their father then moved to Sidmouth, on the southern coast of Devonshire, and lived there for a while.
They spent three years shifting between several rented houses in the coastal area, and finally settled in the 50 Wimpole Street of London, in 1835. It took Elizabeth a while to sync with the concrete, bustling city life while she missed the open sky, fresh sea breeze and the sound of the waves; but it wasn’t long before she saw the charm of living in a metropolis, which was, moreover, a buzzing ground of literary and artistic activities. There she became completely engrossed in the world of literature and consecutively produced some of her best works. Unfortunately the weakness of her lungs took a heavy toll on her health and she was advised to leave the city life for the time being. Torquay, on the south coast of Devonshire, was pin-pointed, and there she remained under constant care of physicians along with family members who took turns to keep her company.
In February, 1840, her brother, Samuel, died of a terrible fever; and shortly after that, her favourite brother, Edward (whom she lovingly called “bro”), who had been with her constantly at Torquay, was snatched away from her by the ruthless sea. Gravely traumatised she gave in to this grief, never being able to talk about it even to those who were her closest. Elizabeth returned to Wimpole Street in 1841.
The very first publication of her works was a slender volume entitled An Essay on Mind, with Other Poems (1820), released in anonymity. Intrigued by her literary intellect, Hugh Stuart Boyd, a blind, middle-aged dilettante scholar living not far from Elizabeth, approached her with an intention of becoming familiar with a woman of such poetic genius. Boyd had published numerous volumes of translations from the Greek patristic writings at his own expense; He used to share his works with her and often invited her to his place, where he lived with his wife and daughter. Her pent up starvation for an intellectual companionship met its satiation in these meetings with Boyd, and she found herself entering into a strong bond of friendship. Boyd’s frequent presence helped her rekindle her love for Greek literature, and during this period, she filled her reading soul going through a lot of classical Greek literature as Homer, Pindar, the Tragedians, Aristophanes, and passages from Plato, Aristotle, Isocrates, and Xenophon, as well as the Greek Christian Fathers Boyd had translated.
While at Sidmouth, she anonymously published Prometheus Bound (translated from Aeschylus’s Greek one) and Miscellaneous Poems. She retranslated the Prometheus Bound in 1850, as the former one wasn’t well received; this new version was much more promising and held a lot of improvements, which spoke a lot about her maturing as a poet through time and dedicated nurturing of her culture.
The Seraphim and Other Poems (1838), was the first publication with the poet’s name on the cover, or in her own words, “the first utterance of my own individuality”. This work of hers opened doors to allow the flood of praise from both England and America; her place as a poet was lifted up by the audience who considered her a promising young poet of prodigious capability.
The poem Isobel’s Child, with its portrayal of a dying baby cradled all night in his mother’s arms, became a favourite among critics and general public alike. The well-known critic, John Wilson (“Christopher North”), expressed his appreciation saying that there was a beauty in all her poems and that some were “altogether beautiful”.
During her time in London she was introduced to literary legends as William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Alfred Tennyson and Thomas Carlyle, by her distant cousin and lifelong friend, John Kenyon. She corresponded with other writers and continued to write, creating “The Romaunt of Margaret”, “The Romaunt of the Page”, “The Poet’s Vow”, for numerous magazines and periodicals.
At the time when she returned Wimpole Street from Torquay, almost paralysed with grief and illness, she felt like her youth has left her and all there was to look forward to was lifelong invalidism and home arrest. To silence her demons with the harmony of her world, she decorated her room with busts of Homer and Chaucer and later with engravings of Browning (before being an acquaintance), Tennyson, Carlyle, Harriet Martineau and Wordsworth, and mostly stayed in her room. Relieved of all household burdens unlike other women of her time, owing to her illness, she enjoyed the luxury of devoting herself completely to literature; she read English and French fiction and memoirs, wrote letters, essays and poetry. She wasn’t comfortable meeting strangers and only two people other than her family were allowed to visit her in her room- John Kenyon and Mary Mitford. The kind affection of Mary Mitford brought a new companion in her life with a spaniel named Flush; her feelings towards Flush and how he made her life a little better are accounted in the poems ‘Flush or Faunus’ and ‘To Flush, My Dog’, wherein she has immortalised their bond. Virginia Woolf later produced a novel named ‘Flush: a Biography’ inspired by and based on him.
The period of 1841 to 1844 was the spring season of Elizabeth’s literary career. Among all the other flowers in her lush garden, the most notable one was ‘The Cry of the Children’, published in 1842 for Blackwood’s. Though she belonged to a different social strata and was far removed from the pathos of the poem’s subject, yet her description of the little children working in mines and toiling away their childhood to early deaths, their thoughts, feelings and numbness towards positivity, gives ample evidence of her ardent concern for basic human rights.
1844 marked the publishing of two volumes of ‘Poems’, which comprised of ‘A Drama of Exile’, ‘A Vision of Poets’ and ‘Lady Geraldine’s Courtship’ and two substantial critical essays for 1842 issues of The Athenaeum; of them, the most loved short poem was Lady Geraldine’s Courtship; A Romance of the Age. Edgar Allan Poe was mesmerised by this poem to such an extent that he borrowed the poem’s meter for his The Raven, and has further extended his praise in the January 1845 issue of the Broadway Journal, saying that “her poetic inspiration is the highest- we can conceive of nothing more august. Her sense of Art is pure in itself.” Elizabeth, in return, expressed her gratitude by praising The Raven. Furthermore, Poe dedicated his 1845 collection The Raven and Other poems to her, terming her “the noblest of her sex”.
Lady Geraldine’s Courtship was the poem that ushered love in her life, for it was after reading it that Robert Browning wrote a letter to Elizabeth in January 1845, which read, “I love your verses with all my heart, dear Miss Barrett”, and this became the first of all those letters that were to be exchanged between the two. At that time there was a dry spell cast upon Browning’s works and he was yet to achieve his well deserved fame. His parents and sister adored him despite the lack of success in his career, which made him dependent upon his father as none of his publications could raise the expense of the investment behind them. Where he lacked in success unlike Elizabeth, his bountiful energy and good health were in contrast with her feebleness; Browning always dressed in contemporary fashion and enjoyed going to parties where he could spend time with the noted literary figures.
On May 20th, 1845, John Kenyon arranged for the duo to meet in her room and, thus encouraged one of the strongest literary courtships. Initially Elizabeth was of the notion that their love, if progressed will bring nothing but regret to Browning, as she was weak and robbed of youthful radiance and vigour. But after being assured of his passionate affection towards her, she reciprocates the feeling by writing for him one of her most appreciated sonnet, ‘How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Ways’. Both were, apparently, a complement to each other and had the influence enough to bring out the best in the other. Browning’s ‘Men and Women’ and Barrett’s ‘Aurora Leigh’ and ‘Sonnets from the Portuguese’ were products of their inspiration to one another.
In the words of critics, “Until her relationship with Robert Browning began in 1845, Barrett’s willingness to engage in public discourse about social issues and about aesthetic issues in poetry, which had been so strong in her youth, gradually diminished, as did her physical health. As an intellectual presence and a physical being, she was becoming a shadow of herself”. Their marriage had to be arranged secretively as it was against Mr. Barrett’s wishes, who wanted all his children to be solely dependent on him and never to marry; and so it did, on 12 September 1846 at St. Marylebone Parish Church, not far from the Barrett’s house. And soon after they fled to Italy, hoping for a warmer climate where Elizabeth can be healed with time. They were a celebrated couple and were respected by all. Slowly but gradually, Elizabeth started regaining her strength; at the age of 43, between four miscarriages, she gave birth to a healthy baby boy, Robert Wiedeman Barrett Browning, whom they lovingly nicknamed Pen.
In the summer of 1849, Elizabeth showed Robert the forty-four sonnets that she had hitherto kept hidden from him. Overwhelmed with their aesthetics, he encouraged her to include them in her forthcoming edition of Poems (1850). The sonnets, on publication, touched many hearts like that of Robert, and gained critical acceptance as well. Elizabeth had, thereby, reached to such a pinnacle in the literary world, that it was she who was put up as a candidate, against Tennyson, for the title of ‘poet-laureate’ after the demise of Wordsworth in 1850.
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Get custom essayAfter suffering the final blow of severe cough, cold and sore throat, Elizabeth’s body finally succumbed in her husband’s arms in the morning of 29th June. Her body remains buried in the Protestant English Cemetery of Florence. The people of Casa Guidi mourned gravely and shops were closed in her honour on the 1st of July. Robert said that she died “smiling, happily, and with a face like a girl’s… Her last word was… “Beautiful””.