Love is Submission and Sacrifice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Love is Submission and Sacrifice - Essay Example If a person who reads this story is doubtful of Mabel's and Jack's love for each other simply because they do not believe in love at first site, one must consider the fact that, in actuality, they did know each other since long though their previous encounters were formal until they meet at the stream. This story leads us to wonder how long they had really harbored this love for each other. How long had these feelings thrived before bursting at its seams, surprising even Mabel and Jack who experienced them It is very hard to believe their love would unfold so suddenly and dramatically after they seemed to have known each other for so long. There are many different ways their love, if it truly was love, could have manifested. In order to understand Mabel and Jack's capability of love, we must first understand them as people, what their lives were like and the circumstances in which they lived. Mabel in particular seems to have had a harsh life. The author describes her as being a short, sulky young woman with an impressive fixity to her face. He also describes her as being "alone." Since she wasn't friendly with her brothers, there was a lack of affection between them; this is evident when the author states; "There was a strange air of ineffectuality about the three men", ".keeping the home together in penury for her ineffectual brothers" (Lawrence). The author also shows the hatred of the three men towards their sister when, the brothers address Mabel with harsh language "go as a skivvy", " the sulkiest bitch that ever trod." The author has attributed this to her tolerating nature when he states " they had talked at her and around her for so many years, that she hardly heard them at all" (Lawrence). Sad ly, to add to Mabel's depressing situation, she had no friends or colleagues of her own except her sister Lucy, who had married and moved away. Mabel's loneliness did not seem to trouble her because before their father died and left them in huge debts, she was still alone; the only difference was that she was well off financially, and that made her proud and reserved, "but so long as there was money, the girl felt herself established and brutally proud, reserved." She had many servants earlier who used to take care of the house but now that she was left alone in all these years of poverty, she managed to look after the house until the debt their father had left to them had prevailed and everything, including their house was taken over. Mabel had felt self-sufficient but now that everything had come to an end she still has a certain pride "animal pride" that was unstealable. She has a strong character that would never compromise how harsh and difficult situations may be. "Still she would not cast about her, she would follow her own way just the same, and she would always hold the key of her situation". Even now when the situa tion was forcing to give away her pride and asking her to submit herself to others, she made her mind to end life and never bend down in front of others to what the author has described as " glorification of herself ". The pride in her had taken over her sensibility so much that death seemed more appealing then her current situation. However, in the end it is evident that her new life had softened her, she had lost her pride in the pond and now wanted to submit herself for love "she shuffled forward on her knees, put her arms around him." She had changed completely in her new

Michelangelo Antonioni and Women in Film

Michelangelo Antonioni and Women in Film Michelangelo Antonioni was an Italian film director, he was born In Ferrara, northern Italy, 1929. With Fellini he belongs to a so called provincial wave of Italian neorealist filmmakers,  not so distant from the metropolitan colleagues De Sica, Rossellini and Visconti. (Chatman 1985, Tinazzi 1994) While not initially fully appreciated by the tradition audience for his excessive intellectualism and pessimism. ( Crowther 1960, Hawkins 1960, Barthes 1994) Today, Antonioni is regarded one of the most influential personalities in Cinema. (Grenier 1960, Manceaux 1960, Fink 1935, Chatman 1989, Koehler 2015) His most remarkable works concern the sense of anguish and fragility of the modern society. (Di Carlo 1964, Lucantonio 2011) The characters belong to the idle rich society of the Italian post war, their boredom and sense of ennui robbed them of their ability to express their feelings and reduced them to speak in a feeble manner in attempt to conceal their sense of futility.(Chatman 1985, Pomerance 2011) Women, play leading roles Antonioni emphases womens ability to be more honest with human relations. A capacity virtually lost by intellectual men who are unable to supply any sort of sensitiveness. Not given by their inability to provide an alternative to boredom,  but by their complete unresponsiveness.(Pomerance 2011) Alberto Moravia in his Boredom (1960) wrote: Boredom is not the opposite of amusementboredom to me consists in a kind of insufficiency, or inadequacy, or lack of reality. it originates in a sense of the absurdity of a reality which is unable, to convince me of its own effective existence To modern man, the means to restore a link with reality is given by sexuality, however, if sexuality provides only a physical relief Eros is sick Antonioni (1962) says It is a symptom of the emotional sickness of our time [] man is unease, something is bothering him. And whenever something bothers him, man reacts, but he reacts badly, only on erotic impulse, and he is unhappy. Embodying many of the philosophical concerns associated with European existentialists Antonioni exposed the existential dilemma of modern man.(Barthes 1994, Darke 1995, Giannetti 1999, Holden 2006, Tomasulo 2008, Bortolini 2011) Antonioni dehumanized his characters of their personality and used them as devices to show the high psychological complexity of the unstable neurotic personalities of our time. (Lunn 1982, Melzer 2010) Melancholia, incommunicability, emptiness, alienation. All elements that characterize a life lacking in purpose and a general sense of spiritual vacuity Themes that are well represented in LAvventura (1959) and Il Deserto Rosso (1960). (Hoberman 2006) Lavventura, set amongst the remote Sicilian seashore, sees the search for a missing person Anna, disappeared during a boat trip. Sandro, her fiancà ©e, and Claudia, her best friend, start a search in a vain attempt to find her during which become attracted to each other and the search for Anna turns into a desire to not finding her anymore. Il Deserto Rosso, set in the overly industrialized outskirt of Ravenna, sees Giuliana, a neurotic woman, in the desperate attempt to keep a link with reality. Her troubled personality is split between a worried mother for her son Valerio, who fakes to be paralyzed at one point and adulterousness with a Corrado, a business associate of his neglectful husband, Ugo. Claudia and Giuliana seek for utopian ideals into dystopian worlds. From a side the sentimental ideal of Claudia: morally discomforted by choosing between finding her lost companion or keeping the shallow affair with Sandro. And on the other the existential ideal of Giuliana: in the desperate attempt to survive her depression in a sort of Darwinist mechanism of natural selection (Melzer 2010) To the neurotic personality everything appears absurd in life: family, work or even driving a car. Giuliana is a paradigmatic example of it. Jean Paul Sartre (1989) would say she lives in bad faith Living in bad faith means living not authentically, convincing oneself that there are no alternatives and pretending that something out there has meaning. Indeed, she bought a shop in Via Dante Alighieri, but she does not know what to do with it or she escapes by fantasizing about azure lagoons and warm beaches. (Salinari 1960) Giuliana is not frightened by modernity, she is not in tune with the industrialized world that oppresses her stimulus. Giuliana adjusted to this world, and learnt how to circulate in it and even though everyone around her accepted it, she refuses to respond to it Neurosis is the inability to tolerate ambiguity Freud stated (1977) The agonizing malaise of Giuliana, is given by her inability to tolerate a world that does not support her ideals and obliged her to accept her faith In contrast Ugo and Corrado have embraced the spirit of the XIX Century The industrial progress proceeds by neglecting the family bond or slowly crumbling it. Corrado has the spirit of the traveller and sees objects through the landscape in motion. For Corrado it means where to go, what to buy, who to hire, it is all about progress. For Giuliana it means where to stay, who to make boundaries with She needs to see things for their presence and perspective In LAvventura Claudias desire to find Anna is sincere. In spite of Sandro that has no real desire to find her. He would rather leave the mystery unsolved and move on. The characters vagabondage plays as an ephemeral mechanism of self relief to avoid further anxiety or sense of guilt by not even try (Chatman 1989) Both couples communicate through a sense of mutual pity. They try to explain their problems in virtually psychotic terms, though they fail to communicate to each other as they struggle to communicate with themselves first. They suffer from existential anxiety they are in desperate need to fulfil their sterile lives but, they dont know how. As much as Sandro and Corrado try to be supportive they at the end surrender to sexual temptation. Their emotive instinct degraded in consequence of repression and has been endlessly replaced by substitute-objects. (Chatman 1985) Corrado and Sandro are emblematic examples of the Freudian dyad of the modern manwhere the only two concerns of life are work and sex. Their sexual fulfilment is unsatisfactory and guilt ridden, eroticism is used as an anodyne to their moral dilemma and an outlet for frustration. (OLesser 1964) For modernists, sex is a contest and they would swap their beloved to the same extent they would accept or decline a work offer The room where they just spent hours talking about eroticism has no less meaning for them than for us, it can be taken apart to feed the fire as effortlessly as they can meet in there for a party. (Pomerance 2011) The dystopian realities depicted by Antonioni are environments that prevent emotions to flourish and the characters seem almost affected by a shapeless pain that withers their response to emotions. (Chatman1985) Anomie As called by the French sociologist Emile Durkheim(Slattery 2003) He described it as a malaise of the individual which absence of values and associated feelings of alienation lead him to a general sense of purposelessness in life. A concept that Albert Camus perfectly summed in the opening of his The Stranger (1942) Anomie is common in those societies that have gone through a period of significant economic changes and no exception is the post war Italy of the miracolo italiano Industrialization led men to bring together all their knowledge and strength into a sort of Nietzschean superhuman creation where the efficient modern man now, extension of the machine, seems to be at one with life but not less alienated, just unaware of his own condition. Modernity promoted an ideological discrepancy The ever-increasing split between moral man and scientific man [leads to the prevalence of eroticism as] a symptom of the emotional sickness of our time Antonioni (1962) said Modern man does not have the moral tools to match his technological skills and he is incapable to set authentic relationships with either his surrounding or fellows. It is true that Antonioni translated through abstract images the Marxist theory of alienation in order to explain the sense of frustration and rejection of todays society. Nevertheless, it is too simplistic to say that Antonioni is condemning modernity to have created such an unhuman world where the individual is led to neurosis Antonioni (Brunette 1998) intended to translate the poetry of the world where even factories can be beautiful The complexity of lines, shapes and colours merge into a steampunk dichotomy of functional beauty The sublime beauty of such brutalistic architectures matches what George Orwell wrote in The Road to Wigan Pier (1937): All round was the lunar landscape of slag-heaps [] you could see the factory chimneys sending out their plumes of smoke. The canal path was a mixture of cinders, frozen mud []and pools of stagnant water []It seemed a world from which vegetation had been banished[].   But even Wigan is beautiful [].I do not believe that there is anything inherently and unavoidably ugly about industrialism. A factory or even a gasworks is not obliged of its own nature to be ugly, any more than a palace or a dog-kennel or a cathedral. Of all the contributions Antonioni gave to cinema the most important relies in his ability to correlate character to environment. (Tassone 2002, Antonioni 2007) Antonioni was a long-time student of architecture and all his filmssince his early documentaries of Gente del Po (1947) and Nettezza Urbana (1948) show a keen interest in public and private spaces. (Di Carlo 2002) The social and economic changes of post war Italy led to his attentionthe relation existing between place and individual. Movies like LAvventura would be unconceivable without its images of ordinary Sicilian life. Antonioni shows the complex transformation of modernity through modernist aesthetics and uses the socio political situation of Italy as device to show the self awareness of the film. (Reyner 2013) Explanatory dialogues are minimized and architecture, whether natural or artificial, gains its own narrative autonomy. The use of pre diegetic and post diegetic shots also known as temps mort enhances the simulacral quality of the topographics that through their contemplation reveal their implicit meaning. (Chatman 1978, Lefebvre 2006, Bruno 1997, Reyner 2013) The sublime, merciless and bare beauty of inimical Lisca Bianca. The omnipotence and cosmic indifference of cold and distant industrialized Ravenna. The haptical influence of such places on the plight of the characters resonates with strong expressive analogy. (Cuccu 1973, Antonioni 2007) Dialogue and architecture play as co-metonyms, they not only symbolize modernity but they are crude examples of it. The buildings reflect the characters psyche by association. At the beginning of Lavventura Anna speaks to her dad, she is identified through the noisy new building, and similarly her father is matched with the magnificent dome in the distance. The uncanny battlefield of industrial wastage and the jet of steam and flames act as Giulianas repressed inner force which neurosis synthesized in self destructive attitude. (Bruno 1997) The inhospitable rock of the Aeolian Islands stresses the strangeness of the characters to this environment. The haunting silence of Noto resonates with an existential sense of non-belonging. The Euclidean geometry and surface of modern materials dwarfs our characters. Modernity is reflected by the solid appearance of these facilities. And if the sense of security should be provided by their appearance What security does modernity provide if it only causes unease? A place built by man that rejects man. The space lost its true very own essence to be dwelled. This place has become absurd: stripped out of its functionality there is nothing left but a mere cluster of stones and concrete. The camera movement is perversely spectral and fascinating. The city has become a rational entity. A hostile alien force that seems to reject the characters. A composition that evokes De Chiricos metaphysical period. (Antonioni 1961) Even though De Chiricos paintings suggest that this now inhabited town, once occupied, will be dwelled again, in Lavventura the town seems as it has never been lived. As if a premonition warned the Sicilians to have nothing to do with it. (Costa 2002, Tassone 2002) Finally the epilogue of Lavventura reaches the climax in the evolution of the couple in crisis. The composition is emblematic, split in between a void and a fill. The far sight of a volcano island and an empty wall. The will to forgive and the inability to reason own existence. This frame shows all the uncertainty and suspension upon which the movie ends. Antonioni does not reveal in these places cataclysmic sceneries. He rather makes a commentary on the personal problems that bad building and misused spaces created and are afflicting modern man. The macabre visions of environmental exploitation and building speculation revealed the collapse of safety of our surrounding and have become concrete manifestation of the emotional sickness of our time When Lavventura was published it was said of giallo alla rovescia, or noir in reverse. (Cuccu 1973) While De Sica would have uncovered the drama of these individualsAntonioni instead uses his exceptional dispassionate photography to dedrammatize the events. (Cuccu 1973) This is why it no longer seems to me important to make a film about a man who has had his bicycle stolenit is important to see what there is in the mind and in the heart of this man how he has adapted himself, what remains in him of his past experiences.(Bondanella 1943) This does not mean his movies are not dramatic, but on the counterpart the events do not follow a conventional chain of causalities. The common cinematic technique of resolution suggests that Anna will eventually be found and Giuliana will recover. Antonioni does not offer any solution to act on the present. (Nowell-Smith 1995) Using ellipses the temporality of the events is preserved and their reality enhanced however, the events are not strictly related by a cause-effect succession but rather linked by contingency. As matter of fact we are not given any further information when Giulianas depression started or when Anna decided to leave to never come back again. Each event is no less accidental and casual than the others. As casual as the disappearing of Anna and the complete abandon by Claudia and Sandro that revealed at the end a cold and unforgiving disappearing of a disappearance. We are not given to know what has been of Anna or whether Claudias hand resting on Sandros head in the most delicate of all acceptances means she forgave Sandro or if she was consenting him. We cant be sure about Giuliana either, whether she recovered from her depression or if she adapted to the modern world as explains to Valerio how birds adapted to that poisonous environment. (Chatman 1985) The events we expect to happen never happen. The title shows its ambiguity as it works symbolically and not visually. The Red Desert, the desert of the alienated things, the aridity of the human emotions. The adventure, the journey Anna undertakes swimming overboard, the sentimental adventure of Sandro and Claudia. And even the intentions behind the films are ambiguous: We cant really tell if Lavventura and Il Deserto Rosso are about moral decay or an outcry about the effects of technology on the humans sensitiveness. Whether the inhabited rock of a Sicilian island or the outskirt of an industrialized city, Antonioni was capable to film modernity through the bare appearance of things. (Gilman 1962) Although, it is difficult to tell what Antonionis movies are about, Antonioni himself after a visit to Mark Rothkosaid: Your paintings are like my films-theyre about nothingwith precision. (Gilman 1962) Antonioni was a poet of the form and the meaning of his works comes from the interaction between suggestive architectures and the ambiguity of the human emotions. He depicted a utopian desire to regain a sense of human connection with the environment. His shots offer nothing more and nothing less than the sheer wonder of existence. BIBLIOGRAPHY AND FURTHER READINGS Antonioni, M., 1961. Fare un film per me à ¨ vivere. Scritti sul cinema. Ed. 2009. Venice: Marsilio Editore, 43. Antonioni, M., 1962.A talk with Michelangelo Antonioni. Film Culture, 24 (1962): 51. Antonioni, M., 2007. The Architecture of Vision: Writings and Interview on Cinema. Chicago: University of Chicago Barthes, R., 1994. Caro Antonioni. In: Barthes, R. Ed. 1997. Sul cinema. Genoa: Il Nuovo Melangolo, 172-173. Bondanella, P., 1943. Italian Cinema: From Neorealism to the Present. Ed. 1984. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co, 108. Bortolini, F., 2011. Forme dellesperienza e del linguaggio. Camus, Sartre, Bergman, Antonioni. Milan: Unicopli. Bruno, G., 1997. Site-seeing: architecture and the moving image. Wide Angle, 19 (4), 8-24. Brunette, P., 1998. The films of Michelangelo Antonioni. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 96. Camus, A., 1942. The Stranger. New York: Vintage Books. Chatman, S. 1989. LAvventura. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. Chatman, S., 1985. Antonioni, or the surface of the world. London: University of California Press. Costa, A., 2002. Il cinema e le arti visive. Torino: Einaudi. Crowther, B., 1961. Italian Film Wins Cannes Top Prize. The New York Times [online], 5 April 1961. Avilable from: http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9400e0db133de733a25756c0a9629c946091d6cf [Accessed 21 October 2016]. Cuccu, L., 1973. La visione come problema: Forme e svolgimento del cinema di Antonioni. Rome: Bulzoni. Darke, C., 1995. Lavventura. Sight and Sound, 5 (12), 55. Di Carlo, C., 1964. Michelangelo Antonioni. In: Fink, G., ed. 1983. Michelangelo Antonioni, identificazione di un autore: gli anni della formazione e la critica su Antonioni. Parma: Pratiche Editrice, 74-75. Di Carlo, C., 2002. Il cinema di Michelangelo Antonioni. Milan: Il Castoro. Fink, G., 1983. Michelangelo Antonioni, identificazione di un autore: gli anni della formazione e la critica su Antonioni. Parma: Pratiche Editrice, 103. Freud, S., 1977. Inhibitions, Symptoms, and Anxiety. New York: Norton Company. Gente del Po, 1947. [film, DVD]. Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni. Italy: Artisti Associati ICET. Giannetti, D., 1999. Invito al cinema di Antonioni. Milan: Ugo Mursia Editore. Gilman, R., 1962. On Antonioni. Theatre Arts, 46 (1962), 7. Grenier, C., 1960. Reflections on the Parisian Screen Scene. New York Times, 20 November 1960. Hawkins, R. F., Focus on an Unimpressive Cannes Film Fete. The New York Times, 29 May 1960. Hoberman J., 2006. Seeing and Nothingness: A Must-see Retrospective Celebrates the Works of a Modernist Master. Village Voice [online], 30 May 2006. Available from: http://www.villagevoice.com/film/seeing-and-nothingness-6418576[Accessed 30 October 2016]. Holden, S., 2006. Antonionis Nothingness and beauty. The New York Times [online], 04 June 2006, Available from: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/04/movies/04hold.html[Accessed 28 October 2016]. Il deserto rosso, 1964. [film, DVD]. Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni. Italy, France: Film Duemila. Koehler, R., 2015. Great wide open: LAvventura. Sight and Sound [online], 20 April 2015,Available from: http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/features/greatest-films-all-time/great-wide-open-l-avventura[Accessed 3 November 2016]. Lavventura, 1959. [film, DVD].Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni. Italy, France: Cino del Duca. Lefebvre, M., 2006. Landscape and Film. London: Routledge. Lucantonio, G., 2011. Lavventura > Michelangelo Antonioni. Rapporto Confidenziale [online], 07 January 2011, Available from: http://www.rapportoconfidenziale.org/?p=11578[Accessed 5 November 2016]. Manceaux, M., 1960. An Interview with Antonioni.   Sight and Sound 30 (1) 5-8. Melzer, Z., 2010. Michelangelo Antonioni and the Reality of the Modern. Offscreen. [online], 14 (4). Moravia, A., 1960. Boredom. Milan: Valentino Bompiani Co, 5. N.U -Nettezza urbana, 1948. [film, DVD]. Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni. Italy: Artisti Associati ICET. Nowell-Smith, G., 1995. Antonioni: Before and After. Sight and Sound, 12 (December 1995) 16-21. OLesser, S., 1964. Lavventura: a closer look.Yale review,54 (1964) 45. Orwell, G., 1937. The Road to Wigan Pier. Ed. 2011. London: Penguin Books. Pasolini, P. P., 1976. The Cinema of Poetry. In: Nichols, B., ed. 1976. Movie and Methods.Vol.1. Berkeley: University of California Press, 542-558. Pomerance, M., 2011. Michelangelo Red Antonioni Blue: Eight Reflections on Cinema. London: University of California Press. Reyner, J., 2013. Film Landscapes : Cinema, Environment and Visual Culture. New Castle Upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Salinari, C., 1980. Miti E Coscienza del Decadentismo Italiano. Milan: Feltrinelli. Sartre, J. P., 1989. Being and Nothingness: an essay on phenomenological ontology. London: Routledge. Slattery, M., 2003. Key ideas in Sociology. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes Ltd. Tassone, A., 2002. I film di Michelangelo Antonioni: un poeta della visione. Ed. 2007. Rome: Gremese Editore. Tinazzi, G., 1994. Michelangelo Antonioni. Edition: 2002. Milan: Il Castoro. Tomasulo, F., 2008. Life is inconclusive: a conversation with Michelangelo Antonioni. In: Cardullo, B., ed. 2008. Michelangelo Antonioni: Interviews. Jackson: university Press of Mississippi, 162-168.

Personal Narrative: Death in a Dream Essay -- Narrative Essay Dying De

Dream a Little Dream My grandmother always said, â€Å"you cannot choose between life or death while sleeping†. When you are sleeping, your body practically doesn’t belong to you. Its almost as though you have no control over anything that might happen to you in your dreams, especially if it is something dangerous. When I ask people why this happens, they theorize that a powerful force or being has entrapped your body. You could end up dying in your dreams, thus leading to your death or illness in reality. It’s possible for someone to suffer a heart attack from what they dreamt, depending on how frightening the situation was. I’ve heard of people going to bed one night and, the next morning, waking up not remembering who they are or actually becoming insane. It is with these mysterious beliefs that one becomes afraid to dream anymore. I had never actually experienced a life and death situation while sleeping, at least not until recently. It was in early November of 2001, if I remember correctly, on a Thursday night, when I was just closing my eyes to enjoy a nice peaceful sleep. I could feel myself floating almost like someone was taking me from my room. I couldn’t feel anything, since I was literally out cold. Suddenly, I was awake with my eyes closed and my body unmoved. I tried to open my eyes, but they could not open, I tried to move my body, but I would not stir. My efforts were futile; I eventuall...

Expectations Charles Dickens Essay

In the first chapter of Great Expectations Charles Dickens creates a very intense image of the marshes. This is the first place he describes and he makes the marshes sound like a very creepy and bewildering place.  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Ours was the marsh country, down by the river, within, as the river wound, twenty miles of the sea†.  The words marsh and the river makes the marshes sound like a very damp, muddy and bleak place.  Also in the first chapter Charles Dickens describes the churchyard as  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Bleak place overgrown with nettles†. Dickens also describes the churchyard s a very † Overgrown and bleak place†.  A graveyard is supposed to be a happy place that revitalises and refreshes kind, happy memories. I think this implies that death is all around no matter where you look. I think this because everything is â€Å"overgrown† and not looked after and the â€Å"nettles† are killing all of the beautiful plants so death is also involved there as well.  Dickens also says about the marshes in the first chapter  Ã¢â‚¬  And that the dark flat wilderness beyond the churchyard, intersected with dykes and mounds and gates, with scattered cattle feeding on it, was the marshes: and that the low leaden line beyond was the river: and the distant savage liar from which the wind was rushing was the sea†. This quote represents a dark and unforgiving future for Pip and that there is no one out there in the wilderness to care for him. The words â€Å"leaden line† imply a low lead river that looks like it has bars on and to Pip this makes him feel imprisoned. Also the words â€Å"savage liar† represents to Pip that he thinks that there is like a savage monster out there in the sea. Furthermore in chapter one Dickens explains the marshes as a â€Å"long black, horizontal line and the sky was just a row of long, angry red lines and dense black lines intermixed. The words represent anger and danger and black utility, death and emptiness. Pip again feels like he is a prisoner to the marshes. At the start of the first chapter instead of Pip being one of the main characters he becomes the narrator of the story and starts talking about his family.  Ã¢â‚¬  So I called myself Pip, and came to be called Pip†.  When Pip goes to the churchyard to the graveyard to look at their graves and imagines what his family would of looked like this proves he has a very distinct and creative imagination.  Ã¢â‚¬  My first fancies regarding what they were like, were unreasonably derived from their tombstones†.  Also Pip proves that there was a high rate of infant mortality and he also proves that there was a universal struggle to die. † To five little stone lozenges, each about a foot and a half long, which were arranged in a neat row beside their grave, and were scared to the memory of five little brothers of mine who gave up trying to get a living exceedingly early in that universal struggle†.  Dickens in the first chapter changes from first person the narrator to third person and this s a very unnatural method to use.  Ã¢â‚¬  And that the small bundle of shivers growing afraid of it all and beginning to cry, was Pip†. Also Great Expectations was serialised which means that he novel was brought out in chapters and because the novel was successful people kept buying each chapter each time they were released.  When Pip goes into the churchyard to the graveyard so that he can go and visualise his brothers and his parents he meets a convict. The convict is starving and looking for food and basically anything and so he turns Pip upside town.  Ã¢â‚¬  The man after looking at me for a moment turned me upside-down†.  This is very strong and imaginative and you can clearly imagine it as he turns him upside down literally and metaphorically. After this the convict starts talking to Pip about his appearance. He talks about  Ã¢â‚¬Å"What fat cheeks you ha got:†Ã‚  After this Pip says  Ã¢â‚¬Å"I believe they were fat, though I was at that time undersized for my years, and not strong†.  This gives the impression that Pip has never been fed properly and this make Pip sound innocent and vulnerable.  Later on Pip makes a promise to the convict that he would bring some food and some wittles so that the convict could release himself from the chain around his ankles and the convict threatens Pip to make sure he does this.

What Were the Short-Term Significances

What were the short-term significances of the Crimean War of 1854-1856 in terms of foreign policy? The Crimean War was a momentous event in the amendment of foreign policy. Several short-term significances stemmed from the war shaping Britain’s global position, alongside initiating a new aggressive policy led by Palmerston[1] and creating the ‘world power’ ideology. Faults in the military mismanagement, and the failure of Aberdeen’s government led to the realization of the need for reform.Depicted as having caused the army to â€Å"change more in those two years than in the previous two hundred,†[2] it is clear that the Crimea influenced a series of short-term significances in the successive twenty years. The change from Aberdeen’s[3] diplomatic government to Palmerston’s aggressive ministry resulted from growing patriotism in the Crimea. Aberdeen’s cautious attitude towards war was highlighting and became increasingly unpopular as it â€Å"lacked Palmerston’s ‘manly vigour†. [4] Aberdeen distaste for war was emphasised when he wrote to Peel[5] â€Å"war in order to preserve peace is entirely inapplicable to†¦ the Great Powers†. 6] His involvement in the Napoleonic Wars[7] influenced this attitude as he was less naive to war conditions than others. Sourced from a letter between Aberdeen and Peel, he was defending his anti-war stance. His belief that peace was not achieved in this way was supported by the Congress System which had held peace without war for 30years. Peel’s attitude differed, believing in â€Å"Bellum para, pacem habebis†, [8] – that peace was obtained through war preparation. Peel compared how equipped France[9] was making Aberdeen seem unprepared.Moreover, Aberdeen was blamed for issues raised in Russell’s[10] war reports such as the military mismanagement and unsanitary conditions[11]. This negative publicity influenced John Roebu ck[12] to enquire into the management of war. Public opinion contrasted Aberdeen’s approach which John Lowe described as a â€Å"conciliatory disposition to the point of whimpishness. †[13] Instead, they supported Palmerston’s â€Å"zealous defence of British interests. † Palmerston, unlike Aberdeen did not have the support Queen Victoria[14], and therefore gained support through co-operation with the public.Stuart confirmed his popularity saying, â€Å"Wherever I go†¦ one opinion has been pronounced in a single word –Palmerston. †[15] Said in the throes of war, it was a current, credible description and being a politician, Stuart was able to gauge public opinion on Palmerston so was competent to make judgements. However reliability is affected as Stuart was likely to show support towards the popular government at that time, in this case, Palmerston. The Crimean had highlighted flaws in Aberdeen’s hesitant diplomacy and brought t he significance of a new confrontational approach.Under Palmerston’s governance, Britain was presented with a stronger image than it ever had been under Aberdeen. ‘Gunboat diplomacy’[16] allowed him to create the illusion that Britain was the world power. Evidence of his aggressive ‘gunboat diplomacy’ was the Indian Mutiny [17] in which he forcefully suppressed mutinies to insure British power was not threatened. Palmerston’s illusion was further supported when the diplomatic situation in Europe was shaken by the collapse of the Congress of Vienna;[18] a consequence of the Crimean war.For British foreign policy, this was vastly significant because the suppression of Russian influence[19] in the region due to the Treaty of Paris[20] allowed Britain to temporarily become the dominant power on the continent, projecting their power and reinforcing Palmerston’s illusion. Media became a new phenomenon in the Crimea and Russell’s report ing effectively caused many alterations to foreign policy. As the first on-the-spot reporter, he exposed the true conditions of war to a naive country[21].Although, many aspects of foreign policy were in need of much change, the war reporting brought them to light, pushing them to happen quicker. A sketch from the unique perception of ‘Punch magazine’ highlights the lack of supplies the British military faced. Dialogue between two soldiers says; â€Å"Well Jack! Good news from home, we’re to have a medal†, â€Å"That’s very kind. Maybe one of these days we’ll have a coat to stick it on†. [22] Being a national magazine, Punch wanted to capture the attention of readers and does so by sarcastically highlighting the problems in the Crimea.The fact that it calls the soldiers, â€Å"patient heroes† suggests they are not placing blame on military officers for the lack of supplies but they are rather mocking the Government instead. The limitation however is that the motive was to sell as many copies of ‘Punch’ as possible, therefore dramatisation on elements occurred. The Times Newspaper exploited the poor conditions in order to shock the public gaining publicity. Russell reported, â€Å"there is not the least attention paid to decency or cleanliness. [23] On one hand, Russell had a first-hand account of the war and gained excess to information that was unavailable to others and written at the time of war it viable and current. But there is debate as to how truthful these reports were. Prince Albert, who took an interest in foreign policy, said that â€Å"the pen and ink of one miserable scribbler is despoiling the country. † Proof of this ‘despoil’ was the collapse of Aberdeen’s government who were exposed as weak through the media. By reporting such in-depth details about the military, Russell took the risk of revealing information about the military that could be useful to the enemy.Russell’s agenda was to sell newspapers and make himself as well-known as possible, and reporting the negative conditions of war was much more likely to cause a public uproar that any positive news, therefore it is not unlikely that he emphasised his reports in order to gain more publicity. The high impact of war reporting is discussed by Chamberlain; â€Å"there was no censorship (no country made this mistake in any future),†[24] thus proving the high impact and influence the media had back home and in the government. The role of women had huge significances in the Crimea, socially, medically and in foreign policy.Florence Nightingale[25] imprinted her name throughout history through her determination to reform the British military health-care. When Nightingale along with 38 other nurses[26] arrived at Scutari [27] they were met by â€Å"patients grimed with dirt, [and] infested with vermin. †[28] The account of her personal experience validates th e atrocious conditions. However, written towards the end of war Nightingale may have over-emphasised the severity of these conditions so that people saw her as the saviour and driving force behind the improvements.Nightingale made a considerable difference to the military conditions, producing ‘Coxcombes’[29] as a way of displaying her improvements. Statistically they showed that in the first 4 months of fighting 1,619 soldiers died of wounds against 16,273 whom died of disease, but under her service, the death rate reduced from 42% to 2%. Her work at Scutari became highly recognised and medical reports from the time described it as â€Å"extremely valuable. † [30] However, there is a limit as to how truthful her coxcombs were as it has been suggested that she dramatised the improvements in order to promote herself.Being a female of the Victoria era meant that people thought she would not be capable of making a significant difference in war as it was not the job of a woman. Therefore Nightingale would have felt the need to put emphasis on her work to get noticed. Part of the reason in which Nightingale became so well-known was due to her connection with war correspondent – Russell. The two worked together to benefit their own agendas; Nightingale gained publicity for her work and Russell benefitted from selling Nightingale’s stories in newspapers across the country.Mary Seacole was another influential woman of the Crimea, who perhaps had a more modest agenda. Seacole stepped forward determined to offer her services after Russell made his passionate plea [31] asking for â€Å"devoted women†¦ willing to go forth to minister to the sick and suffering soldiers of the East in the hospitals of Scutari? † Yet Nightingale refused to work alongside Seacole due to her ethnicity, as her â€Å"blood flowed beneath a somewhat duskier skin than theirs. [32] Taken from Seacole’s biography published the year after the Crim ea, it showed the bitterness towards Nightingale and was written to illustrate to people the prejudice she faced. Seacole funded her own trip to the Crimea, setting up a shop on the front line to cover the expenses. [33] Iveson argued that Seacole played a more significant role in the Crimea than Nightingale; â€Å"In many ways she stands head and shoulders above Nightingale, for whereas Florence performed only an administrative role, Seacole was in the thick of things and did not hesitate to go to the battlefield itself. [34] This weighs up the work of both nurses and concludes that Seacole was in fact the more important of the two, despite Nightingale being more recognised. He praises her self-funding and determination to put herself on the battlefield. Overall, both Seacole’s and Nightingale’s role in the Crimea resulted in significant improvements to the nursing profession, which from that point on began to gain respect and importance. In terms of foreign policy, it brought a new era of nursing into the military. More medical care was developed including the first hospital train.It was realised that strong medical supply corps would result in a stronger, more effective army so British foreign policy learned from this mistake in future events. Military reforms also developed as a significance of the Crimea. Army organisation had become outdated and remained much the same since the Napoleonic wars. Soldiers were untrained and inexperienced. The incompetence of the military was highlighted at its peak in the ‘Charge of the Light Brigade’. [35] Lucan[36] said they were given the command, â€Å"there is your enemy and there are your guns,† showing there was little preparation or strategic plans.However, Lucan said this in the House of Lords whilst he was defending himself in the enquiry and therefore the reliability of his statement must be questioned. He may have exaggerated the command in order to take blame off of himself. Nevertheless, the chaos of the event was reinforced by Lord Cardigan who described the true extent of the chaos; â€Å"we were encircled by a blaze of fire†¦artillery poured upon our rear, so that we had a strong fire upon our front, our flank, and our rear. †[37] The Charge of Light Brigade showed the extent at which the army had become outdated and the desperate need for reform.The Cardwell reforms[38] were influenced as a result of the Crimea. This was significant because thanks to both the military and medical reforms it created a stronger British army. Overall, the Crimea War was of huge significance on British foreign policy, mainly due to the creation of an attitude of a ‘world power’ and a policy of isolation. The role of the media played the most significant role by highlighting flaws in all aspects of foreign policy and creating a sense of patriotism within the public who then pushed for changes.By highlighting Aberdeen’s diplomatic policy a nd anti-war attitude, the media brought the collapse of his government. This led to the most significant change – the appointment of Palmerston, who brought the new aggressive ‘gunboat diplomacy’. This changed British mind-set by making Britain seem more dominant on the continent. Additional turning points added to the feeling of a ‘world power’. Without the media, the nation would not have been made aware of the problematic military system and poor medical supply.This exposure therefore awakened military reforms and the realisation of the need for a strong medical supply corps. This then subsequently allowed Britain a stronger army giving them a greater control and standing in the European diplomatic situation. In conclusion, the media explosion was the main significance of the Crimea War and helped secure Britain’s superior position in Europe. Word Count 1920 ———————– Word count 431 [1] Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, British prime minister between 1855-1858 and 1859-1865. [2] See appendix 1 3] George Hamilton-Gordon, Earl of Aberdeen, Prime Minister 1852-1855. He favored a foreign policy of diplomacy. [4] Quote from historian John Lowe ‘Britain and Foreign Affairs 1815-1885’ [5] Sir Robert Peel, British Prime Minister 1841-1846. [6] See Appendix 2 [7] Napoleonic wars – 1799 – 1815 [8] The belief that you must prepare for war to maintain peace. See Appendix 13 [9] France had spent 20 million on fortifying Paris ad introduced 350,000 troops. [10] William Howard Russell – the war correspondent for The Times newspaper during the Crimea. 11] Extreme conditions of war were revealed to the public for the first time during the Crimea. Since Aberdeen was Prime Minister at the time he was associated with these poor conditions. [12] John Roebeck was an MP – In Jan 1855 he enquired into situation in Crimea resulting in res ignation of Aberdeen. It gained 305 votes in favour against only 148 votes in opposition. Aberdeen saw this as a vote of no confidence [13] See appendix 3 [14] Queen Victoria supported Aberdeen. She asked numerous other politicians to take Aberdeen’s place after his resignation before she finally succumbed to Palmerston. 15] See Appendix 4 Word Count 980 [16] Palmerston had the policy of ‘gunboat diplomacy’ in which he dealt with foreign affairs in an aggressive and confrontational manner. [17] Indian mutiny of 1857 [18] The Congress of Vienna in 1815 between Britain, Russia, Austria Prussia and later France, had maintained peace for nearly 30 years. [19] The suppression of Russian power and influence happened after they lost in the war. Significant because the balance of power had previously been tipped in Russia’s favour. 20] The Treaty of Paris, signed on March 30th 1856, largely stopped Russia’s influence in the region as the Black Sea was made neutral territory. Russia also lost some of the territory it had held in the west and it’ influence in the Ottoman Empire. [21] Thanks to improving communications, Russell’s reports could be published across the whole country quicker than before. The use of telegram got information to Britain within 3 weeks. (with newly built railways and mechanized steam pressers for printing). [22] See appendix 5 [23] See appendix 6 24] See appendix 7 [25] A nurse who came to be well known due to her work in the Crimean War. [26] Arrived 4th November 1854 Word Count 1614 [27] Scutari – a hospital in Turkey in which Nightingale nursed British soldiers. [28] Nightingale wrote this on April 17th 1856. [29] Coxcombs were like pie charts. See appendix 8 [30] See appendix 9 [31] See Appendix 10 – His passionate plea to get women to help [32] Quote from Mary Seacole. See appendix 11 [33] Seacole set up a shop on the front line to sell food and cigarettes to soldiers.The money she gained from the shop she then spent on medical treatment for the soldiers. [34] See appendix 12 [35] At the Battle of Balaclava October 1854. Huge miscommunication between Lord Raglan and the soldiers which resulted in chaos. [36] Lucan, Lieutenant General, involved in the Charge of the Light Brigade. [37] Speech from Lord Cardigan later at the Mansion House in London See appendix 13 [38] Cardwell reforms: Edward Cardwell – Secutary of State for War – introduced reforms to improve army.