Promoting Family Values in Macbeth Essay example -- Macbeth essays

Promoting Family Values in Macbeth The play Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, was first printed in 1623, and is a play that is confrontational and disturbing to the values of the audience. Values much(prenominal) as truth, masculinity, security and goodness are all implied in the play, as their opposites are shown to be destructive and animateness shattering.Of all of Shakespeares plays, Macbeth is the one most obsessively concerned with evil. It is dark, brooding and bloodthirsty by way of illustration, the only function of the messenger to Lady MacDuff is to typeset the audience for bloodshed. Blood in itself is considered an evil image and it aids in character development, as seen in the description of Macbeth at the start. According to Duncan, gutting someone interchangeable a fish is worthy of praise such as Oh valiant cousin, Oh worthy Gentle objet dart To the people of the age, being able to kill someone with such skill is a good thing of course, it does mean that Macbeth has the potential to snap. The evil imagery in the play also helps with the rising tension the old mans description of the horses devouring each other is a prime example of this. Macbeth himself is essentially evil as well when he knows he is liberation to die, instead of taking the honorable way out by committing suicide he decides to take as many people with him as he can. It is jolly ironic therefore that Macbeth means son of life.The evil that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth create within themselves means that the audience is made to experience the psychological conceitedness involved in committing a murder. Evil is inevitably destructive, but it is also self-destructive. By murdering Duncan, Macbeth is destroying himself his single state of man is shaken by his... ...elm. Criticism on Shakespeare s Tragedies . A Course of Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature. capital of the United Kingdom AMS Press, Inc., 1965. Shakespeare, William. Tragedy of Macbeth . Ed. Barbara Mowat and Paul Warstine. New York Washington Press, 1992. Steevens, George. Shakespeare, The Critical Heritage. Vol. 6. London Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1981. T.W. Shakespeare, the Critical Heritage. Vol. 5. London Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1979. Wills, Gary. Witches & Jesuits. Oxford Oxford University Press, 1995. Epstein, Norrie, The Friendly Shakepeare, New York, Viking Publishing, 1993. Harbage, Alfred, Macbeth, Middlesex England, Penguin Publishing, 1956. Magill, Masterplots- Volume 6, New Jersey, Salem Press, 1949. Staunten, Howard, The Complet Illustrated Shakespeare, New York, Park Lane Publishing, 1979.

Ecstasy, the Brain, and the Media :: Drugs Drug Chemistry Essays

Ecstasy, the Brain, and the MediaEcstasy has been glorified by countless Brit-pop drug anthems, condemned by stiff anti-drug foundations and even ca utilize a controversial media debate when the post-mortem picture of eighteen year old Lorna Spinks was splashed across every newspaper in the United Kingdom, her Ecstasy-related dying rendered in full gruesome color. The long-term effects and temporary consequences of Ecstasy have been a subject of heated debate in the past tenner years as the pill has seen a surge in popularity. What exactly does Ecstasy do to the brain? What creates the euphoric effects? Why has it been used in therapy? And does the medias portrayal of Ecstasy rely on the facts of the drug, or skew the information to instill a sense of fear into citizens, parents, and teenagers?Ecstasy (Methlenedioxy-methamphetamine, MDMA for short) is a synthetic, mind-bending drug with amphetamine-like and hallucinogenic properties. It shares a chemical structure with methamphet amine, mescaline, and methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA), drugs known to cause brain damage (1). MDMA, in a simple explanation, works by busy with the communication system between neurotransmitters. Serotonin is one of a group of neurotransmitters that carries out communication between the body and the brain. The message molecules travel from neuron to neuron, attaching to sense organ sites. This communication activates signs that either allow the message to be passed or prevent the message from being sent to other cells. However, when MDMA enters the nervous system, it interferes with this system. After serotonin is released, the neurotransmitters are retrieved into the nerve terminal where they are recycled. MDMA hinders this process so that the serotonin is not drawn back in. This allows for an accumulation of serotonin, and also an increase in serotonin synapses (2). This surge of serotonin creates an emotional openness in the Ecstasy user. A sense of euphoria and ecstatic delight envelop the user. Some users paper thinking clearly and objectively, and often claim to come to terms with personal problems or various other skeletons in the closet (3). This is the reason Ecstasy resurfaced in the 1980s (after being developed in Germany in 1912 as a dieting drug due to the fact that amphetamines are appetite suppressors) as a tool in experimental psychotherapy, particularly regarding relationship and marital problems (4). In 1984 the drug was declared illegal in the United States after it started being used for recreational purposes. However, in June of 1999, Swiss courts ruled that dealing Ecstasy is not a serious offence.

Death of a Salesman: Tragic but Not a Tragedy Essay -- Death Salesman

Death of a Salesman Tragic but Not a cataclysm Though a more modern version of tragedy in its classical sense, Death of a Salesman in many ways is very(prenominal) much like an ancient Greek play. In his Poetics Aristotle tries to set out the common ideas throughout tragedy, attempting to demystify the necessary elements for such plays. One of his main ideas was that of the Three Unities - that of Space, that of clip and that of Action. He stated that all the action of a tragedy must occur in the place, which was often the front of a palace, which allowed the poet to have many characters access and going, and allowed random meetings to occur easily, rather than having to explain the reason why any meeting should occur. It was, however, possible for the poet to bring in events occurring in other places through the wont of messengers, who could talk about the events without the audience seeing them. All the action would have to unfold in one day, and must be played out i n real judgment of conviction - the time would pass as fast for the characters in the play as for the actors and the audience watching. This prevented the use of act and scene breaks, as time could not jump forward, it had to pass normally. Again references to the past often came in the form of speech from characters whom often had not been seen for a very long time, such as the shepherd in Oedipus Rex who explains how he had come by Oedipus as a baby whilst attending his flock. The entire play had to revolve around a single plot, and subplots, such as you see in many of Shakespeares comedies, were not allowed. Aristotle reasoned that if there were other plots interfering with and infringing upon the main plot we could not concentrate entirely on Antigonys plight, ... ...ccept his refusal to act rationally. An audience can accept that true tragic heroes are often irrational, and driven by very different feelings from those of normal human beings, but in the end, Willy Loman does not evoke tragic emotion because he is, simply, a dime a dozen. Works Cited and Consulted Aristotle. Poetics. freshly York Dover Publications, Inc., 1997. Baym, Franklin, Gottesman, Holland, et al., eds. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 4th ed. New York Norton, 1994. Costello, Donald P. Arthur moth millers Circles of Responsibility A View From a Bridge and Beyond. Modern Drama. 36 (1993) 443-453 Florio, Thomas A., ed. Millers Tales. The New Yorker. 70 (1994) 35-36. Martin, Robert A., ed. Arthur Miller. Englewood Cliffs, NJ Prentice-Hall, 1982. Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. New York Viking, 1965.