Bacchae Essays (740 words) - Mythological Kings, Dionysus

Bacchae The Bacchae represents an authentic interpretation that is full of temptation in the natural world. I am going to compare the temptations of society that we as individuals encounter everyday with the allure of nature in the Bacchae, specifically focusing on temptation offered by Dionysos. Humans in a civilized society have to make choices everyday resulting in their decisions whether they have positive or negative contrasting effects in compilation to societies norms. From the beginning of the Bacchae, Pentheus seems to be the only rational person in the play. He does not give into his temptations to join the others to frolic in the forest. He is however very intrigued by Dionysos's offering to join in on the fun and festivities of nature. Pentheus had an original instinct when confronted with the particular opportunity that Dionysos set before him. He was to deny the temptations and go with his original instincts resulting in using his rational thoughts. This meant that Pentheus had to put his transgressions aside and look for the good in this situation. He could not omit his original curiosity that he entailed from the stories of Dionysos and the first hand accounts from citizens of Thebes that partook in the orgiastic feast in the hills. Dionysos had a master plan to overtake Pentheus's senses from the very beginning. I compare Dionysos to the serpent, or Devil that eventually bribed Eve to do something she was strictly told not to do in the garden Eden. It took some force on the serpents' part but he eventually succeeded in this coercion tactic. Instincts that are imparted in our values are not easily overcome. The temptation is always there however to break the mold and lust after something that seemed inconceivable when first confronted with the situation. Symbolic interaction comes into play here. A symbolic meaning of morality is created by Pentheus and in turn his own language is produced. Pentheus feels he should do the right thing and deny Dionysos's temptation. The individual interprets a valid response to this symbolic meaning of denial. Can Pentheus put his feelings out of sight and out of mind? He cannot in the end of the play and it costs him his life. Pentheus relied on cultural relativism when he judged Dionysos for manipulating the citizens of Thebes. He judged Dionysos's motivation for this act in the context of his own culture. Pentheus had original values that shaped and created a framework for his original norms of society. In a sense Pentheus created his own interpretation of a counterculture when he rejected the dominant values of society on the basis of his own set of norms and values. He began to feel that taking part and frolicking in the orgies in the woods was wrong. Pentheus used his own interpretation of dramatology to justify his actions for rejecting Dionysos's offers. He created his own artificial play, much like a theatrical play. Pentheus's interpretation of the front stage was his outward feeling of denial towards Dionysos's offerings of bliss in nature. His backstage was his internal emotion of curiosity for what he could not see. He could not let Dionysos know of these intense feelings at the beginning. Pentheus also used props and other actions to portray his feelings of rejecting Dionsos's advances and opportunities. By putting Dionysos in prison he revealed that he did not want to back down, and was serious about keeping social order in Thebes. But Pentheus in reality feels drawn into the evil plan that Dionysos has conceived. Dionysos quotes "You've fallen in love with my idea. You can't wait. Why" (87)? Pentheus replies, "I'll see them drunk, hopelessly drunk. It revolts me, but...I..."(87)? This passage explains the theory that know matter how hard Pentheus wants to reject the idea of giving into his human nature, he must. Pentheus is then transformed seemingly by Dionysos as he is lured to take part in the festivities of the wild women in the hills. Pentheus then used props to give himself artificial delight by hiding behind women's clothing when his curiosity got the best of him. In conclusion, we all long for what we can not have in life. It's a part of human nature to thrive by our own personal morals and values, but also live by society norms. Pentheus was tempted because of human nature, but he couldn't reveal his feelings because of his pride. In the end his curiosity got the best of him. As we read in the play, Pentheus climbed up a tree to

Treatment of Women essays

Treatment of Women essays History has been known to treat men and women unfairly. It has weighed them not as equals, and for this they were given different standards by which to live. The only real difference between men and women is physical, yet emotionally and mentally they remain the same. Todays society is beginning to understand this equality better as we progress further into the future. Neither males nor females have it harder than one another. There, of course, remain some areas that are more difficult for women, yet these areas are shrinking, and there are areas that are difficult for men as well. In certain aspects of life, women may appear to have unfair advantages, such as how they are treated in schools, while men appear to have advantages in having less responsibility in raising a family. These areas will all eventually improve. Seeing as we each have our own problems and seeing they are improving, it is only logical to state that neither gender has any advantage over another. For a long time, women were not offered the same educational opportunities as those of their male counterparts. Over time this has changed substantially, yet the idea still exists, That girls are treated as the second sex in school and consequently suffer, that boys are accorded privileges and consequently benefit (Sommers 380). An overabundance of evidence exists to support that this belief is not true, that in fact boys are the ones who have an unfair advantage in the school system. In reality, Girls outshine boys. They get better grades. (381). There are numerous statistics to support the claim that boys are treated unfairly in schools, and that girls excel because teachers are more lenient on them. Perhaps statistics are little more than numbers on paper. In saying that boys do not succeed as well as girls educationally is similar to stereo-typing, regardless of what numbers might indicate. ...

Relationship between Einstein and Dostoevsky, how science is related Essay

Relationship between Einstein and Dostoevsky, how science is related to art - Essay Example Einstein and Dostoevsky of course lived apart in terms of geography and time, with Dostoevsky having lived from 1821 to 1888, while Einstein would be more properly situated firmly in the 20th century, having lived from 189 to 1955. True, there was some overlap in their historical timelines, but this overlap is trivial in comparison to the profound impact of the thoughts and views, and the artistic vision of Dostoevsky as reflected in his important novels, chief among them ‘The Brothers Karamazov’. Einstein would of course be propelled by that influence of Dostoevsky, as well as his own gifts and talents in theoretical physics, to make unprecedented insights into the nature of the universe, including the nature of matter and energy, time, gravity, and relativity, the latter being the aspect of his work for which he garnered lasting acclaim. His insights into relativity, moreover, would be the foundation of major advances in cosmology and many other disciplines within the scientific community. One can argue that Dostoevsky’s imprint on Einstein’s views about the nature of the world was large and crucial to the way Einstein’s scientific mind blossomed and bore so much fruit during his time. 1 2 3 4 The gist of Dostoevsky’s contribution to the formation of the worldview of Einstein, and arguably the foundation of his scientific career and the spectacular insights and discoveries emanating from his work, is summed up in a quote attributed to the scientist, with regard to how Dostoevsky, according to Einstein, is able to provide more to Einstein in comparison to any scientist, and in particular more than what Gauss had given him. This is not a trivial quote, and can be construed as a recognition from Einstein that what Dostoevsky gave him in terms of a vision from the arts is more than what science had been able to provide him up until that point in his life. Here then is an early intimation of what the role of science

Dual Process Theories of Reasoning and Judgment Research Paper

Dual Process Theories of Reasoning and Judgment - Research Paper Example For example, Pavlov's model of classical conditioning is commonly recognized as a form of associative learning where a neutral stimulus is introduced along with a stimulus of significance and an unconditioned response is transferred for a conditioned one. Within a vacuum this model works, but Cognitive-Experiential Self-Theory suggest that through one's experiences they form memories through which they associate emotions and when similar events occur that remind them of these memories, they in turn associate that even with the felt emotion. These emotions in turn effect behavior making this so significant to the daily lives of individuals. Human beings naturally use their emotions in relations to their memories to defines a sense of self. Cognitive-Experiential Self Theory denotes that the analytical and the emotional can work in contrast while simultaneously working in correspondence with the cognitive mind. A major disconfirmation of this theory can be seen in the human pursuit of self realization as Keirkegaard notes. If as Cognitive-Experiential Theory argue Human beings cognitively are reactionary to their on predicated emotions than there is no room to learn from one's emotions and in turn overcome them. Keirkegaard believed this individualistic existence caused everyone to travel along a path toward self-realization and this process, he noted, had three stages.

APA Research Paper on State Standardized Testing for eng 102 class

APA on State Standardized Testing for eng 102 class - Research Paper Example The response to the questions from all the students is given in a consistent way by all the students. The conditions and the procedures for tackling the questions are also consistent among all the students. In addition, the tests provided are often standardized, that is to say they must be according to the education level and knowledge of the students [Moon, Brighton and Hall 2007]. State standardized testing is common in the schools in the US. However, the practice is accompanied by several problems or challenges. One of the challenges or problems caused by the practice is that it results in frustration and resentment among gifted learners in the educational institutions in the US. In most schools in the US, state standardized testing is a common practice. In schools, there are several students with different abilities. Schools comprise of physically challenged children, mentally challenged children, slow learners, medium learners and lastly the special group of gifted learners. Tho ugh there have been a lot of criticisms of the US, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 has forced the standardized testing in public schools. Standardized tests are often prepared by very talented people who believe that the level of mastery among all students is the same or similar. These people often prepare the test with the aims of testing the knowledge of a student in a certain subject in relation to the knowledge of other students in the same subject. They also test a student’s strength in a certain paper for example mathematics as compared to the student’s strength in a different paper for example science. However, this comparison of the knowledge levels among different students of the same grade level has resulted in frustrations and resentment among the gifted students as earlier mentioned. Gifted students in institutions are students with good memory, high understanding ability and are therefore fast learners. The standardized tests also do not measure to the quality of education that is always expected of the students, [Popham 1999]. In educational institutions where the standardized testing system is practiced, teachers often concentrate so much on the performance of their institutions. Therefore, they tend to concentrate on all students in the classroom. A class consists of students with different abilities. When a teacher concentrates on all the students at ago, this is a great disadvantage to the gifted learners. First, the pace of learning becomes slow as opposed to the expectations of the gifted learners. The slow learning is due to the other physically challenged children, mentally challenged children and the slow learners present in the same class whose pace of understanding is very slow. The learning system also becomes repetitive because the teachers often prefer to re-emphasize on the weak areas of all the learners as shown by their outcomes or results in the standardized tests. The repetitive learning also is a disadvantage to the gifted learners who prefer fresh and new challenging tasks other than the same old content. The slower pace of learning and the repetitive learning is due to the emphasis on the state standardized testing system and this has at a greater level caused frustration and resentment of the gifted learners in the education institutions in the US. "Standardized tests can't measure initiative, creativity, imagination, conceptual thinking, curiosity, effort, irony, judgment, commitment, nuance, good will, ethical reflection, or a host of

Advantages and Disadvantages of Electric Cars

Advantages and Disadvantages of Electric Cars The electric car has been a hot topic for the last few years. The development of the electric car is everyday news. In every form of media there is a link to the effects of the electric car or its development. But how come the idea of an electrically powered vehicle is at the center of the attention? Indeed the origin of the electric car goes back for centuries. In the 19th and 20th, century electricity was one of the preferred ways to power an automobile. At that time an electric powered automobile was chosen over a fuel powered automobile, because electric powered automobiles were much easier to handle and much cheaper and easier in maintenance. But why did people still chose for a fuel powered automobile? The competition between electric vehicles and fuel powered vehicles was killing. During the 20th century the electric car lost popularity. There are a number of reasons to explain the decrease of popularity. The invention of the automatic starter, the growing market of cheap fuel, the mass production and easier and faster fuelling. Soon, the fuel powered cars using the latest Internal Combustion Engines had more advantages than the electric car. The electric car slowly disappeared. Only after decades the electric car was reintroduced when General Motors produced their first electric car. At first sight, the reintroduction of the electric car seemed a great success and late 1990 it even created a real hype. People really believed the electric car could change the world. Unfortunately the hype was short-lived. Car companies and oil companies started to defend themselves against the change the electric car tried to achieve. Oil companies saw their market slowly fade and car companies feared losing much of their sales. The resistance was extraordinary, even the government was involved trying to stop a successful reintroduction of the electric car. Again, the electric car slowly disappeared.. Today, the competition between electric powered vehicles and fuel powered vehicles strikes again. Who will be the winner now? Will the electric car eventually substitute the regular car? Advantages, youll pay the price. The fact that the electric car was becoming a success in the late 1990 is not a big surprise. People again experienced the advantages of an electric car. People realized they saved lots of money on their fuel costs and produced much less pollution by driving electric cars. They found it an encouraging thought that they contributed to a better climate while they were saving money as well. Contributing to a better climate is now one of the most important concerns in the world. We cant avoid the fact that the climate is changing. Therefore we need to look for alternatives to fight these environmental problems like air pollution and global warming. One of the best alternatives is replacing the old combustion engine vehicles with electric cars. Electric cars produce zero emissions, so they dont contribute to air pollution at all. Besides air pollution, they also make no sound, so they dont contribute to noise pollution either. Unlike the fuel powered cars, the electric cars have got fewer moving parts. The technical construction of the electric car is much simpler and much more efficient. That makes the electric car more reliable and easier in maintenance. All the electricity is stored in high-end batteries. These car batteries are used to have a lifespan of 5 years. These rechargeable batteries are fully recyclable, this keeps the old batteries of becoming a disposal problem. It also makes the electric car more durable en cheaper the longer term. The last few years the prices of oil has risen sharply. Oil is the black gold, but the prices of oil are so high for a reason. Oil is one of the fossil fuels and these fossil fuels are limited. Oil is getting scarcer every day, and youll pay the price. Electricity is not a fossil fuel and therefore not limited. This makes electricity much cheaper than fuel. One of the biggest advantages of driving an electric car are the fuel costs. For example: When you are driving 40 miles a day in an electrically powered car which has got a mileage of 280 watts per hour per mile and a electricity price of $0.10 kilowatts per hour, it would cost you $1.12. When you are driving the same 40 miles in an fuel powered car with a mileage of 25 miles per gallon you would need 1.6 gallons of fuel. 1.6 gallons of fuel at a price of $3 per gallon would cost you $4.80. In this case, driving your fuel powered car is 4 times more expensive than travelling the same miles in an electric car.  [1]   In fact, traveling in your electric car can even be cheaper. Here is another example of saving more money on your fuel costs. Recharging your electric car during the nighttimes when the electricity is cheaper will save you even more money. Disadvantages, every pot will find its lid. Earlier on we explained that driving an electric car has many technical, environmental and financial advantages. How come that not everyone has exchanged his regular fueled car for an electric car? Well, unfortunately there are still some disadvantages about driving and purchasing an electric car. One of the biggest disadvantages is that the electric car is in a high-dollar prototype stage. Car producing companies have to do many research and many tests to find a way to develop these electric cars. The electric cars also have to meet the safety requirements, just like the regular cars. This requires even more research and more investments from the car companies. To makes these investments attractive for the car producing companies, the government provides subsidies. With providing these subsidies, the cost of an electric car will lower and purchasing one will become accessible for everyone soon. Besides the purchase of an electric car, there are also some disadvantages in its use. One of the reasons the combustion engine won the competition a few decades ago, was that it would only take a few minutes to refill your car with gasoline. Refilling an electric car took half a day. Still, refilling or recharging your electric car is one of the disadvantages. It takes 3 to 10 hours to fully recharge a car battery. So when you are running out of fuel, you wont be able to quickly recharge your battery. The only solution is to charge your car battery overnight, just like the way you would recharge your mp3-player.  [2]   Most of the electric cars are equipped with the most available and inexpensive car batteries. This means that when your car battery is fully charged the next morning, you will be able to travel a distance of 50 to 120 miles. This mileage is ideal for traveling from your home to your office. So using an electric car with such travel range, should not be a problem when you are commuting. It will become a problem when you want to go on a vacation. For example, travelling to your holiday destination in the south of France will keep you busy for almost four days. Of course not all the electric cars are equipped with these inexpensive batteries, but the electric cars equipped with more durable car batteries are much more expensive. So if you want to travel larger distances, you always need to be sure that your electric car is equipped with a better and more expensive battery.  [3]   Eventually, with all the new technologies there will be a solution to expand the range of your inexpensive car batteries and speedup its recharge time. But driving an electric car is completely useless if you wont be able to recharge your car batteries. Unlike the regular combustion engine car you cant stop at the local gas station and quickly fill up your tank. Nowadays, more and more of the gas stations have special charging stations, but in most cities there not enough places where you can simply recharge your electric car. In order to recharge your electric car you are dependent on the few charging stations throughout the city. One of these charging stations is the power supply at your own home. People who drive an electric car need to purchase a converter in order to connect their electric car to their home power supply. Most of the time, this is not a problem. It will become a problem if 200 people living in apartments want to recharge their electric cars at the same time. Lucky enough, more and more cities and villages adapt themselves to the rising demand for more charge stations. But, recharging all these electric cars, isnt that damaging to the environment? Earlier we explained that driving an electric car doesnt contribute to the air pollution. In fact, this is actually not true. Driving an electric car produces zero emissions, but in order to recharge your electric vehicle, you need electricity. This electricity is often generated by burning fossil fuels. So indirectly it still has some environmental costs. But even if the electricity used to recharge the electric car is generated by burning fossil fuels, it still is less than a half compared to the pollution produced by regular powered cars. The indirectly produced pollution can even be reduced. In the future the electric cars will no longer use electricity generated by burning fossil fuels, they will get their energy from cleaner forms of electricity. With the use of cleaner forms of energy, like windmills or solar cells we will be able to reduce the pollution to less than one percent. Besides the air pollution, there is also one disadvantage about the electric car and its noise pollution. Most combustion engine powered cars make a noise which is recognized by children as the sound of an incoming car. The electric car doesnt make any sound at all. This can be very dangerous for the children playing in the streets. At first sight, this seems not a big problem. But when everyone is driving an electric car, people and especially young children need to adapt themselves to this new and changing environment. Conclusion In this essay we discussed all kind of advantages and disadvantages of the electric car. But the question still is, will the electric car eventually substitute the regular car? The answer to this question is yes! In fact, eventually we have no other choice than to replace the combustion engine powered car with an electric car. Times are changing and so is our climate. The use of limited fossil fuels has changed our environment and we need to search alternatives to generate and use energy. With the technical development throughout the decades we found lots of suitable alternatives. When coming up with alternatives, it is important that it is not at the expense of the economic growth and the current standard of living. Therefore, one of the best suitable alternatives is the development of the electric car. The electric car is making its comeback. A few years ago, we chose a combustion engine powered car because of its convenience and because the car producing companies were afraid to lose most of their profits. Lets not make the same wrong choice again and stimulate the technologic development of the electric car. The age of technology is upon us and we are able to find a solution for every possible disadvantage. Soon we will be able to make an environmental friendly car with the convenience of a combustion engine powered car. Within a few years the use of an electric car is unavoidable, so buy your own electric car tomorrow!

Analysis of The Complete English Tradesman :: Complete English Tradesman Essays

Analysis of The Complete English Tradesman Daniel Defoe's "The Complete English Tradesman", is a good example of his non-fiction writing. The content in the writing is thorough and well presented by Defoe. In the writing, Defoe explains what his opinions on what it means to be an English tradesman. Contrary to some experienced tradesmen, he believes that to be a good tradesman, one needs to acquaint himself with all business in general. According to Defoe, application is of more importance than diligence in business. "Without application nothing in this world goes forward as it should.." Tradesmen of Defoe's day said that there needs to be an aggressive passion in how one handles business, and anger and temper sometimes are necessary. Defoe also challenges this. He believes a "complete tradesman" should not show the least return, signal of disgust, no passions or fire in his temper. A complete tradesman should be soft and smooth, showing little emotion. Basically, Defoe explains how to be by his definition a complete tradesma n. "When a tradesman has thus conquered all his passion, and can stand before the storm of impertinence, he is said to be fitted up for the main article, namely, the inside of the counter." The content of the writing is very comprehensive, covering many aspects of being a tradesman. The content that has already been praised, is presented very well. Defoe organizes the information into letters to all tradesman of England. The writing is a collection of letters to English tradesman, each addressing a different issue. Defoe makes it clear that the information is based on opinion, so there are no false leads. For example, "It its the judgment of some experienced tradesman that no man ought to go form one business to another... I, myself will not enter that dispute here. I know some very encouraging..." Defoe also provides examples by making a story using a script format. "Lady. No I can't he'd use me. Cit. How does your ladship know? Lady. Why, I know...." Defoe uses different techniques and ideas to present the content well in this piece. In Daniel Defoe's "The Complete Tradesman", the description usage is adequate, but in a few cases it is a little too much. There is enough description to explain the whole situation, but it is not overdone to tire the reader.