Ismenes Monologue From Antigone

This dramatic female monologue is a selection from Act One of Antigone by Sophocles. About Ismene as a Character Ismene is a fascinating character. In this dramatic  monologue, she conveys grief and shame as she reflects upon her father Oedipus’ sad history. She also warns that Antigone’s fate and her own might be worse if they disobey the laws of the land. She is at once melancholy, fearful, and diplomatic. Context of the Monologue Within the Play The brothers of Ismene and Antigone battle for control of Thebes. Both perish. One brother is buried as a hero. The other brother is deemed a traitor to his people. When the corpse of Antigone’s brother is left to rot out on the battlefield, Antigone is determined to set things right, even if it means defying the laws of King Creon. Her sister Ismene is not as headstrong. She is sad for the death and dishonor of her brother. However, she does not want to risk her life by upsetting the â€Å"powers that be.† Ismenes Monologue Bethink thee, sister, of our fathers fate,Abhorred, dishonored, self-convinced of sin,Blinded, himself his executioner.Think of his mother-wife (ill sorted names)Done by a noose herself had twined to deathAnd last, our hapless brethren in one day,Both in a mutual destiny involved,Self-slaughtered, both the slayer and the slain.Bethink thee, sister, we are left alone;Shall we not perish wretchedest of all,If in defiance of the law we crossA monarchs will?—weak women, think of that,Not framed by nature to contend with men.Remember this too that the stronger rules;We must obey his orders, these or worse.Therefore I plead compulsion and entreatThe dead to pardon. I perforce obeyThe powers that be. Tis foolishness, I ween,To overstep in aught the golden mean.

Essay on Comparing The Crucible and Lord Of The Flies

The successful and what could have been successful societies in both Lord of the Flies and The Crucible eventually decayed and fell apart. There were struggles with good and evil in Salem and on the island that were the result of three main elements. Fear, misuse of power and fanatical religious beliefs were the cause of the two societies failure. In Salem, anything unusual or different from the norm was seen as alien and sinful. When Parris saw the girls dancing in the woods, he became afraid the other townspeople would blame him for letting the sacrilegious acts take place. Since he was the reverend, he was supposed to make sure everyone in town was following their religious paths. To avoid punishment, he blamed Tituba and her†¦show more content†¦This made it less likely the fire they had, would be spotted by ships or planes since it was on the beach and could only be seen from one side of the island. When Jack killed the pig, the younger boys shifted their loyalty from Ralph to Jack. They saw Jack as protection from the beast when he was actually more dangerous to them. Jack focused on making the island more comfortable instead of aiding in their rescue. The abuse of authority results in death and destruction. Reverend Hale uses his authority in the â€Å"crying out† scene at the end of act 1 to make the girls accuse innocent people of telling them to do the witchcraft. He gives the girls answers to choose from when he questions them and they confess to things that Hale makes up. When talking about the kettle Hale says,†Mr. Parris, you did not notice, did you, any living thing in the kettle? A mouse, perhaps, a spider, a frog-?†(42). Though there probably was no frog, Abigail pleads that she didn’t put it in the pot, but it jumped in by it’s self. Deputy Danforth threatens to arrest Giles Corey in contempt of court when court was not in session. Danforth then starts the court and continues to question Giles while they are in the lobby of the courthouse. Danforth’s annoyance with Giles ends up getting him arrested and later, hung. Since Abigail was now an official of the court, she would be thou ght to be telling the truth. In the courthouse Abigail puts on a show with the rest of the girlsShow MoreRelatedThe Lord of the Flies by William Golding776 Words   |  3 PagesThe novel Lord of the Flies presents the themes of evil and sin as an innate, inevitable and negative feature throughout the novel, similar to the play The Crucible. William Golding uses Lord of the Flies as an allegory to present evil and sin through different symbols within the novel, with boys being trapped on an island. Arthur Miller presents evil and sin through a contextual, Puritan society within various characters. Even though both writers present these themes, Golding presents it in theRead MoreMedia Magic Making Class Invisible2198 Words   |  9 Pageshis statement that the class you are in effects you in the classroom and your level of achievement, by using statistics from researcher William Sewell. Sewell à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“showed a positive correlation between class and overall educational achiev ement. In comparing the top quartile (25%) of his sample to the bottom quartile, he found that students from upper-class families were twice as likely to obtain training beyond high school and four times as likely to attain a postgraduate degreeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  (pp.342-343). SewellRead MoreStephen P. Robbins Timothy A. Judge (2011) Organizational Behaviour 15th Edition New Jersey: Prentice Hall393164 Words   |  1573 Pagesthings are going as they should, management must monitor the organization’s performance and compare it with previously set goals. If there are any significant deviations, it is management’s job to get the organization back on track. This monitoring, comparing, and potential correcting is the controlling function. So, using the functional approach, the answer to the question â€Å"What do managers do?† is that they plan, organize, lead, and control. Management Roles In the late 1960s, Henry Mintzberg, thenRead MoreManagement Course: Mba−10 General Management215330 Words   |  862 Pagesusually was judged and measured by the depth and capability and hard-asset credentials of the company’s management. That, of course, remains critically important. However, American companies whose performance most readily slipped in the economic crucible at the beginning of the twenty-first century (and whose recovery was among the slowest) seemed to rate highest in hard-asset terms compared with the many companies with a higher mix of soft-asset management strength, whose results were far better

Canadian Health Care VS. U.S. Health Care Essay Example For Students

Canadian Health Care VS. U.S. Health Care Essay Word Count: 325One of the major differences between the U.S. and Canadian health care system is the payment system. In the United States, physicians are paid more for doing more, and the return on their time is higher if they perform a procedure than if they use their cognitive skills. Because of the fact that procedures often require hospital care, this approach translates into higher expenditures for hospital care. In Canada, Physicians operate under a system of free schedules and overall provicial limits on health spending, and they have no incentive to increase the number of procedures. In Canada patients are virtually fully insured. There are also no deductibles or copayments. Canadian physicians are mostly reimbursed on a fee-for-service basis. There are also very little use made of the prepaid group practices that have grown so rapidly in the United States. Another major difference is the fact of the government sanctions causing Canadian physicians to limit their use of tests and procedures. The biggest difference between Canadas health care system and the U.S. health care system is taht in Canada most of the funds for health care come from a single source. Canadas hospitals also have budgets which are set by the government causing adiministrators, physicians or patients to limit the amount that is to be spent. Canadians receive fewer health services than Americans, yet there is no discernable difference in the infan mortalitly and life expectancy statistics of the two nations. If there are no discernable differences, why are the Americans paying mor for the diversity and the extra services. But, on the other hand, would Canadians want a shorter stay, and an increase in tests and procedures, if they had the choice. Which system is actually better. The system that is better is the one that the specific society wants and adapts to.

The Lost Generation in The Sun Also Rises Essay Example

The Lost Generation in The Sun Also Rises Paper As World War I ripped through many European countries in the early twentieth century, the population suffered not only physically, but mentally. In addition to the many lives lost in this war, the youth of the world was greatly affected by this relatively new idea of death. Consequently, the Great War caused a lapse in values and standards in the generation who suffered through it, permanently damaging the remainder of their lives. Earnest Hemingway takes a glimpse into the lives of the people of this so-called lost generation in his novel The Sun Also Rises. Set in this post World War I age, The Sun Also Rises shows the physical and emotional wounds, the religious abandonment, and the way in which members of the lost generation escape from their lives that were greatly affected by the first World War. Every character in The Sun Also Rises has been affected by World War I in some way. Some wounds show outwardly, while others are internalized, producing an even greater emotional and often psychological trauma on the character. The narrator of this novel, Jake Barnes, is a character whose physical wounds from the Great War cause him both emotional and psychological grief. We will write a custom essay sample on The Lost Generation in The Sun Also Rises specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on The Lost Generation in The Sun Also Rises specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on The Lost Generation in The Sun Also Rises specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer While fighting in the War, Jake suffers an injury that leaves him impotent, but still desiring sexual activity. This wound causes him not only pain, but a great deal of confusion in regard to his relationship with Lady Brett Ashley: both partners know they love each other, but Jakes inability to sexually fulfill Lady Brett Ashley causes her to reject him. In his book on Hemingway, critic Earl Rovit asserts that [Jakes] wound still throbs and gives him pain (157). He cannot escape from his war injury and it continues to haunt him everyday he lives. Using his situation with Brett as a basis for all future relationships, Jake decides that he cannot please anyone and he must instead be content with wandering aimlessly through life without a true love. The severity of the emotional side of Jakes wound is in this belief that he cannot hope to find a mate. His interaction with a French prostitute shows the hopeless feeling that Jake receives from his War injury and how it has changed his life forever. When the prostitute simply lays her hand on Jakes, he pushes her away and tells her that he is sick. This emphasizes Jakes truly hopeless notion that he can never have any type of a physical relationship with a woman due to his wound. The French prostitutes response to Jakes revelation that he is sick emphasizes even more the hopelessness of the entire generation of the post-World War I era. Everybodys sick. Im sick too, replies the prostitute (Hemingway 21). Although she does not specify exactly how she herself is sick, the prostitute believes that the Great War has caused everyone a certain degree of sickness and suffering. Michael Friedberg states that the prostitutes statement is no doubt also a reference to the state of the world itself (176). The state of the world, including the other characters in The Sun Also Rises, is as lost and hopeless as Jake, predominantly because of the War. The truth of the prostitutes statement comes in the form of other characters in The Sun Also Rises including Lady Brett Ashley and Count Mippipopolous. Critic E. M. Halliday speculates that Jake Barnes war-wound impotence[is] a kind of metaphor for the whole atmosphere of sterility and frustration which is the ambiance of The Sun Also Rises (303). The other characters of this novel experience grief, frustration, and pain from the situations the War has dealt them, just as Jake does. The Count is a character who has been physically wounded by the Great War and war in general. The scars of arrow wounds pierce the Counts torso from a battle in Abyssinia when he was a young man. His involvement in seven wars and four revolutions (Hemingway 61) including World War I gives him the aged disposition of a person who has been through very hard times. Brett Ashley is an additional example of a character whose war-time experiences greatly affect her life. During the Great War, Lady Ashley orked as a nurse and was heart-broken when her true love was killed in battle. She consequently had a series of bad relationships in which she was physically and verbally abused and emerged with only her title, Lady Ashley. She recognizes her love for Jake as fruitless and is instead content with wandering aimlessly from one man to another. The effects of the War on Brett are seen in her loose, discorded relationships [that] reflect the shattered unity ( ) of the modern world (Martin 69). Lady Ashleys post-war position in The Sun Also Rises symbolizes the death of aristocracy that was suffered through the war. According to Richard Lehans essay on Hemingway, the post-War Lady Ashley represents the purposelessness and moral abandonment of the [aristocracy] (197). Her values and lifestyle were both destroyed when the Great War ended, and in essence, so was Lady Ashley. The Great War causes the characters of The Sun Also Rises not only physical and emotional suffering, but moral and religious abandonment as well. Although none of the main characters in this book professes true devotion to their religion, it is the contrast among characters that illustrates the morally lost state of the generation. Essayist John Pratt points out that, [E]ach major character represents one religious attitude (151). Hemingways novel contains a semi-pious Catholic, a detested Jew, and a pagan who combine to portray the religious abandonment that World War I essentially created. Jake Barnes is the semi-pious Catholic. Although Jake is deemed one of the more religious characters in the novel, his attitude towards religion and the Catholic faith in general show that the War affects him in this way too. Once again it is his relationship with Brett that causes his religious hopelessness. Jake admits that when he first met Brett, he sought advice from the Catholic Church on how to handle their relationship while dealing with his injury. He knew that he and Brett would not be able to have children because of this injury that left him impotent, but Jake went to get advice from a religion that sees marriage as first a procreative and then a unitive sacrament. The Catholic Church had an awfully good way of handling that. Not to think about it (Hemingway 35). Therefore, Jake is bitter toward what he thinks to be the Churchs unacceptable attitude toward his wound (Pratt 153). This very advice causes him much pain in his relationship with Brett that came as a result of the War. Lady Brett Ashley is the pagan. It is clear from the very beginning of The Sun Also Rises that Brett lacks certain beliefs and values that other people normally possess. During her stay in Pamplona, Spain, however, Brett makes it clear that she also lacks morals and any kind of religious beliefs. During the Pamplona fiesta, Brett tells Jake that she wishes to hear him confess. Jake, however, tells her that if she listens to him confess, it will be in a language she does not know. The obvious reason for this is that Jake will confess in Latin or Spanish, but it is also possible that it means she will not understand the language of the Christian religion (Baker 89). After Brett meets Pedro Romero, the absence of God in her life can be seen again. Brett asks Jake to take her to a cathedral so she can pray for her new beau, but she soon becomes uncomfortable. After trying to pray for only a couple of seconds, Brett leaves the cathedral. Im damned bad for a religious atmosphere, Ive got the wrong type of face (Hemingway 188). Brett, therefore, knows that she has rejected God and she accepts this. She re-emphasizes her pagan state at the end of the novel when she commends herself for deciding to end her relationship with Romero in an effort to save him. Brett tells Jake that her decision makes her feel good and that her goodness is what she has instead of God. Jake tells her that many people have God to which Brett replies, He never worked very well with me (Hemingway 221). Lady Brett Ashley, then, is most likely a pagan due to her War-time experiences, but she believes that her being so has worked to her advantage. Robert Cohn represents the detested Jew in a more symbolic sense than the rest of the characters in The Sun Also Rises. During the course of the novel, not much is said about Roberts religious preferences, but it is in fact his religion that makes him the scapegoat for the anger of his so-called friends. Jake states that Robert is a Jew within the first few pages of the novel. Jake also states that until Robert went to college, no one made him feel that he was a Jew and therefore different from anyone else. The significance of this statement lies in the fact that Jake, and other members of their circle of friends, do see Robert as different just because of his religion. While Brett is never referred to as the pagan, Robert is often called the Jew, with a variety of derogatory terms attached to it. The first fault that Jake and his friends find with Robert is that he did not fight in the War. They attribute this to the fact that Robert is Jewish so right from the beginning, the Great War causes problems in Robert Cohns life. Throughout the remainder of the novel, Robert suffers a variety of insults pertaining to his religion. When he becomes upset in Burguete because Brett has not yet arrived, Bill and Jake attribute this to his Jewish superiority. Well, let him not get superior and Jewish, remarks Bill at one point (Hemingway 92). During the fiesta in Pamplona, Mike Campbell calls Robert a steer. By using this term, Mike is saying that Robert is inferior to the rest of the bulls (he, Jack, and Bill) because steers lack not only testicles, but also the ability to inspire passion (Quieto sec. 1). In this statement, Mike emphasizes his dislike of Cohn simply because of his religion. Mike sees that Cohn can become Jewish and superior at times so he feels that he must make him feel inferior in all other ways. Although Robert never discusses his religion anywhere in the novel, he is detested by the majority of the characters for the simple fact that he is a Jew. By not fighting in the War, Robert receives further criticism from his friends and this emphasizes the idea that the Great War ruined religion for many people. The War wounds suffered by the characters in The Sun Also Rises cause a variety of responses in each character. While heavy drinking seems to be one of the ways in which these characters find solace for their miseries, traveling seems also to be a popular trend. The very book itself is an example of this in that Jake Barnes narrates from Paris, completely detaching himself from the Kansas City life in which he once lived. The gaiety and entertainment associated with Paris serves as a means by which he tries to forget his unfortunate station in life caused by the Great War. In an attempt to forget his wound, Jake submerges himself in a seemingly care-free life of habitual drinking and dining as a French expatriate. Youre an expatriate. Youve lost touch with the soil Fake European standards have ruined you (Hemingway 109). One of Jakes friends makes this remark to him, proving that Jake has in fact adopted the standards of a completely different continent to leave behind the world that he holds responsible for his current situation. Jake also uses travel later on in The Sun Also Rises to escape from a variety of people and situations that remind him of his hopeless state. When his relationship with Brett becomes too much, Jake accepts Roberts invitation to join him on a fishing trip in Spain. Jake and his friend, Bill Gorton embark for this trip and immediately the tone of the book becomes lighter and happier. Aside from their frequent disagreements with Robert, Jake and Bill manage to have a good time fishing in Burguete, a small town in the Pyrenees mountains. Instead of obsessing over his relationship with Brett, Jake concerns himself only with fishing, drinking, and enjoying himself. We stayed five days at Burguete and had good fishing There was no word from Brett or Mike (Hemingway 117). It is on this trip to Burguete that Jake and Bill become good friends through their mutual desire to get away from the petty and noxious tribulations of Robert Cohn and company (Baker 84). Their camaraderie also stems from their shared need to escape from the world that the Great War has created from them and Burguete is the closest each character comes to experiencing this. Robert Cohn is another character who uses travel as a way to escape from the harsh realities of the times. The novel begins with Robert in a somewhat disastrous relationship that he was forced into by his lady. Things begin to go awry in the relationship and this, combined with Roberts new interest in the book The Purple Land cause him to yearn for a change of scenery. He suggests a trip to South America to Jake who cynically replies, You cant get away from yourself by moving from one place to another (Hemingway 18). Jake speaks from experience for his current place of habitation is a desperate attempt to get away from himself and the way he has become. Robert, however, does not take Jakes advice and after ending his relationship of four years, he sets off for San Sebastian, Spain. More than half of The Sun Also Rises is set in Pamplona, Spain where Jake, Brett, Robert, Bill Gorton, and Mike Campbell attend the summer fiesta. Although Jake attends this fiesta almost every year to watch the bullfights, this year he cannot truly escape from himself because his past haunts accompany him on the trip. Therefore, he must resort to a lifestyle of perpetual drunkenness to deal with his problems, as do many of the other characters. The world of The Sun Also Rises is a world of drunken promiscuity, shot through with streaks of pity (Wagenknecht 374). Although Jake turns to alcohol frequently on this trip, his relationship with Brett manages still to tear at his emotions. After he and Bill discuss the idea of irony and pity, Jake feels especially low as he realizes that irony and pity are the combination he used whenever he thinks about Brett (Baker 92). Their relationship is ironic in that they both love each other but can never be together, and pitiful in the same sense. The trip that is supposed to help Jake escape reality actually makes him realize his hopeless state even more. He proves his own advice to others during the course of this trip; You cant get away from yourself by moving from one place to another (Hemingway 18). Jake knows this from experience, but he also keeps reliving it every time he goes away. The characters of The Sun Also Rises never do manage to get away from themselves. The Great War, it seems, has caused permanent damage to the lives of those who suffered through it. At the end of the novel, Jake attempts to rescue Brett after she runs off with Pedro Romero. Once he arrives, Brett begins to speak nostalgically of their relationship, saying that they could have had a good life together. Yes, isnt it pretty to think so? is Jakes reply (Hemingway 222). This is true for the entire lost generation affected by the War. It is quite possible that any of the characters in The Sun Also Rises could have led normal lives, but the influence of World War I was too much. According to Rovit, World War I had been the catalytic agent in releasing the stark factor of nothingness and absurdity at the very root of traditional values (159). The Great War destroyed the traditional values of love, faith, and hope and consequently, the characters of The Sun Also Rises wander aimlessly through their resultant lives, constantly seeking ways to escape.