Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
aspects of love in shakespeare
aspects of love in shakespeare
the theme of love in shakespeare plays
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: aspects of love in shakespeare
The Manipulation of Gender Roles in Shakespeare’s Othello
Of Shakespeare’s great tragedies, the story of the rise and fall of the Moor of Venice arguably elicits the most intensely personal and emotional responses from its English-speaking audiences over the centuries. Treating the subject of personal human relationships, the tragedy which should have been a love story speaks to both reading and viewing audiences by exploring the archetypal dramatic values of love and betrayal. The final source of the tragic action in Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice has been attributed to various psychological, mythical, racial, social sources: Othello’s status as racial outsider in Venetian society, his pagan roots in Christian society, hubris and/or hamartia in Othello or in Desdemona.
While any of these interpretations no doubt helps to inform fuller discussion of the play, I would like to focus the question of the cause of this tragedy in another area: the realm of gender. I will argue that the tragedy occurs as a result of the protagonists’ overwhelming adherence to their society’s stereotyped gender roles and that Iago further encourages and manipulates these gender roles to his own ends. In this essay, I use the word “gender” to describe those physical, biological, behavioral, verbal, textual, mythic, and power dynamic cues that signal to others in the society, specifically the society of this play, that one is perceived as belonging or not belonging to a specific category of masculine or feminine (Bornstein 26-30). I will also use Kate Bornstein’s definition of “gender roles”: the “positions and actions specific to a given gender as defined by a culture” (26). Iago is a gender trickster, subtly and subver...
... middle of paper ...
...lifornia State University Bakersfield, 1996.
Paglia, Camille. Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson. New York: Vintage Books, Inc., 1990.
Proser, Matthew N. The Heroic Image in Five Shakespearean Tragedies. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1965.
Rose, Mary Beth. The Expense of Spirit: Love and Sexuality in English Renaissance Drama. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1988.
Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice. New York: Bantam Books, 1988.
Stewart, J.I.M. Character and Motive in Shakespeare: Some Recent Appraisals Examined. New York: Barnes & Noble, Inc., 1966.
Whallon, William. Inconsistencies: Studies in the New Testament, the Inferno, Othello, and Beowulf. Totowa, New Jersey: D. S. Brewer, 1983.
Wine, Martin L. Othello: Text and Performance. London: MacMillan, 1984.
Kernan, Alvin. “Othello: and Introduction.” Shakespeare: The Tragedies. Ed. Alfred Harbage. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall Inc., 1964.
Shakespeare, William. “The Tragedy of Othello the Moor of Venice.” The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces.
Throughout time children have worked myriad hours in hazardous workplaces in order to make a few cents to a few dollars. This is known as child labor, where children are risking their lives daily for money. Today child labor continues to exist all over the world and even in the United States where children pick fruits and vegetables in difficult conditions. According to the article, “What is Child Labor”; it states that roughly 215 million children around the world are working between the ages of 5 and 17 in harmful workplaces. Child labor continues to exist because many families live in poverty and with more working hands there is an increase in income. Other families take their children to work in the fields because they have no access to childcare and extra money is beneficial to buy basic needs. Although there are laws and regulations that protect children from child labor, stronger enforcement is required because child labor not only exploits children but also has detrimental effects on a child’s health, education, and the people of the nation.
Fairhall, James. James Joyce and the Question of History. Cambridge University Press. New York, New York: 1993.
Campbell, Lily B. Shakespeare's Tragic Heroes, Slaves of Passion. Gloucester: Peter Smith Publisher Inc., 1973.
In conclusion, this essay has tried to argue that cell phones are valuable tools in schools. Many of us see cell phone pessimistically but really haven’t looked at them optimistically. We all know that "with every good, comes a bad, and with responsibilities, come consequences". By all means allowing cell phones in schools is a great idea, and students should start to learn the positive features of that new device. Overall, this essay has attempted to show that allowing cell phones in schools is not a bad idea.
In developing my own educational leadership model (MELM) I began with establishing what I believe the goal of education should be, since leaders by definition are leading people towards something. The goal of education is to effectively teach students the essential skills and knowledge they will need to establish a productive, positive, self-sufficient life where they can be active members of their communities. An effective leader, while working towards this goal will need to consider the present conditions and demands of the environment they are a part of. In the field of education, both internal and external factors are of crucial importance when developing a plan to lead for success. However, one must note the variables in education are different than those the business sector face, for example; student performance, ability and cultural differences; availability/condition of supplies and materials; goal; educator’s capability, views and attitudes; conditionality of economic support; openness/hostility of influencing communities; state or government performance mandates. A leader who knows where they (students, school, district, community) are now, can approach goals more clearly and develop more effective strategies to arrive at them.
Joyce, James. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. The Portable James Joyce. Ed. Harry Levin. New York: Penguin, 1976.
So I believe that the issue of child labour is not simple. As Unicef’s 1997 State of the World’s Children Report argued, children’s work needs to be seen as having two extremes. On one hand, there is the destructive or exploitative work and, on the other hand, there is beneficial work - promoting or enhancing children’s development without interfering with their schooling, recreation and rest. ‘And between these two poles are vast areas of work that need not negatively affect a child’s development.’ My firm belief is that there is a difference between child labour and child work and that in both cases the issue is whether or not the child is deliberately being exploited.
Today’s cell phone is the front line technology at our fingertips. Keeping this in mind the use of cell phones have become an affair when it comes to allowing teens to use them in educational environments, such as schools. One part of society supports the use of cell phones while the other part of society disapproves the use of cell phones. I personally believe that cell phones should not only be allowed in school, but cell phones should be mandatory just like a textbook. Cell phones do not only allow students to stay united with friends and family, but cell phones are also a magnificent learning system, and they boost the liable use of technology.
Joyce, James, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. The Viking Press: New York, 1916.
Kenner, Hugh. "Joyce's Portrait -- A Reconsideration". The University of Windsor Review. vol.1, no. 1. Spring, 1965. 1-15. Rpt. in Twentieth Century Literary Criticism. ed. Dennis Poupard. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1985. 16:229-234.
"Using Cell Phones in the Classroom." UW Bothell Learning Technologies. UWB LT., 17 May 2011. Web. 30 Apr. 2014.
Joyce, James. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. 1916. New York: Penguin,1993.
Joyce, James. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. New York: New American Library, 1991.