Existentialism :: Philosophy Sartre Existentialist Essays

Existentialism 'Existence precedes essence'. These are the few words that many people live by. These words describe a philosophy called Existentialism. The philosophical term, Existentialism, came from Jean Paul Sartre, a French philosopher. Jean Paul Sartre wrote 'No Exit', where he portrayed his philosophy negatively. On the other hand, Albert Camus, who wrote The Stranger, portrayed Existentialism positively through his characters. Each author uses the characteristics of Existentialism positively or negatively to define their own story as well as their characters as true Existentialists or not   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Existentialism has been described as a philosophical movement especially of the 20th century that stresses the individual position as self determining agent responsible for his or her own choices. Basically a true Existentialist will create their own beliefs, take responsibility for his of her own actions, and is very honest. If they were to do something wrong, they would take responsibility for their actions and not make excuses or put the blame on someone else. Furthermore, a true existentialist believes there is no God and thus man becomes alone with only ourselves as a guide to making the decisions that define our existence. They also believe that Life has no meaning and that everything happens by chance.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Jean-Paul Sartre examines the basic themes of existentialism through his three characters Garcin, Inez, and Estelle. Garcin seems to appear an existentialist, but upon a closer look, he violates the rules time and again. Next, Inez seems to fully understand ideas deemed existential. Estelle is the third person, and does not seem to understand these ideas well, nor does she accept them when they are first presented to her. One similarity amongst the three is that they all at some point seem to accept that they are in "hell" for a reason.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Garcin is "hell" because he beat his wife and cheated on her. However, he doesn?t wish he had acted differently. He shows and proves this when he says: ?I tell you I regret nothing (p. 24).? By saying this, Garcin is taking responsibility for his own actions; hence he is following the laws of Existentialism. However, he sometimes violates these laws. For example, he is so preoccupied with the idea that he is a coward that he makes the women tell him that he wasn?t a coward and makes her tell him that he was right in doing so. He is so dependent upon this that he wouldn?

Architecture :: essays research papers

An architect designs and sometimes supervises the construction of buildings. Anything from tunnels that run far beneath the ground, to skyscrapers that tower above it, architects have always had a hand in building these great structures. Yes, you too can be an architect! But how, you ask? Just read on, and you will find out! Architects have designed the greatest buildings in history, from the stoic World Trade Center in New York, to the graceful and natural Falling Waters house in Pennsylvania, building styles differ as much as the architects who build them. One of the most famous architects is Frank Lloyd Wright, who designed the aforementioned Falling Waters and also the Robie house in Illinois. He is often considered the most creative architect of our time for his use of natural surroundings and building materials found in nature. No other man has made such an impact on architecture as Frank Lloyd Wright. Architects can work in a variety of conditions, but most work in office buildings that contain architectural firms of about three to six people. However, sometimes the job demands that an architect go out on the actual building site to supervise construction. This is a minor inconvenience to the architects, but on a general scale, architects have extremely comfortable surroundings that promote less stress among them. Often, and more so nowadays, architectural firms are adopting CAD programs, or Computer Aided Design as the main tool for designing buildings. It provides an easy to use interface over the previous pencil and paper method. As a result, CAD software is growing vastly in usage and many colleges are now offering courses just in CAD. Often, architects have to make considerations before the actual design phase of any building. The most important of these is cost. If a building is made of cheaper building materials, the architectural firm gets more money from the buyer. Other considerations are the style of the building, which depends heavily upon the surrounding buildings, not to mention the environment, functionality, elevations, and zoning regulations. The zoning regulations limit the size and shape of the building so that it doesn’t interfere with the area around the building and the overall skyline of the neighborhood. Often, zoning regulations are a large problem in major cities, and architects either have to compromise with the zoning authority or have the building not be built at all. These compromises are an annoyance for architects and make life a little interesting for these public servants. Usually, in any job, the closer you are to a city, the more money you make. In the case of architects, this is especially true.

Metternich’s Political Confession of Faith Essay

Prince Klemens von Metternich was the leading personality during the Congress of Vienna which sought to restore Europe back to the status quo, undoing the â€Å"disorder† caused by Napoleon. Besides being instrumental in â€Å"cleaning up Napoleon’s mess,† Metternich was a conservative at heart and saw the â€Å"damage† the French Revolution had brought to France and how Napoleon tried to import the legacy of the French Revolution, as well as the Enlightenment, to the rest of the lands in Europe he conquered and the subsequent effects thereafter. Metternich wrote â€Å"Political Confession of Faith† which he addressed to Russian Tsar Alexander I as a â€Å"secret† memorandum in 1820. This also came at a time when there were similar revolutions, led by liberals in parts of Spain, Italy and Germany. This document revealed Metternich’s sentiments about the emerging trend in Europe – the rise of liberalism. For Metternich, this was a trend that was a major area of concern not only for him but for the rest of Europe. He had singled out France for being the â€Å"cradle of the Enlightenment† when he said: â€Å"France had the misfortune to produce the greatest number of these men. It is in her midst that religion and all that she holds sacred, that morality and authority, and all connected with them, have been attacked with a steady and systematic animosity, and it is there that the weapon of ridicule has been used with the most ease and success. Drag through the mud the name of God and the powers instituted by His divine decrees, and the revolution will be prepared! Speak of a social contract, and the revolution is accomplished! † A staunch conservative monarchist, He saw what the French Revolution, whose leaders were imbued with Enlightenment ideas toppled the monarchy which they regarded as obsolete and irrelevant owing to its inability to care for its people, did to French society. For the French people, they no longer recognized the Divine Right of kings and instead saw it from a different prism – King Louis XVI did not live up to the â€Å"social contract† and in doing so, lost his legitimacy to rule and when Louis tried to stifle their rights, they took drastic action that led to his overthrow. What happened next was something that made Metternich concerned – the Reign of Terror which saw what Metternich noticed as a spree of persecution with reckless abandon of those said to be colluding with the old regime. Not only was Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette, the daughter of Austrian Empress Maria Theresa, executed, but several others who had no connection with them, including members of the clergy were also persecuted or sent to the guillotine. He deplored Napoleon for making quite a mess of European society: â€Å"Nevertheless the revolutionary seed had penetrated into every country and spread more or less. It was greatly developed under the regime of the military despotism of Bonaparte. His conquests displaced a number of laws, institutions, and customs; broke through bonds sacred among all nations, strong enough to resist time itself; which is more than can be said of certain benefits conferred by these innovators. From these perturbations it followed that the revolutionary spirit could in Germany, Italy, and later on in Spain, easily hide itself under the veil of patriotism . † For Metternich, as shown in his secret memorandum to the Russian Tsar, liberalism was regarded as a menace to the status quo of Europe where most of the states were still monarchical. Whereas the relatively young republic of the United States of America would be all praises of liberalism, Metternich and his ilk were not. The French Revolution, particularly the Reign of Terror served as a wake-up call to the remaining monarchies to make them stand up and take notice on what could possibly happen if they would allow liberal ideas to germinate in their societies. He warned the other surviving monarchical governments to be on guard by saying, â€Å"The first principle to be followed by the monarchs, united as they are by the coincidence of their desires and opinions, should be that of maintaining the stability of political institutions against the disorganised excitement which has taken possession of men’s minds†¦ In short, let the great monarchs strengthen their union, and prove to the world that if it exists, it is beneficent, and ensures the political peace of Europe: that it is powerful only for the maintenance of tranquillity at a time when so many attacks are directed against it; that the principles which they profess are paterllal and protective, menacing only the disturbers of public tranquillity . † Metternich’s admonition paid off as it was evident during the revolutions of 1848 when liberal movements failed to gain a foothold or emulate the success of the French Revolution. The reason being was that these societies had no long history of empowering the people and only radical means was necessary to do it. The bottom line Metternich was pointing out was that liberalism could not be drastically erected and revolution was not always the answer to addressing the social and political problems. Furthermore, the Reign of Terror also saw how ugly liberalism would go when taken to the extreme in bringing even more instability in exchange for bringing too much freedom to the people. Bibliography Metternich, Klemens von. â€Å"Political Confession of Faith. † Fordham University Modern History Sourcebook. December 20, 1820. http://www. fordham. edu/haslall/mod/1820 metternich. html/

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens Essay

Charles Dickens wrote this novel because he was keenly touched by the lot of poor children in the middle decades of the 19th century. This is the reason which motivated Dickens in doing this, before writing this novel. Before he decided to this he thought of publishing leaflets instead. On the other hand some critics have suggested that Scrooge’s redemption underscores what they see as the conservative individualistic and patriarchal of Dickens Carol Philosophy. Dickens own experiences influenced him a lot in why he wrote this novel and how he cares so much for the children, who were forced to hard labour in the workhouses from such young age as 12. Before the â€Å"New Poor Law† was introduced in 1834, a high percentage of young children were forced t work to make sure that them and their families did not die of starvation. There was a well known prison called the â€Å"The Marshelsea†, it became know in the 19th century around the world through the writing of the English novelist Charles Dickens. His father which was there in 1824 for a debt of ? 40 and 10 shillings however Dickens most traumatic experience was when he was forced to leave school at the young age of 12 to work in a factory instead. Dickens already had ideas of how to use these types of experiences in a novel. Some of the social conditions such as the new poor law have been shown in the â€Å"Christmas Carol† in this particular quote: â€Å"The Treadmill and the the poor law in full vigour then? † â€Å"Both very busy sir†` This quote proves to us that Dickens used his novel to express the social conditions through it. Dickens used Scrooge as the main character to show that wealthy people always have a responsibility to help those less fortunate. He clearly shows this view at the end of the novel where he gives a young boy money to buy a turkey for the Crachit family. The family isn’t the richest but has a really warm heart. Crachit tries showing Scrooge that life is not all about money and also that he should try to move on and forget about Bella. Scrooge had a really bad experience when Bella marries someone else because she told him that he cares about money more than her. Scrooge somehow had to overcome this tragic event in his life and since then he has not been able to celebrate a successful eve without thinking of her for even a moment. In much earlier in the novel 3 old men come up to Scrooge asking for money to donate to people for Christmas, however Scrooge is a cold hearted person so instead of donating a few shillings he says â€Å"Bah Humbug. † The main character of â€Å"A Christmas Carol† is Ebenezer Scrooge. He is an elderly man who lives in London, his sister died leaving a son whose name is Fred. In addition to this Ebenezer has no family. He is a very rich banker. Scrooges clerk Bob Crachit is a middle–aged man who has six children. Ebenezer is thin and has a slight hunchback, coal grey hair and a wrinkled old face, on which he has reddish eyes, a long pointed nose and thin blue lips as cold as ice. Like his employee Bob is very well dressed. Let’s take a look at Scrooge first, before he got visited by the spirits he was a very stingy person and only cared about his own interests. He couldn’t manage to share his money and was not sensitive to the suffering of others. Ebenezer was even harsh to his employee who never cheated, is reliable, hardworking and had to endure the bad behaviour on him. Bob is satisfied with not owning anything and having no money at all. Bob is satisfied with not owning anything and having no money at all, however the only things that matter for him and make him happy are the small but the most important things in life which is his family. After Scrooge got visited by the ghosts he changed positively and you could even say that was similar to Crachit. Just like he likes Christmas, is a good and open to others, joyous and happy. He even started to share money with the poor and expressed his feelings by helping others. In my opinion Scrooge turned into a better character and I admire his sudden transformation into a better human being. Bob Crachit’s characteristics are that he is poor, has a big family, young and takes care of his close ones, joyful and nice. The crachit family live in a small cosy home but they don’t have enough money to decorate it with luxuries because the most important thing for them is too have enough money for coal/fire so that they would be warm, however most importantly all they want to happen is for Tiny Tim to be a healthy again. The miraculous transformation that Scrooge has made makes us aware that good change is never too late. Also that money cannot buy happiness you just have to share it with other people to make something good of it.

First Generation Romantics

Brittani Powell Dr. Matthew DeForrest ENG435/ TR 9:30-10:45 March 1, 2010 Individualism: First Generation Romantics The Romantics were known for their use of the unusual and old-fashioned in their poetry because they were in a very unusual and old-fashioned state of mind when writing their poetry. The Romantics were experimental writers and they lived during a very tough time period, and itshowed in their poetry. The Romantic period had the shortest life span of any literary era in the English language. It lasted 43 years, beginning from 1789 to 1832. It started during the French revolution and ended during the parliamentary reforms, which established a foundation for which still exists in modern day Britain. There were six major Romantics, and they were split into two generations. The first generation consisted of William Blake, William Wordsworth, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The second generation consisted of Percy Bysshe, John Keats, and George Gordon, Lord Byron. These poets were considered old-fashionedbecause they were the first to experiment with this style of writing. There was no one before them, so for influence they had to look back to the past for influence. Even when inventing a new style of writing there still has to be some influence. It is very hard to come up your own completely original literary style. They admired the work of Milton and Shakespeare very much. All the first generation romantics felt those two were the best poets and admired their style. Shakespeare and Milton were very old poets and they influenced the Romantics so their poems came off very old-fashioned and out dated. They used very old English that was hard for people to comprehend, making some people feel the writings were unusual. The Romantics were known for their theories on the connection between nature, the mind, and the imagination. The English Romantics accepted the reality of the link between man and nature in the form of the human imagination as the basis of human understanding, rejecting the scientific world view onmaterialism. Imagination is a force, or energy, that allows such a connection to be made. William Blake saw the human imagination as essential to human understanding of the world they live in; he saw reality as a â€Å"mental construction. According to Blake and the other Romantic poets, â€Å"once the energy of imagination is used effectively to realize the connection between man and nature, the individual gains freedom from the restrictive bonds of unimaginative thought. † The first generation romantics are characterized by their shift in style and subject manner from the Neo Classicalist. The use of satire is rare and the Romantics tend to focus on particular aspects of objects, people, and events instead of the fundamental nature of objects, people and events. One of the most important works pertaining to the change of style during this time was William Wordsworth’s Preface to Lyrical Ballads, which demonstrates Wordsworth’s particular motivations for how he writes the Lyrical Ballads. Notably the subjects of these poems, are â€Å"incidents and situations from common life† verses the normal neoclassical subject of incidents and situations from elevated life, like Alexander Pope’s Rape of the Lock, which is about the aristocracy and not the common people (Norton 266). Wordsworth also changes the style of his poetry when he states, â€Å"The reader will find that personifications of abstract ideas rarely occur in these volumes; and, I hope, are utterly rejected as ordinary device to elevate the style, and rise it above prose†, and â€Å"there will also be found in these volumes little of what is usually called poetic diction; I have take as much pains to avoid it as others ordinarily talk to produce it; this I have done for the reason already alleged, to bring my language near to the language of men, and further, because the pleasure which I have proposed to myself to impart is of a kind very different from what is supposed by many person to be the proper object of poetry† (Norton 267). Wordsworth and other first generation poets take a notable step away from their Neo Classical predecessors by embracing the common people and the common language. First Generation romantics also believe in the possible ability of dreams to clarify real ity, as seen in Coleridge’s Kubla_ Kahn_. Also _Kubla Kahn_,presents a different kind of characterization of the poet. The narrator states, â€Å"I would build that dome in air,† which shows the narrator’s desire to use his words combined with his imagination to create a poem, which is unlike the characterization of the poet in Rassles(Norton 448). In _Biographia Literaria_, Coleridge distinguishes imagination from fancy and even separates imagination further by distinguishing between primary and secondary imagination. Romanticism is often associated with radical individualism, and much Romantic poetry focuses on the struggles of the individual will to break or exceed its social and metaphysical bonds. Millenarianism, on the other hand, consists of the expectation of the fulfillment of God's providential design, in which the place left for individual human agency is limited if not nonexistent. The French Revolution could thus be viewed either as the work of heroic individuals struggling for liberty or as an act of God. The role of an individual as shown in Samuel T. Coleridge’s Religious Musings, is to know thyself; he starts the poem reflecting his Unitarian ideas about the independence of God, who is only One but at the same time He is everything we can feel and see and he equals God with Love. â€Å"There is one Mind, one omnipresent Mind, Omnific. His most holy name is Love† (Lines 105-106). Coleridge repeats two times â€Å"one† to emphasize the Unitarian Idea of the oneness of God. In the lines19-23 he speaks about the disaster of the war, the fight between France and England. A sea of blood bestrewed with wrecks, where mad embattling interests on each other rush/ With unhelmed rage ‘Tis the sublime of man. † You can imagine how terrible the situation was. It was like a disastrous vision, but a necessary vision because after it 1000 y ears of peace had come. According to Coleridge after that God will judge all the nations, â€Å"Our noontide Majesty, to know ourselves, parts and proportions of one wondrous whole! (Lines 127-129). † After this time of violence, a new better time came. The thoughts of the major part of the romantic poets are influenced by the French Revolution when they wrote about religion or other topics. Although at first some writers like Coleridge had a positive view of this violent period, later they changed their opinions because the results were not what they had expected. All the relations between the prophecies and the periods of violence did not come true and they felt disappointed. The French Revolution and the Unitarian tendencies of Coleridge is the key to understanding the major parts of his works and indispensable to understanding his religious point of view. Wordsworth's poetry is distinguished by his straightforward use of language and meter and his natural and often conversational themes and imagery. This is not to say, however, that Wordsworth's ideas are simple. He unites several ideas throughout his poetic works, including the importance of the natural world, transcendentalism and interconnectedness, religion, morality, mortality, memory and the power of the human mind. Wordsworth began publishing in 1793, at the age of 23, with a collection of poetry about a tour he took in the Swiss Alps – Descriptive Sketches. Wordsworth's poetry was a little ahead of its time; however, it instigated Romanticism in England through its emotional nature and its allusions to nature. His work has had a profound legacy on the Victorian and twentieth-century literature as well. Yet his ultimate goal was the betterment of mankind through the discovery of an individual's own joy and emotions. Percy Bysshe Shelly’s first major poetic work was _Queen _Mab. This poem was written early in his career and serves as a foundation to his theory of revolution. Shelly took William Godwin’s idea of â€Å"necessity† and combined it with his own idea of ever-changing nature, to establish the theory that contemporary societal evils would dissolve naturally in time. This was to be coupled with the creation of a moral mentality in people who could envision the ideal goal of a perfect society. The ideal was to be reached incrementally, because Shelley (as a result of Napoleon's actions in the French Revolution), believed that the perfect society could not be obtained immediately through violent revolution. Instead it was to be achieved through nature's evolution and ever-greater numbers of people becoming honorable and imagining a better society. _Queen _Mab was infused with scientific language and naturalizing moral prescriptions for an oppressed humanity in an industrializing world. William Blake, a painter and poet, and one of England’s most famous literary figures. A great predecessor to the Romantics, Blake was a revolutionary and visionary artist and his work represented a decisively new direction in the course the Visual Arts. He expressed an individualized view of humanity that became important to Romanticism. His poetry is described as â€Å"highly individual in style and technique† (Lawall, ed. , 540). To relate to his readers, Blake uses different voices and puts forth his own ideas about human existence. In his poem, The Little Black Boy, Blake uses the voice of a black boy who is confused on how he is different than the white boy. The reader is probably â€Å"painfully† aware of the society’s judgments of black people during this time. The black boy concludes by seeing himself as a protector to the white boy, â€Å"I’ll shade him from the heat till he can bear / To lean in joy upon our father’s knee† (Lawall, ed. , 544). Instead of understanding that white means good and black means bad, the black boy comes up with a new meaning for his black skin (Lawall, ed. 541). Blake uses emotion in his poetry to enhance the reader’s reaction to his works. He also looks to exposethe inner thoughts of the human being. Blake’s individualism within his poetry portrays the ideology that Romanticists sought to convey during this time period. The specialty of William Blake’s work is that he uses numerous literary techniques and devices to articulate his thoughts. He created such literary work because he was a creative thinker, fully conscious of the realities and complexities of experience, particularly the poverty and oppression of the urban world where he spent his most of his life. Still today, his artistic and poetic creations are valued in British culture. The first generation Romantics accepted reality of the link between man and nature, and man as an individual, in the form of the human imagination as the basis of human understanding, rejecting the scientific world view of materialism. The Romantic writer’s attempted to discover hidden unity between man and nature. It is imagination –a force, or energy, that allows such a connection to be made. The realization of this interdependent relationship carries with it a kind of freedom for the individual. William Blake saw the human imagination as essential to human understanding of the world; he saw reality as a â€Å"mental construction. † The Romantics asserted the importance of the individual. Brittani Powell Dr. Matthew DeForrest ENG435/ TR 9:30-10:45 March 1, 2010 Individualism: First Generation Romantics An Annotated Bibliography Damrosch, David, and Kevin Dettmar*. * *The Longman Anthology of British Literature. * New York: Pearson Longman, 2006. Print. This texton British Literature describes the distinction and conviction the first generation of the Romantic writers felt on individualism. The authors give a fresh approach to the study of Romantic Literature edited by scholars in the field. Major prose works are included in their entirety, together with a wealth of poetry and drama, from Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience to Byron’s Manfred —and beyond. The first generation Romantics and their Contemporaries of The Longman Anthology of British Literature is a comprehensive and thoughtfully arranged anthology that offers a rich selection of Blake’s commentaries and influences on the Romantic period. The text also includes Perspectives, Companion Readings, and â€Å"and Its Time† sections which show how major literary writings interrelate with and respond to various social, historical, and cultural events of Great Britain in the Romantic period. With a generous representation of fiction, drama, and poetry, the second edition includes major additions of important works and an expanded illustration program. This text is distinctive in exploring the perspective of the first generation writers and their take on individualism. *Greenblatt, Stephen, and M. H. Abrams. * *The Norton Anthology of English Literature. * New York: W. W. Norton, 2006. Print. The eighth edition of The Norton Anthology of English Literature text comprises six volumes, sold in two sets of three. The first set includes the volumes â€Å"The Middle Ages,† â€Å"The Sixteenth Century and The Early Seventeenth Century,† and â€Å"Restoration and the Eighteenth Century;† the second set includes â€Å"The Romantic Period,† â€Å"The Victorian Age,† and â€Å"The Twentieth Century and After. † The writings are arranged by author, with each author presented chronologically by date of birth. Historical and biographical information is provided in a series of head-notes for each author and in introductions for each of the time periods. Dickinson, Kate Letitia*. *William Blake's Anticipation of the Individualistic Revolution. * Philadelphia: R. West, 1978. Print. * This text on William Blake’s Anticipation of the Individualistic Revolution describes Blake’s struggle for individualism. The author describes Blake’s perspective and full descriptive criticisms on Blake’s works. Wordsworth, William, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Richey, and Daniel Robinson. Lyrical Ballads: and Related *Writings :* Complete Text with Introduction Contexts, Reactions. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2002. Print. This collection of poems by William Wordsworth and Samuel T. Coleridge describes a collection of poems by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, first published in 1798 and generally considered to have marked the beginning of the English Romantic movement in literature. Most of the poems in the 1798 edition were written by Wordsworth, with Coleridge contributing only four poems to the collection, including one of his most famous works, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. One of the main themes of â€Å"Lyrical Ballads† is the return to the original state of nature, in which people led a purer and more innocent existence. Wordsworth subscribed to Rousseau's belief that humanity was essentially good but was corrupted by the influence of society. This may be linked with the sentiments spreading through Europe just prior to the French Revolution. *Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, and J. C. C. Mays. **Poetical Works, II. Poems (variorum Text), Parts 1 & 2. * Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 2001. Print. This text describes the three parts of Volume 16 confirm and expand the sense of the Coleridge who has emerged over the past half-century, with implications for English Romantic writing as a whole. This text is distinctive in exploring the works of Coleridge and is written with complete analysis of each poem. Shelley, Percy Bysshe*, Donald H. *Reiman*, and Neil *Fraistat*. * Shelley's Poetry and Prose: Authoritative Texts, Criticism. New York: Norton, 2002. Print. This collection of Shelley’s poetry and prose contains one of the fullest, and certainly the most accurately edited collections of Shelley's poetry and prose available. Shelley is the wild child of English poetry and his determined opposition to tyranny produced a huge variety of poetry, ranging from the rending lament of Keats in Adonais, to the defiant and taut sonnet Ozymandias. The essays in this volume are generally helpful and explain the structures of the poems where useful. They are also refreshingly short. This text distinctively contains 15 brief critical essays, which are among the best explications you'll find of Shelley's work. *Chandler, James. The Cambridge History of English Romantic Literature. * Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 2009. Print. In this text it describes the Romantic period as one of the most creative, intense and turbulent periods of English literature, an age marked by revolution, reaction, and reform in politics, and by the invention of imaginative literature in its distinctively modern form. This History presents an engaging account of six decades of literary production around the turn of the nineteenth century. Reflecting the most up-to-date research, the essays are designed both to provide a narrative of Romantic literature, and to offer new and stimulating readings of the key texts. One group of essays addresses the various locations of literary activity – both in England and, as writers developed their interests in travel and foreign cultures, across the world. A second set of essays traces how texts responded to great historical and social change. With a comprehensive

Comparing and Contrasting Views of Emotion Regulation

Everyone regulates their emotions and some better than others. A majority of the time we do not even realize we are doing so because of a very powerful unconscious. Emotion regulation is a relatively new section of psychology because it has yet to be extensively researched. Such unexplored areas tend to be even a little fuzzy to even the most understanding of researchers. James J. Gross of Stanford University is one of the comparatively few researchers in this field and has written many psychologically recognized papers on different aspects of emotion regulation. A significant article about the ideas of emotion regulation that also states many conducted experiments is titled â€Å"Emotion regulation: Affective, cognitive, and social consequences. † Many of his articles and ideas closely relate to the ideas contained within Benedict Carey’s New York Times article entitled â€Å"Mind-Polishing Tools for Your Fuse Box of Emotions. †While these two articles by Gross and Carey both narrowly focus on a small portion of today’s psychological knowledge, there is a sharp contrast in their views of the topic. Perhaps by preferences of the author or what may be lack of knowledge on the author’s behalf, it is more than pure scientific evidence that produced such similar articles that differ on so many levels at the same time. Both written materials of course have an audience, but the audiences to which they appeal are entire opposites. Both authors tend to also have slightly differing views it seems but it is apparent in what they have written that they both coincide on the idea that poor emotion suppression plays its largest role in the social environment. However, even though suppression is a main focus for both, Carey’s article tends to drift towards seeing suppression in a mostly negative light. The New York Times, the source of Carey’s popular press article, is more directly aimed toward the general public with the intent of informing. Therefore, the emotion regulation article doesn’t assume the reader knows anything about the subject and so starts off by introducing the topic and slowly works its way further into topic while never really going too far into scientific depth. Instead of using made-up examples as Gross does which may not be relative to the general public, Carey chooses real-life examples that tend to be more connected to the everyday life of U. S. citizens as goes his opening sentence: â€Å"The longing for President Obama to vent some fury at oil executives or bankers may run deeper than politics† (Carey, 2010, para. 1). Such statements appear to be just an example, yet they also hold the author’s view of the situation, especially in an opening sentence. Such views usually set the tone or attitude for the rest of the article. This is not so, however, in one of Gross’s first statements where his example in one that has no depth: â€Å"Sometimes, emotions are triggered virtually automatically, such as when we recoil fearfully from a snake† (Gross, 2002). The example he uses, as previously stated, is not one that every person reading his article may know or have experienced but it also effective and contradicts the popular press article because it is an example which holds no emotional value. By not using emotion to shape his example, it is evident that Gross is not trying to persuade the reader to one view in any way, but rather just tells the facts. These forms of expressions are typical of a scholarly or peer reviewed article but that doesn’t mean that Carey couldn’t use this form of fact telling to get his point across. Content with emotional backup is favored by a reader just wanting a general picture because it makes for a more interesting read which is obviously Carey’s type of audience and not Gross’s. As far as content of the articles is concerned, it seems that the social consequences of emotion suppression are the bigger picture and focus of them both. Research in the past few years has found that people develop a variety of psychological tools to manage what they express in social situations, and those techniques often become subconscious, affecting interactions in unintended ways† (Carey, 2010, para. 6). Obviously what emotions we portray in interactions with others will affect the reactions of the partner and your own. Letting these emotions flow, whether positive or negative, seems to be a great way to release weight off your shoulders, so to speak. On the other hand, how we let emotions flow and to what extent has a major impact on our relationships with others. Positive portrayal of emotions is always the key to keeping healthy interactions. Even if it is anger that you are showing, sometimes letting the other person know why you are angry allows both of you to work on a solution which in turn is a positive consequence. Suppression is found to also lessen the psychological experience of a situation and also negatively decrease memory abilities during that period of time (Gross, 2002). Introverts therefore, keeping their personal feelings secret, would not mentally feel as strongly about an exciting event as someone who would greatly express their joy or excitement. So it seems that in this case, the more you show you’re excited, the more excited you become. Suppression then can be seen as a downward spiral to levels of low satisfaction, also known as the snowball effect. Although biases in published articles are regularly avoided, sometimes an author will include their beliefs about the topic more than they intend to. Biases generally are not an in-your-face way of illustrating an author’s view but rather a hidden and underlying focus that not only shows the author’s preference but unknowingly slightly persuades a reader to agree with the writer. One way of biasing toward one train of thought is to only state that one opinion that the author has and not the opposing view. Thus it can be seen that Gross is not biased toward suppression only being a negative social consequence through sentences like: â€Å"Compared to reappraisal, suppression leads individuals to share less of their positive and negative emotions, resulting in weakened social support, and even being less liked† (Gross, 2002). Being an author of a mainly research based article, Gross makes it clear that there is evidence that not only are there other forms of emotion regulation but different forms of suppression as well. In opposition to using other types of emotion regulation to further support evidence of suppressions consequences, Carey continues to use only examples of poor regulation to back up his conclusions. By mentioning that useful emotions are beneficial in certain settings, he veers away from going in depth about reappraisal because of how it might tone down his argument of how suppression is the main way that emotion regulation goes awry. Because Carey wrote this article in response to research and experiments about a scientific topic and not about social issues themselves, his bias is not a strong one or clearly apparent unless really evaluated as such. Largely due to less strict guidelines, popular press articles almost without fail are not just a write-up of facts but contain a viewpoint of some sort. This viewpoint not only shows the writers perspective but also generally allows the reader to decide for themselves what it is they choose to believe. Whether in light of the facts or in common beliefs, we can be sure that without a doubt emotion regulation controls all of our social interactions sometimes without us even noticing. However, Carey states that â€Å"people may choose the emotions they feel far more often than they are aware – and those choices, too, can trip up social interactions† (Carey, 2010, para. 17). Emotions may clearly show our feelings but the correct way to do so remains quite imperfect. With new studies like those discussed in Gross’s ending address to researchers there is still much to be learned about how we as humans can positively impact our own lives in how we regulate our emotions. If we can learn as developing youngsters how to affect our social habits we may very well see a decline in mental and social disorders in society. There are valuable strategies for different situations, the only trouble is deciding which one is right (Carey, 2010, para. 26). Mastering our own actions and portrayal of emotions will not ever reach perfection. These actions and feelings are often dealt with unconsciously so it is impossible to completely control them yet if we do control all that we can the world may very well be a more accepting environment and impact our own and other’s interactions for the better. Such hopes are more than likely the motivation for each of these authors to learn and write about the subject. Carey and Gross alike wrote for the greater good of informing about emotion regulation but their two articles were also not alike in so many ways. The context in which each author writes is ever so different for whom they are writing. More importantly though, the content the authors include paints a much bigger picture. Both articles focus on how poor emotion regulation has a huge consequence on our social lives. Their focuses differ however, because Carey focuses his article on how suppression is almost always a bad technique while Gross gives insight as to how there are different approaches of suppression and emotion regulation in general. To say the least, these two articles are comparatively alike in topic but contrast the divided views of the topic in whole, shedding new light on the future of emotion regulation.

Causes of income inequality in the UK and evaluate the measures that Essay

Causes of income inequality in the UK and evaluate the measures that could be used by the UK government to achieve a more equal distribution of wealth - Essay Example and Scott, G., 2012). The same cannot be said for high manual labor demanding jobs characterized by unpredictable shortages of skilled manpower. These have higher individual income rates than high growth rate jobs. The service sector in the UK which demands for low-skill and has limited trade union cover is the worst in terms of worker remunerations. The sector is often characterized by employment insecurity and unclear job descriptions which vary depending on the market demand, employers’ unique needs as well as personal pressures/ stress/ problems. The effect of globalization has seen an influx of high-skill jobs especially in high growth industries. Persons with unique skills are increasingly getting well paid than witnessed in previous years. Academic exposure has also defined the industrial/ job variations with professionals being scaled depending on their levels of education (Mooney, G. and Scott, G., 2012). This is the main factor determining labor as skilled, un-skille d, manual, automated, permanent, contractual and casual, among other classifications within the United Kingdom. State benefits including unemployment income and benefits from the state welfare are critical in the United Kingdom individual income disparities. This is because the state benefits are directly connected to the prevailing retail prices within the economy and not in any way indexed to the earnings of individuals (Eibel, D., Rockika, E., and Leaman, J., 2013). This explains why relative incomes of people who are state benefit oriented decreases over time. This factor has defined the inflation effect on large families surviving on minimum wage as well as households’ dependant on pension. The third factor in unequal income distribution is unemployment. This affects income distribution in both the short-run and long-run. In the long-run it affects education, quality of labour as well