Thursday, November 14, 2013

What characteristics do Lady Macbeth and Macbeth portray? How and where?

First, both of them exhibit evil characteristics; this is revealed in the plot to murder Duncan and then later when Macbeth has his best friend murdered and Lady Macduff and her children murdered. And let's not forget Lady Macbeth's famous soliloquy in Act I, scene v, where she asks the "spirits that tend on mortal thoughts" to "unsex" her so she can murder without feeling any compunction. And don't forget how evil Lady Macbeth reveals herself to be when in Act I, scene vii, Macbeth tells her that they "will proceed no further in this business"(I. vii), the "business" being the murdering of King Duncan, She convinces him to do it by saying



I have given suck, and know


How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me;


I would, while it was smiling in my face,


Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums,


And dashed the brains out, had I sworn as you


Have done to this.



Macbeth quickly changes his mind, which shows just how easily he can be persuaded by his wife, and just how weak-minded he is. But the evilness of Lady Macbeth is profoundly revealed here; she would kill her own baby before she would back out of killing Duncan had she promised to do so.


Secondly, they both are deceptive; this is shown in their ability "to beguile the time." They both "beguile" King Duncan prior to the murder, and they are able to fool most of the people after Duncan's death with their niffy display of emotion and Lady Macbeth's fainting scene. And don't forget how deceptive Lady Macbeth is in Act III, when Macbeth is in a state of hysteria when he sees Banquo's ghost at dinner; there she tells the guests not to question Macbeth for questions will only enrage his fit, which she says he has been  suffering with since his childhood.


Thirdly, their nefarious ways are fueled by their ambition to become king and queen; it is their ambition that leads them to be so deceptively evil. Macbeth can't stop thinking about becoming king after the witches' prophecy comes true about Macbeth becoming the Thane of Cawdor, for along with that prophecy, they tell him that he will be king too. From that moment on, Macbeth is driven by ambition. It appears that Macbeth has always been driven by ambition; look at the way he fights in battle; he splits Macdonwald in half and then chops off his head. The way he fights and the fact that he won the battles all suggest that Macbeth is highly ambitious.


 Lady Macbeth is not without ambition, for after reading Macbeth's letter which gives her an account of the fateful meeting with the witches, she states that Macbeth "shalt be / What thou art promised." If you listen to the tone in these words, there is a proclamation being made here by her; the proclamation is that Macbeth will become king if it's the last thing she does, which, by the way, is.  And to further amplify her ambition, she attempts to sell her soul to the "spirits that tend on moral thoughts," and she does so in a most perverted manner for she beckons them to "come to [her] woman's breasts, And take [her] milk for gall." How's that for ambition?

How does Hamlet change over the course of the play as in how does he become more self-aware?I thinking of something like how he thinks too much and...

The question of how Hamlet's self-awareness develops in Shakespeare's Hamlet is extremely complex, and very much open to interpretation.  That makes it kind of fun.  But you're likely to get a variety of answers, and no one answer will tackle all of the angles. 


The player's speech in Act II:ii serves as a rebuke to Hamlet.  The actor reveals such powerful emotion even though he is just acting a "fiction" that Hamlet is humiliated because he, unlike the actor, is in the center of an actual situation, but has so far done nothing.  The actor had "tears in his eyes" and a "broken voice."  His entire body fit the role he was playing.  Hamlet, reacting to this performance, calls himself a "rogue and peasant slave."   He is a "dull and muddy-mettled rascal," and he asks:  "Am I a coward?"


One can certainly see this scene as contibuting to Hamlet's self-awarness.  Yet, again, the issue is complex.  By the end of that very speech Hamlet raises the question of the identity of the ghost who earlier told Hamlet how his father was killed.  As long as the identity of the ghost is in question, Hamlet cannot be sure as to Claudius' guilt.  He reveals a plan to have the actors portray a death scene that features a murder performed in a similar way to how the ghost says his father was killed.  If Claudius overreacts, then Hamlet will know for certain that Claudius is guilty.  Hamlet says:



...I know my course.  The spirit that I have seen


May be a devil, and the devil hath power


T' assume a pleasing shape, yea, and perhaps


Out of my weakness and my melancholy,


As he is very potent with such spirits,


Abuses me to damn me.  I'll have grounds


More relative than this.  The play's the thing


Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.



So you see, within the same speech Hamlet seems to rebuke himself for his inaction, but also raises an important question:  is the ghost a demon sent to abuse him (as the witches do to Macbeth in Macbeth, for instance), or is the ghost truly the spirit of his father?  Hamlet's revenge depends on that question.  He does not want to kill an innocent Claudius, only a guilty one.


Hamlet's self-awareness also develops in the gravedigger scene, the Fortinbras scene, etc.  I have just presented an analysis of one speech for you.  I'll let someone else handle the rest.

Where did Lennie die?I want to know where Lennie died at the end of the book Of Mice and Men? I also want to know the name of the town that Geogre...

Lennie died next to the little pool of water by the river. By the description of this location in the beginning, it's just a little ways off the main road through a path. A serene location, many a campfire might have taken place in this hide-a-way spot. In the first chapter, George tries to make sure Lennie knows this location well just in case there is any trouble. In the end of the book, George tries to put Lennie's mind in the fictional farm they have been talking about throughout the book to the point at which Lennie can almost see it in the distance.


The place they came from was called Weed. The town the ranch they work for the majority of the book is close to Soledad.

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

I need an interpretation/analysis of "Silence-A Fable" by Poe.

This is the Romantic Poe, placing man alone in extreme nature.  Nature is perfect in and of itself, but when man is placed there alone he becomes terrified.  So we have a duality of nature: Garden of Eden (nature is perfect) vs. The Fall (man in nature realizes his sins).


Nature is much personified here:



For many miles on either side of the river's oozy bed is a pale desert of gigantic water-lilies. They sigh one unto the other in that solitude, and stretch towards the heaven their long and ghastly necks, and nod to and fro their everlasting heads.



There's three levels to the story: 1) the Demon telling the story to the man.  2) The Demon in the story watching the other man; 3) The man telling the story to us.  It is ironic that both men make the same mistake: this is why the Demon laughs.  Man becomes alienated from society in nature.  He ponders questions with no answers, and this terrifies him.  He realizes that death is the only haven from the heartless world.  The reality is this: nature lives on, while we perish all around it.


The lynx is a major symbol in the story.  It appears after the end:



And I could not laugh with the Demon, and he cursed me because I could not laugh. And the lynx which dwelleth forever in the tomb, came out therefrom, and lay down at the feet of the Demon, and looked at him steadily in the face.



The lynx has the last word here: its silence trumps the Demon's silence.  The lynx is, once again, a symbol of nature silencing man.

When is the climax of Oedipus?

The climax occurs when Oedipus realizes he has married his mother and killed his father. The oracle tells him this earlier, but only when the shepherd verifies the information does Oedipus know with certainty the truth. It is at this moment that his suffering is the most intense for he knows he could not avoid his fate. The rest of the play consists of the resolution, which involves Jocasta's death, him blinding himself, reunion with his children, leaving Thebes, and the final words of the chorus.

Vitamins and minerals taken in large quantities, without the advice of a specialist, may affect the human body?

Such an example is the excess of a vitamin from B complex, which produces depletion of sources of other vitamins in the same category. In addition, random combination of vitamins can have disastrous effects on the body.


Too much vitamin A, is harmful in pregnancy.


Vitamin A is a powerful antioxidant that stimulates immunity and improves visual acuity. The recommended daily dose, recommended of specialists is between 0.6 and 0.8 mg for adults, the maximum permissible dose being 1.5 mg per day.


In large amounts, vitamin A can become toxic, causing chronic fatigue and sleepiness. In pregnant women, excess intake of vitamin A can cause premature birth or miscarriage.


High doses of vitamin C can form kidney stones.


Although it helps maintain health at the cellular level and rout colds, excess of vitamin C can prevent proper elimination of toxins through the urine, allowing for the formation of kidney stones.


Furthermore, vitamin C excess (more than 300 mg daily) may cause nosebleeds, bleeding and even scurvy, which, untreated in time, can be fatal. The recommended daily dose of vitamin C is 60-95 mg daily and this dose may be taken from a glass of fresh orange juice and a broccoli salad.


Vitamin PP reduces the blood pressure


Vitamin PP assures normal brain function, prevents pellagra (hence the designation "PP"), a disease caused by poor diet, and reduce the blood pressure. But excess of this vitamin may increase the risk of gout and diabetes. The daily intake of vitamin PP is averaging 18 mg per day.


Hypercalcemia decreases the absorption of other minerals


Excessive intake of calcium attracts a malfunction of the kidneys and reduces the absorption of other minerals such as zinc, iron and magnesium. Also, researchers at the University of California, believe that excess of calcium may contribute to the narrowing of blood vessels in the brain and causes neural damage and installation of dementia.

From which Shakesperean work does the quote below come and what are the circumstances in which it is spoken?As a young as I am, I have observed...

These lines are spoken in the play Henry V.  They are spoken in Act III, Scene 2.


The words are spoken by a character identified only as "Boy."  What has happened here is that Boy, along with Pistol, Nym, and Bardolph, have retreated from the battle.  The three are sent back, but the boy stays behind.  He has decided that he no longer likes the three and is going to leave them.


In the lines you mention, he is explaining that they are really too cowardly to deserve to have him around.  He feels he is better than they are, so he leaves them.

Discuss at least two characteristics of Romanticism in John Keat's poem "Ode toa Nightingale".

The poet in Ode To A Nightingale  is an escapist .He escapes through imagination .On his way the bower of the bliss wher the nightingale is ...