A Critical Evaluation of Charlotte Brontes Jane Eyre Essay -- Jane Ey

A Critical Evaluation of Jane Eyre Although Jane Eyre grows and matures, Margaret McFadden-Gerber views her as a relatively emotionally stable young feminist. Through the duration of the novel, Jane demonstrates her "self-love" that is often an influential emotion leading to drastic and hasty reactions. In the very opening few chapters, Jane takes a stand for herself and presents her bruised ego, pride and maturity. Sara Reed, her aunt, dismisses her place in the family as Jane is physically and emotionally removed from her "family's" activities. Jane grows up distinguishing her personality and voicing her unbiased opinion, but in McFadden-Gerber's opinion, Jane remains the same orphaned female in constant discord with elders and supervisors. Ms. Eyre is a heroine who refuses to blend into the traditional female position of subservience and who stands up for her beliefs. In the beginning, Jane at first de...

How does Shakespeare create an effective opening to Hamlet? Essay

The key purpose with the opening of any piece of literature is to entice and enthral the reader and obviously Shakespeare having the fame and staggering success that he has had, must be well aware of this. If questions are left in the readers mind once reading the opening to this script or watching the play, they engage the audience as they want these questions answered and believe that as the play unfolds they will be. The attitudes and values of the characters that are introduced in the first act contribute greatly to the sense of suspense the audience feels. Shakespeare begins the play with the entry of two minor characters ‘two Sentinels’. By doing this the audience only get a second hand taste of what the key themes are going to be later on in the play. There is no omniscient feel to this first act, only an air of mystery. The very first line spoken by Barnardo, ‘Who’s there? ‘ even creates this sense of unknowing, and also implies that the Sentinels are on edge for some reason and perhaps even frightened. This question is then repeated by the second sentinel, Francisco, as Horatio and Marcellus answer. Again the ambiguity of the question, ‘has this thing appear’d again tonight? ‘ creates mystery and a feel of foreboding. A ghost then appears and it is absolutely clear that the sentinels are immensely frightened, ‘tremble and look pale’. The Ghost then disappears without speaking, despite Horatio’s efforts, ‘I charge thee speak’. This allows the audience to wonder what this Ghost has come to tell the Sentinels and as the characters discuss the Ghost, both the audience and characters are as bewildered at this entry of this supernatural being. When the ghost reappears it is hopeful that it will speak, however at the exact point it appears it is about to, Shakespeare again dangles the carrot under the audiences nose as a cock crows disrupting the Ghost and causing it to instantaneously disappear. The anonymity of the Ghost appearing in the first act instigates the audience to speculate over the significance of the Ghost and the anonymity of its appearance. Furthermore the appearance of the Ghost allows the audience to realise the importance of Horatio within the play, he is an educated ‘scholar’ who is clearly respected by the sentinels. However at this point it is unclear to the audience the reason for which he will play a key role in the play. Carrying on from this the setting in which this first scene is set also adds to the sense of unknowing and mystery. The scene is set outside the castle of Elsinore on a gun-platform; this suggests to the audience even at this early stage that war or battles will be present later on in the play as castles are built solely for the purposes of protect in conflict. It is also dark and night, this adds to the fear of the sentinels as they cannot see who it is that approaches them. This is clear with the opening line ‘Who’s there? ‘ spoken by Barnardo. Furthermore perhaps the dark night setting is intentional pathetic fallacy by Shakespeare, as the characters and even the audiences’ unknowing towards the Ghost is mirrored by the way in which the characters cannot see clearly and have to ask of who approaches them. This pathetic fallacy is carried on into the ending of the scene, as the cock crows and it becomes morning the sense of fear leaves the sentinels, this is shown with the semantic fields used in their speech, of ‘love’ and ‘life’. Although much is still unknown when this first scene ends many themes are vaguely introduced to the audience. Death is clearly evident with the spontaneous appearances and disappearances of the Ghost. There is a semantic field of death running throughout the dialogue, Shakespeare uses descriptive words like ‘look pale’, and also ‘dead hour’. This adds to the audiences feeling of unease as well as illustrating the characters. Also the old King Hamlet is said to be similar to the Ghost in appearance, this is a way of Shakespeare indirectly introducing the theme of the death of the King, and also as the death is obviously fresh in the mind of the sentinels and Horatio so it seems to be the case that this will be an avid theme within the play. Barnardo states when the Ghost first appears that it is ‘In the same figure as like the King that is dead’. Another key theme that is introduced is war, this is introduced through the setting itself as I have already mentioned, but also through the discussion of the guards and Horatio proceeding the departure of the Ghost. The Ghost was wearing the ‘armour he (the dead King) had on when he th’ ambitious Norway combated’. Suggesting perhaps there is still conflict going on, but Shakespeare is clever as he never explicitly lets the audience know what is going on in this first scene, grabbing their attention and interesting them further in what is commencing in the play. This first scene finishes with Horatio and the guards going to impart their news of the Ghost onto ‘young Hamlet’. This shows a great respect for Hamlet, it also implies that Hamlet is the King as the audience have previously been told that ‘Old King Hamlet’ has died. This is rather ironic as later the audience come to find out that in fact it is young Hamlet’s uncle that is now become King through an unconventional marriage. So putting this into perspective this could imply that some subjects, such as Horatio slightly resent the marriage of the Queen to Hamlets uncle. I conclude that this is an extremely effective opening written by Shakespeare as it constantly engages the audience, and makes the audience feel a need to know more of what the play is about. Intro 1para (this one) on characters DONE 1 para on setting DONE 1 para on themes introduced†¦ war, death, and mentions old king hamlet-suggesting he has only died recently as still fresh in minds. 1 para on lang n dramatic techniques Conc.

Christopher Columbus The Discovery Of New Land - 1041 Words

Christopher Columbus was born in Genova, Italy, in 1451. At a young age, Columbus found himself interested on traveling, and how the Earth was constituted. He had made innumerable voyages. On August 3, 1492, Christopher Columbus set out on a journey from Puerto de Palos, in search of new lands. His crew was composed of three caravels (La Pinta, La Nià ±a, and La Santa Maria), and a crew of 120 men total. On October 12, 1492, thirty three days after he departed on his new journey, Columbus landed on an island. He named the island San Salvador. The island is located on the northeast coasts. That was the first time that Columbus had landed on the New World, the Americas. It has been widely accepted that Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas. There is undisputable evidence which proves that in fact, the Vikings had first sailed to the Americas. The Vikings were people from the north of Scandinavia, whose origins came from Norway, Finland, Denmark, and Sweden. They were known for being well experienced at sea travel and navigation. The era characterized for their high power and influence, was defined as the Viking Age. That era took place between the years 700s and 1100s. During the Viking Age, they had briefly settled in Italy, Russia, Spain, Britain, Ireland, Greenland, Iceland, and most importantly, North America. With help from archeological evidence, it had been proved that the Vikings were not as violent plunderers. In fact, it was quite theShow MoreRelatedThe Discovery Of The New World903 Words   |  4 PagesAfter the discovery of the New World in 1492 many issues and uproars took place. Particularly, Christopher Columbus viewed America as an opportunity for mankind to begin again. While Bartolomeo de las Cases considered the New World a place of abuse for the Native Americans and took the initiative to sav e the Native people. In general, the Europeans felt that the America had benefits and major setbacks of coming to the new lands. 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