Racism and Sexism are Ugly Words in Oscar Wildes Play,...

Racism. Sexism. Ugly words with a single common thread—the all too human flaw of judging others based solely on outward appearances. Although this flaw can be found in every culture and era, Victorian England perfected it into an art form. Wealthy, fashionable, powerful and highly hypocritical, appearances were everything. As stated by Gwendolyn Fairfax in the play The Importance of Being Earnest, â€Å"Style, not sincerity, is the vital thing† (783). And it is this play, written by Irish playwright Oscar Wilde, which mocks and exposes the carefully constructed faà §ade of British high society. As with any play, though, The Importance of Being Earnest has two settings: then and now. The challenge for the production team at Ball State University†¦show more content†¦This fade blacks out the superficial appearances of the set. In spotlighting the characters, the audience is left with a lingering impression of the human core, not the style, of the play. It would be easy for an audience after watching this play to think that it, while enjoyable, has little relevance to modern life. In order to curb such a thought, Ball State University’s director, Michael Daehn, decided to cut certain lines in the script. The original three-act script by Oscar Wilde was very much a satire, a social commentary of British high society. While effective during his time, many of the minor issues raised are specific to that era and culture. To make the play more relevant to a twenty-first century American audience, various case-specific lines were excluded such as those said by Lady Bracknell to Jack Worthing in ACT I: Lady Bracknell: â€Å"I am pleased to hear it. I do not approve of anything that tampers with natural ignorance. Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone. The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever. If it did, it would prove a serious danger to the upper classes, and probably lead to acts of violence in Grovesnor Square. What is your income?† (page 769; exclusion in italics) In America, there is no place called

The Classic Slave Narratives Harriet Jacobs, Frederick...

The book The Classic Slave Narratives is a collection of narratives that includes the historical enslavement experiences in the lives of the former slaves Harriet Jacobs, Frederick Douglass, and Olaudah Equiano. They all find ways to advocate for themselves to protect them from some of the horrors of slavery, such as sexual abuse, verbal abuse, imprisonment, beatings, torturing, killings and the nonexistence of civil rights as Americans or rights as human beings. Also, their keen wit and intelligence leads them to their freedom from slavery, and their fight for freedom and justice for all oppressed people. In the autobiographical writings Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs’ reflects on the times that her master Dr. Flint†¦show more content†¦Flint’s motives are not to protect Harriet at all, but to protect herself from the humiliation of his attraction to Harriet and keep her from becoming his mistress. She was not able to hide her true feelings about Harriet. Harriet writes, â€Å"I was the object of her jealously, and consequently, of her hatred; and I knew I could not expect kindness†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Jacobs, p. 477) Though Harriet is very successful at avoiding Dr. Flint’s sexual abuse, she suffers through his verbal and physical abuse, which includes demeaning sexual comments he makes to her and he reminds her that she is his property and does not have a legal right to disobey his commands; he also slaps her when she disagrees with his proposals or expresses her feelings about anything that he does not agree with. Her next strategic m ove is to consent to a relationship with a white man Mr. Sands, of greater status in the community than Dr. Flint, though it was compromising to her grandmother’s (who she loves and respects dearly) and her own Christian beliefs and morals. This was Harriet’s way of avoiding the sexual exploitation of her master Dr. Flint, by using her sexuality to lure her white lover Mr. Sands, and to divert her master’s attention from her. She did believe that premarital sex was morally wrong; however her rationalization is that at least their relationship was consensual and he was unmarried. Also, since he is not her master he will not have any control over her. She expectsShow MoreRelatedThe Moral Dilemma And Hypocrisy Of Slavery Essay1907 Words   |  8 Pagesslavery.† President Lincoln’s rhetoric reflects the challenge to define freedom in America; moreover, it reflects his morality and commitment to upholding personal freedom. It justifies why he does no t ignore slavery, as well as why he did not see slaves as property, but as a group of humans who had been abusively denied freedom, and stripped of their humanity for no reason other than avarice personal gain. Slavery was coerced labor that relied heavily on intimidation, brutality, and dehumanizationRead MoreThe Emergence Of The United States As An Independent Country, And African American Literature Essay1769 Words   |  8 Pageswrote her first work â€Å"Bars Fight†, a ballad about an attack of Deerfield. The Ballad was preserved orally until it was published in 1855 in Josiah Holland’s History of western Massachusetts. Wheatley was the contemporary of Lucy Terry. She was also a slave, born in West Africa. She was sold into slavery at the age of seven and transported to North America. She was purchased by the Wheatley family of Boston, who taught her to read and write and encouraged her poetry when they saw her talent. Because ofRead MoreBibliographic Essay on Af rican American History6221 Words   |  25 PagesSmith, eds., Dictionary of Afro- American Slavery (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1988), provide informative narratives along with expansive bibliographies. General texts covering major historical events with attention to chronology include John Hope Franklin and Alfred A. Moss, Jr., From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans (Boston: McGraw Hill, 2000), considered a classic; along with Joe William Trotter, Jr., The African American 1 ï ¿ ¼Ã¯ ¿ ¼Ã¯ ¿ ¼Ã¯ ¿ ¼Ã¯ ¿ ¼Ã¯ ¿ ¼Ã¯ ¿ ¼Ã¯ ¿ ¼Ã¯ ¿ ¼Ã¯ ¿ ¼Ã¯ ¿ ¼Ã¯ ¿ ¼ Experience (Boston: Houghton

We Had Time; We Made Fun free essay sample

I need to focus on the sounds in this hallway- amongst other noises I can hear the hum of a vending machine, the airstream from the vents, and the ding of the elevator reaching floor 8, none of which is the sound I am listening for. The coast seems clear, so I muster up all the strength in my 9 year-old biceps, and continue to grasp the cold metal with my soft and clammy hands. I am approaching the corner of the hallway as I reach my desired speed, and as I make that hard left turn past the double doorway, my body slides to the right of the over-sized wheelchair. In the heat of the moment, I forget to listen for the cautionary noises: the squeaking of those shiny white shoes. I grip the metal tight, bringing my vehicle to an abrupt stop inches away from the doctor dressed in stark white. We will write a custom essay sample on We Had Time; We Made Fun or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page â€Å"Whoa there! You’re gonna put both of us in a wheelchair!† He chuckled and placed his hand on my shoulder, â€Å"Your mom is back from her EKG if you want to go see her, and don’t let the janitors see those marks on the floor!† I looked down as he twisted the tip of his shoe on the beige tile, erasing the black mark my wheelchair had left. â€Å"Thanks, Dr. Cramer!† I yelled as I sped off to find my sister. At the age of 9, I learned how to make my own fun. With my mother semi-permanently in the hospital, my family spent an excessive amount of time on the cardiac floor of Brigham and Women’s hospital. My father drove my sister and me the 3 hours to Boston every Friday where we would sleep in the waiting room for the weekend. We needed to think of creative ways to entertain ourselves since we would be spending six hours a week in the cab of a pick-up truck. First came the classic license plate game, then road kill bingo, pranks on toll collectors, and in standstill traffic, we put on beanie baby productions through the back window. Free time was once again granted to my sister and me once we reached the hospital. If my mother was conscious, she and my father would likely be discussing matters that did not concern us kids, and there was a whole hospital to explore! Among our favorite activities were wheelchair races and lifting ourselves to the ceiling on the expensive mechanical patient lifts. The creativity children always seemed to prevail; with a hospital gown, hairnet, gloves, hanger, medical tape and hospital socks my sister and I constructed a â€Å"levitating patient† on the patient lift that moved with the touch of a button. Needless to say our character conjured many shrieks and giggles from the hospital staff. Growing up, I learned that it was my choice how I would spend my time, so I chose to do productive things in hopes of one day joining the Peace Corps. Rather than playing video games, I chose to start my own social activism club at school. Instead of napping after school, I chose to volunteer at the Shoreline Soup Kitchen. While my peers were partying and drinking, I was working long hours in order to pay for my volunteer trip to Ghana. Although my mom’s illness and young death was a tragedy, instead of feeling bitter or sad, I feel a responsibility to achieve my goals by being productive or just making someone smile. I choose not to idle my time away; no moment in one’s life is useless; with passion and a purpose in mind anything can be achieved.

Renaissance Essays (587 words) - Rhyme, Sonnet, The Faerie Queene

Renaissance When the Renaissance crept into the worlds social senses people were moved. However, when the Renaissance began to affect the literature of the sixteenth century, the world was changed forever. The Renaissance, meaning a re-birth, was a time of many changes. These changes wrought pandemonium among the civilized people of earth. There was a recovery and discovery of medieval texts in which scholars were deeply impressed by. Those in love with the arts and literature now had more choices to view and read. There was an outpour of those individuals attempting to create paintings that exemplified the feelings that saturated the minds of the brilliant scholars. Most importantly, however, was the huge change of the role of the church in everything. Martin Luther nailed up his 95 Thesis and thus began the Reformation of the Catholic Church. With this came a rushing tide of secularization in Europe. This, of course, blew over into literature and the arts. The Faerie Queen is one epic that included the ideals and morals that the excommunicated Christians found rather intriguing and good to follow after. One can easily compare the Red Cross Knight to a Christ figure. Other characters can be paralleled to Biblical men and women as well. It was the era of discovery. People chose to discover themselves. Identities were formed and the individual man began to take more notice of himself than any other. This was a more difficult task for the Protestants because of their commitments. However, they were surrounded by this culture, lived in it, and were comfortable in the right to think about ones self more often. In The Faerie Queen we see the hero attempt to fight off the evil thing that is plaguing a friend who has asked for his help. Here is the Christian once again the helper and sustainer of life. The Reformation had caused a sort of brave attitude to cover Europe. Another genre of writing that was popular during the Renaissance was the sonnet. Shakespeare loved his sonnets and wrote many that coincide with the ideals that were ever present in this time period. This is where the greater secularization became too obvious. The self is the main character in Shakespeares sonnets. How the self (the speaker) feels or reacts, what he dreams or wishes are shared with the audience. Time is a god. Nature is a god. During the medieval period his sonnets would have had to be changed to add some sort of religious purpose before any audience could read them. However, with remarkable split from the Church of England, new things took place. New and individual theologies were made up. Specifically, in the first two lines of one of Shakespeares sonnets, he writes When my love swears that she is made of truth,/I do believe her, though I know she lies. This sonnet continues to relish in the fact that these to liars are in love so they are perfect for each other an d they lie together. Many of his sonnets have such a secular theme in them like this one has. This author would obviously cause problems if he had been written and published three hundred years earlier. Seeing the changes when one compares this sonnet to a work like The Faerie Queen, one can tell that the Renaissance was a time where so many changes were occurring. It was a period of constant re-birth, from beginning to end. English Essays