A Comparison of Tragedy in Hamlet, The Book of Job, and Oedipus Rex Ess

Interpretations of Tragedy in Hamlet, The Book of Job, and Oedipus Rex    For ages, man has pondered upon the roots of destiny. Is the outcome of a man's life determined by human qualities and failings, the meddling of a divine power, or simple fate? Shakespeare's Hamlet made the argument that tragedy is caused by human folly. The idea that divine intervention is at the root of human suffering is put forth in the Book of Job. In Sophocles' Oedipus Rex, fate is given as the root of man's suffering. Three divergent perspectives on the origins of calamity exist within the tragedies Hamlet, Job, and Oedipus Rex. Shakespeare's Hamlet enforced the idea that Human suffering is a result of human faults. Hamlet possesses extreme indecisiveness, but at times exhibits dangerous recklessness. Both contribute to his ultimate destruction. The majority of the play consisted of Hamlet deciding when, where, and how to kill Claudius, the murderer of his father. When Claudius is alone praying, Hamlet had the perfect chance to avenge his murdered father, but he decided to postpone the act. "Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid hent. / When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage" (Hamlet III.iii.88-89). If Hamlet had simply slew Claudius at that juncture, the situation would have never complicated; the story would have been over. Such innocents as Hamlet's mother, Polonius, Laertes, and Ophelia would have never met tragic ends. Although Hamlet possessed the fault of indecisiveness, at times, he exhibited a recklessness that led to suffering. When Hamlet was in his mother's room he heard a rustling behind a tapestry that he presumed was Claudius. He decided to kill the man behind the curtain without checking to make sure th... ... misfortune is a matter of fate that cannot be changed by any mortal actions. All provide a valuable insight into one of life's greatest quandaries: the root of tragedy.    Works Cited Green, Joel B., & Longman, Tremper (Eds.). Holy Bible -- The Everday Study Edition. Dallas: Word Publishing. 1996. Shakespeare, William. The New Cambridge Shakespeare: Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Ed. Philip Edwards. Cambridge: Cambridge U P, 1985. Sophocles.   "Oedipus Rex."   An Introduction to Literature, 11th ed. Eds. Sylvan Barnet, et al.   New York: Longman, 1997.    Works Consulted Fox, Robin Lane. The Unauthorized Version: Truth and Fiction in the Bible. New York: Vintage, 1991. G. K. Chesterton, "Introduction to The Book of Job",   The Hebrew Bible In Literary Criticism, Ed. and Comp. Alex Preminger and Edward L. Greenstein, (New York: Ungar)

As a Child

Our whole lives, we have been taught to be ambitious and competitive. Getting accepted into a prestigious university and employment in a high-paying job is essential in life, and is the way to be happy. So far, this is what I have tried to follow for the past 10 years, but is that really how one should live their life? Constantly picking faults, looking at the next best thing, earning the most money, does money really buy happiness? The summer of 2009, I flew to Delhi, India with my mother to visit my uncles, aunts and my grandfather as they were in shock because one of my aunts had died. A week after we arrived, we headed for a week-long trip to see the rest of Delhi, with our family. As a child, I always thought of India as a developing nation and I envisioned broken streets and bathrooms everywhere. But as I walked into the hotel, I realized that this place was really professional, much like Toronto is, with clean roads, no bathroom stalls on the streets. The only issue I had was with the mosquitoes; they would visit us every night and became a nuisance! The next few days were similarly surprising and fun. The way they made every day an adventure. In the evenings, after dinner, everyone would start up the karaoke machine and sing along in Hindi to it. They would stand together, holding hands and swaying to the music, and before I knew it, all my worries were gone. The days seemed to fly by quickly. The last night of our trip, we all ate dinner around a big, round table. They all talked about their lives and the hardships they faced. I had known the basics about their past careers as my mother had told me on the way here, but what my grandfather told me, shocked me. He was nowhere near as well-off as I had expected. He explained how many relationships were torn apart because of disputes, divorce and even death. Yet even as my grandfather told me of all his hardships, he smiled like a pug with a face with countless wrinkles, encouraging me to strive for my goals and to value my youth. I couldn't smile back. How could these people still laugh and sing as I had seen them do for the past few days when their lives were so imperfect? I couldn't even begin to imagine what it would feel like to go through all that pain; the idea was simply beyond me. â€Å"It is inevitable that life deals you hardships and obstacles†, he explained. â€Å"Sometimes they are big and it may seem im possible to overcome them, but you always have to try.† He pointed to his wallet with a picture of my cousin as an example. â€Å"There is no way to bring her back†, he told me. I thought about myself, and how I used to cry over a bad haircut. I remembered the time when I was in grade 7; I had failed a math test, and thought it was the end of the world. The smallest, most meaningless things used to ruin my day. As I looked around the table at all the smiling faces of my uncles and aunts, I began to realize that what grades you get or what university you go to, is all completely irrelevant. Money, popularity, and all our obsessions for things are so meaningless! Nothing in the world could make me happy if I was constantly looking at the next best thing and continuously picking faults. Yet my grandfather had possessed no material wealth, didn't go to the greatest university, wasn't the smartest student, but seemed like the happiest person on earth. The rest of my trip in India passed by in a blur. Before I knew it, I was sitting in an airplane, watching Delhi fall below me, and for some reason, as I thought of my family and all their joy and passion for life, I was reminded of a quote I had heard somewhere. â€Å"Pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional.† That was when I realized that there would always be problems in our lives, but beside them are also all the good things; they are simply overshadowed. It is just up to us to find them.

Bullying in School

Bullying: 1. I read the article, â€Å"Jury Orders School District to Pay $800,000 to Bullied Student. † This article was about a boy named Dane Patterson, who had been bullied all through middle school and his early high school career. He claims that the school failed to protect him from years of bullying, and it finally came to be enough when he was sexually harassed in the locker room. As a result to this, the Patterson family filed a lawsuit under Title IX of the Equal Opportunity in Education Act, using the sexual harassment story as the basis.This week, the jury ordered the school district to pay Dane $800,000 to make up for the damages and trauma caused by the ongoing situation. Anti-bullying experts argue that this verdict will send a clear message to schools that they are in fact responsible for sexual harassment and bullying, and that they must keep a constant eye out for such behavior. 2. In my opinion, I do not think schools should be held fully responsible for bul lying.I think that maybe they should make more of an effort to prevent it, but there is no way they can take care of all the bullying issues that happen in school. For example, some kids don’t even make an effort to ask for help, or let anyone know they are being bullied, so the school shouldn’t be held accountable for a situation they aren’t even aware is occurring to begin with. In Dane’s situation however, I believe the school should be held responsible because he clearly asked for help and didn’t receive any, and this had been going on since middle school!I think that schools should be fully accountable only if the child seeks out help numerous times and doesn’t receive it, or if the school doesn’t do everything in their power to make the bullying go away. On the other hand, there are some situations which the school cannot control, like I said in the first example; if that is the case, I don’t believe the school should be held responsible. 3. I believe that the parents of the bully’s should be held at least somewhat responsible for their child’s actions because then they could stop the bullying before it gets out of control.Ultimately, schools are responsible for keeping an eye out on bullying and regulating the behavior, but there are some cases in which they just cannot control, therefore they shouldn’t be held responsible. Obesity: 1. For obesity, I read the article, â€Å"Pepsi Initiates Move to Pull Sugared Soft Drinks from Schools in 200 Countries. † This article was about PepsiCo Inc’s announcement, as of Tuesday of this week, about how they planning to remove all of their full-calorie sweetened soft drinks from schools in more than 200 countries by the year 2012 to reduce the trend of obesity.The article also mentions that earlier this month, Coca-Cola made a similar announcement, but they feel they should only eliminate soft drink sales from schools only if parents make a request. Of course, both companies realize that eliminating soft drinks will not end the rising trend of childhood obesity, but they believe that learning better eating and drinking habits in schools are certainly a step in the right direction. 2. I don’t think that schools should be held accountable for obesity in any sense.Schools should strive to sell healthier food, but they are not the cause of obesity. The school is not responsible for the amount of food a child buys, so schools should not be responsible for obesity. 3. In my opinion, obesity is more caused by eating habits in life outside of school, such as home or going out and getting fast food all the time. It’s even genetic. I don’t believe schools should be responsible for obesity because the child controls their own eating habits, not the school. Bullying in School Bullying should be a crime. It is very cruel and unethical. â€Å"Each day an estimated 160,000 students miss school for fear of being bullied and 10 percent of students who drop out do so because of repeated bullying† (Dalton 1). The way it makes children feel isn’t fair. Imagine that happening to yourself. Bullying in schools presents problems to every age group therefore there should be more bullying prevention programs to help get rid of the problem. Younger age Bullying is a topic that needs to be talked about.Younger age is defined from kindergarten to seventh grade. Children bully because they feel they need to overpower people. They also bully because they think they are better than others or some people just have a low self-esteem. When Younger kids bully it is normally name calling, teasing, or making fun of them by the way they look, speak, or even how smart they are! Older age bullying is another one of my topics. Older age bullying is defined from the grade s of eighth to a senior in high school.People in the Older age group bully for mainly the same reasons. When older people normally bully, it is a lot more sever then younger age bullying. â€Å"Although most victims of bullying in schools are too meek to take matter into their own hands, a few of them can be pushed to certain critical limits. 60% of identified bullies during their grade 6-9 years eventually got involved in at least one criminal conviction by age 24. † Bullying in Schools (1). Older age bullying normally ends up violent and is a lot more severe then younger age bullying.They get into fights or harassment is filed, these are the main things that happen. People will take all of someones strength and will and harass or fight them just to make them feel better about themselves. This is bad because the children who are being bullied do not deserve what they are getting. Nobody deserves to be harassed and manipulated for no reason or any reason. Most of the time, th e people that are being bullied, it isn’t their fault at all. Prevention is another area of concern.According to the online article, â€Å"Bullying Academy,† every school needs a anti-bully website for students, educators, and parents. This world needs to realize what is going on with bullying in schools and take action(1). Every school should have monitors of bullying throughout the halls and classrooms all day long. This is just one thing you could do to prevent bullying. There are many things that you could do, depending on what one your school board would like the most. Every city or town should take money from their funds and put it into schools and bullying prevention programs.According to the online article â€Å"Caring School Community,† â€Å"prevention focuses on strengthening students’ connectedness to school—an important element for increasing academic motivation and achievement and for reducing drug use, violence, and delinquency. â⠂¬  Every school should have a bullying prevention program, where parents and students could come and learn about bullying. These programs could also talk about how it affects people. They should give statistics about what people who bully end up doing in their lives and what people that don’t bully end up doing in their lives. I also think we are making important progress towards discovering how successful anti-bullying programs can be† (Dr. Ken 1). Bullying in schools is wrong and we should have more bullying prevention programs. My main point in writing this paper is to inform people that bullying is wrong. Also I wish that everyone be more aware about the situation, and don’t deny it because it is happening whether you would like to admit it or not. People need to stand up and take charge and make a change in peoples lives. People who are being bullied would love if you took a couple hours of your week just to help them get over the struggles in life. Bullying in School Bullying: 1. I read the article, â€Å"Jury Orders School District to Pay $800,000 to Bullied Student. † This article was about a boy named Dane Patterson, who had been bullied all through middle school and his early high school career. He claims that the school failed to protect him from years of bullying, and it finally came to be enough when he was sexually harassed in the locker room. As a result to this, the Patterson family filed a lawsuit under Title IX of the Equal Opportunity in Education Act, using the sexual harassment story as the basis.This week, the jury ordered the school district to pay Dane $800,000 to make up for the damages and trauma caused by the ongoing situation. Anti-bullying experts argue that this verdict will send a clear message to schools that they are in fact responsible for sexual harassment and bullying, and that they must keep a constant eye out for such behavior. 2. In my opinion, I do not think schools should be held fully responsible for bul lying.I think that maybe they should make more of an effort to prevent it, but there is no way they can take care of all the bullying issues that happen in school. For example, some kids don’t even make an effort to ask for help, or let anyone know they are being bullied, so the school shouldn’t be held accountable for a situation they aren’t even aware is occurring to begin with. In Dane’s situation however, I believe the school should be held responsible because he clearly asked for help and didn’t receive any, and this had been going on since middle school!I think that schools should be fully accountable only if the child seeks out help numerous times and doesn’t receive it, or if the school doesn’t do everything in their power to make the bullying go away. On the other hand, there are some situations which the school cannot control, like I said in the first example; if that is the case, I don’t believe the school should be held responsible. 3. I believe that the parents of the bully’s should be held at least somewhat responsible for their child’s actions because then they could stop the bullying before it gets out of control.Ultimately, schools are responsible for keeping an eye out on bullying and regulating the behavior, but there are some cases in which they just cannot control, therefore they shouldn’t be held responsible. Obesity: 1. For obesity, I read the article, â€Å"Pepsi Initiates Move to Pull Sugared Soft Drinks from Schools in 200 Countries. † This article was about PepsiCo Inc’s announcement, as of Tuesday of this week, about how they planning to remove all of their full-calorie sweetened soft drinks from schools in more than 200 countries by the year 2012 to reduce the trend of obesity.The article also mentions that earlier this month, Coca-Cola made a similar announcement, but they feel they should only eliminate soft drink sales from schools only if parents make a request. Of course, both companies realize that eliminating soft drinks will not end the rising trend of childhood obesity, but they believe that learning better eating and drinking habits in schools are certainly a step in the right direction. 2. I don’t think that schools should be held accountable for obesity in any sense.Schools should strive to sell healthier food, but they are not the cause of obesity. The school is not responsible for the amount of food a child buys, so schools should not be responsible for obesity. 3. In my opinion, obesity is more caused by eating habits in life outside of school, such as home or going out and getting fast food all the time. It’s even genetic. I don’t believe schools should be responsible for obesity because the child controls their own eating habits, not the school.

Aims Of Guidance And Counselling Essay

The aims of the guidance and counselling service are similar to the purposes of education in general—to assist the student in fulfilling her basic physiological needs, understanding herself and acceptance of others, developing associations with peers, balancing between permissiveness and controls in the educational setting, realizing successful achievement, and providing opportunities to gain independence. The purposes of guidance and counselling provide emphasis and strength to the educational program. Some specific aims of the school guidance and counselling program include the following (Gibson, 2009): To Provide for the Realization of Student Potentialities To all students, the school offers a wide choice of courses and co-curricular activities. A significant function of education is to help students identify and develop their potentialities. The counsellor’s role is to assist students to distribute their energies into the many learning opportunities available to them. Every student needs help in planning his major course of study and pattern of co-curricular activities. To Help Children with Developing Problems Even those students who have chosen an appropriate educational program for themselves may have problems that require help. A teacher may need to spend from one-fifth to one-third of his time with a few pupils who require a great deal of help, which deprives the rest of the class from the teacher’s full attention to their needs. The counsellor, by helping these youngsters to resolve their difficulties, frees the classroom teacher to use his time more efficiently. To Contribute to the Development of the School’s Curriculum Counsellors, in working with individual students, know their personal problems and aspirations, their talents and abilities, as well as the social pressures confronting them. Counsellors, therefore, can provide data that serve as a basis for curriculum development, and they can help curriculum developers shape courses of study that more accurately reflect the needs of students. Too often, counsellors are not included in curriculum development efforts.

Annette Jacksion's Small Craft Store to Web Conversion Essay

Annette Jacksion's Small Craft Store to Web Conversion - Essay Example The lack of an already existent website can be viewed as a handicap, besides the low number of staff appointed to run the business. Therefore, the shop must look towards expanding its team of employees and creating a website that is comprehensive in terms of the details of products, purchase catalogue, and the like. Thus, this project management and expansion needs some analysis to begin with. The PAPERS Methodology is useful in such a scenario, when process, customs, promotion and web support are the major criteria in the formation and growth of the company. For instance, the eBay website employs the support of the customers and users of the website. They act as dealers of products and intermediaries. The website not only provides a great forum for buying and selling of products, but also gives the dealers, buyers and sellers the opportunity to discuss and share opinions and knowledge on various products via forums. The implementation of the philosophy of the selling of products and dissemination of information is in tune with the architectural compatibility

The French Revolution Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The French Revolution - Essay Example They also cancelled all the special privileges of the many nobles and clergymen they felt were clogging up the system. They then looked at what the Americans had done with their Declaration of Independence from the U.K. in which they had tried to give equal rights to everyone. The French basically copies a lot of this and the Assembly published the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. This didn’t have any legal effect, but it was supposed to guide the government in making a new constitution. In the new document, all citizens are supposed to be guaranteed the rights of â€Å"liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.† The Declaration argues that the peoples’ need for laws comes from the fact that â€Å"...the exercise of the natural rights of each man has only those borders which assure other members of the society the enjoyment of these same rights.† So the declaration sees law as a kind of â€Å"expression of the general will,† intending to promote equality of rights and to stop â€Å"actions harmful to society.† This was popular with many groups of people who had been disenfranchised under the old system and were looking for a big change which would give them more political power and reduce their tax rate. Previously the nobles had all the power and all the money; people were fed up and wanted things to be more equal. They felt they were a group that could no longer be trampled on by the upper classes, and that they h ad individual rights and should be able to be active French citizens. Two branches of politics can be seen to come out of this period. In the first—the American model—we can see people respecting individual rights and power devolved from government. In the second model we can see a sort of radicalism that destroys the old order and replaces it with a new radical order that wants everyone to be completely equal. This is the basis and foundation of Communism—many of whose

Coca Cola Total Rewards Program Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Coca Cola Total Rewards Program - Term Paper Example The Total Rewards Program of the Coca Cola Company includes learning and growth, benefits, compensation, as well as a work atmosphere which is aligned within the structure of their operations. The company believes that encouragement and recognition are instrumental elements of success. The continued success of the Coca Cola Company relies on building their brands, improving their customer service as well as maximizing their company’s value to the shareowners. The company depends on their employees in order to help them attain these objectives. The compensation program of the company is deliberated to help them attract, motivate, and retain their employees. Apart from an hourly remuneration or base pay, staffs are also eligible to take part in the incentive programs that reward group, individual or overall performance of the company.   The Coca Cola Company provides several benefits to their employees. A personal life and gratifying career depend on the continued personal saf ety as well as future financial safety. Due to this reason, the company offers various programs in order to cover retirement, finances, and health. Their plans are designed to be valued by workforce and are competitive in the marketplace as well as are within the means for both the employee and the company. The examples of the plans offered by the Coca Cola Company include vision, medical and dental coverage, disability protection, retirement programs, life insurance, and the saving plans (Hodgetts & Luthans, 1993).