My Interesting Weekend Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

My Interesting Weekend - Essay Example On the weekends I also like to go for walks. I like walking because I get time to myself. I get to look at things that I don’t always look at and I get to think about things I don’t always get time to think about. I also get to take my time and be in peace. I like to get as far away from traffic as I can. Nature is one of my favorite things in life. I love trees, animals, flowers, and water. I like to go to parks or hikes where I can see all of these things. Some weekends I go to museums. My favorite museums are science museums but I also like nature, art, and wax museums. I have traveled to far places to see museums before. What I like about the museums I see on the weekends is that I get to be in another world for a while. Maybe I get to travel back to the past. Maybe I get to pretend that I am in space. Maybe I get to pretend I am in the Arctic. It’s all very interesting to me and I keep traveling back to learn more. A final thing I enjoy doing on my weekends I just being with or talking to my friends and family. I love having the people that I am close with near me or on the phone. It reminds me of where I came from and who I really am. They also help you keep your feet on the ground. They can make a bad weekend with a really good weekend. I love my friends and family and we have so much fun together. They are always there for me and we enjoy great meals and good times on our weekends. I have to say spending time with them id my most favorite thing to do above museums and walks.

Studies in English Literature Essay Example for Free

Studies in English Literature Essay Henry V, positioned during the critical move from the Theatre to the Globe, can serve as a case study for this kind of economic close reading. It tells a story of continual repositioning, good and bad decisions, business errors, and the workings of a company that was trying to succeed financially but was far from assured of success. From 1598 through 1599, the Chamberlains Men dealt with a series of difficulties. One of these difficulties was related to politics: the companys choice of Henry V as a topic, assuming that it would be topical and popular, and the subsequent return of the earl of Essex in defeat. But most of the companys problems were internal and economic. [3] The search for a theatrical home took up most of the companys energy, through the Blackfriars financial fiasco, in the bitter battles with Giles Allen over their lease (which resulted in pulling down the Theatre), and through their commissioning of Peter Street to build a new theater in Southwark, the Globe. Another major blow was the departure of William Kempe from the company. Henry V shows the strains of making a series of accommodations to fit financial and internal crises: casting changes, location changes, and changes in topical references. These accommodations can be seen in the prologues, in the accommodations to the casting, in the break from 2 Henry IV, and finally, quite possibly, in the Bad Quarto text of 1600. In 1597, James Burbage died, leaving his sons capital invested in the Blackfriars Theater. He had bought the Blackfriars on 4 February 1595/96. [4] His plans to move the company there had been frustrated by the petition of the inhabitants, including the companys own patron, Lord Hunsdon: [W]hereas one Burbage hath lately bought certaine roomes in the same precinct neere adjoyning unto the dwelling houses of the right honourable the Lord Chamberlaine and the Lord of Hunsdon, which romes the said Burbage is now altering and meaneth very shortly to convert and turne the same into a comon playhouse, which will grow to be a very great annoyance and trouble [ldots] both by reason of the great resort and gathering togeather of all manner of vagrant and lewde persons that, under cullor of resorting to the playes, will come thither and worke all manner of mischeefe, and allso to the great pestring and filling up of the same precinct, yf it should please God to send any visitation of sicknesse as heretofore hath been [ldots] and besydes, that the same playhouse is so neere the Church that the noyse of the drummes and trumpetts will greatly disturbe and hinder both the ministers and parishioners in tyme of devine service and sermons [ldots] there hath not at any tyme heretofore been used any comon playh ouse within the same precinct, but that now all players being banished [ldots] from playing within the Cittie by reason of the great inconveniences and ill rule that followeth them, they now thincke to plant them selves in liberties. [5] The petitioners object to the increased traffic, the noise, the nature of the audience (vagrant and lewde persons), and to the possibility of the plague. Perhaps most significant is their statement that the players are banished from the city and now thincke to plant them selves in liberties. It has often been assumed that the freedom sought by the playing companies was primarily political and that the companies were marginalized. [6] Steven Rappaport points out, however, that the liberties were economically attractive to those who wished to avoid city regulation in order to make more money. [7] The liberties were, therefore, enterprise zones, and as such were equally attractive to theatrical companies seeking economic freedom. In short, the inhabitants of Blackfriars successfully blocked the move. The Chamberlains Men were losing their lease at the Theatre and had nowhere to go. Adams, John Cranford. The Globe Playhouse: Its Design and Equipment. 2nd ed. New York: Barnes Noble, 1961. The years all other theatres of its type had to be closed down, refurbished, or replaced. And until its accidental destruction in 1613 the Globe was the principal theatre, public or private, in all London, occupied exclusively by the leading theatrical company, during that companys strongest years. In short the Globe witnessed indeed it helped materially to create the golden years of Elizabethan drama. If for no other reasons this study of the Globe would be justified. But its chief object is to prepare the way for a fuller understanding of Shakespeares plays. The stage for which he wrote differed radically from our modern stage, and as a consequence his techniques and conventions were unlike those of Broadway and Hollywood. As Mr. Tyrone Guthrie observed (in The Listener of April 10, 1958): Shakespeare will always have to be butchered so long as his work has to be produced in a sort of theatre for which the plays were not written, to which they are positively ill-adapted; a sort of theatre designed for effects which are irrelevant to Shakespeares purposes, and inimical to the kind of effects he sought. If we are to comprehend his genius as not only the leading dramatist but also the leading theatre craftsman of his age, we must bring more to a study of his plays than the theatrical assumptions and techniques of today. It is important to the study of Shakespeare and his fellow dramatists to understand the design of an Elizabethan public stage and the extent to which that stage was equipped with fixed or alterable scenery, with traps, machines, and properties all helping to enlarge and sustain the scope and force of dramatic illusion. It is essential, for example, to know where the audience was placed in relation to any given unit of the multiple stage, and whether the inner stages (where such scenes as the murder of Desdemona or the blinding of Gloucester took place) were remote and dimly lighted or were in full view and well lighted. It revives some of the excitement Shakespearean.

Gender Relationships in Shakespeares Plays

Gender Relationships in Shakespeares Plays The subject of gender relationships within the work of Shakespeare became a matter of lively debate during the last quarter of the twentieth century and continues to be an area that attracts much scholarship and controversy. Perceptions that early modern society was antithetical to any exercise of power by women must be counterbalanced by the knowledge that, until 1603, a woman, Queen Elizabeth, held the ultimate power in England. Recent research has increasingly revealed that across this society a significant number of women held economic and social power and so the idea that Shakespeare reflects a society in which women area powerless and oppressed group is one which must be treated with somecaution. Shakespeares work presents a wide variety of female characters and the ways in which they have been perceived has altered over the four hundred years since the plays and poems were written. Play scripts areparticularly susceptible to re-interpretation and in many ways such interpretations reflect as much about their own historical period asabout the one in which the plays were originally written. Each age finds its own relationship with Shakespeare and so it could be arguedthat the question of whether Shakespeares women are regarded as strongor weak is inevitably influenced as much by the gender issues of the present time as by the time in which they were originally created. It is important not to assume that we can read Shakespeares women characters as examples of how women were treated in the period in which the work was written (Barker Kamps, 1995, 5), but rather to use the information that we have about the early modern period in order to see the characterisation of fictional ch aracters as they relate to the constraints which operated on real women of the period.It is also necessary to be aware that, with any dramatic texts, the interventions of actors, directors and current audience expectationscan radically alter the ways in which fictional characters are judged. It is the intention of this dissertation to give a brief introduction to the conventional views of women during the early modern period. Some scholars, such as Lisa Jardine (1989), Jean E. Howard (1988) and Juliet Dusinberre (1996), have argued that the way in which Shakespeare created women characters was in part determined by the fact that they were represented by boy players on the stage. However, it is hoped that by including a discussion of the narrative poem, The Rape of Lucrece, which was not intended for stage production, this dissertation will emphasise a continuity among Shakespeares female characters that goes beyond the necessities of the stage. The discussion will also focus on three of Shakespeares great tragedies, written during at the peak of his career, when his work had become popular amongst a large audience. The popularity of Hamlet, King Lear and Macbeth has enduredover four centuries and these plays continue to reach wide audiencesand have a significant influenc e on current views of Shakespeares women. In early modern England, notions about female gender roles tended to be constructed by two forms of discourse: the theological and themedical. Theological sermons and pamphlets emphasised the biblicalinjunctions that women should be silent and obedient and that they were subject to the authority of their husbands. Callaghan (1989, 9) arguesthat Renaissance society was profoundly hierarchical and that the chain of authority extended from God, via the monarch, to men and women who were expected to conduct their household relationships inconformity with the idea that women were subject the authority of their fathers and husbands. Belsey (1985, 9) emphasises that men and women are not symmetrically defined. Man, the centre and hero of liberal humanism, was produced in contradistinction to the objects of his knowledge, and in terms of the relations of power in the economy and the state. Woman was produced in contradistinction to man,and in terms of the relations of power in the family. These relationships were worked out in the public and private spheres in the requirement that, in terms of the economy and the state,women should be voiceless, and within the family they should be subjec tto their husbands, fathers and other male relatives. Thus, Newman (1991, 134) argues: Talk in women then is dangerous because it is perceived as ausurpation of multiple forms of authority, a threat to order and malesovereignty, to masculine control of commodity exchange, to a desiredhegemonic male sexuality. The extent of this perceived threat may begauged by the strict delegation of the talking woman to the carefullydefined and delimited spheres of private and domestic life in which thehusband was exhorted to rule. In early modern medical texts, the classical theories of Galen andAristotle, in which the female was regarded as in imperfect version of the male, predominated. Aughterson, (1995, 42) argues that the Galenictheories of the humours †¦ effectively continued to assign woman aninferior physiological state to that of man. Howard (2003, 419)observes that men and women were not assumed to be innately different,but rather were viewed as more perfect and less perfect versions of thesame prototype. From these constructions of physiological theory camethe idea that male and female were so intimately related that they werepotentially capable of transmutation: Stories exist from the early modern period recording cases in which,when women supposedly became overheated in running or jumping, malegenitalia would erupt from inside their bodies. (Howard, 2003, 419). That Shakespeare was aware of these ideas and utilised them in hischaracterisations of men and women is demonstrated when Hamlet isconcerned about his feminisation (Rose, 1995, 116), and when LadyMacbeth refutes her femininity: Come, you Spirits / That tend onmortal thoughts, unsex me here (Macbeth I.v.40-41). The term weaker vessel originates from the Bible and can beeffectively seen to straddle both theological and the physiologicaltheories about the relationships between women and men, as isillustrated from the following extract from a homily, dated 1562,designed to be the required reading at marriage ceremonies: St Peter giveth his precept saying: you husbands deal with yourwives according to knowledge, giving honour to the wife as unto theweaker vessel, and as unto them that are heirs also of the grace oflife, that your prayers be not hindered [1 Peter 3). †¦ For the womanis a weak creature, not endued with like strength and constancy ofmind, therefore they be the sooner disquieted, and they be the moreprone to all weak affections and dispositions of the mind, more thanmen be, and lighter they be, and more vain in their fancies andopinions. (An Homily of the State of Matrimony, 1562, from Aughterson, 1995, 23.) This essentially conservative and restrictive view of women was held,in spite of, or perhaps because of the upheaval and unrest of Englandat that time. Early modern England was a society in transition and thedisquiet that came with modernisation often led to reactive measuresdesigned to uphold the status quo. The sumptuary laws, in which modesof dress were prescribed in order to maintain class differences, can beread as an attempt to rein back an increasing level of socialmobility. Similarly, the discourse of gender difference has beeninterpreted as an essentially conservative reaction to social change: Time and again in these plays, we see crucial social problemspresented in relation to a central conflict involving genderopposition. Furthermore, since that opposition entails a fundamentalhierarchy (male superiority and female subordination), its function, interms of the dominant ideology is to reinforce the status quo. Yetthis function is problematic. Female inferiority was not an undebatedcultural given. It was fiercely contested†¦Callaghan (1989, p.11): Recent research supports this argument. The discourse of malesuperiority and female subordination must be seen in a historicalcontext in which a significant number of women had influence in thewider society. There were many wealthy women who wielded greateconomic power; some women participated in the workplace through guildmembership; a significant number of households were headed by women;and a number of women in various part of the country also participatedin parliamentary elections (Rackin, 19-20). It is necessary,therefore, to balance this kind of historical evidence against therhetorical evidence that we find in contemporary texts. The attempt toprescribe and define female roles and responsibilities reflects ananxious reaction to social change, an attempt to arrest progress andestablish a conservative status quo. These anxieties and the contestedground concerning the acceptable role of women in early modern societyinevitably affects the presentation of women in the plays and poe try ofthe period. In reading Shakespeares texts, it is possible to discoveraspects of the discourse of patriarchal authority as well as evidenceof womens power as agents in their own destinies. Whilst the notionof woman as the weaker vessel often informs the construction ofcharacter in Shakespeares work, I intend to argue that a closeexamination reveals that, in spite of the social restraints placed uponthem, these women often reveal a strength that goes beyond anythingthat may be expected. 2 The Rape of Lucrece Shakespeares narrative poem, The Rape of Lucrece, is based onclassical sources in Livy and Ovid and so there are some necessaryconstraints upon the actual plot of the poem. For example, Lucrecessuicide derives from the source materials and, in the context of LivysThe History of Rome from Its Foundation, this event is instrumental inending the reign of kings and instituting the Roman Republic. It isnecessary, therefore, to understand that the classical story primarilyexemplifies the abuse of tyrannical rulers and has a deeply politicalsignificance. While St Augustine later argued that the suicide ofLucrece was, from a Christian theological standpoint, culpable,nonetheless in the classical world Lucreces death was celebrated asboth tragic and heroic (Hendricks, 2000). We must, therefore,distinguish between the story that Shakespeare inherited and what hehas done with it as a narrative: to discuss Lucreces suicide as thoughit were an optional plot device is to misunderstand the nature o f thesource material. It is a given that Lucrece will commit suicide, butthe way in which Shakespeare has constructed the narrative and the waythat he has characterised the participants in this story carries aweight of significance. The poem concentrates not so much on theexternal events of the story, but on the internal experience of thecharacters or, as Maus (1986, 67) comments, the poem concentrates notupon action but upon what happens in the interstices between theâ€Å"important† moments when two people [make] important decisions. There are two significant tropes within this poem that are crucial tothe portrayal of Lucreces character and are pertinent to the questionof her strength. One of these tropes has been discussed by CoppeliaKahn (1995, 42) where she argues that Shakespeare clearly blames menfor exercising several kinds of unfair advantages over women and thathe leans heavily on the traditional conception of womans physical,moral and intellectual inferiority to ma n. She is referring to thepassage in which men are compared with marble and women with wax: For men have marble, women waxen minds, And therefore are they formed as marble will. The weak oppressed, thimpression of strange kinds Is formed in them by force, by fraud, or skill. Then call them not the authors of their ill, No more than wax shall be accounted evil Wherein is stamped the semblance of a devil. (1240-1246) Kahn (1995, 23) argues that Lucrece is the victim of a patriarchalsystem and that Shakespeare uses the patriarchy of the classical worldto mirror his contemporary society. The trope of the marble and thewax therefore emphasises the pliability of women and their inability tohave any control over their destiny in a patriarchal society that soseverely restricts their power to act, or even to take moralresponsibility for themselves. In Kahns reading, Lucrece does,indeed, seem to have taken a waxlike impression of societys valueswith respect to her status as her husbands possession and the way inwhich she sees herself as a de-valued object when she is tainted orstained by rape. However, the poem also proposes an alternativetrope that seems crucial to an understanding of the nature of women.At the pivotal moment when Tarquin has entered Lucreces bedroom anddisclosed his intention to rape her, Shakespeare introduces a picturethat may call into question the comparable strengths of men and wo men:that of the marble and the water. Until this moment, the poem is constructed to show the readerTarquins point of view. One stanza particularly creates a directidentification between the reader and Tarquin: So that in ventring ill we leave to be The things we are for that which we expect; And this ambitious foul infirmity, In having much, torments us with defect Of that we have: so we do neglect The thing we have; and all, for want of wit, Make something nothing by augmenting it. (148-154) By using we †¦ we †¦ we †¦ us †¦ we †¦we †¦ we, Shakespeare removes thespace between Tarquin and the reader, implicating the reader in thekind of rash risk-taking action where Tarquin is shown pawning hishonour to obtain his lust (156). Similarly, in Tarquins inner debateregarding whether he should carry out his intention to rape Lucrece(181-301) and in his reaction when he sees her asleep (365-441), thereader has full access to his thoughts and emotions, while Lucrece ispresented as an object whose external attributes are described inextensive detail yet to whose inner experience there is no access.The blazon description of Lucrece as she sleeps does indeed bear outNancy Vickerss (1985, 96) assertion that the canonical legacy ofdescription in praise of beauty is, after all, a legacy shapedpredominantly by male imagination for the male imagination; it is, inlarge part, the product of men talking to men about women. The firstthird of the poem does, indeed , present Lucrece as a silent presence, athing talked about, but apparently without a voice of her own. Yet the crucial turning point of the poem occurs when she is awoken byTarquin. This act of awakening coincides with the sudden access thatis given to the reader to Lucreces inner experience and her voice inthe poem. Until this point, the poem attributes some reported speechto her, but the first time when her words are recorded as direct speechoccurs in the stanza which begins Quoth she†¦ (575). From this pointonward, the narrative becomes intensely concerned with Lucreces innerexperience, in her perception of the harm done to herself and herhusband as well as in her decision to commit suicide. Hercontemplation of a painting of the siege of Troy similarly enables thereader to identify with her as a person who is imaginatively engagedwith a work of art and as a person who is able to argue about moral andphilosophical issues in her own mind. It is at this point of apparent trans formation in the readersperception of Lucrece when Shakespeare introduces his second tropewhich, I believe, is crucial to the portrayal of Lucrece, when thepoems narrator comments: Tears harden lust, though marble wear withraining (560). Although this is ostensibly a comment on Lucrecesinability to deflect Tarquin from his course by her tears and pleas, itsimultaneously proposes that even the hardness and permanence of marblecan be worn down by something as seemingly soft as water. The Galenichumoural system opposed the wet, female humour with the dry, malehumour and so this picture of water that eventually erodes marble canbe seen not just as an inversion of the hard = strong / soft = weakequation, but also as a specific reference to the wet and dry humoursof men and women. When viewed in the long term, water is stronger thanmarble and this image is re-iterated, when Lucrece herself takes up theimage: For stones dissolved to water do convert (592). AlthoughLucreces pleas for mercy are ineffective in this moment, her wordsnevertheless alert the reader to the relative strengths of stone andwater in the longer term and later her realisation that Time can wastehuge stones with little water drops (959) leads her to curse Tarquin: Disturb his hours of rest with restless trances; Afflict him in his bed with bedrid groans; Let there bechance him pitiful mischances To make him moan, but pity not his moans. Stone him with hardned hearts harder than stones, And let mild women to him lose their mildness, Wilder to him than tigers in their wildness. (967-973) . Atthis point, then, Lucreces line of thought has linked the image ofhearts harder than stones with the reversal of mild women who are nolonger helpless prey, but instead predatory tigers. In the early partof the poem, Lucrece is persistently depicted as a passive victim andthis is emphasised by twin images of predator and prey, such as thenight owl and the dove (360), a serpent and a sleeping woman (362-3), afalcon and a fowl (506-7), a cockatrice and a hind (540-3), a cat and amouse (554-5), a wolf and a lamb (679). Although Lucrece is physicallyunable to protect herself from Tarquin, after he leaves, this imageryis no longer used and Lucrece gains an active voice and a moralpresence that eventually lead her to the act of suicide. Henricks(2000, 115), comments that Shakespeare gives Lucrece a psychologicalcomplexity, interiority and self-awareness. The presentation of Lucreces moral complexity seems to be at oddswith the men in the narrative. Her husband is depicted as a man who isat fault from his initial boasting of his wife as a materialpossession, thereby exposing her to thieves (29-35), and he is laterdescribed as the hopeless merchant of this loss (1659). His finalignominy is the ridiculous squabble with Lucretius over ownership: The one doth call her his, the other his; Yet neither may possess the claim they lay. The father says, Shes mine. O mine she is, Replies her husband: do not take away My sorrows interest; let no mourner say He weeps for her, for she was only mine, And only must be wailed by Collatine. (1793-1799) Brutus takes the knife from Lucreces side and burying in Lucrecewound his follys show (1810), he begins to admonish Collatine andLucretius. In this way, her death is presented as having a redemptivesignificance, not only for Brutus, but also for Rome itself. Although,within the Christian theological tradition, suicide is condemned,nonetheless Shakespeare deliberately chose as his theme a story inwhich a suicide has a positive political effect and is placed within aheroic tradition. The Rape of Lucrece depicts a woman in her most vulnerable moment whois unable to resist her enemy. Yet it could be argued that she trulyfinds a way of fulfilling her assertion that I am the mistress of myfate (1069). Lucrece, though she is entirely situated within apatriarchal discourse that constructs her as her husbands possession,is neither silent nor weak. Finally, like water on marble, she has asubtle strength. 3. Hamlet In the play, Hamlet, Shakespeare presents the audience with two femalecharacters who are quite unlike Lucrece. It has been noted thatLucrece undergoes a transition from her initial silence and is given avoice and an interior life that dominates more than half of the poem.Yet Gertrude and Ophelia, in contrast, are chiefly characterised byhaving very little to say. Showalter (1985, 78) says of Ophelia: She appears in only five of the plays twenty scenes; the pre-playcourse of her love story with Hamlet is known only by a few ambiguousflashbacks. Her tragedy is subordinated in the play; unlike Hamlet,she does not struggle with moral choices or alternatives. Lisa Jardine (1995, 316) makes a similar point about Gertrude, thatshe speaks fewer lines than any other major character in the play.It is therefore incumbent upon the audience or reader to fill in thegaps for these characters, who say so little for themselves. It may beargued that both Gertrude and Ophelia are presented as conforming to anearly modern stereotype of correct feminine behaviour and that theirpresence within a patriarchal society has had the effect of deprivingthem of the opportunity for either action or speech. It seems that Ophelia is the character who most epitomises theposition of a woman who is controlled by the patriarchal structuresaround her. She is presented as a woman of virtue who is obedient toher father and brother. Her reticence in the first scene in which shespeaks is effectively demonstrated by an extreme economy of words.When Laertes departs for France, her speeches are limited to halflines, single lines and pairs of lines as she receives instructionsf rom Polonius and Laertes regarding her behaviour. Although PhyllisRackin (2000, 22) has recently questioned the scholarly consensus thatrespectable women were expected to stay at home, that they wereeconomically dependent on fathers and husbands, and that they weresubjected to constant surveillance by jealous men, obsessively anxiousabout their sexual fidelity, it is nonetheless true that both fatherand brother are preoccupied by the risk of Ophelia losing her virginityand thus ruining herself and bringing dishonour to her male relatives.Ophelia has only one speech of longer than two lines in which toexpress her reaction to these instructions, but her initial obedienceturns into a comment upon male hypocrisy: I shall theffect of this good lesson keep As watchman to my heart. But good my brother, Do not as some ungracious pastors do, Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven, Whiles like a puffd and reckless libertine Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads, And recks not his own rede. (I.iii.45-51) Poloniuss subsequent conversation with Ophelia confirms this view,but he is plain about her responsibilities to him and unapologeticabout the double standards that operate in this society. He begins byreferring to the need for Ophelia to protect her own honour (I.iii.97),but he then moves on to his real concern: Tender yourself more dearly/ Or †¦ youll tender me a fool (I.iii107-109). Shortly afterwards hestates: For the Lord Hamlet, Believe so much in him that he is young, And with a larger tether may he walk Than may be given you. (I.iii.122-126) Ophelia has the last line in this scene and it is at least outwardly- an expression of compliance: I shall obey, my lord (I.iii.136).However, her conversation with Polonius makes it clear that she hasbeen conducting a relationship with Hamlet for which she had not soughther fathers prior permission. This is perhaps an example of thecomplexities of courtship and marriage that existed in early modernEngland. On one hand, there is evidence that arranged marriage wasprobably still the norm in practice, even though marrying for lovebecomes the ideal on stage (Belsey, 2002, 129); but on the other handthere is also evidence that a more uncertain situation existed wherepreliminary decisions were made by the young people; the parents wereusually brought into the discussion only later'(Amussen, 1999, 94) .Ophelias behaviour suggests that the latter was a more accuratedescription of her situation. Ophelias ability to express herself continues to be severelyrestricted throughout the scene in w hich she is confronted by Hamlet(III.i) and in the Mouse Trap scene (III.ii). However, she doeseventually find a voice, and it is through her madness that she isfinally able to confront the ultimate embodiment of male authority: theking. Ophelias use of folk songs as a way of expressing a sexualisedsensibility is in stark contrast to the verbal control of her earlierscenes, yet the meaning of her words carries the same message, asHattaway (2002, 114) comments: what is significant is its exposure ofthe double standard: a man gains honour among his own sex by virtue ofsexual conquests, while by the same activity a woman loses hers. Thiscontradiction can be seen as central to the character of Ophelia and itultimately destroys her. Showalter (1985, 91) comments that somefeminists have regarded Ophelias madness as a form of protest andrebellion. For many feminist theorists, she states, the madwomanis a heroine, a powerful figure who rebels against the family and thesocial order. It is al so possible, however, to argue that Opheliascryptic comments on her plight are contained by her madness and thatany attempt to operate outside of the strictures of patriarchy isforeclosed by her death. Ophelias madness has proved to be apowerful symbol of female insanity over the last four centuries: wecould provide a manual of female insanity by chronicling illustrationsof Ophelia; this is so because the illustrations of Ophelia have playeda major role in the theoretical construction of female insanity'(Showalter, 1985, 80). With the benefit of four hundred years ofhindsight, therefore, Ophelias madness has attained a symbolicsignificance which is a contested site of meaning. Gertrudes part in the play has also provoked a great deal of commentand controversy. Jardine (1995, 316) comments upon the phenomenon ofblame that has become attached to Gertrude. Hamlets apparentobsession with her behaviour has been the subject of muchpsychoanalytical interpretation. However, the recent empha sis onviewing early modern literature within a historicist framework haspresented an alternative to the essentially anachronistic process ofapplying a nineteenth century theoretical framework to a seventeenthcentury play. With a greater historical awareness, it is possible toview Hamlets concerns in a different way: the anxiety about hismothers behaviour that preoccupies him and distracts him from hisostensible duty to avenge the death of his father can be explained byhis mothers apparently unfeminine and inappropriate sexuality.Hamlet describes Gertrudes relationship with Claudius as hot, lustfuland bestial: Nay, but to live In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed, Stewd in corruption, honeying and making love Over the nasty sty! (III.iv.91-94) Disgusted by the physical evidence Gertrudes sexuality, Hamlet hasthree issues with his mothers behaviour: he has identified that she ishot (a sign of masculinity in Galens humoural system), he is concernedat the speed with which she has transferred her affiliation from oldHamlet to Claudius (thus refuting the requirement that women should beconstant); and she also seems to behave with too much liberty. As isclear from Poloniuss rebuke to Ophelia, men could be permitted agreater freedom, but a womans freedom to act was severelycircumscribed. Gertrudes lack of restraint is seen by Hamlet asdangerous, both socially and politically. Hamlet is therefore dismayedby the fact that his mother is behaving in such a way as to go beyondthe conventional requirements of feminine behaviour and that she is, inhis eyes, encroaching onto male territory. Though it is true thatGertrude does not have many lines, her role is crucial to Hamletsstate of mind and to his ability to act in a way that he perce ives asmanly. In marrying Claudius, Gertrude has also retained politicalpower as queen and this has almost certainly had the effect of barringHamlet from inheriting the throne from his dead father. It can beargued, then, that in her relationship with Hamlet she has a level ofpersonal and political power that is the cause of his inability to takethe action that feels is necessary to avenge the death of his father. Gertrude and Ophelia, though they have relatively few lines, both havepivotal roles to play in Hamlet. Their influence over the outcome ofthe play is far in excess of the number of lines spoken by them. Bothof them are seen to go beyond what was the conventionally idealisedfeminine roles ascribed to them by early modern society. That theirbehaviour causes anxiety in the male characters in the play is clear:Laertes, Polonius, Claudius and Hamlet are all preoccupied by theirbehaviour, yet are unable to exert the necessary control thatpatriarchal power structures require of th em. Although the socialnorms of patriarchy are clearly inscribed into this play, the womencharacters display a level of non-conformity that enables them tosubvert the power structures that seek to restrain them. Shakespearehas inscribed into this play a complexity of characterisation in bothGertrude and Ophelia that denies the simplistic category of femaleweakness into which their society might have tried to fit them. 4. King Lear Ann Thompson (1991, 125) has commented on the difficulties thatthis play creates in that too much critical attention has turned KingLear into a play exclusively or primarily about male power, butKathleen McLuskie (1985, 103) argues that the text containspossibilities for subverting these meanings and the potential forreconstructing them in feminist terms. In the opening scene of theplay, we are presented with what McLuskie refers to as a love test,based on the structure of a folk tale. The King creates a situationwhereby the fate of his kingdom and his daughters depends upon theirverbal declarations of love. However, if the ideal type of womanhood,as defined in early modern society, lies in its silence and modestrestraint, is could be argued that Lear is tempting his daughters intoerror by requiring such public verbal displays. He exposes hisdaughters to the unseemliness of a living woman conveying her feelingsin a public format (Barker Kamps, 1995, 4). Shakespeare is thusproblemati sing Lears behaviour from the outset: he embarks upon acourse that demands that his daughters prove their love by floutingpatriarchal conventions. The women are thus trapped: whatever they sayor do not say, they run the risk of disobedience, either to theirfather or to the wider requirements of proper feminine behaviour. In Lears three daughters and their responses to this situation, weare presented with alternative types of female behaviour and the playalso focuses attention on their agency as it relates to the patriarchalstructures within which they operate. The play could be said to be anillustration of the weakness and folly of two old men Lear andGloucester who, as their physical powers diminish, lose their socialand political powers as well. Just as the source of womens weaknesscan be traced to their bodies, so it might be argued that a bodilydecline in old men renders them weak and vulnerable. In the subsequentpower struggle, Goneril, Regan and Cordelia all make choices tha tgovern their future and that determine the course of the subsequentdrama. Although this leads to the depiction of Goneril and Regan aspredatory adulteresses, whilst Cordelia ultimately becomes a victim whois unable to survive, it is nonetheless true to say that all three ofthese women seize opportunities to make their own choices anddecisions. From the outset, Cordelia is characterised as the pictureof modest womanly constraint, as she punctuates her sisters smoothrendition of filial loyalty with comments such as: What shall Cordeliaspeak? Love and be silent (I.i.61) and Then poor Cordelia! / And yetnot so; since I am sure my loves / More ponderous than my tongue'(I.i.75-77). Cordelias virtue lies in her observation of duty andobedience and she is aware that every adult woman must divide her dutyand obedience between her husband and her father. Though this stanceis shown to place her in a double bind that leads to exile and thendeath, yet she has exercised her own choice and has re sisted pressurefrom her father to take another course. In choosing the path of truthto herself, she has become her own moral arbiter and is the first ofthe three daughters to openly rebel against her father

Where the red fren grows :: essays research papers

Billy lives on a farm. He wants two good coonhounds very badly, but his Papa cannot afford any. Billy works hard, selling fruit and bait to fishermen, so eventually he has enough money for the dogs. He gives the money to his grandfather, who orders the dogs for him. Billy sneaks off in the middle of the night to go to town and pick them up. While in town, other children pick on him, but he stands up for himself and is helped by the sheriff. On his way home, he and his two pups sleep in a cave. Outside, they hear a mountain lion, and the pups bravely howl back. He decides to name them Old Dan and Little Ann. He can see that Old Dan is very brave, and that Little Ann is very smart. Once home, he wants to begin training them. He has to have a raccoon hide to train them with. His grandfather shows him a way to set a trap that will catch even a clever coon. Just when he is about to give up on the traps, he catches a coon. The next day he begins to train Old Dan and Little Ann. By the time raccoon season starts in the fall, they are ready. On the first night, his dogs tree a coon in the biggest tree imaginable. Billy immediately sees that it will take days to cut down. He is determined to cut it down, because he told his dogs that if they could tree a coon he would take care of the rest. His dogs are counting on him. His parents bring him food. His grandfather shows him how to make a scarecrow, to keep the coon in the tree so he can go home and eat dinner. When the big sycamore finally falls and his dogs catch the coon, he is very proud. Billy goes coon hunting almost every night. His father relieves him of his chores, and Billy gives him the money from his coonskins. Sometimes, coons try to trick his dogs, and Old Dan gets into trouble. One night, Dan gets stuck in a muskrat hole. Another night, he climbs a tree. Little Ann is usually too smart to get into trouble, but one night, after the first snowfall, she falls through the ice on the river. Billy barely rescues her. One day, Billy and his grandfather make a bet with Ruben and Rainie Pritchard, that Billy's hounds can catch the legendary "ghost coon.

Are Constitutional Conventions Necessary

Are Constitutional Conventions Necessary Are Constitutional Conventions Necessary To Preserve The Legal Structure Of Government? Illustrate By Example Introduction A constitutional convention is an informal and uncodified procedural agreement that is followed by the institutions of a state. The Constitution of a country comprises both written rules enforced by courts, and â€Å"unwritten† rules or principles necessary for constitutional government. Written rules mandate that they be followed in a particular specified situation, and on the other hand unwritten rules come into play when there is no given written rule to cover the situation at hand.Constitutional conventions are said to be rules of political practice, which are regarded as binding by those to whom they apply, but they can't be called exact laws, as they are not enforced by courts or by the Houses of Parliament. Notwithstanding the fact that ours is a detailed Constitution, the Constitution-framers left certain ma tters to be governed by conventions, thereby giving to the holders of constitutional offices some degree of discretion in respect of such matters.The main purpose of the Constitutional conventions is to ensure that the legal framework of the Constitution retains its flexibility to operate in tune with the prevailing constitutional values of the period. Although conventions are not legally enforceable and the sanction behind them is moral and political, yet some conventions of the constitution which set norms of behavior of those in power or which regulate the working of the various parts of the Constitution and their relations to one another, may be as important, if not of greater significance, as the written word of the Constitution itself.This is particularly true of the role of ‘conventions' in a system of Parliamentary democracy having a Constitutional distribution of powers between two or more levels of Government. Often constitutional conventions are more important than written constitutional provisions. For example, the President is empowered by the Constitution to appoint the Prime Minister, but the Constitution provides no guidance as to who should be appointed as Prime Minister. Here conventions regarding the appointment of the Prime Minister play an important role in guiding the President.Following are some of the characteristics of the conventions: Conventions are rules that define non-legal rights, powers and obligations of office-holders in the three branches of Government, or the relations between governments or government organs. Conventions in most cases can be stated only in general terms, their applicability in some circumstances being clear, but in other circumstances uncertain and debatable. They are distinguishable from rules of law, though they may be equally important, or more important. They may modify the application or enforcement of rules of law.Sir Ivor Jennings suggested that in order to establish a convention three question s must be asked: What are the precedents? Secondly, did the actors in the precedents believe that they were bound by a rule? Thirdly, whether there is a good reason for the rule? A single precedent with a good reason may be enough to establish the rule. A whole string of precedents without such a reason will be of no avail, unless the persons concerned regard themselves to be bound by it. Conventions grow out of and are modified by practice.At any given time it may be difficult to say whether or not a practice has become a convention. Conventions do not come from a certain number of sources, their origins are amorphous and nobody has the function of deciding whether conventions exist or not. As the researcher's topic requires proving whether or not the constitutional conventions are necessary to preserve the legal structure of the government (with an example), the researcher would confine his study to the one of the most debated and controversial constitutional conventions – the appointment of the Prime Minister .The conventions are compared with British conventions since most of our constitutional practices are derived from the United Kingdom and through this example, the researcher will try to illustrate the importance of Constitutional Conventions. Appointment Of The Prime Minister British Precedents In England, it is the monarchy whereas in India it is the President who makes this choice. This choice demands independence of status and familiarity with political conditions, but no method of choice can altogether avoid bias. The nature of the monarch's choice necessarily depends upon the status of parties in the House of Commons.If a party has a clear majority, its recognized leader will be the Prime Minister. A completely different situation arises where no party gets a majority in the legislature. Here two possibilities arise—the formation of a coalition government or the formation of a minority government, as another dissolution at that time is not practicable. It is an accepted rule that when a government is defeated, either in Parliament or at the polls, the monarch should send for the leader of the opposition. This rule is based on the assumption of impartiality of the crown.British constitutional history also shows us that the Queen has consulted the outgoing Prime Minister on some occasions, but it is not an invariable rule (but more sought of a convention). Indian Scenario However, these considerations are not suited to a country like India with its diversity and plurality where the regional parties are making an impact on our political scene. Even though our Constitution is bulky, certain aspects are left to conventions. One of them is the appointment of Prime Minister by the President. Most of our constitutional conventions are derived from the United Kingdom.However, the British precedents offer no specific answers to the problems raised by elections in India. Article 75(1) of the Indian Constitution gives the President the right to appoint the Prime Minister. In normal circumstances it is the leader of the majority in the House of the People (Lok Sabha). But, in circumstances where the Prime Minister dies in office or resigns, the President will have to exercise his personal judgment. Also in circumstances when the party may have no recognized leader or either of the two parties may be able to form a government and command the support of the House of the People.In such circumstances the President may chose for a person who could form a coalition with the help of two or more parties and command the support of the Lok Sabha. â€Å" It was such discretion that President Reddy exercised in 1979 after the fall of the Janta Ministry in inviting Charan Singh to form the ministry and also in not inviting Jagjivan Ram to do so after Charan Singh resigned and advised the dissolution of the House. † Options In A Hung Lok Sabha The Prime Minister must command a majority in the House at the t ime of the vote of confidence.However, in an uncertain situation, say in the case of hung Lok Sabha, how is the President to determine which of the party leaders will manage to secure majority support? Being leader of the single largest party does not necessarily mean being the leader of the majority members of the House. A person need not be the leader of the single largest party in the House to command the support of the House. The practice now more or less seems to be settled that the leader of the party who is able to secure the support of the House should be invited to form the Government.This again brings us back to the question, when and how does a practice become a convention? Ivor Jennings's three-stage test mentioned before might be helpful in deciding whether a practice has crystallized into a convention or not but that is not a conclusive test for determining the existence of a convention. There has been demand from several quarters to codify the convention with respect to the appointment of Prime Minister and Chief Ministers. The reason given is that having a written Constitution, we should not leave the appointments to these high offices on conventions.The controversy invariably surrounding every appointment (in cases where no one party has absolute majority) of the Prime Minister and Chief Ministers further strengthens the demand for codification of conventions. One of the suggestions that have been put forward is the amendment of Article 75 of the Constitution so as to have the following effect: â€Å"The Prime Minister shall be appointed by the President on the recommendation of the House of the People which recommendation shall be binding on the President†. Thus the onus will be on the legislature to choose the Prime Minister, than on the President.Such a move is welcome since it will help in avoiding confusion and controversies in the appointment of the Prime Minister and Chief Ministers. However, at the same time it must also be kept in mind that a Constitution cannot contain all and sundry provisions concerning a matter including that for the appointment of Prime Minister. Moreover, the discretion to appoint the Prime Minister has been vested in none other than the President who is the head of the republic. Hence, the presumption that he will act impartially should always weigh in his favour. Thus The Importance Of ConventionsNotwithstanding the fact that ours is a detailed Constitution, the Constitution-framers left certain matters to be governed by conventions, thereby giving to the holders of constitutional offices some degree of discretion in respect of such matters. Conventions lubricate the room left at the joints in the constitutional structure and protect them against ossification. The main purpose of the Constitutional conventions is to ensure that the legal framework of the Constitution retains its flexibility to operate in tune with the prevailing constitutional values of the period .Although conven tions are not legally enforceable and the sanction behind them is moral and political, yet some conventions of the constitution which set norms of behaviour of those in power or which regulate the working of the various parts of the Constitution and their relations to one another, may be as important, if not of greater significance, as the written word of the Constitution itself. One unfortunate fact of the Indian situation is that enough attention has not been paid to the evolution and observance of the right codes of conduct and conventions.Even the codes and conventions evolved in the earlier years have been broken too lightly in the later years. There is an increasing tendency to resort to extra-Constitutional methods to force settlement of political or economic issues—imagined or real. This would be a cause for concern even in a small homogeneous country. In India, a heterogenous country of huge dimensions, this cannot be a matter of grave anxiety. Hence, natural reactio n would be that the loopholes in the Constitution which have permitted aberrant developments should be plugged.It is urged that, if conventions do not work, appropriate constitutional safeguards should be provided. If appropriate conventions are not followed and the discretion provided under certain circumstances is misused, the entire system may collapse. In order that appropriate conventions and codes of conduct get evolved, it is essential that incumbents of constitutional offices are selected from among persons of admitted competence and integrity and provided with reasonable security of tenure. Conclusion The main purpose of conventions is to guide the use of constitutional discretion.Thus, every time there is a general election or a request for dissolution of the House of People, the questions that start doing rounds are—whom will the President invite to form the next government? What if the President invites someone to form a government who does not have a clear majori ty in the Lok Sabha ? Will the President heed to the advice of the Cabinet to dissolve the House? These are some of the important questions to which the Constitution provides no answer to, and this is where conventions play their part as a catalyst.Some conventions are well-established and may be relied upon absolutely, while some are vague and may lead to manipulation for political purposes. For example, appointment of the Prime Minister is to be done by the President and the prevailing convention is that the person enjoying support of the absolute majority of the House concerned is appointed to the respective office. The snag lies in ascertaining that support. The task of the President becomes difficult and open to criticism, as he has to often follow vague conventions and foreign precedents.The conventions being vague, the President may go on appointing the leader of the largest party in the Lok Sabha as the Prime Minister, despite the fact that the appointed Prime Minister is no t in a position to secure majority in the Lok Sabha . Hence if the conventions are codified and the effect of that codification is to give jurisdiction to the courts to enforce the codified conventions then in such a scenario the flexibility of the conventions will be lost. Moreover, codified laws cannot cover any and every situation that might arise. Hence, it makes more sense to leave the conventions uncodified.Therefore, since the main purpose of the Constitutional Conventions is to ensure that the legal framework of the Constitution retains its flexibility to operate in tune with the prevailing constitutional values of the period, it helps the Constitution to adapt and make amends according to the needs and desire of the changing times, as the Founders of our Constitution couldn't have foreseen and safeguarded the Constitution from future loopholes and hence left certain matters to be governed by conventions as they are as important, if not of greater significance, as the writte n word of the Constitution itself.Sources of Constitutional Law As mentioned, the constitution in the UK is derived from several sources. One of the most important is Acts of Parliament. The Parliament Acts of 1911 and 1949, for example, allow the House of Commons, in certain limited circumstances, to pass legislation without the consent of the House of Lords, and consequently to act in a manner which would otherwise be unconstitutional. This is very rare, however, and has happened less than five times in the last sixty years.The threat of using the Parliament Acts may be sufficient to pass legislation which is unpopular in the House of Lords. Case law also forms an important part of the constitution. The decisions of the judiciary have occasionally imposed limits on executive power. Constitutional conventions, although not legally binding, also play an important role in the UK’s legal fabric. By convention, the monarch appoints as prime minister the person who commands a maj ority in the House of Commons after a general election.By law, however, there is nothing to stop the monarch from appointing his or her head gardener as prime minister. This would never happen, of course, but in strict legal theory remains a possibility. Finally, EU law and international treaties may also contribute to the UK’s constitution. In fact, in one case concerning EU law the House of Lords went so far as to grant an injunction to ‘disapply’ a legitimate Act of Parliament.Again, this is an extremely rare occurrence, and decisions affecting the constitution are not taken lightly. Devolution The Labour government which came to power in 1997 has made several significant changes to the UK’s constitution. The most notable of these have been the creation of the Welsh Assembly and the Scottish Parliament. The main powers that have been delegated include those regarding health and education. Other more serious powers, such as those on defence, remain the s ole preserve of Westminster.

American Government And Rights

The individual freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment are widely regarded as essential to the maintenance of a democratic system. Specifically, the First Amendment states the â€Å"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. The First Amendment freedoms protect the legitimacy of philosophical, political, and ethical pluralism.The concept of pluralism entails tolerance of diversity in social, political, and religious points of view, that is, acknowledgement that different judgments on these subjects all have a right to be held and advocated. Karen O’Connor, author of the book American Government: Continuity and Change states that students must be able to understand how the American government was able to develop so that they can understand how the Am erican government evolved over the years (O’Connor & Sabato, 2009).This paper looks at the different issues in the area of civil liberties encompassing women’s rights, affirmative action, and suffrage, at the same time, maintaining that these constitute vested rights of a higher order than economic or social values because civil liberties constitute the essence of the democratic political process itself. Constraints of Congress over bureaucracy The power relationships between Congress, interest groups, judiciary and bureaucracy were discussed in Chapter 12 of Politics in America by Thomas Dye, Tucker Gibson and Clay Robison.He outlined several checks employed by Congress in terms of the bureaucracy that include its function in confirming appointments, conducting committee hearings on programs in the implementation and formulation phases, oversight functions which come in the form of congressional inquiries on the operations of the civil services and more importantly Co ngress use of the power of the purse or its discretion on the allocation of appropriations in checking the bureaucracy.Other constraints of Congress over the bureaucracy is manifested in statutes that include â€Å"The Administrative Procedures Act of 1946† (APA) which mandates government instrumentalities to place proposed rules in the Federal Register, solicit comments, and hold hearings. In addition, the Freedom of Information Act of 1966 (FOIA) provides citizens a formal route for compelling agencies to give out information, with some broad exceptions. Interest groups serve as lobbying agents of bureaucracy and act as watchdogs of society for erring bureaucrats.Interest groups are called upon for their policy recommendations in congress and bureaucracy. The judiciary deliberates on cases dealing with alleged overstepping of authority and they can issue injunctions on programs of a particular government agency. Under the system, several safety nets were instituted to mitig ate potential abuses by the bureaucracy as stated in the Constitution. Reforms in the bureaucracy will succeed when it is implemented in a sustainable manner and with a good dose of political will. The latter is based on prioritizing the needs of the majority and that which is geared towards the common good.It is imperative that government officials regard themselves as public servants and not politicians; in this context they are transcending a myopic perception of their responsibility because they are primarily considering their constituents’ interest above anyone and anything else. The U. S. Constitution The U. S. Constitution has adopted an expanded meaning of the U. S. Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment to incorporate progressively more of the guarantees in the federal Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights limits the national government’s criminal law and trial procedures only in federal courts.Most crimes, however, are violations of state law, and most crimi nal trials are resolved at that level. It is only through the ambiguous phrase of the Fourteenth Amendment that â€Å"no State shall deny any person life, liberty or property without due process of law†¦Ã¢â‚¬  that the U. S. Constitution imposes any restriction on state criminal procedures. The Constitution creates factions among the three branches though the separation of powers. A faction running Congress may face a rival in control of the presidency and the executive branch. Controlling both might face a truculent judicial branch of holdovers from an earlier regime.The separation of powers and checks and balances assure that no one group will be able to dominate the national government. Conflicts or possible corroboration for dominance comes with the encroachment by one branch to another or with duplication of functions. The Constitution established a structure that the mutual relation by all the branches would keep them in their proper places. (Madison, The Federalist 51, Cigler, 1998 ). The creation of three different branches chosen in different ways at different times ensures that policy will be made through bargaining and compromise.Regardless of the separation embodied in the Constitution, the different branches will actually share powers. The checks and balances set up very little dependence between the branches. The permanent tenure of appointments in the Judiciary reinforces its independence from the other branches. The Constitution provides the deviation in the principle of equality to fortify the judiciary. It also admitted the weaker one posing threats or committing encroachments to other branches among the three. The lifetime term of magistrates destroys any possible dependence to the conferring authority.(Madison, The Federalist 51, Cigler 1998). The division into different departments of the legislature chosen in different ways and with different principles of action ensures a level playing field with the executive. Conflicts were expe cted to occur from time to time between the legislative and the executive. The division in the legislature is to balance the weight of its authority and fortify the executive’s (Madison, The Federalist 51, Cigler 1998). The separation of powers impedes the influence of those who have less by ensuring that if this group gains access to one branch, that branch will be checked by another branch.The Constitution provides that â€Å"influence to government should be proportionate to property (Hofstadter, The Founding Fathers: an Age of Realism, Cigler 1998). † If small landowners succeed in getting support from one branch, the other branch could demand for other checks and balances, a sufficient evidence of property ownership. Election policy The Constitution’s election policy ensures that the working class and others who have less, uniting as a majority, could not gain influence in the government.The Philadelphia Enterprise had no intention of extending liberties to those without properties (Hofstadter, The Founding Fathers: an Age of Realism, Cigler 1998). Only white males â€Å"with property and principle† were allowed to vote. The Constitution staggers elections to bring into the national government new issues as they arise over time. The necessary actions that often include bargaining and compromise have been addressed prior to elective officials seeking of new mandate. The staggering of elections makes it impossible for the masses to quickly and easily influence the government.The right to vote was not provided by the Constitution. The Convention was not interested to extend liberty to the ‘men without property in principle’ back home. The people they meant were in â€Å"consent of the people† (Hofstadter, The Founding Fathers: an Age of Realism, Cigler 1998) as the foundation of the government were actually the small landowners – men with small properties who were categorized as stakeholders proportionat e to their assets. The hard truth is, not just suffrage but all other rights were not mentioned and defined in the Constitution.According to statistics, only 54%, an alarmingly low number, of eligible voters cast their ballots in the last four decades of presidential election (Carleton, n. d. ). Apparent civilian apathy is happening especially among those from the low-income bracket and those belonging within the age bracket of 18-25 years old. Why don’t these people vote? The numbers of reasons cited are: â€Å"They feel ignored by politicians; they feel their vote doesn’t really count; and they say that they don’t get the kind of information they need to make an informed decision (Clinton, 2000).I will state three reasons why the people of America should vote: it is our privilege; it is our right; and it is a hallmark of our culture of representative democracy. Voting is a privilege because it is not everybody’s birthright to participate in the selecti on of a country’s leaders. Suffrage is being mandated by the laws of the land and conferred among its people; it can be constrained to some areas or to some part of the population. In fact in our history, this right is used to be reserved to the wealthy, white males of society. Thus, let us not forget that Martin Luther King Jr.marched from Selma to Montgomery Alabama, magnifying the voting issues, which led to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. There were also the women suffrage fighters who suffered persecution and loathe until the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution has been ratified. In come countries, like Afghanistan, electorates will walk for days before reaching their precinct, some would even line up for hours in order to cast their votes. More than two centuries ago, our founding fathers wrote the Declaration of Independence setting us free from the British rule.â€Å"Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just power from the consent of the governmen t. † These are the words written and immortalized by the Thomas Jefferson, a former president and one of the founding fathers. The phrase â€Å"consent of the governed† marked the cornerstone of our democracy. When we vote, we acknowledgement the principles by which our sovereign state adheres to – we are demonstrating to the world that we live in a free nation and are proud of it. Women’s right movement In the aftermath of suffrage, white women’s racial attitudes ranged from intolerance to neglect to engagement.At one extreme, the resurgent Ku Klux Klan established a Women’s KKK, which in 1924 claimed a membership of a quarter million. More typical was the dismissal of race by younger radicals such as Alice Paul, the charismatic leader of the self-identified feminists, who had helped revive the U. S. suffrage movement. Borrowing the militant tactics of the British suffragettes, they had chained themselves to the White House fence and survive d hunger strikes in jail. This refusal to acknowledge racism recurred in the anti-Semitism of the women’s movement.Like African Americans, Jewish women had formed their own clubs in response to exclusion from white Christian organizations. Although Jewish women supported suffrage more often than other groups, the suffrage movement had ignored their cultural life when it scheduled conventions and parades on the Jewish Sabbath. Voting is an obligation because it is a direct participation to determine the welfare of the nation. During Elections, every voter is a statesman, carrying a personal responsibility of choosing the best persons to run the country. â€Å"It is the most powerful tool that we have . . . vote does everything . . . It wins wars. It loses wars.† say country artist Ronnie Dunn (Barbieri, n. d. ). The women’s right movement during the Progressive Era was concerned with women suffrage. In the 1800s women were becoming more educated, their roles were slowly shifting as society gradually adjusted to intellectual women who knew politics and other concerns previously under the male’s domain. This awakening period made most of these educated women question the norms, especially their lack of stand during elections. The movement at this time was focused on the right to vote, as the fighters believe that winning suffrage will just be the beginning of other women’s right in the society.It was also a struggle to prove that women can be just as good as men. In the 1960s, however, women’s right movements cover a broader scope. It was also called the liberation movement. Liberation in a sense that women were deemed as caged by the rules set by society. Gaining suffrage is not enough when a woman’s full potential as an individual is not met. Before the 1960s, women could not pursue a career, nor venture into affairs that were considered unfashionable for a lady, such as politics and business.Her main concern is the home, taking care of the family and always exuding that feminine grace and aura. The leaders of the movements rebelled against this painted picture of the woman, insisting that they have far greater substance to be considered as mere â€Å"beauty objects† and â€Å"sex objects† (Sawhney). At this time, the enlightened woman welcomed the arrival of the contraceptive pill, legalization of abortion and career life without the feeling of guilt. Male chauvinism was also deeply criticized. Affirmative Action There is perhaps a need to establish goals in affirmative action plans on that basis.It would be good to note that our organization undertakes recruitment efforts to ensure that underutilized minorities and women are represented in the applicant pool. The proper equal employment opportunity is the core concept that harmonizes the diversity and Affirmative Action efforts. It is a fact that management acknowledges that everyone must have that equal access to employment opportunities. It has been our long standing goal to prohibit discrimination based on different characteristics. If there are Affirmative Action policies, then the company can have clear guidelines on how this would best be implemented.We need to take concrete steps that are taken not only to eliminate employment discrimination but also to attempt to redress the effects of past discrimination. Indeed, the underlying motive for affirmative action is the principle of equal opportunity, which holds that all persons with equal abilities should have equal opportunities. Affirmative action programs differ widely to the extent to which they attempt to overturn discrimination (Encyclopedia of Small Business, p. 1). Some programs might simply institute reviews of the hiring process for women, minorities, and other affected groups.Other affirmative action programs might explicitly prefer members of affected groups. In such programs, minimum job requirements are used to create a pool of quali fied applicants from which members of affected groups are given preference. Affirmative action affects small businesses in two main ways. First, it prevents businesses with 15 or more employees from discriminating on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, national origin, and physical capability in practices relating to hiring, compensating, promoting, training, and firing employees.Second, it allows the state and federal governments to favor women-owned and minority-owned businesses when awarding contracts, and to reject bids from businesses that do not make good faith efforts to include minority-owned businesses among their subcontractors (para 2). The interpretation and implementation of affirmative action has been contested since its origins in the 1960s. A central issue of contention was the definition of discriminatory employment practices. The discriminatory employment practices as listed by the Department of Administration and Equal Opportunity (p.1) include: gender identi ty, sexual orientation, race discrimination, sex discrimination, sexual harassment, religious discrimination, national origin discrimination, disability discrimination, and retaliation. As the interpretation of positive discrimination evolved, employment practices that were not intentionally discriminatory but that nevertheless had a â€Å"disparate impact† on affected groups were considered a violation of affirmative action regulations (Encyclopedia of Small Business, section 2).Another central issue was whether members of affected groups could receive preferential treatment and, if so, the means by which they could be preferred. This issue is sometimes referred to as the debate over quotas. Nevertheless, even if people say that minorities now use Affirmative Action as a means to get promotions that they do not deserve, still, management can be more meticulous in taking all aspects into consideration. Everything being equal, people must not be rewarded because they fall into a certain class of people. That is not the original purpose of Affirmative Action.Conclusion Currently, the United States is the most powerful nation on earth. It wields great influence in the international scene as no other country can and this emerges because of the country’s wealth as well as its strategic global alliances. The government projects an image of international sentinel against the â€Å"bad boys,† the terrorist and the extremists. It also assumes within its control the task of defending the underdog against the supposed bullies, which are the nations ruled by tyrants or those that coddles communists and terrorists.One hundred years ago, the United States was just an emerging super power, while enjoying the growing wealth from its industrialist economy. As expected, there is a huge difference between the United States’ international standing in 1906 and today. As the US gains more wealth, it also earns more voice and authority in international af fairs. References Affirmative Action. Encyclopedia of Small Business. Retrieved Feb. 2, 2009 at: