Oscar Wilde Earnest

Oscar Wilde Earnest Trivial Comedy for Serious People: Oscar Wildes The Importance of Being Earnest â€Å"Since we know The Importance of Being Earnest is a trivial play for serious people, our task as serious people is not to be content to say its funny, but to be careful when describing the fun† (Sale 479). First staged in February 1895 at the St. James Theatre, people packed the theater to see Oscar Wildes new play, The Importance of Being Earnest. The play â€Å"was an immediate hit† (Greenblatt and M.H. Abrams 2221). It was a promising time as Wildes plays had been the talk of the town for the past several years. Generally, Wildes plays were â€Å"serious even when trying to evoke comedy; his previous plays ranged from social satire and criticism (Lady Windermeres Fan), to themes that defied propriety and incited some moral indignation (Salome)† (Barnet xxix). In reply to criticism [surrounding Lady Windermeres Fan,] printed in the St. James Gazette of February 26, 1892, Wilde wrote a letter to the editor published on February 27th, under the heading â€Å"Mr. Oscar Wilde Explains†(Mason 390). In this letter, Wilde claimed â€Å"that he did not want the play to be viewed as ‘a mere question of pantomime and clowning, but that ‘he was interested in the piece as a psychological study† (Mason 390). His â€Å"tendency was to make his people ‘real, and then to take his audience through the looking-glass into a world which seemed to reflect modern life† (Raby 159). This new play, The Importance of Being Earnest, therefore, revealed a novel side of Wilde not exposed before. One of his contemporary critics, H. G. Wells, said â€Å"that it was much harder to listen to nonsense then to talk it, but not if it is good nonsense†¦.and this is very good nonsense† (Beckson 187). Hamilton Fyfe, on the other hand, found it â€Å"slight in structure, devoid in purpose† nevertheless â€Å"extraordinarily funny† (Beckson 187). â€Å"One critic failed to find it delightful; curiously this was Wildes fellow playwright from Ireland, Bernard Shaw†(Greenblatt and M.H. Abrams 2221). Although he claimed he did find it amusing, â€Å"George Bernard Shaw said that it leaves me with a sense of having wasted my evening† (Beckson 221). He even poked fun at those who praised the sheer nonsense of Wilde, remarking that â€Å"if the public ever becomes intelligent enough to know when it is really enjoying itself and when it is not, there will be an end of farcical comedy† (Beckson 221-222). Since George Bernard Shaw had a reputation for being a harsh critic, this criticism was characteristic of him. After reading the play, one might even agree with Shaws review. However, the play does have an understandable plot (â€Å"a gross anachronism,† according to Shaw (Beckson 221). The main character, Jack Worthing, is courting the affections of Gwendolen Fairfax, but is impeded by her mother, Lady Bracknell, who opposes the match (Greenblatt and M.H. Abrams 2229-2231). This part of the plot is serious enough. Wilde then adds a comical aspect: Jack has been introducing himself as Ernest while in town, and when back at his country estate he refers to a â€Å"younger brother† named Ernest (Greenblatt and M. H. Abrams 2223). While Wilde tries to inject a sense of seriousness into the comedy, he allows his plot twists to develop into the ridiculous. For example, the case of Miss Prisms losing an infant is nonchalantly explained as an absent minded switch between a book and a baby; the baby being placed in a handbag and the book in the perambulator (Greenblatt and M. H. Abrams 2261). There is also Algernons behavior and his imaginary friend called â€Å"Bunbury†¦which he invented as an invaluable permanent invalid in order that he might be able to go down into the country whenever he chooses† (Greenblatt and M. H. Abrams 2226), eventually Bunbury simply explodes. As ridiculous as Wilde made his plots, is the way he resolved them: Algernons way of killing off Bunbury was to calmly say that he â€Å"was quite exploded† (Greenblatt and M. H. Abrams 2256). When pressed for a better answer, Algernon simply explains that the doctor found that Bunbury was going to die and he expired right then and there. Gwendolens (and for that matter Cecilys) outrage after discovering the truth about Ernest is won back by the ridiculous attempt by Jack to christen himself Ernest. And the hard to believe predicament of Miss Prism and the lost baby eventually resolved Jacks impediment with Gwendolen. Very often when offered questionable storylines, one can expect relief from the moral of the story or the play, which the author might try to instill. The search, in this case, would be in vain. Algernon never gets his due over his continued deceit in Bunburying, and Jack Worthing is redeemed by the discovery of his being â€Å"Ernest all along. Jacks confession that â€Å"it is a terrible thing for a man to find out suddenly that all his life he has been speaking nothing but the truth†(Greenblatt and M. H. Abrams 2263) is simply accepted and forgiven. None of the characters get chastised for their bad behavior or prejudice. So, one is left to think that Wilde, in not condemning these actions, absolutely agrees with them. Therefore it might be considered that the plot is only a prop for Wildes more implicit messages, hidden within his side notes, his characters, and their situations. The message may not be understood by looking at the play as a whole; but in its parts. The gems hidden within the play are the commentaries of Wilde on topics such as medicine, relationships and social norms, with â€Å"considerable insight on the human condition, in particular issues of class, gender, sexuality, and identity† (P.P.F 288:538). He places these commentaries either as asides in the dialogue or in the intricacy by which a scene is played out. For example, Algernons skepticism regarding Jacks proposal to Gwendolen echoes the social dilemma, â€Å"girls never marry the men they flirt with†¦girls dont think it right†¦it accounts for the extraordinary number of bachelors that one sees all over the place† (Greenblatt and M. H. Abrams 2224). As for the dialogue of the two young ladies toward s each other (they will call each other a lot of things before they become friends); Wilde portrays the younger gal as naively idealistic, while portraying the other as an impractical romantic. They are represented as fickle, although Gwendolens attitude towards Cecily ranges from quite friendly to jealous rivalry and then to faithful friend (all in one scene). At the same time, Lady Bracknells impression of Cecily goes from the unthinkable to the idea that â€Å"[Cecily] has distinct social possibilities,† and as such would make a suitable member of London High Society (Greenblatt and M. H. Abrams 2258). While most of Wildes contemporaries were thrilled at the â€Å"nonsense† of the play, Shaw had expected a serious comedy by the playwright. Instead he saw it as having no structure and a real disappointment. The play does begin to make sense though, when we look away from the perspective of the critic and into the authors mind. If we accept that the plot is a prop, which Wilde used to throw abuse and amusement at his audience, we can then conclude that the play was meant as one big commentary on sensibilities, on society, and on theater. Furthermore, if we look at Wildes own problems at the time of the plays fame, we might understand Wilde. In the scene where Lady Bracknell is interviewing Jack, and then reacting to Jacks helpless admission that he has lost his parents, Lady Bracknell states that â€Å"losing both parents seem an act of carelessness† (Greenblatt and M. H. Abrams 2232), and adds that to rectify the situation he should â€Å"make a definite effort to produce at any rate one parent, of either sex, before the season is quite over† (Greenblatt and M. H. Abrams 2233). As absurd as this may seem, it does have a purpose: Lady Bracknell represents Victorian High Society. Because of this, she is ready to condemn based on ones birth or unfortunate circumstance; yet she makes a complete turnaround in her disapproval of Cecily once she realizes that the girl has good ancestry (namely, her father is rich) (Greenblatt and M.H. Abrams 2257). The absurdity of Jack posing as Ernest mirrors the life of the playwright himself. Oscar Wilde, at this time, had begun to scandalize London with his lifestyle and had been largely condemned as a homosexual. Jack Worthing explains that the pressures of leading a â€Å"high moral life† in the country does not provide him with the happiness he needs; rather, that happiness is found in Ernest whose reputation is entirely opposite of Jacks (Greenblatt and M.H. Abrams 2226). In the same way, perhaps Wilde feels somehow trapped in the need to conform to Londons High Society standards. The lack of a decent plot is an attack of the sensibilities of the audience to a serious play. Oscar Wilde once explained â€Å"that the play has an underlying philosophy: ‘that we should treat all the trivial things of life seriously, and all the serious things of life with sincere and studied triviality† (Greenblatt and M. H. Abrams 2222). The whole point was not the progression of the story, but the progression of the absurdity: starting with the truth of â€Å"Ernest†, then the nonsense of â€Å"Bunburying†, until the play escalates to the ridiculous in Miss Prism. His characters crude commentaries, which seemed to offend, were meant to offend; if anything, none of it needed to be taken seriously. The play is an exercise of triviality. George Bernard Shaw couldnt see past the nonsense of Wilde. The Importance of Being Earnest was actually quite an accomplishment. Wilde worked hard writing and rewriting the script until he felt he had the perfect combination of wit and humor shrouded in seriousness. It was absolute nonsense, yet it was a masterpiece of nonsense. There is a lesson to be learned here. Something serious need not be treated to death as serious; it can be allowed some form of triviality. These few lines say it best: Jack: â€Å"I am sick to death of cleverness†¦ The thing has become an absolute public nuisance. I wish to goodness we had a few fools left.† Algernon: â€Å"We have.† Jack: â€Å"I should extremely like to meet them. What do they talk about?† Algernon: â€Å"The fools? Oh! About the clever people, of course!† (Greenblatt and M. H. Abrams 2234). Works Cited Barnet, Sylvan. Introduction. The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays By Oscar Wilde. New York: Penguin Books, 1985. Beckson, Karl, Ed. Oscar Wilde: The Critical Heritage. London: Routledge, 1997. Greenblatt, Stephen, and M.H. Abrams, Eds. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 8th ed. New York, USA: W.W. Norton Company, Inc, 2006. Mason, Stuart. Bibliography of Oscar Wilde. Edinburgh: Riverside Press Limited, 1908. Reprinted, New York: Haskell House Pub, 2007. P.P.F. The Importance of Being Earnest.Contemporary Review. 288.1683 (Winter 2006): 538-539. Retrieved April 3, 2008. www.liberty.edu. Academic Search Premier. http:/​/​search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/​login.aspx?direct=truedb=aphAN=23913109site=ehost-live Raby, Peter, Ed. The Cambridge Companion to Oscar Wilde. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. Sale, Roger. Being Earnest. Hudson Review 56:3 (Autumn 2003): 475-484. Retrieved April 3, 2008. www.liberty.edu. Academic Search Premier. http:/​/​search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.libety.edu:2048/​login.aspx?direct=truedb=aphAN=11262215site=ehost-live

Hemingway Indian Camp

â€Å"Indian Camp† Essay In Hemingway’s short story â€Å"Indian Camp†, the use of light and dark symbolism is apparent throughout. Two different races are seen in the story, the white man, and the dark skinned Indians. The white man seems to be living the life, while the Indians live in a life of oppression and despair. The white man is clearly â€Å"superior† to the Indians, however Hemingway’s greater purpose of this symbolism is seen in the enlightenment of Nick Adams.When Nick Adams begins the story on his way to this camp he is already taken into the dark upon his initial journey along with his father and Uncle. Led by an Indian guide, Nick has no idea of what to expect or where he is being led. Upon their arrival to the camp several symbols of light and dark are seen quite clearly. Hemingway touches on a few characteristics including the Uncle’s cigar, and Indian guide leading them with his lantern. In the cigar, it burns and sheds lig ht in a dark world, a world these white men are not accustomed to and have no knowledge on.He then attempts to share his cigars with the Indians, perhaps showing he is willing to share his knowledge with them as well. Later, Hemingway describes how the Indian guide uses his lantern during their journey to the camp, however once they reach the road, he blows it out signifying how that road built by the white man now sheds light on where he is, and that is the Indian Camp. Upon their arrival, Nick’s father finally finds Shanty, the pregnant Indian he must perform surgery on. The Indians in this scene, step away from the lit road, and sit in the dark.Perhaps they are more comfortable in the dark and have no desire to be under the white mans light. Or in this case watch the white man perform surgery. Later, the woman’s husband is found dead, and Nick’s father tries to hide this harsh reality from his son, but Nick experiences it all in one night. At the beginning of their journey, Nick was led to the camp by the Indian guide with the lantern. Upon his departure, he reaches enlightenment on life in the light of a new day. He found a new understanding thanks to a dark skinned Indian guide with a lantern.Symbolically he was guiding Nick to his new perceptions and understanding, at least in my opinion. The metaphors are quite apparent in Hemingway’s writing. Two opposing cultures, races, and people contrasted throughout in â€Å"light† and â€Å"dark†. Nick had to take the darkness to eventually receive the light. He had to see a different side of life to reach clarity and understanding. Hemingway displays the racial differences and thoughts of both the Indians and white men with his symbolism in this story.

What is positivism

Positivism Is a well established philosophy wealth the natural sciences. In the early nineteenth century It became an integral aspect of social science methodology. In Bacon tradition, positivism is the precise and objective observation of an object from a scientifically detached position. Though its definition is broad, there are fundamentally six assumptions in positivistic philosophy and three distinct generations that negotiate with these assumptions. Naturalism; positivists are committed to the implication of the natural scientific teeth in social science.The natural scientific method creates a ‘closed system' in which a limited number of discrete variables are identified, influences are excluded, cause and effect Is established, and excellently law or authoritative knowledge Is constructed. No acknowledgement of open systems as a feature of both natural and social science Is made. Phenomenal; only knowledge gained from physical experience Is considered valid. Otherwise It Is metaphysical and meaningless. If It cannot be subject to empirical tests and corroborated, it does not exist. Happiness, for example, by this criterion, is meaningless.Nominal; again concepts must be rooted in physical actuality. Words are mere reflections of things, semantics are dismissed. Scientific concepts are regarded as true reflections of the world instead. Atomics; attempts definition of discrete irreducible objects. An individual would by this criterion, be the smallest unit of society. 19th century utilitarian maxim ‘greater good for greater number' placed special emphasis on this assumption. Scientific laws; a sequence of regularities in objects are sought and named a constant conjunction of events.A general statement Is then devised citing one variable as the cause, the other as the effect. E. G. : Ill health as the cause for poverty. The problematic, Internal structure of these objects Is not examined. Universal law Is established. Facts and Values: facts onl y are scientific, distinct then from subjective and relative values which cannot be verified by empirical measurement. The first generation of positivists, in response to European chaos, devised a confident Sino of knowledge as human made, not divine construction and so open to critical enquiry.Augusta Comet directed early positivist thought in the social sciences. He made a naturalist assumption that through social physics, social cohesion could be attained which would then lead to civic harmony. With positivist philosophy intent, he meant to serve the needs of humanity through objective intellectual enquiry. Comet believed that all knowledge could be reconstructed and a better world created. Human reason could subject social phenomena to natural laws and achieve regress. The method of Induction I. E. He construction of knowledge through the collection of empirical evidence from observed regular instances, would play a early positivistic claim to objective knowledge was very ambiti ous and modified by the next generation of logical positivists. Prominent in the Vienna Circle, these philosophers placed greater emphasis on the sensory world as automatically composed of separate irreducible objects. Conscious of previous translation of value into fact and failure to separate theories from observation they had a more acute awareness of language and its tendency to, even in simple statements, have normative assumptions.Logical positivists were careful to make distinctions between statements. Two connected types were identified: analytic and synthetic. An analytic statement such as ‘all bachelors are unmarried' is a tautological truth whereas the synthetic there are more bachelors in London than anywhere else' tells us something about the world. It can be empirically tested and refuted. Logical positivists' favoring of the induction method, with its assumption of rabbles' passivity posed a difficulty for the next generation of philosophers, the standard positi vists.Nominal was the prominent assumption for this school of thought. Hempen, acknowledging the role of meaning, championed the idea of deduction over induction. Deduction involves abstract reasoning. It sees thought processes, not a general law as initial in devising empirical research. These positivists see empirical regularity as sufficient in creating a causal law. They see symmetry in explanation and prediction. These causal laws can be empirically tested and verified. Popper on the other hand saw verification as leading to stagnation.In mid 20th century he proposed instead the idea of falsification which encourages systematic skepticism of all knowledge claims. Moving away from induction's ‘common sense' science, Popper begins with an assumption of uncertainty. Truth to Popper is a matter of degree, of verisimilitude, not an absolute. Popper shifts the demarcation criteria of science and non-science. He adopts naturalism but challenges the logical positivist view of the meta-physical as meaningless. To Popper, there is no true or false, but testability.He held that a search for truth was a search for the end of knowledge, which was contrary to his view of knowledge as continual. He saw the practice of refuting evidence as integral to progress. Popper understood research's vulnerability to false claims, the complexity of the fact/ value distinction. Our awareness of the power of social construction over our perceptions is more astute these days but it is imperative that we situate ourselves and know that we are as shaped by context as ever.

Essay about Medical Marijuana - 1525 Words

Medical Marijuana Marijuana is medicine. It has been used for thousands of years to treat a wide variety of ailments. Marijuana (Cannabis sativa L.) was legal in the United States for all purposes - industrial and recreational, as well as medicinal until 1937. Today, only eight Americans are legally allowed to use marijuana as medicine. NORML is working to restore marijuanas availability as medicine. Medicinal Value Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known. No one has ever died from an overdose. It is also extremely versatile. Four of its general therapeutic applications include: relief from nausea and increase of appetite; reduction of intraocular (within the eye)†¦show more content†¦In addition, anecdotal evidence exists that marijuana is effective in the treatment of arthritis, migraine headaches, pruritis, menstrual cramps, alcohol and opiate addiction, and depression and other mood disorders. Marijuana could benefit as many as five million patients in the United States. However, except for the eight individuals given special permission by the federal government, marijuana remains illegal-even as medicine! Individuals currently suffering from any of the aforementioned ailments, for whom the standard legal medical alternatives have not been safe or effective, are left with two choices: Continue to suffer from the effects of the disease; or Obtain marijuana illegally and risk the potential consequences, which may include: an insufficient supply because of the prohibition-inflated price or unavailability; impure, contaminated, or chemically adulterated marijuana; arrests, fines, court costs, property forfeiture, incarceration, probation, and criminal records. Background: The Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 established the federal prohibition of marijuana. Dr. William C. Woodward of the American Medical Association testified against the Act, arguing that it would ultimately prevent any medicinal use of marijuana. The Controlled Substances Act of 1970 established five categories, or schedules, into which all illicit andShow MoreRelatedThe Legalization Of Medical Marijuana1558 Words   |  7 Pages Alaskan Thunderbolt Whether pro, con, user or bystander. The issue of the nationwide legalization of medical marijuana is one that infringes both in political and social standards. Be it that marijuana is subsequently abused, and utilized as an illegal drug. It is regarded highly, as a controversial issue which affects the amenity of conservative, modern America. Because of which one should further seek to understand. Things like its history, correlation with crime, effects on economy, effectsRead MoreMedical Marijuana1767 Words   |  8 Pages Marijuana is a very prominent and controversial issue in society today. 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Not only is there no legitimate medical use, it has been tied to physical, mental, and emotional damages. â€Å"Marijuana refers to the dried leaves, flowers, stems, and seeds from the hemp plant Cannabis sativa, which contains the psychoactive (mind-altering) chemical delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), as well as other related compounds† (National Institute on Drug Abuse). There are many supporters of the legalization of medical marijuana