What evidence is there to suggest that Hamlet Essay Example for Free

What evidence is there to suggest that Hamlet Essay What evidence is there to suggest that Hamlet would have become a successful leader of Denmark had he survived? In the final scene Forthinbras declares that Hamlet, Was likely, had he been put on, To have proved most royal; By examining traits of Hamlets character and comparing his to the characters of others in positions of power I will discuss whether this statement is correct. In Act 1 Scene 2 Shakespeare shows Hamlet has many leadership qualities. He is kind to Horatio when he tries to make out he is a truant. I would not hear your enemy say so. He has created a strong friendship with Horatio and the guards, Marcellus and Barnardo, respect him even though he has not become King. He can discuss his grief over his fathers death frankly and openly with them. This show of trust for, and respect from, his piers is very important in a prospective leader. Hamlet is bitingly witty when talking of his fathers funeral and mothers wedding. Thrift, thrift, Horatio. The funeral baked meats Did coldly furnish the marriage tables. This not only shows his bitterness but also his sharp intelligence. At other points in the play Hamlets intelligence and wit are shown in his feigned madness. An example of this is when he is ridiculing Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. I am but mad north-north-west. When the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw. The meaning of this riddle is clear but Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are clearly bewildered. This shows Hamlets intellectual superiority over his schoolfellows. In Act One Scene Two Hamlet goes on to exhibit his ability to question the men very shrewdly about the sightings of the Ghost. His questions are direct, penetrating and enable him to gain the information he needs. This is emphasised by the short, sharp sentences and the hard f sounds used. Then you saw not his face? What, looked he frowningly? This would be a valuable quality for a leader in a crisis when the details needed to be known. Hamlet is shown to have the positive resolution of a leader here as he determines to watch for the Ghost that night. However he never loses sight of reason by being caught up in the excitement and is still able to reflect on the need for caution. He tells the guards, If you have hitherto concealed this sight, Let it be tenable in your silence still Conversing with the devil goes against the laws of Christianity and so they need to keep the sightings a secret to protect themselves. It is a mark of Hamlets leadership that the men obey him in this. Hamlet is very astute and cannot be easily deceived. He sees through the spies, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, immediately despite their efforts at pleasantry. You were sent for and there is a kind of confession in your looks A lesser person may have trusted them and revealed the whole situation to them but Hamlet does not endanger himself by doing this. He compares them to a sponge that soaks up the kings countenance, his rewards, his authorities. When he needs you what you have gleaned, it is but squeezing you, and, sponge, you shall be dry again. This is a very perceptive and truthful image of the way in which Claudius treats them. Shakespeare provides other examples of leadership within Hamlet to highlight Hamlets own qualities or flaws. An example is Claudius, the current King of Denmark. In contrast to Hamlet he lacks the discerning nature needed in a leader. His failure to grasp the full danger presented by Fortinbras and his advancing army prove fatal to Denmark. Claudius chooses to rely on politics and negotiation to win his wars and so is fooled by the report brought by his ambassadors. It is clear to the audience that Fortinbras has a strong motive for invading Denmark to revenge his fathers murder and the ground that he supposedly fights for in Poland hath in it no profit but the name. Claudius also fails to understand Polonius character and places too much trust on his judgement in state matters. Polonius influence is shown. Thou still hast been the father of good news This misjudgement proves fatal for Claudius because the news Polonius brings of Hamlets madness being that of a distracted lover in Act Two Scene Two is incorrect. Claudius is distracted from taking any steps to remove Hamlet because of this. Hamlets own perceptiveness is shown again in his understanding of Polonius as he aptly describes him as a foolish, prating knave. However Claudius has qualities such as ruthlessness, that make him a good leader, and which, Hamlet is lacking. When Claudius has realised the full threat Hamlet poses to him he has no quibbles about having him sent to his death in England immediately. Hamlet only possesses this strength when he seals the letter to have Rosencrantz and Guildenstern killed. He declares, They are not near my conscience. Claudius has the character of a leader who wants to drink and party in the style of royalty with his people. This may make him popular with some but Hamlet takes this view against Claudius custom, It is a custom More honoured in the breach than in the observance. Hamlet has uptight morals that are fitting for a leader who must set an example to his people. Hamlet understands politics and wants the people of Denmark to be respected by those in other countries and not cleped drunkards as they are under Claudius rule. Hamlet feels a greater responsibility for the reputation of his country than Claudius does and so is more kingly. A quality a political leader shown in both Claudius and Hamlet is their use of language to cover up their true meaning. Hamlet does so in his madness when he produces veiled threats against Claudius in his riddles. Claudius skill is more developed and successful in execution. His opening speech is full of rhetorical artifice; he is contradicting himself but the audience have to listen hard to pick this up. For example he says. With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage He is talking about the incest that has occurred in his marrying his dead brothers wife but his eloquent language and smooth, flowing speech hides the meaning well. Shakespeare uses young Fortinbras of Norway as an exact parallel to Hamlets character. His own father has been murdered and his uncle has taken his throne. However Fortinbras is opposite to the reflective, moralising Hamlet. He is a man of umimprovi d mettle hot and full. Fortinbras is uninhibited and can boldly take action to revenge Denmark for his fathers murder. His plan is simple but he easily tricks Claudius and achieves his aim as he takes control of Denmark in the final scene. Shakespeare shows in Act Four Scene Four that he considers Fortinbras direct active response is better then Hamlets reflective one as Fortinbras presence makes Hamlet conscious of his own failings. Now whether it be Beastial oblivion, or some craven scruple Of thinking too precisely on th event- Shakespeare shows how Hamlet moralises over the deed too much and ends up being cowardly. Hamlet cannot match the intrepid delicate and tender price that can lead twenty thousand men to war for the sake of a straw. The presence of Fortinbras causes Hamlet to take up his fight with resolution. My thoughts be bloody or nothing worth. Through the play we see this growth of Hamlets character a progression to what Fortinbras is able to be. Hamlet overcomes his reticence in allowing Claudius to take his throne by asserting his right to it as he declares in Act Five Scene One, . This is I, Hamlet the Dane At this point Hamlet may truly be called royal and worthy of being King. Despite all Hamlets kingly qualities the view of Ophelia in Act Three Scene One must be considered. She believes that through feigning madness Hamlet has destroyed all the virtues he was previously warrant to. Oh what a nobler mind is here oerthrown! This means that Hamlet has disqualified himself from the chance being elected to the throne as he has destroyed his own self. This may be a just argument but we must consider the true extent of Hamlets insanity and believe that Hamlet would be able to return to his intelligent and discerning self after Claudius death. In the final scene Shakespeare shows us that Hamlet couldnt be successful leader of Denmark. He still has not the tenacity to take his revenge. He only kills Claudius in retaliation to an attack upon himself and not because of any merit of his own. This procrastination would be a serious failing in a prospective leader because ruthless decisions and actions would need to be taken without the moralising that Hamlets character exemplifies. His other qualities, though still intact despite the feigned madness, would not compensate for his lack of resolution. Shakespeare highlights this flaw by including the characters of Claudius and Fortinbras who are both ruthless and decisive.

A preliminary assessment of the Survey of the Gaelic :: Scottish Gaelic dialectology

Scottish Gaelic dialectology: A preliminary assessment of the Survey of the Gaelic Dialects of Scotland Between 1994 and 1997, the transcribed questionnaires of the Survey of the Gaelic Dialects of Scotland were published as a five-volume series (O Dochartaigh 1994- 97), presenting narrow phonetic transcriptions of over 200 speakers responding to a fortypage questionnaire. This publication marks the culmination of a project of nearly fifty years’ duration; the main body of the interviews took place between 1950 and 1970 across much of the Scottish mainland as well as the Western Isles. In many cases, some of the very last Gaelic speakers in a particular region were interviewed, and we thus have transcribed material—and some audio recordings—of dialects that are now practically extinct. Naturally, the historic quality of these transcribed and audio records renders them all the more valuable for close study. This paper will assess the current state of Scottish Gaelic dialect study, with a particular focus on the Survey’s current and future contributions. Designed in 1950 by Kenneth Jackson to elicit data informing phonetic and phonological questions of both regional and historical interest, the original Survey focused on pronunciation variation, providing limited information on morphology (although see especially O Maolalaigh1999), and virtually none on syntactic variation or lexical choice. With the publication of the Survey’s â€Å"raw data† in the form of unanalyzed narrow transcriptions, it is appropriate now to ascertain what we can learn from the published material. However, in the approximately 50 years since the fieldwork for the Survey was begun, methods, goals, and principles of dialect study have changed dramatically (cf. Kretzschmar 1996); furthermore, advances in media technologies have enabled linguists to analyze and to present data in compelling new ways (cf. Kretzschmar & Konopka 1996). In recent years there has been an important move towards a discipline-wide agreement on â€Å"best practices† for dialect study, language data management, and the presentation of data and analysis (cf. â€Å"Methods XI† Conference on Methods in Dialectology, August 2002, Joensuu, Finland; the E-MELD website and affiliated work; the Linguistic Data Archiving Project at CNRS, etc). The presentation will conclude with a discussion of desiderata for Scottish Gaelic dialect study, and for the presentation and analysis of Gaelic dialect data.

The neoliberal economic and political situation

The $30-billion loan from IMF in 2002, which initially had to give rise to the Brazilian economy and lead it from the existing financial crisis, has proven to be ineffective. The presidential election and the Lula government have not met the goals, set by the International Monetary Fund and other international institutions. The government has neither taken the right orientation of carrying out legal and regulatory policies, nor opened the way out for others.The neoliberal economic and political situation have only caused confrontation and worsened the existing problems with public debt, poverty, wage rates and other essential issues. The core problems of Brazilian political climate contain: budget deficit (which causes increase of public debt and high inflation rates), lack of agrarian, pension, military and social-program reforms, bureaucracy of trade unions, privatization (the most of the businesses are in the hands of Lula government and its allies), and violation of workersâ€⠄¢ rights. The key element of any country – the worker – is over-discriminated by the state.Women and Afro-Brazilians are discriminated and underpaid, the number of slaves and forced workers drastically increases, the corrupted government is involved in bribery, therefore, the illegal land exploitations (forest clearing, mining, etc. ) that violate the right to adequate housing are widespread (Danish Institute for Human Rights, 2006). The lower tax rate for private business do not meet the efficiency and equity for macroeconomic stable situation and fiscal control, for income and property taxes are reduced by decreasing number of official workers.According to the risk data, the Brazil government effectiveness risk is 68 of 100, tax policy risk is 63, with Brazil overall risk rating assessment of 47 (data obtained from viewswire. com). These numbers give the clear picture that the 250-billion debt in Brazil, violation of laws, illegal actions of the government and key e ntrepreneurs, create the disfavorable and unstable ground to foreign-owned businesses and dollarization does not give confidence in Brazilian economy.Moreover, the IMF debt can be cut off in the case if the Brazilian government does not meet the target. References: Danish Institute for Human Rights. (2006). Executive summary of the Brazil country Risk Assessment. Online. October 29, 2007. Available: http://www. humanrightsbusiness. org/pdf_files/Brazil_%20Executive%20Summary. pdf. Risk ratings. (2007). Brazil risk ratings. Online. October 29, 2007. Available: http://www. viewswire. com/index. asp? layout=RKcountryVW3&country_id=1480000148&rf=0

Happy Days By Samuel Beckett - 1273 Words

Happy Days by Samuel Beckett is not an easy play to categorize by genre. However, I could not qualify it as purely a comedy. It does have comedic components, but the humor is more of a tool to distract from the desolate tragedy of the play. Happy Days is an attempt at a satirical piece that targets the audience of the play. It implies that those watching the play are tragic beings themselves, who inhabit a world a routine, lost memories, and futile efforts to find fulfillment in language. Though, Happy Days cannot be solely treated as a tragic play about the existential crisis, either. There still are elements that draw the play into the conventions of comedy. Therefore, the play is more of a tragi-comedy than anything else, falling†¦show more content†¦Isherwood describes her spirit as indomitably chipper...as she spends her long hours babbling merrily, keeping up a bright sheen of optimism, expecting every day to be a happy day, in benign acceptance of her strange predicam ent (Isherwood, Review). This is a key theme of the play. Winnie s refusal to give up opposes the tragedy within the play with her enduring optimism. She pulls them out of her bag with purpose, it is a routine. These items are all she has. Winnie makes do with what she has, and she persuades herself that her belongings and Willie s presence for her monologues are enough to sustain purpose. These items also connect Winnie to her memories of certain occasions that are important. What is interesting about these objects is that they are all getting clearly old. These items clearly keep Winnie happy, and as they run out she has to fight harder to stay optimistic. She is slowly losing the materials that give her hope and meaning. It is ironic that the only item from her bag that does not change is the gun. Unfortunately, the available sources of Winnie s optimism are being used up and she has to work harder and harder to keep up her positive front which is already wafer-thin when we first meet her. brings out toothbrush, rummages again, brings out flat tube of tooth-paste, turns back front, unscrews cap of tube, lays cap on ground, squeezes withShow MoreRelatedWinnies Dramatic Story in â€Å"Happy Days by Samuel Beckett Essay1210 Words   |  5 PagesSamuel Beckett’s play, â€Å"Happy Days,† portrays a woman, Winnie, buried in the ground, first up to her waist, then up to her neck, determined to live out her meaningful life. Although her situation is hopeless because she has no idea how she got there, Winnie trusts that her life is meaningful and truly believes that there is nothing she can do to change it. 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