A Comparison of My Last Duchess and Ulysses :: comparison compare contrast essays

Comparing My Last Duchess and Ulysses  Ã‚   Both of the poems, ‘My Last Duchess’ by Robert Browning and ‘Ulysses’ by Alfred Lord Tennyson, are examples of dramatic monologues, in that they solely consist of the speech of the protagonist. As a result, they have few or, in the case of ‘My Last Duchess’, only one stanza. Many enjambed lines and many irregularities in the basic form of iambic pentameter also hide the rhyming couplets in this poem. ‘My Last Duchess’ is set in Renaissance Italy and is the Duke of Ferrara talking to a servant of his prospective father-in-law, about a painting of his former wife. The narrator of ‘Ulysses’ is the man in the title, an Ancient Greek hero, talking about his loathing of his regal position and his wish to travel again before his impending death. Although they are both powerful men talking about their pasts, there are noticeable differences between the two poems, both in the protagonists themselves and the poetic devices used t o present them. One of the clearest differences between Ferrara and Ulysses is the source of their power, and the kind of power that they wield. Ferrara’s power comes from his ‘nine-hundred-years-old-name’, that is, his position as the ruler of one of the many city states that make up the present-day nation of Italy. This was a position he was born into-not one which he earned. He obviously puts great value on his inherited status, as he refers to it as a ‘gift’ and objected when his wife did not consider it more precious than the gifts that other people gave to her. He considers himself to have been very generous by making her his Duchess, and he thinks that his wife should have ranked this generosity than that of others. He gives examples of other gifts which she thought of as equal in worth, such as: ‘The white mule She rode with round the terrace’ ‘The dropping of daylight in the west.' The Duke does not think that such things, which are trivial to him, should bring her the same amount of joy as the presents he bestows on her. He is also mildly jealous of the way that other things can make his wife happy. He thinks that she should love him and him alone. This is particularly shown when he refers to someone else. ‘The bough of cherries some officious fool

How do Victorian attitudes to marriage and respectability underpin the comic elements of the importance of being Earnest? Essay

Marriage is loveless, wealth and background takes priority over most things, Algernon supports this with a quote (once again hes the rebel) Marriage is the end of freedom, Cecily wants to break free, very curious woman who looks at society differently. takes a liking to Algernon because of this. Quote below Secret lives of the boys, humour in the peter pan like qualities quote: â€Å"A man who marries without knowing Bunbury [an excuse for pleasure] has a very tedious time of it.† â€Å"I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being really good all the time.† â€Å"You won’t be able to disappear to London quite so frequently as your wicked custom was.† â€Å"I think some preliminary enquiry on my part would not be out of place.† In the importance of being Earnest written by Oscar wilde, he gives us two characters Jack and Algernon these two characters live double lives to get out of situations that they do not desire to be in, In Victorian society men and woman would have to uphold there respect and duties at all time. The two men create â€Å"Bunburying† which allows them to misbehave without upsetting there piers and letting go of their high moral standards of the upper class. Jack creates Ernest his sick brother to get out of situations that he doesn’t want to be in. Its ironic for jack as he creating a false image of himself in that people would see Jack as far more moral and responsible then he actually is. Algernon however uses â€Å"bunbury† to escape to the country side in peace, while playing it off that he is doing work for poor Christian charities, it was common for the upper class to do this in Victorian times as their moral duty however Oscar Wilde specifically gives these two men these alter egos to represent Victorian hypocrisy , From the very start the humour of both characters is shown through this light and would be humours to the contemporary audience as its true. People of that time error would of bigged themselves up in front of their peers and did things just for the sake of it. The comedic effect is how Oscar Wilde portrays this. The Victorian society above all valued duty and respect. Both men lead double lives but as long as things are done properly and they make sure that there appearance is respectable then society at the time would turn a blind eye to whatever was going on. Wilde in the play asks if it is really a concern that appearance is that important and isn’t just a trivial matter. Gwendolyn is a character that respects her value’s so much that she says â€Å"In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity is the vital thing.† as long as it looks good to Gwendolyn and here peers that its fine. She says that the sincerity of matter just isn’t important at all. There’s humour in just how bizarre of a comment that actually is from Gwendolyn to a modern audience now that seems so absured that someone could be so obsessed by how other people view her role that she would look so far past the importance of said question or matter. Marriage is a stable for Victorian society and the author Oscar Wilde represents it in a different pure true like manor of what it would have been at the time period. Lady Bracknell is a central figure honour and respectability in the play, although every character we meet has some kind of foolish humour to them, Lady Bracknell is very witty and quick with her lines just like Algernon who coincidentally is her nephew. She is brutal with her lines, for instance when Jack has proposed she goes on to say â€Å"I think some preliminary enquiry on my part would not be out of place.† this line may not appear extremely comical but to some classes at the time it would, Jack is meant to be a upper class gentlemen who is respected by many, however the audience knows that he was born in a train station and lives a parallel life to get out of his daily responabilites. Its the background humour of society that Oscar Wilde creates which makes the whole conversation very clever but at the same time humours. Gwendolen is what seems to be a traditional woman of the time period should look and act, although Gwendolen isn’t like this she is very naturally curious. This is properly due to the fact that she has never had the chance to be free like Jack and Algernon. She says to Algernon â€Å"I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being really good all the time.† its from this line she is curious in him, she hasn’t seen what its like outside the boundary of her life and delivers a very ironic and humours line to Algernon. Gwendolen also desires to marry a man named â€Å"Earnest† she quickly falls in love with jack who she thinks is of course Earnest, she really doesn’t mind if he doesn’t possess the quality’s of someone actually called Earnest which means a seriousness which again is ironic for Jack. Furthermore Jack eventually becomes Earnest and Ernest and becomes a symbol of Victorian Hypocrisy. Oscar Wilde uses humours situations like this in his play that aren’t telling the audience to burst out laughing but to underpin the humour, the author is trying to break the mould of society and gently pushing the audience and peoples mind sets to look at how funny and at the same time how wrong the world they lived in was. He is using the humour of some situations to outline flaws. The true comedy in this play comes from how it is written and how the author takes blows at how society is working at the present moment, he never creates a conflict between the characters without humour so he can push his message across to the contemporary audience. The whole play is based around Marriage and responsibilities, from the very start to the end they are never far apart in conversation. In fact the whole play is a debate on whether or not marriage is just â€Å"Business† or â€Å"pleasure† Although I feel as if Oscar Wilde intended this message, he is constantly poking fun and using humour as a cover to take jabs at how society works and is meant to be viewed. the audience watches the whole journey of these two men which is where the comedy comes from, their views and opinions to the modern day traditional Victorian at the time would seem bizarre to an audience member and create laughter.

Intervening Variable Definition and Examples in Sociology

An intervening variable is something that impacts the relationship between an independent and a dependent variable. Usually, the intervening variable is caused by the independent variable, and is itself a cause of the dependent variable. For example, there is an observed positive correlation between level of education and level of income, such that people with higher levels of education tend to earn higher levels of income. This observable trend, however, is not directly causal in nature. Occupation serves as the intervening variable between the two, since education level (the independent variable) influences what kind of occupation one will have (the dependent variable), and therefore how much money one will earn.  In other words, more schooling tends to mean a higher status job, which in turn tends to bring a higher income. How an Intervening Variable Works When researchers conduct experiments or studies they are usually interested in understanding the relationship between two variables: an independent and a dependent variable. The independent variable is usually hypothesized to be the cause of the dependent variable, and the research is designed to prove whether or not this is true. In many cases, like the link between education and income described above, a statistically significant relationship is observable, but it is not proven that the indirect variable is directly causing the dependent variable to behave as it does. When this occurs researchers then hypothesize what other variables could be influencing the relationship, or how a variable might intervene between the two. With the example given above, occupation intervenes to mediate the connection between level of education and level of income. (Statisticians consider an intervening variable to be a kind of mediating variable.) Thinking causally, the intervening variable  follows the independent variable but precedes the dependent variable. From a research standpoint, it clarifies the nature of the relationship between the independent and dependent variables. Other Examples of Intervening Variables in Sociology Research Another example of an intervening variable that sociologists monitor is the effect of systemic racism on college completion rates. There is a documented relationship between race and college completion rates. Research shows that among 25 to 29-year-old adults in the U.S., Asian Americans are most likely to have completed college, followed by whites, while Blacks and Hispanics have much lower rates of college completion. This represents a statistically significant relationship between race (independent variable) and level of education (dependent variable). However, it is not accurate to say that race itself influences level of education. Rather, the experience of racism is an intervening variable between the two.​ Many studies have shown that racism has a strong effect on the quality of K-12 education that one receives in the U.S. The nations long history of segregation and housing patterns today mean that the nations least-funded schools primarily serve students of color while the nations best-funded schools primarily serve white students. In this way, racism intervenes to affect the quality of education. Additionally, studies have shown that implicit racial biases among educators lead to Black and Latino students receiving less encouragement and more discouragement in the classroom than white and Asian students, and also, that they are more regularly and harshly punished for acting out. This means that racism, as it manifests in the thoughts and actions of educators, once again intervenes to impact college completion rates on the basis of race. There are numerous other ways in which racism acts as an intervening variable between race and level of education.