The Tempest. An Imperialist Heaven or Hell Argumentative Essay Example For Students

The Tempest. An Imperialist Heaven or Hell? Argumentative Essay Shakespeare lived and wrote in the Elizabethan age, a time when his society was branching out and making itself known throughout the world by colonizing other cultures. Great Britain was reaching for new heights of power. In the play Shakespeare questions the value of this new concept of British imperialism. The Tempest is called Shakespeares American play, because he calls into question Englands right to colonize other nations, much as American colonists did with America 200 years later. The Tempest was Shakespeares last play. For his entire life he had written plays to please the Queen. For this play it appears he made a controversial statement by challenging the values of his Queen and his country. Evidence of this is abundant in the play. The story rotates around the fact that Prospero, a European noble, had imposed himself on an island, already inhabited. Prospero is depicted as a worthy man, who was usurped from his throne. The reader has automatic sympathy for the character. T his allows him more leeway for wrong doing by creating room for it within the readers mind. Prospero came to the island with his daughter to find it already inhabited by two savages. Upon arrival, Prospero brought his new ideas with him, and began to force them upon these two savages, Sycorax and Caliban. He believed that his new ideas were better, such as slavery opposed to freedom, which he imposed on Caliban. We will write a custom essay on The Tempest. An Imperialist Heaven or Hell? Argumentative specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now Dull thing, I say so; he, that Caliban,Whom now I keep in my service. (Act. I, Sc. II, Ln. 285,6)This view of whose ideas were better is an obvious matter of opinion, one of the biggest drawbacks to transforming old ideas into new. Prospero was the first male that Caliban had seen in his life. As a lower being Caliban worshipped and praised Prospero, as the quote below shows, until Prospero began to mistreat him. I know it by thy trembling: now Prosper works upon thee(Act II, Sc. II, Ln. 81-3)This worship caused Prospero to act as a ruler above him, eventually pushing him to be the tyrant over Caliban, including robbing Caliban of his freedom. Keeping within his worship, Caliban lost his self-confidence and any drive for good deeds. Because Prospero had imposed himself upon Caliban, Calibans life began to decline. Without drive, or freedom for that matter, Caliban turned to a vegetable only working as a slave to Prospero. Again, the act of asserting that your ideas are superior can cause indelible harm to the recipient of that opinion. Throughout these ordeals, Prospero thought that he was helping Caliban, (again opinion) while actually destroying him. But these supposed helpful teachings to Caliban eventually turned on Prospero. Near the end of the play, Caliban finds Stephano and Trinculo on the island. These men appeared to be much like Prospero in dress, and in speech. Because he had been trained by Prospero to worship and follow, he immediately began to worship Stephano and Trinculo. This is what turned against him. By that time, Caliban had developed a deep hatred for Prospero and sought revenge against him. He discussed killing Prospero in his sleep with Stephano and Trinculo, which they agreed to because they would gain control of the island. Prospero escaped death by a hair, in that he had a sprite, Ariel, to spy on the plotting Englishmen. This was an example of his own imperialistic ideas turned against him, leading almost to his death. But these wrongs did not stop at Prospero and Caliban. New ideas were imposed also by Ariel, Prosperos servant sprite. Ariel was a lively spirit that was immortal, and therefor capable of much more than any human. Ariel proposed new ideas to the king, Alonso and all of his men, Gonzalo, Antonio, Sebastian, Adrian and Francisco. These men had perceived themselves as almighty as they paraded around the island in fear of nothing. Ariel enlightened them to their fault and may have even shown them their mistakes. You are three men of sin, whom Destiny,That hath to instrument this lower world. .uf2368895c3aed40902f541007507a073 , .uf2368895c3aed40902f541007507a073 .postImageUrl , .uf2368895c3aed40902f541007507a073 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .uf2368895c3aed40902f541007507a073 , .uf2368895c3aed40902f541007507a073:hover , .uf2368895c3aed40902f541007507a073:visited , .uf2368895c3aed40902f541007507a073:active { border:0!important; } .uf2368895c3aed40902f541007507a073 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .uf2368895c3aed40902f541007507a073 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .uf2368895c3aed40902f541007507a073:active , .uf2368895c3aed40902f541007507a073:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .uf2368895c3aed40902f541007507a073 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .uf2368895c3aed40902f541007507a073 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .uf2368895c3aed40902f541007507a073 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .uf2368895c3aed40902f541007507a073 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .uf2368895c3aed40902f541007507a073:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .uf2368895c3aed40902f541007507a073 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .uf2368895c3aed40902f541007507a073 .uf2368895c3aed40902f541007507a073-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .uf2368895c3aed40902f541007507a073:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Quantitative Methodology For Quantitative Research EssayYour swords are now too massy for your strengths,And will not be uplifted. that you three From Milan did supplant good Prospero: him and his innocent child (Act

Over the course of the nineteenth century inEuro Essays

Over the course of the nineteenth century inEuro Essays Over the course of the nineteenth century inEuropeandNorth America, urbanity came to be conceived as a personality trait. According to Richard Sennett (1974), public experience outside the private sphere of the home became an obligation for the self-development of men. Conversing in cafes or walking the busy streets, just like traveling, was a means to acquire sophistication and to become comfortable with diversity. Urbanity, cosmopolitanism, and sophistication were almost synonymous. For women, on the other hand, exploring the public sphere was considered immoral. Moving about the city alone and freely was associated with loose sexual behavior. It was in the sphere of the bourgeois home in the city that women acquired the manners and accent of urbanity. Present-day standards of politeness, such as the notion that each person has the right to be left alone when in public or norms on proper English and proper dress, were derived from the social control of the urban bourgeois home. Indeed, urbanity is often conceived as the cultural capital of higher social classes. As a personality trait, it is used for exclusion in jobs and for residential segregation. For instance, the speaking accent of youth living in the Frenchbanlieue(suburbs) acts as a serious barrier to employment in a discriminatory environment. In addition to their relegation in housing projects outside cities, these youths are not seen as endowed with enough urbanity and sophistication to work and they are often tagged with a lack of civility. For Pierre Bourdieu (1979), cultural capital provides people with a structure of predispositions transmitted by their family; urban, white, middle-class youth would thus be better equipped to succeed than their poor, suburban counterparts. There are three forms of cultural capital, each of them closely associated with the notion of urbanity. Firstly, embodied capital refers to investments in self-improvement; it is thus focused on urbanity as a personality trait that can be developed. Secondly, objectified cultural capital is represented by material objects such as a nice car or a house in a trendy neighborhood; it is thus closely related to the politics of space (who has the right to be in the city?). Thirdly, institutionalized cultural capital provides certain people with access to decision-making powers affecting everyday life in the city. As a personality trait enhanced by spatial practices and institutional power, urbanity is used as a means of exclusion. However, more and more voices are rising to claim other forms of urbanity that would not be linked to class and ethnicized cultural capital. This became particularly visible in the wake of the worldwide urban revolts of the late 1960s. Henri Lefebvre (1968) wrote then about the rights to the citythat is, the right to be in the city and to have decent living conditions, but also the right to define the codes and norms of social life in a manner closer to everyday practices than to technocratic power. In fact, according to Lefebvre (1970), after the agricultural, mercantilist, and industrial ages, we are now going through an urban revolution. This does not only mean that more than half of the world population lives in cities that cover more and more land, but also and mostly that the way we conceive of the world has become urban. For Lefebvre, personalities, economic behavior, spiritual beliefs, modes of social interaction, all aspects of human life have become urban. Urbanity, in this second definition, is not confined to a personality trait of the white middle class but is a general characteristic of the world since the 1970s. Even for peasants in a country of the"global south,"Lefebvre would argue, urbanity is part of their life, their values, and their mental schemes. In this sense, urbanity can be defined by a set of distinctive social characteristics, regardless of geographical location. Diversity of people, beliefs, and histories is the most important of these characteristics. Whether it is celebrated, commercialized, tolerated, or oppressed, diversity is a trait of urbanity that is very different from rurality (which is often associated with homogeneity). Other related characteristics of urbanity are speed, flows of people, information, and goods, and mobility, as well as concentration and density. Combined, these traits are sometimes seen as having pervasive effects, such as deviant behavior or alienation. Yet, the tenuous social bonds