Romeo And Juliet- Fate Essay example -- essays research papers

The events of Romeo and Juliet are heavily influenced by fate, as oppose to the actions of the characters. To be precise, occurrences in the play are not always as a result of conscience choices that characters make. Rather, chance occurrences (or predestination, depending on one’s opinion) cause events to take place; these events seriously alter the course of the play. Fate affects us all every single day, but the sheer number of occurrences related to fate, as well as the powerful affect these events have on the plot creates a specific connection between the play of Romeo and Juliet and fate.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Shakespeare makes it very clear to us that Romeo and Juliet are subject to fate. Before the play even begins, Shakespeare outlines the play for us in the prologue. The prologue summarizes the plot, this seems odd, but this was because Shakespeare’s audience was already familiar with the story and the play was a portrayal of the well-known story. Importantly, Shakespeare establishes immediately within the prologue that Romeo and Juliet’s plot includes heavy elements of fate. â€Å"A pair of star-crossed take their life.† (Shakespeare, Act 1 Prologue L.6) Shakespeare refers to Romeo and Juliet as â€Å"star-crossed†, referring to the belief of predestination (fate) and its connection with the constellations. Additionally, the prologue indicates a second time that the plot is influenced by fate; â€Å"The fearful passage of their death-marked love.† (Act 1 Prologue L.9) The love of Romeo and Juliet is â€Å"death-marked†, mea ning that it is destined to result in death. This evidence suggests that the tragedy occurs as a result of predestination instead of chance, but nonetheless, this is fate.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Fate has such a large roll in Romeo and Juliet that it influences not only the overall story, but also nearly every character in the play. Romeo is affected greatly by fate, arguably more so than any other character. Instances of Romeo being affected by fate abound in the play, from initial coincidences all the way up to his final dramatically ironic death. Romeo’s involvement with Juliet in the first place is based on fate. â€Å"God gi’ go-den. I pray, sir, can you read?† (Act 1 Sc.2 L.58) The illiterate servant that Romeo stumbles upon gives Romeo the opportunity to attend the Capulet party, if this incredibly unusual event had not taken place... ...nd Juliet happened as a result of their sin, â€Å"passion†. This opinion is also a valid interpretation of Shakespeare’s instances of fate in Romeo and Juliet.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Encyclopedia Britannica’s section on Shakespeare comments on this issue, backing up one of the opinions, â€Å"There has been some debate among modern historians as to Shakespeare’s religious affiliation, but it is widely accepted that he did not recognize as Calvinist and did not accept predestination. Divine reward and punishment explains Shakespeare’s infatuation with what seems like destiny in his plays. Romeo and Juliet’s tragic demise was due to their transgression, their ‘passion’.† (Encyclopedia Britannica, â€Å"Shakespeare†).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  However one accepts fate to be taking place in Romeo and Juliet, it is clear that certain events are taking place, and they aren’t as a result of direct conscience decisions by characters. These events of fate have immeasurable affect on the characters and story. Among the lessons of love and hate in this play, this message, that we are not always in control of what happens to us, is very important and relevant.

A Border Passage by Leila Ahmed

Leila Ahmed begins her autobiography, A Border Passage: From Cairo to America A Woman's Journey, â€Å"It was as if there were to life itself a quality of music,† immediately entrenching the spirit of her early life story in the senses, in instinct–the tools that, above all else, enable her and the reader to retrace her steps from curious, observant girl to introspective, self-determined woman.This story, however, is not only about Ahmed's self-discovery as a woman and feminist, but also about the sociopolitical and historical events that took place in Egypt during the 1940s and '50s. As a witness to her country's most dramatic period, from the end of British influence to the birth of Arab nationalism, Ahmed's childhood is permanently shaped by the loss of Egypt's multicultural and tolerant identity.Escaping a country she no longer recognizes, Ahmed is seemingly left with only her father's values of education, her mother's perspective on religion through the oral tradit ion, and the memories of past places and people that rise to the surface like oases by which to navigate a new world. This new world, surprisingly, is not without its own lack of tolerance, an experience that alters her preconceptions of Western civility.Though Ahmed does, at times, disturb the natural and sensual narrative of the work with clinical and academic passages (most are near the end of the novel), she rarely writes from a place of finality or total understanding, giving the impression that her journey as an Egyptian-American, Arab, and modern woman is far from over, if ever.Leila accounts a personal chronicle of her childhood in Egypt, education in England, and teaching in America. Being a competent and fine educator, she tempts with seemingly casual talk; it is only afterwards that it is realized how much she has given and how mesmerizing the voyage has been. She reports a large amount of Egyptian culture, customs, history and sociology.This also includes some background on the idea of â€Å"Arabness,† as well as a sparkling preface to the distinction between the Islam of men and the Islam of women. The portrayals of her grandmother's store will certainly ring the bells of memory with any Western woman who spent time listening to older women in the kitchen at family meetings. (Shereen, 2003)Woman has always been distinctly seen as a creative cause of human life. Traditionally, though, woman has been thought not only rationally subordinate to man but also a key source of appeal and sin. In Greek mythology, for instance, a woman, Pandora, opened the prohibited box and caused epidemics and sorrow to mankind. Ancient Roman law depicted woman as children, forever lower than man.In the East, initially, the behavior for woman was more encouraging. In Early Egypt, for instance, women were privileged by some property rights and personal freedoms after marriage, but obligated submission of women toward men.Wives had to walk behind their husbands. Wome n did not have the right to own property, and widows could not marry again. In East as well as West, male children have a preference over female children.On the other hand, when they were permitted personal and rational freedom, women made important accomplishments. Nuns played an important role in the devout life of Europe during the middle Ages. Aristocratic women benefited from authority and status. Whole eras were effected by women leaders for example, 16th century Queen Elizabeth of England, 18th century Catherine the Great of Russia, and 19th century Queen Victoria of England.Customarily a middle-class girl in Western society was inclined to be educated from her mother's pattern that cleaning, cooking, and caring for children were the deeds expected of her. Tests made in the 1960s proved that the scholastic success of girls was better in the lower classes than in higher education.The key cause given was that the girls' own hope declined as neither their relatives nor their tea chers want them to arrange for a future other than that of matrimony and parenthood. This propensity has been altering in last decades.Proper education for girls traditionally has been less important as compared to that for boys. In colonial America girls have separate schools for girls, where they could get education. They could go to the master's schools for boys if there was any room; this happened generally in summer time when majority of the boys worked.As the 19th century ended, the number of female students had improved significantly. Higher education specifically was widened by the increase of women's educational institutions and the entrance of women to colleges, institutions, and universities. In 1870 an estimated twenty percent of college and university students were females. By the advent of twentieth century the ratio had improved to over one third.By the beginning of the 20th century, 19 percent of all undergraduate college degrees were obtained by women. By the year 1 984 the number had penetratingly improved to 49 percent. The number of graduate students was also increased significantly. By the mid of 1980s women obtained 49 percent of all post-graduate degrees and around 33 percent of doctoral degrees. Women constituted up to 53 percent of all college students in the year 1985.Ahmed concentrates on how historical and political pressures formulate individual identities, specifically those of Arab Muslim women. Here, though, the theme is Ahmed's own individuality as an intellectual; a woman, a Muslim and an aristocracy Egyptian at home in both East and West. In graceful literary style, she narrates her childhood in Cairo, Egypt, her college years at Cambridge and of teaching in America and Abu Dhabi.In Ahmed's shaded depiction, politics are not the background to people's lives but their fashion. The internalization of colonial conducts, the 1952 revolt and Arab nationalism, persuade of Zionism, class issues, and the political affairs of gender fu nctions are embedded into her life and her near one. Most emotional is the conversion of Ahmed's contempt for her â€Å"traditional† Arabic-speaking mother, who spends her life with female relatives, into a consideration of how these women made logic of their lives.Certainly, all through this runny chronicle, she offensively refines the terms by which men â€Å"Western and Arab† have defined women through her own cross-cultural judgments of women's communities, as when she explains the Girton College (at Cambridge) for women as a ‘harem’ â€Å"the harem as I had lived it, the harem of older women presiding over the young.† (Ahmed, pg. 183)A Border Passage is not a usual memoir. It has many factors of an autobiography, but it is also a collection of well rational essays on some of the most complicated phases of the Egyptian history and culture.

U.S. President Mckinley Assassinated

On September 6, 1901, anarchist Leon Czolgosz walked up to U.S. President William McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition in New York and shot McKinley at point-blank range. After the shooting, it first appeared that President McKinley was getting better; however, he soon took a turn for the worse and died on September 14 from gangrene. The daylight assassination attempt horrified millions of Americans. Greeting People at the Pan-American Exposition On September 6, 1901, U.S. President William McKinley spent the morning visiting Niagara Falls with his wife before returning to the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York in the afternoon to spend a few minutes greeting the public. By about 3:30 p.m., President McKinley stood inside the Temple of Music building at the Exposition, ready to begin shaking the hands of the public as they streamed into the building. Many had been waiting for hours outside in the heat for their chance to meet the President. Unbeknownst to the President and the many guards who stood nearby, among those waiting outside was 28-year-old anarchist Leon Czolgosz who was planning to kill President McKinley. At 4 p.m. the doors to the building were opened and the mass of people waiting outside were forced into a single line as they entered the Temple of Music building. The line of people thus came up to the President in an organized fashion, with just enough time to whisper a Nice to meet you, Mr. President, shake President McKinleys hand, and then be forced to continue along the line and out the door again. President McKinley, the 25th president of the United States, was a popular president who had just started his second term in office and the people seemed clearly glad to get a chance to meet him. However, at 4:07 p.m. Leon Czolgosz had made it into the building and it was his turn to greet the President. Two Shots Rang Out In Czolgoszs right hand, he held a .32 caliber Iver-Johnson revolver, which he had covered by wrapping a handkerchief around the gun and his hand. Although Czolgoszs swaddled hand was noticed before he reached the President, many thought it looked like it covered an injury and not that it was hiding a gun. Also, since the day had been hot, many of the visitors to see the President had been carrying handkerchiefs in their hands so that they could wipe the sweat off their faces. When Czolgosz reached the President, President McKinley reached out to shake his left hand (thinking Czolgoszs right hand was injured) while Czolgosz brought up his right hand to President McKinleys chest and then fired two shots. One of the bullets didnt enter the president - some say it bounced off of a button or off the presidents sternum and then got tucked into his clothing. The other bullet, however, entered the presidents abdomen, tearing through his stomach, pancreas, and kidney. Shocked at being shot, President McKinley began to sag as blood stained his white shirt. He then told those around him, Be careful how you tell my wife. Those in line behind Czolgosz and guards in the room all jumped on Czolgosz and started to punch him. Seeing that the mob on Czolgosz might easily and quickly kill him, President McKinley whispered either, Dont let them hurt him or Go easy on him, boys. President McKinley Undergoes Surgery President McKinley was then whisked away in an electric ambulance to the hospital at the Exposition. Unfortunately, the hospital was not properly equipped for such a surgery and the very experienced doctor usually on premises was away doing a surgery in another town. Although several doctors were found, the most experienced doctor that could be found was Dr. Matthew Mann, a gynecologist. The surgery began at 5:20 p.m. During the operation, the doctors searched for the remains of the bullet that had entered the Presidents abdomen, but were unable to locate it. Worried that continued searching would tax the Presidents body too much, the doctors decided to discontinue looking for it and to sew up what they could. The surgery was completed a little before 7 p.m. Gangrene and Death For several days, President McKinley seemed to be getting better. After the shock of the shooting, the nation was excited to hear some good news. However, what the doctors did not realize was that without drainage, an infection had built up inside the President. By September 13 it was obvious the President was dying. At 2:15 a.m. on September 14, 1901, President William McKinley died of gangrene. That afternoon, Vice President Theodore Roosevelt was sworn in as President of the United States. The Execution of Leon Czolgosz After being pummeled right after the shooting, Leon Czolgosz had been arrested and taken to police headquarters before nearly being lynched by the angry crowds that surrounded the Temple of Music. Czolgosz readily admitted that he was the one who had shot the President. In his written confession, Czolgosz stated, I killed President McKinley because I done my duty. I didnt believe one man should have so much service and another man should have none. Czolgosz was brought to trial on September 23, 1901. He was quickly found guilty and sentenced to death. On October 29, 1901, Leon Czolgosz was electrocuted.