Examining The History And Influence Of Witch Trials

Every Witch Way: Examining the History and Influence of Witch Trials Witchcraft was a crime no one should want to be charged with. It was something people were afraid of, it was heinous, it was truly evil. In most communities, it was one of the worst crimes you could ever be accused of. Many countries no longer consider witchcraft to be a crime, although some countries such as Saudi Arabia and Uganda still consider it a serious offense even to this day. The focus of this piece, however, is to discuss how countries like England and Sweden handled witch trial cases, how that may have influenced the townspeople of Salem, and how some Salem trials worked. The English had been hearing witchcraft cases for centuries before Salem. But, to no surprise, it was very hard to actually prove anyone committed the crime. â€Å"The crime of witchcraft presented an especially excruciating challenge. It was regarded as one of the most heinous crimes, yet, being clandestine by nature, it was extremely difficult to prove. The scarcity of eyewitnesses and direct physical evidence highlighted the need for innovative mechanisms of proof† (Darr, p. 3). The secret nature of the crime itself makes it hard to prove, which is one of the reasons that no one could ever successfully accuse someone of witchcraft today with the modern judicial system. But the English had devised experiments and tests to determine someone’s guilt. Like most of the ways of attempting to pull out a confession in those days,Show MoreRelatedEvolution Of The Witch From Early American Literature1609 Words   |  7 PagesThe Evolution of the Witch from Early American Literature to Contemporary Film Over time there have been many different stories and adaptations about the monster that is the witch. From one folktale, to a book, to a movie there are slight differences that make each interpretation very unique. The stereotype is, people think that witches have green skin, big noses, and that they fly on brooms with pointy hats. However, if we completely examine the different texts such as The Conjuring or The CrucibleRead MoreThe Salem Witch Trials Of 16921281 Words   |  6 PagesThe Salem Witch Trials were a sequence of hearings, prosecutions, and hangings of people who were thought to be involved in witchcraft in Massachusetts. These trials occurred between February 1692 and May 1693(The Salem Witch Trials, 1692. ). The Trials resulted in the execution of twenty people, in fact, most of them were women. The first of the trials began in several towns in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, such as Salem Village (currently known as Danvers), Salem Town, Ipswich, and Andover(S alemRead MoreSalem Witch Trials And Religious Superstition1411 Words   |  6 PagesSalem to emerge into a period of witch cleansing. Mostly, the people of Salem were Puritans who found many different reasons to accuse one of being a witch. The start of the witch trials began in 1692 and ended in 1693 by Governor Phips; whose wife was prosecuted as a witch. These Salem Witch Trials began by religious superstition, the appearance of the perceived witch, and through torture and forced confessions. Mainly, the motivation of the Salem Witch Trials were due to strong Puritan religionRead MoreAnalysis Of The Book The Devil On The Shape Of A Woman By Carol Karlsen Essay1637 Words   |  7 PagesConversely, Carol Karlsen who was a Professor of History and Women’s Studies at the University of Michigan had a different take on the trials. Karlsen wrote The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England in 1987, a book examining the role of women in the Salem Witch Trials. Karlsen was â€Å"concerned with the meaning of witchcraft for New England’s first settlers†¦ and why most witches in early American society were women.† Karlsen obviously felt that there was a disparity ofRead MoreThe Salem Witch Trials Essay1614 Words   |  7 Pagesbath that was the Salem Witch Trials, but what not many know is what caused it and how it affected Americans throughout History. In the summer of 1692, it all started. A couple of Puritans thought that their daughters were being influenced by the Devil, but what they did not know is what the doctor said would affect the whole town, and eve their ancestors. Thesis: Many peaceful years after the Puritans’ journey to the new world, trouble arose through the Salem Witch Trials by what happened, what causedRead MoreEssay on Historiography of the Salem Witch Trials2631 Words   |  11 PagesThe changing historiography of the Salem Witch Persecutions of 1692. How current/contemporary and historical interpretations of this event reflect the changing nature of historiography. The number of different interpretations of the Salem Witch Trials illustrates that historiography is ever changing. The historians, Hale, Starkey, Upham, Boyer and Nissenbaum, Caporal, Norton and Mattosian have all been fascinated by the trials in one way or another because they have all attempted to prove orRead More Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow Essay3225 Words   |  13 PagesComparing Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow with Washington Irving’s â€Å"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow† In examining Washington Irving’s â€Å"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow† alongside Tim Burton’s film adaption of the story, titled â€Å"Sleepy Hollow,† a number of fascinating similarities and differences emerge. Though elements of the characters and settings of Burton’s film borrow heavily from Irving’s text, the overall structuring of the film is significantly different, and representations of various elementsRead MoreImages Of Witchcraft During Renaissance Culture2230 Words   |  9 Pagesinfluenced created the witch, and the imagery, which came to be associated with witchcraft. The 1486 Malleus Maleficarum set up the precedent for the witchcraft craze, which came to its prime in the mid 16th century, during the Renaissance period. Though the Malleus was not the only factor in this craze, as Margaret Sullivan notes, ‘it made no discernable impact†¦ for nearly half a century’ , it, with a number of other social factors, provided a wealth of information to witch hunts and hunters. ThisRead MoreHistory and Evidences of Witchcraft Around the World and the Philippines2135 Words   |  9 PagesHistory of Witchcraft Little was it known for us people living in the 21st Century that witchcraft has a vast and long history. Witches were hated and avoided at. They have been accused of casting evil spells for which they have faced trials that condemned them their deaths. In the Middle Ages to the 1700’s, in accordance with buzzle.com, in which they have stated in their website, â€Å"Starting from around 700 A.D., this practice [witchcraft] was viewed more and more as heresy, or the rejection ofRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare And Tolstoy s War And Peace1762 Words   |  8 Pagesreception to the many time periods of history that had otherwise been forgotten and abandoned, and also to many that are heavily documented but rarely looked upon. However, with the need for a fascinating story to sell to the audiences some of the historical fact is being obscured in the process, thus causing a lack of respect between authors and historians. In this essay, I will be exploring the relationship to literature from both historians and authors, also examining their own beliefs on what defines

The Storm By Kate Chopin - 869 Words

Going against your beliefs is something that touches everyone in some way. It may be something as small as not listening to your gut or something as large as infidelity. This is especially true in Kate Chopin’s short story, â€Å"The Storm.† Calixta went outside of her marriage for a sexual affair with Alcà ©e when he unexpectedly showed up and a storm came through. The three most prominent literary elements that were addressed in â€Å"The Storm† were foreshadowing, symbolism, and setting. First, there is foreshadowing in the story. Bae and Young agree that foreshadowing is when a story implies that something will happen in the future without saying it (1). In â€Å"The Storm,† an example of this is on the first page, â€Å"As she stepped outside, Alcà ©e Laballià ©re rode in at the gate. She had not seen him very often since her marriage, and never alone† (Chopin). The fact that the two haven’t been alone since she was married was a bit worrisome. Since, they haven’t been together that means that someone was most likely worried that something between them might go to far. With her husband not being there because he was at the shop with her child there was no one to stop her from taking the rekindling too far. Also, they haven’t seen each other in quite a while because Calixta got married, which can infer that the two have a past and that past was romantic. Secondly, there is symbolism in the story. Symbolism is when you use an object to represents something with deeper meaning (Symbolism -Show MoreRelatedThe Storm by Kate Chopin1332 Words   |  6 Pages The first thing I noticed about Kate Chopin’s â€Å"The Storm,† is that it is utterly dripping with sexual imagery and symbolism. Our heroine, if you will, seems to be a woman with normally restrained passions and a well-defined sense of propriety, who finds herself in a situation that tears down her restraint and reveals the vixen within. I wonder if it was intentional that the name Calixta makes me think of Calypso – the nymph from Greek mythology. If half of the sexual symbolism I found in thisRead MoreThe Storm by Kate Chopin1238 Words   |  5 PagesKate Chopin is writing so many great stories about whatever she sees. Kate has many Wonderful stories such as, (The Storm, Desiree’s Baby, A Pair of Silk Stocking, A Respectable Woman, and The Story of an Hour). There is one story in particular that catches my mind which is â€Å"The Storm†. 0In Kate chopins era, women are seen as nothing more than a wife and have to stay with their husband for life. Chopin shows a dramatic scene between Alcee and Calixta during the time of a storm that is passing byRead MoreThe Storm By Kate Chopin844 Words   |  4 Pages Kate Chopin writes a short story named â€Å"The storm.† The plot of the story where the author shows two married couples, a total of five people and two of them have an affair. We can see a woman who is a mother, a lover and a wife and her different reaction while performing each one of the different roles. After the storm the characters seem to reveal hidden aspects of them. The story begins when Bobinot and his son Bibi are at Fregheimer’s store and decide to stay there due to a storm that is comingRead MoreThe Storm By Kate Chopin Essay1508 Words   |  7 Pages Kate Chopin was an American author who wrote the short story â€Å"The Storm†. It takes place somewhere down in Louisiana at a general store and at the house of Calixta, Bobinot who is the wife of Calixta, and their son Bibi. The other character in the story is the friend of Calixta, Alcee Laballiere. The story begins with Bobinot and Bibi in the general store to buy a can of shrimp; meanwhile, at home, Calixta is at home doing chores when a storm develops, which makes her worry about Bobinot and BibiRead MoreThe Storm By Kate Chopin1205 Words   |  5 Pagesmain character, Calixta, is interrelated with the setting of the story, â€Å"The Storm† by Kate Chopin. In â€Å"The Storm†, setting plays the role as a catalyst that ignites Alcee’s and Calixtaâ€⠄¢s passion that then runs parallel with the storm. As their relationship builds together, Calixta’s natural desires become fulfilled; which without an outlet on the ability to express our emotions and natural desires, conflicts and storms result in our lives. In the beginning of the story, Calixta is very much intoRead MoreThe Storm By Kate Chopin1649 Words   |  7 Pageslike writers in present day, Kate Chopin was a writer who wrote to reflect obstacles and instances occurring within her time period. Writing about personal obstacles, as well as issues occurring in the time period she lived, Chopin proved to be distinctive upon using her virtue. Kate Chopin was a determined individual, with true ambition and ability to produce writings that reflected women on a higher pedestal than they were valued in her time. â€Å"The Storm† by Kate Chopin is a short story written toRead MoreThe Storm By Kate Chopin851 Words   |  4 Pagesâ€Å"The Storm† by Kate Chopin was written in 1899 but was not published until several years later. She understood how daring her piece was and never shared â€Å"The Storm† with anyone. Chopin was born in 1851 to a wealthy father and an aristocratic mother. At the age of nineteen, she married and moved to Louisiana with her husband, Oscar. Chopin is known for writing realistic but sexually rich literature. Her short story â€Å"The Storm† conveys sex as a joyous part of her life and not a destructive one. Read MoreKate Chopin s The Storm Essay1339 Words   |  6 Pagesfamous writer Kate Chopin once said, â€Å"The voice of the sea speaks to the soul.† The Awakening, (1899). Kate Chopin was widely recognized as one of the leading writers of her time. She was an American author of short stories and novels. She was born on February 08, 1850 in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. She died on August 22, 1904, in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Written in 1898 but not published until it appeared in The Complete Works of Kate Chopin in 1969, The Storm has been widelyRead MoreThe Storm By Kate Chopin1221 Words   |  5 PagesI also disagreed with â€Å"The Storm† by Kate Chopin, because it suggested that it is possible to be with more than one person at any given point. To me, love is trust, and without trust, love is nonexistent. Marriage is a commitment, a promise to be both trusting and trustful. To betray that agreement is not to love. Calixata expresses â€Å"n othing but satisfaction at their safe return† (727) and this reader has to wonder how she cannot feel guilt. Alcee wrote a â€Å"loving letter† to his wife, and this readerRead MoreKate Chopin s The Storm883 Words   |  4 PagesBasically, the setting in the short story of Kate Chopin ‘The Storm’ presents a clear demonstration of an illicit but a romantic love affair. Indeed, the title has been used perfectly to signify the adulterous love affair. Most importantly, it is evident that the storm has not been used as a mere coincidence but instead it has been used to steer the story and the affair forward. In fact, the storm has been significant during the start of the story, during its peak and ultimately in the end. Although

Troubled Youth Today Free Essays

Youth today are dramatically different than the youth just fifteen years ago. Styles, schooling, resistance, and especially consequences have changed a lot. Children can no longer come home after school with a note from the teacher and receive a lashing with dad’s belt. We will write a custom essay sample on Troubled Youth Today or any similar topic only for you Order Now No longer can they wear the dunce hat in class when misbehaving. Though this is a good thing, it has become much harder for parents to control and maintain their children. In â€Å"Children Should Be Seen Not Heard† by Gill Valentine, a single mother states, â€Å"I think children are allowed to get away with more because we’re so frightened of Social Services†¦they know there’s nothing you can do to stop it. † Without consequence children’s behaviors are going much farther down the â€Å"wrong† road then parents know how to handle. In light of this, now more than ever, drastic measures have been taken to help children. There are youth help centers where parents can send their children to receive the help they need to return to a more level headed state of being. In an article written by Bruce R Schackmann, it was stated that, â€Å"only one in ten adolescents who need treatment actually receives help. † Some of these programs are not as strict, and the child only goes in a few times a week for sessions. Other residential treatment centers are for a month or two, while the most extreme residential centers for youth are over one year long. Since this has become quite a popular trend for parents to do, there is more and more research showing the outcomes of these children and if it actually helped. For parent’s to really understand what their child needs they need to know if strict institutes or more loose help centers are more productive with enhancing and helping the youth’s individual and family life. There are pros and cons to each type of center. A residential treatment center, also known as an RTC is similar to Therapeutic Boarding Schools (TBS) with the exception of how long the program lasts, the intensity of the therapy, and the educational component involved. At Risk Teen-Residential Treatment Centers website). The RTC’s provide much more verbal contact with the family and physical family involvement. Usually in these types of facilities there are less rules, which helps the students to build closer friendship-like relationships with the staff, which can overall help the outcome of the student. The child is learning new things during every session and gets to practice his or her new knowledge within just a few weeks sometimes even hours. This gives the student the ability to test what they have learned and come back to the program to share how it went and work on how to make it better. There tends not to be as much resistance at these shorter, sometimes non-residential centers, which leads to less resentment being built up against the institute. Students at these types of programs have the ability to think for themselves. They are given a type of structure to follow, usually in the form of a certain amount of steps, however it is up to them how to succeed and progress through these steps to the end. Chris Conner from The Spot said, â€Å"discipline may not always be helpful because then the student cannot develop who they are by themselves and they won’t be able to really take their life into their own hands and create their own structure. † Another perk of these programs is that they tend to be less expensive. This allows students of lower class to be able to participate in the RTC services. â€Å"Positive outcomes for youth in RTC’s are [mainly] associated with stays that are relatively shorter, include family involvement, and involve aftercare. † (Brenda D. Smith) Though there seem to be many pros, there are also a few cons. Because the students are there for such a short time period it is easier for them to skim by, or fake what they are doing. Also they might not hold onto the information they have learned as deeply as a longer program. This can cause the students of shorter programs to relapse sooner than longer programs. In Teenage Wasteland by Donna Gaines a boy â€Å"was arrested for drunk driving and entered a rehab program. For a while he dried out, and then he tried getting his life in order. Things started to look up for him†¦but that didn’t last. † (The Kids In The Basement) The longer programs known as TBS’s have many pros and cons as well. Unlike RTC’s they tend to be over a year in length, which means they are residential and away from the family. There is limited communication with the family as well as limited physical contact. There is a loss of connection to the outside world, which can cause a student to build extreme resentment against the program. The therapeutic aspect of these programs is extremely intense and can be hard for such young students to deal with. â€Å"They try to discipline your whole life, to embarrass you out of being yourself, they put you on a routine, to make you normal†¦this structured pproach can be harmful to some extent. More often it gets abused. † (Teenage Wasteland-The Rock). After having stayed at a program away from your family, friends, and society for so long the student usually has the urge to break free when they get out. Unhealthy ways of rebellion are often seen among these youth. This can be seen in disobeying one’s parents, skipping classes again, and can mean â€Å"joints, beers, liquor, and if it’s a good night maybe something a little stronger-coke, dust, crack. † (Teenage Wasteland-Us and Them). The children who go to these programs are pretty equal when it comes to gender. One has to be in the middle to upper middle class to be able to afford the price of these programs which can range from â€Å"around $2,100 per month and can climb to $8,000 a month. † (At Risk Teen-Residential Treatment Centers website). Some pros of the long term program are that because they are longer the student has the chance and time to really work on their issues with the help of much more intensive therapy than an RTC. Instead of having to leave school for a month or two at these programs there is schooling offered to help the students to not fall too far behind and even catch up if they were behind. Though the structure can be seen as harmful at times, it also teaches the students the importance of structure in their lives and not just being a wild spontaneous party animal. The staff and students have more time to create bonds that can be lifelong along with student-student relationships. Having relationships with the people where you are living helps one to feel more at home and they have a better chance of becoming more open and letting people in emotionally to help them. Because of these aspects of longer programs they tend to have a very good outcome. The youth who are being sent to these programs are coming from all different backgrounds of race, gender, and class in particular. These youth tend to be children who have either not had enough rules growing up or too many, and they have found their own ways to resist society, especially in the face of their parents, and have been sent to these places to get help. Family life has changed dramatically along with our society and culture. â€Å"In the 1950’s, it [smoking cigarettes] was a mark of juvenile delinquency for boys, trampiness for girls. † (Teenage Wasteland-Us And Them). Now a child smoking a cigarette is one of the smaller worries of a parent. With drugs becoming so popular, affordable, and easily accessible, this trend has hit almost every youth sub-culture. It is a way for the youth to rebel from their parents and society, while gaining acceptance from their peers. With our culture having changed so much recently, especially in the last twenty to forty years, the youth has become extremely peer oriented. â€Å"Wherever they have been taught to look for good, they find evil. Families are falling apart, and the papers are full of atrocities perpetuated by adults on kids. (Teenage Wasteland-This is Religion I). It is becoming harder and harder for the youth to come home to their families to talk to them about the eighth graders picking on them at lunch time, when they are traveling between their father’s house and their mother’s house on alternate Tuesdays, every other soccer game, and every third weekend. The newspapers and shows are showing that is it dangerous for children to be alone on the street or any further than a block or two away from home, and â€Å"consequently, boys and girls increasingly are having their activities formally organized and timetabled. (Children Should Be Seen Not Heard, Gill Valentine). This type of lifestyle is very overwhelming for children. To have some sort of a release the child usually begins to spend more and more time with their friends to avoid the family life. Along with this, to really deepen the avoidance tactic, the child usually starts to use drugs of some sort. The burden of homework and being embarrassed to go to class because one is unprepared can be overwhelming enough for a child to start skipping classes, and in time drop out all together. The youth at these programs can be involved in the punk scene, the gangster scene, and the hippie scene, and all be going through these same issues. The youth are just finding their own way and different sub-cultures to associate with to avoid their own lives. When the youth get sent to these programs their sub-culture is completely torn apart and they are forced to create a new one with all of the other students at the program. This can actually be very healthy. When I was sent to my wilderness program I was stuck in the middle of Duchesne, Utah with five other girls. I had no choice but to be-friend these girls no matter if they looked different and acted different than me. This was the first step in helping me to step away from judgment. When I got to my TBS in Heron, Montana, I was given a sort of uniform and my make-up, music, and pictures from home were all taken from me. Everyone was shed of their outer appearance that they based friendship off of at home. Girls had to have their hair up at all times with no bangs or hair in their faces. Boys had to have short hair and wear belts at all times. We weren’t even allowed to talk about what type of music we listened to at home, to fully extinguish the images that we all had had. This really helped me to make friends with everybody and grow as a less judgmental person. The rules we were given were extremely strict. We were told they were not called rules but â€Å"agreements†. We were agreeing to live by this standard, and ironically we were being forced to say â€Å"agreements† and if we said rule we were punished. I had fifteen-minute phone calls with my parents every two weeks and was not allowed to talk to any other family members except for them. As time went one I was awarded privileges to be able to write my sister and grandparents letters and it wasn’t until I had been at the program for 18 months that I was allowed to use the phone to call my sister for 10 minutes every two weeks. Punishments included things such as doing extra chores, dishes, digging, weeding, shoveling snow, and the worst was digging a stump out of the ground. I had four stumps during both winters I was there. Extremely low temperatures and feeling sick were not taken into account when a child had broken a rule. I was ostracized three times during my 23-month stay. When I first got there I was not allowed to talk to anybody for one week. And then the two times I got in major trouble I was not allowed to talk to any other students. I was also not allowed to talk to any of the staff or teachers there except for my personal therapist, family therapist, and headmaster. I was forced to sit in the back of the dining hall facing the wall at all times. I was shamed and guilt tripped and I believe this to be an incredibly unhealthy technique to use with growing youth. The children who went to The Rock in Teenage Wasteland by Donna Gaines were very similar to me. Most of them were diagnosed with a disorder called ED, emotionally disturbed. Most kids going to the TBS or RTC programs today are diagnosed with either ADD, ADHD, or ODD. ODD stands for Oppositional Defiant Disorder. It has become prevalent since corporal punishment has become illegal. Most kids who went to The Rock had been given up on by the faculty at their other schools, and this was the only place for them. When I left home no one had given up on me as a person, they had given up on trying to control me and help me. Everyone supported me and wanted me to become healthy again. They sent me away because they loved me and that was what I needed. The kids who go to The Spot, in downtown Denver Colorado, are children with seemingly similar backgrounds. They have probably been given up on, or have given up on themselves. They have this help center to go to with not many rules, but that can really help them to lead a healthier and more successful life. I am similar to these youth because before I had gotten sent away I was no longer living at home. I was sleeping couch to couch and sometimes sitting on curbs until two in the morning when someone could sneak me into their house. I had given up on myself and was harming my own body with drugs and had stopped going to school all together. I feel that the homeless youth who are going to The Spot are taking the initiative to help themselves, however I feel that there might not be quite enough structure or help services for them to really start working on their life and turning it around. There needs to be a place with an amount of structure between a TBS/RTC and youth help centers such as The Spot and the YMCA. In general the youth who are homeless and attending the spot and the youth who are so out of control they are being sent to these residential treatment center can tell us a lot about the general youth in the United States today. â€Å"In contemporary Western societies we are witnessing a decay in childhood as a separate category and that the distinction between children and adults is becoming increasingly blurred. † (Seabrook, 1987). There is an incredible amount of resistance among the youth of the U. S. today towards the â€Å"norm†. Youth are being oppressed by the different laws that are placed on them, the inability to hang out in certain public spaces, and the overall mindset that we are hormonal and crazy teens. The youth are resisting this oppression by breaking the rules, by taking drugs, skipping classes, and hanging out and skateboarding in places where it is printed â€Å"not allowed†. However, through this resistance we are proving that the adults are extremely correct. The youth are beginning to gain more and more power out of this resistance mostly due to corporal punishment being illegal. Parents are being watched very closely to see that their children are not being abused. It has become very hard for parents to discipline their children, with the fear that any wrong move and their own child, neighbor, or passer-by could call Child Protective Services on them. It is very important for these youth to be studied because we are the future of this nation, of this world. Some of these children are being treated in unnecessary and unfair ways that can be economically harmful to the family, and in some cases can emotionally pull the family apart due to lack of communication. The population of the children going through these processes is becoming larger and larger by the year. If the adults of the society could start to look at what they are doing that could be helping to cause this â€Å"loss† of children in our communities, things could really start to change for the better. It seems as if â€Å"parents have become ‘overeducated. ’ But instead of becoming sensitive or acting rationally, they get hyper alert to ‘signs’ of ‘drug problem. ’ They start reading pathology into every little thing their kid does. † (Teenage Wasteland-The Rock). Give the children a chance to be themselves. As much as a child might yell when they hear that who they are is just â€Å"phase†, it usually is true, it is a â€Å"phase†. Let your children make mistakes and learn from them. Be there for them all the time to love them and to help teach them right from wrong. Try to understand and listen to them rather than preach from our own childhood. The gap between youth and adults will become much closer if we all begin to listen and love. BIBLIOGRAPHY Gaines, Donna. 1991. Teenage Wasteland: Suburbia’s Dead End Kids. New York: Harper Perennial Valentine, Gill. 1996. Urban Geography. Children Should Be Seen and Not Heard: The Production and Transgression of Adults’ Public Space. 205-220 Website: Residential Treatment Centers: http://www. selectown. com/oppositional-defiant-disorder. php Copyright 2004 Website: Residential Treatment Centers: http://www. selectown. com/residential-treatment-centers. php Copyright 2004 Interview with Chris Conner from The Spot Seabrook, Jeremy, 1987. The Decay Of Childhood. News Statesman. 10 July, 14-15 Schackman, Bruce R. , Erick G. Rojas, Jeremy Gans, Mathea Falco, and Robert B. Millman. â€Å"Does higher cost mean better quality? evidence from highly-regarded adolescent drug treatment programs. (Short Report). † Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy 2. 23 (July 31, 2007): 23. Academic OneFile. Gale. University of Denver. Smith, Brenda D. , David E. Duffee, Camela M. Steinke, Yufan Huang, and Heather Larkin. â€Å"Outcomes in residential treatment for youth: The role of early engagement. (Report). † Children and Youth Services Review 30. 12 (Dec 2008): 1425(12). Academic OneFile. Gale. University of Denver. How to cite Troubled Youth Today, Papers

The Tragic Character Of Blanche Dubois Essay free essay sample

, Research Paper A Streetcar Named Desire To province the obvious, a tragic agent is one that is the topic of a tragic event or go oning. In A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche Dubois is this agent. She experiences legion things, and has certain kineticss that solidify her tragic elements. Many litterateurs describe these elements and they give clear constructs of her tragic nature. Aristotle has written of many qualities one must hold in order to suit in the # 8220 ; tragic # 8221 ; class. First, Aristotle contends that a tragic agent must be # 8220 ; of the aristocracy # 8221 ; . Now this is non to state that Blanche is of a royal descent, although she acts like it, but it has been interpreted as # 8220 ; one who is of a baronial cause or purpose # 8221 ; . Contrary to the manner it seems Blanche enters her sister # 8217 ; s place with a selfish, but baronial action. She is at that place to # 8220 ; acquire back on her pess # 8221 ; , even though she doesn # 8217 ; t state her hosts this. This is one of the grounds she fits Aristotle # 8217 ; s description. Second, Blanche has the four parts of a tragic character that Aristotle lays out. She is good. Good in the sense that what she says and does is done with strong belief and careful pick. Blanche is appropriate. Her character exhibits the natural wants and demands of a adult female in her temperament. Besides, she is realistic. In stating she is realistic, it means that she, as a whole, is presented in a manner that is non incredible. Last, Blanche is consistent. Throughout the class of the drama, she continues toward the same end. Her consistent quality lies in her insatiate appetency for attending among other things. Aristotle # 8217 ; s 3rd point lies in Blanche # 8217 ; s # 8220 ; inevitable reversal # 8221 ; . Through the scenes, the witness learns of her bad repute as being slightly of a # 8220 ; slut # 8221 ; . Soon, one learns that she has come to her sister # 8217 ; s topographic point to get down f resh and rid herself of a foul life style. Her reversal comes when her sister # 8217 ; s hubby, Stanley, all of a sudden rapes her. Though all this clip Blanche sought a smooth and new sexual life style, she one time once more engages in a sexual aberrance. These three things are what make Aristotle # 8217 ; s tragic agent a truth in Tennessee Williams # 8217 ; drama. As if Blanche DuBois hadn # 8217 ; t embodied sufficiency of one # 8217 ; s thought of a tragic agent, Arthur Schopenhauer finds more qualities in her that farther the disposition that she was meant for calamity. Schopenhauer alludes to two chief thoughts that Blanche applies to. The first being that of desire. Desire brought Blanche to Elysian William claude dukenfields in two ways: literally on a tram named Desire, and conceptually as an flight from past horrors and the privation to seek a better life. Desire is the 1 frailty that Schopenhauer believes is the end-all be-all devastation of an agent. Equally long as one continues to hold desires, T hat agent will go on down his or her way of inevitable devastation. Which brings him to the following point: Resignation. Resignation is the act of â€Å"cutting off† all desires one might hold. It is a concluding action one completes when they wholly cleanse themselves of their greedy desires. Blanche does this in her last line, â€Å"Whoever you are – I have ever depended on the kindness of strangers.† In the last scene, Blanche has continued to gull herself and try to gull others by stating narratives of Shep Huntleigh coming to take her on a sail. She evidently has non resigned the fact that she has nowhere to travel, and her desire to set up a new repute has non disappeared. When she sees the doctor’s, she is relentless and refuses to travel. It is merely when the physician begins to walk her off from the place that she says her celebrated line, and therefore resigns from her old frailties. Many think that a surrender address must hold great drawn-out and prolixity to it, but in this instance, it is summed up briefly. In Arthur Miller # 8217 ; s sentiment, Blanche DuBois was merely every bit susceptible to a tragic terminal than anyone else. Miller believed that Aristotle # 8217 ; s thought of a character holding to be # 8220 ; of aristocracy # 8221 ; was an mistake. Furthermore, Miller # 8217 ; s position is that any common adult male or adult female, such as Blanche, is a victim of himself or herself, in that one # 8217 ; s repute and self-respect is what is the ultimate cause of their calamity. He goes on to state that every tragic character is seeking to procure them a topographic point in the universe. Their thought of rightfulness and personal self-respect is what encases their tragic nature. Basically, Arthur Miller wrote his a position down harmonizing to what he believed was a misconception by Aristotle. Blanche so had these two features. She was a common adult female, of no particular or royal heritage. She besides was driven to Elysian William claude dukenfields in order to procur e herself some new repute, so that she could walk with some self-respect. In my personal sentiment, I felt that Schopenhauer had the clearest description of Blanche # 8217 ; s character. The sarcasm of the rubric in comparing with Schopenhauer # 8217 ; s thought of desire being a load was excessively great for me to disregard. I think Williams chose his words really carefully, and he named that tram Desire for a ground. In this sense, Schopenhauer seems to hold the most accurate position on this drama. If I were making the drama, particular attending would be brought to Blanche # 8217 ; s changeless ignorance of her grounds for sing. I think this would be helpful in understanding her secret desires and would finally lend to the overall apprehension of her enigma. I besides find great importance in her last line, as said before, and would do certain that the witness understood that Blanche DuBois had eventually changed.