Shooting Stars - Carol Ann Duffy Essay - 1122 Words

Shooting Stars The poem Shooting Stars by Carol Ann Duffy tells a shocking story of a female prisoner held by Nazis in a concentration camp around the time of the Holocaust. The poem is set in 1940, Hitler and his Nazi party had taken control of most of Europe and had vowed to exterminate the entire Jewish race. Duffys haunting use of imagery and word choice make this poem so memorable and its very strong opening prepares the reader for the rest of the poem. The title choice, Shooting Stars is a very effective and ambiguous title. The first meaning is that the word Stars represent the Jewish symbol, The Star of David. Jewish people were forced to wear them on their clothes to mark them out as targets of abuse and torment for†¦show more content†¦The word gaze shows that these men are detached from their emotions as they are part of a mass slaughtering which seems hard to believe that that is humanly possible. Duffy then uses the literary technique, enjambment to combine the first and second stanzas. This technique is used to emphasize the point, Mourn for the daughters / upright as statues and carry the impact through the two stanzas. Duffy shows how the women are stood firm and even in the most humiliating, de-humanised state. You would not look at me. / You waited for the bullet the woman is looking out for her friend as they are waiting to be killed. For the woman to be faced with death and looking out for her friend shows the incredibly selfless personality of the Jews. The following single word line, Fell is a euphemism for the death of the woman and gives a strong, short impact to the reader and acts like a literary bullet which is literally the object which killed her. Duffy tells us to Remember these appalling days which make the world forever bad. She gives the word Remember a capital letter to emphasize the fact that we should not forget what happened there. Duffy believes that if the memory of this atrocity stays in our memory, we can avoid any other mass, human-caused disaster to reoccur. Enjambment is once again used to link stanzas two and three. One saw I was alive. Loosened / his belt. This technique is usedShow MoreRelatedCarol Ann Duffy Shooting Stars1107 Words   |  5 PagesCarol Ann Duffy’s poem ‘Shooting Stars’ is a poem in which human suffering is effectively portrayed. Duffy uses the situation of Nazi persecution of the Jewish people to underline this. Duffy’s use of an ambiguous title, together with her imagery effectively explores this theme of human suffering. The poem’s title ‘Shooting Stars’ creates a sense of ambiguity. The general connotations applied to this phrase are that of a falling star or perhaps the beauty and brightness of fireworks. HoweverRead MoreShooting Stars by Carol Ann Duffy Critical Essay1635 Words   |  7 Pages------------------------------------------------- Shooting Stars By Carol Ann Duffy ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- â€Å"Shooting Stars† is a horrific and moving poem written by Carol Ann Duffy. She adopts the persona of a female Jew speaking out from beyond the grave about her terrifying ordeal before she died in the Holocaust. A powerful impression is left on the reader after reading Duffy’s dramatic monologue and visual descriptionsRead MoreEssay about A Tragic Event in Shooting Stars by Carol Ann Duffy1311 Words   |  6 Pagesread that deals with a tragic event is Shooting Stars by Carol Ann Duffy. This poem is explaining the hardships that the Jews faced during Hitlers reign in World War II. This poem is set during the Holocaust in one of the many concentration camps. It describes the pains and suffering that they Jews had to face up to but many more other innocent people were suffering as well because one person wanted to annihilate them. The title of the poem is Shooting Stars. Ive analyzed it and come up with aRead MoreShooting Stars Analysis Carol Ann Duffyt1433 Words   |  6 PagesShooting Star – Carol Ann Duffy The poem Shooting Stars by Carol Ann Duffy tells a shocking story of a female prisoner held by Nazis in a concentration camp around the time of the Holocaust. The poem is set in 1940, Hitler and his Nazi party had taken control of most of Europe and had vowed to exterminate the entire Jewish race. Duffys haunting use of imagery and word choice make this poem so memorable and its very strong opening prepares the reader for the rest of the poem. TheRead MoreFeminism Critical Anthology1502 Words   |  7 Pagesof Delilah and Anne Hathaway. In The World’s Wife Carol Ann Duffy explores ‘the blinding effects of ideology’; the inequalities between men and women, and how women are portrayed in literature which stereotypically would be either the ‘dangerous seductress’, ‘cute but essentially helpless’, ‘unworldly’ or the ‘self-sacrificing angel’ as stated by Bertens. Feminists stress the utmost concern towards gender divisions in society and although Duffy portrays this division I do not agree that The World’sRead MoreHuman Corruption depicts the abandoning of societal norms and values for an unfair advantage or for1100 Words   |  5 PagesPhotographer’ by Carol Ann Duffy similarly puts readers in the shoes of the photographer who spends his occupation alternating between two contrasting countries and situations. ‘Mother in a Refugee Camp’ is about the struggle of a mother holding her dying son in her hands for the last time suggesting the inevitability of death. The ideas conveyed in the three main poems are supported by the secondary poems: Adrienne Rich’s â€Å"Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers†, Maya Angelou’s ‘Still I rise’ and Carol Ann Duffy’s ‘ShootingRead MoreCritical Response of Duff and Pugh Essay1358 Words   |  6 PagesCritical Response Carol Ann-Duffy Sheenagh Pugh are both strongly opinionated politically – many of their poems are charged with a scornful, impassioned energy directed toward the Thatcherite days, resenting years of economic deprivation ruin of many young lives in their generation – this sets the basis for a general distaste for politicians, illustrated in Duffy’s parody of parliament ‘Weasel Words’, mocking the meaningless socio-jargon that MPs use to wriggle and slither their way out ofRead MoreCarol Ann Duffys Anne Hathaway Poem Essay1515 Words   |  7 Pagesmust first analyse the quote from Shakespeares will, before addressing the poem itself, as Carol Ann Duffy has drawn our attention to it. Whether you acknowledge it or not I gyve unto my wife my second best bed is a powerful sentence, it screams indistinguishable volumes. These were the last words of comfort to a widow, someone who had spent their life loving a man that was no longer there and Duffy understood that. So, instead of formulating a poem that discredited a marriage that sculptedRead MoreMyths And Fairytales : The Bloody Chamber And `` The Worlds Wife ``2194 Words   |  9 Pagesstill form the bedrock of both literary history and cultural consciousness. As Duffy quotes â€Å"a part in our literary DNA.† (from the interview i listened too need to find it to refernce) Yet in most fairytales, such as disney, the works of Perrault, or Grimm, the tales remain governed by an archaic ideology, that do not represent the progressed gender equality of both 20th and 21st century auiences. Both Carter, and Duffy utilise this stigmatised genre to reflect the empowerment of women; the worksRead MoreStephen P. Ro bbins Timothy A. Judge (2011) Organizational Behaviour 15th Edition New Jersey: Prentice Hall393164 Words   |  1573 PagesSouthern Adventist University Scott Campbell, Francis Marion University Elena Capella, University of San Francisco ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xxxi Don Capener, Monmouth University Dan Caprar, University of Iowa David Carmichael, Oklahoma City University Carol Carnevale, SUNY Empire State College Donald W. Caudill, Bluefield College Suzanne Chan, Tulane University Anthony Chelte, Midwestern State University Bongsoon Cho, State University of New York—Buffalo Savannah Clay, Central Piedmont Community College

Moral dimensions of punishment Free Essays

Moral and political theory, that is, should perceive itself as articulating how it is possible for inquirers, â€Å"immersed as they are in the contingent contexts of their lives and circumstances,† (Barcan-Marcus, 1980) to work out for themselves the details about what is right and wrong. As inquirers we proceed as best we can in the situations in which we find ourselves and which we create for ourselves, guided by the thought that experience is the key to truth, knowledge, and objectivity. As Dewey stressed, the pragmatist must see morality and politics as problem-driven, and those problems will vary as social practices, systems of domination and oppression, the religious makeup of a population, and a host of other circumstances vary. We will write a custom essay sample on Moral dimensions of punishment or any similar topic only for you Order Now There are many laws that regulate the publication and dissemination of pornography; however, they take what some might term a rather permissive attitude toward consensual sexual activity between adults. Since this is an area in which morality law differs quite considerably in the United States and Europe. Included in the subcategory of offenses against morality are drug and consensual sex offenses. The English have a framework of laws classifying drugs into different categories and proscribing their unlawful importation, production, and possession. Although the English do permit heroin to be supplied to registered addicts, this is done far less frequently than might be envisaged. Durkheim was one of the leading thinkers in this regard. In looking at the nature of modern industrial society, Durkheim focused on the moral basis of social order and stability – the basis of what he termed social solidarity. He argued that without the regulation of society, individuals would attempt to satisfy their own desires and wishes without regard to their fellows. This societal regulation had, he believed, to be based on a set of shared values; and a working society required that the individuals within it accepted these common values. Durkheim called this common set of values the collective conscience, which he defined as ‘the totality of beliefs and sentiments common to average citizens of the same society’. â€Å"†¦Crime is, then, necessary; it is bound up with the fundamental conditions of all social life, and by that very fact it is useful, because these conditions of which it is a part are themselves indispensable to the normal evolution of morality and law†¦.† (Crain, 1985) The existence of social morality and social solidarity makes punishment inevitable and necessary, in that it reaffirms and strengthens the moral and social bonds. Of course, punishment is not the only process that does this; religion, education and family life all help to strengthen the collective conscience and to promote social cohesion. Punishment has to be seen as a very important means of reinforcing moral and social order in less complex societies with a less developed division of labour. However, while methods of punishment change over time, the essential functions of punishment remain constant. Although the collective conscience of a society changes over time and people are outraged by different activities, punishment as a social process has an unchanging character. Punishment is seen as an important and necessary part of the moral order of society. It helps prevent the collapse of moral authority and demonstrates the strength of moral commands. For Durkheim, the primary function of punishment is the reassertion of the moral order of society. From this analysis, punishment is not an instrument of deterrence that aims to prevent the repetition of a guilty act; â€Å"the threat of the unpleasant consequences of particular punishments are just practical problems that might stand in the way of the criminal’s desires† (Gill, 2003). Rather, it is a means of conveying moral messages and of indicating the strength of feelings that lie behind those messages and the common consciousness. In practical terms, punishment may have to be unpleasant, but in terms of the role of punishment in society Durkheim sees that as incidental: the essence of punishment is the expression of moral condemnation. Because law and morality are so intertwined (laws, for example, often develop out of moral concerns) the distinction between the two is often ignored. But they are different: something moral may not be legal; something legal may not be moral. A law is a rule of conduct prescribed by properly constituted governing authority and enforced by sanctions. Whether or not an action is moral, by contrast, depends upon whether it can be supported by reasons within the framework of a set of moral assumptions, which themselves must be subject to critical appraisal. The views in this paper are concerned primarily with the moral permissibility of expediency. The legal issue, however, is never far in the background for two reasons. Most people consider the legality of an act to have a bearing on its morality. Moreover, e.g. if a sufficient number of people became persuaded of the moral acceptability of euthanasia, then laws might change, making it legal. The effective decisions, especially those which bend or erode established principles and adjust them to a changing environment, are taken behind the scenes. It follows that unless the innovator has the capacity and the contacts to negotiate successfully in this arena, he will not succeed. Behind the scenes he can exploit whatever personal effectiveness he has and he can make the hard realistic argument for whatever he proposes on the grounds of expediency. He can show that both his opponents and their principles will be diminished if they refuse to bend to the demands of a real world. He does not have to argue for the essential justice of what he proposes — for that may well be something which can be only asserted and cannot be rationally argued to those who think otherwise — but only for its expediency. One suspects that many new programs in teaching and research have been introduced in this way: they will cost nothing; refusal to adopt them will bring severe penalties; the sponsor is going to make himself unpleasant to everyone concerned, if he does not get his way; and so forth. But the victor is left in a very insecure position. His program has been accepted as a matter of expediency, but not as a matter of principle. It therefore is denied that halo of non rational acceptance, â€Å"that unthinking and unquestioning faith which could provide a protective inertia against the forces of revision, that same inertia which in the first place stood in the way of innovation.† (Pettit, 1997) It follows from this that acceptance behind the scenes is only the first step. To achieve security, to achieve ‘tenure’ so to speak, the new program must be made acceptable in the public arena and taken into the security of one of those principled stockades. In short, an innovation is accepted when it becomes part of the sacred. This can rarely, if ever, be done without a contest. So, at the end, we come to the real dilemma which far transcends, while it encompasses, the three-way pull of scholarship, collegiality and service. It is in reality a choice between equal evils: the open world of principle and the shadowed world of action. To choose one or the other is foolish, and the sensible man can only pilot his way between them. In the end it makes no sense to ask who steers the ship: Is it morality or expediency? Are the men in the smoke-filled rooms really those at the helm? They may be at the helm, but if there are no principles and there is no front arena, they have no course by which to steer. Scylla is the rock of principle: expediency is Charybdis. Politics being what they are, the ship seldom contrives to steer a straight course between them. Usually, if there is progress, it is achieved by bouncing from one rock to another. â€Å"What I hope to have shown is that there are some good reasons for thinking that we can make assertions or have genuine beliefs about what is right and wrong† (Phillips, 1983), just and unjust, cruel and kind; that we can inquire about the correctness of those beliefs; that our moral deliberations aim at the truth. And I hope to have shown that if we are to make sense of this, we must conduct ourselves via democratic principles – ones which encourage tolerance, openness, and understanding the experiences of others. By way of contrast, if our philosophical theory says that there is no truth to be had, then it is hard to see how we can satisfy ourselves that the reasons for being tolerant outweigh the reasons for, say, striving to eliminate the other in our midst. The same holds for a correspondence theory of truth, because it almost directly leads to the view that there is no truth about morals and politics. If truth is a matter of a statement’s getting the physical world right, then how could we possibly think that statements about what is just and unjust might be true or false? I have not in this paper spent a great deal of time on the independent epistemological arguments for pragmatism, but its comparative advantages ought nonetheless to be apparent. True to the phenomenology of morals and true to a democratic vision of inquiry, it gives us something to say to the Schmittian and to ourselves about why intolerance is wrong. Resources Barcan-Marcus, Ruth (1980) ‘Moral Dilemmas and Consistency’, Journal of Philosophy, lxxvii, 3. Crain, W.C. (1985). Theories of Development. Prentice-Hall. pp. 118-136 Gill, F.E. (2003). The Moral Benefit of Punishment. Lexington Books. Pettit, Philip (1997) Republicanism, Oxford: Clarendon Press. Phillips, Anne (1993) Democracy and Difference, University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press.    How to cite Moral dimensions of punishment, Essay examples

The Tragedy of Macbeth Persuasive Essay Example For Students

The Tragedy of Macbeth Persuasive Essay English 1222 November 1996William Shakespeare, when writing The Tragedy of Macbeth, tried toestablish two important characteristics of man for the time setting of theplay. Macbeth is a thane in Scotland who is at first faithful to his king,Duncan, but later turns against him and becomes king himself throughmurder. The characteristics that Macbeth has to have and does at theopening of the play, are loyalty to ones king and loyalty to God. Shakespeare shows that like all tragic heros, Macbeth has a fatal flaw,ambition, and because of it he loses all his goodness and becomes acorrupt, cold-blooded killer, who only cares about himself. At the opening of the play, Macbeth is noted for his courage in battlewith the kings enemy. He is praised for his loyalty and is considered agood friend by Duncan. In the first scene, Macbeth is the hero because hesaves the king and his kingdom from the attack of a traitor, the Thane ofCawdor. Every character that the reader meets up to that point says thatMacbeth is a kind, brave, and honorable man. A wounded soldier in thefirst Act scene ii says:For brave Macbeth,- well he deserves that name,-Disdaining fortune, with his brandishd steel,Which smokd with bloody execution,Like valours minion,Carvd out his passage till he facd the slave;And neer shook hands, nor bade farewell to him,Till he unseamd him from the nave to the chaps,And fixd his head upon our battlements.(27-34) As far as the othercharacters can see he deserves nothing but praise for his heroism. Macbeth has no intention of killing his ruler or of even betrayinghim until he meets the three witches who tell him that he will become king. They also tell him that he will become the Thane of Cawdor, which he doesnot believe because he is not told yet about the Thane of Cawdor being atraitor and being executed. When Macbeth reaches the castle he isofficially given the tittle of Cawdor and that is when he gets ambitiousand begins to think of murdering Duncan for his tittle. In scene iv Act I,Macbeth finds out that while he gets a bigger tittle, Duncans son gets thetittle of Prince of Cumberland, which makes him next in line for thethrone. In an aside Macbeth says to himself:The Prince of Cumber-land! That is a step,On which I must fall down, or else oer leap,For in my way it lies. Stars hide your fires!Let not light see my black and deep desires:The eye wink at the hand! Yet let that be,Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see. At first he expresseshis desire to become king in an unnatural way if that be necessary. Thenhe stops himself, almost convinced that what he is thinking of doing iswrong. That night Macbeth goes home with Duncan for a feast and when Duncanis fast asleep, Macbeth stabs him in the back. He has lost one of the maincharacteristics by the end of the first act and is already becoming acorrupt individual. Before the murder actually happens, Macbeth shows hisfeelings on the subject when he says:Hes here in double trust:First, as I am his kinsman and his subject,Strong both against the deed; then, as his host,Who should against his murder shut the door,Not bear the knife myself.(12-16) Because he is not completelycorrupt he still feels some remorse for the deed he is about to commit,although it does not stop him from doing it. .u6b2e08d63bb5a6719bd40081e582575a , .u6b2e08d63bb5a6719bd40081e582575a .postImageUrl , .u6b2e08d63bb5a6719bd40081e582575a .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u6b2e08d63bb5a6719bd40081e582575a , .u6b2e08d63bb5a6719bd40081e582575a:hover , .u6b2e08d63bb5a6719bd40081e582575a:visited , .u6b2e08d63bb5a6719bd40081e582575a:active { border:0!important; } .u6b2e08d63bb5a6719bd40081e582575a .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u6b2e08d63bb5a6719bd40081e582575a { 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; } .u6b2e08d63bb5a6719bd40081e582575a:active , .u6b2e08d63bb5a6719bd40081e582575a:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u6b2e08d63bb5a6719bd40081e582575a .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u6b2e08d63bb5a6719bd40081e582575a .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u6b2e08d63bb5a6719bd40081e582575a .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u6b2e08d63bb5a6719bd40081e582575a .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; } .u6b2e08d63bb5a6719bd40081e582575a:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u6b2e08d63bb5a6719bd40081e582575a .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u6b2e08d63bb5a6719bd40081e582575a .u6b2e08d63bb5a6719bd40081e582575a-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u6b2e08d63bb5a6719bd40081e582575a:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Geothermal Energy EssayThroughout the play, Macbeth loses all felling of honor or repentance. He kills his friend Banquo because he poses a threat to his future and thefuture of his children (whom he does not yet have), he pits all of thenobles against the two sons of Duncan because it is convenient for him,even though they are innocent. Later he does the same to the son ofBanquo, Fleance, but only because his men do not get the chance to killhim. Shakespeare shows Macbeths final and complete loss of any semblanceof morals when Macbeth sends murderers to kill Lady Macduff and herchildren although they have done nothing and are paying with their livesfor something that Macduff did to