What evidence in the play can be interpreted as Mercutios Essay Example for Free

What evidence in the play can be interpreted as Mercutios Essay What evidence in the play can be interpreted as Mercutio’s affections toward Romeo being more than platonic? Discuss. ‘Romeo and Juliet’ a tragic romance written by William Shakespeare depicts the love between the two characters Romeo and Juliet. Other forms of love between characters are also present in the play, one of the most notable being the ambiguous relationship between Romeo and his flamboyant best friend Mercutio. Through a series of character interactions and character portrayals, Mercutio’s sexuality is left indistinct and his affections towards Romeo can be seen as homoerotic in nature. Romeo and Mercutio have a tendency to tease and banter with each other throughout the play. Mercutio’s teasing in particular could be interpreted as a form of homoerotism considering the large amounts of innuendo and references to Romeo’s phallus used. â€Å"To raise a spirit in his mistress circle Of some strange nature, letting it there stand Till she had laid it and conjured it down;† (Act 2, scene 1) Though this type of banter could be interpreted as normal amongst men their age, due to Mercutio’s ambiguous sexual orientation, it can be considered a form of flirting, especially when you take into consideration Mercutio’s attestment for the opposite gender and love between a man and a woman. Early on in the play, Mercutio is shown to have an aversion to women as well as heterosexual love. One of the clearest examples of Mercutio’s hostility towards women is shown in act 2, scene one when Benvolio and Mercutio are searching for Romeo after the party at the Capulets. â€Å"I must conjure him. I conjure thee by Rosalines bright eyes, By her high forehead and her scarlet lip, By her fine foot, straight leg and quivering thigh And the demesnes that there adjacent lie, That in thy likeness thou appear to us! †(Act 2, scene 1) Mercutio starts mocking Romeo’s feelings for Rosaline as well as insulting her by listing her body parts in a crude manner. Mercutio’s aversion towards women and love is also quite prominent in his Queen Mab speech which outside of being a ‘fairy’ is also a reference to whores during Elizabethan times. The speech starts off as more of a flight of fancy but steadily becomes darker the further he gets. â€Å"This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs, That presses them and learns them first to bear, Making them women of good carriage: This is she† (Act 1, scene 4) This passage could be interpreted as women losing their virginities as well as going into prostitution. Mercutio makes a stab at women through generalising them as whores, as well as stating how love is insignificant, nonsensical and corrupting. This is shown through the emphasis on Queen Mab’s small size, the fairy’s ability to confirm what ever vices that dreamers are addicted to and how the description of Queen Mab itself is complete nonsense. His aversion to women and heterosexual love could be interpreted as a sign of homosexuality, or at the very least bisexuality; Mercutio’s disrespect for the opposite gender is shown to be indiscriminate when involving matters in concern to Romeo. All women that Mercutio is seen interacting with or acknowledging in the play are insulted and ridiculed by him; the fact that they have all wanted Romeo’s company or have been subjected to Romeo’s affections is what they all have in common. â€Å"NURSE If you be he, sir, I desire some confidence with you. †¦ MERCUTIO A bawd, a bawd, a bawd! so ho! ROMEO What hast thou found? MERCUTIO No hare, sir; unless a hare, sir, in a lenten pie, that is something stale and hoar ere it be spent. An old hare hoar, And an old hare hoar, Is very good meat in lent But a hare that is hoar Is too much for a score, When it hoars ere it be spent. Romeo, will you come to your fathers? well to dinner, thither. † (Act 2, Scene 4) In this scene, Mercutio is shown to immediately interrupt the conversation between the other two characters once Romeo has lost interest in teasing the nurse, and the nurse has shown interest in conversing with him in private. Mercutio’s insults and teasing become bawdier as he tries to draw the groups attention and in turn Romeo’s attention towards him rather than the nurse as he continues to mock her. This act could be seen as an adverse reaction to the possibility of Romeo romancing another woman, or even the possibility of him romancing the nurse herself. A similar attitude is taken up by Mercutio concerning other women in Romeo’s life, as shown with Rosaline. The callous and unseemly way that Mercutio treats women who associate with Romeo could be seen as a form of jealousy, and thus his possible homoerotic affections for his best friend; characters such as Tybalt make allusions to the possibility of Mercutio’s non-platonic affections towards Romeo right before the play’s climax. Mercutio’s death scene, aside from being the climax of the play, has the most allusions to Mercutio’s affections towards Romeo being more than platonic. â€Å"Mercutio, thou consortst with Romeo† (Act 3, scene 1) This line spoken by Tybalt suggests the possibility of Mercutio’s homosexuality. Tybalt starts insulting a passive Romeo which results in a brawl between Mercutio and Tybalt, stemming from Mercutio’s need to defend his friend’s dignity and outrage at Romeo’s unresponsiveness to the insults. The brawl between the two, along with Mercutio’s resulting death, is seen as completely unnecessary as Tybalt is making no direct insult to Mercutio’s person, only Romeo’s. The need that Mercutio had felt to defend Romeo’s dignity could be seen as the manifestation of romantic feelings towards his best friend due to how unnecessarily far he’d taken his brawl with Tybalt and how it had resulted in his death. Through these series of events and character interaction such as Mercutio’s teasing of Romeo, his aversion to women, love, senseless death borne out of want to defend Romeo’s dignity and the possibility of him being homosexual, that Mercutio’s love for Romeo could be concluded as being more than just platonic. ________________ ROMEO AND JULIET ESSAY- VERSION 2. What evidence in the play can be interpreted as Mercutio’s affections toward Romeo being more than platonic? Discuss. ‘Romeo and Juliet’, a tragic romance written by William Shakespeare, depicts the love between the two characters Romeo and Juliet. Other forms of love between characters are also present in the play, one of the most notable being the ambiguous relationship between Romeo and his flamboyant best friend Mercutio. Through a series of character interactions and character portrayals, Mercutio’s sexuality is left indistinct and his affections towards Romeo can be seen as homoerotic in nature. Romeo and Mercutio have a tendency to tease and banter with each other throughout the play. Mercutio’s teasing in particular could be interpreted as a form of homoerotism considering the large amounts of innuendo and references to Romeo’s phallus used. Said references to Romeos phallus appear when Mercutio, in an attempt lure Romeo out of hiding, begins to talk of Romeo raising a spirit in his mistress circle and letting it there stand / Till she [Rosaline] had laid it and conjured it down (William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 1, Line 26). Though this type of banter could be interpreted as normal amongst men their age, due to Mercutio’s ambiguous sexual orientation it can be considered a form of flirting, especially when you take into consideration Mercutio’s attestment for the opposite gender and love between a man and a woman Early on in the play, Mercutio is shown to have and aversion to women as well as heterosexual love. One of the clearest examples of Mercutio’s hostility towards women is shown in when Benvolio and Mercutio are searching for Romeo after the party at the Capulets. Mercutio starts mocking Romeo’s feelings for Rosaline as well as insulting her by listing her body parts in a crude manner. He describes her fine foot, straight leg and quivering thigh (Act 2, Scene 1, Line 21) amongst other body parts considered uncouth to talk about during his time period. Mercutio’s aversion towards women and love is also quite prominent in his Queen Mab speech which outside of being a ‘fairy’ is also a reference to whores during Elizabethan times. The speech starts off as more of a flight of fancy but steadily becomes darker the further he gets. Mercutio makes references to women losing their virginities and going into prostitution when he talks of when maids lie on their backs / That presses them and learns them first to bear (Act 1, Scene 4, Line 96). Mercutio makes a stab at women through generalising them as whores, as well as stating how love is insignificant, nonsensical and corrupting. This is shown through the emphasis on Queen Mab’s small size, the fairy’s ability to confirm what ever vices that dreamers are addicted to and how the description of Queen Mab itself is complete nonsense. His aversion to women and heterosexual love could be interpreted as a sign of homosexuality, or at the very least bisexuality; Mercutios disrespect for the opposite gender is shown to be indiscriminate when involving matters in concern to Romeo. All women that Mercutio is seen interacting with or acknowledging in the play are insulted and ridiculed by him; the fact that they have all wanted Romeo’s company or have been subjected to Romeo’s affections is what they all have in common. In the second act, Juliets nurse approaches Romeo and expresses her interest in speaking with him alone. Mercutio, seeing that Romeo had lost interest in teasing the nurse, instantly interrupts the conversation by calling the nurse a bawd (Act 2, Scene 4, Line 115), followed by an indecent song on a girl who prostitutes herself. Mercutio’s insults and teasing become bawdier as he tries to draw the group’s, and in turn Romeo’s, attention towards him rather than the nurse as he continues to mock her. This act could be seen as an adverse reaction to the possibility of Romeo romancing another woman, or even the possibility of him romancing the nurse herself. A similar attitude is taken up by Mercutio concerning other women in Romeo’s life, as shown with Rosaline. The callous and unseemly way that Mercutio treats women who associate with Romeo could be seen as a form of jealousy, and thus his possible homoerotic affections for his best friend; characters such as Tybalt make allusions to the possibility of Mercutio’s non-platonic affections towards Rome right before the play’s climax. Mercutio’s death scene, aside from being the climax of the play, has the most allusions to Mercutio’s affections towards Romeo being more than platonic. Tybalt suggests the possibility of Mercutio’s homosexuality when he says that Mercutio consortst with Romeo (Act 3, Scene 1, Line 42). Tybalt starts insulting a passive Romeo which results in a brawl between Mercutio and Tybalt, stemming from Mercutio’s need to defend his friend’s dignity and outrage at Romeo’s unresponsiveness to the insults. The brawl between the two, along with Mercutio’s resulting death, is seen as completely unnecessary as Tybalt is making no direct insult to Mercutio’s person, only Romeo’s. The need that Mercutio had felt to defend Romeo’s dignity could be seen as the manifestation of romantic feelings towards his best friend due to how unnecessarily far he’d taken his brawl with Tybalt and how it had resulted in his death. Through these series of events and character interaction such as Mercutio’s teasing of Romeo, his aversion to women, love, senseless death borne out of want to defend Romeo’s dignity and the possibility of him being homosexual, that Mercutio’s love for Romeo could be concluded as being more than just platonic.

The Awakening :: essays research papers

The Awakening   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the novella The Awakening by Kate Chopin, two supporting characters, Madame Ratignolle and Mademoiselle Reisz, represent two distinctively different females of the Victorian Age. Madame Ratignolle serves as society's idea of the ideal woman. 'There [is] nothing subtle or hidden about her charms; her beauty [is] all there, flaming and apparent: the spun-gold hair that [neither] comb nor confining pen could restrain; the blue eyes that [are] like nothing but sapphires; two lips that pout, that [are] so red one could think of cherries or some other delicious crimson fruit in looking at them.'; Her beauty is complemented by her extreme devotion to her family. They come first in her life. She is the quintessential mother-woman. '[Mother-women] [are] women who idolized their children, [worship] their husbands, and [esteem] it a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals and grow wings as ministering angels.'; She gave up her individuality by taking marriage v ows and became one half of the Ratignolle family. 'The Ratignolles understood each other perfectly. If ever a fusion of two human beings into one has ever been accomplished on this sphere it [is] surely this union.'; Madame Ratignolle has surrendered to her husband's world as proper wives at the time were expected to do. She obeys her husband and assumes the responsibility of keeping him satisfied. 'She would not consent to remain with Edna [when] Monsieur Ratignolle was alone, [because] he detested above all things being alone.';   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  While Madame Ratignolle is the ideal Victorian woman, Mademoiselle Reisz is 'a disagreeable little woman, no longer young, who [quarrels] with almost everyone, owing to a temper which [is] self-assertive and a disposition to trample on the rights of others.'; When Edna asks the proprietor of the neighborhood grocery store if he knew where Mademoiselle Reisz had moved, the man answers that 'he [thanks] heaven that she had left the neighborhood, and was equally thankful that he did not know where she had gone.'; Mademoiselle Reisz is in no way the beautiful Aphrodite that Madame Ratignolle is. She is an old woman who is past her physical prime, although the reader gets the impression that, during her prime, her looks still left something to be desired. The community snickers at her because she wears 'false hair'; has poor taste in fashion. Mademoiselle Reisz has always lived on the top floors of apartment buildings, which takes her far away from reality and the prob lems of others.

Federal Bureaucracy

The Federal Bureaucracy hires thousands of employees to complete specific goals. Those employed attempt to achieve these goals proficiently, however their goals and procedures are part of a continual struggle for power; which inevitably leads to ineffective behavior known as red tape (Pearson Education). Many have attempted to change the way the federal bureaucracy does business in order to help improve the services provided to the public. The federal bureaucracy falls into many categories – line agencies and staff agencies. Line agencies provide services while staff agencies gather information for the chief executive officer. Line agencies are comprised of executive departments, government agencies and corporations, independent regulatory commissions, and other central agencies and services. It is these line agencies that constrict and regulate the lives of citizens (Pearson Education). For the most part, the executive branch controls the federal bureaucracy; however Congress monitors the bureaucracy to ensure that it acts properly. Many if not all people are affected on a daily basis by the federal bureaucracy some more than others depending on what their daily life consists of. While some of these regulations are excessive the agencies were created as a way to protect lives and the environment. One area that regulates all citizens is taxes. No one can escape this. If property is owned taxes are paid each year to not only the state but also the county in which property is located. Aside from property tax there is also sales tax which people will pay even if property is owned or not. Everyone who works will pay a federal tax at the end of the year on their wages and interest earned. Each household or person will pay taxes based on their marital status, dependent, and gross yearly wage. There are those few select that will not have to pay a federal tax due to the fact that they make a salary that is below the poverty line (IRS, 2008). Aside from the IRS regulating daily living, the Federal Bureaucracy also has a hand in regulating our transportation. The Department of Transportation (DOT) was created by Congress in 1966 and signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson to ensure efficient, safe and prompt transportation for the nation. It was created to provide a convenient transportation system that meets our vital national interests and enhances the quality of life of the American people (DOT 2010). The mission of the DOT is to develop and coordinate policies that will provide a proficient and economical national transportation system while keeping the best interest of the environment a priority. However, with all these new forms of transportation came pollution something that our nation has been and is continuing to struggle with. Just as the United States needs the military to protect issues around the world, it also needs an agency to protect its natural resources at home. President Nixon proposed The Environmental Act in 1970 to fulfill the role of protecting the land, air, and water along with the health of the citizens living in it. The EPA was established not only to reverse years of neglect from industrial growth, but also as a way to ensure that the government, industry and public take better care to protect the delicate balance of nature for upcoming generations. The primary responsible of the EPA is to enforce environmental regulations such as the clean air act. This agency also has the task of helping Congress pass environmental laws and has the power to issue sanctions and levy fines. On a local level the EPA assists state government with their own environmental concerns by providing research grants and graduate fellowships, working with the public on environmental projects helping them get directly involved with the cause. Another area that has regulations on our daily lives is in healthcare. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is the United States Government’s principal agency for protecting the health of all Americans. They represent a quarter of all federal expenditures, and oversee more grant dollars than all other federal agencies combined. The Department of Health and Humans services works hand in hand with state and local governments, and many HHS funded services are provided at the local level by state agencies. This department includes over 300 programs covering a wide variety of different services. Some include financial assistance, head start programs, and child and substance abuse. One service in particular the FDA or Food and Drug Administration has become a well known federal agency and effects the lives of all. The FDA assures the safety of foods and cosmetics, and the safety and effectiveness of pharmaceuticals and medical devices. These products account for almost 25 cents of every dollar in consumer spending. FDA is responsible for advancing the public health by aiding in the progress of speeding up advances that make medicines more effective and affordable. The Food and Drug Administration also has responsibility for regulating the manufacturing, marketing and distribution of tobacco products to protect the public health and to reduce tobacco use by minors. What most are not aware of is that the FDA plays a very important role in the Nations counterterrorism as well. They do this by ensuring the security of the food supply along with helping develop medical products to aide in the response to emerging public health threats. The FDA acts as a watchdog for our society to ensure the companies are complying with standards that are safe and have the patient’s best interest at heart. Without the FDA regulating society doctors would be able to hand out drugs and write prescriptions without knowing what reactions and side effects could happen to the patient. While this is only five federal agencies that affect the lives of many on a daily basis, it is hard to pick one out since each one is very important. The one of most importance would seem to be the Environmental Protection Agency. The main objective of the EPA was to streamline several other programs as a pollution control. The Clean Air Act, Clean Water and Toxic Substance control were all established to control pollution. Currently the EPA is working with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to get regulations on Greenhouse Gas emissions. They are taking appropriate steps to enable the production of a new generation of clean vehicles on light duty vehicles. These steps were presented by President Obama in May 2010. Finally on September 30, 2010 The EPA and NHTSA issued a notice of intent to begin developing new standards for greenhouse gases and fuel economy for light-duty vehicles for the 2017-2025 model years (EPA, 2010). This goes to show that while 2017 seems like a long time the EPA is taking the initiative to make a difference and continue to find ways to help the environment and public health.

The Legacy Of Franklin Pierce Essay - 1281 Words

Angel M.Sanchez Teacher Tracey Villanueva College Transition 28 November 2016 Franklin Pierce Franklin Pierce once stated â€Å"There s nothing left to do but to get drunk.† Alcohol, drug use, and regret was the theme of his presidency. I believe if Franklin Pierce wasn’t elected president the country would have been better: slavery might have ended earlier, Cuba might have become a state in the United States, and Abraham Lincoln might have not been assassinated. Franklin Pierce was born on November 23, 1804 in Hillsborough, New Hampshire. He grew up in a christian home. His mother was a very religious woman and his father was very well respected and well known, he served as a colonial soldier in the American revolution, and was governor of New Hampshire from 1827 to 1830 . He had seven siblings, four brothers and four sisters, Benjamin Kendrick Pierce, Henry Dearborn Pierce, John Sullivan Pierce, Charles Grandison Pierce, Charlotte Pierce, Nancy M. Pierce McNeal, Harriet B. Pierce Jameson, and Elizabeth Andrews Pierce. He attended local schools until he was 12 then he was sent to a private school. Franklin s parents wanted him to have a better education than they had. At age 15 he entered to Bowdoin College Phillips Exeter Academy and began studying law. In 1829 he was elected to the senate legislature. He was chosen speaker of the house in 1831. 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