Friday, August 21, 2020

Paradise Lost

Carefully following the custom of old style epic, Milton made his Paradise Lost, a work that energized the enthusiasm of all men in all ages. We can even guarantee that by his imaginative virtuoso, he has altered and praised that custom. In spite of the fact that its structure is old style, its substance will in general be on the scriptural side. The exceptionally opening lines admonish its focal topic â€â€Å"Of man’s disobedience†¦Ã¢â‚¬  The bone of conflict between the pundits of any age is about whom the legend of this epic is â€God, Satan or Adam. Without a doubt we are compelled to state that a decent number of entries, particularly in the initial two books of Paradise Lost, give a gallant height to Satan, the major among the fallen blessed messengers. Slow lessening of Satan’s wonder and greatness is a basic piece of Milton’s epic-structure. The Satan of Books I and II is an animal of such unique vitality and brilliant quality that a considerable lot of the epic’s perusers are enticed to think about him as the saint of the sonnet. That Milton didn't so respect him and that, in dismissing the Satan of the prior piece of the epic, Milton was not being bogus to his beautiful self, is obvious from Satan’s opening speech in Book IV, at any rate the initial ten lines of which were composed before Books I and II. In this and resulting speeches Milton can introduce the character of Satan all the more completely and in an incompletely sensational structure, by setting him in a circumstance which denies him an outlet for his talk and welcomes thoughtful self-assessment. Milton, most likely, planned Satan †at any rate in the early books †to be illustrative of the old courageous qualities which were to be supplanted by ‘the better strength of persistence and chivalrous martyrdom’. Lamentably for Milton, perusers of Paradise Lost have not had the option to shake off the courageous characteristics of Satan in the initial two books. Alongside that, three different variables added to the outcome. In English, the word ‘hero’ has the importance of a ‘central figure’, and this Satan is unquestionably in these early books. Milton was solid and new imaginatively when he described Satan in these early books; and he never prevailing with regards to creating an opponent saint of comparable height however contradicted goals. Milton pampered all his capacity, all his aptitude, and most of his compassion on the mind blowing figure of Satan. Numerous pundits have consented to the way that the epic estimation of the entire epic is focused in the accomplishments and portrayal of Satan. His resolute distress speaks to the smart antinomy of the cutting edge cognizance. Satan communicates, as no other character in the epic does, something in which Milton accepted emphatically, that is, gallant vitality. It is through Satan that Milton’s own chivalrous vitality has been so intensely demonstrated forward. This is communicated through clash and continuance. The chances are against him, he needs to take up arms against the Omnipotent, yet at the same time he continues and battles, and wins our profoundest adoration and compassion. Most likely, his vitality is unreasoning, no uncertainty it is committed to his evil enthusiasm for retribution, and unquestionably he is diverted by abhor and envy, yet at the same time we can't resist respecting him for the chivalrous vitality with which he industriously battles against overwhelming chances to accomplish his points. Milton’s Satan is certifiably not a comic or abnormal figure like the Devil or Vice of medieval journalists or the evil spirits of other epic writers. Being a chief figure of an epic, if a specific measure of peculiarity was attracted the character of Satan, it would have certainly hindered the pride of the sonnet. Numerous ancestors of Milton have done likewise however in this regard too Milton was daringly unique. Then again, it can't be denied that by endeavoring at substantiating himself ‘self-begotten’, Satan‘s conduct keeps an eye on the comic and conflicting. Additionally, just a moron would set himself in opposition to supremacy and in this manner welcome certain catastrophe. Be that as it may, Milton’s Satan is neither a simpleton nor a jokester. He unquestionably has the magnificence of sublimity and the loftiness and greatness and pride of bearing. The artist drives home this honorability and significance of his bearing in brilliantly guided fine sections which can be hailed as the best among those that have been ever composed. The accompanying section affirms the point: â€Å"†¦Black it remained as Night, Fierce as ten Furies, awful as Hell, And shook a repulsive dart, what appeared his head The resemblance of a royal crown had on. Satan was presently nearby, and from his seat The beast moving forward came as quick With ghastly walks: Hell trembled as he walked. †(II 495-501) Courteously and valiantly Satan delivers himself to the ruler of the nethermost chasm. His discourse contains no dangers; he requests direction in his mission; and, with politic fore-thought, guarantees that journey, if fruitful, will reestablish a peripheral lost area to Chaos. In the war on the fields of Heaven, Satan goes all over the battling line, similar to Cromwell; he sustains his confidants to perseverance, and urges them to assault. In Hell he stands like a pinnacle: â€Å"His structure had at this point not lost All its unique splendor, nor showed up Not as much as Archangel demolished, and the overabundance Of greatness obscured†¦Ã¢â‚¬  I (591-4) In his challenges with Michael in paradise and with Gabriel on earth, he never falls beneath himself: â€Å"If I should contend†, said he, â€Å"Best with the best †the sender, not the sent; Or at the same time. † IV (851-3) His adherents are devotedly connected to him; they respect him ‘that for the general wellbeing he detested his own’; and the main scene of celebrating recorded in the archives of Hell, before the Fall of Man, is at the disintegration of Stygian Council, when the villains approach â€Å"rejoicing in their inimitable chief†. The appeal of through and through freedom is the place the allure and intensity of Satan's character lies. Satan might be very pointless with regards to battling the ten thousand roars of Christ's wrath, however in his will he is free and in his brain he is incomparable: ‘What however the field be lost? | All isn't lost; the unconquerable will' (I. 105). † (Zeng, Nicholas http://www. christs. cam. air conditioning. uk/darknessvisible/about_us/nicholas_zeng. html) As if to set reason to raise Satan high over the heads of different chief heavenly messengers, Milton devises a couple of comparable scenes in Heaven and in Hell. In the one Satan takes upon himself the obscure threats of the venture that has been affirmed by the get together. In the other, which happens in the extremely next book, the Heavenly powers are tended to from the Throne, and solicited †â€Å"Which of ye will be mortal, to reclaim Man’s mortal wrongdoing, and simply, the crooked to spare? III (214-5) None in paradise is prepared to face the challenge; yet Satan takes upon himself the hazardous assignment of going through Chaos and alluring Man. There is no uncertainty in the way that Satan’s over-acing interests are abhor, aspiration and want for retribution, however he isn't introduced as a beast of insidiousness or an unredeemed lowlife. Milton has ably refined his character. Thus, however Satan in the adversary of God and Man the same, he isn't completely without gentler qualities. He is profoundly contrite at the idea of the ruin in which he has included his supporters and this regret really carries tears to his eyes. In the subsequent book, we see him indicating forward an honorable feeling of the obligation of selflessness officeholder on him attributable to his situation as ruler of heck, by relinquishing his own wellbeing for the general reason and thus, embraced alone the troublesome undertaking which plagued the boldness of the mightiest of his adherents. This quality of Satan’s character is kept up in the later books. We see him twice softened with empathy seeing the innocuous honesty of Adam and Eve whose ruin he is plotting in book IV (389. 462-66). These gentler sentiments are to be viewed as just infrequent contacts acquainted with calm the magnificence of a character basically horrible, a character who is, however not absolutely without delicate attributes, in general most like a compelling storm, or a torrential slide, or some other power of nature that is an agreeable mixing of excellence of sublimity and enormous ruinous force. With due compassion and emotional force, Satan’s character has been drawn which further uncovered Milton’s pleased soul of freedom and prevalence over the most extreme. Satan is surely a self-picture, an agitator against oppression and foul play like Milton himself. The assessment which he communicates †‘courage never to submit or yield’; â€Å"better to reign in damnation than to serve in heaven’, raises his height to that of an epic saint. Satan is such a sublimely drawn character and such is the interest he has practiced on the perusers of the incredible epic everything being equal, heaven lost, that since the time Dryden has initiated Satan as ‘Milton’s hero’, a great many pundits has taken him to be the saint of the epic. There is no uncertainty that he rules Books I and II of the epic in which he towers head and shoulders over his devotees, yet after that there is a dynamic corruption and shrinkage in his character. His steady loss of physical splendor is joined by a comparing disintegration of character. The crowd, nonetheless, finds somewhere to contribute its compassion, and that spot is in the character of Satan. The crowd first observes Satan waking in Hell where he and the other fallen holy messengers despair. Through his despondency, in any case, Satan claims, â€Å"All isn't lost †the unconquerable will,//And investigation of vengeance, undying scorn,//And fortitude never to submit or yield †. . . That brilliance never will his fierceness or might//Extort from me† (I. 104-111). † (http://www. essortment. com/all/satanparadisel_rsng. htm) It is by his own will that he b

Tuesday, July 14, 2020

Discovery and History of Lithium as a Mood Stabilizer

Discovery and History of Lithium as a Mood Stabilizer Bipolar Disorder Treatment Medications Print The Discovery and History of Lithium as a Mood Stabilizer By Marcia Purse Marcia Purse is a mental health writer and bipolar disorder advocate who brings strong research skills and personal experiences to her writing. Learn about our editorial policy Marcia Purse Medically reviewed by Medically reviewed by Steven Gans, MD on January 31, 2020 Steven Gans, MD is board-certified in psychiatry and is an active supervisor, teacher, and mentor at Massachusetts General Hospital. Learn about our Medical Review Board Steven Gans, MD Updated on February 04, 2020 Peter Dazeley / Getty Images More in Bipolar Disorder Treatment Medications Symptoms Diagnosis In This Article Table of Contents Expand Discovery How It Works Neurotransmitters and Mental Health Other Potential Uses Toxicity and Side Effects Role in Treatment of BPD View All Back To Top When was lithium first discovered as a drug for mental health, and what is the history of this medication? How does it actually work? And what is the current thought and controversy considering the role of lithium in the treatment of bipolar disease? Discovery Lithium is a naturally occurring element (number three on the periodic table) that was first discovered in 1817 and was found in mines in Australia and Chili. Its mood-stabilizing effects, however, were not recognized until late in that century. (In fact, some concluded that gout was the cause of mood disorders.) Lithium-rich mineral springs have historically been touted for their healing properties. It was first used for mania in the late 1800s, with Denmark leading the way, but little was published about the medication for more than half a century. It was Australian psychiatrist John Cade who, in 1949, published one of the first papers on the use of lithium in the treatment of acute mania. From that time on, lithium was increasingly prescribed. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration did not approve lithium for use until 1970, and the use of lithium in the U.S. began later, and shifted to other drugs earlier, than for many other countries around the world. How It Works Knowing that lithium is a naturally occurring element, one might think that prescribing the drug may support a deficiency in the body. Yet research has never indicated that that bipolar disorder might be caused by a lithium deficiency. Rather, it happens that this naturally occurring substance has the fortunate effect of acting as a mood stabilizer. For over 50 years, manic-depressive people were treated with lithium even though medical science did not have a clear understanding of why or how it worked. (The name manic-depressive disorder was officially changed to bipolar disorder in 1980.) Although the exact mechanisms by which lithium exerts its mood-stabilizing effects are not fully known, there has been much contemporary research into this question. Lithium interacts with a number of neurotransmitters, neuron receptors, and other chemical systems in brain cells. Neurotransmitters and Mental Health How do messages in one part of the brain travel, and in doing so, result in actions? Its only been in the last few decadesâ€"when scientists have isolated neurotransmitters, the chemical messengers of the brain that act to convey information from one region to anotherâ€"that we are beginning to understand this process. Neurotransmitters are contained at the end of one neuron (or nerve.) An electrical impulse travels along the nerve and results in neurotransmitters being released into the space (the synapse) between one nerve and the next. Some of the neurotransmitters bind to receptors on the next nerve cell, which respond by transforming that message into another electrical impulse. Neurotransmitters that are left in the synapse (those which do not bind to receptors on the next neuron) are taken back up into the original neuron to be used again. There are several types of neurotransmitters in the brain. Some of these include: SerotoninNorepinephrineDopamineAcetylcholineGABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid)Glutamate Lithium is thought to interact with many of these systems in complex ways. Other Potential Uses In addition to bipolar disorder, lithium is sometimes used in the treatment of unipolar depression (major depression) and schizoaffective disorder. Because of lithiums stabilizing effect on glutamate receptors, scientists are also studying whether this medication can protect from the cell death that occurs in conditions such as Parkinsons, Huntingtons, and Alzheimers disease. Toxicity and Side Effects As with many medications on the market, lithium comes with a list of side effects and precautions. Lithium toxicity can be very serious, with both acute and chronic effects. The side effects of lithium are common as well, and as with many mental health medications, these side effects often interfere with its use. In addition, lithium is known to interact with a wide variety of medications, such as other mental health drugs, blood pressure medications, and some painkillers. All of that said, there are few medications available for the treatment of bipolar disorder that do not have significant side effects. Role in Treatment of BPD The answer to the question, What role should lithium play in the treatment of bipolar disease today? will vary depending on who you ask and where you live. In addition to a roller-coaster history, there are widely varying opinions regarding the use of lithium today. Some physicians have gone so far as to call lithium dangerous nonsense whereas others view lithium as the best established long-term treatment available for bipolar disorder. Some physicians even claim that lithium is the single most important treatment for mental health which has been discovered. As with many other issues related to mental health, the real answer probably lies somewhere between these extremes and is reflected in different practices around the world. The United States has the reputation of being the last in and first out with regard to the use of the drug, being late among countries to adopt its use, and early to recommend alternatives (other mood stabilizers such as Depakote (valproic acid) and antipsychotic medications). In the U.S., lithium is seldom used first-line for people with bipolar disorder, though it is still frequently used for severe bipolar disorder in combination with other medications. A 2017 study did, however, suggest that there is a strong role for lithium first line in the treatment of mania in the elderly. In addition, there is evidence to support lithiums role in decreasing suicide risk. The Bottom Line The history of lithium is an interesting study in scientific discovery and the methods scientists have used to investigate the chemical nature of mood disorders in the brain. This newer understanding of the chemical messengers in the brain responsible for mental health disorders is important in further reducing the stigma of mental health disorders. While there is still a long way to go, and mental health still suffers more of a stigma than say heart disease, the research going on todayâ€"such as the mechanism by which lithium worksâ€"is an excellent step in the right direction.

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Save The Children The World s Leading Non Profit...

Save The Children International is one of the world s leading non-profit organization devoted in children from every corner of the world. Save The Children Alliance is a global network consists of 30 member organizations providing programs and helps children from more than 120 countries. Since its foundation in 1919, Save The Children has led global actions on children s rights with its mission and vision : To answer the question of whether or not Save The Children has accomplished its mission, we must dissect into the source of funding, how it is spent and how work is accomplished. As provided on its homepage, the organization, as of 2013, has the combined revenues of estimated over US$1.9 billion; including most revenue sources coming from the government and private donors. Save The Children seemed to have an increasing amount of donors, as in 2013, its combined revenues were 21% higher than the previous year; the total of $676, 348,000 was raised, including $ 318,703,000 only from the individuals. (Save The Children, 2014). Save The Children divided its revenue into sections, following are the programs dedicated for specific child in need in different continents with the total of 603,707,000 spent in 2013. With the big percentage spending into programming, the website Charity Navigator has given the organization the grade 93.62 out of 100 on financial. Its financial separation on programme is based on the level of need and emergency in specific regions andShow MoreRelatedMental Health For All By Involving All1051 Words   |  5 Pagesdiseases, from autism to depression and dementia. One in four people suffer from mental illness, and more often than not, those affected with mental illness are not treated. 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FIRST IR The main differences between the First and Second Industrial Revolution were the invisible hand in comparison to the visible hand in the Second Revolution. The use of non human labor such as coal and steam powered energy, compared to mass production with unskilled labor workers in the Second Industrial Revolution. Owners managing and owning their firms this is changed in the Second Revolution when managerial capitalism

Reducing Gang Violence Free Essays

In order to reduce gang violence I would implement community crime prevention programs or strategies targeting changes in community infrastructure, culture, and the physical environment. Furthermore, gang violence will be reduced by executing a diversity of  approaches including  neighborhood watch, community policing, urban or physical design, and comprehensive or multi-disciplinary efforts. These strategies may seek to engage residents, community and faith-based organizations, and local government agencies in addressing the factors that contribute to the community’s crime, delinquency, and disorder. We will write a custom essay sample on Reducing Gang Violence or any similar topic only for you Order Now As a means of reaching out to offenders of gang violence I would administer social interventions that would involve a variety of services provided to gang members, such as remedial education, recreational activities (e. g. , softball games involving both gangs), counseling in homes and on the streets, crisis counseling, and referral to drug treatment and mental health services. Employing more community youth workers that would be responsible for reaching out, contacting, and providing a range of limited but intensive services to youth gang members. A form of public education by providing economic and social opportunities through the access of jobs and to job training, as well as educational resources and educating the community by informing them that gang problems result from the interaction of sociological, demographic, economic, and cultural factors along with social instability and lack of economic opportunity. Having more people understand where this stems from can lead to concentrating on assessing the needs of youths and providing them with individualized support services and suppression/control by involving their families, local organizations, and their communities. This program will be based as an extension of the Juvenile Court facilities in Salinas, CA. It will be administered through our city’s Sherriff’s office and the office of the Attorney General. It will be paid for by trying to get a cooperative agreement award from the State of California and from donations and fund raisers. The program should include local police officers, probation officers, community youth workers, church groups, boys and girls clubs, and several local residents who work as a team to understand gang structures and provide social intervention and social opportunities whenever possible. The program should reach out to youths unable to connect with legitimate social institutions. Youths at different points in their lives need different things. Older gang members may be ready to secure a legitimate job and need training and education to do so. Younger youths at risk of becoming gang members may need alternative schools or family counseling. The program should provide individualized services for each youth based on his or her needs. This not only consists of surveillance, arrest, probation, and imprisonment to stop violent behavior, but also involves greater communication between agency service providers and control providers. All providers jointly decide what happens to a youth when trouble arises or when it is about to. All workers need to work closely with one another and collaborate. Former gang members working as community youth workers need to be given as much respect as police officers in the program. Each group can provide important information for the program that the other may not be able to obtain. Works Cited Crime Solutions (2010). Program Profile Comprehensive Gang Model. Retrieved from http://www. crimesolutions. ov/ProgramDetails. aspx? ID=278 (OJJDP) Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. 2010. Best Practices to Address Community Gang Problems: OJJDP’s Comprehensive Gang Model. Second Edition. Washington, D. C. : U. S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. 15 Mar. 2013. Web. Spergel, Irving A. , and Susan F. Grossman. 1997. â€Å"The Little Village Project: A Community Approach to the Gang Problem. † Social Work 42:456–70. How to cite Reducing Gang Violence, Essay examples

Friday, April 24, 2020

Tennessee Williams And The Southern Belle Essay Example For Students

Tennessee Williams And The Southern Belle Essay Mary Ellen P. EvansDana SmithTHEA 39311/23/99Tennessee Williams and the Southern BelleAnd such girls! . . . more grace, more elegance, more refinement, more guileless purity, were never found in the whole world over, in any age, not even that of the halcyon . . . so happy was our peculiar social system- there was about these country girls . . . mischief . . . spirit . . . fire . . . archness, coquetry, and bright winsomeness- tendrils these of a stock that was strong and true as heart could wish or nature frame; for in strong and true as heart could wish or nature frame; for in the essentials their character was based upon confiding, trusting, loving, unselfish devotion- a complete, immaculate world of womanly virtue and home piety was their, the like of what . . . was . . . never excelled, since the Almighty made man in his own image . . . young gentleman, hold of, . . . lay not so much as a finger-tip lightly upon her, for she is sacred. (qtd. Bernhard, Southern Women 4) She did no t move. Her eyes began to grow darker and darker, lifting into her skull above a half moon of white, without focus, with the blank rigidity of a statues eyes. She began to say Ah-ah-ah-ah in an expiring voice, her body arching slowly backward as though faced by an exquisite torture. When he touched her she sprang like a bow, hurling herself upon him, her mouth gaped and ugly like that of a dying fish as she writhed her loins against him. (Faulkner 126) The quotation from George W. Bagbys The Old Virginia Gentleman (1885) presents the southern belle on her pedestal in a typical nineteenth-century description. The second quotation from Williams Faulkners Sanctuary (1931) describes the lurid nymphomania of Temple Drake, a more extreme example of the fate of the modern southern belle. The metamorphosis began abruptly around 1914, and since then, Tennessee Williams has presented three southern belles: Amanda Wingfield, Blanche DuBois and Alma Winemiller in the plays respectively The Glas s Menagerie, Streetcar Named Desire and Summer and Smoke (Abbott 20). Early on, writers saw the belle as their ideal South, pure and noble. However, more self-conscious and critical modern writers like Mr. Williams use the darker side of the belle- to symbolize the indictment the Old South or to describe the new. Characteristics that will be examined to exemplify the new belle and consequently the South are narcissism, illusion/memory and rape. We will write a custom essay on Tennessee Williams And The Southern Belle specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now First, what exactly is a southern belle, and why did she change to the present southern belles of Williams? The belle is a young, unmarried daughter of a landed (and thus aristocratic) family, who lives on a great plantation. She is an ideal woman who would be sanctioned by Victorian morality and by the southerners image of the home as a constant standard of order and decency (Dillman 17). The notions of their aristocratic origins assured that the belle would be protected from reality, championed, and wooed. In addition, the realities of plantation life were well suited to the idealization of women, since women were kept isolated from the world by the nature of their life. The lucky, young girl had few tasks except to be pretty and charming. After marriage, she was expected to become a hard-working matron who supervised, nursed and mothered (Avia, WebRing). The reasons for the changes from this proper Victorian belle to the southern belle of Tennessee Williams are both cultural and psychological. When the traditional southern myths clashed with the forces set loose by World War I, the Souths fantasies about itself no longer provided the sanctuary of values that had been sufficient for sixty years after the Civil War. World War I unleashed a chasm of industry, anxiety, death and doubt (Roudane 49). Artists, always the creators of order, had to begin to reorder the world and break up the idles of the old world. Thus the myth disintegration began in poetry, in fiction, in histories, in scholarship, and in the drama (Bynum 5). The beauty ethic of the South prefers its lovely women to be charming and flirtatious, coquettes who never yield their purity, can create impossible tension for the belle: she is asked to exhibit herself as sexually desirable to the appropriate men, yet she must not herself respond sexually. According to Mr. Roudane,s he must be as alluring as the Dark Lady, yet as pure as the White Maiden (18). The drama in which the belle appears reveals that carrying two such extremes is too much for some of the modern belles to bear. Nineteenth-century belles, whose Victorian surroundings and upbringing reinforced the dictated southern behavior, are more successful. After World War I, the basic conflicts within the personality of the belle become the central emphasis in the drama that depicts the belle and ultimately that depicts the South (Bloom 45). The belles of Tennessee Williams could be accurately described as narcissists needing attention, people without a sense of worth, those who settle on an impossible goal to provide their life with meaning. Accordingly, Amanda, Blanche and Alma, are trained to seek the attention of men, and develop the means in how to do so (Kolin 121). And as a result, skills and traits such as assertiveness, intelligence, logic, confidence are ignored and suppressed. Their sense of worth is achieved only through the attention of others (Bernhard, Southern Women 55). This grim recognition of the belles narcissism is a consequence of the beauty ethic of the South. Amanda portrays the narcissistic mother in The Glass Menagerie and has a constant preoccupation with her physical attributes and appearances (including those surrounding her) for All pretty girls are a trap, a pretty trap, and men expect them to be (Jacobus 129). Amandas hair is set in girlish ringlets in an attempt to retain the past, her youth, which has long since diminished. The prospect of losing her physical attributes of youth and beauty terrifies her. Every movement is done carefully and methodically as if she were being put on display. Williams stage directions coach the actor that She lets the hat and gloves fall on the floor- a bit of acting. . . Amanda slowly opens her purse and removes a dainty white handkerchief which she shakes out delicately and delicately touches her lips and nostrils (133). Therefore, Amanda still believes she is on that nineteenth century pedestal in the twentieth century modern world. Amanda also obsesses on how her tenement may look on the outset of the gentleman caller. For some simple workman to drop down for dinner, she dictates a long list orders that need to be done: I want things nice, not sloppy! All my wedding silver has to be polished, the monogrammed table linen ought to be laundered! The windows have to be washed . . . And how about clothes? We have to wear something, dont we? (145). At the onset of an actual man coming to the house, Amanda goes overboard in pleasing him, because that is what the South has trained her to do. The stage directions again point out that Amanda has worked like a Turk in preparation for the gentleman caller. The results are astonishing. The new floor lamp with its rose-silk shade is in place, a colored paper lantern . . .(146). The new materialism continues to hover over their lives as well as the new South. Less concerned with materials and more concerned with herself, Alma resents the need to care for her senile and selfish mother, and self-pitying father. She feels she has had certain difficulties and disadvantages to cope with which may be partly the cause of these peculiarities of mine . . .(Williams, The Theatre 152). She believes her youth is passing and knows that people . . .think of me as an old maid (169). Alma also uses over-elaborate vocabulary, for example using the term pyrotechnical display for fireworks, to display her proper upbringing and impress men. Sadly, Alma is trapped by a code that has created her narcissism and prevented her from accepting her own sexual passion. As a result, she cannot have John Buchanan Jr. Torn between her passion and repression, she is fated to follow a pattern of relationships and a lost love. Alma is attracted to John Buchanan Jr.s rebelliousness and sexual appeal, but their relationship is always thwarted by the part of her that wishes t o be a lady; and so Alma fears Johns intensity and passion, which ironically are like her own (Jackson 14). The treatment of the theme of the narcissist southern belle suggests that as long as men cling to their myth of women, women remain essentially abstractions, objects, and a thing to be used. Similarly, John uses women in Summer and Smoke. Until the myth is abandoned, neither men nor women will achieve self-identity (Stokes 99). The South had lost its identity after the Civil War and in the same respect; it looked to itself as an object of attraction. Likewise, Blanche often asks, How do I look? (Williams, Streetcar 37). The self-identity of the South had been destroyed by the Civil War and began to look towards the home to give itself meaning. .u0ad742deb848126105911cb6904e060c , .u0ad742deb848126105911cb6904e060c .postImageUrl , .u0ad742deb848126105911cb6904e060c .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u0ad742deb848126105911cb6904e060c , .u0ad742deb848126105911cb6904e060c:hover , .u0ad742deb848126105911cb6904e060c:visited , .u0ad742deb848126105911cb6904e060c:active { border:0!important; } .u0ad742deb848126105911cb6904e060c .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u0ad742deb848126105911cb6904e060c { 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; } .u0ad742deb848126105911cb6904e060c:active , .u0ad742deb848126105911cb6904e060c:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u0ad742deb848126105911cb6904e060c .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u0ad742deb848126105911cb6904e060c .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u0ad742deb848126105911cb6904e060c .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u0ad742deb848126105911cb6904e060c .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; } .u0ad742deb848126105911cb6904e060c:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u0ad742deb848126105911cb6904e060c .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u0ad742deb848126105911cb6904e060c .u0ad742deb848126105911cb6904e060c-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u0ad742deb848126105911cb6904e060c:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Paul's Case EssayAmanda, Alma and Blanche are products of a society that has programmed them to conform to the feminine stereotype of the coquette, and her resulting narcissism impels her inevitable behavior. The child who is treated as a beautiful object begins to define herself as a beautiful object. When a womans self-image is that of an object, not a person, she can expect others to treat her accordingly (Bernhard, Hidden Histories 66). They have been reared in accordance with her societys emphasis on feminine beauty. In one situation, Blanches sister Stella orders Stanley to be sure to say something nice about her appearance . . .Tell her shes looking wonderful (Willi ams, Streetcar 28). A narcissist needing attention, a person without a sense of worth, she settles on an impossible goal to provide her life with meaning. Blanche begins to lose self-worth unless someone says a word about my appearance (Williams, Streetcar 21). She is depicted as a perfect product of southern culture, which had long enjoined upper-class women, taught to be unconcerned with fleshly matters. Unfortunately, the role of the narcissist is played at the expense of reality; a woman infatuated with her ego loses all hold on the actual world, she has no concern to establish with real relation with others (Jackson 285). Thus Blanche loses all of reality at the end of Streetcar Named Desire. The former belle and the aging belle nurture illusions about their youthful allure. This remnant of their youthful narcissism leads them to regale their family stories, adorn themselves in old jewelry, or repress old crushes. This results in illusion stemming from a narcissistic world. The heyday of the belle is short-lived; from a debut at sixteen or seventeen to the threat of spinsterhood by nineteen, her career lasts for a few short years (Dillman 28). The excitement of those years is intense: a belle is the center of male and female attention; all her actions are designed to attain the end for which her childhood has prepared her and on which her future depends. Indeed, the courtship phase of her life is the only phase over which she has at least some control, when her decisions might be based on preference. A belle may well remember these days, and cling to them as a brief moment of a time they had freedom (Bernhard, Southern Women 85). Amanda, Blanche and Alma proclaim themselves to be ladies. They carry an air of grandeur, maintaining elegant gestures and speech in situations that render those traits incongruous. Amanda persists in clutching the fragments of dreams, the flashes of memory, for psychological sustenance. Enthusiastically recollecting the battalions of gentlemen who formerly called on her at Blue Mountains, she retells the story over and over again (Bloom 187). She sees the world through a veil of fantasy and illusion. Amanda fancies herself a former Delta belle, an illusion into which she attempts to escape from the confinement of a tenement house in St. Louis. Rooted in a tradition of the genteel Southerner, she can have no social position, no financial security, apart from her husband. With no career plans, she devotes her pride to her husband and children. In her struggle for survival, she uses the DAR to sell magazines, while her daughter runs up the grocery bills and son ropes in potential providers. The myth is that a southern belle is the symbol of youth, beauty and wealth (Kolin 143). She attempts to force the southern belle on Laura, which contributes to the disintegration of Lauras personality as well Amanda refuses to acknowledge this myth has past, so she escapes into her memories:Sometimes they come when they are least expected! Why, I remember one Sunday afternoon in Blue Mountain . . . your mother received- seventeen! gentlemen callers! Why, sometimes there werent chairs enough to accommodate them all . . . Among my callers were some of the most prominent young planters of the Mississippi Delta- planters and sons of planters! There was young Champ Laughlin who later became Vice President of the Delta Planters Bank. Hadley Stevenson who was drowned in Moon Lake and left his widow one hundred and fifty thousand in Government bonds . . . (Jacobus 129)Within this world of memory and illusion, Amanda tries to hold the family together, economically and spiritually. Her husbands desertion of her and the family was the shock that sends her back into the golden days of her girlhood (Bloom 156). Since Amanda cannot face the reality that she was unable to hold her husbands love, she indulges in memories of that one supreme moment of her youth, the day when she might have chosen from seventeen gentlemen callers, all rich and successful and caring for their wives. Williams describes Amanda as, A little woman of great but confused vitality clinging frantically to another t ime and place, who having failed to establish contact with reality, continues to live vitally in her illusions (Kolin 98). Removed into her past and needing to fortify an endangered sense of self-worth, Amanda assumes an archaic form of southern behavior, gentility for What is there left but dependency all out lives? (Jacobus 128). In the early American South a genteel code developed, giving the white southern woman homage both to safeguard her purity from the manhood of black slaves and to symbolize a civilizing influence on the decadent ways of the white landed gentry (Abbott 52). So gentlemen callers represent a time when men were chivalrous and women were respected, admired, and pampered. The gentlemen callers in turn represent a Glorious Hill, a past that the South once had and is still trying to hold on to. Blanche resembles Amanda in her reactions to the harsh world. Her attempt to hold the crumbling world of the family plantation together is similar to Amandas attempt to keep her family together. Blanche pleads with her sister Stella you cant forget your past (Williams, Streetcar 25). Also like Amanda she refuses to accept the reality of her life and attempts to live under illusion. She has a false sense of gentility, which is contradicted, by an equally false sense of promiscuity. The conflict between these two modes of behavior leads her to her destruction (Roudane 173). Blanche is, like Amanda, an aristocrat who has lost her social status and is unable to break from her past. Unlike Amanda, she attempts to escape from, not into, the past, with its sordid reality. Stanleys revelations about her many deceptions both prevent her escape and show her more complex entanglement (Bloom 69). She retreats into the prison of madness, where finally she takes refuge from both past and present. As representative of the Old South, Blanche dissipates her power; far from failing to recognize her cultural (and personal) past, she is bound to it. Caught in a neurotic limbo, she combines in herself the opposites of Johns exaggerated physical urges and Almas culture, pretense and affectation; Blanche cannot reconcile them, nymphomania and prudery, love of the past and hatred of the past, genuine culture and pretensions fakery exist at the same time (Dillman 155). She remains frozen in a time that stands still for women of culture and breed and intelligence can enrich . . . and time cant take them away (Williams, Streetcar 53). Blanche represents one way the South could take: unable to face the contrast between the romantic past and realistic present, Blanche violently betrays her code while desperately trying to maintain it. Ironically, the escape of these characters becomes a prison, confining and degrading the prisoner and sometimes others with her. Blanche DuBois sense of propr iety clashes with her repressed sexual drives when she confronts Stanley who lives outside the code of southern chivalry. He is a man whose overt sexuality is simultaneously desirable and repulsive to her. Unfortunately, her narcissistic coquetry induces her to entice the one man who can destroy her. She cannot reconcile her divided personality in the face of the violent passions of the modern world; consequently, she withdraws into a world of illusions and madness (Jackson 126). While representing the South further, the modern world after World War I cannot carry the conflicting idles of the past and the present reality of war. .ud22f175f7ed58971ae9ac8e803f24fb5 , .ud22f175f7ed58971ae9ac8e803f24fb5 .postImageUrl , .ud22f175f7ed58971ae9ac8e803f24fb5 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .ud22f175f7ed58971ae9ac8e803f24fb5 , .ud22f175f7ed58971ae9ac8e803f24fb5:hover , .ud22f175f7ed58971ae9ac8e803f24fb5:visited , .ud22f175f7ed58971ae9ac8e803f24fb5:active { border:0!important; } .ud22f175f7ed58971ae9ac8e803f24fb5 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .ud22f175f7ed58971ae9ac8e803f24fb5 { 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; } .ud22f175f7ed58971ae9ac8e803f24fb5:active , .ud22f175f7ed58971ae9ac8e803f24fb5:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .ud22f175f7ed58971ae9ac8e803f24fb5 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .ud22f175f7ed58971ae9ac8e803f24fb5 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .ud22f175f7ed58971ae9ac8e803f24fb5 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .ud22f175f7ed58971ae9ac8e803f24fb5 .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; } .ud22f175f7ed58971ae9ac8e803f24fb5:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .ud22f175f7ed58971ae9ac8e803f24fb5 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .ud22f175f7ed58971ae9ac8e803f24fb5 .ud22f175f7ed58971ae9ac8e803f24fb5-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .ud22f175f7ed58971ae9ac8e803f24fb5:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Blah blah blah EssayEven though Stella, the star married to the brute, offers Blanche an example of synthesis, and even though Blanche herself is considerably more free than Alma, Blanche is like Alma is succumbing to the sensual at the expense of her ideals and her own well-being (Kolin 84). Alma and Blanche are a movement toward sensuality representing mental if not physical destruction. And a spiritual person in a physical world is impossible. The idealism is illusionary; Alma is unable to translate it into positive action. Her mother leads her to self-pity. She is bitter because she has not gotten anything for her self-sacrifice, not even recognition. Her life tied to duty; Alma has a dream about what she would do if things were different (Bernhard, Southern Women 74). She says to John, Most of us have no choice but to lead useless lives! But you . . . have a chance to serve humanity. Not just to go on enduring for the sake of indurance, but to serve a noble, humanitarian cause, to relieve human suffering (Williams, The Theatre 154). This need of escape branches from Almas ancestry is Cavalier and Puritan- her mother wears a plumed hat; her father is a preacher. She cultivates social graces, romanticizes sex, and in a manner dictated by her genteel code immediately sets out to satisfy her desire for John. At the same time, she admires Gothic cathedrals, has faith in the everlasting struggle and aspiration for more than our human limits have placed in our reach (Williams, The Theatre 197). Culture and power in both traditions have produced Alma- and the South. At the end of the play she has not so much tempered beautiful illusion with mundane reality as she has shown herself ignorant of any historical perspective. Her decision to take what gratification this earth has to offer- giving little though to the consequences- is a playback of the Souths history (Kolin 184). So long as the soul of the South refused to face reality, it had no future. Illusion may be a world of reality these southern belles are forced to live in, but this illusion can come from or grow more intense as a result of rape or conquest. Rape stood for ultimate domination and subordination. It is a symbol of power encompassing that onto the belle and onto the South. In a male-dominate society, women were a weaker class. After the Civil War, however, plantation owners had to adjust to an economic order no longer based on slavery (Stokes 23). The patriarchal South had made white men the dominant group in terms of their superior status, their access to lucrative economic roles, their autocracy in sexual roles, and their aggressive temperament. Women and blacks, on the other hand, were deemed subordinate in status, role, and temperament. A womans status depended upon her father or husband, her economic role was that of a marriageable alliance maker before marriage and a homemaker after marriage, her sexual role was that of a chaste maiden or faithful wife (s o that the legitimacy of the males line could be preserved (Bernhard, Hidden Histories 65). Rape as the ultimate act of domination results when the male feels denied the privileges he assumes are his right. The right to copulate whomever he pleased was long assumed; restrictions placed on him by societal taboos or laws were in no way as severe as those placed upon white women. During and after World War I, the North began to dominate the South, imposing industry and materialism as well as greed, inflicting an emphasis on money. It is reminiscent of the not-forgotten Civil War (Abbott 34). To no avail, Blanche (the Old South) threatens Stanley (the North) and screams, So I could twist the broken end in your face! (Williams, Streetcar Named Desire 130). After proclaiming lets have some rough-house! He springs toward her, overturning the table. She cries out and strikes at him with the bottle top but he catches her wrist . . .Weve had this date with each other from the beginning! She moans. The bottle falls. She sinks to her knees. He picks up her inert figure and carries her to the bed (130). It is implied and not directly stated that she is raped. If it is assumed that Blanche is representative of the Old South, she is being conquered metaphorically by the North as they did in the Civil War and again in the Industrial Revolution. The belle herself is presented as the repository of the southern values; the rapist is an outsider who represents the antithesis of these values. The rape of Blanche and other southern belles is a symbolic action that represents the violent disordering of a harmonious society (Kolin 137). Obviously, Alma was not raped, but conquered by John Buchanan Jr. After the tables have turned, yes, the tables have turned with a vengeance, Alma has compromised her spiritual side, her soul, for the sensual side of John (Williams The Theatre 247). She has to an extent faced reality, but at a price. His sensual side conquers Alma who died last summer- suffocated in smoke from something on fire inside her (243). Buchanan, despite his upper-mi ddleclass status, is another Stanley, a man who believes in the fundamental morality of a primitive existence. Like Stanley, he expresses contempt for the abstractions of the historical, cultural, and traditional past. Later though, John finds love and hope through Nellie (Bloom 67). Alma is forced to begin to turn her head away from her windows that lead to the Buchanan house, and towards other men, so we are able to keep on going? (Williams, The Theatre 254). Friction evolved from two opposing clusters of images. One of rural, semi-rural life enriched by tradition, religion, stable and predictable social behavior, and feeling of individual worth. And the other a chaotic, frenzy of industrial way of life. This is the atmosphere of the South following World War I. The violence and exploitation existed side by side with the genteel refinement of the South. According to Ms. Abbott, southern myth disintegrated for several reasons whether it be the failure of individuals to pursue their ideas or the inability of southerners to resist contamination by materialists who do not believe in the southern code of behavior, the southern belles, the South, lost. (77). Amanda, Blanche and Alma are vehicles for views of Tennessee Williams of the South. Common themes exercised through not only Tennessee Williams plays, but through much of southern literature are narcissism, memory/illusion and rape. They illuminate the reader of common themes of the Souths history and present state. From George Bagby to William Faulkner, the belle represents a human ideal, now regarded as antique while eliciting a paradox between living in the past and present congruently. Although, this way of life should not be encouraged in the real world, as a literary figure, her day is not over. BibliographyEvans 14Works CitedAbbott, Shirley. Womenfolk: Growing Up Down South. New York: Ticknor and Fields, 1983. Avia. Southern Belles WebRing. 1997. 1 Nov 1999. Bernhard, Virginia Eds. Hidden Histories of Women in the New South. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1994. Bernhard, Virginia Eds. Southern Women. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1992. Bloom, Harold Ed. Modern Critical Views: Tennessee Williams. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987. Bynum, Victoria E. Unruly Women: The Politics of Social and Sexual Control in the Old South. Chaphill Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1992. Dillman, Caroline Matheny Ed. Southern Women. New York: Hemisphere Publishing Corporation, 1988. Jackson, Esther Merle. The Broken World of Tennessee Williams. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1965. Jacobus, Lee A. Ed. The Bedford Introduction to Drama Third Edition. Boston: Bedford Book, 1997. Kolin, Philip C. Tennessee Williams: A Guide to Research and Performance. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1998. Roudane, Matthew C. The Cambridge Companion to Tennessee Williams. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. Williams, Tennessee. A Streetcar Named Desire. New York: Signet Book, 1947. Evans 15Williams, Tennessee. The Theatre of Tennessee Williams Volume Two. New York: New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1971. Theater