The Pearl As Depicted In The Merry Wives Of Windsor

Disturbance, nuisance, annoyance: words that are often used to describe the catalyst to one of nature’s most sublime undertakings: the conception of a pearl. As implausible as it may seem, the process through which such magnificent phenomenon develops is triggered by a speck of sand that makes its way into an oyster. The oyster responds by coating the intruder in an attempt to mitigate the pain. This coating, however, serves to amplify the pain rather than alleviate it as was intended;nonetheless, it soon subsides for ultimately, as a product of the pearl’s seemingly senseless logic of embracing the irritant, an object of great beauty is created: a pearl. William Shakespeare made reference to oysters in his comedy The Merry Wives of Windsor where he wrote, “the world is my oyster.” I, however, hold that contrary to the world being our oyster, we are all oysters of the world; the failures that we face throughout our lives being the specks of sand that make their way into our oyster and the embracement of those failures being the coating whose accumulation culminates in relief for the oyster, and success for us individuals …show more content…
This failure found me at Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, after the award ceremony of a HACIA Democracy debate conference. I had never attended an international conference and I was the youngest member of the team, eager to prove myself. The conference began and within the first two sessions I thought I had already won. Sooner than expected, the conference came to an end and the moment of truth arrived, the award ceremony. My chair stepped up to the podium and as the name of the victor fled her lips, a feeling of deep anguish flooded my body: the name wasn’t