Damnation

Hallowed Affliction The author of a medieval lay takes on the challenge of convincing an audience to open their minds to the mystical and suspend disbelief. The medieval lay, a poetic work usually put to music, often asks people to actively take away the themes, criticisms, and messages from magical and mythical stories. In its written form, the lay retains its song-like quality and utilizes a plethora of poetic devices in order to convey its meaning. Sir Orfeo, written by an unknown author,…

Cosmopolitanism is the ideology that all humans belong to a single community, based on a shared morality. Throughout history we have seem many people who claim to be global citizens and venture to see the world of acceptance and hospitality regardless of nationality, gender, or economic condition. The idea, as far as we know, comes from the Greeks and similar empires, such as the Romans, have also had similar thoughts and practice of this idea of a global citizen. The concept is that morality,…

The scene opens in the castle (Denmark in the late medieval period) with Claudius and Gertrude talking with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern about Hamlet’s condition. They tell Claudius and Gertrude that they have been unable to find out what is the cause of Hamlet’s depression and madness. However, they do say that Hamlet is eager to watch the players. Happy, the king and queen agree to watch the play later that evening. R & G and Gertrude then leave so Claudius and Polonius can spy on Hamlet…

In The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by Shakespeare, man’s motivations are criticized. Man can act in regards with his beliefs, his passions, and for greed. Hamlet believes strongly in God and heaven; therefore, Hamlet is an example of man acting with regards to his beliefs. As well as, Laertes and Hamlet are examples of men acting with regards for passion. Laertes starts to choke Hamlet out of his passion for the deaths of Ophelia and Polonius. Finally, Claudius is an example of a man…

Macbeth was written between 1603 and 1609. the play of macbeth is centered around its main character who is courageous and at the same time very ambitious. he is on one side influenced by the predictions of the three weird sisters and on the other side forced to act by his highly ambitious wife. in other of Shakespeare's tragedies, the evil is focused on the antagonists who destroy other people's life by using their weaknesses such as pride, cruelty and lust against themselves. however in this…

Dickinson, who grew up in a Puritan environment, rejected many core tenants of Christianity such as sin and damnation, and her idea of eternity greatly diverged from the typical materialistic view of Heaven. However, she also did not conform to the tenants of Transcendentalism as her emphasis on the incomprehensibility of one’s spirituality and after-life clashed with the traditional belief in the full participation and absolute knowledge of the universe. As witnessed in much of her poetry,…

Money Over Everything Characters in literature are often followed to either be chasing after something that they want or utilizing their resources to accomplish a goal. On numerous occasions, this thing or resource that is being sought after or used, is money. Money, is an underlying motivator that affects the way characters behave. This influence that currency holds over literary figures is shown through the representation of wealth and money in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Money,…

Laws legalizing gay and lesbian couples gives the churches and other religious groups some conscience protection to refuse to marry them. Legal grounds are murkier for religiously affiliated organizations than it is for hospitals, schools, and other social providers that may not grant benefits to the spouse of an employee in a same sex marriage or providing adoption and other services to gay and lesbian couples that are routinely provided for heterosexual couples. Religious communities are…

Whether humans are born good or evil has been debated by religious scholars and social scientists for centuries. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the notion of good and evil is exceptionally difficult to define. Although rarely discussed in Hamlet, an interesting topic interwoven throughout the five acts is whether the ghost of late King Hamlet is honest and good. Hamlet and Claudius also make the distinction between good and evil difficult to define because both are morally complex characters.…

The Black Cat: Witches or Just Cats? I believe that both Pluto I and Pluto II are actually witches in the disguise of a black cat in the story, The Black Cat. It has been a well known superstition for hundreds of years that black cats are bad omens and are often witches. There has been a lifelong correlation between black cats and witches, in some instances the black cat is the witch’s favorite pet of choice and other cases the witch herself turns in a black cat. Therefore, it is not surprising…