Hamlet the Passive Intellect

The actions and events in Shakespeare’s Hamlet revolve around Hamlet’s inactivity. Without Hamlet's hesitation, constant thought, and internal deliberation, the plot would proceed directly from Hamlet’s meeting with the Ghost to his murder of Claudius. Hamlet’s philosophical strifeheightens the complexity of his life issues and intensifies the depth of his dilemma. Hamlet’s over-intellectualization coupled with his passive tendencies paralyzes his ability to act, locking him in an inescapable prison of his own inner consciousness. Hamlet's over-intellectualization begins with his questioning of the ghost's identity. When first told by Horatio that the ghost of his father haunts the battlements, Hamlet interrogates him obsessively to obtain every relevant detail to satisfy his intellectual curiosity. He  fires  a volley of questions at Horatio, ranging from whether his countenance is â€Å"pale or red† to how long it â€Å"fixed eyes upon [Horatio]† (1. 2. 250). His desire to dispel uncertainty and further his knowledge escalates in the physical encounter with the ghost. Rather than accepting his vision for granted, Hamlet examines the validity of his perceptions by debating whether the ghost of â€Å"a questionable shape† is â€Å"wicked or charitable† (1. . 45-46). Hamlet initially pronounces to the ghost that he will â€Å"wipe away all trivial, fond records, all saw of books, all forms, all pressures past, that youth and observation copied there,† declaring his resolution to act (1. 4. 108). However, when he reconvenes with his friends, he entreats them â€Å"never make known what you have seen tonight† (1. 5. 160). Instead of seeking for an immediate collective action to avenge his father’s â€Å"unnatural murder,† he chooses to prolong the process to devise an elaborate scheme within his own mind. He forestalls action—be it his friends’ or his own—to contemplate the implications of his experience. He concludes by cursing the fact that he â€Å"was born to set it right†Ã‚  Ã‚  (1. 5. 211). The ghost’s revelation places him in a position where he must be the agent of action, whose filial responsibility is to affect justice and kill Claudius. Hamlet’s dilemma, then, stems from the need to become an avenging son while being a naturally passive intellectual. Hamlet addresses his dilemma in greater depth by engaging in a rigorous, intellectual process, which ironically perpetuates the vicious cycle of inactivity. In his conversation with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, he confesses, â€Å"thinking makes it so. To me it is a prison† (2. 2. 270). Hamlet finds himself imprisoned by his intellect, as he â€Å"must like a whore unpack [his] heart with words† (2. 2. 614). He cannot act by heart because he is bound to â€Å"unpack† his actions with reason first. He berates himself as â€Å"a rogue and peasant slave† and â€Å"John-a-dream, unpregnant of my cause, and can say nothing† (2. 2. 576-595). Hamlet recognizes that he is not taking any decisive action to dutifully avenge his father’s death in staying within his comfort zone of intellectualism. As he articulates and explores his conflict of conscience, he concludes, â€Å"Thus conscience does make cowards of us all and thus the native hue of resolution is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought, and enterprises of great pitch and moment†¦lose the name of action (3. 1. 91-96). Hamlet reaffirms that his constant moralizing and philosophizing stymie the very action he strives for. The inexorable clash between his predisposition for sedentary contemplations and the filial imperative to actively seek revenge results in such strong feelings of self-loathing that he considers â€Å"shuffl[ing] off the mortal coil† (3. . 75). Committing suicide would proactively end his suffering, but he problematizes even that possibility as an unacceptable transgression against â€Å"[God’s]  canon ‘gainst self-slaughter! † (1. 2. 136). Ironically, this very soliloquy devoted to meditating on his passivity epitomizes his inaction; rather than coming u p with pragmatic solutions to end his dilemma, he explores and wallows in self-pity, which in turn exacerbates the intensity of his conundrum. Hamlet is so preoccupied with the enormous intellectual activity in his head that he closes himself off from all action in the external world.

Debate over globalisation Essay

Currently in international circles there is a great debate over globalisation and whether it is a force for good or bad. The statement oversimplifies the matter, of course. But the issue of globalisation and our collective response to it promises to define who prospers and who does not well into the 21st century. Globalisation has positive and negative aspects. On top of its positive aspects comes the tremendous development of new information and communication technology, triggers in economic growth through increased trade and job creation around the world. This economical growth can be illustrated by the fact that the world real GDP grew from US$2 trillion to US$28 trillion, which means an increase of 1400%. On a per capita basis, this means an increase of US$614 to US$4908, an increase of about 800%. The quality of life in developed countries has increased However, anti-globalisation supporters affirm that although there was an economical growth, this was not well distributed throu ghout society, and that over the past 150 years, the rich countries are developing at a faster rate than the poor countries, increasing the difference between them. This happens because dealing with globalisation in a capitalist society, there will always be winners and losers. The winners will be the nations which have more skill, technology, information, power and money, whilst the losers will be the poor countries, which export primarily goods and rely on the rich countries to obtain technology and manufactured goods. As a term, globalisation means different things to different people. To some, it is a purely economic trend, the result of the market system unleashed on a worldwide scale, a century-long process that has now been vastly accelerated by the fall of Communism and the relaxation of other restrictive economic practices. As has the impact and growth of globalisation changed, so has its meaning during the last decades. But what is certain is that globalisation is not something of today or yesterday. Among the so many given definitions, Martin Wolf defines globalisation as a â€Å"journey, but toward an unreachable destination, the globalised world. A globalised economy in which, neither distance nor national borders impede economic transactions. A world where the cost of transport and communication were zero and the barriers created by differing national jurisdictions had vanished†. (Wolf, 2001: 178). But globalisation is a very wide notion, which embraces the social, cultural, and political interdependency of states. Globalisation refers also to the integration and interaction between different people and nations. Take the European Union as an example, where the member states share the same democratic values and norms, or the convergence and similarities of the constitutions of the member states, which could lead to a European law or constitution. To others, it defines the ever widening process of international interchange and interconnection that can be witnessed in so many aspects of life, whether the casual observation that top musical artists draw increasingly on other cultures for their melodies and rhythms, the news that former enemies are now participating in joint peacekeeping missions, or the realisation that there are suddenly many more foreign faces and accents in your hometown than before. No matter what the definition, globalisation is dynamic and real, causing numerous and often radical changes in all but the most remote places. Depending on your point of view, circumstance and prospects, the process can be seen as hugely positive or grossly negative. Those who defend globalisation say it is bringing prosperity to untold millions around the world, breaking down national and cultural barriers, and helping to speed the general process of peace-building. Critics say that the chaotic manner in which market forces have scaled up to the global level has unleashed a destructive whirlwind that treats workers callously, serves too often to further impoverish the poor at the expense of the rich, and wreaks vast amounts of environmental destruction. They say that its side effects are equally horrific, ranging from the spread of AIDS and drug abuse to the creation of a world monoculture that destroys local traditions and squelches diversity. At the 1995 World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen, nations of the world took note of this dualism: â€Å"Globalization, which is a consequence of increased human mobility, enhanced communications, greatly increased trade and capital flows, and technological developments, opens new opportunities for sustained economic growth and development of the world economy, particularly in developing countries. Globalization also permits countries to share experiences and to learn from one another’s achievements and difficulties, and promotes a cross-fertilization of ideals, cultural values and aspirations. At the same time, the rapid processes of change and adjustment have been accompanied by intensified poverty, unemployment and social disintegration. Threats to human well-being, such as environmental risks, have also been globalized.† Inasmuch as the pain caused by some aspects of globalisation is undeniable, the real issue is whether the negative effects of its sweeping processes can be ameliorated and the positive effects enhanced. Because in the opinions of some, the forward march of globalisation is unstoppable. The notion concept of sovereignty refers to the three-fold capacity of a state, which is the â€Å"absolute supremacy over internal affairs within its territory, absolute right to govern its people, and freedom from any external interference in the above matters† (Wang, 2004: 473). So a state is sovereign if it has the ability to make and implement laws within its territory, and can function without any external power and assistance, and doesn’t acknowledges any higher authority above itself in the world of independent states. From the above definition one can draw the conclusion that either a stat e can be sovereign or not, since sovereignty is defined as the absolute supremacy and right of the government in a given state. A realist like Steven D.Krasner agrees on the collapsing autonomy of states but deny the impact of globalisation on nation state, which could possibly lead to the death of state sovereignty. He argues, â€Å"Those who proclaim the death of sovereignty misread the history. The nation state has a keen instinct for survival and has so far adapted to new challenges, even the challenge of globalization† (Krasner, 2001: 20). He also argues that globalisation is not a new challenge or phenomena. Viewed from a criminological point, â€Å"the perceived normality of high crime rates, together with thee widely acknowledged limitations of criminal justice agencies, have begun to erode one of the foundational myths of modern societies: namely, the myth that the sovereign state is capable of providing security, law and order, crime control within its territorial boundaries† (Garland, 1996: 448). The notion of legitimate organized violence monopoly, which is of great importance for the internal order as well as for the foreign accountability of a state, is challenged by the international criminality. Since states cannot provide security for their citizens and are not capa ble of guaranteeing internal order, one of the fundamental elements of state sovereignty is undermined and questioned. The negative effects of globalisation can be softened only through new and higher levels of international cooperation and consultation, filtered through a new system of moral values that puts human welfare and social justice ahead of the predominantly materialistic paradigm currently in vogue. Call this global governance. Call it world government. But one way or the other, the forces of globalisation will require the creation of some sort of international super authority, one that can ensure that human rights and workers’ prerogatives are upheld, and that the environment is protected, as globalisation proceeds. Another factor that is observed is that the number of poor people (people living with less than US$1 per day) has increased, and reached almost 1.2 billion people, which is almost one fifth of the world’s total population. This is partly caused by the increase in global population, but also due to the distribution of the money. The ratio of income between the wor lds twenty percent richest and twenty percent poorest has increased from 30:1 to 78:1. Many people also question the issue of globalisation creating more jobs when multinationals establish new factories in foreign countries. Their argument is that although more jobs are created, and that this reduces the unemployment, these jobs don’t require any skill and workers have very bad working conditions, working long hours and receiving little money. And as the workers have no other working options, and working in these factories is their only source of income, they can’t do anything else, but work to try to survive. Besides this, the unemployment levels are very high, which means that there is always someone available to substitute workers that aren’t happy with what they are being offered. These facts make us think in a way of making globalisation fairer, and giving developing countries the chance of benefiting more from it. So that this can happen, there are many things that need to be changed. First of all the development needs to be more focused on the people, and not only in financial reasons. Fairer rules and deeper partnerships should be done between developed and developing countries so they can have a mutually beneficial relationship. Also one of the most important things to ensure that nations can benefit the most from globalisation is that a powerful, democratic and more effective UN helps to control the spread and paths of globalisation. From this we can conclude that globalisation is one of the most important factors of the new century, and that it will continue spreading and growing all around the world, reaching the furthest corners of the planet. The question of whether it is good or bad can never be answered completely, and there isn’t a right or wrong answer, because there will always be good and bad sides to it. At present globalisation seems to be beneficial for some and detrimental to others. For globalisation to be beneficial to the majority depends on how it is treated and controlled. Globalisation could be very beneficial to society as a whole if managed correctly.

Boys Behavior in The Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Boys' Behavior in The Lord of the Flies by William Golding Having parents that are strict on you could be a good or a bad thing.When it comes to you not being around them it shows how you’d act if they weren’t around. In the Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the boys behavior is affected by the way they were raised.reasoning, Piggy’s aunt led him to being proper, Ralph’s dad is a commander in the navy, and Jack likely had a poor relationship with his parents. For Piggy growing up with a proper and respectful surrounding it would be good for him to be alone because he would know how to act with no parents around. Knowing that there are no girls on the island and Piggy lived with his aunt he’d be the only female voice of the group. Piggy likes to be Ralph’s advisor knowing that he cannot lead the group on himself. Piggy believes that holding the couch gives him the right to be heard. Piggy also likes to keep life scientific. Ralph represents leadership and a decency of intelligence. Shows obvious common since. Ralph is the one who makes the meeting place, the fire, and the huts. Ralph was the only elected leader for the boys.Ralph starts to lose his power of organized such as when he struggles to make an agenda for a meeting. Ralph was the only one to realize that Simon’s death was a murder. Since his dad was a commander in the navy Ralph will know all these things because he gets it from a father figure. For Jack, Jack gave a evil and violent type of character based on the fact that he had a dark side in survival. Jack came with a mindset that he would control eachand one of the boys and run them over when quite frankly he didn’t. He wanted to make rules and punish people who didn’t want to follow them even tho eventually he starts breaking his own rules he creates. Jack wants to rule the group other than just working with Ralph then being against Ralph. Jack doesn’t even follow the conch rule, but uses it in advantage when he has the power to do so. Jack wasn’t really good with his parents he got sent to military school and wasn’t really doing so great. All in all, when you are raised correctly or mutually you will conquer a lot in life. When you choose to not listen to what your parents tell you or make you do it can reach based on how you perform in public. If your parents are strict on you its better for you because when your not around them it will show what they meant to you when they told you to do this or that. Could even be when adults, adults parent just how they are raised or though to do so. This is how you would know if kids and or adults react in certain situations.

What Is Sweet Dreams Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

What Is Sweet Dreams - Essay Example A lot is told about magic and fairytales especially during our childhood where a part of each person’s stage would involve storytelling before bedtime and the many mythical beliefs being introduced to each one of us such as the tooth fairy or our guardian angels. What is so amazing about being a kid who is being told of magical stories is that one truly believes that it is so and somehow creates in him or her that faith that everything is possible or can go the way they wanted to even when it is beyond normal. However, as we all grow older, all these are not necessarily forgotten but are now redefined. This means that we accept the fact that we can imagine stories in our minds but aware of the need to wake up to reality. And the nearest thing that would bring us back to a different world of magic would be when we dream dreams. One common thing between adults and children would be that both dream while they are sleeping. The only difference would be the kind of dreams each person has and of course the effect of dreams to each person. First of all, as an adult, how many times does a normal person dream dreams and what do they commonly dream of? This is the first question I asked myself. Thus, to be able to get a more variety of answers, I have called three of my friends over to a restaurant to catch up over some great milkshake and pizza while asking them about their experiences with dreaming. I chose one girl and one boy of my age and at the same time one girl who is older than I was and was living a different lifestyle than me and my two young friends have. Here I learned from my friend that the number of dreams she would have depended on the major things that have been going on with her life as of the moment. She said, â€Å"The number of dreams I have depends on the number of major things that have hap pened to me recently or depends on how many things made me really happy or perhaps extremely sad† (Gaffud, J.).     

Managerial accounting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Managerial accounting - Essay Example This concept states that stock is valued at lower of NRV or cost. Since NRV is not given in this case, we will include the purchase price or the cost of stock which is 750 in this case. The cost of skilled employees: The cost of skilled employees is the direct cost of the order. As a result, there wages can easily be allocated to this order because we know that they have worked on this particular order during the week we can easily apportion this to the order and since it is the job of accountants to allocate all the recognizable costs to the appropriate cost centers, this order is the cost center and the cost activity of the workers is rightly apportioned to this order. The extra cash lost: Accountants are only concerned with the explicit costs and they are least concerned with the implicit cost. Implicit costs are the opportunity cost like this one. These are not the real costs but are based on economic assumption of the next best alternative. Similarly, since these costs are based on assumptions, we cannot tell the accurate amount of these costs. However, economists do use these costs when calculating normal profit of a project or of an item. But, since cost statement is done by accountants and not the economists, we will ignore these costs in the job order cost statement. We are only going to include those costs that have factual evidence as the concept of "materiality" states. As a result, when preparing the job order cost statement, I have not included the implicit amount as it is of little value to the accountants. Machinery depreciation: Machinery depreciation is a fixed cost. It means that irrespective of the operations performed by the machinery, a depreciation charge will be levied. Such costs do not vary with the output or the operations performed and hence we call them the fixed costs. In this case, since we have made a separate adjustment of the fixed overheads, it will lead to double addition if we add this cost separately. In other words, the depreciation charge is already included in the fixed overheads and it will lead to distortion of the cost statement if we include a separate head for machinery depreciation. In more professional terms, these will windows dress the financial statement and hence will give a different picture to the cost statement than it is in reality. For the reasons given above, I have excluded the amount for machinery depreciation from the cost statement. Electricity: The statement in the question tells us whether the order is received or not, the machinery will be in continuous use. Since all machinery is run on electricity, we can assume that the charge of electricity is also fixed. The entire costs related to machine are fixed as it is indifferent to the order and hence these costs will also be included in the fixed overheads. Hence by adding them separately, we will again be making a mistake of double debiting our cost statement. This again will distort the cost of the order in reality and will make us assume that we are incurring more costs than we really are. This is called as window dressing and should be avoided from both the ethical and legal point of view. Hence, this amount is excluded from the job order cost statement. Fixed overheads: Certain indirect costs are incurred when a company is working on a

Critical Thinking and Informatics Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Critical Thinking and Informatics - Assignment Example In contemporary times, nurses’ assessment relies upon technology, which yields much reliable results. It has not negatively affected the assessment skills of nurses and in fact it has transformed the assessment methods that have improved the clinical assessments (Webb & Shakespeare, 2008). Though technological tools may have errors, but the results are more accurate than human assessment. According to the study of Powell-Cope & Patterson (2008), the use of patient care technology has become complex with the passage of time, and this is because of the reason that the before the use of technology, nurses relied more on their sense of sight, touch, smell and hearing to detect the change in the patient (Powell-Cope, Nelson, & Patterson, 2008). Now, the excessive use of technology tools has suppressed the sense of nurses to detect changes in the patient (Powell-Cope, Nelson, & Patterson, 2008). As cited by Powell Cope in ‘Patient Care Technology and Safety’ nurses relied on change in the skin color and mental status of he patient to determine the changing in oxygen saturation. This reflects that before the invention of pulse oxygmetry nurses were able to identify the oxygen saturation in the patient determining their physical and mental condition. Similar has been cited by Zalumas in ‘Caring in Crisis’ as he states that the overdependence of nurs es on the technology has declined clinical assessment skills (Zalumas, 1995). The legal implication and computerized data has increased the burden on the technical environment. Inducement of Patient Care Technology has provided new dimensions for the clinical practice as nurses are relying more on these technologies that has discarded old methods. On the other hand, scholars believe that the technology has resolved major issues related to nurses assessment (Dickerson, Brewer, & Kovner, 2007). According to Rudy and Bertman,

Human Rights Act 1998 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Human Rights Act 1998 - Essay Example Who will then protect the ordinary citizen from suffering from the wrath of the angry Queen of Hearts (the executive) and give them a chance to have their cases reconsidered and to achieve procedural and substantive justice Our saviour is of course the remedy of Judicial Review through the Human Rights Act 1998 which has become more of an eye sore to the Executive in the yester decades as the Judiciary continues to "check and balance" an unruly, highly political executive through the not so recent Human Rights Act 1998 which seems to have absorbed in the veins of judicial activism and recent case law with much ease. The promulgation of the Human Rights Act 1998 was one giant step towards the process of judicial review of administrative action in the United Kingdom in the context of its constitutional significance. Judicial review has shifted the growing balance of power which is shifting in the favour of the courts in their "Judicial Activism" since the 1960's which has often alarmed the members of the executive with many academic commentators defending this as "inevitable" in the face of the expanding role of the State1 and increasingly draconian legislation (especially in the area of Immigration and Terrorism law post 9/11 and 7/7).Prior to the Human Rights Act 1998 the English approach to a systematisation of judicial review was remedial based and thus similar to the development of the prerogative writs2 which developed as personal requests by an individual to the King for the redressal of a wrong suffered by another individual.3The UK has no separate system of administrative courts (and the concept never found favour with the system either eversince the abolition of infamous prerogative Star Chamber).Thus the present administrative review system of England can be described as a body that combines both a substantive body of law containing grounds of review and a large number of administrative tribunals dealing with statutory appeals from decisions of public bodies. Thus it is possible to see that the British Constitution is largely unwritten to date with the exception of the new review powers for the courts introduced by the Human Rights Act 1998. The Act goes a long way in securing the rights and freedoms of the British Citizens in a many ways.In particular the recently promulgated Human Rights Act 1998 makes it unlawful for a public authority to act in a way which is incompatible with a Convention right(Section 6(2)) would certainly subscribe to the Pure Ultra Vires view discussed above. This Act provides a "statutory basis" to judicial review of administrative action. Moreover the Human rights Act 1998 has played a significant large role in strengthening the judiciary's stance against unwarranted access by the public authorities and as well as helping them declare any UK law incompatible with the Human Rights Act 1998.However even though the role of the Act has been lauded by many circles in the