A Reaction to the Article, “The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind” by Gustave Le Bon

I resolutely concur with Gustave Le Bon’s LAW OF THE MENTAL UNITY OF CROWDS, which is indeed a socio-psychological phenomenon manifested throughout history and continues to manifest in our day-to-day lives. We are social beings. That makes this law almost absolute that to exclude oneself from it would mean excluding oneself from the rest of society and humanity, or one’s community to be more specific.Le Bon’s multifaceted analysis on the psychological crowd gave me the feeling of referring to it as a community. As he spoke of â€Å"collectiveness†, I remembered â€Å"sharing.† His discussion on the â€Å"individual comprising the crowd† reminded me of â€Å"group membership.† When he spoke of â€Å"contagion† I thought of â€Å"shared expectations and common goals.†His â€Å"influence and suggestion,† are â€Å"motives and issues† to me in relation to community. Most importantly, his statement of individuals being equals regardless of intellect and social status is â€Å"democracy.†   These heightened my belief of the law as I became more comfortable in relating his claims to everyday life.What is more convincing with the article is that it was written in a realistic and practical approach. Le Bon didn’t dwell idealistically in his concept of the psychological crowd, like me in my understanding of a community.Diversity, conflict, and factions in thinking are certainly inevitable and are always threats to harmony and homogeny. More so, the bottom line of every crowd or community’s dynamics is the motives, commitment, and gains of its members.Like Gustave’s discussion on the psychological crowd’s dynamics of having the individuals conscious and independent ways of thinking dissolved in a crowd, my understanding of a community is that it is composed of people who transmit knowledge through sharing rather than individually inheriting traits and characte ristics from their parents.Undeniably, this law had been formulated through in-depth observation of the dynamics of historical events and processes. It shall never cease to support the existence of social, cultural, political, and economic entities, that is all the advances as well as the setbacks human development has brought to us.ALL religions, ALL laws, ALL business establishments and policies, ALL family systems, ALL academic institutions, ALL forms technology, ALL sciences, ALL wars and conflicts, etc. are all products of MENTAL UNITY OF CROWDS. As long as people converge to work on something, as long as they exist and need each other, this law shall be valid.If Sociology is the study of human social behavior, origins, institutions, organization, and the development of human society, then Le Bon’s Law would be the very much essential to justifying the existence of the science (Sociology).It effectively presents a powerful phenomenon that explains the process of the simp le individual being the foundation of a more complex crowd, which tells us so much about social relationships and behaviors, and organizational processes. Thus, it is able to profoundly provide us a base of what we are actually studying every day in this course.

Modernization theory Essay

Modernization theory focuses on the main idea that the processes which the currently developed countries went through are vital to achieving development in the underdeveloped and developing countries. Modernization is thought to take place in five stages according to the Rostow’s stage theory (Rostow 1960), namely; †¢ The traditional society †¢ Take-off preconditions †¢ Take-off †¢ Drive to maturity †¢ High mass consumption age The modernization theory is based on the idea of human progress according to Carneiro (2003) although according to Jones (1985) and McNeill (1990), the idea of human progress seemed unrealistic so long as man did not significantly influence the natural environment and as long as there was no perceptible change in the agrarian economies from one generation to the next. The developed countries are to serve an important role in helping the developing countries to achieve their level of development and serve as examples. Modernization traces its origin in the enlightenment era with the focus that progress in technology would help man overcome the challenges that the nature posed and man would have control over nature. Condorcet (1979) argued that moral values of people would change through economic development and technological progress, and therefore linked cultural change to economic development. Rostow (1961) argued that the economic effectiveness in the countries of low incomes is hampered by their social institutions and traditional cultural values. In these countries large population do not allow the individuals to save, as does the lack of strong work ethic (Giddens, & Griffiths2006). According to the Marxist version of the modernization theory, early industrial society was characterized by exploitation. Growth of the developing countries would result from the use of education and technology. Allocation of resources in the developing countries in an irrational way was linked to the drawback in the industrialization of these countries. In order for a country to develop, it was necessary to remove the cultural, institutional and organizational roadblocks on its way to modernization and allocate resources rationally. Modernization is, according to Inglehart & Welzel (2005), a process of the development of human where development of the economy triggers cultural changes which make democracy, gender equality, and individual autonomy increasingly possible. In addition to bringing out the root causes of the problems existing in the underdeveloped or developing countries, the theory also can help countries focus on means and ways of alleviating poverty by emulating the already developed countries. The theory puts strength to the fact that development is reachable, even by the underdeveloped and the developing nations and therefore can help the latter to put efforts to reach the developed world. The theory explains an important point why the developing countries cannot wake up one day and expect to see themselves developed, but that to achieve development, a particular process is followed-building the sub-processes in this process is of paramount importance to the countries of low economy. Dependency theory can be defined as an explanation of the development of the economy of a country’s or state’s development policy as influenced by the outside forces of cultural, economical, and political aspects (Sunkel, 1969). It is a system through which the developmental possibilities of the subordinate countries are disadvantaged and conditioned by the economic expansion and development of another country (Dos Santos, 1971). Dependency theory emanated in the 1950s with Raul Prebisch who was the director of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and together with his colleagues was not comfortable with the way the developed economy in the developed nations failed to lead to growth in the poorer countries. According to him, the poorer countries exported the raw materials to the developed countries and yet received the same goods as processed goods and the earnings from the exports was not enough to fund the imports. Prebisch offered a solution for the poor countries to substitute imports and avoid use of their foreign reserves to purchase for imports of manufactured goods. Import substitution was hard to follow because of obstacles that were facing the poorer countries. These included: the possibility or ability of controlling their exports of primary products; political will as concerning desire or possibility to shifting from producing primary goods; and the inability of the small internal markets of the poorer countries which made them unable to support the economies of scale used by the richer countries to keep their prices low. International capitalism has been mentioned as the force causing dependency relationship According to Gunder (1972), contemporary underdevelopment is as a result of continued relationships-economic or others-between the developed and the poorer countries. Unlike imperialism which explains dominant state expansion, dependency explains underdevelopment-the result of imperialism. Dependency theory was developed as a result of combination of economic doctrine called structuralism, and Marxist sociology. It blamed the US intervention and the role of the Latin America in the world economy as failing to achieve development and its political authoritarianism as a result of its role in exporting raw materials in the world economy. America was said to suffer deterioration in the terms of trade by experiencing cheaper exports due to low wage resulting from surplus labor, and more expensive imports because, instead of the productivity gains being passed on as lower prices, they were going to the increasingly monopolistic industrial firms. Latin America would therefore, because of this free trade, not be able to accumulate surplus capital required to industrialize. The difference between developed and underdeveloped economies was said not only to be on state of the system of production, or simple difference of stage, but also to be of position or function within a single international economic structure of production and distribution. Poverty of the countries was blamed for the richness of some others, not because of any failure (Reid, 2007). Social exclusion of masses as a result of domination of the economy through industrial monopolies yielded to urbanization void of industrialization (Reid, 2007). As a payment to investments, the foreign investors required that the state discipline those demanding high wages leading to military dictatorship. Although their diverging points on the theory, there is an agreement in issues like the influence of external forces that developed world use to extend their interests abroad which includes foreign aids, communications, multinational corporations and other tools. In all the definitions there is an agreement that there exist two sets of states; the dominant and the dependent, centre and the periphery, the metropolitan and the satellite. All of the definitions point to dynamism of the relationship between the dominant and the dynamic country since the interactions between them tend to reinforce and intensify the unfair patterns (Ferraro, 1996). Like the Modernization theory which can be considered to be developed by different people, the dependency theory also is said to have arisen in three principle formulations. According to Reid (2007) the first principal formulation of the dependency theory focused on formal and institutional relationships such as trade relations and foreign trade, as factors which were sources to dependency. The second formulation treated the theory as a subfield of the refined imperialism theory of the Leninist and the analysis of capitalism by Marxist. The third formulation dealt with the two previous definitions. The theory has assisted in shedding light as concerns the exploitation existing in the monopolistic world market where countries with strong economies try to dominate over those with weak economies and create a monopolistic effect of trade. Continued use of foreign aid to the poor nations, which has seen countries being over-reliance to donors, has left poor countries with no solid alternatives than to pledge loyalty to the developing nations. The theory has helped in enumerating the disadvantages that can be acquired from capitalism especially where the capitalism is the influence to the establishment of relations between countries. The theory was criticized as eroding Latin American’s belief in selves, according to Lawrence Harrison, in addition to patronizing and paralyzing Latin America. The formulations were attacked as ignoring or undermining the other causes of underdevelopment such as internal social and cultural factors and were neglect of culture, race, gender and ethnicity. Besides, there were some countries like Asian countries which developed purely on a capitalistic system, and countries like Taiwan and South Korea developed through the ideas that have been propelled in the development theory (‘Dependency verses Dependency theory’). The theory has been blamed as indicating that for a country to succeed, it should join others who have succeeded in the exploitation of some, even if it does this on a regional level. It has been termed to be a strategy left only for the smaller third world countries with no real alternative market, and is no strategy at all. The dependency theory work has been blamed also for criticizing development in the third world, indicating that such development builds a society different from that at the core (developed world) and that there is no way the resulting society can be as that at the core. Development in the third world can be best described, as the dependency theory points out, development of underdeveloped and not as the advertised development. The similarities between the two theories can summarized as follows: †¢ Both theories concern themselves with the relationship between the underdeveloped and the developing with the developed countries. While the modernization theory is concerned with the view that the developed countries should serve as an example to the developing or underdeveloped countries for development purposes, the dependency theory explains the development of the country in relation to the outside forces or influences which may be as a result of the activities of the developed countries. Both therefore deal with and recognize that there exist the relationship between thee two types of countries. †¢ Both theories are consent to the idea that the developed countries have a superior hand in terms of the economy, over the developing or the underdeveloped world. The difference in this area is that the dependency theory seems to indicate an unfair dominance of the developed economies over the developing or underdeveloped ones, whereas the modernization theory views the relationship as health-that the developed economies can assist the underdeveloped or the developing ones †¢ Both theories do not give a one-sided explanation as concerns the causes of the low economic status in the developing or underdeveloped countries. While the modernization theory gives a critical look at the reason for the poor economic status of the developing or underdeveloped nations as being a result of the problems already existing such as overpopulation and lack of work ethics, it may be seen as neglecting the role of the developed economies in the resulting economic problems of the third word countries. In its explanation to the resulting economic difficulties in the third world, dependency theory has leaned unfairly away from the role played by the third world countries in resulting to their own economic problems. It has been blamed, as seen earlier, as neglecting the social economic factors that contribute to economic problems in third world countries. It can be seen to be unfairly explaining the problem as a result to exploitation and external forces. †¢ There are a range of modifications or disagreements arising among scholars in the development of the two theories Other differences †¢ While the modernization theory seems to explain the causes of poor economy in the third world as the result of the activities of the countries themselves for example through poor allocation of resources, and with a view to solving it, the dependency theory can largely be described as a criticism to the developed countries as being the cause to the problems of the economy in the third world. The modernization theory focuses on the internal causes of the poor economy in the third world, but the dependency theory focuses on the external influences †¢ The dependency theory is devoid of a clean sheet and proper strategy of solving the economic problem of the third world in a non fair market, to the event that it has been described as a ‘no strategy at all’. The modernization theory presents a way of solving the problems of economy affecting the third world such as substitution of imports, advance in use of technology and further education to improve economy. References Andre Gunder Frank, â€Å"The Development of Underdevelopment,† in James D. Cockcroft, Andre Gunder Frank, and Dale Johnson, eds., Dependence and Underdevelopment. Garden City, New York: Anchor Books, 1972, p. 3. ‘Development verses Dependency theory’ Retrieved November 13, 2008 from http://www. revision-notes. co. uk/revision/619. html Dos Santos Theotonio. â€Å"The Structure of Dependence,† in K. T. Fann and Donald C. Hodges, eds. , Readings in U. S. Imperialism. Boston: Porter Sargent, 1971, p. 226 Ferraro Vincent. Dependency Theory: An Introduction. July 1996. Retrieved November 13, 2008 from http://www. mtholyoke. edu/acad/intrel/depend. htm Giddens Anthony & Simon Griffiths. (2006). Sociology. Polity Hogan Michael, Thomas Paterson. (2004). Explaining the History of American Foreign Relations. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press Inglehart Ronald & Christian Welzel. (2005). Modernization, Cultural Change, and Democracy: The Human Development Sequence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Reid Michael. Forgotten Continent: The Battle for Latin America’s Soul. Yale: Yale University Press Sunkel Svaldo. â€Å"National Development Policy and External Dependence in Latin America,† The Journal of Development Studies, Vol. 6, no. 1, October 1969, p. 23

Romeo and Juliet Act 3 Scene 5

Romeo and Juliet Romeo and Juliet are from two prominent and feuding families who reside in the city of Verona, a real city in northern Italy. As far as the audience are aware, they are their parents’ only offspring, the only other ‘children’ in the family are Benvolio and Tybalt, cousins to Romeo and Juliet respectively.As only children, their parents are naturally protective of them – Juliet’s father, especially. Towards the beginning of the play, in Act 1, Scene 2, Paris asks Capulet for permission to marry his daughter. In Elizabethan times (when the play was written and performed), it was the job of the father to give away the daughter, as if she were a present or his property, rather than her own person.Rather than just give away his daughter to Paris, a young nobleman, kinsman to the prince, and someone who would be seen as a ‘good catch’ for a husband, he tells him: ‘But going o’er what I have said before, My child i s yet a stranger in the world, She hath not seen the change of fourteen years, Let two more summers wither in their pride, Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride’ From this speech that Capulet is protective of his daughter, and whilst he wants her to marry a fine man (she tells Paris to come back in two years), he doesn’t want her to grow up too quickly.It would appear that he has her best interests at heart. In the following scene, we first see the relationships between Juliet and her nurse and mother. Her mother seems somewhat out of touch with her daughter, having to ask the nurse to find her†¦ (‘Nurse, where’s my daughter? Call her forth to me’) and doesn’t seem to be able to talk to her daughter, other than through the nurse or in her presence ‘This is the matter:–Nurse, give leave a while, We must talk in secret:–nurse, come back again; I have remember'd me, thou's hear our counsel.Thou know'st my daughter's of a pretty age.. ’ However, she does appear to have some consideration for her daughter’s feelings and wishes, as she asks her what she thinks of marrying the nobleman, and to start thinking about marriage; she also makes her speech a little more personal by putting in some of her own experience (that she was a mother at the age her daughter now is): ‘Well, think of marriage now; younger than you, Here in Verona, ladies of esteem, Are made already mothers: by my ount, I was your mother much upon these years’ Whereas Juliet seems to respect her mother (first referring to her as ‘Madam’ rather than, perhaps, mum or Mother), she seems to be more at ease talking to her nurse . It would appear that Juliet and her nurse have always been close†¦ even to the point of the nurse taking over the traditional mother’s job of breastfeeding her child.She makes a reference to this in the same scene: ‘And she was wean'd,–I never shall f orget it,–Of all the days of the year, upon that day: For I had then laid wormwood to my dug,’†¦Ã¢â‚¬ËœWhen it did taste the wormwood on the nipple Of my dug and felt it bitter, pretty fool, To see it tetchy and fall out with the dug! ’ Above, the nurse talks of breastfeeding Juliet. This is, of course, very unusual in this day and age, but not quite unheard of in Elizabethan times. The fond fashion in which the nurse remembers this, however, seem to indicate that Juliet and the nurse have a strong relationship.The fact that she was breast-fed by her nurse rather than her biological mother hints that perhaps the nurse was (and is? ) more of a mother to her than Lady Capulet. The nurse also seems friendlier than Lady Capulet – by saying things such as ‘Amen, young lady! Lady, such a man as all the world – why, he's a man of wax’ and‘ Go, girl, seek happy nights to happy days’, she seems to be more excited about Parisâ €™s proposition than Lady Capulet. Act 3, scene 5 in some ways seems a distorted reflection of Act 1, scenes 2 and 3.Capulet has arranged to marry Juliet off to Paris, and once again it is Lady Capulet that has the job of telling her. However, the Capulets’ stances on Juliet regarding marriage have changed. Instead of wanting to protect his daughter from an early marriage, Capulet is now the one trying to rush her into it. Likewise, her mother, rather than asking Juliet for her thoughts on the matter, is telling her what is Going to happen. Juliet has just spent her wedding night with her beloved and now husband, Romeo. He has been banished to the city of Mantua for avenging the murder of his friend Mercutio.The scene starts on quite tense grounds, as Juliet has almost been caught with her lover, who is a sworn enemy of her family and faces execution if found in Verona. Simply Romeo being in the house is enough to create some tension – that Juliet is crying heighte ns this tension. Juliet’s mother shows herself to be a little insensitive by effectively telling her daughter that crying isn’t going to bring anyone back, and that it shows her to be a bit stupid: ‘Therefore, have done: some grief shows much of love;But much of grief shows still some want of wit. Lady Capulet then shows her ignorance of Juliet's marriage and feelings for Romeo by telling Juliet not to weep for Tybalt’s death, but that Romeo lives. Romeo is referred to as the ‘villain’ several times – this adds emphasis to the fact that the Capulets see Romeo as a bad person. Juliet mutters, aside to the audience, that she believes that Romeo and ‘villain’ are ‘many miles asunder’. This confirms to the audience that Juliet and her mother have opposing views. Lady Capulet continues, calling Romeo a ‘traitor murderer’ and threatens to send someone to Mantua to murder Romeo.The audience do not want to see Romeo be murdered, now that they can see how in love he and Juliet are. Shakespeare then very cleverly crafts a speech for Juliet that has dual meaning. ‘Indeed, I never shall be satisfied With Romeo, till I behold him–dead– Is my poor heart for a kinsman vex'd. Madam, if you could find out but a manTo bear a poison, I would temper it;That Romeo should, upon receipt thereof,Soon sleep in quiet. O, how my heart abhors To hear him named, and cannot come to him.To wreak the love I bore my cousin Upon his body that slaughter'd him! ’ The punctuation at the beginning can be altered to sound differently to the audience than Lady Capulet would hear it. It could be read ‘Indeed, I never shall be satisfied with Romeo, till I behold him, dead – [dead] is my poor heart for a kinsman vex’d’,where the kinsman is the slaughtered Tybalt†¦ or ‘Indeed, I never shall be satisfied with Romeo, till I behold him. Dead is my poor heart †¦a kinsman vex’d’†¦ where Romeo isn’t dead, just a kinsman (husband) vexed (in distress).She says that if she could find a poison that would let Romeo ‘sleep in quiet’, she would temper it. Whereas Lady Capulet would see this as her daughter wanting to poison Romeo and kill him, the audience may take it as her wanting to take Romeo’s troubles (i. e. their separation) away so that he can sleep peacefully at night. More observant members of the audience may also link this to the ending of the play, where Juliet temporarily poisons herself in an effort to solve her and Romeo’s problems. When Juliet says that her ‘heart abhors to hear him named, and cannot come to him.To wreak the love [she] bore [her] cousin upon his body that slaughter’d him’, her mother takes this as not being able to lay her hands upon him†¦ but the audience obviously realises that she means that it hurts her to hear his name and not be able to be with him†¦ perhaps even to get sexual gratification out of him. The audiences may well be shocked by these lusts that are well beyond her years – remember that she is only 13. The tension at this point would be building, as Juliet is playing a dangerous game by playing with her words like this.The indication that Juliet wants to ‘wreak her love upon him’ may also have been quite shocking†¦ audiences of the time would not have been so exposed to such blatant references to sins of the flesh. When Lady Capulet declares that Juliet’s father has arranged a marriage for her in a few days, the audience may feel a quick dropping sensation in their stomachs – for they know that Juliet is already married – and therefore cannot marry Paris – and that this means that the secret marriage between Juliet and her Romeo may be discovered.She also once again shows her ignorance of Juliet’s true feelings by being under the impression that the marriage will cheer Juliet up – not make her problems worse. She uses repetition of the word ‘joy’ here to emphasise what she presumes Juliet should be feeling. Juliet strikes back by saying: ‘Now, by Saint Peter's Church and Peter too, He shall not make me there a joyful bride. I wonder at this haste; that I must wed Ere he, that should be husband, comes to woo.I pray you, tell my lord and father, madam, I will not marry yet; and, when I do, I swear, It shall be Romeo, whom you know I hate, Rather than Paris. These are news indeed! ’ Juliet swears by Saint Peters Church and Peter too’ – Elizabethan audience wouldfind this blasphemous and shocking. She also throws her mother’s term ‘a joyfulbride’ back at her, and questions her parents wishes by saying to the effect of ‘I’mwondering about you’re wish to marry me off to someone who hasn’t even botheredto court me’ †¦ then downright defies them by saying that ‘I will not marry yet’.In Elizabethan times, daughters were seen as their parents’ (and especially father’s)property, so it would have been seen within Capulet’s rights (if, perhaps, a little unfair) to ‘give away’ his daughter. The last three lines of the dialogue are broken up strategically with commas, which drag out the speech and make it seem much more powerful and effective than if it was read without these breaks. The whole speech, whilst not quite being disrespectful, is defiant and directly challenges Juliet’s parents’ wishes.The audience will feel now as if the tension is coming to a peak, as society absolutely demanded that children abided by their parent’s wishes, and that even though the marriage can’t go ahead, Juliet will be punished for trying to prevent it. When Capulet enters, he appears in a fine mood, but this soon changes when his wife inf orms him of their daughter’s wishes. She says that she wishes ‘the fool were married to her grave’†¦ this is the first sign of the rift created between Juliet (the younger generation) and her parents (the older generation).Capulet enquires of Juliet's motives for not marrying Paris with the following ‘Soft! take me with you, take me with you, wife. How! will she none? doth she not give us thanks? Is she not proud? doth she not count her blest,Unworthy as she is, that we have wrought So worthy a gentleman to be her bridegroom? ’ Here, Capulet shows his apparent displeasure that Juliet isn’t thankful for her father’s arranging of this marriage – saying that she should be proud and count herself as blessed – this shows Juliet and her father’s relationship as starting to waver.He also says that Paris is ‘so worthy a gentleman’, but that she is ‘unworthy’†¦ indicating, perhaps, that he gives Paris more credit than his daughter. This shows the audience something about their true relationship and how much he values her. Bear in mind his conversation with Paris in act 1, scene 2 – where Capulet was protective of his daughter, and talked of her more like a person – whereas now he is ‘giving her away’ as if she were property. ‘Not proud, you have; but thankful, that you have: Proud can I never be of what I hate; But thankful even for hate, that is meant love. As we can see, Juliet's relationship towards her father is quite different. Even though she can’t like that he's arranged a marriage for her, she still respects him and is thankful that he has arranged a wedding for her in an attempt to cheer her up –because it was meant well. This makes Juliet, the child in this scene, seem instantlyvmore likeable to the audience – which makes anyone who tries to hurt Juliet seemless likeable. From the following person onward s, this person is Capulet: ‘How now, how now, chop-logic!What is this? ‘Proud,' and ‘I thank you,' and ‘I thank you not;' And yet ‘not proud,' mistress minion, you,Thank me no thankings, nor, proud me no prouds, But fettle your fine joints ‘gainst Thursday next,To go with Paris to Saint Peter's Church,Or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither. Out, you green-sickness carrion! out, you baggage! You tallow-face! ’ Capulet now starts verbally assaulting his daughter, due to her not wishing to have amarriage to a man she does not know forced upon her.After calling her illogical, hethrows her own words back in her face, mocking her, telling her not to bother thanking him but just to be ready to marry Paris – because he will drag her to the church regardless. He finishes by aggressively insulting her. The way Shakespeare chooses to rapidly change Capulet’s mood like this makesCapulet appear volatile and dangerous. The audience by this point in the play havealready grown to side and empathise with Juliet, so they will oppose anything thatthreatens her. As with Juliet’s speech, the punctuation drags out the long sentences in this block of dialogue, and makes it more powerful.The speech also starts in the iambic pentameter, which follows the rhythmic beating of your heart, but then goes outslightly towards the end†¦ this can be seen to show that Capulet is getting more and more worked up in his determination to control his daughter and starting to lose control. Shakespeare also uses direct address (‘mistress minion, you’) to make the speech seem more direct and focused; asyndetic listing to make his list of words to throwback at Juliet appear longer; poetic word-play to make the speech more interesting; fricative alliteration, and violent verbs such as ‘drag’ to make the speech more powerful.Until this point it seems that there may be a chance for Juliet to brush the wedding as ide and perhaps convince her parents to like Romeo – however, after this, there seems to be very little chance of that happening. The tenseness in the audience shifts from the state of Romeo and Juliet’s marriage to concern for Juliet’s welfare . After this outburst, Lady Capulet asks her husband if she is mad – although she doesn’t appear much of a mother, this may suggest that she holds her only daughter in higher regard than her husband does.It seems that perhaps this relationship isn’t quite as bad as it previously appeared. However, by trying to calm her husband, she may anger him further – this, coupled with the knowledge that Lady Capulet too thinks that this is perhaps getting a little out of hand, creates yet more tension. ‘Good father, I beseech you on my knees, Hear me with patience but to speak a word. ’ [She kneels down]’ Juliet now pleads with her father on her knees. The audience really feel the tens ion now, as it seems that the relationship between Juliet and her father are coming to the point of no return.Kneeling down is also a very dramatic and meaningful gesture -she is putting herself at her father’s mercy. ‘Hang thee, young baggage! disobedient wretch! I tell thee what: get thee to church o' Thursday,Or never after look me in the face:Speak not, reply not, do not answer me;My fingers itch. Wife, we scarce thought us blest That God had lent us but this only child; But now I see this one is one too much, And that we have a curse in having her:Out on her, hilding! ’ It is at this point that Capulet really loses control. At this point the audience may startwondering how far Capulet will go.He makes references to her being killed (‘hangthee’), calls her a ‘disobedient wretch’, and directly threatens her – warning her never to look him in the face again if she isn’t at the church to marry Paris on Thursday. Heends by ordering her to be quiet – repetition of imperative commands are used here for emphasis. He also goes as far as saying that he wishes she had never been born – a shocking thing for him to say at his child. After Juliet has put herself at her fathers mercy by kneeling at his feet, to be cursed in such a manner is obviously a huge shock to the audience, and the tension is beginning to peak.Tension has been sustained for quite a long period of time now, and the audience will most likely be on the edges of their seats in anticipation for what will happen to Juliet and how this squabble will be resolved. Luckily, at this peak, the nurse decides to join the quarrel, siding with Juliet, whom it was mentioned that she was close to earlier. She stands up to her employer on Juliet’s behalf, and tells him that he is the one in the wrong: ‘God in heaven bless her! You are to blame, my lord, to rate her so. The nurse feels that defending Juliet, who is essentially just a girl she is employed to mind, is worth losing her job, tells us a lot about how strongly the nurse feels about this girl. Capulet then tells the nurse to be quiet, and dismisses her as a gossiper. The nurse changes tactics slightly and becomes more polite and diplomatic, saying that she‘speaks no treason’ and asks him politely for permission to talk (‘may not onespeak? ’). Capulet, however, is still in a foul mood, so calls her a ‘mumbling fool’ andtells her to be quiet.Lady Capulet, whilst not being on Juliet’s ‘side’, speaks in her favour as she tellsCapulet that he is being ‘too hot’ – showing that even though her husband’s word islaw, she still cares somewhat about her daughter. There is more relationship-relatedfriction, as now Lady Capulet puts herself in danger of antagonising her husband. Whilst this isn’t friction between adults and children, it is still tension that theaudience may feel. Capulet then dives into his most intense, aggressive and fuelled speech – or,perhaps more appropriately, outburst – of the scene and perhaps even the entireplay. God's bread! it makes me mad: Day, night, hour, tide, time, work, play, Alone, in company, still my care hath beenTo have her match'd: and having now provided A gentleman of noble parentage,Of fair demesnes, youthful, and nobly train'd,Stuff'd, as they say, with honourable parts, Proportion'd as one's thought would wish a man; And then to have a wretched puling fool, A whining mammet, in her fortune's tender,To answer ‘I'll not wed; I cannot love, I am too young; I pray you, pardon me. But, as you will not wed, I'll pardon you:Graze where you will you shall not house with me: Look to't, think on't, I do not use to jest. Thursday is near; lay hand on heart, advise: An you be mine, I'll give you to my friend; And you be not, hang, beg, starve, die inthe streets, For, by my soul, I'll ne'er acknow ledge thee, Nor what is mine shall never do thee good:Trust to't, bethink you; I'll not be forsworn. ’ Capulet starts off with an exclamation (‘God’s bread! ’) and lists the times he’s cared for her asyndetically for impact and to draw them out.The actor could possibly raise his voice list item by list item here to build tension. He goes on to rant about how he has ‘provided her’ with a ‘gentleman of noble parentage’, and other traits so desirable in the Elizabethan era – building up Paris’s image, acting proud that he has been able to ‘catch’ this man for his daughter†¦ almost holding him in awe, even – and then curses his daughter for suggesting that she will not marry him. He refers to Juliet – his own daughter – as a wretch and a ‘whining mammet’.He mocks her by throwing her own words back at her – somewhat childishly as many of the things she hasn ’t actually said and Capulet has just presumed or exaggerated(such as ‘I cannot love’, ‘I am too young’ etc). This shows that he has little respect at her and is determined to get at her, regardless of what she has actually said. He threatens to throw her out: ‘Graze where you will you shall not house with me’ -he also uses the word ‘graze’ here in place of ‘live with’, reducing her to the level of cattle – and warns her that he is not joking about this by saying ‘I do not use to jest’.He then tells her that she is his property (‘And you be mine’), and that he can use her as property as he ‘gives [her] to [his] friend’. He finalizes the raving speech with his wish that she should die or live a life of misery (‘hang, beg, starve, die in the streets’ – a syndetic listing again here, used as if Capulet’s thoughts are so fuelled that he feels h e must rush to spit them out) if she disagrees with him. The audience, who side with Juliet, will by now have a deep disliking of Capulet. Juliet turns to her mother. Is there no pity sitting in the clouds,That sees into the bottom of my grief? O, sweet my mother, cast me not away! Delay this marriage for a month, a week;Or, if you do not, make the bridal bed In that dim monument where Tybalt lies. ’ Here Juliet wails to the heavens, before begging her mother not to disown her as her father has done. She pleads to her mother to delay the marriage for a short period of time – going as far as suggesting that would commit suicide. Ironically, at the end of the play, Juliet and Romeo die together in ‘a tomb belonging to the Capulets. The watching audience knows that she wishes to delay the marriage to give her time to think things over and sort out her marriage to Romeo – however, the audience also knows that Lady Capulet doesn’t know that this is the c ase, and that she probably thinks Juliet is being a little childish. However, her mother replies with: ‘Talk not to me, for I'll not speak a word: Do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee. ’ By refusing to talk to her daughter from that moment onwards, Lady Capulet effectively lands the fatal blow to the Capulets’ previously good stance with the audience.After Capulet tries to protect his daughter from an early, restrictive marriage, and then his wife siding somewhat with his daughter as she tried to gently calm him, their change in the face of the audience is quite remarkable. Romeo and Juliet are the ‘heroes’ and focus of the play; the older generation of the Capulets can now be seen by the audience as the villains. Juliet then turns to her nurse in desperation. Throughout the play so far, the nurse has been unwaveringly loyal to Juliet and has wanted for her only what she thinks is for the best.However, after asking for consolation and for a way to prevent the marriage, the nurse says: ‘Faith, here it is. Romeo is banish'd; and all the world to nothing,That he dares ne'er come back to challenge you; Or, if he do, it needs must be by stealth. Then, since the case so stands as now it doth, I think it best you married with the county. O, he's a lovely gentleman! Romeo's a dishclout to him: an eagle, madam, Hath not so green, so quick, so fair an eye As Paris hath. Beshrew my very heart, I think you are happy in this second match, For t excels your first: or if it did not,Your first is dead; or 'twere as good he were, As living here and you no use of him. ’ Instead of her expected reply of consolation and a method of preventing the marriage and rejoining with her husband, the nurse reminds Juliet that Romeo has been banished and won’t dare come back to see her, at least not without it being in secret. She continues, saying that she believes that in the current light of things, it would be best for Juliet to marry Paris, this man who, although noble, barely knows her, if it all.She compares Romeo to a dishcloth and Paris to an eagle – quite offensive and complementary comparisons respectively. Even though the nurse is talking sense, this is not what the audience want to hear at this point. By telling Juliet that she should leave someone that the audience love for someone that her father is forcing her to marry on threats of violence makes her almost as bad has the Capulets. The next few lines of dialogue are where Juliet and the audience finally realise that it’s the younger generation versus the older generation: ‘ JULIET Speakest thou from thy heart? Nurse And from my soul too; Or else beshrew them both.JULIET Amen! Nurse What? JULIET Well, thou hast comforted me marvellous much. Go in: and tell my lady I am gone, Having displeased my father, to Laurence' cell,To make confession and to be absolved. Nurse Marry, I will; and this is wisely done. ’ After check ing that the nurse truly means what she says (‘Speakest thou from thyheart? ’), Juliet exclaims ‘Amen! ’ What she really means is ‘so be it’†¦ this is the point where she decides to forsake any adult advice and try and sort things out for herself. The nurse doesn’t understand, but the audience does – this reinforces the idea that the way the younger generation and udience think is now different from the way the adults think. She still has respect for her father and her religion, because she says ‘Having displeased my father’†¦ ’make confession and to be absolved’ – or so it seems. After the nurse exits and Juliet is left alone, she makes one last emotional speech to the audience: Ancient damnation! O most wicked fiend! Is it more sin to wish me thus forsworn,Or to dispraise my lord with that same tongueWhich she hath praised him with above compareSo many thousand times? Go, counsellor;Th ou and my bosom henceforth shall be twain.I'll to the friar, to know his remedy: If all else fail, myself have power to die. ’ Juliet now renounces her faith in god, saying that ‘[the nurse] and my bosom henceforth shall be twain (split apart)’. There is another suicide reference at the end of this dialogue. This increases tension back from the level it sunk to after Juliet’s parents left. Because of the actions and words of the older generation in the Capulet household, Juliet is contemplating suicide. This makes the audience angry with the adults. After this scene, Juliet goes to see the only adult left that she trusts – Friar Lawrence.He gives her a draft of sleeping potion, planning to fake her death so that she can escape and be alone with her Romeo, at least until things get straightened out. Unfortunately, Romeo doesn’t receive Lawrence's message explaining the situation to him, and thinks that Juliet is indeed dead. In his mad grief, he rushes to the Capulet family tomb to take one last look at his late wife, and meets Paris there. After a struggle, Paris is killed, and Romeo poisons himself. Juliet awakes soon after, and after dismissing the Friar who comes to offer someform of consolation, gives her Romeo one last kiss, and stabs herself with his dagger.Afterwards, Capulet, Montague, Friar Lawrence and the prince meet outside, and the friar reveals the story to all parties. Only at the end, after their offspring are dead, do they realise their errors. Act 3 scene 5 affects the rest of the play quite dramatically. If marriage wasn’t aboutto be forced upon Juliet, she wouldn’t have needed to take quite such drastic steps to reunite herself with her secret husband, and the deaths of Romeo, Paris and Juliet could all have been avoided.All that Capulet needed to do was to ask his daughter of her opinion before arranging her to be married, or for Lady Capulet to respectJuliet's wishes to delay the marr iage for a month so that she could get thingsstraightened out. In the end, the feuding families of Montague and Capulet finally settle their differences, at a price – as prince states at the end of act 5, For never was a story of more woeThan this of Juliet and her Romeo. ’ To put the play into context, readers must understand some things about Elizabethansociety.Elizabethan society was what is known as a patriarchal society – that is, a societygoverned by men. Women had very little individual power or influence, and fatherswere seen as the head of the household and were to be obeyed. Daughters wereregarded as possessions of their fathers – something that could be ‘given away’ to acandidate that the father decrees as suitable. This would have made Juliet's arguing with her father very unorthodox and shocking –woman, arguing with her father , the man who possessed her . Children wereexpected to obey adults at all time – their wor d was law.Adults and children didn’thave the sorts of friendly, easygoing relationships that they we enjoy today – childrenwere to obey and not have strong opinions or an unhealthy amount of free will – bothof which Juliet possesses. Religion was also a big part of Elizabethan society. Marriage was seen as a holyevent and was also a big family event. For Juliet to have had a rushed wedding withvery few people (and no family members) present would have been very unusual tothe Elizabethan audience. The idea of suicide would also have been much more shocking to an audience in theElizabethan era.Whereas nowadays suicide is seen as taking your own life,Elizabethans had the added shock of a woman going against gods will. Towards the beginning of the scene, Juliet expresses quite explicitly that she wouldlike to ‘wreak her love upon Romeo’s body’. In these times, people are quitesaturated with references to sex and love in the media, but at the time Shakespearewrote this play, the topic was considered taboo. Audiences would have beenshocked at Juliet’s seemingly ‘unquenchable lust’. However, the scene isn’t quiteenough to repulse the audiences – it is just enough to get them excited and feel asense of risk.I think that Shakespeare was successful in creating tension with his presentation of relationships in act 3 scene 5 of Romeo and Juliet. There is already some tension inthe play, which is built upon when Lady Capulet narrowly misses catching Romeo inher daughter’s room, and Juliet dangerously plays with her wording to give it dualmeanings. The relationship heightens yet more when Juliet defies her parents bystating that she will not marry the man her father has chosen for her, and reaches apeak as her father starts hurling abuse and threats at her.

Marsden Threatened Rob Jr. with Being Thrown to Hell Research Paper

Marsden Threatened Rob Jr. with Being Thrown to Hell - Research Paper Example The tort of intentional infliction of emotional distress has three elements: outrageous conduct by the tortfeasor; conduct that causes severe mental anguish in the victim and; the mental anguish suffered by the victim because of such behavior. On the other hand, reckless infliction of emotional distress shares all the other elements as the intentional type except that there was no intent to cause the distress (Buckley 130). The element of â€Å"outrageous conduct† refers to behavior that is so outlandish or highly offensive as to result in the emotional distress of the victim. An example would be the case of Clifford v Hollander 6 Media L. Rep. (BNA) 2201 (NY Civ CT 1980) where the defendant published a picture in a pornographic magazine and deliberately incorrectly identified it as the plaintiff, who was a freelance journalist. As a result, the plaintiff received obscene telephone calls from obviously disturbed individuals. In another case, Martin v Municipal Publications, 510 F. Supp. 255, 259 (ED Pa 1981), the defendant published a picture which he labeled as â€Å"closet transvestites who got stinking drunk.† In both cases, the court ruled that the actions of the defendants can be classified as â€Å"outrageous.† It is also important that in intentional infliction of emotional distress, the plaintiff should be able to prove that the conduct of the defendant was intentional and that he so behaved deliberately so as to cause mental anguish on the victim. In some cases, this element came into conflict with the First Amendment â€Å"freedom of speech† as what happened in the celebrated case of Hustler Magazine v Falwell 485 US 46 (1988), where a Protestant Minister brought an action against Hustler Magazine, which, as a parody, featured him as having an incestuous rendezvous with his mother in an outhouse. The Court turned down the plaintiff’s  argument on the ground that he was a public figure and therefore as such may not sue for intentional infliction of emotional distress unless he can prove its falsity or that it was done in reckless disregard for the truth.

A'state of play' assessment of the investment climate in Bolivia Essay

A'state of play' assessment of the investment climate in Bolivia - Essay Example But it is unable to exploit these natural reserves due to political instability and anti-privatization sentiments. There is literacy rate of 87%. Chiquitania is located in the eastern parts of Bolivia and it is a peaceful place composed of a unique culture and history. Although modernization is taking place, its pace is slower than what it should be. Corruption and red tape is responsible for the slow growth. Bolivia is one of Latin America's poorest countries where education and health are below the regional average. The roads, water supply, and telecom services are of poor quality (Bolivia Microeconomic Constraints and Opportunities for Higher Growth, p6). Chiquitania has tremendous potential for the tourism industry. But it is bogged down due to frequent road stoppages and poor road system. Hitherto, political conditions and bureaucratic requirements have discouraged tourism from reaching its peak level. Of course, the government may not be keen to push tourism at the cost of environmental degradation. Nevertheless, the overall economic climate is not favorable to industry. Of the industries present in the market in a study in 2000, tourism is conspicuous by its absence. There is no mention of tourism anywhere. Or if it is there, it is in the informal sector. Officially, tourism is almost non-existent (See Fig.3). Foods and drinks take the first spot, followed by furniture. The Bolivians like to eat and drink. They also have fondness for furniture. However, the zeal to push tourism is nowhere in the scheme of things for them. The real problem lies in the nature of the market in Bolivia. The size of the formal market is significantly smaller than the informal market. The problems in formalizing business far outweigh the benefits. Formidable bureaucratic controls including corruption choke a layman's inclination to run a legitimate business. Information to run business on statutory guidelines is lost in the maze of bureaucratic controls. Also, the cost to run a legitimate business is high due to taxes and other expenses. The problem is not isolated to tourism alone. It is faced by every industry. This has given rise to tightly regulated market where much of what is manufactured is consumed by the department itself. There is little scope for exports. For instance, in La Paz 70% of the sales was consumed within the city in the year 2000. So also in the cases of Santa Cruz and Cochabamba it was 74% and 51% respectively. Poor transport infrastructure is the main cause for the lack of exports by the firms to other regions. Figure 1 First of all, lack of political stability does not allow for big time investments. Then there is the tight bureaucratic control over formally establishing and maintaining tourist spots. Macroeconomic stabilization, trade

Consumer Psychology and Buying Behaviour Assignment

Consumer Psychology and Buying Behaviour - Assignment Example The market must be dominated by the element of value for products and services. Most potential consumers tend to buy products or services sold at low prices. Loyalty denotes the likeliness of some consumers to stick to the same products. This serves as the key effect and determinism in the market. Psychology entails how and in what ways aspects of the actual products and /or services in the market influences people to make their choices, by possibly buying a product that is different from the previous one. Sociology entails the manner in which one person‘s buying is influenced by that of others. In essence, there is the tendency of people willing to buy the same brands as others leading to a lock in one product that dominates the market without even considering the fact that the competitors have more or less identical ‘qualities’ that may include price. Marketing is the selling of products and services to potential clients in a given environment at a given time. It basically entails the potential clients that are available and how to handle them.  The market must be dominated by the element of value for products and services. Most potential consumers tend to buy products or services sold at low prices. The recent study on the consumers’ behavior on respond can help companies determine the best prices to set for their products. The notion that cheap products are of low quality is one of the factors in which companies can set prices for their products.  

3BM070 Strategic Corporate Finance ASSIGNMENT 2 Essay

3BM070 Strategic Corporate Finance ASSIGNMENT 2 - Essay Example The ratio is seen to be as high as 30% (Damodaran, 2012). a) Whether making investments in the shares of BP is profitable or not, has been analysed on the basis of the above calculations in respect to p/e ratio and the share price value calculated using the dividend growth model. The p/e ratio aids investors to understand the market prospects of a given stock. A higher p/e ratio is generally considered to be better as it results out of higher earnings and market value existing for a share. It is also considered that firms having a higher p/e ratio is likely to give more dividends (Bakshi and Chen, 2005). The ratio helps investors to decide upon the price at which shares must be purchased based on the evaluation of its earnings. The ratio therefore aids in establishing a relationship between earnings and the market value per share. It is extremely essential that the ratio is studied by investors based on industry average and previous year’s values. The ratio can be interpreted wrongly if not suitably compared with the p/e ratios of previous years and the general ratio existing in the industry (Sharpe, 2002). From the calculations carried out it has been seen that the p/e ratio of BP in the 2013 has been lower than the general industry standards. The industry standards were at 12.8 while the ratio for BP was as low as 6.49%. This indicates that the market value of shares and the EPS values for the year 2013 of BP were lower than the general industry standards. On the other hand, it was seen that the p/e ratio for the year 20014 had risen to 30%. This was identified due to a fall in the earning per share (EPS) values, although the price of shares had experienced lower level of decline. Although a higher p/e ratio is considered to be better, it may be judged wrongly if not compared with the figures of the previous year. In case of BP, although the p/e ratio had risen, the cause behind it was a fall