Imagine you have been asked to direct J.B. Priestley’s “An Inspector Calls” what Instructions would you give to the actor playing the part of Mr Arthur Birling At the opening of the play, Priestley presents a typical Edwardian middle class business family. The arrogance and pomposity of the Birlings is clear immediately as Priestley remarks, “they are all feeling rather pleased with themselves.” As the audience are introduced to the play the Birlings are celebrating the engagement of Sheila Birling and Gerald Croft. Mr Birling is a successful businessman who has been active in local politics and has had the honour of being Lord Mayor. He is a magistrate and has hopes of being given a knighthood which will make him socially closer to Sir George and Lady Croft, the parents of his future son in law, Gerald Croft. Mr Birling is self confident, but his more humble upbringing makes him “social outcast” and he enters the group of “noveau riche” the new rich. The way he speaks shows him up; he is not a highly intellectual man of upper-class grace, but a man who still speaks with limited interests and narrow-minded views. Mr Birling is the man of the house, and in the setting of the play, 1912, it was a patriarchal society, where men had more power and were considered more important than women, as even Mrs Birling accepts, “when your married you’ll realise that men with important work to do sometimes have to spend nearly all their time and energy on their business.” Mr Birling is a bully, he rules by intimidation and self importance. Mr Birling will be dressed appropriately for his daughter’s engagement, wearing an expensive tailor-made suit with tie, or a dinner jacket with bow tie. Mr Birling represents the older generation, where he cannot accept responsibility for mistakes he has done. It is a huge failing in him, and ends up in attempting to cover himself up. His weakness makes him appear desperate and foolish, and gives the Inspector the advantage of having Mr Birling cornered, “Look Inspector-I’d give thousands-yes, thousands-.“ The Inspector has broken him, he has the call of the questions. The opening of the curtains starts with ironically with Mr Birling speaking in his very loud abrasive manor, “Giving us the port, Edna? That’s right. You ought to like this port, Gerald. As a matter of fact, Finchley told me it’s exactly the same port your father gets from him.” The atmosphere on stage at this point in the play, is very cheerful and light spirited, they are all celebrating the engagement of Gerald and Sheila, a very serene and joyous occasion.
There would be more of an effect on the audience at the time, as it
Wells, both of whom references are made to in the opening pages of the play. A lot of the tension in the play is between Birling and the Inspector, both of who are powerful figures in the household and are both vying for dominance, creating a lot of tension. This is symbolic of the global struggle between capitalism and socialism, the Inspector represents Priestley's socialist views, and Birling, the antithesis of the Inspector represents capitalist views, which is made clear through his speech "the interests of Capital steadily increasing prosperity." When the Inspector is there, Birling is very fast to drop the blame on someone else, insisting "I can't accept any responsibility" which is a complete contrast of what the Inspector says, telling the family to "share the blame among yourselves when I have left" This constant conflict, which is often at the heart of the dramatic genre itself, makes sure there is tension whenever the two characters are talking to each other. This conflict is not the only one within the play.
This essay will aim to explore the controversial issue in regards to whether more police officers should be armed with Tasers. This essay will argue that more officers should not be equipped with Tasers, also known as “Conducted Energy Weapons” (CEWs), and that the issuing of Tasers by police services should be limited to supervisors and specialized tactical units until further research has been conducted on the effects that Tasers have on the human body. Furthermore the abuse of Tasers by police officers will also be argued as another reason why officers should not be armed with Tasers.
...s should be aware of legal issues that are concerned with the TASER as well.
Non-lethal weapons are popular among law-enforcement for the reasons of being able to provide a police officer detain larger and more hostile subjects without a large risk of injury to his/her self or the subject. Most common uses of non-lethal force is the application of tear gas or pepper spray. Both have extremely large incapacitating effects designed to bring down individuals and give the police officer the upper hand. Pepper spray is common in the law enforcement world, but has skyrocketed in public providing protection for individuals to carry a small can to provide protection when stuck in a scary situation. Tear gas and pepper spray as the intentions to subdue someone but there is always a time where the expectations are not met and
The greatest part of these studies have involved the middle-English text Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Extensive work has been done on this alliterative four-part poem written by an anonymous contemporary of Chaucer: feminists have attacked his diatribe against women at the end, or analyzed the interaction between Gawain and the women of Bercilak’s court; those of the D. W. Robertson school seek the inevitable biblical allusions and allegory concealed within the medieval text; Formalists and philologists find endless enjoyment in discovering the exact meaning of certain ambiguous and archaic words within the story. Another approach that yields interesting, if somewhat dated, results, is a Psychological or Archetypal analysis of the poem. By casting the Green Knight in the role of the Jungian Shadow, Sir Gawain’s adventure to the Green Chapel becomes a journey of self-discovery and a quest - a not entirely successful one - for personal individuation.
“Culture does not make people. People make culture” said Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a Nigerian writer and educator, in a presentation on feminism in a TedTalk. The culture in which Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was written was misogynistic and it shows in the writing of the poem. Medieval cultural misogyny manifests itself in multiple ways in SGGK. This paper will examine the negative relationships between Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and gender by discussing: the representation of female characters, gendered violence, and Christianity in the Middle Ages.
Birlings, as they find out that they have all played a part in a young
For years law enforcement has been searching for more effective less lethal options to apprehend suspects. One of the newest technologies available is the Taser, also known by industry standards as an electronic controlled device (ECD). The Taser uses electricity to override the central nervous system, an effect referred to as “neuro-muscular incapacitation (NMI), to cause temporary incapacitation to allow officers to gain control of a subject.
Birling is presented as a self-centred capitalist very early on in the play. His pleasure in the marriage of his daughter is purely for his own profit. "Now you've brought us together and perhaps we may look forward to a time when Crofts and Birling are no longer competing but are worki...
Society has many different views on crime and punishment. During earlier times, the crime fit the punishment meaning an “eye for an eye” approach. If a thief was caught, their hands would be cut off. If a man killed another man, they would be killed as well. They did not have a chance to tell their side of the story, if people thought they were guilty, they were. Much has changed in the way we handle crime in the world today. In today’s world, when a person commits a crime they have rights to a fair trial and have the luxury of the Fifth Amendment. Now when a killer kills someone they get to tell their side of the story and have to be proven guilty. However, it does not matter where you go, if there are people then there will always be crime.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was written in the late fourteenth century. Its author was unknown, but he or she was a contemporary of Chaucer. The poem consists of two plots: one is the challenge between Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in a beheading game, and the other is the temptation of Sir Gawain by a lady from a beautiful castle. The outcome of the challenge as well as the life of Gawain is made to depend--though Gawain does not know it--on his behavior at the castle. The temptation is a test of chastity and honorable conduct towards a lord. The introduction of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight gives us a picture of King Arthur's kingdom. It describes the knights and the joy of all Arthur's people.
Sir Gawain and the Green knight, one of the fourteenth century Middle English alliterative romances told a story of a beheading game which was used to highlight the importance of honor, chivalry and masculinity. The poem, being one of the Arthurian stories, introduced the character of Morgan le Fay who sets the story in motion (by sending the green knight) by wanting to humiliate Arthur’s court and frighten his wife Guinevere. Morgan Le fay’s Character set a story that survived years and is still revered to be one of the best poems. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Morgan le Fay redefines how masculinity is viewed during the Arthurian period.
Through a series of events, Biff gradually comes to a realization of what is necessary for success. First, we are shown a part of his childhood where Biff is told that "the man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interest, is the man who gets ahead." This idea appears in direct contrast to Bernard, one of Biff's childhood friends, who works and studies hard. Biff decides that Bernard will not succeed because he is "only liked, not well-liked," and being well-liked is the cornerstone of success. Nonetheless, later in the play we see that Bernard has become very successful, underscoring one of the messages in the play, that success is not just a result of popularity. Second, we are shown a scene in Boston soon after Biff has just failed math for the year. He discovers his "heroic" father having an affair. Biff comes to the painful realization that his father's values, his views, and everything that Biff had made the foundation of his life, are all completely "fake" and "phony." Unfortunately, he has nothing with which to replace it. Lastly, Biff decides to leave to try and find himself, but an argument develops between Biff and Willy. Biff begins to see himself as like his father, "nothing," just an average man trying to make a living, and quite possibly failing. Biff's earlier image of his father's greatness has crumbled entirely, leaving a lost young man trying to find his way. Biff realized that he now needs to find his own values in life. He has finally tasted reality and now must dive head first into the pot, without any real preparation.
Sir Gawain and The Green Knight is an example of medieval misogyny. Throughout Medieval literature, specifically Arthurian legends like Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the female characters, Guinevere, the Lady, and Morgan leFay are not portrayed as individuals but social constructs of what a woman should be. Guinevere plays a passive woman, a mere token of Arthur. The Lady is also a tool, but has an added role of temptress and adulteress. Morgan leFay is the ultimate conniving, manipulating, woman. While the three women in this legend have a much more active role than in earlier texts, this role is not a positive one; they are not individuals but are symbols of how men of this time perceive women as passive tokens, adulteresses, and manipulators.