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The white man's burden
The white mans burden
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In Book IX of Paradise Lost by John Milton, Satan astutely tempts Eve into eating the fruit of the Tree of Life. In this passage, Milton reveals multiple characteristics of Satan implied by Satan’s actions and his speech. Eve also has her characteristics revealed by Milton through Satan’s method of temptation and her response in this passage.
Satan’s temptation of Eve reveals the eloquence of Satan’s rhetorical aptitude and cunning. Satan sets up a solid rhetorical speech using a claim, giving evidence, and providing reason backup his claim. Satan claims, “Queen of this Universe, do not believe/Those rigid threats of Death; ye shall not Die” (IX.684-685). To support this claim, he provides the evidence by stating, “Look on mee,/Mee who have touch’d and tasted, yet both live,/And life more perfect have attain’d than Fate/Meant mee, by vent’ring higher than my Lot” (IX.687-690). This supports his claim by presenting an example of the fruit not causing death. Satan proceeds to reason that God forbid Adam and Eve to eat of the fruit so that they may remain inferior and subservient to him (IX.703-704). Satan makes a solid claim by providing strong evidence and reasoning that Eve in her vanity can believe. To add credibility to his claim, Satan describes the fruits saying, “When from the boughs a savoury odour blown,/Grateful to appetite, more pleas’d my sense/Than smell of sweetest Fennel, or the Teats/Of Ewe or Goat dropping with Milk at Ev’n,/Unsuckt of Lamb or Kid, that tend their play” (IX.579-583). Satan uses this imagery to entice Eve by appealing to her desires.
Another element of Satan’s temptation is his shrewdness and cunning. Satan takes his time, “And with inspection deep/Consider’d every Creature, which of all/Most opp...
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...loom” (Conrad 83). Conrad uses this morbidly ominous tone to verify his theme by illustrating the cruelty, evil, and barbarism exhibited by the white men upon the natives. After the white men treat the natives cruelly, they let the natives leave to the forest to die.
Many commonalities exist between Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad and “The White Man’s Burden” by Rudyard Kipling. However, Conrad uses these commonalities to illustrate a very different and contradictory theme than the theme of “The White Man’s Burden”. The symbolism and tone help to identify and support the themes of each work. Kipling explains in his poem the burdens that exist in white men’s duty of civilizing and ruling the other races in the world. Conrad, however, describes Kipling’s belief as a surface truth that he undermines in his novella to illustrate the reality of the situation.
Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness uses character development and character analysis to really tell the story of European colonization. Within Conrad's characters one can find both racist and colonialist views, and it is the opinion, and the interpretation of the reader which decides what Conrad is really trying to say in his work.
Satan is the core of Milton’s master piece and no matter how he is interpreted; the overall complexity of his character cannot be overlooked.
In Paradise Lost, one of the differences God is aware of the betrayal his creations unlike Frankenstein. There is a point where Adam desires a companion to share the world with, thus God creates Eve from one of Adam’s ribs. He is in a predicament now, due to there are now two beings to love now, but who deserves the more affection. He “can neither love himself adequately nor love Eve as himself unless have love God adequately – and so make his love for Eve, the unity of their shared self, an expression of that higher love” (Gross 95). This scene displays one of Adam’s limitations of his free will. Thus creating her in being the submissive which eventually became her downfall, Adam’s and the rest of humanity. Eve is flawed, she has the inclination of self-love, a quality she should not be capable of possessing or acting upon. The only love that she should be expressing is her love for Adam in a way also loving God. This becomes their weakness. Satan learns about this weakness and exploits it as his advantage to enact his scheme. He influences a susceptible Eve, by coercing her into eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge. He claims to Eve about the fruit “By the fruit? It gives you life To knowledge by the threat’ner? Look on me, Me, who have touched and tasted; yet both live” (Book 9 l. 686-688). Satan is able to persuade them to consume the fruit that provides them
We can see the poem deals with the entire story of man's fall from grace, including background for Satan's motives. In Paradise Lost, Eve was tricked by Satan, who assumed the form of a serpent, into eating from the Tree of Knowledge. Satan had whispered into her ear when she was asleep, and when he spoke to her later, he used his cunning to mislead her:
Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness shows the disparity between the European ideal of civilization and the reality of it, displayed by the domination, torture, exploitation and dehumanization of the African people. Conrad often emphasizes the idea of what is civilized versus what is primitive or savage. While reading the novel, the reader can picture how savage the Europeans seem. They are cruel and devious towards the very people they are supposed to be helping.
His determination is shown by the quote ‘He circled, four times crossed the car of night’. This makes it obvious to the reader that Satan’s desire for revenge is much more than a simple whim it is lust. In Book 2 of Paradise Lost, Satan’s determination is introduced as he leaves the other fallen angels in Pandemonium to wreak havoc on Earth and orchestrate their revenge. It is now, in book 9, that his efforts come to fruition, as Eve eats from the Tree of Knowledge and convinces Adam to do the same, consequently, man falls. Despite this, Satan does not receive his full punishment until Book 10
Since dawn, Satan, now in the form of a snake, has been searching for the two people that represented the future of all mankind. Satan is looking for mankind to destroy them just for revenge, to get back at God. Satan is full of envy and thirst for revenge. Obviously he would want to find the weaker person first, Eve. Satan would like to find Eve by herself, but he didn 't think it was likely. But Satan actually found Eve all by herself working. Satan in the form of a snake approached Eve and complimented her. Of course Eve was amazed and flattered. She was not amazed because of the compliments he gave her. Eve was amazed on how the snake (Satan) was talking. She thought animals couldn 't talk but Satan told her he how he was dumb as the other animals but as he ate the apple from the tree he became smarter. He was able to think high thoughts, and speak. Satan was slick and Eve was naive. When Satan was telling her about this tree she thought he was talking about a random tree, not being the tree of knowledge. Satan took her to the “tree”. Eve told him she could have saved him the trouble. She told Satan “But of this Tree we may not taste nor touch; God so commanded” (Book IX, lines 651-652). Eve tried to be smart and tell him how they couldn 't eat from the tree of knowledge because God told them not to. She knew it was trouble if she did. She had no freedom to eat from the tree nor touch
He knows that God is the most powerful being, and yet he still rises against him, wanting more than just God’s highest approval. As compared to most tragic and epic heroes, Satan begins in a position of supreme status, but his tragic flaw leads to his downfall. In Book I, Milton describes Satan’s fatal flaw of hubris. “Th’ infernal serpent; he it was, whose guile. Stirred up with envy and revenge, deceived.
Satan frequently characterizes “the tyranny of heaven” and employs negative diction in his depictions of both heaven and God (I.124). His negative portrayals of God and his kingdom highlight his utter dissatisfaction with being subservient to God and, from that, his desire for autonomy. In the exposition of the text, Satan’s emotions toward God make themselves apparent when Satan “throws his baleful eyes / That witnessed huge affliction and dismay / Mixed with obdúrate pride and steadfast hate” (I.56-58). Satan reveals himself to be furious with his continued subjugation to God as well as his inability to truly revenge himself against his subsequent punishment. According to Satan, God’s dissimulation of his power tempted Satan and others to rise
Milton’s Satan in Paradise Lost is a complex character meant to be the evil figure in the epic poem. Whenever possible Satan attempts to undermine God and the Son of God who is the true hero of the story. Throughout the story Milton tells the readers that Satan is an evil character, he is meant not to have any redeeming qualities, and to be shown completely as an unsympathetic figure. Satan’s greatest sins are pride and vanity in thinking he can overthrow God, and in the early part of the poem he is portrayed as selfish while in Heaven where all of God’s angels are loved and happy. Satan’s journey starts out as a fallen angel with great stature, has the ability to reason and argue, but by Book X the anguish and pain he goes through is more reason for him to follow an evil path instead. Even so, Milton uses literal and figurative imagery in the description of Satan’s character to manipulate the reader’s response to the possibility that Satan may actually be a heroic figure. As the plot of the story unfolds there are moments where the reader can identify with Satan’s desires and relate to his disappointments.
In Book IX of Milton’s Paradise Lost, Eve makes a very important and revealing speech to the tree of knowledge. In it, she demonstrates the effect that the forbidden fruit has had on her. Eve’s language becomes as shameful as the nakedness that Adam and Eve would later try to cover up with fig leaves. After eating the forbidden apple, Eve’s speech is riddled with blasphemy, self-exaltation, and egocentrism.
The serpent even states to Eve that “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (NIV, Gen 3:5). The next few lines are completely different from what is shown by Milton. It says that when Eve saw that the fruit was good and she began to desire wisdom she took some and ate it. Then she game some to Adam who was with her. This is a very large contrast from Milton’s work because this shows that Adam was present the whole time of the serpent and Eve’s discussion. In the poem “Verses for Madonna of humility with the temptation of Eve” Lynn Powell takes a very graphic and almost nostalgic look at the story of Adam and Eve. Her poem states “Eve 's lying at eye level, propped up on an elbow./And never has abyss been so good to pink,/ the void a perfect foil for her foreground flesh./She fits into the black like a woman/ ready to be skewered in a vaudeville act./ You can tell the painter loves her, the way/ You can tell the painter loves her/ he 's touched her every place he can with paint./ And he 's noticed what she 's thinking:/ holding the pear, as Hamlet did the skull,/ while gazing up at someone who 's got everything to lose./ Eve 's about to make the choice Mary has to live with./
In a historical context, the two texts differ greatly: Heart of Darkness is Conrad’s autobiographical description of his trip up the river of Congo and his encounter with the atrocities of European rule in Africa.3 Conversely, Kipling’s “White Man’s Burden” was written to welcome the United States of America to the club of imperialistic nations. The event that prompted Kipling to write this poem was the United States’ intervention in the Philippines. Under the Treaty of Paris in 1898, the Philippine sovereignty was transferred from Spain to the United States and thus the United States emerged as an imperialistic nation dedicated to progress. This is the core of the matter – progress. Kipling speaks of ‘a Law’ in his poem “Recessional.” The code of behaviour and the enlightenment that Kipling wished to be aggrandised to all ‘primitive’ nations. In other words: Progress in the means of railroads across continents, telegraph lines over deep seas, commerce beyond boundaries and steam boat lines criss-crossing the earth.
...to this seduction because she wishes for an alternate world, a world where she would understand her identity, shed her naïveté, and gain independence from Adam. God and Adam try to conquer Eve by imposing rules and ownership upon her, but this does not work. The mother of all mankind falls from her state of grace and innocence when she perceives that she will gain from her seduction by Satan and by disobeying God and Adam.
Heart of Darkness is a story in which racism presents itself so deliberately that, for many, the dilemma of race must be tackled before anything else in the book may be dealt with. Conrad used derogatory, outdated and offensive terminology for devaluation of people’s color as savages. This use of language disturbs many readers who read this book.