Deciphering Essays

  • Essay on Taming of the Shrew: Deciphering Kate’s Shrewish Character

    1604 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Taming of the Shrew:  Deciphering Kate’s Shrewish Character The Taming of the Shrew is one of Shakespeare's most popular plays. It is both a witty and complex play with characters that are appealing and believable drawn from life and based on a keen understanding of human nature. One can see this in the main character of the play, the shrew Katherine. The reasons for Kate's shrewd behavior as well as her tameness have puzzled Critics and Shakespearean scholars for ages. This essay will attempt

  • The Rosetta Stone

    501 Words  | 2 Pages

    000 soldiers. Egyptians wrote on stones called slabs. In 1802, the Rosetta stone was shipped to England. On august 1st the British army caught the French fleet off guard and completely destroyed Alexandria. After almost one hundred years of deciphering the Rosetta stones hieroglyphics were translated in 1850. The Rosetta stone has three different scripts. People who could write in ancient times were called scribes. Scribes wrote on paper called papyrus. The advance language called Coptic replaced

  • Binary Reasoning

    627 Words  | 2 Pages

    was a Fanatic or an Opportunist. These two examples illustrate a problem of reason as a way to acquire knowledge in the fields of a natural and a human science. Physicists have studied light for centuries and they have always been mystified in deciphering whether it is a particle or a wave. The ancient world believed light was an extremely light and small particle that moved at incredible speeds. More recently, physicists have conducted experiments that proved that light has wave-like properties

  • The Fifth Element

    740 Words  | 2 Pages

    which is not the case in the film The Fifth Element. The movie opens with an older man who has a scruffy white beard and white hair with a thick European accent on an excavation. He is in what seems to be either an old Egyptian cave or pyramid deciphering old drawings and inscriptions. He has a minimal staff, which includes a young boy holding a mirror against the sun as a source of light and a young man sketching what is supposedly on the walls. No women are present in this scene. There is no appearance

  • Thos Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49: No Escape

    1898 Words  | 4 Pages

    affected the world created by the text.3  Both the reader and the characters have the same problems observing the chaos around them.  The protagonist in The Crying of Lot 49, Oedipa Mass, like the reader, is forced to either involve herself in the deciphering of clues or not participate at all.4 The philosophy behind The Crying of Lot 49 seems to lie in the synthesis of philosophers and modern physicists.  Ludwig Wittgenstein viewed the world as a "totality of facts, not of things."1  This idea can

  • Marlow's Assessment of Africa in Conrad's Heart of Darkness

    857 Words  | 2 Pages

    referring to his Caucasian race, could Marlow be referring to the death of his fellow countrymen, or could he be referring to the death of a continent, Africa, at the hands of the white race invading her? These thoughts may both have validity when deciphering this text. When Marlow describes the, "Two women, one fat and the other slim, sat on straw-bottomed chairs, knitting black wool" he may be describing the future of two races combined in utter disarray in Africa. He may be using the "black wool"

  • Oedipus the King: The King Of Riddles

    661 Words  | 2 Pages

    ability, or gift, was unraveling riddles, and solving any puzzles with ease. He had a surplus of the aptitude to look outward, but unfortunately  he had a deficiency of the ability to look inward. This talent of looking outward made him renowned for deciphering riddles and mysteries. Yet when Tiresias appears and speaks in riddles, Oedipus cannot solve them because of his lack of insight. Tiresias's riddles are clear in what they state, but Oedipus cannot understand them because he doesn't know himself

  • Subjectivity in Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth

    1712 Words  | 4 Pages

    conspicuous about this brand of social identification is its decidedly linguistic nature. In this context, behaviors themselves are rendered as text, and the incessant social appraisal in which the characters of the novel participate is a process of deciphering this script of behavior. People's actions here are read, as it were, according to the unique social grammar of this society. The novel's treatment of this conception of social reading is brought to the fore through its devaluing of written texts

  • Macbeths Ambition As Displayed In Act 1, Scene 7

    625 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Macbeth’s soliloquy in Act I, scene 7, Macbeth hesitates because of both pragmatic and moral causes; although, his moral scruples seem to overpower the pragmatic arguments. Macbeth is torn between these two issues, and his unique way of deciphering his problems is exhibited in this scene. Macbeth feels that if he were to assassinate the king, Duncan, that he better do it soon. The first line of Act I, scene 7 begins with, “If it were done when ‘tis done, then ‘twere well; It were done quickly

  • Cloning: Opening a Pandora's Box

    600 Words  | 2 Pages

    intelligent one at that. We have come to understand the change from day to night, we have sent man onto the moon, we have created enough nuclear bombs to blow up the very planet we live in 20 times over and we are inching towards unravelling and deciphering God's instructions manual in the very near future. In my humble opinion, nothing is going to stop the force of man's curious mind, not laws and definitely not ethical considerations. Already, one Italian scientist, Dr. Severino Antinori, had openly

  • Illusions of Reality

    1352 Words  | 3 Pages

    in my life that I can be positive about is change. Everything changes, from the moment we’re born to the moment we die. Reality has many twist and turns, and our perception of reality is what shapes us to become who we are. Our life is spent on deciphering the difference between reality and not reality. This is hard to define because reality is unique to each individual. Our environment and the people we are around shape our perception of what is real. Reality is our grip of what is true and false

  • My Family: My Autistic Brother

    856 Words  | 2 Pages

    computer-related problem. But Bo also has a communication barrier; he has difficulty carrying on a "normal" conversation with a "normal" child. This never blocked communication between my beloved brother and me; I jumped at the challenge of deciphering the "Bo Language." When faced with someone unfamiliar with his behavior, however, I often became defensive. I too often missed chances to expose to others the need to give those with disabilities equal treatment, or at least a friendly smile

  • Fallacies in the Media

    1081 Words  | 3 Pages

    Reasoning fallacies are exceedingly common in daily newspapers, television reports, presidential speeches and over the radio. Day after day, the public is subjected to reasoning fallacies and if these fallacies persist, the public will have a hard time deciphering what is true and what is false and what is fact and what is opinion. Three main fallacies, which are most common today, are generalizations, red herrings and appeals to popular passions. These fallacies are harmful to the public, because they obscure

  • The Controversy Surrounding Computer Cryptography

    592 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Controversy Surrounding Computer Cryptography The topic of cryptography is being debated in the computer lately, especially since September 11, 2001. To begin with, though cryptography is secret writing or the enciphering and deciphering of messages in secret code or cipher. Cryptography has become very popular in all aspects of life that deal with computers, which is almost every aspect of our daily lives. Ever since the mid-seventies, cryptography is the new way of keeping information

  • Comparing Journeys in Thos Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49

    782 Words  | 2 Pages

    her. His brilliant use of detail and word plays blur the lines between the two. The main factor in this journey is chaos, here referred to by its’ more scientific name entropy. Oedipa and the reader get lost in a system of chaos and the task of deciphering the clues within the intricate system. The reader has no choice but to become part of this system through cleverly employed tactics Pychon uses to draw one in. The uncertainty and complication of the mystery are the devices typically used to

  • Feminist Thinking

    4662 Words  | 10 Pages

    Feminist Thinking It has been said that not everything worth reading is a philosophical argument., and I agree. A glance through the shelves of bookstores, news stands, and libraries will incline one away from the idea that all valuable reading is philosophy. Thoughts back upon experiences that have touched one’s life undoubtedly will include an important novel or story and confirm the original statement. It is also fair to say that people approach literature and philosophy with different expectations

  • Antigone’s Judicial Hierarchy

    1829 Words  | 4 Pages

    definition of justice. Considering a play based almost entirely on the acts of a single individual in clear defiance of a king’s decree, questions of right and wrong necessarily persist. It is difficult, however, for one to understand justice in deciphering the opinions of the two conflicting parties, Creon and Antigone, as these two clearly have opposing biased perspectives. It becomes prudent to examine the concept of justice in the eyes of the chorus, who has the necessary perspective to provide

  • Oedipus and Tiresias

    1032 Words  | 3 Pages

    sight function, to understand the nature of truth, they must include deciphering the ambiguous. As a true slave of Loxias, he is incapable of directly telling Oedipus the truth but always speaks enigmatically. An extreme annoyance to Oedipus, such seemingly vague speech may be the only way that the truth may be expressed. Tiresias is thus fluent in the language of truth and is speaking to Oedipus, who claims to excel in deciphering riddles, in the clearest manner. Tiresias knows who Oedipus' parents

  • Lucifer in Starlight by George Meredith

    792 Words  | 2 Pages

    analysis, the full beauty of the poem can be appreciated. The poem "Lucifer in Starlight (p. 959)", by George Meredith, can be analyzed to refine the authors purpose,  by examining every subtle hint, every possibility, for a deeper theme. Also, "deciphering" formal literary techniques such as metaphor, connotation, and symbolism is the key to unlock other expressions. The main theme of the poem is that Lucifer has no place out of his hell, and anything he tries to reenter heaven is futile. As with

  • The Motionless Arrow: Aristotles Thoughts On Zenos Arror Argument

    935 Words  | 2 Pages

    and by evaluating the philosophy of both men, many points can be reached about the validity and soundness of the argument. Though, by finding the premises false, the argument is not sound, and therefore, Zeno's argument leaves much to be said. Deciphering from what we know of the argument by what Aristotle tells us in Chapter 9, the premises are sketched out: 1. Everything is at rest when at a place equal to it; 2. The Flying arrow is at rest when at a place equal to it; 3. Time is composed of indivisible