Rights and Obligations of the State Essay Example for Free

Rights and Obligations of the State Essay Nation may refer to a community of people who share a common language, culture, ethnicity, descent, or history. However, it can also refer to people who share a common territory and government. State commonly refers to either the present condition of a system or entity, or to a governed entity government is the system by which a state or community is governed. Rights and Obligations of the State Article 1 is all about national territory Article 2 Declaration of Principles and State Policies Article 3 Bill of rights Article 4 all about citizenship Article 5 Suffrage(Right to vote) Article 6 Legislative Department Article 7 Executive Department Article 8 Judicial Department Article 9 -Common Provision(Section 1-8 -Civil Service Commission (Section 1-16) -Commission on Audit (Section 1-4) Article 10 Local Government Article 11 Accountability of public officers Article 12 National Economy Fransistory Provisions D. Parens Patriae Literally, this means father of the country. This doctrine has been defined as the inherent power and authority of the state to provide protection to the persons property of the person. Non Sui Juris = Persons who are those who lack the legal capacity to act on his own behalf. E. Doctrine of State Immunity = The immunity of the state from suit, known as the doctrine of sovereign immunity or non-suability of the state, is expressly provided in Article XVI of the 19987 Constitution. F. Fundamental Powers of the State There are three fundamental and inherent power of the state. 1. Police Power = is the power of the for promoting public welfare by restraining and regulating the use of liberty and property. 2. Power of Taxation = is the power by which the state raises revenue to defray the necessary expenses of government. 3. Power of eminent domain = is the power of the state to acquire private property for public purpose payment of just compensation.

A Reality Check In Contemporary Indian Media Media Essay

A Reality Check In Contemporary Indian Media Media Essay The paper discusses the evolution of the Gatekeeping Model over the years and examines how the traditional roles of gatekeeping have witnessed a change. From editors and reporters, the news and information is now being filtered by corporate houses, sponsors, advertisers, politicians and in case of the social media, the audience themselves. The research also offers an overview of the trend of cross media ownership in India and how the sponsors are influencing the information carried where corporatization of the media has affected the flow of news. Besides, it also studies the idea of gatekeeping in India in the context of social networking where the users themselves are gatekeepers. The paper suggests that the traditional methods of gatekeeping have decayed and hence it should be understood in novel contexts keeping in mind the rapid growth of new technologies and different ways of mass communication. Keywords: Gatekeeping, Advertisers, Social media, Indian media. Which news is more valuable? Twenty one persons killed and dozens injured in train collision or The speeding train kills seven elephants. Most people would say both are equally important but the people who are actually involved in the process of news selection and placement will be holding a different view. One of the news stories will be given more value than the other and so would be placed accordingly in the news paper. One of them might take a position on the front page while the other might have to be satisfied by being on some inside page. Most of the times, the stories with comparatively less value might not even get a chance to be published if the space on the page is not enough. Everyday numerous events take place that need reporting but not all of them can be published in a news paper or be flashed on a TV screen or announced on a radio set. The idea of gatekeeping seems logical at first since there is a limitation of time and space in publications and channels and very sim ply put, not everything can be shown or published. Thus, some kind of filtration is but natural. However, there are conscious processes involved which decide what has to be transmitted and what has to be withheld. The earliest concept of gatekeeping has assigned this conscious role to the editors of media houses. Traditionally, such decisions were based on the principles of news value and making such decisions used to be the major task of a gatekeeper which was taken up by the editor of a news paper. Every story that used to enter the newsroom had to go through the scrutiny of the editor and only after the editor approves, it was allowed to be published. Hence, it can be said that an editor used to have the final say in what is to be sent to the readers and what not. Editor was the sole authority holding the gate through which the stories pass. The traditional theories and models on gatekeeping also laid emphasis on the importance of the role of an editor in the paradigm of news communication. The famous model of gate keeping given by D.M. White(1950) focused only on the role of an editor as the man who made decisions. However, his theory was criticized when the other factors influencing the decision started gaining recognition. The editors started losing their say in the news selection process as the media got locked into the power structure, and consequently as acting largely in tandem with the dominant institutions in society. The media thus reproduced the viewpoints of dominant institutions not as one among a number of alternative perspectives, but as the central and obvious or natural perspective (Curran et al, 1982). The element of biasness affects the information that is received by the reader. The editor is required to keep in mind a number of things other than the news value principles for letting a story be published. The flow of information is being regulated by the gatekeepers who are not directly involved in the news gathering process but are the managers and the owners of the media firms or the advertisers or other stake holders. Money and power are able to filter out the news fit to print, marginalize dissent, and allow the government and dominant private interests to get their messages across to the public (Herman and Chomsky, 1988). The political affiliation of a media outlet determines the ideology it would stand for and hence the gatekeeping will be done accordingly. The gatekeeper moulds the stories in a way that satisfy the interest of a political leader or a group and so changing the angle and slant of the real truth. Mass media content is influenced by media workers socialization and attitudes. Their professional training, personal and political attitudes and affiliations lead them to produce a social reality (Riaz, 2008). To a certain level, gatekeeping is very important for communication planning but as the news media has been overpowered by the top tier of corporate, it is becoming more of a negative term. Commercial advertising is the principal source of revenue for media and is very important for ensuring the survival of the media houses. In fact, the biggest regulators of the flow of information are the commercial organizations providing financial support to the media outlets in the form of advertisements. This has not only changed the nature of flow of news but also the entire set up of a news paper. Twenty five years ago, we could never imagine that first page of a newspaper in India would be full page advertisement. The news paper today looks more of a product catalogue than a news journal. On one hand, the globalization and liberalization provides a better scope of mediating while on the other it has given rise to commercialization of news. The profit making motive of the owners and publishers has led to backroom negotiation and encouraged payola which further leads to withholding of information and possibilities and hence preventing the readers from realizing the importance of truth in order to create the desired effect in the society. This can be easily related to agenda-setting. The gatekeeping today, is a vital part of the agenda-setting function of media as it is vastly used as a helping tool by the agenda setters. According to the agenda-setting theory, because of the fact of paying attention to some issues and neglecting and ignoring some others, the mass media will have an effect on public opinion (Riaz, 2008). For example, while watching a cricket match on television, one cannot watch the action taking place in the whole ground and also the spectators present in the pavilion from every angle at the same time. Even though today the information is coming from all corners, newspapers still remains as the top most trusted source in India and so the editorial decisions made in the dark without proper justification is not only an irresponsible act but also a corrupt practice. Keeping the gate is a serious responsibility and if the gatekeepers integrity is lost, the news paper too will loose its integrity. The gatekeeper has the power to forward the selected news items to the consumers. Therefore, the gatekeeper must have a moral justification of selecting a news story over the other because with power comes the accountability. News comes from the people and goes back to them. People are the ultimate source and the consumers of information. Hence, it is very important to ensure that the interests of the people are met. But the commercialization of media has led to conscious manipulations in sending back to the public what they are interested in and what can be discussed.Gatekeeping today can be called as one of the barriers to communication because the gatekeepers decide the nature of thoughts that will be created in the minds of the people and dictate what is worthy of the attention of the receiver. Here, one can raise an eyebrow and can ask for ones right to information. There has been numerous instances where biased gatekeeping created false or skewed notion of an institution, event or an individual. These will be discussed later in the paper.    Gatekeepers of news and information: The theoretical underpinning The gatekeepers model has been the bedrock of many communication studies in India and abroad and it has been the most debated theory as well. Communication scholars like Wilbur Schramm have outlined the basic tenets of the process of communication. A message is sent by a sender to a receiver through a channel and the receiver gives feedback making the communication process a dynamic and continuous one. However, the gatekeepers model has been seminal in the sense that it has identified influences of the institutional roles of editors on the information, especially information in news form, being passed on to readers, listeners and viewers. The evolution of the Gatekeepers theory has been charted by Chris Roberts, a Doctoral student at The University of South Carolina in a paper titled Communication Theory and Methodology Division Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication presented in August 2005 at Communication Theory and Methodology Division Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication San Antonio, Texas. Roberts has termed the concept as the vanilla ice cream of mass communication theory. He says- this is so since it may not be everyones favourite, but nearly everyone can tolerate it and while it may have an unremarkable flavour, it serves as a building block for other theory and methodological approaches. In post-war America in 1947, it was Prussian scholar Kurt Lewin who coined the term gatekeeping. He concluded in a study of sweetbreads on Iowa housewives that they are the gatekeepers who control what food enters the channels that ultimately bring it from the garden or super market into the household and onto the dining-room table. Each channel is walled into sections surrounded by gates the decision-making points that determine whether the food will enter the channel to start with, or move to the next section. But there are forces which exert pressure along the way to accept or reject food. He however added that the theory holds not only for food channels but also for the travelling of a news item through certain communication channels in a groupà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ (Lewin, 1947). It was in the same year 1947 that David Manning White decided to observe how an editor of a newspaper chooses or leaves out news. Aided by a telegraph wire editor Mr Gates for his study on a newspaper titled The Peoria Star, White proposed the flow of communication in 1950 which was later integrated into Lewins theory(Figure-I). The theory was published in Journalism Quarterly, 27. FIGURE I http://www.utwente.nl/cw/theorieenoverzicht/Theory%20clusters/Media,%20Culture%20and%20Society/gatekeeping.doc/gatekeeping-1.gif White suggested that a news source has several items some of which are filtered by the organizations editors who act as gatekeepers. The news that thus reaches the audience is selected consciously. However, editors can also publish only what is provided to them by the sources like news wires. This aspect was elaborated by Dr Walter Gieber in 1956 whose dissertation at the University of Wisconsin expanded Whites early study to 16 wire editors. Where Gieber differed from other scholars was that he gave equal importance to the processes surrounding the agents who act as gatekeepers. Chris Roberts outlines that in Giebers theory, these gatekeepers are passive and reactive, unable to do much to influence the copy they receive. A very key factor in the news flow process was overlooked by White which is the organizational influences like work culture, work routines and story deadlines which were also noted by Gieber. The Westley-MacLean model (Figure-II) introduced the idea of gatekeeper C and feedback between the three centres. According to them, C filters some component of the message which is being sent to B. But feedback between the sender and receiver remains all throughout. FIGURE II http://communicationtheory.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/westley-and-macLean%E2%80%99s-model-of-communication-diagram.jpg (Available at: http://communicationtheory.org/westley-and-maclean%E2%80%99s-model-of-communication/) Here, X1 and X2 are news items which reach the client A (media house, reporter) who passes it on to audience B. There is the intervention of C, a gatekeeper who can also receive some news directly (X3, X4). Westley and MacLean have suggested that communication begins when receivers start to give feedback (f) according to their own surroundings. This model was applicable for both interpersonal and mass communication and identified the very important element of feedback despite the presence of a gatekeeper. If we take an example from India, a newspaper reporter might get news and the editor might edit it before publishing. But whatever information reaches the audience is acted upon by them- the thriving Letters to the Editor section, especially in the Hindi press, being a good example of that. But if one talks about gatekeeping, it should be kept in mind that it is not only about the selection and presentation of news but also about gathering of news from various sources. J T McNelly(1959) focused not on editors but also on reporters, who according to him were the first of the multiple gatekeepers(Figure-III). According to him, news can be modified in different ways and by different authorities. FIGURE III C:UserssargamDesktopDocs n FilesThird SemDev CommShowcases-McNelly-and-News-Flow-4.jpg Available at http://www.alanmachinwork.net/Showcases The scenario in contemporary Indian media industry In terms of investment in men and machinery, the Indian media industry has become a corporate structure both in operation and management. And it has witnessed a definite transformation from a mission to a profession. Commercialization of media is almost complete and all sorts of manipulations are being used as are done in the case of product marketing. This has tremendous impact on gatekeeping functions also. It has given rise to many gatekeepers of news and information apart from traditional gatekeeper like editors. Today, there are different powerful gatekeepers who influence the media and their coverage because of either their economic clout or influence. Broadly speaking, the gatekeeping scenario in the Indian media has undergone a change due to three key factors, viz., Cross-media ownership, Corporatization of media, Popularization of social media. Gatekeeping in cross media ownership situation Post the reforms of 1991, the Indian economy has opened up many sectors for private entrepreneurial interest. Since the last two decades of liberalization, the phenomenon of concentration of wealth has been marring the economy. A 2009 study India 2039 an affluent society in one generation funded by the Asian Development Bank has shown that a handful of 50 people (50 billionaires in a country of more than 120 crore) controlled wealth equivalent to 20 per cent of Indias Gross Domestic Product(Available at: http://www.humanrightsinitiative.org/programs/ai/rti/international/laws_papers/india/india_2039_an_affluent_society_in_one_generation.pdf). The corporate world has been able to carve its own huge space in the economic domain of the country in a short span of time. This space has also in a sense intruded into the media in a hegemonic manner. Both in the print and electronic media, the corporate sector has become an investor and a power to reckon with. Quoting a research conducted by Dilip Mandal and R. Anuradha, that has been published in Media Ethics (Oxford University Press, 2011), Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, (member of the committee set up by the Press Council of India to check ethical and legal violations by the media) has elaborated how the boards of directors of a number of media companies now include (or have included in the past) representatives of big corporate entities that are advertisers(Guha Thakurta, Media Ownership Trends in India, The Hoot, July 3, 2012). The board of Jagran Publications has had the Managing Director (MD) of Pantaloon Retail, Kishore Biyani, McDonald Indias MD Vikram Bakshi, and leather-maker Mirza Internationals MD Rashid Mirza; besides the CEO of media consulting firm Lodestar Universal India, Shashidhar Sinha, and the chairman of the real estate firm JLL Meghraj, Anuj Puri. The board of directors of HT Media, publishers of Hindustan Times and Hindustan, has included the former chairman of Ernst You ng K. N. Memani and the chairman of ITC Limited Y C Deveshwar. Joint MD of Bharti Enterprise Rajan Bharti and MD of Anika International Anil Vig are a part of the TV Todays Board of Directors. The board of directors of DB Corp (that publishes the daily, Dainik Bhaskar) includes the head of Piramal Enterprises Group, Ajay Piramal, the MD of Warburg Pincus, Nitin Malhan, and the executive chairman of advertising firm Ogilvy Mather, Piyush Pandey. NDTVs Board of Directors has Pramod Bhasin, President and CEO of the countrys biggest business processing outsourcing company GenPact as a member of its board of directors. The idea behind giving such details is to show the constant overlapping of corporate and citizens interests. News and information published/broadcast was traditionally meant to inform, awaken or entertain people which now has become a tool for publicity, public relation, relationship management and veiled advertising for the corporate firms. They do so through having an i nterest in media houses via investment and ownership. As Guha Thakurta has said, Instead of media houses relying on advertisers to fund quality journalism, the relationship becomes insidiously reversed. Advertisers and corporate units begin to rely on news outlets to further their interests. In 2003, Bennett Coleman Company Limited (publishers of the Times of India and the Economic Times, among other publications) started a paid content service, which enabled them to charge advertisers for coverage of product launches or celebrity-related events. Radiagate and the control of information by the corporate media In late 2010, Open magazine published records of leaked telephonic conversation between corporate lobbyist Nira Radia and influential media persons, politicians and corporate houses which seem to point to a nexus between the three sectors in the appointment of ministers and in important corporate deals. Among the mainstream newspapers in India, newspapers The Hindu and The Pioneer were one of the first to publish the records and carry the story. However, a highly conscious process of selection went into the coverage of what came to be known as Radiagate. Many news publications and news channels did not carry the story at first and the tapes leaked were also allegedly selective. In an article Media ethics: Why we need both panic and a pinch of salt (Tehelka Magazine, Vol 7, Issue 48, Dated December 04, 2010), Shoma Chaudhary has pointed out how the media is under immense pressure while reporting a story. She says that one of the most damaging symptoms in Indian media today is its slav ish relationship with corporate power. Political misconduct is often brought to book, corporate crime almost never. Big business has its tentacles everywhere. Almost all the premier publications and channels The Times of India, Times Now, The Economic Times, CNBC etc come across as compromised in differing percentages, she has stressed. Therefore, even if the editors and reporters wish to play out the role of gatekeepers, they have corporate concerns in mind since the private sector has become a major source of revenue for the media houses. Prominent media houses have a diverse set of people with varying financial interests investing in them and thus proving to be a huge financial support which is how the corporate sector can also be considered a gatekeeper- a force that controls or influences the selection and consequent flow of information. Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu Business Line, Rasheeda Bhagat has discussed the media blackout of the issue pointing out that the TV cha nnels (employing journalists allegedly involved in the scandal) remained silent on the issue for long. (Those Living In Glass Houses, The Hindu Business Line, November 23, 2010). Though the print and electronic media tried to control the information, the traditional role of gatekeeping by the editors or even the new role of gatekeeping by the corporate sector eventually failed when it came to Radiagate. This was due to the alternative of social media which proved to be a powerful tool in mounting pressure on the government to start investigating in the 2G scandal. Face book and Twitter helped people to access opinions of fellow citizens and thinkers while the leaked tapes were also available online on video-sharing websites like YouTube. Advertorials have been another form of corporate intrusion into the business of news and information. They are actually advertisements furthering the commercial interests of a corporate house, a firm or an organisation presented in the manner of a piece of news or an editorial. Bart Pattyn (Media Ethics: Opening Social Dialogue, 2000) says that advertorials employ a language not directly persuasive but more oriented at conveying information about the product. Generally, the editor has no role to play while an advertorial is being carried since it is the advertising department of the media house which decides in this matter. While it is not illegal or unethical to publish or carry them, many experts feel that the concept of advertorials has made media houses compromise on their ethics since they try to avoid conflict of interest between them and the sponsors. The level of investment that the advertisers and sponsors have achieved indicates that they have become the main source of reve nue for media houses. However, Professor J. J. Soundararaj (Try Advertorial to Overcome the Challenges of Commercial Clutter, Excel International Journal of Multidisciplinary Management Studies, Vol.1 Issue 2, November 2011) points out that advertorials are costly. Hence not all firms can afford them. Thus, it is the financially sound organisations that use this method of promotion. Hence, this can be another example of how the corporate sector is acting as a gatekeeper and controlling and selecting what information should reach an audience. Politicians as gatekeepers Several politicians in India today run a news channel or publication. Commenting on this trend, journalist Archna Shukla studies the case of Piccadilly Group, owned by Kartikeya Sharma which manages Hindi newspaper Aaj Samaj and runs news channels under the name of India News. (We also make TV news, The Indian Express, August 19, 2012). Sharma is the son of Congress leader Shri Vinod Sharma. It is said that Sharma senior took a vow to launch his own newspaper and TV channel after he felt that it was media activism that led to his son Manu Sharmas conviction in the Jessica Lal murder case of 1999, Shukla says. In the South India, AIADMKs J Jayalalitha owns Jaya TV while rival DMKs M Karunanidhi owns Kalaignar TV and his nephew Kalanidhi Maran owns Sun TV. Mediapersons have pointed out how they give favourable coverage to the political parties of their owners. Election Commission officials have said that they do not receive complaints about paid news in Tamil Nadu since the party affiliations are already clear. Even if the channels are not owned directly by the politicians, the evil of paid news has hit the Indian media showing how anyone with money can be a gatekeeper. Guha Thakurta has pointed out that many candidates have fixed rates in case they want a newspaper to impart favourable coverage during elections. There have been instances when even the government and its machinery have controlled the flow of information for safety and strategic purposes. Gatekeeping of information can also be beneficial in instances where the media goes overboard with reportage. During the coverage of the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai, the editors at first went ahead with the complete coverage focusing only on Nariman House and Trident Hotel, completely sidelining the attack on Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus. Television channels broadcast gory images and were also in competition with each other for exclusive footage which interfered with the ongoing army operations. The government and military authorities had to finally intervene to urge the media for a balance and controlled coverage. People as gatekeepers: The rise of social media It is very interesting to note that in areas untouched by technology (like many villages), the tradition of sitting together to discuss the days happenings is strong. Here, the better read people in the village or those who own a radio or television set can gatekeep and let out selective information to fellow villagers. Hence, the audience itself doubles up as a gatekeeper. The same phenomenon can be noticed in areas completely engulfed by technology. India has been witnessing a growing craze for social networking with more than 50 million Indians registered on leading networking site Facebook. The very idea of social media activities like chatting, posting and blogging is the concept of Freedom rather freedom from censorship. A blog is a free platform where people or bloggers themselves are gatekeepers who control information and decide what their fellow netizens will read. A tweet by a celebrity (as a note on social networking site Twitter is called) can be read by anybody followin g the celebrity. The followers can also comment on the tweets and there have been instances of uncontrollable and harsh commenting on scams and scandals on Twitter. Commenting on the social media scenario today, noted filmmaker Shekhar Kapur says: As Newspaper and Media empires fade, Gatekeepers as we know them, are being replaced by Platformers that enable communities to share ideas, thoughts, knowledge, news, between themselves at an unprecedented speeds, letting them transact   and exchange even real goods and services between themselves. Communities will now reject Gate Keepers that thrive on a system that tries to control that flow. Social networking has become a rage precisely because of the free flow of information it allows on an immediate basis. There is no editing authority which can delete or control what a user writes on several websites. As a result, one can also come across inappropriate content online showing how people themselves have the power to gatekeep and decide what can be filtered. In the wake of the recent misuse of social networking websites by groups trying to spread rumours regarding dangers to lives of the residents of the north-eastern states in India, Union Minister for Information Technology Kapil Sibal has called for some regulation to avoid such instances. As a result, a few websites have agreed to share user information with the government authorities. Conclusion The concept of gatekeeping in India has undergone a transformation due to the trend of cross-media ownership, corporatization of the media and increasing popularity of social networking websites. Consequently, the traditional role of gatekeeping by the editors or reporters are now being performed by sponsors and advertisers who influence content selection due to their economic clout and politicians who own news entities or have significant financial holdings in them. A platform where the audience itself can gatekeep is the arena of social networking where the absence of strong censorship allows users to generate the desired content and share it with fellow users. Examples include Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Orkut and others. The Indian authorities have recently called for some kind of regulation in this arena to prevent the misuse of this platform. Disregarding the older concept of gatekeeping, it is now recognized that gatekeeping is exercised at almost every stage in the whole process communicating news. Earlier, due to the lack of space and time the editors used to leave out or ignore so many things but today, in the era of information over flow, the gatekeeping starts from the very first stage i.e. from the place of origin of event. The sources give some information and leave some and so the people who are the source of events act as a gatekeeper; a reporter is a gatekeeper as she might not send the full information to the newsroom or might send biased information and the chain goes on and stops back with the people as the consumers of the news by choosing what to consume and what to leave. So, the earlier notion of editors as the only gatekeeper is no more true. Some exogenous factors like pressure groups and flak (Herman and Chomsky, 1988) are also keeping the gates and mark their presence by pressurizing the media outlet s to stop certain information from being conveyed to the citizens. For an example, Salman Rushdies Satanic Verses received the highest level of criticism by the religious pressure group accusing Rushdie for blasphemy. This not just banned the readers to read this book but also did not allow Rushdie to openly address the public. Not allowing people equal access to information is also a form of gatekeeping. This creates information gap and disparity between the haves and the haves-not of knowledge. In a democratic set up like India, everyone should have the right to equal access to information. For example, the Internet service providers including both private and government provide higher speed at higher prices. Therefore, somebody who cannot afford higher prices cannot have the information. Similarly, the uploading speed provided is much less than the downloading speeds. This again acts as a gate for the citizen journalists who wish to share some important piece of information they have with the world. The power of gatekeepers seems to diminish in a modern information society. The Internet defies the whole notion of a gate and challenges the idea that journalists (or anyone else) can or should limit what passes through it (Shoemaker et al, 2001). The statement is an eye opener for many, who have still not r ealized the power of internet to control the information at various levels, and which is indeed proving out to be real in the current scenario. As after its unparalleled debut in the information sector, it has set a bench mark for its competition, and in a very short span, the internet became one of the most viewed and dependable source and controller of information, with a global consumer base at its disposal, and hence a very powerful gatekeeper.

The Crucible and Why Reputation is Important :: Essay on The Crucible

Many people believe that teenagers are reckless, rude, and untruthful human beings. It seems that teenagers are always under the pressure to â€Å"look cool,† and not do anything embarrassing. Reputation means a great deal to many high schoolers, because it seems that you only get one chance to make a good impression. In the Crucible, Abigail and the other girls fear that their reputation will be destroyed if the would be known as witches. Teenagers today have so much pressure on themselves. They have to get good grades, to get into their choice of college. They also are under the pressure to have and keep a good reputation, just as Abigail and the girls of Salem had to keep theirs. We have all experienced a time during our teenage years when our parents told us not to do something, but we did it anyways, because we thought that we could outsmart our parents and not get into trouble. In the Crucible, the following quote â€Å"She made me do it! She made Betty do it!† Abigail is blaming Tituba, for them dancing in the forest, and told everyone that Tituba was with the Devil and that she was a witch. This shows that Abigail and the girls did no want to get in trouble, or confess for dancing in the forest. So they came up with the idea of saying that it was witchcraft and that they were forced upon their own will. In today’s society teenagers are faced with the same type of pressure. When on person gets in trouble, they tend to point the finger at someone else, for mainly one reason: so they do not get into trouble for their wrong doings. In the Salem Witch Trials the girls of Salem told a lie, so they would not get into trouble for dancing in the forest. In the end this caused them to hurt the lives of many men and women who were wrongly accused, because of false accusations. A good reputation is hard to achieve and even harder to keep. Teenagers take their reputation very seriously. One accusation or wrong action can see like the end of the world. Some teenagers believe that if they can blame someone else, then their problems will disappear. But that belief is misinterpreted. Anything that goes around comes around. Power is a very strapping word. The Crucible and Why Reputation is Important :: Essay on The Crucible Many people believe that teenagers are reckless, rude, and untruthful human beings. It seems that teenagers are always under the pressure to â€Å"look cool,† and not do anything embarrassing. Reputation means a great deal to many high schoolers, because it seems that you only get one chance to make a good impression. In the Crucible, Abigail and the other girls fear that their reputation will be destroyed if the would be known as witches. Teenagers today have so much pressure on themselves. They have to get good grades, to get into their choice of college. They also are under the pressure to have and keep a good reputation, just as Abigail and the girls of Salem had to keep theirs. We have all experienced a time during our teenage years when our parents told us not to do something, but we did it anyways, because we thought that we could outsmart our parents and not get into trouble. In the Crucible, the following quote â€Å"She made me do it! She made Betty do it!† Abigail is blaming Tituba, for them dancing in the forest, and told everyone that Tituba was with the Devil and that she was a witch. This shows that Abigail and the girls did no want to get in trouble, or confess for dancing in the forest. So they came up with the idea of saying that it was witchcraft and that they were forced upon their own will. In today’s society teenagers are faced with the same type of pressure. When on person gets in trouble, they tend to point the finger at someone else, for mainly one reason: so they do not get into trouble for their wrong doings. In the Salem Witch Trials the girls of Salem told a lie, so they would not get into trouble for dancing in the forest. In the end this caused them to hurt the lives of many men and women who were wrongly accused, because of false accusations. A good reputation is hard to achieve and even harder to keep. Teenagers take their reputation very seriously. One accusation or wrong action can see like the end of the world. Some teenagers believe that if they can blame someone else, then their problems will disappear. But that belief is misinterpreted. Anything that goes around comes around. Power is a very strapping word.

The Immigrant Experience: The Anguish of Becoming American Essay

The Immigrant Experience: The Anguish of Becoming American Immigration from the Early 1990's still affects America today. The people who came to America from different countries brought their traditions, their families, and their culture. These three things stuck with them through thick and thin and are still thriving parts of what America is today. Many immigrants came with literally nothing in their pockets and had to work their way to success. The Immigrant Experience by Thomas Wheeler tells the story of nine different immigrants' trials and tribulations of coming and living in America. Each immigrant went through different experiences of becoming American but they also had their similarities. Four things that attributed to the assimilation of the immigrants are: language, money, religion, and ambition. Each immigrant experienced their individual trials, but they still all had several similarities. Almost all of the immigrants in this book came to America without being able to speak English, except for the immigrant from London. Alan Pryce-Jones came to America able to speak English and this put him at an advantage over the other immigrants because he could communicate with Americans. Also, he came to America after he established his writing in Europe. He came with money and wisdom which set him far above the other immigrants. The immigrants who couldn't speak English had to take classes and settle for low paying jobs because they could not communicate with their bosses. If they weren't working for someone else, they entrepreneured their own business. William Alfred, the Irish immigrant, was raised by a grandmother who owned her own business. This made it a little easier for him to find a job, and bring in money. J... ...America and living here made them American. But, they all brought over their own traditions and culture that still affect families today. Americans all have the outer candy coatings, but each peanut inside is different. The peanuts make the M & M's what they are. The outer appearance is the same but the inward structure is not. The peanuts do not affect the way the M & M looks but they sure do affect the way they taste. Next time you go to eat an M & M think about what America is. Is it a group of people who are all the same and have conformed to each other so that you cannot distinguish one from another? Or is America like a bowl of peanut M & M's where you can see how every one is similar but each individual is different on the inside? They may look American. They may act American. They may very well be American, but they cannot neglect their ancestry roots.

Terrorism †Wake Up America! :: September 11 Terrorism Essays

Terrorism – Wake Up America! America, wake up! That's what we think we heard on the 11th of September 2001 and maybe it was, but I think it should have been "Get Out of Bed!" In fact, I think the alarm clock has been buzzing since 1979 and we have continued to hit the snooze button and roll over for a few more minutes of peaceful sleep since then. It was a cool fall day in November 1979 in a country going through a religious and political upheaval when a group of Iranian students attacked and seized the American Embassy in Tehran. This seizure was an outright attack on American soil; it was an attack that held the world's most powerful country hostage and paralyzed a Presidency. The attack on this sovereign US embassy set the stage for the events to follow for the next 23 years. America was still reeling from the aftermath of the Viet Nam experience and had a serious threat from the Soviet Union when then President Carter had to do something. He chose to conduct a clandestine raid in the desert. The ill-fated mission ended in ruin, but stood as a symbol of America's inability to deal with terrorism. America's military had been decimated and downsized / right sized since the end of the Viet Nam war. A poorly trained, poorly equipped and poorly organized military was called on to execute a complex mission doomed from the start. Shortly after the Tehran experience, Americans began to be kidnapped and killed throughout the Middle East. America could do little to protect her citizens living and working abroad. The attacks against US soil continued. In April of 1983 a large vehicle packed with high explosives was driven into the US Embassy compound in Beirut. When it explodes, it kills 63 people. The alarm went off again and America hit the Snooze Button once more. Then just six short months later a large truck heavily laden down with over 2500 pounds of TNT smashed through the main gate of the US Marine Corps headquarters in Beirut. 241 US servicemen are killed. America mourns her dead and hit the Snooze Button once more. Two months later in December 1983, another truck loaded with explosives is driven into the US Embassy in Kuwait, and America continues her slumber. The following year, in September 1984, another van was driven into the gates of the US Embassy in Beirut and America slept.

On Translation of English Proverbs Essay

Abstractï ¼Å¡Proverbs, which derive from life are the condensation and embodiment of the language and culture of a nation. Proverb is a form of literature,its terseness and depth is the result of sand washing from rough sea and discarding the dross and selecting the essential in the course of language culture development. The proverb has the bright characteristic of a nation. Because of the differences of religious beliefs, habits and customs, fables and myth and culture and art, English proverbs and Chinese proverbs carry on the different national cultural characteristics and information. In translation,these cultural elements are the main difficulties and they form  the influencing factor of the translation of English proverbs.This essay uses some typical examples to state four factors through analyzing, comparing and concluding from the point of geographical environment, customs, religious beliefs and historical culture. In order to present an adequate translation of a proverb, we can use four translation methods flexibly: literal translation, free translation, substitution translation and literal translation combined with free translation. Key words: English proverb influencing factor translation method æ µâ€¦Ã¨ °Ë†Ã¨â€¹ ±Ã¨ ¯ ­Ã¨ °Å¡Ã¨ ¯ ­Ã§Å¡â€žÃ§ ¿ »Ã¨ ¯â€˜ Ã¥ ­ ¦ 生ï ¼Å¡Ã©Æ' Ã¦â„¢â€œÃ¦â€" ° ä ¸â€œ ä ¸Å¡Ã¯ ¼Å¡Ã¨â€¹ ± è ¯ ­ æÅ'‡å ¯ ¼ è€ Ã¥ ¸Ë†Ã¯ ¼Å¡Ã¨ µ µÃ¤ ¸ ¹Ã¤ ¸ ¹ 摘è ¦ Ã¯ ¼Å¡Ã¨ °Å¡Ã¨ ¯ ­Ã¦  ¥Ã¦ º Ã¤ ºÅ½Ã§â€Å¸Ã¦ ´ »Ã¯ ¼Å'æ˜ ¯Ã¤ ¸â‚¬Ã¤ ¸ ªÃ¦ °â€˜Ã¦â€" Ã¨ ¯ ­Ã¨ ¨â‚¬Ã¥â€™Å'æâ€"‡åÅ'â€"çš„é «ËœÃ¥ º ¦Ã¦ µâ€œÃ§ ¼ ©Ã¥â€™Å'集ä ¸ ­Ã¤ ½â€œÃ§Å½ °Ã£â‚¬â€šÃ¨ °Å¡Ã¨ ¯ ­Ã¦Ëœ ¯Ã¤ ¸â‚¬Ã§ § Ã¦â€"‡å ­ ¦Ã¥ ½ ¢Ã¥ ¼ Ã£â‚¬â€šÃ¨ °Å¡Ã¨ ¯ ­Ã§Å¡â€žÃ¦ ´â€"ç »Æ'å’Å'æ · ±Ã¥Ë† »Ã¦Ëœ ¯Ã¤ ¸â‚¬Ã¤ ¸ ªÃ¦ °â€˜Ã¦â€" Ã¥Å" ¨Ã¥â€¦ ¶Ã¦ ¼ «Ã©â€¢ ¿Ã§Å¡â€žÃ¨ ¯ ­Ã¨ ¨â‚¬Ã¦â€"‡å ­â€"Ã¥ â€˜Ã¥ ±â€¢Ã¤ ¸ ­Ã¥ ¤ §Ã¦ µ ªÃ¦ ·ËœÃ¦ ²â„¢Ã¯ ¼Å'åŽ »Ã§ ²â€"Ã¥ â€"ç ² ¾Ã§Å¡â€žÃ§ »â€œÃ¦Å¾Å"ï ¼Å'è °Å¡Ã¨ ¯ ­Ã¥â€¦ ·Ã¦Å"‰é ²Å"明的æ °â€˜Ã¦â€" Ã§â€° ¹Ã¦â‚¬ §Ã£â‚¬â€šÃ§â€ ±Ã¤ ºÅ½Ã¤ ¸ Ã¥ Å'çš„å ®â€"æ•™ä ¿ ¡Ã¤ » °Ã¯ ¼Å'é £Å½Ã¤ ¿â€"ä ¹  Ã¦Æ' ¯Ã¯ ¼Å'Ã¥ ¯â€œÃ¨ ¨â‚¬Ã§ ¥Å¾Ã¨ ¯ Ã¤ » ¥Ã¥ Å Ã¦â€"‡å ­ ¦Ã¨â€° ºÃ¦Å" ¯Ã¨ ¯ ¸Ã¥ ¤Å¡Ã¦â€" ¹Ã©  ¢Ã§Å¡â€žÃ¥ · ®Ã¥ ¼â€šÃ¯ ¼Å'è‹ ±Ã¯ ¼Å'æ ±â€°Ã¨ °Å¡Ã¨ ¯ ­Ã¦â€° ¿Ã¨ ½ ½Ã§ â‚¬Ã¤ ¸ Ã¥ Å'çš„æ °â€˜Ã¦â€" Ã¦â€"‡åÅ'â€"ç‰ ¹Ã¨â€° ²Ã¥â€™Å'ä ¸ Ã¥ Å'çš„æâ€"‡åÅ'â€"ä ¿ ¡Ã¦  ¯Ã£â‚¬â€šÃ¥Å" ¨Ã § ¿ »Ã¨ ¯â€˜Ã¤ ¸ ­Ã¯ ¼Å'è ¿â„¢Ã¤ ºâ€ºÃ¦â€"‡åÅ'â€"å›  Ã§ ´  Ã¦Ëœ ¯Ã¤ ¸ »Ã¨ ¦ Ã§Å¡â€žÃ¥â€º °Ã©Å¡ ¾Ã£â‚¬â€šÃ¤ »â€"ä » ¬Ã¦Å¾â€žÃ¦Ë† Ã¤ ºâ€ Ã¥ ½ ±Ã¥â€œ Ã¨â€¹ ±Ã¨ ¯ ­Ã¨ °Å¡Ã¨ ¯ ­Ã§ ¿ »Ã¨ ¯â€˜Ã§Å¡â€žÃ¥â€º  Ã§ ´  Ã£â‚¬â€šÃ¦Å" ¬Ã¦â€"‡å€ŸåŠ ©Ã¤ ¸â‚¬Ã¤ ºâ€ºÃ¥â€¦ ¸Ã¥Å¾â€¹Ã§Å¡â€žÃ¤ ¾â€¹Ã¥ ­ Ã¯ ¼Å'ä »Å½Ã¥Å" °Ã§ â€ Ã§Å½ ¯Ã¥ ¢Æ'〠Ã© £Å½Ã¤ ¿â€"ä ¹  Ã¦Æ' ¯Ã£â‚¬ Ã¥ ®â€"æ•™ä ¿ ¡Ã¤ » °Ã£â‚¬ Ã¥Å½â€ Ã¥  ²Ã¦â€"‡åÅ'â€"æâ€" ¹Ã©  ¢Ã¥Ë†â€ Ã¦Å¾ Ã¥â€ºâ€ºÃ§ § Ã¥ ½ ±Ã¥â€œ Ã¥â€º  Ã§ ´  Ã£â‚¬â€šÃ¤ ¸ ºÃ¤ ºâ€ Ã¥ ¿  Ã¥ ®Å¾Ã£â‚¬ Ã©â‚¬Å¡Ã© ¡ ºÃ¥Å" °Ã¥â€  Ã§Å½ °Ã¨â€¹ ±Ã¨ ¯ ­Ã¥Å½Å¸Ã¨ °Å¡,Ã¥  ¯Ã¤ » ¥Ã§  µÃ¦ ´ »Ã¨ ¿ Ã§â€ ¨Ã¥â€ºâ€ºÃ§ § Ã¨ ¯â€˜Ã¦ ³â€¢Ã£â‚¬â€šÃ¦Å" ¬Ã¦â€"‡è ® ¨Ã¨ ® ºÃ¤ ºâ€ Ã§â€º ´Ã¨ ¯â€˜Ã£â‚¬ Ã¦â€ž Ã¨ ¯â€˜Ã£â‚¬ Ã¥ Å'ä ¹â€°Ã¨ °Å¡Ã¨ ¯ ­Ã¥ ¥â€"ç” ¨Ã¦ ³â€¢Ã£â‚¬ Ã§â€º ´Ã¨ ¯â€˜Ã¥â€™Å'æ„ Ã¨ ¯â€˜Ã§â€º ¸Ã§ »â€œÃ¥ Ë†Ã¨ ¿â„¢Ã¥â€ºâ€ºÃ§ § Ã§ ¿ »Ã¨ ¯â€˜Ã¦â€" ¹Ã¦ ³â€¢Ã£â‚¬â€š å… ³Ã©â€ ®Ã¨ ¯ : è‹ ±Ã¨ ¯ ­Ã¨ °Å¡Ã¨ ¯ ­ Ã¥ ½ ±Ã¥â€œ Ã¥â€º  Ã§ ´   ç ¿ »Ã¨ ¯â€˜Ã¦Å â‚¬Ã¥ · §

Keats’ attitude towards women Essay

Q- Keats wrote that he struggled to settle his mind on women, by turns adoring them as angels and reviling them as whores. Discuss Keats’s attitude to women in at least three poems in light of this opinion. Keats once wrote in a letter to Fanny Brawne â€Å"You have ravish’d me away by a Power I cannot resist: and yet I could resist till I saw you; and even since I have seen you I have endeavoured often ‘to reason against the reasons of my Love’- I can do that no more†. The quote, from John Ford’s ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore, ostensibly encapsulates Keats’ attitude towards women. Through the variation of female characters presented in his work, from the evil seductress in La Belle Dame Sans Merci to chaste pure Madeline from The Eve of St. Agnes, Keats cultivates the impression of being simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the opposite sex, enthralled by their sensuality yet wary of their seemingly alien nature. This repulsion is depicted quite clearly in La Belle Dame Sans Merci or ‘The Beautiful Woman Without Pity’. Keats’ allusion to the medieval romance by French poet Alain Chartier immediately transports the reader into a fairy tale setting. The poem adopts the form of a folk ballad, yet merely mimics traditional love ballads as Keats’ female protagonist is depicted as having a far darker purpose. The contrast between the traditional ballad form and the cruel titular woman creates an ominous tone that continues into the first stanza of the poem. The poem consists of two speakers, the first of which hails the ‘palely loitering’ knight and asks ‘O what can ail thee’. The eeriness of the poem is reinforced when the unknown speaker asks a second time, ‘O what can ail thee, knight at arms’, the repetition of the question creating a ghostly refrain. The alliteration of the ‘L’ sound in ‘palely loitering’ creates a sense of listlessness that is furthered through the bleak landscape where ‘the sedge has wither’d from the lake, and no birds sing’. From this the reader can infer that the knight is a desolate emotional state, which is echoed, by his surroundings. Keats’s use of pathetic fallacy is furthered when the first speaker remarks that the ‘harvest’s done’ thus leaving the knight in a literal winter as well as a figurative one. As knights are often held as paragons of courage and power, Keats makes the reader aware that something preternaturally powerful must be at work. This preternatural being is ‘full beautiful-a faery’s child’, a tempestuous seductress who enthrals the hapless knight. So besotted is he, that he thinks nothing of following her to her ‘elfin grot’ where she ‘lulled’ him asleep. On the one hand, the verb ‘lulled’ can be seen as a treacherous attempt to secure the knight’s affections and allay his suspicions about La Belle’s otherworldly nature, on the other it can be viewed as a calming gesture, that has been misconstrued by the knight like every other aspect of the ethereal woman. Alluding to medieval mythology, Keats paints La Belle as a succubus, a femme fatale able to suck the life from the chivalrous knight through dreams. We, as the reader are only offered the descriptions and opinions of the knight-at-arms, and know nothing of this lady save for his presentation of her. As such, feminist critics could argue that unkind depiction of her character stems from the inversion of patriarchal values depicted in the poem. The knight is not a helpless victim of fancy, for it was he who first approached La Belle, and it was he who made her ‘a garland for her head, and bracelets too, and fragrant zone’. These objects, seemingly tokens of their courtship can be seen not only to decorate but to bind, enslave and enclose. La Belle Dame Sans Merci deviates from popular literacy tropes by depicting a lovelorn male in a state of decline and anguish after being rejected by the cruel female who is the object of his desires. However, instead of creating a female character to be applauded, Keats turns La Belle’s rejection of the knight into a rejection of morality itself. La Belle is never fully described, a longhaired faceless beauty who enslaves the knight with her feminine wiles. As such, La Belle can be seen to represent all women, an idea that is furthered when Keats speaks of ‘pale kings and princess too, pale warriors, death-pale they were all’. The repetition of the sickly adjective ‘pale’ in conjunction with the paradigms of masculinity found in kings, princes, and warriors furthers the idea of female sexuality corrupting the values of men, thus assuring their downfall. Keats creates a direct parallel to the malevolent succubus in La Belle Dame Sans Merci through male protagonist Porphyro from his poem The Eve of Saint Agnes. ‘St. Agnes Eve- Ah, bitter chill it was! The owl for all his feathers was a-cold; the hare limped trembling through the frozen grass, and silent were the flock in woolly fold’. Just like La Belle Dame Sans Merci, Keats through use of natural imagery depicts a desolate surrounding. However, in this case the frozen countryside is the result of a natural winter and not the spells of a cruel enchantress. This idea is further through the listing of animals; the ‘owl’, ‘hare’ and ‘flock’ are vastly different from the birdless wasteland. Keats conjures in the reader the vision of a harsh winter through use of adjectives ‘cold’, ‘frozen’ and ‘chill’. The depressed nature of this bleak landscape is broken by ‘Music’s golden tongue’ and ‘silver snarling trumpets’. The verb ‘snarling’ conjures in the reader images of savage dogs or wolves and is a startling contrast to the muffled snow covered outside world. The harsh ‘Ar’ sound in ‘snarling’ creates a growling effect and effectively conveys the ferocity and fervour of the music being played. Keats’ use of precious metals gold and silver simultaneously emphasise the value of the music, and livens the frozen world female protagonist Madeline lives in. Discussing the presentation of Madeline, critic Bateman states that ‘she’s no Fanny Brawne, she’s timid and subdued’. Paraded in front on numerous gentry who hold no appeal to her, Madeline longs to escape from the public eye and anxiously awaits the ‘hallowed hour’ of St. Agnes Eve. The adjective ‘hallowed’ holds within it highly religious connotations that encapsulates the sacred nature of St. Agnes Night. The use of religious imagery is prevalent throughout the poem, and is expressed quite exquisitely through Madeline. Madeline is a paragon of virtue, a virgin so pious that she ‘seemed a splendid angel†¦save wings for heaven’. Surrounded by the light of the ‘wintry moon’ Madeline is transformed into an ethereal being, one with no  match on earth. Far from evoking Diana, goddess of the moon and chastity, the scintillating moonlight throws â€Å"warm gules† on Madeline’s breast thus drawing attention to her body as ‘she knelt, so pure a thing, free from mortal taint’. The noun ‘taint’ suggests contamination, a polluting stain that cannot be removed. After the touch of a man, Madeline will no longer be pure, and as such loose that which makes her heavenly. Through use of ‘aged creature’ Angela, Keats creates a counterpart to female protagonist Angela. The noun ‘creature’ brings to mind something other, an alien entity that lacks humanity. Far past the age where she can enjoy the innocent and puerile rituals of St. Agnes eve, Angela is depicted as everything that Madeline is not. Old, frail and feeble, she is constantly shaking due to her ‘palsied’ state and seems prone to fits of forgetfulness, reminding Porphyro that he she cannot trust her ‘dizzy head’. She lacks any strength of character and is easily manipulated by Porphyro, thus enabling him to carry out his seduction on Madeline. One the one hand, the constant listing of physical and mental deficiencies allows Keats to create a strong contrast to thriving Madeline, on the other hand, Keats can be seen as conforming to overused stereotypes- the pious young virgin and the feeble elderly crone. As such, his female characters become a flat â€Å"2D† portrayal, lacking any real depth of personality. Jack Stillinger states â€Å"regardless of the extent to which Keats identified with his hero, he introduced enough overtones of evil to make Porphyro’s actions wrong within the structure of the poem†. On the one hand this statement can be held true, with Porphyro’s actions revealing him to be a ‘cruel man’ and ‘impious’ and on the other, Porphyro’s actions take on a romantic light, and any indiscretions made can be seen to be the actions of a lovesick fool. Mirroring La Belle’s presentation as a succubus, Keats once again draws on medieval mythology. This time however, the male not the female entertains supernatural elements. As such, Porphyro becomes an incubus. Like succubae, an incubus holds power over the opposite sex, and often carries out their seductions through dreams. Unlike La Belle however, Keats does not demonise Porphyro for his sexual  nature and portrays his fantasies of possessing Madeline in a romantic light. Despite their similar situations, the difference in the presentation of La Belle and Porphyro truly illustrates Keats’ attitudes towards women. Keats wrote about empathetic identification, claiming â€Å"if a sparrow come before my window, I take part in its existence and pick about the Gravel†. Keats is able to identify with the sparrow, yet seems unable to create female characters who are not enticing femme fettle’s like Lamia and La Belle Dame Sans Merci, or vapid feeble characters like Madeline and Angela. Keats’ treatment and depiction of his written characters is highly similar to his treatment of Fanny Brawne, finding in her aspects of that which disgusted him in La Belle Dame Sans Merci and enchanted him in The Eve of St. Agnes. In a letter to her he wrote â€Å"I cannot live without you, and not just you but chaste you; virtuous you.† As such, that which drew Porphyro to Madeline also drew Keats to Miss Brawne. Keats however, also echoes the obsessive yearning of the knight from La Belle Dame Sans Merci, writing to Fanny â€Å"you are to me an object intensely desirable.† This desire is shown most strongly in Ode To Fanny, one of the last poems Keats wrote after suffering his first lung haemorrhage. As Keats drifted closer towards death, his infatuation with Fanny became something of an obsession with critic Richardson claiming that Keats â€Å"had transfigured Fanny in his imagination, his passion creating in her the beauty which for him became the truth†. Keats ascribes Fanny with miraculous healing abilities, imploringly asking her to ‘let my spirit blood! O ease my heart.’ Bloodletting was an ancient practice said to relive the body of ill humours and cure maladies. Is this case however, it is not Keats’ blood that is causing his ailments but his damaged soul. Only Fanny can cure his heartache, making him entirely dependant on her. Throughout the ode, Keats is intensely focused on Fanny’s virginity, painfully aware that he will never be able to claim her sexually. Keats calls her his ‘silver moon’ and asks that she stay ‘unravished’ by another’s ‘amorous burn’. Through mentioning moonlight, Keats invokes Artemis, Greek Goddess of chastity entreating Fanny to remain pure. The long vowel sounds  in ‘amorous burn’ speak of consuming passion while the verb ‘burn’ contains connotations of fiery lust, thus furthering the idea of Keats’ fixation with Fanny’s sexuality. Whilst the colour silver is typically linked to purity and the moon, it will also tarnishes over time thus loosing its lustre. Keats knows that Fanny, like the silver, will one day no longer be pure, yet he still asks that no other ‘with a rude hand break the sacramental cake’. The use of the religious metaphor ‘sacramental cake’ to r ather crudely refer to the hymen, reduces Fanny to nothing more than a body for a man to sate himself in. Keats discounts her worth as a person in favour of highlighting her worth as a sexual object meant only for the pleasure of men. Keats employs the use of simplistic rhyme when stating ‘must not a woman be, a feather on the sea’. The juvenile rhyme scheme brings to mind that of a nursery rhyme, an idea that is corroborated by the equally infantile rhythm. Seemingly scornful of her emotions, and rather unable to comprehend that women are able to know their own minds, Keats wrote to Fanny â€Å"you do not feel as I do- you do not know what it is to love†. It is perhaps this view that nurtures Keats’ distrust and envy which prompts his rather hyperbolic proclamation ‘may my eyes close, Love! On their last repose’. The use of the rather clichà ©d â€Å"I would die without your love† conjures in the reader images of powerful emotional manipulation. The reader has to question if Keats is really in love with Fanny like he claims, or if his obsessive infatuation has created an idealised image of what love is, and projected it on the object of his affections. Despite what other characteristic or personality aspects they may possess, Keats paints women as seductresses, entrapping the hearts of unsuspecting men. In regards to the women he writes about, even pure chaste Madeline is presented as having ensnared poor Porphyro. Whilst some of this can be excused due to oppressive patriarchal paradigms that presented women as objects to be obtained, the vast majority of the unfair presentation stems from Keats’ own feelings and opinions. Keats is seemingly unable to view women as fully autonomous human beings, and treats even Fanny as a succubus that has enthralled him, yet even so he elevates her into an ideal. The paradoxical nature of their relationship- characterised by both love and  loathing can be seen to be reflected in his attitudes towards women, leaving him simultaneously enchanted and repelled. Bibliography http://feminism.eserver.org/theory/papers/lilith/labelle.html http://www.keatsian.co.uk/keats-poetry-belle.php http://www.mibba.com/Reviews/Book/4500/John-Keats-La-Belle-Dame-sans-Merci/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/english_literature/poetry_ccea/loveanddeath/labelledamesanmerci/revision/1/ http://www.englweb.umd.edu/englfac/JRudy/Keats-letters.pdf http://www1.umassd.edu/corridors/bestessay259.html http://literarism.blogspot.co.nz/2011/03/eve-of-st-agnes-keats.html http://research.library.mun.ca/353/3/sensuous_embodiment.pdf Richardson, Joanna. Fanny Brawne: A Biography. Norwich: Jarrold and Sons, 1952. Print.