Change in Roman Fever by Edith Wharton Essay - 1956 Words

Change in Roman Fever by Edith Wharton Chance (or coincidence) has an ambiguous role in the outcome of different situations; it can work in or against one’s favour. As in real life, chance in literature has considerable influence on the circumstances of the characters and where those circumstances lead. In two particular literary works, Roman Fever and A Small, Good Thing, chance happenings have grave results on the lives of the characters concerned. In Roman Fever, old friends meet by chance and reveal disturbing secrets about the past; while in A Small, Good Thing a boy is injured on his birthday placing his parents in a desperate situation. Although chance generally seems to go unnoticed—a spontaneous purchase of candles,†¦show more content†¦The two old friends had not seen each other in years, but met again in a hotel in Rome where they were both vacationing with their respective daughters. Naturally, it seems, the two daughters develop a friendship. Such occurrences would otherwise be unfathomable if it was not for the precise meaning of chance; the unpredictable element in happenings that cannot be assigned a cause (Hougton Mifflin, 2000). Chance provides an understanding, not an explanation, and, hence, an acceptance of such occurrences. The chance meeting of these two old friends sets the stage for the revelation of secrets that were also influenced by the unexpected. Knowing that Grace had romantic interest in her then fiancà ©, Mr. Delphin Slade, Alida writes a letter posing as Delphin inviting Grace to meet him after dark in the Coloseum. Alida had simply intended for her dear friend Grace to catch the roman fever and disappear for a few weeks until â€Å"[she] was sure of [Delphin],† (Wharton, 91). However, it was also revealed that the unexpected happened and Grace replied to the letter saying she would be there. Thus, Delphin arranged for the meeting to take place. Whether irony or bad luck, Mrs. Slade had blindly provided her fiancà © with the opportunity to have an affair, one he gratefully accepted. If Grace had not replied to the letter, if, in fact, Alida had considered the possibility of herShow MoreRelatedEssay on Roman Fever623 Words   |  3 PagesRoman Fever Roman Fever is an outstanding example of Edith Whartons theme to express the subtle nuances of formal upper class society that cause change underneath the pretense of stability. Wharton studied what actually made their common society tick, paying attention to unspoken signals, the histories of relationships, and seemingly coincidental parallels. All of these factors contribute to the strength and validity of the story of Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley. Roman Fever at firstRead MoreEdith Wharton s Roman Fever1251 Words   |  6 Pagesaccountable. This philosophy is seen in Edith Wharton’s short story â€Å"Roman Fever† by her characters Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley as they argue about a letter and an affair in the duration of the story. Wharton’s main characters are on opposing sides of the philosophy of determinism, with Mrs. Slade representing determinism and Mrs. Ansley representing free will, respectively and each effectively showing Wharton’s disagreement to determinism. In â€Å" Roman Fever†, Mrs. Slade represented determinism inRead MoreRoman Fever Analysis724 Words   |  3 Pages Roman Fever, by Edith Wharton, is an outstanding example of Whartons theme to express the subtle nuances of formal upper class society that cause change underneath the pretense of stability. Wharton studied what actually made their common society tick, paying attention to unspoken signals, the histories of relationships, and seemingly coincidental parallels. All of these factors contribute to the strength and validity of the story of Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley. Roman Fever at first strikes theRead MoreCharacterization From Roman Fever Essay952 Words   |  4 PagesCharacterization from â€Å"Roman Fever† The wicked witch, the stepmother, the damsel in distress, the fair maiden, the prince. All these stock characters are well known. Flat and shallow, they are only either evil, repressive, distressed, fair, or kind. They are known because they are seen everywhere. But what do they teach or show about human nature. Do these â€Å"people† make provoke thought or do they fill a role for a plot? Emphasizing who they are, not what they do, â€Å"literary fiction writers areRead MoreAn Analysis Of Edith Wharton s Roman Fever And F. Scott Fitzgerald s Babylon Revisited Essay1315 Words   |  6 PagesPaper People have a strange way of dealing with conflict. People use deceit, manipulation and even other people as a way of creating conflict. The same way these things happen in real life, the same happens with characters in literature. In Edith Wharton’s â€Å"Roman Fever and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s â€Å"Babylon Revisited†, characters do the strange thing of using their own children as a way of pushing other others into their past, a method to hurt them. Here we will observe the roles of children in each storyRead MoreAn Analysis of Edith Whartons Short Story Roman Fever876 Words   |  4 Pages Edith Whartons short story Roman Fever deals with betrayal, deception, and feelings of resentment as it describes the lives of two women who have trouble achieving their goals and attempt to blame each-other for their apparent unhappiness. The story is intriguing because it influences readers into thinking that it actually deals with sentiments like nostalgia and problems emerging as a result of middle-aged conditions. However, one is likely to observe that it wants to put across more complexRead MoreThe Naturalism Movement, Much Like Its Companion Movement1201 Words   |  5 Pagescome more â€Å"comprehensible to middle class readers† (11). The Naturalist writers that we have read all conformed to these aforementioned guidelines, but they also all seem to have this underlying theme- the need for friendship for survival. Edith Wharton’s â€Å"Roman Fever,† Stephen Crane’s â€Å"The Open Boat,† and Jack London’s â€Å"To Build a Fire† are very different stories that even have differing classes within it, but they all are friendship-conscious; these naturalist writers seem to be saying that in orderRead MoreThe Use of Ambiguity in the Story, Roman Fever by Edith Warton1273 Words   |  5 Pageswhat is just on the surface. In the story Roman Fever, by Edith Warton, ambiguity is very evident in many aspects of the story. Throughout the story there are many ambiguous moments however, in my opinion the most ambiguous moment happens in the last sentence of the story. I believe it is the most powerful statement in the whole story, and can change the whole meaning of the story. In the last line of the story Mrs. Ansley states, I had Barbara   ( 634 Wharton). These three simple words make the wholeRead MoreRoman Fever and Hills Like White Elephants Essay2110 Words   |  9 Pagesprocess of carefully developing their unique characters and through point of view, both Edith Wharton and Ernest Hemingway ultimately conve y the significant revelation in the short stories, â€Å"Roman Fever† and â€Å"Hills Like White Elephants† respectively. The use of these two literary techniques is essential because they provide the readers with the necessary clues to realize the ultimate revelations. â€Å"Roman Fever† and â€Å"Hills Like White Elephants† are two stories that on surface seem very different fromRead MoreNaturalism As A Literary Genre1367 Words   |  6 PagesNaturalistic writers had the belief that one’s heredity and social environment determine, the character and influence behavior. Frank Norris, an American novelist brought these beliefs and ideas into America at a time that America was going through many changes as a country. This belief influenced many famous American novelists in their own writings at a time when many believed naturalism was beginning to take a drop in popularity (Palmisano). Consequently, instead of dwindling away American novelists turned

Susan Glaspell s A Jury Of Her Peers - 1174 Words

A Jury of Her Peers is a short story written by Susan Glaspell in 1917 and follows the investigation of the murder of John Wright, with his wife Minnie Wright being the alleged murderer. Martha and Lewis Hale assist Sheriff Peters and his wife, Mrs. Peters, with investigating the scene of the crime. Throughout the story, women notice significance in their findings, of which the men overlook. The men have a dismissive attitude towards the women, ignoring their contributions. When the women solve the crime in the end, they do not inform the men of the evidence found, which prevents any conviction. In her short story, A Jury of Her Peers, Susan Glaspell conveys a feminist theme of women being oppressed under male domination and gender roles. She expresses this through the use of irony, symbolism, and characterization. First, Glaspell makes effective use of irony to display the oppression of women and gender roles. During this time period, women had little to no power and they were cons idered unintelligent-- only being able to cook, clean, sew, et cetera. While investigating the scene, the men belittle the women, deeming them to be too unintelligent to provide anything practical to the investigation. Mr. Hale declared, Would the women know a clue if they did come upon it? (Glaspell 370). This statement is ironic, because in the end of the story, the women are the ones who discover the clues that lead them to solving the crime, not the men. Not only do the womenShow MoreRelatedSusan Glaspell s A Jury Of Her Peers1408 Words   |  6 PagesGrowing up in Iowa in the 1800s and 1900s, Susan Glaspell took inspiration for many of her stories from personal experiences. As a former courthouse reporter herself, Glaspell’s short story â€Å"A Jury of Her Peers† is based largely on her involvement with a murder case and a kitchen she recalled investigating. â€Å"A Jury of Her Peers,† a rendition of her early play, Trifles, focuses on the homicide of an a busive husband by his wife. While the men investigating the case overlook the various signs of abuseRead MoreSusan Glaspell s A Jury Of Her Peers995 Words   |  4 Pagesprominent theme in the 1900’s, during a time when women were often treated as second class citizens to men. Susan Glaspell wrote the play â€Å"Trifles,† in 1916, which portrayed how women’s lives were seen as less significant throughout American society. The following year, Glaspell wrote the short story â€Å"A Jury of Her Peers,† which was essentially a longer and more detailed version of â€Å"Trifles.† The stories are alike in many societal implications, since â€Å"A Jury of Her Peers† was based off of â€Å"TriflesRead MoreSusan Glaspell s A Jury Of Her Peers Essay982 Words   |  4 Pagesâ€Å"A Jury of Her Peers† by Susan Glaspell is now known as a feminist classic. Susan Glaspell first published the play â€Å"Trifles† in 1916 and was adapted to th e short story â€Å"A Jury of Her Peers† in 1917. The story was rediscovered in the early 1970s, since then it has been reprinted into textbooks and anthologies. It is said that while Glaspell was working as a reporter she was inspired to write â€Å"Trifles† and â€Å"A Jury of Her Peers.† The stories are inspired by a real murder case she was covering. TheRead MoreSusan Glaspell s A Jury Of Her Peers999 Words   |  4 PagesFrom beginning to end, Susan Glaspell’s 1917 short story â€Å"A Jury of Her Peers,† has several repetitive patterns and symbols that help the reader gain a profound understanding of how hard life is for women at the turn-of-the-century, as well as the bonds women share. In the story two women go with their husbands and county attorney to a remote house where Mr. Wright has been killed in his bed with a rope and he suspect is Minnie, his wife. Early in the story, Mrs. Hale sympathizes with Minnie andRead MoreSusan Glaspell s Jury Of Her Peers1841 Words   |  8 PagesName: ZaZa Horton Professor: Leblanc Course: Anicent Woman in Greece 20 April 2015 Susan Glaspell’s â€Å"Jury of Her Peers† â€Å"Jury of Her Peers† is a short story that revolves around the strange death of john wright. It is a piece of work that exposes sexism on women. Women have been categorized for some time now based on their gender and not on ability and skills. They have always fell at the short end of the stick when compare against men. Nevertheless, there were many similarities as well asRead MoreSusan Glaspell s A Jury Of Her Peers878 Words   |  4 Pages In â€Å"A Jury of Her Peers,† Susan Glaspell crafts an intricate portrayal of these differences, but also provides a closer look at interpersonal relationships in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as well as how one’s atmosphere may affect the mind. Glaspell’s commentary is clear regarding the standing of men and women of the time, with the male characters being in positions of duty and respect, and the female characters being in positions of maintenance. These choices made by Glaspell allow theRead MoreSusan Glaspell s A Jury Of Her Peers Essay1164 Words   |  5 PagesSusan Glaspell was a prolific author, playwright, journalist and novelist in the early 1900s. Early in her career as a reporter she wrote many articles including the newspaper coverage of a murder trial known as the Hossack Case when she worked for The Des Moines Daily News in Des Moines, Iowa. This murder trial was a much publicized event in which a woman, Margaret Hossack, was accused of murdering her prosperous husband on the couple’s farm in Des Moines. In these newspaper articles dated fromRead MoreSusan Glaspell s A Jury Of Her Peers Essay1789 Words   |  8 Pagesdefined as the treatment of someone or something with due fairness, but the fa irness of a situation is often seen differently, depending upon the viewer. In Susan Glaspell’s, A Jury of Her Peers, the idea of who is capable to fairly judge a person, and therefore serve justice, is examined through the arrest of Mrs. Minnie Wright for the murder of her husband. As the sheriff and others go to the Wrights’ house, the suggestion is made that those empowered by law to cast judgement and those with an understandingRead MoreSusan Glaspell s `` The Yellow Wallpaper `` And A Jury Of Her Peers ``2004 Words   |  9 Pagesof mankind. Women, in particular, fight for fairness even in today’s society. This everlasting battle can be seen in both â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and â€Å"A Jury of Her Peers† by Susan Glaspell. Gilman’s story revolves around a woman who has postpartum depression. Her husband, who is also her physician, uses isolation to try and heal his wife’s â€Å"nervous disea se.† Glaspell’s story, on the other hand, describes the murder of a man, with his wife being the prime suspect. Read MoreSusan Glaspell s Trifles And A Jury Of Her Peers984 Words   |  4 PagesAlthough â€Å"A Jury of Her Peers† and â€Å"Trifles† are similar in plot, Mustazza’s article, â€Å"Generic Translation and Thematic Shift in Susan Glaspell’s ‘Trifles’ and ‘A Jury of Her Peers’† highlights the differences and similarities between the two. Mustazza’s article may help aid readers to understand the differences between Glaspell’s two works and provide understanding as to why Glaspell may have changed the genre and form of the plot. â€Å"Trifles† is a dramatic play whereas â€Å"A Jury of Her Peers† is prose

Effective Communication Reflection free essay sample

Effective communication is undoubtedly an important module in the course of study in NTU. Studies done over the years have concluded that two of the most important skills, regardless of professions, are oral communication skills and interpersonal abilities. As such, I would like to reflect on a very crucial skill, public speaking. The first part of public speaking would be the preparation; planning a speech. The PAC-SSS model would prove to be useful in this task. The purpose chosen should not be too general. The profile of the audience, as well as the interests and needs, should also be taken into account. The substance should be tailored such that it is suitable for the audience. A formal and standard language as well as an appropriate tone should be adopted in the speech. Complex sentences should be avoided as they are more difficult for audience to follow. A fail-safe structure to follow would be ‘Tell them what you are going to say’, followed by ‘Say it’, and ending with ‘Tell them what you have just said’. We will write a custom essay sample on Effective Communication Reflection or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The next part of public speaking would be the delivery of the actual speech. The 7%-38%-55% Rule by Albert Mehrabian, currently Professor Emeritus of Psychology, UCLA, states that in human communications, verbal words accounts for only 7% of the message, whereas vocal tone accounts for 38% and visual effects accounts for 55%! Body motions, such as eye contact, facial expressions, gesture and posture, cannot be neglected in a presentation. Paralanguage, accounting for vocal characteristics and vocal interferences, is also an important aspect of a presentation. All these skills learnt in this module are crucial to me not only in the future, but also right now. Firstly, on a daily basis, being able to communicate effectively and speak convincingly will impact my life significantly. For example, being able to speak convincingly would help me gain the confidence of others with ease. Secondly, it will also aid possible presentations in school in the near future. Last but most importantly, it will be the number one skill needed at work. Lee Lacocca once said, â€Å"You can have brilliant ideas, but if you can’t get them across, your brains won’t get you anywhere. † Effective communication is a lifelong skill.

Does God Exist 2 free essay sample

Does God Exist? # 8211 ; Aquinas Essay, Research Paper Does God Exist? Since the beginning of clip, adult male has been fighting to reply the inquiry, how did we acquire here? What or who was responsible for the creative activity of life and the universe? It seemed natural to reason that at that place must hold been a higher power that created the world known by adult male. However, how does one turn out the being of such a God? This has been the major preoccupation of theologists and philosophers which began several hundred old ages before Jesus Christ, and has continued to be the topic of het argument of all time since. We readily accept the existence and everything contained within it, but can # 8217 ; t seem to hold upon how it got here in the first topographic point. After all, saying that God exists and so really turn outing His being are two different things, and the latter can turn out to be a instead dashing undertaking. Most early philosophers maintained that God most surely did be and attempted to utilize scientific statements to turn out their point. However, possibly the most quoted philosopher on the absolute being of God is non a scientist, but instead, possibly more suitably, a theologist. St. Thomas Aquinas was a pupil of doctrine and was influential in integrating doctrine into the spiritual philosophy, which provides the foundation for the contemporary Roman Catholic spiritual beliefs. Saint thomass examined the inquiry of God # 8217 ; s being in great item in his philosophical plants, Summa Theologica and Summa Contra Gentiles. He wrote, # 8220 ; Get downing with reasonable things, our mind is led to the point of cognizing about God that He exists, and other such features that must be attributed to the First Principle # 8221 ; . Aquinas had the typical philosopher outlook by asseverating that it can non be merely simply accepted that God exists, since this contention is non instantly evident. It is a declaration that must be proven. In other words, religion entirely is non sufficient adequate grounds to reason that God exists. Aquinas pointed out that what may be conceived in the mind does non needfully exists in world ( Grace, 1996 ) . To do his ain instance sing this issue, Aquinas established his five standards on the being of God through Summa Theologica, the first three of which became known signifier the footing of the cosmogonic statement corroborating God # 8217 ; s being. The five ways Aquinas used to corroborate the being of God all stemmed from a first cause statement. In other words, life perpetuates itself as one cause prompts the happening of an event that becomes the cause for a subsequent event and so on through eternity. However, at some point, there had to be a first cause, which set these wheels into gesture, which is the being normally referred to as God. In the First Way, Aquinas established that everything that is finite undergoes alteration, and by following these consecutive alterations, finite adult male is finally led to God. Until this happens, finite objects can non be changed. Aquinas # 8217 ; Second Way is based upon the theory of causality, which is a elaborate account of how the foremost cause is the lone account for continual # 8220 ; cause and consequence # 8221 ; of the existence. Following, Aquinas established the standards of a # 8216 ; necessity # 8217 ; of being. In other words, something can non come from nil. There had to be a transeunt being in topographic point for all being to germinate. He wrote, # 8220 ; We discovery in nature things that are possible to be and non to be # 8230 ; . But it is impossible for these things to ever be, for that which is possible non to be at some clip is non. Therefore, if everything is possible non to be, so at one clip there could hold been nil in existence. # 8221 ; In other words, if there were no being historically, nil would be at the present clip. Since being is non in inquiry today, there must hold been an ageless being that started it all # 8211 ; God. By the 19th century, philosophers were non rather so content to blindly accept the being of God. Certain incredulity began to predominate, and this was reflected in the doctrine of the clip period. Possibly one of the most articulate spokesmen who argued against the being of God was British philosopher David Hume, the laminitis of the # 8217 ; disbelieving school of philosophy. # 8217 ; He openly criticized Aquinas # 8217 ; # 8220 ; foremost do # 8221 ; theory as an uneffective statement, inquiring, # 8220 ; What was the cause of the First Cause? # 8221 ; . He and others pointed out, rather justly, if every happening must hold a cause, what makes anyone conclude that it began with God? There has neer been a valid statement set uping God as the # 8216 ; First Cause # 8217 ; harmonizing to David Hume. Of class, it should possibly be pointed out that oppositions of Hume have taken the theological # 8220 ; high route, # 8221 ; keeping that it is assumed that in the moral order, everything Begins with God, and this is a procedure that is beyond inquiry. Furthermore, harmonizing to Hume, Aquinas # 8217 ; statement is philosophically flawed because he makes the premise that the features of the parts equal the features of the whole. In other words, merely because some effects in the existence may be attributed to a cause does non intend that the full existence can be traced to one root cause. After all, if God is the cause of the existence, this means that God is a cause onto Himself. Why can # 8217 ; t the creative activity of the universe be explained in similar footings? Staying ever the skeptic, Hume # 8217 ; s argument Michigans short of claiming that God does non be, which would be godlessness. Rather, he regarded his undertaking as projecting sensible uncertainty as to whether or non God exists, which is agnosticism. David Hume farther expounded on his unconventional spiritual doctrine in his 1757 essay, The Natural History of Religion. He suggested that people continued to believe in the being of God because they were conditioned to make so. Hume wrote: Our ascendants in Europe, before the resurgence of letters, believed, as we do at nowadays, that there was one supreme God, the writer of nature, whose power, though in itself unmanageable, was yet frequently exerted by the interjection of his angels and subsidiary curates, who executed his sacred intents. But they besides believed, that all nature was full of other unseeable powers, faeries, hobs, elves, sprits, existences, stronger and mightier than work forces, but much inferior to the heavenly natures, who surround the throne of God. Hume # 8217 ; s deduction is clear: If adult male did non believe in the being of God, he would incur considerable wrath from above. Hume continued by asseverating that literature had much to make with public perceptual experience of God and of His being. Ancient Greek poets bestowed upon their honored Gods homo qualities they knew their compatriots could easy associate to. It was this # 8216 ; nescient # 8217 ; ancient Greek position of God offered by the Grecian poets and Aristotle, upon which the God # 8217 ; s existence theory of Thomas Aquinas was based. Hume asserted that the original religion placed in God # 8217 ; s being grew from the uneducated multitudes that developed the myth of an almighty Perfect Being who was responsible for the creative activity of everything that could non be explained. These people could non explicate such natural phenomenons as lightning or temblors so they attributed them to some higher power. Today there are empirical, scientific accounts for these happenings. The possibility exists that someday scientific discipline will someway be able to turn out or confute the theory that God exists. With both points of position presented, which, if either, is right? Aquinas # 8217 ; statement, an admirable theoretical account of deductive logical thinking, is missing in scientific cogency. Hume argued, possibly right, that this historical description of a natural and moral order merely grew from adult male # 8217 ; s want to populate an ordered being, non from God # 8217 ; s being. Peoples will everlastingly be reasoning around their dinner tabular arraies about the being of God. Many take comfort in the belief that there is one Godhead who still exists in the existence, a perfect being who watches out for His # 8216 ; imperfect # 8217 ; kids. However, the statement that God exists because he was the # 8216 ; First Cause # 8217 ; of everything is excessively simplistic for the sophisticated mind to accept. It may be spiritually soothing to believe in the being of a higher power, but there is no incontrovertible grounds to propose that God was # 8216 ; the cause # 8217 ; of everything, therefore turn outing His being. As we approach the new millenary, incredulity prevails and continues to reign supreme. Grace, R. Jeffrey. A Report on Summa Contra Gentiles Book One: God by Thomas Aquinas [ Online ] . October 1996. Available: hypertext transfer protocol: //www.electriciti.com/~rjgrace/scg.htm. Hume, David. The Natural History of Religion [ Online ] . 1757. Available: hypertext transfer protocol: //www.utm.edu/research/hume/wri/nhr/nhr. Porter, Burton F. ( editor ) . Religion A ; Reason: An Anthology. New York: St. Martin # 8217 ; s Press, Inc. , 1993. Stairs, Allen. The Cosmologic Argument [ Online ] . March 1998. Available: hypertext transfer protocol: //brindedcow.umd.edu/236/aquinas.html. Titus, Harold H. , and Smith, Marilyn S. Living Issues in Philosophy ( Sixth Edition ) . New York: D. Van Nostrand Company, 1974. Thompson, Karl F. ( editor ) . Thomas Aquinas # 8217 ; Summa Contra Gentiles. Classicss of Western Thought: II. Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Reformation. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1973.