Herodotus s Depiction Of The Battle Of Thermopylae

Ramsey Parra LLRN 151 – 01 300 Scholars, artists, authors, and filmmakers in recent years have been interested in Herodotus’s depiction of the Battle of Thermopylae, creating several different versions and interpretations of the story across multiple forms of media. The legendary battle of Thermopylae, in 480 B.C.E, demonstrated the strength, courage and bravery of the Spartan Army that went up against the Persians. The Spartans held off the Persian army of Xerxes for two days until their position was flanked by a secret trail. However, in the face of unbeatable odds and with the knowledge of a victory being almost impossible, they fought with the utmost confidence in themselves and proved that the Spartan army was one of the strongest armies in Greece, even though they were eventually defeated. Although, some of the representations of the battle in today’s media do not accurately tell the same story that Herodotus did. Frank Miller and Zack Snyder depict the Battle of Thermopylae with more action a nd entertainment in their versions to appeal to a larger audience. Thus, by analyzing Herodotus’ description of The Battle of Thermopylae, as well as Miller’s and Snyder’s versions, today’s media have portrayed the original story differently in order to captivate a larger audience. In all versions of the Battle of Thermopylae, Leonidas and the Spartan army are seen as tough soldiers who grew up under harsh conditions. Spartans typically leave home to begin training on theirShow MoreRelatedThe Persian Invasion Of Greece3806 Words   |  16 PagesThrough the manuscripts of Herodotus, an ancient historian who hailed from the mountainous lands of Greece, modern day historians have been granted the ability to piece together the multitude of events that supposedly transpired during the years 480 and 479 BC between the Persian empire and the city-states of the classical Greece (Herodotus). The second Persian invasion of Greece, which took place in the previousl y mentioned years, was a part of the many series of battles and encounters that made upRead MoreMovie Analysis : V For Vendetta2610 Words   |  11 Pagesadaptation. These films often face criticism, however, of the fact that historical accuracy often gives way to anachronisms in the name of entertainment. Zack Snyder s adaptation of the graphic novel 300, and James McTeigue s adaptation of V for Vendetta are no exceptions to criticisms of historical accuracy. However, while Zack Snyder s 300 is an attempt to recreate history, and does so in a dramatic, stylized, exaggerated, and biased fashion, V for Vendetta echoes history and uses it as a way toRead MoreMovie Analysis : Hollywood 3558 Words   |  15 Pagesduring the Battle of Thermopylae during the Second Persian invasion of Greece, and revolves around the character King Leonidas and his army of 300 in their attempts to drive the Persians away from Sparta. For this movie Snyder interpreted the graphic novel of the same name b y Frank Miller, who in turn interpreted the writings of Herodotus in his Histories to create 300. Snyder combined modern action with history and has provided his own take on the events that occurred at Thermopylae, which hasRead MoreThe Athenian And Roman Empires7856 Words   |  32 Pagesby Oliver, Day, and Oudot.22 If one follows the second camp and places the two works nearly two decades apart from one another, one could possibly infer a change in Aristides’ views, especially after a decade of inactivity and subsequent legal battles regarding public offices in Smyrna.23 If one were to follow Behr’s dating scheme, one could see either a pragmatic literary craftsman who catered his orations to the needs and desires of different audiences or an

Depiction of Female Characters in Shakespeare’s Othello Free Essays

â€Å"It is their husbands’ faults, if their wives do fail†. Othello, a play about race, power and gender is one of the best works of Shakespeare, and highlights few of the major societal issues of his time. On the one side is Othello, who is caught in his racial inferiority, fighting the prejudices his society has heaped upon him. We will write a custom essay sample on Depiction of Female Characters in Shakespeare’s Othello or any similar topic only for you Order Now And on the other side is Desdemona, who has transgressed her gender lines to marry the Moor, but is ultimately pushed into the sphere of submission and obedience – the traditional place where a woman should keep herself. We are made to wonder then: Whose tragedy is Othello really about and who was the real victim, Othello for his racial inferiority or Desdemona for her gender? If Othello makes himself appear to be a victim of Iago’s plans, confessing â€Å"nought I did in hate, but all in honor†, then he had too had once made Desdemona his victim. And not Desdemona alone, the other two women in the play, Emilia and Bianca face similar consequences. Emilia is another chaste, obedient and loyal wife to Iago – the malignant conniver, worser than Desdemona, she is never treated as a wife. And the last Bianca is, in fact, a fallen woman – a prostitute. The treatment of women in the play and the assumptions made about them removes the curtains drawn and triggers the single question in the minds of the readers – How true is the depiction of women in the play, and did Shakespeare’s society treat women in the same manner? As a matter of fact, seventeenth century England did not reserve a grand place for women, and feminist writings on women’s deplorable lives have come up mostly during Shakespeare’s time. This paper will study the three women characters and emit some light on the injustice faced by them and how they have been mere projections of male prejudices – they are assumed to be what men think them to be. The protagonist of the play is the beautiful, fair-skinned Venetian Desdemona. As her name would stand to mean ‘ill-fated’, Desdemona proves to be the most-affected victim of Iago, as until Othello comes to smother her, she was unaware of the cruel game played against her. Innocently in love ith Othello, she has been extremely loyal and supportive to her husband. When the play first introduces Desdemona, she is a different person from what she will become in Cyprus. Bold in her approach and almost fearless, she does not resemble the Venetian women of seventeenth century; by leaving her father’s house and marrying the Moor, thus committing miscegenation she takes her first step in redefining her role as a ‘woman’. She confirms Othelloâ₠¬â„¢s speech and accepts Othello as her husband. With her cunning, she smartly handles the situation and adeptly performs her â€Å"divided duty† – to her father for â€Å"life and education†, and to Othello for being her husband and companion; she admits her wifely behavior descending from her ‘mother’, who had also once preferred her husband to her father. Her love is not affected by Othello’s racial difference as she could overlook Othello’s physical ugliness and fall in love with the man inside him; she saw Othello’s â€Å"visage in his mind†. She also subverts feminism by unflinchingly asserting her sexuality and her love affair with Othello, and firmly says, â€Å"I did love the Moor to live with him†, and decides to follow him to Cyprus. That is the only time we see Desdemona’s vigor to stand for her defense. The shift of the play from Venice to Cyprus is not just spatial, it also has symbolic overtones. As from then onwards, Desdemona is reallocated to the position she tried to transgress, although in a different form – this time, playing a wife. Without any relatives or acquaintances, in Cyprus Desdemona is all on her own and all the more vulnerable. Her marriage becomes a scandal, â€Å"not in her failure to receive her father’s prior consent but in her husband’s blackness. That blackness- the sign of all that the society finds frightening and dangerous- is the indelible witness to Othello’s permanent status as an outsider†, and to convince him the truth in Desdemona’s love is impossible. Being a self-fashioner, he is always in need of symbols and signs to believe in Desdemona’s idea about him as her hero. First, her confirmation speech becomes the symbol of her love, then, to continue the trust-game Othello gives her a handkerchief – his ancestral property, received from his mother, who in her turn had received it from an old witch as a blessing to her marital life. The appearance of the handkerchief is believed to be a white cloth with a red strawberry imprinted on it. Symbolically it represents the bedspread of a married woman, with her virginal blood-stains on it, and also becomes the symbol of Desdemona’s chastity, purity and her loving, civilizing sexual power. With the loss of it she loses Othello’s trust, and as Carol Neely puts it – â€Å"The handkerchief is lost literally and symbolically not because of the failure of Desdemona’s love but because of Othello’s loss of faith in that love†; love is not sustained through symbols and signs but through conviction. This brings out the frail nature of Othello’s love for Desdemona, held not by his heart but by the handkerchief. Othello’s fear of being deceived and cuckolded rises from the flaw that is inherent in him; the self that would never grow out of the uncertainties for being racially inferior looks upon Desdemona as the’ strumpet’. A chaste wife, being killed by her husband because he lacked self-identity and the power to recognize the devil inside him is universally acknowledged as the most appalling crime committed against an innocent woman. Another woman is Emilia, wife to Iago and the only companion of Desdemona in Cyprus. As the play progresses, she emerges from a common maid to a heroic individual. Dismissing Iago’s complains about Emilia’s noisiness Desdemona says: â€Å"Alas! She has no speech†. Desdemona seems right until the middle of the play. Emilia has no existence apart from her â€Å"instrumentality to the plot†. She passes the handkerchief to Iago, unaware of his plans: â€Å"what he will/ Heaven knows not I. / I nothing but to please his fantasy†. Emilia is heard speaking elaborately only in Act IV, scene iii also termed the ‘willow scene’, which stages the conversation between Desdemona and Emilia. In this scene, Emilia comes across as a realist with her ideas like: â€Å"The world’s a huge thing: it is a great price / For a small vice† and when she says that wrong and right are relative terms, and wrongs can easily be transformed into right by the power-wielders. The most striking words are when she says that a husband is liable for his wife’s infidelity, as their neglect or envy or suspicion egg on the woman to commit treachery. According to Gayle Greene: â€Å"Emilia’s is a perspective to which we wholly ascribe, entrenched as it is in a material reality, but her vision complements Desdemona’s and represents some of the bawdy and toughness that Desdemona lacks†. He further continues saying Emilia’s clarity of ideas can be attributed to her social class: she has never been adulated, she is no one’s jewel and has remained clear-eyed and without illusions. Although she did nurture her husband’s fantasies like Desdemona. However, her previous error, unknowingly committed can be easily forgiven because of her sorority ties with Desdemona. She has not only been a friend in Desdemona’s loneliest times, but also becomes her voice in Act V, scene ii after her death: â€Å"O. the more angel she, /And you the blacker devil! † Like Desdemona, she too faces disillusionment about the man she has tied knots with on realizing Iago’s misdeeds, pronounced by her diversely inflected reiterations of â€Å"my husband†. Desdemona, even on her death-bed made her last attempt to protect Othello from his guilt by replying â€Å"Nobody, I myself† to Emilia’s â€Å"Who hath done this deed? † and spells her last words of loyalty â€Å"Commend me to my kind lord†. Emilia inverts her role as a wife and commits herself to her duties as a loyal maid to her mistress: â€Å"’Tis proper I obey him – but not now. / Perchance, Iago, I will ne’er go home†, until she is abruptly dispatched by a stab from Iago. Of the two women in the play, two are killed by their husbands after being despised as whores; the third woman, Bianca is actually a whore. She survives not through her own endeavor to appropriate herself to fit in the men’s world, but simply because â€Å"she is not central enough to be pulled into Iago’s plot†. Women here are objects of men’s â€Å"horrible fancies’, fancies which are â€Å"projections of their own worst fears and failings†. They are either silent spectators throughout their lives, never retaliating, or else immediately silenced if they ever make an attempt to over-rule men’s scheme of things. Bibliography: 1. G.K Hunter’s ‘Murdering Wives in Othello’. 2. www.guttenberg.com/Othello 3. www.projectmuse.com/Othello and Desdemona 4. Introduction and Chosen essays from Norton edition. How to cite Depiction of Female Characters in Shakespeare’s Othello, Papers

Critical Incident Analysis in Nursing free essay sample

Background of the study Examination is the most reliable way of determining the level of intelligence of students in educational institutions and the level of achievement of teacher’s lesson objectives. (Duyilemi, 2003) as stated in http://allafrica. com/stories/201110061116. html. However, when a student fails to score up to the standard pass mark in an examination, such a student is deemed to have failed such examination (Esomonu,1993) as stated in http://allafrica. com/stories/201110061116. hml. The failure of students in an examination has several factors. These factors are grouped into students based, teachers based, schools based, parents/guardians, examination agency and government’s based. This implies that almost all the stakeholders of education share in the blame of examination failure by students. Though no research has been conducted in Ghana on the causes of high failure of student nurses at the licensure in Ghana, the Nurses and Midwifery Council of Ghana (NMC) Statistical report revealed that less than 50% of the 3,223 nursing students who sat for the 2011 licensure exams assed whilst 61. We will write a custom essay sample on Critical Incident Analysis in Nursing or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page 1% failed reported by ( Bonney, E. 2011, November 1 ). A study conducted in Southern Nevada University on Nevada NCLEX exam pass rate revealed that almost fifty percent (50%) of the nursing graduates who sat for the first attempt failed. (201 www. Nevada-Nursing-school. com) This was attributed to a combination of factors such as insufficient faculty and clinical instructors, educators which do not have enough teaching experience and inadequate admission criteria. In Ghana, more research is needed to assess the situation. The objective of this study is to identify the factors that caused the high failure of student nurses at the licensure exam at the Korle-Bu Nurses and Midwifery Training College. PROBLEM STATEMENT The licensure examination conducted by the nurses and midwifery council of Ghana is a final examination that students write before they qualify to be enrolled as registered nurses reported by (Adams, A. 2011, August 17). Despite government’s efforts to combat the shortage of nurses in the country, there is still increasing number of student nurses failing the licensure exam, thus compounding the problem of nurses shortage in the country and financial burden on parents. Even though no research has been conducted on the high failure of students nurses at the licensure examination in Ghana, according to the Nurses and Midwifery Council of Ghana Statistics to the Daily Graphic indicated that less than 50 percent(50%) of the 3,223 nursing students who wrote the 2011 licensure examination passed to practice as nurses. Out of the total figure of 1,254 candidates, representing 38. 9 percent, passed while the remaining 1,969, representing 61 percent were referred. Out of the 2,178 candidates who were presented for the Registered General Nursing examination, 823, representing 37. 7 percent, passed, while 1,355 representing 62. 7 percent referred. A total of 321 candidates who sat for the Registered Mental Nursing examination and out of the figure, 119, representing 37 percent passed, while 202 representing 63 percent were referred. For the midwifery examination, 679 candidates were presented, with 300, representing 44. % passing and 379 representing 55. 9% being referred and community health nursing, 45 candidates were presented, out of which 12 representing 26. 7% passed reported by ( Bonney, E. 2011, November 1). This is a confirming fact that student nurses failed massively at the 2011 licensure examination and this calls for the need for research into the matter. The purpose of the study is to establish the factors that caused the high failure of student nurses at the licensure exams at the Korle-Bu Nurses and Midwifery Training College. Research questions 1. What are the factors that caused the high failure of student nurses at the licensure exams at the Korle-Bu Nurses and Midwifery Training College? 2. What are the qualification levels of tutors teaching in the college? 3. What caliber of students (qualifications) are admitted into the Korle-Bu Nurses and Midwifery Training College? 4. What facilities are needed and are available for the training of students in the college. 5. What percentage of students passed in the various subjects at the licensure exams in the college? 6. What category and percentage of students (science, arts, agric) passed the licensure exams at the Korle-Bu Nurses and Midwifery Training College? 7. What are the effects of changes in school curriculum on students in the college.