Marriage in Christina Rossettis Promises Like Pie-Crust and Edgar Alla

Marriage in Rossetti's Promises Like Pie-Crust and Poe's Bridal Ballad  Ã‚      In Christina Rossetti's "Promises Like Pie-Crust" and Edgar Allan Poe's "Bridal Ballad" female speakers encounter the milestone of marriage. Facing strong pressures from society, Rossetti's speaker refuses marriage in three well-reasoned arguments which are veiled in a guise of superciality. Conversely, Poe's speaker accepts marriage, but by the end of the poem realizes the dire consequences of her decision. Rossetti knows what she wants and does not want out of life; subsequently, Rossetti realizes that personal satisfaction and even joy may exist without a man and thus makes the tough decision not to marry. Poe's naive bride trusts in society and marries not out of love but in an attempt to attain happiness. Failing to either examine her inner thoughts or accept her misgivings, Poe's bride remains emotionally unready to marry. A paragon of the nineteenth century woman, Poe's bride, despite her doubts, succumbs to marriage whereas Rossetti's strong-willed speaker vehemently rejects the institution.    Poe's ostensible conformity opposes Rossetti's independent spirit; however, society's pressures affect both women. Poe writes "Bridal Ballad" in 1837 in America while Rossetti writes "Promises Like Pie-Crust" during the Victorian era in England; during both periods society demands that women marry (Mayberry 11).   Referring to the unwedded woman as an "old maid" or "spinster", society reinforces the notion that matrimony alone leads to a contented, blissful state. Born and bred to marry, a woman's disruption of the wed-and-then- procreate cycle engenders not only society's disrespect but also frightening uncertainty for the woman (Mayberry 11). ... ...ed bliss." Emotionally attached to her dead lover, Poe's bride proves her incapability of loving anyone else besides the dead D'Elormie. Citing several valid reasons, Rossetti eschews the decadent dessert while Poe's bride, deafened to reason by society's expectations, ignores Rossetti's arguments, seeks marriage as a panacea, and chokes on her medicine. Works Cited Greenblatt, Stephen, and M. H. Abrams. â€Å"Christina Rossetti.† The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 9th ed. Vol. 2. New York: Norton, 2012. 1489-512. Print.   Sova, Dawn B. â€Å"Bridal Ballad†. Critical Companion to Edgar Allan Poe: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work, Critical Companion. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2007. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 11 Dec. 2010. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CCEAP1298&SingleRecord=True>.

Monotony in Elisa’s life Essay

Many people in our modern society lead monotonous lives; in other words they follow a routine and have little or no excitement in their lives. Sometimes we fool ourselves by believing that a monotonous life is happy life, but it does not work the same way for every person. Leading a monotonous life can be very harmful to one’s well being and those around us. In the short story â€Å"The Chrysanthemums† by John Steinbeck we see a person who finds herself in this situation, following a daily routine without much change in it. When a person realizes that they have been living a boring life they start to feel dissatisfied with what they have accomplished, act on impulse and even resort to different activities in an attempt to escape from reality. It often happens that people neglect themselves and do not do anything to satisfy their inner desires which later turn into regret. Regret is the effect that comes from not doing that which you want to do, not realizing your dreams or even from making the wrong decision. If a person strictly follows a routine it happens that they refuse to relax or have fun because it can affect their work or lives. These people are followed by a feeling of unaccomplishment which can lead to sorrow and sadness. The problem is that you start repeating this cycle that does not really benefit your health, it may benefit others and improve your work or studies but you always have to take into consideration your well being. Regret is a very powerful emotion and can carry on for years if a person is not careful it can gravely affect their state of mind and create many complexes. In â€Å"The Chrysanthemums† the character of Elisa is a perfect example of someone who leads a monotonous life. Elisa is tired of her life because she feels tired of the same issues every day, caring for her garden being a wife and even dealing with an awkward husband. Elisa regrets not living a more exciting life. In the story, the traveling handyman when talking with Elisa asks her for some chrysanthemums seeds and a very interesting conversation comes up. Elisa tries to explain to him how to care for the chrysanthemums by explaining the feeling of how you do it, but they interpret the explanation as something sexual. Elisa gets aroused by the conversation and tries to touch the man’s leg in the heat, but resists herself in the end. This leaves me to think that maybe she feels unsatisfied in her marriage, she desires something, regrets not having this exciting life. By using the same example we can also relate the situation to how living in this monotony can make a person act on impulse. To act on impulse is to give in to your deepest desires, to follow your urges; it is the drive for what we do. This impulsive behavior surfaces from the situation, since Elisa cannot hold her desire she breaks down and almost does something she might have regretted later on. Jane Atkinson states, â€Å"When a man you’ve never met before suddenly gives you flowers don’t be alarmed — he’s only acting on Impulse† (Atkinson). What I’m trying to say is that acting on impulse is like taking a risk. What we have in the quote is basically that, the man is probably nervous and thinking that the woman will not accept them or feel harassed, but he takes a risk, acts on impulse, without completely thinking about the consequences of his actions. Many people live an entire life by acting on impulse without thinking about the consequences, but it is a fact that sometimes you could end up with a very complicated situation. Sometimes acting on impulse is not bad, but you cannot go over the top, there needs to be a balance between the two. Elisa, for a single moment, acted according to what her body wanted, but at the last moment realized that what she was going to do might have caused big problems later on. Basically acting on impulse is not exactly a bad thing, but in Elisa’s case, where the impulses come out of regret, it is a very severe problem. If you act on impulse you will not just cause harm to yourself, but to those around you too. The human being when cornered in a situation tends to look for an easy way to get out of this situation; this is the meaning of escaping from reality. The easy way out may be an efficient one, but in the long run may end up being the worst since it is the most dangerous for your health. Elisa’s monotonous live creates the perfect situation to make a person desire to escape. To escape from reality one uses an activity or an object which aids the person to create a more comfortable scenario. Many people use drugs to escape from reality, alcohol is one of the most common since it makes you see everything in a different way. Elisa is already mentally affected due to her dull, monotonous life and to make it worst the traveling handyman reminds her that her life will probably be the same until her death. By analyzing Elisa’s behavior from the story we can infer that she has been using the chrysanthemums garden as a way to bury in all her feelings and hide all her sadness, but nearing the end of the story when Elisa and her husband are on their way to the restaurant she asks if they could buy some wine, her second attempt to escape from reality. Elisa wants to use alcohol to escape from the sadness she was feeling; we can also assume that from this point on Elisa might develop a drinking problem due to the constant use of alcohol to alleviate the sadness. Escaping from reality might ease the pain inside one’s heart, but it cannot resolve any problems. Also there is also the fact that Elisa is living in a rather sexist society. Ott, Jim states, â€Å"It’s the enigmatic tale of a woman named Elisa who loves her husband, but is fenced in by geography and circumstances in a man’s world†. In the quote we basically have a summary of the story, but we mainly focus in the part where it says â€Å"in a man’s world† meaning that Elisa is being seen as weak and defenseless and treated as inferior. If a person constantly escapes from reality and never confronts his problems they will just make things worst since the problems will pile up and become even more complicated. In the end it just goes back to the same saying that everything in excess can be deadly. Leading a monotonous life can be harmful to a person’s well being. Monotony makes people feel dissatisfied, makes them act illogically and can even throw them into a deep depression. But there are also people who believe that it does not cause harm and that it can even be good for your health. Leading a monotonous life does not physically injure anyone and as long as a person does not take it to extreme measures then it does not cause any harm. There is also the fact that nobody has died because of monotony and it is not even a disease. However there are many factors that can make this seemingly normal way of life a deadly one. Even if it is not a disease it acts like one by obstructing your way of thinking, affect your judgment and more. It is true that as long as you do not do anything extreme then it will not cause much harm, but the problem is that not everyone understands this, most people just take it to the extreme or just do not do anything at all. Of course monotony cannot kill a person, but it can drive one into suicide easily since there are many people with weak minds and hearts who get overtaken by the feeling and do rash things without taking everything into account. In other words although monotony is not a deadly disease it can be harmful because it works it affects the weakest part of the body which is the mind. To live on a routine may sound like a completely normal and healthy activity, but, like everything, if you surpass a certain limit it can have the exact opposite meaning and effects on a person’s life. Once you put the facts in monotony can cause great harm like in Elisa’s case, but it can have the exact opposite effect too. Gregory J. Palmerino states, â€Å"In the end, both husband and wife bear responsibility and suffer for their seemingly childless and sexless marriage; the punishment, however, appears to be meted out unfairly† (Palmerino). This one quote basically sums up everything I want say about the story. Elisa and her husband are only making their problems worst and have many regrets and secrets or rather untold opinions of one another that are yet to be said aloud. The only real problem in all of this is the fact that their punishment really is being meted out unfairly since Elisa is getting the short end of the stick because she is being oppressed by her status as a woman and because of the fact that even though she is extremely unhappy she cannot do anything about it. The thing about Elisa’s lifestyle is that one thing leads to another, since she is living a monotonous life she regrets not doing many things and thus tends to act on impulse to try and accomplish these unfulfilled desires and lastly since she cannot fulfill these desires she resorts to the use of other objects to ease the pain in her heart. The saddest part of everything that is happening to Elisa is that she herself is making things worse for her and her husband. Works Cited Atkinson, Jane. â€Å"Policeman just can’t Help Acting on Impulse.† News of the World: 53. May 23 2010. ProQuest Central. Web. 19 Oct. 2012 . Ott, Jim. â€Å"This Valley Life: Livermore to Read and Celebrate Steinbeck.† Oakland TribuneJan 07 2010. ProQuest Central. Web. 19 Oct. 2012 . Palmerino, Gregory J. â€Å"Steinbeck’s THE CHRYSANTHEMUMS.† The Explicator 62.3 (2004): 164-7. ProQuest Central. Web. 19 Oct. 2012.

Bribery Ethics and Business - 1767 Words

Bribery and corruption is a way of life in many countries. These practices affect the way international business is regularly conducted. However, in most of these countries, it is illegal to offer or receive bribes or engage in corrupt practices. Yet corrupt practices are a part of the ‘culture’ of ‘doing businesses. Unless companies ‘conform’ to such practices, in many cases, international business cannot be transacted. This essay will attempt to provide discussion about bribery and corruption in international trade example in vary different point of view in according to the principal ethical system suchlike religious, philosophical and ‘natural’. It will be analyse the case of Siemens bribery scandal related to ethical issues. Bribery†¦show more content†¦However, business do not have to involve none of them. Commonly, people confused business ethics is a concept that suffering is essential to morality. One of the purposes in life for Christians is serving and loving God and the way to serve and love God is by follow the steps of Jesus of Nazareth which has in the Bible, by doing so Christians will find the highest virtue that is love. For the Jew, one serves and loves God also but through actions of justice and virtue. This commitment gives a sense of responsibility to family and community. Roman Catholicism has a tradition of formally applying values to moral aspect of industrial relations as Pope John Paul II asked to rich countries to forgive debt from poor countries. Religion has not only formal systems with codes but also instruction for social relationships as â€Å"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you† called â€Å"Golden Rule† and many other can be found in all great religious of the world Immanuel Kant proposes that no matter what are the consequences may be or who did it, but some actions are always wrong. â€Å"rules to follow in moral decision making, rules that do not depend on circumstances or results and that do not permit individual exceptions.† (Shaw Barry 2004 p69) Kant introduces in the business as well an important human aspect into business. For not being mean as Utilitarian point of view and egoist Kant’s principle clearly want business to consider more human as today with all thoseShow MoreRelatedSiemens Bribery and Corruption Ethical Violation Case1509 Words   |  7 Pagessurfacing in the last decade due to the hand in hand prosper of international business globalization. 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