On balance, does the 'rise' of China present a greater opportunity or Essay

On balance, does the 'rise' of China present a greater opportunity or threat to Australia's national interests - Essay Example Australia believed in the notion that it needs to do its defense from the Asian countries. They have held this believe ever since the early years of the cold war between Australia and Asia. Although this believe of Australia has been revised in several aspects but still some countries are a potential threat to Australia. One of such countries is the rising super power China (Capling, pp. 601-622). This essay takes into account the aspects in which australia consider china as a threat. These factors may be military, social and economical sjakjs. Nations are concerned about the present power status of China. There is a vast difference between as nation which takes 300 years to develop and one that rises in 30 years. The nation that rises in a span of 30 years is the result of its effective strategy while the one that take 300 years to develop is merely dependent on luck. China can be considered a best example of rising strategy. Many scholars have been assessing the rising strategies o f China for about 2 decades but still they haven’t reached on any conclusion regarding its power status. (White, 2013) The rise of China has made many nations think over different trade and defense issues of Asia Pacific. The ongoing strategic competition between America and China is visible to the whole world. Keeping the present conditions in mind the Australian strategists are not thinking over the regional conflict that they may face from China but are debating over the issue that how Australia must prepare itself for war. This explains that Australia views China as a present and potential trust for its defense and national interest. Australia is fully aware of the fact that China is an emerging super power; therefore it knows that unfriendly relations with China can be a major threat for its national security. The poor culture understanding between Australia and China has also increased the ideological distrust between the two rising nations. This has also negatively aff ected the economic relationship of China and Australia. The culture of both the regions differs from each other in several aspects. This must not be considered as an aspect of weak economical relations between the two countries. Australia must try to develop good cultural relationship with China, as it will foster good trade relations between the two countries and the trade between Australia and china can be profitable for both countries. (Capling, 2008) Other than this, Australia has many questions to address which may have various impacts on its future with China. There is an important question being discussed among the strategic mind of Australia based on its national interest and its defense policy. The questions that are the being discussed by Australian’s strategic mind revolves around its participation in the future war between America and China. Australia is also thinking over the fact that its defense system must be strong enough to face the China at any given time i n future. Clearly one cannot deny the fact that the rise of China has been a threat for the military of Australia since World War II(Barker, 2011). The present Australian policy is not to appease or provoke China but to support and protect Australia and build its defense so that it can face any threat in unfavorable circumstances. Australia also holds certain policies regarding supporting US as they

Understanding The Federal Reserve System Essay Example for Free

Understanding The Federal Reserve System Essay Operating Federal Reserve System through Stocks. The Federal Reserve System (Fed) is the principal monetary authority or the central bank of the United States of America. Its primary role is to conduct monetary policy, supervise federal and state banks and maintain stability in the system by providing payment services to depository institutions. It is made up of a seven member Board of Governors in Washington DC, 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks and their 25 branches. The Board is appointed by the President and approved by the Senate. Federal Reserve issues monetary policy guidelines and carries out stabilization activities which are particularly important in times of financial crisis such as stock market decline in 1987, the international debt crisis of 1998 and the terrorist attacks in September 2001. The principal instruments at the disposal of the Federal Reserve for maintaining stability are interest rates for loans, reserve ratio stipulations for commercial banks thereby determining liquidity and regulating circulation of new currency. The latter is carried out by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) by buying securities in the open market thereby increasing money supply. This will simultaneously decrease the federal funds rate, reducing interest on mortgages and loans and generating demand. The price of bonds and securities operate within a narrow margin as these are long term instruments pledged by the government. During such times, it would be seen that the price of stocks which are volatile instruments will undergo large fluctuations as opposed to bonds and securities. Similarly an increase in money supply also results in people putting more money into the stock market. In case the economy is growing too fast, Fed can sell Treasury securities and reduce the money supply, marking higher interest rates. Stocks construe ownership of shares in the assets of a company. The price of shares is determined by the market. The New York Stock Exchange provides a facility for trading shares. Stocks are guaranteed to the extent of the liquidity of assets of the company and unlike federal bonds are not direct instruments of liquidity. There is a possibility of default in stocks unlike bonds. The US Fed will not be able to ensure stability through regulation of money supply by holding stocks. The aim is also to ensure sustained long term growth in the economy; this is achieved through investments in long term instruments as mortgages, insurance and loans. Stocks are relatively short term instruments which provide market marked returns and thus are not suitable as a policy instrument for the US Federal Reserve. Impact Open Market Purchase of Gold or Foreign Currency. Purchase of gold or foreign currency by the Federal Reserve will increase money supply in the domestic market. Buying gold or foreign exchange is similar to outright purchase of government securities from the open market. In this case money supply is altered permanently rather than temporarily. The purchase of gold or foreign currency is carried out in very few cases merely to send an appropriate signal as the impact is considerable. Similarly theoretically speaking if the Fed sells gold and foreign currency it will be decreasing money supply in the domestic market. The gold and foreign exchange markets are beyond the control of the Federal Reserve as there is no regulatory authority unlike the bond market. Thus fluctuations can be substantial and impact the domestic economy gravely. Instability in the Gold and Forex market has not been defined and can cause speculation which is related to fluctuations in the exchange rates as well as trader’s reluctance to buy and sell the commodity or foreign exchange. Maintenance of stability in the economy is the principal role of the Federal Reserve. This has to be done through specific instruments which are provided for the same and the controlling organization for it, which is the Federal Open Market Committee, the federal and the state banks. The Federal Reserve has been intervening from time to time in a small way in the foreign exchange market merely to send an appropriate signal to the investors. In this case Federal Reserve sells dollars and buys foreign currency to exert downward pressure on the price of the dollar while it buys dollars and sells foreign currency to exert an upward pressure.

How Service Learning Enriches the Learning Experience

How Service Learning Enriches the Learning Experience How Service Learning Enriches the Learning Experience Section I: Problem Statement Service learning is a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities. Service learning is an extremely broad range of discussion that it utilized all over the country and all over the world as a teaching strategy. I will analyze this topic from several different angles and perspectives in hopes to answer the question of How service learning enriches learning experiences, teaches empathy, strengthens communities, and develops participatory citizenship. To answer the question in the previous paragraph, I will explore into the following topics: service learning as a teaching technique, how service learning provides implications for empathy and community engagement in students, and how service learning develops participatory citizenship. I will also consider the real truth about service learning from a college students perspective, and the emotions of teaching through service learning. In addition, I will interview an educator with experience, expertise, and knowledge about service learning. After exploring these topics of discussion, it is my hope that the reader fully understands how service learning enriches learning experiences, teaches empathy, strengthens communities, and develops participatory citizenship. Section II: Literature Review Service learning as a teaching technique: Service learning, also known as experiential learning, is a creative teaching technique that incorporates community service with scholarly learning to enhance information and knowledge, educate civic engagement, and fortify communities. The service experience is incorporated into an academic course in which students complete composed and verbal reflection exercises about their bits of knowledge, encounters, and advantages amid the service learning opportunity. (Griffith Clark, 2016) Shared endeavors among the community or organization, the scholastic foundation, the course teacher, and the student are essential in a service learning project. The service organization has a need met while the scholarly foundation manufactures a partnership with the organization and surrounding community. The teacher gives significant, frequently difficult, learning encounters, and the students collaborate with people from differing and hindered backgrounds. For students, service learning enhances critical-thinking, leaderships skills, and promotes civil engagement. (Griffith Clark, 2016) The students participating in service learning ought to have clear expectations of what they will do all through the service learning venture. The teacher should address the idea of service learning and clarify why it is a piece of the course so students are set up to participate. The students should know the quantity of required service hours, service task depictions, how they will coordinate service learning with course content, and the assessment criteria. In arrangement for the service learning venture, students should recognize the abilities they will convey to the organizations for which they are working. This self-appraisal constructs students certainty and recognizes shortcomings they must take a shot at to be successful in the service learning environment. The students likewise should be urged to keep a log or diary of service learning exercises to use as a reference for composing their reflective writing assignments. (Griffith Clark, 2016) In addition to setting up the service learning opportunity, the teacher has numerous obligations amid execution. It is urgent for the teacher to give satisfactory direction to students. The measure of direction required relies on the students, the nature of the exercises, and the duration of the service project. The teacher should give students data that portrays the degree and motivation behind the project, organization and teacher desires, exercises, and due dates. Other teacher duties involve talking about scholastic honesty, staying in touch with service organization supervisors, checking students execution, giving time to students to examine their service, and creating alternate courses of action as required. (Griffith Clark, 2016) Service learning is an instructional approach that accentuates scholastic work and community benefit similarly. Furnishing students with hands-on service involvement in the group can improve the nature of a teachers instruction. Service learning additionally can enhance students basic intuition and administration abilities while advancing civil engagement. These activities cooperate to reinforce community partnerships between the service organization, the scholastic foundation, the teacher, and the students. Providing implications for empathy: Empathy is considered frequently as an identity feature in children on account of the significance of empathy for prosocial behavior, diminishments of withdrawn behavior, and healthy adolescent development. From an early age, both the home environment and parent-child communication are relied upon to impact the improvement and development of empathy. Once the child begins school, this environment turns into another socializing agent. Despite the fact that empathy is currently thought to develop early in life, its improvement proceeds into adolescence. In this manner, programs that advance the development of empathy are essential and valuable over an extensive variety of ages. (Scott Graham, 2015) Past reviews have found that empathy checks and moderates many negative identity highlights, particularly with a concentration in interpersonal domains. Furthermore, empathy seems to prompt decreases in reserved conduct, delinquent mentalities, outrage, externalizing practices, and physical and verbal violence levels. While the decline in ominous qualities holds essential clinical ramifications, there are studies that analyze the impacts of empathy training from a positive psychology perspective. The positive psychology perspective takes a gander at the qualities that help individuals and communities succeed and the temperance or circumstances and people as opposed to the pathology and harm that analysts frequently concentrate on. This point of view tried to develop self-assurance, empathy, certainty, and adapting aptitudes to make a perspective of typical that does not concentrate on emotional sickness but instead spotlights on the most proficient method to maintain a strategic dist ance from hindering circumstances. (Scott Graham, 2015) Providing implications for community engagement: Community engagement is characterized as dispositions, practice, information, and abilities intended to work for the benefit of everyone, with duty toward the encompassing group. It can be further clarified as community-oriented participation with an emphasis on humanitarian effort and participation in community organizations. The term community engagement is not common in the child development literature since this idea is typically investigated in older youths. In adolescence, the emphasis on community engagement changes from charitable effort in the community or neighborhood to an obligation toward the community with political ties. Since it is not typically conceivable in the US culture to be involved in political associations before adolescence, the term community engagement will be utilized rather than civic responsibility regarding those under eighteen years old. (Scott Graham, 2015) A standout amongst the most essential school components leading to community engagement is an open school atmosphere in which students participate in making rules and arranging events to create and develop democratic skills. A feeling of association with the group can likewise cultivate community engagement. Service learning has ended up being one strategy for reigniting community engagement in todays youth as well as a method for helping adolescents discover that they can change their communities while giving them aptitudes and materials to do as such. (Scott Graham, 2015) Service learning has an overall positive effect on empathy and community engagement in school aged students. Understanding this connection has implications for future citizenship, community engagement, altruism, and empathy. Considering decreasing trends of empathy and community engagement in adolescents and young adults in the past ten years or more, working to instill these characteristics in childhood is becoming more crucial. (Scott Graham, 2015) Developing participatory citizenship: Through service learning, instructors join the most elevated amounts of learning in Blooms Taxonomy with the largest amounts of Maslows Hierarchy of Needs keeping in mind that the end goal is to create a curriculum that strengthens the bridge from youthfulness to adulthood. By opening the entryway for experiential, applicable learning, service learning permits students to be participatory citizens instead of passive and novice individuals. The benefit of service learning is two-fold: 1. It rotates around sorted and organized active participation inside the community that empowers civic engagement and empathy, and 2. It presents organized opportunities for the application of knowledge and academic skills. (Myers, 2016) Experiential learning through service, combined with scholastic basic reflection and classroom community, can create participatory citizens who are better arranged for their general surroundings. Rather than putting secondary school ages students into holding tanks, secondary schools should give an extension that interfaces scholarly information with adult citizenship through service learning. Students could have a perspective of their future on the planet while as yet interfacing with their scholastic past. (Myers, 2016) Section III: Assessment of Problem Statement Service learning has been found to have a wider impact on society than community service or community exploration because it allows students to have a hands-on experience in the community while learning about the community to lessen the knowledge gap between students and the community. (Scott Graham, 2015) Through collaboration with different community organizations such as nursing homes, homeless shelters, veterans hospitals, childrens hospitals, and parent teacher associations, those participating in service learning can gain insight into the community needs, as well as learn about how service projects can play a role in minimizing serious social issues. (Scott Graham, 2015) In 2002, The National Commission on Service-Learning found that students become more engaged in school through service-learning because they are able to take responsibility for their own learning, providing hope for staving off academic disengagement. (Scott Graham, 2015) Late confirmation has reproduced the aforementioned outcomes demonstrating that service learning can lead to more grounded, scholarly engagement and performance results. A further look into this has demonstrated that students involved in service learning have more positive scholarly results in critical thinking, writing, and overall grade point average. (Scott Graham, 2015) Service learning additionally gives an essential extension amongst school and community to advance empathetic development. As far as self-improvement, students who are involved in service yearning have increases in concern, charitableness, duty, social fitness, and obligation. Two results that have been revealed in past studies on service learning are 1. An expansion in compassion and 2. A reinforcing of future community engagement. (Scott Graham, 2015) Studies have been completed to determine the impact of a service learning course on students self-efficacy where analysis resulted in three major themes: 1. Constructive criticism and self-reflection improve self-efficacy, 2. Experience breeds confidence, and 3. Service learning encourages students to obtain more knowledge and experience in areas of deficiency after the service learning experience. (Goodell, Cooke, Ash, 2016) Constructive criticism and self-reflection improve self-efficacy: Students have reported that, while sometimes painful to hear, they believe that constructive criticism improved their skills when working in the community. Most students appreciated receiving constructive criticism from peers and superiors; they looked at constructive criticism comments as opportunities for growth and to adjust accordingly. (Goodell, Cooke, Ash, 2016) Experience breeds confidence: Based on the data gathered in pre-experience interviews and reflections, those who perceived themselves to either have an innate ability to perform well at a task or who had previous experience with a task were more likely to express higher self- efficacy related to those specific teaching skills prior to the experience. While overall teaching self-efficacy improved in students after their service- learning experiences, the students reported greatest improvements in self-efficacy related to the skills in which they originally lacked confidence the most. Students attributed this newfound confidence to their service-learning experience. (Goodell, Cooke, Ash, 2016) Service learning encourages students to gain more knowledge and experience in areas of deficiency: Reflecting on those weaknesses not fully addressed during the service-learning experience, students expressed a desire to improve on those skills through future experiences. They discussed general and specific ways in which they could obtain training. In addition to the desire to obtain new skill sets, students also discussed a newfound motivation to improve their knowledge because of the service learning experience. Many students were motivated to engage in self-led education to ensure that they were knowledgeable enough to help those they were teaching. (Goodell, Cooke, Ash, 2016) I interviewed a special education colleague who instructs service learning as part of her curriculum. I presented her with the emotional satisfactions and emotional hazards that most teachers can identify when they teach through service learning. I used the LeCrom, Pelco, Lassiter that reviews the emotions of teaching through service learning to see if my colleague felt any of these emotions as well. I presented her with the following Emotional Satisfactions: Something done, someone reaches: the pleasure and privilege of completing benevolent service acts that enhance the lives of those involved. (LeCrom, Pelco, Lassiter, 2016) Moral purpose: the service encounter is a mutual moral activity; it answers a moral call in the whole while strengthening the moral beliefs and values of those volunteering. (LeCrom, Pelco, Lassiter, 2016) Personal affirmation: the service enables one to rediscover the inherent gifts on has to offer the world that are usually taken for granted. (LeCrom, Pelco, Lassiter, 2016) Stoic endurance: a mix between being fully committed to the work and those served, yet remaining somewhat detached. (LeCrom, Pelco, Lassiter, 2016) Boost to success: the service work is also self-serving, providing distinguishing experiences that aid career advancement. (LeCrom, Pelco, and Lassiter, 2016) My colleague said that she has felt all of these satisfactions at one time or another while teaching through service learning. She also said that she thinks that these satisfactions are even more satisfying when working with students with special needs. When I asked her if she had to make a choice as to which satisfaction was the most satisfying to her, she said that she would have to pick the Something done, someone reached satisfaction. I then presented her with the following Emotional Hazards: Weariness and resignation: service work, over time, proves to psychologically draining and increasingly disinteresting to providers who begin thinking of doing something else or, at the very least, taking an extended break. (LeCrom, Pelco, Lassiter, 2016) Cynicism: a gloomy doubtfulness about the world, people, and their potential that skeptically overshadows any sense of hope for the service work; results in serious questioning of whether the service work is even impactful. (LeCrom, Pelco, Lassiter, 2016) Arrogance, anger, and bitterness: a growing feeling of outrage by the problems the service work is trying to resolve, sometimes enacted on others who are assisting in the work, and becomes embittered with how people in power to nothing; eventually the service provider believes they are the only ones who are doing anything. (LeCrom, Pelco, Lassiter, 2016) Despair: a deepening sadness for the impermeable misfortunes of others, making it difficult to notice anything positive from the service work besides the advantages accrued to the service providers. (LeCrom, Pelco, Lassiter, 2016) Burnout/Depression: a general sense of utter disappointment, hopelessness, or exhaustion that arise with the arduous duties of service work; a depressive condition takes over the spirit and bring with is devastating feelings of going through the motions or terminating the work altogether.' (LeCrom, Pelco, Lassiter, 2016) My colleague shared with me that she has experienced weariness, cynicism, and burnout during times that she was teaching through service learning. She explained to me that the weariness comes towards the beginning of the school year, the cynicism comes towards the middle of the school year, and the burnout comes towards the end of the school year. Section IV: Reflection References Goodell, L. S., Cooke, N. K., Ash, S. s. (2016). A Qualitative Assessment of the Impact of a Service-Learning Course on Students Discipline-Specific Self-Efficacy. Journal Of Community Engagement Higher Education, 8(2), 28-40. Griffith, T., Clark, K. R. (2016). Teaching Techniques. Service Learning. Radiologic Technology, 87(5), 586-588. LeCrom, C. W., Pelco, L., Lassiter, J. W. (2016). Faculty Feel It Too: The Emotions of Teaching Through Service-learning. Journal Of Community Engagement Higher Education, 8(2), 41-56. MYERS, A. (2016). Building Bridges to the World: Utilizing Service Learning During the Senior Year to Develop Participatory Citizenship. American Secondary Education, 44(3), 4-12. Scott, K. E., Graham, J. j. (2015). Service-Learning. Journal Of Experiential Education, 38(4), 354-372.

Persepolis: Changing Western Perceptions of Muslim Women Essay

Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel, Persepolis, makes important strides toward altering how Western audiences perceive Iranian women. Satrapi endeavors to display the intersection of the lives of some Westerners with her life as an Iranian, who spent some time in the West. Satrapi, dissatisfied with representations she saw of Iranian women in France, decided to challenge them. In her words, â€Å"From the time I came to France in 1994, I was always telling stories about life in Iran to my friends. We’d see pieces about Iran on television, but they didn’t represent my experience at all. I had to keep saying, ‘No, it’s not like that there.’ I’ve been justifying why it isn’t negative to be an Iranian for almost twenty years. How strange when it isn’t something I did or chose to be?† (Satrapi, â€Å"Why I Wrote Persepolis† 10). In acknowledging both Eastern and Western feminism, Satrapi’s novel humanizes the female Iranian perspective in a way that can easily digested by Western audiences. This novel acts as an autoethnographic text, a term coined by Mary Louise Pratt, in which Persepolis acts as â€Å"a text in which people undertake to describe themselves in ways that engage with representations others have made of them† (Pratt 35). This novel, which depicts her life so far, demonstrates a mastery of the spaces of representation. As one theorist has argued, â€Å"In discussing Persepolis in relation to the theme of women and space, we will draw upon a framework suggested by Pollock for reading the work of women artists†¦Pollock refers to three spatial registers: first, the locations represented by the work (and, in particular, the division between public and private space); second, the spatial order within the work itself (concerning, for example, angl... ... and changed Western perceptions in doing so. Works Cited Gà ¶karÄ ±ksel, Banu and Anna Secor. The Veil, Desire, and the Gaze: Turning the Inside Out. Signs, 40, 1 (Autumn 2014): 177-200. Miller, Ann. â€Å"Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis: Eluding the Frames.† Johns Hopkins University Press: L’Espirit Createur, Vol. 51, No. 1, Spring 2011: 38-52. Nnaemeka, Obioma. â€Å"Nego†Feminism: Theorizing, Practicing, and Pruning Africa’s Way.† Signs, Vol. 29, No. 2, Winter 2004, 357-385. Online. Satrapi, Marjane. The Complete Perspolis. New York: Pantheon Books, 2004. Print Satrapi, Marjane. â€Å"Why I wrote Persepolis: a graphical novel memoir: writer Marjane Satrapi faced the challenges of life in post-revolutionary Iran. She used the graphic novel format to tell her unique story.† Marjane Satrapi. Writing!, Nov-Dec, 2003, Vol.. 26(3), p. 9(5) Cengage Learning Inc.

Public displays of Affection essay Essay

Is public displays a creative way of expressing young youths expressions of the world? Through this project I am investigation the meanings behind public displays whether it is right or wrong. There are many opinions that places public displays in a negative way, which many people would believe that it is way of damaging public properties. However Public displays brings a variety of meanings in a way of introducing colours that changes the mood of someone perception of the world. Colours that are used in public displays, in other words graffiti inspires many young street artists to overcome their fear and be spontaneous with their public views. I have chosen this particular topic because I want to discover the truth behind graffiti and why people have chosen to express their feelings through art instead of speaking out their minds. This is interesting as graffiti is a reflection on the relationship between art and society as society has the ability to change the boundaries and walls which defines what is art. Many people should start accepting that graffiti is art as it is a way of exploring different expressions through individuals. As being a young youth myself, I have begun my research by taking photos of street art in London and explored different colours and shapes. Whilst taking photos of public displays, I was inspired at each design as it brought out much interpretation both positive and negative of their views on society. This led me to take photos on young youth at my own school and display them as a way of showing how young youth behave in today`s society. During the start of my project, I have looked at many street artists and the one that inspired me the most is Banksy. Banksy explores a variety of shapes and meanings and expresses his political view in an artistic and creative way. What makes Banksy so different than other street artist is that he combines dark humour with graffiti and this is done in a distinctive stencilling technique. Through this project I would like to follow Banksy technique and combine it with my own work. By the end of the project, I would want to find out the meaning behind the public displays and the problems that many youth individuals face which are presented through street art.

Personal life Essay

Dance; a body of expression, a medium of communication, happiness and love. Dance is my passion. I am a trained Bharata Natyam dancer. I am proud to be an Indian because of its rich culture and heritage. In Bharata Natyam Bha i. e Bhaava (expression), Ra i. e Ragha (rhythm) and Ta i. e Taal (beat) are the basic components of a dance. There are seven different classical dance forms in india – Bharata Natyam, Kuchipudi, Kathakali, Odissi, Mohiniattam, Manipuri and Kathak. I am blessed to be a part of this culture. It is my mother who developed this art in me. I have also learnt other dance forms such as Western and Folk. It is through dance that I find inner peace and true happiness. This art form gave me beautiful opportunities. I have represented my country in Dubai, France and Finland International festivals. Being a part of these festivals made me realize even if we have language barrier the language of dance bridged the gap between us. I’ve explored many cultures, their way of living, their way of life through this art. Dance needs no interpretation. Dance is also one of the strongest medium to pass a message. I believe one must use this art for a good cause. Famous dancers such as Hema Malini, Helen, Vayjantimala, Shri Gopal Krishna, Smt Rukhmani Devi, Shri Birju Maharaj are respected for their contribution. Dance taught me to correct myself. It has developed in me the ability of working towards excellence. I’ve acquired certain skills from this art which I believe are my competencies as a manger such as confidence, self-presentation, and an ability to cope with criticism and learn from it. As a performer I have an open mind and the ability to move beyond boundaries and experiment with different ideas. Every human being has a purpose for his existence. I believe my purpose is to spread love and happiness and do my bit for the society. I wish to make my parents proud. I wish to make this world a better place in my own little way. I wish to stay in your hearts forever!!

Shakespeare’s Influence on English Literature Essays

Shakespeare’s Influence on English Literature Essays Shakespeare’s Influence on English Literature Paper Shakespeare’s Influence on English Literature Paper Essay Topic: Cymbeline Shakespeare’s influence on English literature has been unsurpassed. His influence did not confine itself to the intricate detailing of his stories alone, but extended to all aspects of storytelling, namely mellifluous prose, evolved characterization and varied settings.  All of these contributed in making his stories memorable and through primarily these three elements together with the sheer variety and breadth of his storylines, he continues to exercise a dominant influence on English literature and captivate and enthrall. Beyond anything, his life is an example of complete dedication to his craft. His life is marked by a focused devotion to English literature and language through his Tragedies, Comedies and Histories, cumulatively known as the First Folio, Second, Third and Fourth Folios. Whatever is known of Shakespeare is drawn primarily from two sources, his literary texts and remnants of church and legal records from which one can trace the significant aspects of his life, though much of it is conjecture. Shakespeare’s mother, Mary, was the daughter of Robert Arden of Stratford. John, his father, was a leather merchant whose life witnessed tumultuous financial highs and lows. There is a probability that Shakespeare attended grammar school during his early years, though his parents were in all probability illiterate. At the age of eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway, who was eight years older than him. Till 1592, no other record alludes to his life. In 1592, Robert Greene referred to Shakespeare when he wrote in Greene’s Groatsworth of Wit bought with a Million of Repentance about â€Å"an upstart crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tiger’s heart wrapped in a player’s hide, supposes he is as well as able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you; and being an absolute Johan-nes fac totum, is in his own conceit the only Shake-scene in a country† (Alexander, xvi). This remark only serves to reiterate that Shakespeare had gained significant recognition through his plays by 1592 and inspired sufficient rivalry in literary circles though Greene’s is the only known enmity. Even this remark is a travesty of Shakespeare’s own lines from Henry VI, Part Three; â€Å"O tiger’s heart wrapped in a woman’s hide† Johannes fac totum referred to here means the jack of all trades. This observation was partly correct, for Shakespeare was multifaceted. Apart from being a writer, and starring in his own plays, he was also associated with a theatrical group comprising of Richard Burbage, a noted stage performer and they were known after their patron as Lord Chamberlain’s Men and after King James succeeded Queen Elizabeth, they were known as â€Å"the King’s Men†. It was to this company that Shakespeare directed his unswerving attention by composing all his plays solely for their enactment. In 1593-94, Shakespeare, to much critical acclaim, published his poems, Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucerne. Shakespeare was diffident about the publication of his plays and took no interest in their printing, being interested only in their faithful and dramatical reproduction. This is responsible for the problems in establishing the accuracy of his texts and in dating them. Shakespeare’s first tragedy was Titus Adronicus, (C. 1592-94) in which Ovid’s influence was profound though it did not gain much prominence because of its implicit violence. It has, of late, been revived. During this period, he wrote Henry VI (c. 1588) and Richard III (c. 1593), Henry V (c. 1599). Richard II and Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2 were also composed during this time. According to the Lexicon, the principal Comedies written during this time were Love’s Labour Lost, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It and Twelfth Night. He devoted himself principally to Tragedy after 1599. These include- Julius Caeser, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra and Coriolanus. There were some plays that were difficult to categorize such as Troilus and Cressida, All’s Well That Ends Well and Measure for Measure. The end of his writing career was marked by four plays- Cymbeline, The Winter’s Tale, The Tempest and Pericles. Shakespeare’s supremacy was not confined to English literature alone but extended to the English language as well. The strength of Shakespeare’s influence can be ascribed to his riveting and compelling storylines, his evolved characterization and the mellifluous language. Through his plays, he for the first time in English literature created believable, expressive characters. He delved into the psyche of his protagonists and imbued them with life. What perhaps makes these characters lasting and unforgettable is that they are neither wholly evil nor wholly good, but real. Hamlet fascinates readers with his complexity. Emotional and daring, lackadaisical about revenge and shades of insanity are traits that render him complex. Othello, initially portrayed as courageous and proud, reveals that he is in fact flawed, like all of Shakespeare’s characters, when his implicit trust in Iago betrays him to act upon his jealousy and kill Desdemona. Shylock in The Merchant Of Venice sins as much as he is sinned against, as much a hero as a villain. It has been argued that Shakespeare’s characters stoop to melodrama, but one has to remember that he was, above all a consummate dramatist. It has been said that a compulsive and insightful reading of all of his plays serves to make one a better judge of human character, its motivations, conflicts, passions and fallacies. (â€Å"Bartleby†). His thoroughness in the execution of his characters served to inspire generations of writers. In fact, Herman Melville’s main antagonist in Moby Dick, Captain Ahab, is believed to be a classic Shakespearean character, whose downfall and doom are brought about by his own weakness. According to Wikipedia, Shakespeare’s resonant prose also reverberates through time, through the writing of Charles Dickens, on whom Shakespeare’s influence was profound, and William Faulkner. He also helped develop the English language. English, before the times of Shakespeare was impulsive and unstructured. Shakespeare enhanced the beauty of the language by adding to its vocabulary and gave it depth by the beauty of his prose. Many of the phrases that his characters used have become common parlance. He freed the English language. Successive generations have interpreted and reinterpreted Shakespeare’s plays and will continue to do so for posterity. The vividness of his imagination helped unify the thought and action of his characters and gave them force and passion, so much so that these characters inspire hatred and love, but never indifference. In Othello, for instance, it is the language which defines the play. Othello’s prose is mellifluous in the true sense of the term, so much so that a critic on remarking about the language of Othello has called it â€Å"Othello’s music†. (â€Å"Geocities†). However, the language of Othello gradually breaks down, as consumed by jealousy his character slowly disintegrates. In the Act I, Scene III, Othello states â€Å"And little of this great world can I speak/ More than pertains to feats of broil and battle† (Shakespeare, 1118). The Duke also expresses his opinion that Othello would also win his daughter’s heart. Othello also says â€Å"Yet I’ll not shed her blood/nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow† (Shakespeare, 1149), As his character becomes darker, his language crumbles, he stoops to words to communicate instead of sentences, â€Å"Killing myself, to die upon a kiss† (Shakespeare, 1153). This was one of the first plays in which the language evocatively moves in tandem with the plot. Another way in which Othello was revolutionary was that the main protagonist was one of the first or colored black heroes in the history of English literature. Inspite of his race and also despite the fact that he was a foreigner in conventional Venice; he rises to a position of influence and marries a white woman, a circumstance unthought-of during Elizabethan times. Othello also has to overcome considerable racial discrimination. Shakespeare imbues Othello with all heroic and noble characteristics, save for one tragic flaw, jealousy. With this Othello’s fate was sealed. He became the embodiment of the ‘perfect tragic hero’ in English literature. Also unique among Shakespearean tragedies, Othello was mostly a tragedy of character, while all the other Shakespearean tragedies were set amongst political backdrops, Othello was propelled and instigated by his self doubt, jealousy and by the diabolical wickedness in the character of Iago. The language, the setting, the characterization and the taut plot makes Othello the most heartrending and memorable of Shakespeare’s tragedies. This power to captivate and enthrall readers through delving into Othello’s psyche helped redefine psychological realism. With only three principal characters, Othello, Desdemona and Iago, it is also one of Shakespeare’s most centered plays in which the action concentrates around these three characters. Again, for Romeo and Juliet, the primary element of the play that resonates through time is the language. Romeo says â€Å"Love is a smoke rais’d with the fume of sighs† (Shakespeare, 904). This is more poetry than prose. The characters, besides using poetry in speech, also use metaphors, oxymorons, allegories and paradoxes. Shakepeare also uses sonnets in the scenes between Romeo and Juliet to express their depth of love to each other. In these scenes, the language imbues their emotions with a rich texture. There are also a lot of action words used. It is this poetry of language that was to have a tremendous influence on the romantic poetry of Keats and also of Coleridge. Thomas Carlyle has this to say about Shakespeare’s influence on literature This King Shakespeare does he not shine, in crowned sovereignty, over us all, as the noblest, gentlest, yet strongest of rallying-signs; indestructible; really more valuable in that point of view than any other means or appliance whatsoever? We can fancy him as radiant aloft over all Nations of Englishmen, thousand years hence. From Paramatta, from New York, wheresoever, under what sort of Parish-Constable soever, English men and women are, they will say to one another, ‘Yes, this Shakespeare is ours; we produced him, we speak and think by him; we are of one blood and kind with him. (Bernard Levin. From The Story of English. Robert McCrum, William Cran and Robert MacNeil. Viking: 1986)† (â€Å"Shakespeare Online†). Thus, Shakespeare’s impact on literature is lasting. The range of his genius defies imagination. It will continue to stir future generations till eternity.