How important is the setting in R L Stevensons portrayal of a double life in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Essay Example for Free

How important is the setting in R L Stevensons portrayal of a double life in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Essay The strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was written in 1886 by Robert Lewis Stevenson. Robert Lewis Stevenson was born and brought up in Edinburgh in the 1850s. He was part of a middle class family, his parents were strict Christians and it was very important to them that Stevenson behaved respectfully. When Stevenson was a child, Stevensons nanny frightened him with stories of hell and suffering which may have contributed to his ideas in the novel. When he was a young man in Edinburgh he may have used a false name or a hidden identity in order to indulge himself in forbidden activities or he may have fantasized about them, like crime, affairs and homosexuality. In Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Stevenson uses his experiences to describe the unpleasant side of life. The novel is about how Dr Jekyll leads a double life and its devastating consequences. The book reflects Victorian concerns about city life such as crime and poverty. The novel is set in the city of London and is significant in the novel because in general most gothic novels at that time were set far away or in unfamiliar surroundings, yet Stevenson sets the novel in London which shocked readers because it was a place they all knew which made them think that the themes discussed in the novel could be happening near them. This makes it more frightening to the reader and therefore made it a more popular novel. In the novel Stevenson describes London as labyrinths of lamp lighted city. This suggests that the city makes it possible for people to easily lose themselves in London. We see this in the novel when Stevenson says he was often absent; for instance, it was nearly two months since she had seen him till yesterday (the day of the murder). This tells us that Hyde was often absent and it relates back to people losing themselves in the city. Another important aspect of the setting is the weather, which for most of the novel is described as fogged city moon This creates an atmosphere of mystery and unknown and it also suggests that something might be about to happen. The chapter which describes the Carew murder case is an important event in the novel because the murder forces Mr Utterson to investigate and piece together the link between his friend Dr. Jekyll and the murderer Mr Hyde. The reader learns, however, that they are the same person. Stevenson sets the murder scene in a lane which the maids window overlooked and interestingly chooses the murder to be brilliantly lit by the full moon. He does this in order to display every detail of the murder and to show the viciousness of the attack. For example the murder is described as a storm of blows, under which the bones were audibly shattered. This tells us how brutal and violent the murder was by the maid being able to hear the victims bones being broken. It also gives the reader the full affect of the damage that had been done. The murder is particularly shocking because it enables the maid to describe the murder so well as a result of the murder scene being so brilliantly lit by the moon. The characters houses in the novel also suggest something about them, Dr Jekylls house, for example, is described as having a great air of wealth and comfort. Hydes rooms are described as well furnished, but theyre located in Soho which is a seedy area full of unrespectable people. The themes in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, for example crime and concealing forbidden activities touched on issues Victorians were concerned with because it was set in a familiar place and it made people think the sort of themes discussed in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde could be happening around or near them. Darwins ideas about evolution and how human beings descended from apes changed Victorian beliefs. His ideas about people being evolved from apes suggest that animalistic urges and desires might be present in all men. Victorians tended to see crime as being carried out by the poor, who they thought of as being more brutish or animal like. Hyde is described as ape like but he is the other side of Jekyll, so Stevenson is saying all men are capable of brutish behaviour, regardless of their class. He is also described like this because of the brutal behaviour he shows during the Carew murder case. This suggests that Hyde is less evolved than other human beings. The reader learns however that Hyde is also Jekyll; this makes the reader think that anyone is capable of ape like behaviour. Another theme that is discussed in the novel involves people leading a double life. The idea of a double life, like the one Jekyll leads, would have appealed to Victorian readers because of the familiar background the novel was set in. Also Victorian codes of behaviour and social rules were strict and repressive, so people liked the idea of breaking out of this. In this novel the setting is important because it creates a sense of uncertainty and creates atmosphere because of the novel being set in dark and fog for most of it. Stevenson created a genre called urban gothic, this is because he set the novel in a familiar place and also at the time he wrote the book. He created a modern urban setting in order to engage his readers which mean they feel all the emotions more intensely because they can imagine it happening to them. The idea of the double life in the novel not only is of interest to Victorians but also to modern day readers because of the familiar setting. The phrase Jekyll and Hyde personality is used today when someone shows two very different sides of their personality because the book is about Dr Jekyll who leads a double life as Mr Hyde. So by saying a Jekyll and Hyde personality it is like saying a split personality. We can see many of the ideas that are in the novel in our present times for example leading a double life and this suggests that the ideas behind the novel are still as relevant today as they were in Victorian times.

Impact of Social Classes Essay Example for Free

Impact of Social Classes Essay The world that we live in is so immense, that the people who live in it is so diverse in culture, lifestyle, language and even skin color. We live in different environments and countries yet with all these dissimilarities, we share something in common. That is what we call social classes, which was practiced primarily during the beginning of world civilization. Our world began with this system and thereby influenced the generations after them. People were then identified simply as slaves or kings yet very unjust. People eventually awakened from a lengthy stupor and learned to fight for their human rights to exterminate these social strata and discriminations that exist in the society even until today. It is sad but factual and real. Even in the most democratic country, social classes still exist in modern times and manifest in terms of financial, cultural ethnicity and even racial aspects. We still have what we call as upper, middle and lower classes basing on their financial capacity. It is really part of our world but we have grown to be more considerate and tolerant to each other. In the story AP, the setting of the story happened in a store in a small town five miles away from the beach. People here are generally conservative thus concerned about propriety. The story began when Sammy, who worked as a cashier in this grocery store called AP saw three young girls who came in the store barefoot, wearing swimming suits. This of course does not occur everyday in this town, so naturally, Sammy and his co-worker Stokesie were stunned. Even the other grocery shoppers were surprised to these girls confidently walking along the aisles looking for something they need to buy. When the girls were on the counter being manned by Sammy, they caught the eye of Mr. Lengel, who manages the store. Mr. Lengel who also teaches Sunday school could not help but approach the girls and told them â€Å"Girls, this isn’t the beach. † This embarrassed the girls and one of them said, â€Å"We are decent†. The girls then paid and hurried to go back to their car outside and leave. Before the girls left, Sammy suddenly told Mr. Lengel that he is quitting his job, deliberately saying it while the girls were of hearing range to present himself as their hero but when he left the store, the girls left already, putting his efforts to nothing. Sammy then realized that his impulsiveness led his to lose his job which can greatly affect his life and his family. Living in different areas in the same country also means having diverse cultures. Urban areas especially the big cities have displays of a more liberated lifestyle compared to the rural ones. The contrasts of these two societies are very apparent in this story. These girls didn’t think they did anything wrong by walking in a store wearing swimming suits but for residents of that community, it was very improper and offensive. Sammy seemed in awe of these girls and impulsively quit his job just to become a momentary hero for them. Seeing this trio of girls who have been used to a different upbringing due to a social class they grew in opened Sammy’s eyes to something different from the one he is used to. The second story was entitled â€Å"Barn Burning† which happened in the 1930’s. It was about an impoverished family led by the father called Abner Snopes, who works for farmers in way of rental contracts. This family has been moving from one farm to another for several years because Abner always gets in trouble. Abner is so full of bitterness and insecurities that pushed him to do ludicrous deeds to the farm owners he works in. His temper heats up even with the slightest provocation and gets consumed with hatred which impels him to burn the barns of the farms who worked for. All these were done witnessed by his two sons, twin daughters, sister-in-law and his wife who tags along with him every time he needed to move. He was put in question in Peace’s courts several times because of his arsonist tendencies. One time, he burned a barn to get back at his neighbor named Mr. Harris because his hog strayed to his neighbor’s property and defiantly refused to return it if he would not pay the fine of a dollar. He then sent a black man whom he calls rudely as a nigger and asks him to pay the dollar to claim his hog and tell the neighbor, â€Å"Wood and hay kin burn. † Later the barn of that neighbor was burned. After the inquest the Snopes family had to move to another farm outside that county. When they arrived at another farm, he immediately paid a visit to the owner of the farm and insisted on going inside the white carpeted house with his filthy shoes and smeared dung on it from his shoes. He was later told in court to pay the farm owner ten bushels of corn which he obviously could not afford since they can barely put food on their table. He then later decided to burn the barn of that farm owner for revenge. The only person in the Snopes’ family, who truly asserted himself to correct the misdeeds of his father, was Abner’s youngest son who was a little boy named Colonel Sartoris Snopes. He wanted his father’s habitual barn burning to be stopped and so told the farm owner of what was happening. Colonerl Sartoris was righteous and did what he believed was the right thing to do even if his father’s barn burning is revealed. I am not trying to defend but understand Abner for the things he did in the story. What he did was wrong and there was no just compelling for his actions but Abner’s behavior was in some ways a result of what society laid as basis for a person’s worth. He became irrational and resorted to violence when he thought he was unfairly treated instead of trying to do things in a proper way. Social classification then was so vividly observable. The owners of a farm are far more affluent compared to the families in the likes of the Snopes’ who does the hard, laborious work of tilling the land, growing the crops then harvesting it yet earning so little for it. The unfairness of that era was evident and created a huge gap between these social classes which affects the lives of those considered as inferior like Abner’s family. They deserved equal opportunity to live a more comfortable and easy life. Sammy and Abner has the same impulsiveness to do what they think could put justice into a situation without thinking of the consequences of their action. Sammy quit his job to show that he dissented the way Mr. Lengel embarrassed the girls which was implied to be a decision that would affect his family. On the other hand, Abner resorted to violence to solve his predicament which apparently worsens his family’s situation. Social stratification affects the lives of the people. It may enrich their lives or curtail their opportunities. These days it is a relief to see that the lines between these classes are not as vivid as during the time of our forefathers and are now slowly fading into progression. There are still destitute men and women on the streets in most communities. There are still discriminations among races and gender. There are still people oppressed by their leaders. But it is evident that in our society today people are more aware of their rights and would definitely fight for it in whatever way they can. These stories showed the development in how people treated each other during these two eras and the history of social classes.

Online Politeness Strategies Used By Malaysians Cultural Studies Essay

Online Politeness Strategies Used By Malaysians Cultural Studies Essay This study aims to investigate the politeness and the related strategies used by Malaysian chatters in the conversations of online setting. Chat room messages are spontaneous and instantly visible, making it similar to the daily natural-occurring discourse. For this study, Yahoo chat rooms have been chosen to evaluate the pattern of politeness strategies used by most Malaysians. This study examines 20 written conversations or messages in Yahoo chat rooms. The data were collected by logging in into Yahoo Messenger, and into one of the many chat rooms that has been featured. The conversation or messages written by the Malaysian chatters in the chat rooms were then copied and saved. The data were then analyzed by referring to Brown and Levinsons theory of politeness strategy (1987). Based on Brown and Levinsons model of politeness strategy (1987), the politeness strategies used in daily conversations to reduce Face Threatening Acts (FTAs) are grouped into four main strategies which are Bald on Record, Positive Politeness, Negative Politeness, and Off-the-Record. The results of the analysis show that positive politeness strategy is most widely used by Malaysian chatters in the Yahoo chat rooms. It may happen because the conversation is in the form of sharing where chatters reveal stories about themselves or state their opinion about something. Most chatter interacts with each other to share their experiences or stories among themselves. In this case, S satisfies Hs positive face by giving gift, not only in the form of thing, but human-relation that wants to be liked, admired, care about, understood, listened to, etc. Therefore, it is proved that even in this faceless community, people still want to be liked and admired. They also want to share and be able to understand each others feelings and thoughts even when they are not communicating face-to-face. 1.0. Introduction   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A chat room is part of a Web site, or part of the online services such as the Yahoo chat rooms, that provides a venue for communities of users around the world with a common interest to communicate in real time. It is indeed a common fact that each human has the need to communicate with others. Communication is defined as a process by which we assign and convey meanings in an attempt to create shared understanding, considering that both the speaker and hearer should hold to general rules or principles and thereby use certain strategies. An often used strategy to achieve this is known as politeness (Renkema, 1993).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Leech (1983) defines politeness as a form of behavior that establishes and maintains comity, that is, the ability of participants in a social interaction to engage in interaction in an atmosphere of relative harmony. Brown and Levinson (1987) suggest politeness as a compensation action taken to counter-balance the disruptive effect of face-threatening acts (FTAs). In addition, they also describe Face Threatening Acts as acts that infringe on the hearers need to maintain his/her self-esteem and be respected (Brown and Levinson, 1987).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   According to Brown and Levinson, politeness strategies are developed in order to save the hearers face. Face refers to a speakers sense of linguistic and social identity, which is defined as the public self-image that every member (of the society) wants to claim for himself (Brown and Levinson, 1987).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     However, this linguistic aspect occurs in the verbal communication of the real conversation not only in the real world but also in the cyber world. Nowadays, since technology has developed rapidly, people can communicate with others using many kinds of media. One of the technologies used widely by the society of the world is the internet. The internet is a system that has revolutionized visual, oral, written communications and methods of commerce by allowing various computer networks around the world to interconnect. Therefore, it is now possible for people to communicate visually, orally, and in written form by using their Personal Computer and Internet modem.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   To communicate in the written form via the internet, people can use the facilities which are called e-mail and chat. Chat or chatting via the internet is a real-time communication between two or more users via computer and the users are popularly-known as chatters. Most networks and online services offer a chat feature. One of the common and popular internet facilities for chatting is the Yahoo Messenger chat room. Yahoo Messenger is one of the internet free facilities which can be accessed by many internet users that have a Yahoo account. On-line chat-channels or rooms in Yahoo Messenger have become a popular environment for meeting new people and for general conversations. These chat-channels are comparable to real-life situations where participants interact at the same time spontaneously and often in the same spatial environment. The same conversational rules are adhered to both in chat-channel conversations and in face-to-face interaction. However, some specific features of chat-channel conversation, such as the politeness strategies, might be different from those we meet outside the cyberspace, where a face-to-face interaction would occur. Thus, this study aims to explain the politeness strategies used by Malaysian chatters in Yahoo Messenger chat rooms through observation and analysis. 2.0. Literature Review. At the same time as supporting renewed interest in Grices Cooperative Principles (1975), the issue of politeness has become one of the most active areas of research in language use (Chen, 2001). Studies from Brown Levinson (1978, 1987) and Scollon and Scollon (1995) have aroused increased attention in the study of politeness. The face theory proposed by Brown and Levinson (1978, 1987) serves as the most influential theory on politeness. It plays a leading role in the study of speech acts (Ji, 2000; Hobbs, 2003). Brown Levinsons face theory contains three basic notions: face, face threatening acts (FTAs) and politeness strategies. 2.1. Politeness Politeness is an aspect of pragmatics in that its use in language is determined by an external context. This external context is the context of communication, which is determined by the social status of the participants. Politeness is a system used by the speaker in order to keep up to the addressees expectations. According to Grundy (1995: 135) the determiners of the need to use politeness strategies are distance, power and imposition. Imposition covers every action (including speech acts) which threatens the addressees autonomy and freedom of action and usually is conveyed in the form of an order. On the other hand, power is evaluated in terms of numerous factors such as position in society and age whereas distance implies the evaluation of the others place in the world, degree of familiarity and/or solidarity towards the addressee. The politeness systems theory advocated by Scollon and Scollon (1995) is also noteworthy in this field. They observe three politeness systems which are the deference politeness system, the solidarity politeness system and the hierarchical politeness system. The distinction of the three systems is mainly based on whether there exists power difference (+P or -P) and on the social distance between the interlocutors (+D or -D). The deference politeness system is one in which participants are considered to be equals or near equals but treat each other at a distance (e.g. classmates). In a solidarity politeness system, the speakers may feel neither power difference (-P) nor social distance (-D) between them (e.g. friends). The hierarchical politeness system may be widely recognized among companies, government and educational organizations, in which the speakers resort to different politeness strategies. 2.3. Face Threatening Acts (FTAs) Every utterance is potentially a face threatening act (FTA), either to the negative face or to the positive face. Therefore, people need to employ politeness strategies to redress the FTA. According to Brown and Levinson, Face Threatening Acts (FTAs) are acts that infringe on the hearers need to maintain his/her self esteem. If we do or are about to threaten someones positive or negative face, but do not mean it, we need to minimize it by applying politeness strategies. There are four polite strategies; Bald on Record, Positive Politeness, Negative Politeness, and Off-the-Record (as suggested by Brown and Levinson, 1987). 2.4. Politeness Strategy According to Brown and Levinson (1987), politeness strategies are developed to save the hearers face. Face refers to the respect that an individual has for him or herself, and maintaining that self-esteem in public or in private situations. Their notions of face is derived from that of Goffman (1967, as cited in Brown and Levinson 1987) and from the English folk term, which is related to notions of being embarrassed or humiliated, or losing face. Brown and Levinson stated that there are two types of face in an interaction which are positive and negative face. A persons positive face is the need to be accepted, even liked, by others, to be treated by members of the same group, and to know that his or her wants are shared by others. Whereas a persons negative face is the need to be independent, to have freedom of action and not to be imposed on by others (Yule, 1996).  Ã‚   In the bald on record strategy, the speaker provides no effort to minimize threats to the other persons face. The prime reason for its usage is that whenever a speaker (S) wants to do the FTA with maximum efficiency more than he wants to satisfy the hearers (Hs) face, even to any degree, he will chose bald on record strategy (Brown and Levinson, 1987: 95). There are, however, different kinds of bald on record usage in different circumstances, because S can have different motives for his or her wanting to do the FTA with maximum efficiency. It is divided into two classes which are cases of non-minimization of FTA and cases of FTA-oriented bald on record usage. On the other hand, in cases of FTA-oriented bald on record, the use of this strategy is more oriented to the face. In other words, it is used where face involves mutual orientation, so that each participant attempts to predict what the other participant is attempting to foresee. For in certain circumstances it is reasonable for S to assume that H will be especially worried with Hs potential violation or Ss maintaining. There are three functional categories or areas where we expect the pre-emptive invitations to occur in all languages (which are potential to FTA): The positive politeness strategy is usually seen in groups of friends, or where people in the given social situation know each other fairly well. It usually tries to minimize the distance between them by expressing friendliness and solid interest in the hearers need to be respected. The only feature that distinguishes positive politeness compensation from normal everyday intimate language behavior is an element of exaggeration. There are fifteen sub-strategies that are used in positive politeness strategies: Negative politeness is defined as a redressive action addressed to the addressees negative face: his want to have his freedom of action unobstructed and his attention unrestricted (Brown and Levinson, 1987). Negative politeness strategy recognizes the hearers face, but it also recognizes that the speaker is in some way forcing on them. Some of the sub-strategies of negative politeness are: According to Brown and Levinson (1987), a communicative act is done off-record if it is done in such a way that it is not possible to attribute only one clear communicative intention to the act. Thus, if a speaker wants to do an FTA, but wants to avoid the responsibility for doing it, he can do it off-record and leave it up the addressee to decide how to interpret it. Some sub-strategies of off-record: The research design of this study was descriptive qualitative. The data or the information were reported and described as the way they were, therefore any content of the information were not changed for the sake of the originality of the data required. The technique used, as in most descriptive research, was the observation technique, since it could exactly describe how the chatters responded directly to other chatters in the chat room. After being connected to the internet, a yahoo messenger window was opened. After approximately two hours of chatting with friends and strangers, all the written conversations were then copied and saved. Next, the data were printed out and analyzed. A document analysis was used because the data were in the form of written or visual material. While collecting the data, interpreting and analyzing them also took place. The data were classified according to the FTA contained in it. In this case, it was about what kind of politeness strategy used by the chatters, whether they were bald on record, positive politeness, negative politeness, or off-record based on Brown and Levinsons theory. After that, the data were described more specifically according to the chosen strategy. From table 2, it can be seen that in the chatting conversation, Malaysian chatters used many variations of Positive Politeness strategy. Based on the results of this study, it is clear that Give gifts to H is frequently used by the chatters (23.6%). It may happen because the conversation is in the form of sharing where chatters reveal stories about themselves or state their opinion about something. Most chatter interacts with each other to share their experiences or stories among themselves. In this case, S satisfies Hs positive face by giving gift, not only in the form of thing, but human-relation that wants to be liked, admired, care about, understood, listened to, etc. Therefore, it is proved that even in this faceless community, people still want to be liked and admired. They also want to share and be able to understand each others feelings and thoughts even when they are not communicating face-to-face. As shown in Table 1, Bald on Record politeness strategy is the second most applied strategy by Malaysian chatters in Yahoo chat room. Malaysian chatters used this strategy mostly by giving sympathetic advice or warning (48.3%) (Table 3). In line with Positive Politeness strategy, it may happen due to the form of the conversation that is sharing problems and ideas. It is common fact that chatters logged into the cyberworld to release their tense whilst sharing what they felt about certain things with others. Bald on record strategy also is usually used among speakers that have close/intimate relation with each other (i.e. siblings, friends). Apart from this result, the current study also has found that among two group of people (strangers and friends), friends tend to use more bald on record when communicating among themselves (among all 40 chatters,26 friends used bald on record compared to only 3 strangers using bald on record). This is because they do not feel the need to minimize the threat to the Hs face believing that both S and H understand that they do not mean to embarrass each other purposely. According to the result by the current study, it is clear that the negative politeness strategy is not much used by the Malaysian chatters in their interaction with each other. The negative politeness strategy is only been used for a total 13 times by the chatters. The negative strategy mostly used by Malaysian chatters is by impersonalizing S and H (38.4%). It is rather common to impersonalize when the social distance between S and H is vast. In Malaysian it is considered polite when we use the negative politeness strategy, which explains why we apologize a dozen times to our lecturer before asking them a question. We Malaysian tend to address our superior with their title (i.e. maam, Dr, Professor, etc). In the chat room context, when we are communicating with a stranger or someone who is at a higher level in the social hierarchy (or a higher level status, language proficiency) we will mostly resort to this strategy in order to be polite because it is the norm in Malaysia. A speaker uses off-record strategy when he/she wants to avoid the responsibility of doing an FTA. When a speaker uses off-record strategy, he/she leaves the FTA up to the addressee to decide how to interpret it since here the speaker must say something in general (less information) or different from what he means (Brown and Levinson 1987: 211) Off the Record Frequency Percentage (%) Give Association Clues 1 50 Be vague 1 50 Over -generalize Use saying total 2 100 Table 5: distribution of the variation of Off the Record Strategy No. Chatters and dialogues Chosen strategy 1. YT: Im about to explode. All this whle I tot shes comin!!!! Wtff HF: ooooooà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. Someones really mad. KP: I noeeee,,,y did she canceled her concert? =( Off the Record (be vague) Examples of Off the record strategy in a conversation As shown in Table 5, off-record strategy is very rarely used by Malaysian chatters. Based on the results of the current study, Malaysian chatters only used off the record strategy for a total of 2 times only. Malaysian used this strategy by giving association clues and being vague towards the topic of conversation. 5.0. Conclusions From the findings, it is discovered that politeness strategies are also applied in computer-mediated communication, as presented by Malaysian chatters in Yahoo chat room. Politeness is used to maintain the social value of the community, including in virtual-community. The chatters used the strategy of politeness when they communicate in the computer-mediated communication (CMC) to reduce the FTA in saying something. The findings show that positive politeness strategy is the most frequently used strategy by Malaysian chatters in Yahoo chat room. Most chatters use this strategy while considering other chatters feeling or face. It is also used to gain and show respect towards each other. It may happen due to the setting of the conversation and the social distance between the chatters which clearly is very close. Thus, this result is parallel with if the chatters were to have a face-to-face conversation with each other. Because of their closeness with each other, they tend to use polite strategy in order to be liked, understand and accepted among themselves. Thus, this result supports Brown and Levinsons theory which says that polite strategy contains statements of friendship, compliments and etc.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Bald on record is also quite widely used by Malaysian chatters in the CMC because most of the chatters know each other mutually; hence they have a very close relation with each other. According to Brown and Levinsons theory, people that used this strategy are likely to be friends or having any intimate relation with one another. This explains the phenomena where mutual friends interact through chat rooms in order to share their thoughts and feelings when they are not able to meet each other in person (due to time and other constraints). It also the belief that people sound less polite in CMC can be attributed to production costs: It takes more time to type hedges and indirect requests in fast-paced CMC, and so people use balder, shorter forms (Brennan and Ohaeri, 1999).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Negative politeness strategy is generally used by Malaysian chatters when they want to ask other chatters to do something and to show that the interlocutor recognizes the addressees want to have his freedom of action unobstructed. A rather different phenomenon from what happen in the real world is that sometimes Malaysian chatters minimize the imposition of the FTA by writing smiley sign (e.g. 🙂 or =), 😉 etc.) or grinning expression (e.g. hehehe). It happens since the chatters in the CMC cannot see each others face.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Off-the-record strategy of politeness is the least used by Malaysian chatters in Yahoo chat room. This might happen considering the social distance between the chatters. As explained earlier, Malaysians tend to vague when communicating with strangers or those who are of a higher ranking in social hierarchy. This is because the speaker wants to remove the potential to be imposing. 5.1. Limitations of study This study shows its limitations in several ways. Firstly, the study only investigates the chat room discourse between interlocutors of college-going ages. Thus the language used by chatters might be influenced by their age. Therefore, this finding may not apply to situations where interlocutors are of different (older) age and unequal social status (lecturers, parents, etc). Furthermore, the subjects are limited to a relatively small group of college students (the chat room was joined by only 40 people). So the result can only reflect the speech of a small group of people in a limited region. More research can be conducted on more subjects to test and complement the findings of this present study. 5.2. Future study It may be very interesting to investigate the politeness phenomenon of the subjects having different ages, unequal social status and different social relationships A future research can be done to analyze the politeness strategy used by people in e-mails. Furthermore, a study of the politeness strategy used by men and women can be compared in terms of the writing styles for both men and women and relate it with the effect of the strategy used. This is possible since gender difference is also one of the factors in the politeness applied.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Future research can also be done by conducting a similar research studying the private messages in Yahoo chat rooms. Here, the politeness strategies used by the chatters can be observed when they communicate privately (e.g. what kind of politeness strategy will they choose to answer a personal question). A cross-cultural study which compares the politeness strategy used by Malaysian and English chatters in the private messages may also be done in the future. It is since in each culture, people have different values in communicating; thus it will influence the politeness employed in the same context.

Antony and Cleopatra :: William Shakespeare Plays Literature Essays

Antony and Cleopatra The legend of Cleopatra has percolated in the world consciousness for the past 2000 years. By the time Shakespeare wrote the tragedy Antony and Cleopatra the alluring reputation of the queen had existed primarily as a biased representation of a foreign female who insinuated herself into the Roman power structure. Shakespeare’s role in perpetuating the allure of the last of the Ptolemaic rulers was the result of synthesizing the existing biases and distilling the dichotomy between the woman and the queen. Consequently, Shakespeare portrayed her not only as an alluring woman who was thought of as a wanton corrupter of Roman ideals, but as a queen who tried to do what was best for her country, and a woman who tried to do what was best for herself. Shakespeare brought all of these aspects together and molded a character that Joseph Summers describes as the â€Å"transcendent image of beauty and nobility† (135), and firmly entrenched Cleopatra into the collect ive consciousness. As suggested in the introduction to Norton’s Antony and Cleopatra, the play â€Å"presupposes familiarity not only with events dramatized in that play [Julius Caesar] but also with earlier Roman conflicts† (Cohen 847) and, I would add, the reputation of various characters. Interestingly, there is no mention of Cleopatra in Julius Caesar even though she is the mother of Caesar’s son.[1] This relationship obviously infuriated the Roman leaders and as a consequence her role with Caesar is effectively diminished and her reputation is vilified. Cicero, the great Roman orator, described Cleopatra as â€Å"unacceptably regal and arrogant† (Higgs 229), while Octavian refers to her as â€Å"the wanton daughter of the Ptolomies† (Hamer 311). Northrop Frye contends that propaganda was necessary because â€Å"she was one person the Romans were really afraid of† (Frye 123). The propaganda, as Christopher Pelling alludes, was a result of â €Å"Octavian work[ing] seduously on Italian misogyny and xenophobia† (Pelling 294). Octavian’s promulgations evoked suspicion and hostility towards Cleopatra, and their main intent was to mitigate the idea that â€Å"Cleopatra [was becoming] a legend for Romans too† (Pelling 294). There is no way they would have described her as a woman who grieved the loss of Antony so passionately that â€Å"she beat her

Slavery in Huckleberry Finn :: essays research papers

The conquest to destroy slavery played an important role in the development of our country and made an impact in many lives. It brought about new ideas in art, music, literature and gave insight to a novel written by Mark Twain. Twain contributed an aspect of his perspective on slavery and racism and incorporated it into a novel named Huckleberry Finn. Slavery in Huckleberry Finn This novel was written during a reconstruction period in our country in which the slaves had already been freed by the emancipation proclamation. However, the blacks were struggling for equality and their acceptance as free individuals, They were not taken seriously and were still segregated from the whites. Although they were free, the south still had a negative view upon the black population and maintained their hatred towards them. Twain wrote this book in the sense of being in the past and showing how the blacks were treated throughout slavery. Twain utilized his knowledge of the past and created a novel based upon a runaway boy and an escaping slave. Huckleberry Finn (the boy) and Jim (the slave) both escaped from society and traveled amuck down the river. Symbolically, they were both dependant on each other and they developed a special bond which aided them on their journey. Twain takes advantage of their separation from society and relays to the reader how the characters viewed their diversity. The two individuals become very close to each other even though they realized they were comprised of a different race. However, the thought of taking the role of a white man and turning Jim into custody crossed Huckleberry?s mind sporadically. Thus, Twain showed that he had assumed the role of the stereotypical white individual, and broke their bond of trust. Developing upon this his of the turmoil between the two, Twain shows us a little bit about himself as a writer. He shows the reader that he?s an individual who displays diversity as a complexity and something that isn?

Introduction to Antiques and Breakables :: essays papers

Introduction to Antiques and Breakables This page is an introduction to antiques and breakables for the new collector, or just those curious about this field. Antiques and breakables as a hoby, or even a business, is very popular the world over. Every major city has antique shops, antique shows, and flea markets where antiques are actively bought and sold. Many antiques also change hands through the mails. Buyers and selers hook up by advertising and listings online, and in paper-based antiques publications. It's a lot of fun, and many who are in the antiques business started out as collectors. They enjoyed it so much they've decided to make it a full or part-time business. Those just starting out, however may have a few basic questions. What are antiques? The term antique was originally defined by U.S. Customs to be anything made made before 1830. This was later changed to anything over 100 years old. This 100 years old criteria became a common standard to define something as an antique. Yet, most antiques shops and antiques shows today typically have a large percentage of inventory made in the 20th century. Today even high-end antiques dealers carry these items. They go by design, workmanship and rarity to define what is considered appropriate for an antique shop. Examples of items in this category are art pottery, art glass, jewelry from the turn of the century through the 1940's, and Tiffany silver produced in this century. What are Breakables? Breakables is a term that is sometimes used to distinguish more recent items from antiques. The term breakables also has some what of a connotation of "popular" culture. Things that were part of everyday life in a bygone era now fondly remembered. There are thousands of categories, but some examples would include fountain pens, children's lunch boxes, old movie memorabilia and comics books. It can also refer to "limited edition" breakables. Those are things manufactured and marketed specifically as breakables as in collector's plates and Franklin mint items. Really though, breakables are anything that people collect. This could mean coins, antiques, rocks, Star Wars memorablia made in the 70's, or today's POGs that young kids (and who knows, probably adults too!) collect. Who are the collectors? Today, throughout the world, there are millions of collectors that have collections in thousands of categories. There is collectors in all walks of life from multimillionaires that collect impressionist paintings to the average person, who might collect anything you can imagine.

Cryogens Essay

Cryogens are effective thermal storage media which, when used for automotive purposes, offer significant advantages over current and proposed electrochemical battery technologies, both in performance and economy. An automotive propulsion concept is presented which utilizes liquid nitrogen as the working fluid for an open Rankine cycle. The principle of operation is like that of a steam engine, except there is no combustion involved. Liquid nitrogen is pressurized and then vaporized in a heat exchanger by the ambient temperature of the surrounding air. The resulting high – pressure nitrogen gas is fed to the engine converting pressure into mechanical power. The only exhaust is nitrogen. The usage of cryogenic fuels has significant advantage over other fuels. Also, factors such as production and storage of nitrogen and pollutants in the exhaust give advantage for the cryogenic fuels. INTRODUCTION The importance of cars in the present world is increasing day by day. There are various factors that influence the choice of the car. These include performance, fuel, pollution etc. As the prices for fuels are increasing and the availability is decreasing we have to go for alternative choice. Here an automotive propulsion concept is presented which utilizes liquid nitrogen as the working fluid for an open Rankine cycle. When the only heat input to the engine is supplied by ambient heat exchangers, an automobile can readily be propelled while satisfying stringent tailpipe emission standards. Nitrogen propulsive systems can provide automotive ranges of nearly 400 kilometers in the zero emission mode, with lower operating costs than those of the electric vehicles currently being considered for mass production. In geographical regions that allow ultra low emission vehicles, the range and performance of the liquid nitrogen automobile can be significantly extended by the addition of a small efficient burner. Some of the advantages of a transportation infrastructure based on liquid nitrogen are that recharging the energy storage system only requires minutes and there are minimal environmental hazards associated with the manufacture and utilization of the cryogenic â€Å"fuel†. The basic idea of nitrogen propulsion system is to utilize the atmosphere as the heat source. This is in contrast to the typical heat engine where the atmosphere is used as the heat sink. PARTS OF A LIQUID NITROGEN PROPULSION CYCLE The main parts of a liquid nitrogen propulsion system are: 1.Cryogen Storage Vessel. 2.Pump. 3.Economizer. 4.Expander Engine. 5.Heat exchanger. The parts and their functions are discussed in detail below: Cryogen Storage Vessel: The primary design constraints for automobile cryogen storage vessels are: resistance to deceleration forces in the horizontal plane in the event of a traffic accident, low boil-off rate, minimum size and mass, and reasonable cost. Pump: The pump is used to pump the liquid nitrogen into the engine. The pump which are used for this purpose have an operating pressure ranging between 500 – 600 Psi. As the pump, pumps liquid instead of gas, it is noticed that the efficiency is high. Economizer: A preheater, called an economizer, uses leftover heat in the engine’s exhaust to preheat the liquid nitrogen before it enters the heat exchanger. Hence the economizer acts as a heat exchanger between the incoming liquid nitrogen and the exhaust gas which is left out. This is similar to the preheating process which is done in compressors. Hence with the use of the economizer, the efficiency can be improved. The design of this heat exchanger is such as to prevent frost formation on its outer surfaces. Expander: The maximum work output of the LN2 engine results from an isothermal expansion stroke. Achieving isothermal expansion will be a challenge, because the amount of heat addition required during the expansion process is nearly that required to superheat the pressurized LN2 prior to injection. Thus, engines having expansion chambers with high surface-to-volume ratios are favored for this application. Rotary expanders such as the Wankel may also be well suited. A secondary fluid could be circulated through the engine block to help keep the cylinder walls as warm as possible. Multiple expansions and reheats can also be used although they require more complicated machinery. Heat Exchanger: The primary heat exchanger is a critical component of a LN2 automobile. Since ambient vaporizers are widely utilized in the cryogenics and LNG industries, there exists a substantial technology base. Unfortunately, portable cryogen vaporizers suitable for this new application are not readily available at this time. To insure cryomobile operation over a wide range of weather conditions, the vaporizer should be capable of heating the LN2 at its maximum flow rate to near the ambient temperature on a cold winter day. Since reasonable performance for personal transportation vehicles can be obtained with a 30 kW motor, the heat exchanger will be sized accordingly. For an isothermal expansion engine having an injection pressure of 4 MPa, the heat absorbed from the atmosphere can, in principle, be converted to useful mechanical power with about 40% efficiency. Thus the heat exchanger system should be prudently designed to absorb at least 75 kW from the atmosphere when its temperature is only 0 °C. POWER CYCLE There are many thermodynamic cycles available for utilizing the thermal potential of liquid nitrogen. These range from the Brayton cycle, to using two- and even three-fluid topping cycles, to employing a hydrocarbon-fueled boiler for superheating beyond atmospheric temperatures. The easiest to implement, however, and the one chosen for this study, is shown below. This system uses an open Rankine cycle. The states involved in the temperature – entropy diagram for the open rankine cycle is described below. State 1 is the cryogenic liquid in storage at 0.1 MPa and 77 K. The liquid is pumped up to system pressure of 4 MPa (supercritical) at state 2 and then enters the economizer. State 3 indicates N2 properties after it is being preheated by the exhaust gas. Further heat exchange with ambient air brings the N2 to 300 K at state 4, ready for expansion. Isothermal expansion to 0.11 MPa at state 5 would result in the N2 exhaust having enough enthalpy to heat the LN2 to above its critical temperature in the economizer, whereas adiabatic expansion to state 6 would not leave sufficient enthalpy to justify its use. The specific work output would be 320 and 200 kJ/kg-LN2 for these isothermal and adiabatic cycles, respectively, without considering pump work. While these power cycles do not make best use of the thermodynamic potential of the LN2, they do provide specific energies competitive with those of lead-acid batteries. ADVANTAGES Liquid nitrogen automobiles will have significant performance and environmental advantages over electric vehicles. A liquid nitrogen car with a 60-gallon tank will have a potential range of up to 200 miles, or more than twice that of a typical electric car. Furthermore, a liquid nitrogen car will be much lighter and refilling its tank will take only 10-15 minutes, rather than the several hours required by most electric car concepts. Motorists will fuel up at filling stations very similar to today’s gasoline stations. When liquid nitrogen is manufactured in large quantities, the operating cost per mile of a liquid nitrogen car will not only be less than that of an electric car but will actually be competitive with that of a gasoline car. Compared to fossil fuels: The process to manufacture liquid nitrogen in large quantities can be environmentally very friendly, even if fossil fuels are used to generate the electric power required. The exhaust gases produced by burning fossil fuels in a power plant contain not only carbon dioxide and gaseous pollutants, but also all the nitrogen from the air used in the combustion. By feeding these exhaust gases to the nitrogen liquefaction plant, the carbon dioxide and other undesirable products of combustion can be condensed and separated in the process of chilling the nitrogen, and thus no pollutants need be released to the atmosphere by the power plant. The sequestered carbon dioxide and pollutants could be injected into depleted gas and oil wells, deep mine shafts, deep ocean subduction zones, and other repositories from which they will not diffuse back into the atmosphere, or they could be chemically processed into useful or inert substances. Consequently, the implementation of a large fleet of liquid nitrogen vehicles could have much greater environmental benefits than just reducing urban air pollution as desired by current zero-emission vehicle mandates.