A Comparison Between Two Complementary Poems Essay Example for Free

A Comparison Between Two Complementary Poems Essay The two complementary poems Old Father and Island Man are based on the subject of two diverse men who are coping with an experience of migrating to another country. In this coursework we will discuss these poems, then compare, and contrast their theme and language. Hugh Boatswains Old Father appeared in an anthology called Writing in 1978. Boatswains work speaks to the condition of the racial tensions in the 70s and engages, in sparse poetic form, in much of the cultural analysis. Boatswains poems demonstrate the importance of creativity, cultural transaction, and transition in the historicizing of West Indian migration and settlement in Britain. The poet has used a narrative description in the poem to portray his views and thoughts to the members of the audience. The poem relates to a series of events of old father in a chronological order of his life. The poem depicts the livelihood and culture of a person from a distant atmosphere and surrounding who goes through a lot of hardships in the beginning due to the unknown environment. The poet has then given a brief sketch of his adaptation to the society and how he changes to accept those adaptations. The poem creates a depressing feeling in our hearts as the poet describes how old father forgets his culture and roots by his behaviour. The poet has described his views in rather an ambiguous way; no information obtained by us can be strongly evident. It tells the story of an old or older figure in the black community, how old is not known but can be presumed to the mid thirties or more. The title Old Father depicts a personage of high value, a person who would hold up and support the beliefs and values of the society. The title describes a man of experience, ingenuity, and responsibility. In the beginning of his shift to England the Caribbean man craved to return to his homeland. The poet then discusses how old father bought a turning point in his life and started changing his lifestyle to get more accepted in the society. This is indicated by the words Old Father feet begin to shift. His roots have no meaning now (Line No. 10 and 11). This is also an example of one of many metaphors in the poems, i.e. his feet are not actually shifting but his attitude is changing and he is accepting his situation in the society and is trying to improve it. In this process he is leaving nothing out, to the extent that he is ready to change his values, beliefs and ethical values to receive acceptance. He then discusses about old fathers personal and love life, he also brings up the point of how he changes his attitude towards his own friends of his race. Boatswain has added a variety of characters to the poem. Even though the vagueness of details of the character we can say that Old Father was undignified to an extent. From the following line Bouncing down the road with a blonde (Line No. 17) we can presume his indecency, as walking with a blonde is considered inappropriate due to the negative image they have created in the society. The whole image is cojourned by the term blonde relieving his change in attitude and lifestyle to be considered indecorous. The poet has chosen his words very particularly and has also considered the arrangement of these words. He has used a varied range of figures of speech like metonymy and personifications but has highly considered the use of metaphors. These figures of speech and choice of worlds create a rhythmatic design; this maintains the reader with an interested attitude. A lot of attention is given to the use of punctuations. Boatswains way of describing and explaining imagery is noteworthy. For example Cold bite him hard (Line No.2), this shows how painful the weather is to this Caribbean man in the beginning of his arrival. We can see how Boatswains use of language is very descriptive but concise and effective. The other poem Island Man is a piece of poetry written by Grace Nichols. She was born in Guyana and came to Britain in 1977. She writes this poem in context to a Caribbean man who has settled in London but still wakes up to the sound of the sea and the tranquillity of his native island. Island Man consists of a wide range of sounds and images to express the Caribbean mans feelings and thinking. For example the sound of the blue surf and the steady breaking and wombing (Line No.3 and 5) are good examples of his use of language and images for the description of his feelings. This poem is also told in a narrative manner but unlike Old Father the poem is more spontaneous. The poem is bought out in the form of a dream. A number of images are described to show how he imagined himself in his native island where there was no hindrance or disturbance but peace and tranquillity, whereas the atmosphere in London was completely contradictory to his dream. Therefore when he wakes up and enters the world of reality where he is back in London and hears the roar of the cars and screeches of the wheels instead of the sound of the sea he just says Another London day (Line No. 19). He probably says this as he has been living in London since a long time and is now frustrated with his usual rut and wants to get out of it and return to his paradise like island. His attitude towards this new environment is not so enthusiastic. This is indicated by the words groggily groggily (Line No. 11). He has already seen the usual busy days of London and has accepted them in his life and has acknowledged this new surrounding. But a sense of frustration has aroused and his crave for his native island just became greater than before. Both the poems hold a lot of similarity of cultures and attitudes towards the new migration. Both of them share unhappiness in this new environment of theirs. Both of them also discuss the bitter weather. But old father moves on in his life whereas in Island Man we will notice that there is not much of progression in the story. It is just a dream whereas the whole life of old father is discussed in the other poem. Hence a lot of contradictions are in the poem. Also the language and use of punctuations is very different. In Old Father punctuations are given a lot of importance and are very proper whereas in Island Man the poem consists of no punctuations at all. It forms more of a spontaneous attitude and also considers the lazy morning attitude of a person. Therefore as this is a dream the poet has very well described this quality and has also set a sense of spontaneous feelings and emotions. He is an example to his people (Line 41, Old Father), these were the words used to describe old father and his behaviour. It is the opinion of a white English racist person. This opinion can be adapted in two contradictory perceptions. The white people may say it in the context that every person from another country, another culture should act like him. They should also adopt the behaviour and culture of the country they live in. The contradictory statement to this would be that the white people are saying that he was a person who was ready to change for his benefit of himself and in the end of the day for h is own betterment he would forget his friends. Hence they jump to the conclusion that he is just an example of those people who are of his culture and each would do anything for their own personal benefits forgetting their personal beliefs and culture. In the end I would conclude saying that both the poems state a moral towards us. In Old Father we can say that a man should adapt towards his surrounding but that does not mean we should forget who we are, what is our identity. Whereas in Island Man we can see that a man has come to another country but still has not let go of the memories of his own countries and hence is not able to move on and adapt the good qualities of the country he is living with. Hence we should learn from this poem that thinking about our past and not moving on would just lead to frustration and everything would go wrong. Hence we should keep up the pace in life and never look back and ponder.

Fact And Fancy In Hard Times English Literature Essay

Fact And Fancy In Hard Times English Literature Essay Summary:   Explores the thematic opposition between fact and fancy, or the head and the heart in Charles Dickenss novel Hard Times. Explores the rivalry between these philosophies as a central theme to the Hard Times, as well as a fundamental crux of human existence. Charles Dickens lived in England during the 19th century, during a period of rapid economic growth when the industrial revolution was in full swing. Industrial cities sprung up throughout England, sustained solely by their factories, which furiously churned out wealth and merchandise and employed thousands of working class citizens. The living and working conditions for factory laborers in these towns were extremely poor, and the wealthy bourgeoisie prospered marvelously by greedily exploiting their employees, unfortunate people who toiled long hours in grimy factories to barely earn their subsistence. Utilitarianism was a prevalent viewpoint during this period of industrial frenzy, for it embraced the values of practicality and efficiency; and the success and survival of the participants of industrial society often depended on these standards. Dickens was disgusted with the single-mindedness of his society and with the dreary, inanimate atmosphere that accompanied it. In his novel H ard Times, an ongoing struggle ensues between the ideas of fact and fancy or the head and heart. The rivalry between these philosophies is a central theme to the Hard Times, not to mention a fundamental crux of human existence as well. Should an individual base his life on fact and rationality, or should he live by the whims of his imagination and fancy, following his heart? Dickens advances this theme persistently throughout the Hard Times, employing frequent use of descriptive imagery and metaphor throughout novel to animate the conflict between Fact and Fancy, and the result of this emphasis is a broader, encompassing critique of industrialized society in general. Dickens most clearly addresses fact and fancy through his portrayal of the education system in Coketown. The first chapter of the novel commences with a speech given by Mr. Gradgrind, addressed to the pupils at his school: Now, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. Gradgrind takes enormous pride in being eminently practical; a man of realities; and he nobly (in his opinion) endeavors to bestow these qualities on the youthful pupilsor rather, to smother them in factual instruction. In short, Dickens gives an unquestionably condemning impression of Gradgrind and the school by depicting their forceful, joyless educational methods in contrast to the innocence and fragility of the children. Just as Gadgrind rigorously enforces his utilitarian standards in his school, he is equally fervent in adhering to these principles in his own home. He genuinely believes that his ideals are essential to leading a successful, productive existence, and instructs his children accordingly, applying his mechanical art and mystery of educating the reason without stooping to the cultivation of the sentiments and affections. Louisa and Tom must absorb enormous amounts of factual knowledge from an early age, while, simultaneously, their father systematically represses and eradicates any notions of wonder or imagination that they might entertain, chiding them, Never wonder! Not surprisingly, Mr. Gradgrind seeks through his parental guidance to elicit the same results as in his schoolthe transformation of children into machine-like workers, lacking in personality yet supposedly ideal for efficiently performing the monotonous, repetitive labors of industrial Coketown. In addition to his firm commitment to everything factual, Gradgrind himself physically personifies the ideas fact and practicality. Dickens uses abundant imagery to give descriptions of Gradgrinds physical appearance, which is decidedly severe and methodical, including his square forefinger, square wall of a foreheadas if the shape of a square itself denotes the very notion of factand eyes which found commodious cellarage in two dark caves. Later his face is more generally described as unbending and utilitarian, and on the whole, every aspect of his appearance serves to emphasize his rigid devotion to cold facts and his thorough disregard of any sort of non-factual nonsense. Dickens employs more imagery to describe the tedious existence of the Gradgrind children under their father, saying that life at Stone Lodge went monotonously round like a piece of machinery, and Tom later describes Louisa as stuffed full of dry bones and sawdust by their father. Mr. MChoakumchild, a teacher at the school, is another individual who is characterized figuratively by Dickens. Although his name is more than ample evidence to confirm his detrimental effect on the children, there is further evidence of the harmful nature of his methods. The damaging repercussions of his educational torments are especially pronounced when Dickens compares him to Morgiana in the Forty Thieves; the teacher peers into all the vessels ranged before him, and Dickenss narrator addresses him: Say, good MChoakumchild. When from thy boiling store, thou shalt fill each jar brim full by-and-by, dost thou think that thou wilt always kill outright the robber Fancy lurking withinor sometimes only maim him and distort him! In this analogy, the ills of suppressing emotion and fancy become disturbingly concrete; for someone to endure a twisted, crippled fancy could possibly be presumed as bad or worse than possessing none at all, and this potential hazard is manifested later in the novel. Next to Tom and Louisa, Sissy Jupe is another character in Hard Times who, perhaps most acutely, feels the oppressions of prohibited fancy in Gradgrinds schoolroom. As the daughter of a circus performer, she is naturally very accustomed to thinking wild, imaginative thoughts, and she struggles in vain to acclimate herself to the meticulously factual lessons in class. In one instance, when Gradgrind commands Sissy to describe a horse, she is already so petrified by Mr. Gradgrinds stern, unsympathetic countenance, as well as the intellectual constraints of the lesson already imposed heretofore, that she fails even to offer a response. On the other hand, Bitzer, a boy in her class, gives a highly abstruse, scientific answer which pleases Mr. Gradgrind immensely: Quadruped. Gramnivorous. 40 teeth. Sheds coat in spring Later Dickens uses more imagery to directly contrast Sissy and Bitzer, implicitly furthering the development of fact and fancy. When he describes the two pupils, who happen to sit in the same row-and, at the time, in the same sunbeam-Sissy, who is full to brimming with fancy, is literally radiant in the sunlight: the girl was so dark-eyed and dark-haired, that she seemed to receive more lustrous color from the sun. As for Bitzer, who is already crammed full of information and utterly devoid of any sort of imaginative faculty, the light functions to draw out of him what little color he ever possessedhis skin was so unwholesomely deficient in the natural tinge that he looked as though, if he were cut, he would bleed white. In this manner, Dickens underscores the ghastly effects of an oppressed imagination by setting off the colorless debility personified by Bitzers physical appearance, from the sunny vitality that shines from the fanciful Sissy; thus, once again, Dickens exemplifies th e backwardness of Coketowns educational system. Aside from ornamenting his descriptions with frequent imagery, Dickens also uses various metaphors to emphasize the opposition between fact and fancy. The particulars of Gradgrinds utilitarian slant on the proper education of the youth are peppered with metaphors that Dickens draws on to mockingly embellish his obstinate convictions. Gradgrinds schoolroom is a vault, and his pupils are little vessels and little pitchers, neatly displayed and naively awaiting the imperial gallons of facts that will be crammed into them. Gradgrind intends to forcefully rid these delicate vessels of any fancy and imagination entirely, considering these merits to be useless follies that serve no practical use in the real world, and Dickens emphasizes Gradgrinds over-zealous capacity for destruction when he describes him as a kind of cannon loaded to the muzzle with facts, and prepared to blow them clean out of the regions of childhood at one discharge. In short, Dickens gives an unquestionably condemning impression of Gradgrind and the school by metaphorically depicting their forceful, joyless educational methods in contrast to the naivetà © and fragility of the children. A primary objective of Coketowns industrialized environment soon appears to be uniformity itself, another theme that is greatly enhanced by metaphorical language. When Mr. MChoakumchild is introduced, Dickens informs us that he and some one hundred and forty other schoolmasters had been lately turned at the same time, in the same factory, on the same principles, like so many pianoforte legsthereby effectively likening the training of teachers to industrialized manufacture, and also hinting that the process of mass producing standardized machines of people is a fundamental, driving force in Coketowns society. This force permeates the education of the youth in school, where the machine-like teacher will mass produce industry-proficient citizens from the raw materials available in the pliable little pupils. And if they are to be suitably equipped for the real world, Gradgrind presumes that these children will need factsslews of factsand innocence and imagination are to be rooted out and discarded. The finished products of this rigorous training will emerge by the dozens, aptly-suited to excel in the industrial drudgery of Coketown. Louisa and Tom Gradgrind, unsurprisingly, feel the incompleteness of their existence even at an early age, and in one instance when their curiosity gets the better of them, they cant resist peeping through a fence at a circus performance. When their father catches them in the act, he is astounded, angered to find them in such a degraded position. At this point Tom merely gives himself up to be taken home like a machine (my emphasis), but Louisa is not quite so conditioned or obedient as Tom and shows more resistance to her father. Dickens depicts her singular, pitiful expression in this moment: struggling through the dissatisfaction of her face, there was a light with nothing to rest upon, a fire with nothing to burn, a starved imagination keeping life in itself somehow, which brightened its expression. Louisas inner fire becomes a recurring metaphor throughout Hard Times that symbolizes her suppressed imagination, and it takes on additional meaning later in the novel. In this passag e, the fire burning inside Louisa is already starved but persists nevertheless. Figuratively speaking, her imagination smolders weakly and smokily among the dry bones and sawdust that she has been filled with, and instead of a healthy fire of emotions and imagination, Louisa is filled with languid and monotonous smoke. Later in the novel, the long-term effects of enduring a childhood devoted to facts become blatantly obvious. Once Tom obtains his long-awaited independence from his fathers cold, scientific command, the rigorous training of his childhood violently backfires. Tom spirals downward in a chain of increasingly irresponsible, self-indulgent behaviors, including gambling and drinking, and eventually he gambles himself into monetary crises. His true colors come to the surface as he tries to deal with his problems, and we find out that, with all the facts and figures that his father ground into him, Gradgrind had apparently either overlooked or fallen short of instilling any sort of moral fiber in his son. Ironically, Tom ends up seeking refuge from the law by performing in disguise in the circus, the last place his father would have predicted during Toms disciplined youth. Ultimately, Tom ends up fleeing overseas after he rebukes Louisa for not helping him with his debts, and on foreign soil , full of remorse, he sickens and dies while attempting to return to his beloved sister. All in all, Gradgrinds terrible parenting is the cause of his sons failures in life; Toms squashed feelings of curiosity and enchantment exploded out of control once they were unbridled, resulting in his swift and fatal downfall. Through Toms dismal fate, Dickens grimly illustrates the repercussions of Gradgrinds utilitarian influence on those under his care. Louisa, on the other hand, does not encounter so desolate a fate as her brother, but the effects of her deprived childhood are nevertheless pronounced. While still young, Louisa marries Mr. Bounderby, an ill-fated decision that resulted largely due to the dispassionate countenance that her father infused in her from an early age. Later, like her brother, she easily succumbs to temptation once she is freed from her fathers iron grasp. In her case, the temptation is an affair with James Hearthouse, a man who easily appeals to Louisas immature, undeveloped emotions. However, Harthouse rouses Louisas long-dormant feelings into a sluggish agitation, and before she consummates any infidelity, the emotional poverty of her life engulfs her in a jolting, inescapable realitythe realization that she is destined to lead a numb and passionless existenceand so she returns to her father full of anguish and reproach, accusing him of ruining her. The fire metaphor appears again, for the once-sedated imaginative tendencies inside of Louisa have become destructive, burning within her like an unwholesome fire. She spends the rest of her days at Stone Lodge under the loving influence of Sissy, trying to regain what had become withered and stunted under her fathers care. Regrettably, Louisa has been permanently robbed of her inner spirit, her ability to live in feeling, and she ultimately endures a bleak existence, unable to secure a home or children of her own. Fortunately, Mr. Gradgrind is able learn the error of his ways, but his conversion does not spare the ruin of his two eldest children. When Louisa returns and reveals to him the effects of his parenting, he is at first doubtful, but is ultimately convinced by the wild dilating fire in his daughters eyes. Once he comes to terms with the fact that his life and beliefs, everything he had previously stood for, are in error, he arrives at the wise conclusion that there is a wisdom of the Head, and that there is a wisdom of the Heart. Later he acknowledges that Sissy, by mere love and gratitude, has brightened his household and his youngest daughter: what the Head had left undone and could not do, the Heart may have been doing silently. Gradgrinds realization is ironic, for he is the last character who we would expect to admit the shortcomings of facts and the powers of the heart. Dickenss message is clear: neither the Head nor the Heart is inherently bad; instead, the rival philosophies c omplement one another, and both should wholeheartedly embraced and juxtaposed so that nothing can be left undone. Finally, Sissy Jupe serves as a stark contrast to the other ill-fated characters. After her father abandons her early in the novel, she takes up residence with none other than the Gradgrinds themselves. Sissy is innately inclined toward fancy and an animated imagination, and her experiences in the classroom show that she tends to speak from her heart, rather than conforming to the spiritless design that Gradgrinds school holds in store for her. Indeed, her heart proves too strong and passionate to submit to the corrupting coaching she receives in school, and consequently she is withdrawn as a result of her inaptitude. Despite the halt in her education, Sissy grows into a sensible, compassionate woman during her years with the Gradgrinds, still retaining her robust imaginationa rather astounding accomplishment considering the notoriously unwholesome atmosphere of Stone Lodge. Later in the novel Sissy becomes a beacon of morals and kindness to the troubled Louisa: In the innocence of h er brave affection, and the brimming up of her old devoted spirit, the once deserted girl shone like a beautiful light upon the darkness of the other. Furthermore, only Sissy can begin to mend Louisas misshapen spirit with her soft touch and sympathetic hand and breathe the beginnings of life into an emotionally dead soul; and again it is Sissy who gives the youngest Gradgrind daughter the affectionate nurturing that Louisa and Tom needed so badly in their youths. By emphasizing the concepts of fact and fancy in Hard Times, Dickens paints a discerning model of the industrialized Victorian society, exemplifying its defects in characters like Gradgrind and Bounderby. On the whole, Dickens renders Gradgrind and his school entirely destructive and sinister, thereby presenting a possible critique of the schools in Victorian England at the current time. More importantly, however, the smaller world of the classroom directly reflects the larger, zealously industrialized society that exists outsideboth Coketown itself and the world in which Dickens lived. Through the main characters and their experiences in the representative environment of education, Dickens exemplifies the shallowness and decadence of industrialized economy, which is epitomized by Coketown. Gradgrind and Bounderby deem the Coketown workers, like Louisa and Tom, to be eternally dissatisfied and unmanageable, and Dickens openly speculates that there is an analogy between the case of th e Coketown population and the case of the little Gradgrinds. Furthermore, Coketown itself embodies the characteristic descriptions of Gradgrinds home and classroom, shown in the lines Fact, fact, fact, everywhere in the material aspect of the town; fact, fact, fact, everywhere in the immaterial, and the previously noted harms of the Coketown classroom are amplified in Coketowns factories, where machinery is chopping people up and the workers face death young and misshapen. Additional descriptions of Coketown give evidence of the inherent frailty of its moral and societal underpinnings, for although the town appears mighty and deathless, with its raging factories of fire and smoke and its tyranny over the enslaved workers, Coketowns machinery throbs feebly like a fainting pulse. The lack of any sort of supporting foundation is further emphasized by the patchy, insubstantial quality imparted on the buildings by its soot and grime: the town is shrouded in a haze of its own, a blur of s oot and smoke, discernible only as a sulky blotch upon the prospect. Moreover, Dickens actually suggests that this industrialized society is essentially corrupt and sinful when he conveys Coketown as nothing but masses of darkness that confusedly aspire to the vault of Heaven, with its chimneys rising up into the air like competing Towers of Babel. These descriptions cast a very accusatory, judgmental light on industrialism and its perpetuators in general. In Hard Times, these perpetuators, or the bourgeoisie on the whole, are represented by Mr. Bounderby, a truly despicable, selfish character, and a self-made Humbug (in his own words) who claims to follow the same philosophy as Gradgrind, and he constantly proclaims the fantastic tales of his impoverished, abandoned childhood and unlikely rise to fortune. When Gradgrind encounters Mrs. Bounderby at the end of the novel, he hastily reproaches her, wondering at her audacity in showing her face to her son, to which she replies, Lord forgive you, sir, for your wicked imaginations. This statement is ironic on several levels, for Gradgrind has only recently abandoned his rigid dependence on factsbut now, that which he deemed most dependably factual and true is revealed as a pinnacle of fanciful lies. Furthermore, Gradgrind himself formerly propagated the notion that imagination is useless and wicked; subsequently, there is now a sort of role-reversal between himself and Bounderbys mother. L astly, Bounderby, that sturdy and respected upholder of rationality and fact, is exposed as an utter hypocrite. He is a man so deeply embedded in ludicrous fabrications that his entire public identity is an invented faà §ade, a jumble of ridiculous, fanciful delusions, analogous to the elusive, ethereal qualities of Coketown itself. It is his imagination that is truly wicked, and he merely endorses utilitarian views as a result of his greedy self-interest. By portraying Bounderby as a shameless deceiver who is oblivious to the plight of his employees, Dickens suggests that industrialized society has been created and sustained without regard to human compassion or morality, and that, as a system, this type of society fosters only vice and misery. In summary, Dickens creates a loveless, greed-driven world within Coketowns schools and factories, where the principles of the market take precedence over human compassion. By sanctioning the proliferation of fact and rationality, as well as the oppression of imagination of fancy, Bounderby has no benevolent motive. He seeks to increase his wealth by increasing the efficiency of his workers, and the specialized education of the youth in Coketown is merely one manifestation of industrialized greed. Gradgrind, on the other hand, harbors good intentions for the children, but as to the effects of his actions, he is gravely mistaken, as Dickens so explicitly shows. Although Dickens does not offer a clear solution to societys ills, he portrays the goodness of humankind in the members of the circus, who cared so little for plain Fact, and about whom there was a remarkable gentleness and childishness and an untiring readiness to help and pity one another. On one note, however, Dickens is qui te clear: human nature cannot be reduced to a plethora of facts and figures, and neither can it be predicted as such: It is known, to the force of a single pound weight, what the engine will do; but not all the calculators of the National debt can tell me the capacity for good or evil, for love or hatred, for patriotism or discontent, for the decomposition of virtue into vice at any single moment in the soul of one of these quiet servants. Dickens repeatedly illustrates the grave repercussions of Coketowns society, of stifling the fire of imagination, giving a disturbing perspective of human greed and its power to corrupt.

James Rachels Death And Dying :: essays research papers fc

James Rachels' Death and Dying James Rachels is one of the most controversial philosophers talked about in today's society. One of his most talked about topics is whether a person has a right to die or not. Not much is known about Rachels expect for the many articles and books he has written. In the controversy of letting a person die or killing him, he does not try to explain which method is good and which method is bad. He however tries to explain why they both are bad to a certain degree. Rachels does not take one side, but tries to convince why one is better than the other. In his opinion, letting a person starve to death or just putting him out of his misery by killing him is an ongoing struggle. If you let a person starve to death, it might be putting that person through a lot of pain but he'll still be alive (who knows, maybe a miracle cure will be found.) If you killed him on the spot with a lethal injection, it would be a more peaceful death but you would be shortening that person's life. Putting a person to death in a peaceful manner is called euthanasia. Euthanasia is an ancient word that means "easy death." There is also the issue of morality. Would killing someone by their own will or suicide be a moral act? What about a patient that is suffering from cancer? Is it moral to let that person suffer? These are some of the many questions people have been trying to answer for year without success. Euthanasia is a very uncomfortable subject to talk about for most people because who wants to think about having to kill oneself or a person that is dear to his or her life. Even though nobody wants to go through the hardship of deciding whether a person should live or die, it happens everyday. There are two forms of euthanasia. There is an active euthanasia and a passive euthanasia (Jussim 7-13). This so-called distinction between active and passive was challenged by Rachels in a paper first published in 1975 in the New England Journal of Medicine. In that paper, Rachels challenges both the use and moral significance of that distinction. He argues that active euthanasia is in many cases is more humane than passive euthanasia. Rachels urges doctors to reconsider their views on active euthanasia. He writes: "To begin with a familiar type of situation, a patient who is dying of incurable cancer of the throat is in terrible pain, which can no longer be satisfactorily alleviated.

Essay --

Lifelong Learning Lifelong learning is the process of gaining knowledge based on an individual’s interest and developing skills throughout the life to improve their life irrespective of traditional educational schooling activities. This long term process influences an individual’s personal development and improves their thinking and thought process thus recreating themselves in a new experience of the positiveness. These learning’s can be of different types ranging from the home education, cultural learning, personal learning, spiritual learning, learning to keep up to date with technologies and local medical sciences education etc. Learning through experiences in life helps an individual to visualize the purpose of life from a new prospective that inspires them to be self-contended. Importance of Lifelong Learning Lifelong learning is important because knowledge is the primary source of value in the world today and ability to expand our mind and thinking out of box is the key to attain success. For example to be successful in your career/field you need to be up-to-date with the information and knowledge available in your field and this needs a lifelong learning. Lifelong learning improves cognitive abilities and positive thinking. For example in India many people give importance to Vedas and Indian literature which also has information on every aspect of life. People learn these through home education, self-interest or in a Vedic school. People who learn Vedas and Indian literature participate in Avadhana (a kind of quiz which tests your cognitive ability). Those who have completed these Avadhana’s successfully are proved to have good cognitive abilities. Indian music and traditional dances (like bharathanatyam, kathak, kuchip... ...also makes me influential. So having a greater knowledge will help me tackle problems and overcome challenges.. This change makes me involve in more other activities and eventually leads me to a successful Engineer. Education brings me a healthy body and mind throughout my life. Finally a career that embraces a program of continuous lifelong learning will ensure that I have a successful career. Because every moment of time, everywhere, under all circumstances something is being added to our previous attainments. My Career will be filled with many proud accomplishments, earning respect from colleagues, friends and a career that is fun and exciting. References: Blog: http://www.questia.com/library/education/higher-and-adult-education/lifelong-learning Paper: http://www.ieeeusa.org/communications/ebooks/files/47skc0ie/Launching-Your-Career-Lifelong-Learning.pdf

Reflection on Charlotte Brontes Jane Eyre Essay -- Jane Eyre Essays

Reflection on Jane Eyre "That strange little figure there gazing at me, with a white face and arms specking the gloom, and glittering eyes of fear moving where all else was still, had the effect of a real spirit." This was the painful reaction of young Jane Eyre to her own horrifying ten-year-old reflection in the mirror . This reflection illustrates the harsh and fearful childhood of a strong-willed girl in the beginning of Jane Eyre, written by Charlotte Bronte. Set in the mid-nineteenth century on the English countryside Jane Eyre tells the story of one orphan's troubled childhood and her yearning to belong to someone somewhere as she matures into an adult. Jane Eyre is a story replete with romance, morality, mystery, and coincidence. After the death of her parents, Jane lives in the house of her aunt, Sarah Reed. Sarah only allows Jane to stay in her house because of a promise Sarah made to her brother who was on his death bed. However, Sarah regrets her promise, despises Jane from the beginning, and blames her for every disturbance between her own children...

A Game of Thrones Chapter Forty-six

Daenerys The heart was steaming in the cool evening air when Khal Drogo set it before her, raw and bloody. His arms were red to the elbow. Behind him, his bloodriders knelt on the sand beside the corpse of the wild stallion, stone knives in their hands. The stallion's blood looked black in the flickering orange glare of the torches that ringed the high chalk walls of the pit. Dany touched the soft swell of her belly. Sweat beaded her skin and trickled down her brow. She could feel the old women watching her, the ancient crones of Vaes Dothrak, with eyes that shone dark as polished flint in their wrinkled faces. She must not flinch or look afraid. I am the blood of the dragon, she told herself as she took the stallion's heart in both hands, lifted it to her mouth, and plunged her teeth into the tough, stringy flesh. Warm blood filled her mouth and ran down over her chin. The taste threatened to gag her, but she made herself chew and swallow. The heart of a stallion would make her son strong and swift and fearless, or so the Dothraki believed, but only if the mother could eat it all. If she choked on the blood or retched up the flesh, the omens were less favorable; the child might be stillborn, or come forth weak, deformed, or female. Her handmaids had helped her ready herself for the ceremony. Despite the tender mother's stomach that had afflicted her these past two moons, Dany had dined on bowls of half-clotted blood to accustom herself to the taste, and Irri made her chew strips of dried horseflesh until her jaws were aching. She had starved herself for a day and a night before the ceremony in the hopes that hunger would help her keep down the raw meat. The wild stallion's heart was all muscle, and Dany had to worry it with her teeth and chew each mouthful a long time. No steel was permitted within the sacred confines of Vaes Dothrak, beneath the shadow of the Mother of Mountains; she had to rip the heart apart with teeth and nails. Her stomach roiled and heaved, yet she kept on, her face smeared with the heartsblood that sometimes seemed to explode against her lips. Khal Drogo stood over her as she ate, his face as hard as a bronze shield. His long black braid was shiny with oil. He wore gold rings in his mustache, gold bells in his braid, and a heavy belt of solid gold medallions around his waist, but his chest was bare. She looked at him whenever she felt her strength failing; looked at him, and chewed and swallowed, chewed and swallowed, chewed and swallowed. Toward the end, Dany thought she glimpsed a fierce pride in his dark, almond-shaped eyes, but she could not be sure. The khal's face did not often betray the thoughts within. And finally it was done. Her cheeks and fingers were sticky as she forced down the last of it. Only then did she turn her eyes back to the old women, the crones of the dosh khaleen. â€Å"Khalakka dothrae mr'anha!† she proclaimed in her best Dothraki. A prince rides inside me! She had practiced the phrase for days with her handmaid Jhiqui. The oldest of the crones, a bent and shriveled stick of a woman with a single black eye, raised her arms on high. â€Å"Khalakka dothrae!† she shrieked. The prince is riding! â€Å"He is riding!† the other women answered. â€Å"Rakh! Rakh! Rakh haj!† they proclaimed. A boy, a boy, a strong boy. Bells rang, a sudden clangor of bronze birds. A deep-throated warhorn sounded its long low note. The old women began to chant. Underneath their painted leather vests, their withered dugs swayed back and forth, shiny with oil and sweat. The eunuchs who served them threw bundles of dried grasses into a great bronze brazier, and clouds of fragrant smoke rose up toward the moon and the stars. The Dothraki believed the stars were horses made of fire, a great herd that galloped across the sky by night. As the smoke ascended, the chanting died away and the ancient crone closed her single eye, the better to peer into the future. The silence that fell was complete. Dany could hear the distant call of night birds, the hiss and crackle of the torches, the gentle lapping of water from the lake. The Dothraki stared at her with eyes of night, waiting. Khal Drogo laid his hand on Dany's arm. She could feel the tension in his fingers. Even a khal as mighty as Drogo could know fear when the dosh khaleen peered into smoke of the future. At her back, her handmaids fluttered anxiously. Finally the crone opened her eye and lifted her arms. â€Å"I have seen his face, and heard the thunder of his hooves,† she proclaimed in a thin, wavery voice. â€Å"The thunder of his hooves!† the others chorused. â€Å"As swift as the wind he rides, and behind him his khalasar covers the earth, men without number, with arakhs shining in their hands like blades of razor grass. Fierce as a storm this prince will be. His enemies will tremble before him, and their wives will weep tears of blood and rend their flesh in grief. The bells in his hair will sing his coming, and the milk men in the stone tents will fear his name.† The old woman trembled and looked at Dany almost as if she were afraid. â€Å"The prince is riding, and he shall be the stallion who mounts the world.† â€Å"The stallion who mounts the world!† the onlookers cried in echo, until the night rang to the sound of their voices. The one-eyed crone peered at Dany. â€Å"What shall he be called, the stallion who mounts the world?† She stood to answer. â€Å"He shall be called Rhaego,† she said, using the words that Jhiqui had taught her. Her hands touched the swell beneath her breasts protectively as a roar went up from the Dothraki. â€Å"Rhaego,† they screamed. â€Å"Rhaego, Rhaego, Rhaego!† The name was still ringing in her ears as Khal Drogo led her from the pit. His bloodriders fell in behind them. A procession followed them out onto the godsway, the broad grassy road that ran through the heart of Vaes Dothrak, from the horse gate to the Mother of Mountains. The crones of the dosh khaleen came first, with their eunuchs and slaves. Some supported themselves with tall carved staffs as they struggled along on ancient, shaking legs, while others walked as proud as any horselord. Each of the old women had been a khaleesi once. When their lord husbands died and a new khal took his place at the front of his riders, with a new khaleesi mounted beside him, they were sent here, to reign over the vast Dothraki nation. Even the mightiest of khals bowed to the wisdom and authority of the dosh khaleen. Still, it gave Dany the shivers to think that one day she might be sent to join them, whether she willed it or no. Behind the wise women came the others; Khal Ogo and his son, the khalakka Fogo, Khal Jommo and his wives, the chief men of Drogo's khalasar, Dany's handmaids, the khal's servants and slaves, and more. Bells rang and drums beat a stately cadence as they marched along the godsway. Stolen heroes and the gods of dead peoples brooded in the darkness beyond the road. Alongside the procession, slaves ran lightly through the grass with torches in their hands, and the flickering flames made the great monuments seem almost alive. â€Å"What is meaning, name Rhaego?† Khal Drogo asked as they walked, using the Common Tongue of the Seven Kingdoms. She had been teaching him a few words when she could. Drogo was quick to learn when he put his mind to it, though his accent was so thick and barbarous that neither Ser Jorah nor Viserys could understand a word he said. â€Å"My brother Rhaegar was a fierce warrior, my sun-and-stars,† she told him. â€Å"He died before I was born. Ser Jorah says that he was the last of the dragons.† Khal Drogo looked down at her. His face was a copper mask, yet under the long black mustache, drooping beneath the weight of its gold rings, she thought she glimpsed the shadow of a smile. â€Å"Is good name, Dan Ares wife, moon of my life,† he said. They rode to the lake the Dothraki called the Womb of the World, surrounded by a fringe of reeds, its water still and calm. A thousand thousand years ago, Jhiqui told her, the first man had emerged from its depths, riding upon the back of the first horse. The procession waited on the grassy shore as Dany stripped and let her soiled clothing fall to the ground. Naked, she stepped gingerly into the water. Irri said the lake had no bottom, but Dany felt soft mud squishing between her toes as she pushed through the tall reeds. The moon floated on the still black waters, shattering and re-forming as her ripples washed over it. Goose pimples rose on her pale skin as the coldness crept up her thighs and kissed her lower lips. The stallion's blood had dried on her hands and around her mouth. Dany cupped her fingers and lifted the sacred waters over her head, cleansing herself and the child inside her while the khal and the others looked on. She heard the old women of the dosh khaleen muttering to each other as they watched, and wondered what they were saying. When she emerged from the lake, shivering and dripping, her handmaid Doreah hurried to her with a robe of painted sandsilk, but Khal Drogo waved her away. He was looking on her swollen breasts and the curve of her belly with approval, and Dany could see the shape of his manhood pressing through his horsehide trousers, below the heavy gold medallions of his belt. She went to him and helped him unlace. Then her huge khal took her by the hips and lifted her into the air, as he might lift a child. The bells in his hair rang softly. Dany wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pressed her face against his neck as he thrust himself inside her. Three quick strokes and it was done. â€Å"The stallion who mounts the world,† Drogo whispered hoarsely. His hands still smelled of horse blood. He bit at her throat, hard, in the moment of his pleasure, and when he lifted her off, his seed filled her and trickled down the inside of her thighs. Only then was Doreah permitted to drape her in the scented sandsilk, and Irri to fit soft slippers to her feet. Khal Drogo laced himself up and spoke a command, and horses were brought to the lakeshore. Cohollo had the honor of helping the khaleesi onto her silver. Drogo spurred his stallion, and set off down the godsway beneath the moon and stars. On her silver, Dany easily kept pace. The silk tenting that roofed Khal Drogo's hall had been rolled up tonight, and the moon followed them inside. Flames leapt ten feet in the air from three huge stone-lined firepits. The air was thick with the smells of roasting meat and curdled, fermented mare's milk. The hall was crowded and noisy when they entered, the cushions packed with those whose rank and name were not sufficient to allow them at the ceremony. As Dany rode beneath the arched entry and up the center aisle, every eye was on her. The Dothraki screamed out comments on her belly and her breasts, hailing the life within her. She could not understand all they shouted, but one phrase came clear. â€Å"The stallion that mounts the world,† she heard, bellowed in a thousand voices. The sounds of drums and horns swirled up into the night. Half-clothed women spun and danced on the low tables, amid joints of meat and platters piled high with plums and dates and pomegranates. Many of the men were drunk on clotted mare's milk, yet Dany knew no arakhs would clash tonight, not here in the sacred city, where blades and bloodshed were forbidden. Khal Drogo dismounted and took his place on the high bench. Khal Jommo and Khal Ogo, who had been in Vaes Dothrak with their khalasars when they arrived, were given seats of high honor to Drogo's right and left. The bloodriders of the three khals sat below them, and farther down Khal Jommo's four wives. Dany climbed off her silver and gave the reins to one of the slaves. As Doreah and Irri arranged her cushions, she searched for her brother. Even across the length of the crowded hall, Viserys should have been conspicuous with his pale skin, silvery hair, and beggar's rags, but she did not see him anywhere. Her glance roamed the crowded tables near the walls, where men whose braids were even shorter than their manhoods sat on frayed rugs and flat cushions around the low tables, but all the faces she saw had black eyes and copper skin. She spied Ser Jorah Mormont near the center of the hall, close to the middle firepit. It was a place of respect, if not high honor; the Dothraki esteemed the knight's prowess with a sword. Dany sent Jhiqui to bring him to her table. Mormont came at once, and went to one knee before her. â€Å"Khaleesi,† he said, â€Å"I am yours to command.† She patted the stuffed horsehide cushion beside her. â€Å"Sit and talk with me.† â€Å"You honor me.† The knight seated himself cross-legged on the cushion. A slave knelt before him, offering a wooden platter full of ripe figs. Ser Jorah took one and bit it in half. â€Å"Where is my brother?† Dany asked. â€Å"He ought to have come by now, for the feast.† â€Å"I saw His Grace this morning,† he told her. â€Å"He told me he was going to the Western Market, in search of wine.† â€Å"Wine?† Dany said doubtfully. Viserys could not abide the taste of the fermented mare's milk the Dothraki drank, she knew that, and he was oft at the bazaars these days, drinking with the traders who came in the great caravans from east and west. He seemed to find their company more congenial than hers. â€Å"Wine,† Ser Jorah confirmed, â€Å"and he has some thought to recruit men for his army from the sellswords who guard the caravans.† A serving girl laid a blood pie in front of him, and he attacked it with both hands. â€Å"Is that wise?† she asked. â€Å"He has no gold to pay soldiers. What if he's betrayed?† Caravan guards were seldom troubled much by thoughts of honor, and the Usurper in King's Landing would pay well for her brother's head. â€Å"You ought to have gone with him, to keep him safe. You are his sworn sword.† â€Å"We are in Vaes Dothrak,† he reminded her. â€Å"No one may carry a blade here or shed a man's blood.† â€Å"Yet men die,† she said. â€Å"Jhogo told me. Some of the traders have eunuchs with them, huge men who strangle thieves with wisps of silk. That way no blood is shed and the gods are not angered.† â€Å"Then let us hope your brother will be wise enough not to steal anything.† Ser Jorah wiped the grease off his mouth with the back of his hand and leaned close over the table. â€Å"He had planned to take your dragon's eggs, until I warned him that I'd cut off his hand if he so much as touched them.† For a moment Dany was so shocked she had no words. â€Å"My eggs . . . but they're mine, Magister Illyrio gave them to me, a bride gift, why would Viserys want . . . they're only stones . . . â€Å" â€Å"The same could be said of rubies and diamonds and fire opals, Princess . . . and dragon's eggs are rarer by far. Those traders he's been drinking with would sell their own manhoods for even one of those stones, and with all three Viserys could buy as many sellswords as he might need.† Dany had not known, had not even suspected. â€Å"Then . . . he should have them. He does not need to steal them. He had only to ask. He is my brother . . . and my true king.† â€Å"He is your brother,† Ser Jorah acknowledged. â€Å"You do not understand, ser,† she said. â€Å"My mother died giving me birth, and my father and my brother Rhaegar even before that. I would never have known so much as their names if Viserys had not been there to tell me. He was the only one left. The only one. He is all I have.† â€Å"Once,† said Ser Jorah. â€Å"No longer, Khaleesi. You belong to the Dothraki now. In your womb rides the stallion who mounts the world.† He held out his cup, and a slave filled it with fermented mare's milk, sour-smelling and thick with clots. Dany waved her away. Even the smell of it made her feel ill, and she would take no chances of bringing up the horse heart she had forced herself to eat. â€Å"What does it mean?† she asked. â€Å"What is this stallion? Everyone was shouting it at me, but I don't understand.† â€Å"The stallion is the khal of khals promised in ancient prophecy, child. He will unite the Dothraki into a single khalasar and ride to the ends of the earth, or so it was promised. All the people of the world will be his herd.† â€Å"Oh,† Dany said in a small voice. Her hand smoothed her robe down over the swell of her stomach. â€Å"I named him Rhaego.† â€Å"A name to make the Usurper's blood run cold.† Suddenly Doreah was tugging at her elbow. â€Å"My lady, † the handmaid whispered urgently, â€Å"your brother . . . â€Å" Dany looked down the length of the long, roofless hall and there he was, striding toward her. From the lurch in his step, she could tell at once that Viserys had found his wine . . . and something that passed for courage. He was wearing his scarlet silks, soiled and travel-stained. His cloak and gloves were black velvet, faded from the sun. His boots were dry and cracked, his silver-blond hair matted and tangled. A longsword swung from his belt in a leather scabbard. The Dothraki eyed the sword as he passed; Dany heard curses and threats and angry muttering rising all around her, like a tide. The music died away in a nervous stammering of drums. A sense of dread closed around her heart. â€Å"Go to him,† she commanded Ser Jorah. â€Å"Stop him. Bring him here. Tell him he can have the dragon's eggs if that is what he wants.† The knight rose swiftly to his feet. â€Å"Where is my sister?† Viserys shouted, his voice thick with wine. â€Å"I've come for her feast. How dare you presume to eat without me? No one eats before the king. Where is she? The whore can't hide from the dragon.† He stopped beside the largest of the three firepits, peering around at the faces of the Dothraki. There were five thousand men in the hall, but only a handful who knew the Common Tongue. Yet even if his words were incomprehensible, you had only to look at him to know that he was drunk. Ser Jorah went to him swiftly, whispered something in his ear, and took him by the arm, but Viserys wrenched free. â€Å"Keep your hands off me! No one touches the dragon without leave.† Dany glanced anxiously up at the high bench. Khal Drogo was saying something to the other khals beside him. Khal Jommo grinned, and Khal Ogo began to guffaw loudly. The sound of laughter made Viserys lift his eyes. â€Å"Khal Drogo,† he said thickly, his voice almost polite. â€Å"I'm here for the feast.† He staggered away from Ser Jorah, making to join the three khals on the high bench. Khal Drogo rose, spat out a dozen words in Dothraki, faster than Dany could understand, and pointed. â€Å"Khal Drogo says your place is not on the high bench,† Ser Jorah translated for her brother. â€Å"Khal Drogo says your place is there.† Viserys glanced where the khal was pointing. At the back of the long hall, in a corner by the wall, deep in shadow so better men would not need to look on them, sat the lowest of the low; raw unblooded boys, old men with clouded eyes and stiff joints, the dim-witted and the maimed. Far from the meat, and farther from honor. â€Å"That is no place for a king,† her brother declared. â€Å"Is place,† Khal Drogo answered, in the Common Tongue that Dany had taught him, â€Å"for Sorefoot King.† He clapped his hands together. â€Å"A cart! Bring cart for Khal Rhaggat!† Five thousand Dothraki began to laugh and shout. Ser Jorah was standing beside Viserys, screaming in his ear, but the roar in the hall was so thunderous that Dany could not hear what he was saying. Her brother shouted back and the two men grappled, until Mormont knocked Viserys bodily to the floor. Her brother drew his sword. The bared steel shone a fearful red in the glare from the firepits. â€Å"Keep away from me!† Viserys hissed. Ser Jorah backed off a step, and her brother climbed unsteadily to his feet. He waved the sword over his head, the borrowed blade that Magister Illyrio had given him to make him seem more kingly. Dothraki were shrieking at him from all sides, screaming vile curses. Dany gave a wordless cry of terror. She knew what a drawn sword meant here, even if her brother did not. Her voice made Viserys turn his head, and he saw her for the first time. â€Å"There she is,† he said, smiling. He stalked toward her, slashing at the air as if to cut a path through a wall of enemies, though no one tried to bar his way. â€Å"The blade . . . you must not,† she begged him. â€Å"Please, Viserys. It is forbidden. Put down the sword and come share my cushions. There's drink, food . . . is it the dragon's eggs you want? You can have them, only throw away the sword.† â€Å"Do as she tells you, fool,† Ser Jorah shouted, â€Å"before you get us all killed.† Viserys laughed. â€Å"They can't kill us. They can't shed blood here in the sacred city . . . but I can.† He laid the point of his sword between Daenerys's breasts and slid it downward, over the curve of her belly. â€Å"I want what I came for,† he told her. â€Å"I want the crown he promised me. He bought you, but he never paid for you. Tell him I want what I bargained for, or I'm taking you back. You and the eggs both. He can keep his bloody foal. I'll cut the bastard out and leave it for him.† The sword point pushed through her silks and pricked at her navel. Viserys was weeping, she saw; weeping and laughing, both at the same time, this man who had once been her brother. Distantly, as from far away, Dany heard her handmaid Jhiqui sobbing in fear, pleading that she dared not translate, that the khal would bind her and drag her behind his horse all the way up the Mother of Mountains. She put her arm around the girl. â€Å"Don't be afraid,† she said. â€Å"I shall tell him.† She did not know if she had enough words, yet when she was done Khal Drogo spoke a few brusque sentences in Dothraki, and she knew he understood. The sun of her life stepped down from the high bench. â€Å"What did he say?† the man who had been her brother asked her, flinching. It had grown so silent in the hall that she could hear the bells in Khal Drogo's hair, chiming softly with each step he took. His bloodriders followed him, like three copper shadows. Daenerys had gone cold all over. â€Å"He says you shall have a splendid golden crown that men shall tremble to behold.† Viserys smiled and lowered his sword. That was the saddest thing, the thing that tore at her afterward . . . the way he smiled. â€Å"That was all I wanted,† he said. â€Å"What was promised.† When the sun of her life reached her, Dany slid an arm around his waist. The khal said a word, and his bloodriders leapt forward. Qotho seized the man who had been her brother by the arms. Haggo shattered his wrist with a single, sharp twist of his huge hands. Cohollo pulled the sword from his limp fingers. Even now Viserys did not understand. â€Å"No,† he shouted, â€Å"you cannot touch me, I am the dragon, the dragon, and I will be crowned!† Khal Drogo unfastened his belt. The medallions were pure gold, massive and ornate, each one as large as a man's hand. He shouted a command. Cook slaves pulled a heavy iron stew pot from the firepit, dumped the stew onto the ground, and returned the pot to the flames. Drogo tossed in the belt and watched without expression as the medallions turned red and began to lose their shape. She could see fires dancing in the onyx of his eyes. A slave handed him a pair of thick horsehair mittens, and he pulled them on, never so much as looking at the man. Viserys began to scream the high, wordless scream of the coward facing death. He kicked and twisted, whimpered like a dog and wept like a child, but the Dothraki held him tight between them. Ser Jorah had made his way to Dany's side. He put a hand on her shoulder. â€Å"Turn away, my princess, I beg you.† â€Å"No.† She folded her arms across the swell of her belly, protectively. At the last, Viserys looked at her. â€Å"Sister, please . . . Dany, tell them . . . make them . . . sweet sister . . . â€Å" When the gold was half-melted and starting to run, Drogo reached into the flames, snatched out the pot. â€Å"Crown!† he roared. â€Å"Here. A crown for Cart King!† And upended the pot over the head of the man who had been her brother. The sound Viserys Targaryen made when that hideous iron helmet covered his face was like nothing human. His feet hammered a frantic beat against the dirt floor, slowed, stopped. Thick globs of molten gold dripped down onto his chest, setting the scarlet silk to smoldering . . . yet no drop of blood was spilled. He was no dragon, Dany thought, curiously calm. Fire cannot kill a dragon.

Essential elements of a valid contract Essay

In this part of my assignment I will be detailing what the different elements of a valid contract are whilst also linking it in with my own contract. The contract I have decided to use is my mobile phone contract from Vodafone. The offer: In contract law the offer is where a person will accept the invitation, for example in my contract the offer would be when I offer to bind into their contract and purchase a mobile phone deal, and this is because they created an invitation for me to purchase a deal as they advertise their deals in various place so when I go in I offer to bind into a contract with them. Invitation to treat: An invitation to treat is usually used to get the parties started with some negotiations to result in a fair agreement for both parties involved. For example in my case with my contract it was negotiated for me to get more minutes instead of the amount of data they were offering as I would use the minutes more instead of the data so Vodafone agreed and created a contract stating what was agreed to ensure that they could not go back on their agreement. An invitation to treat does not bind someone into a contract as they are only inviting people to make an offer so if somebody was looking at something but didn’t not agree or make the owner a offer then therefore there is no agreement and no legal binding. The Acceptance: In contract law once a legal acceptance is formed a contract gets developed in which case both parties cannot back out of the agreement after the contract has been signed. There are three rules that need to be followed when creating an acceptance to ensure it is legally bound. The three rules are: The acceptance must be known and discussed with the offeree. The acceptances’ terms must match the terms of the offer exactly. The agreement needs to be certain. In the case of my phone contract it was legally bound as it follows all three  of the rules of acceptance as when I purchased the contract we discussed all aspects of the contract terms and we both knew exactly what the agreement was after the negotiations. Consideration: The consideration in contract law must be something of value by the eyes of the law this doesn’t not include things like a promise of love. A consideration is also known as the bargain of the contract where each party must receive a benefit to the contract or a disadvantage for it to be a consideration. With my contract the consideration is I get a certain amount of data, texts and minutes in exchange for money that will be paid each month. Intention to create legal relationships: The main aim of indenting to create legal relationships is to try and push out the cases that don’t necessarily need a court to help take action. This is usually the case when two friends agree to meet up somewhere or if a family member agrees to help clean the car as there is no legal agreement it is just made between the two or more parties that are involved which means that therefore there is no legal binding contract in place so the courts are unable to take any action against any of the parties. With my contract it is a legally bound contract so if for example I decided I was no longer happy and I was going to stop paying the payment that we agreed then they are entitled to take me to the courts as the contract is legally bound. Capacity: The capacity in contract law is where a person has to either be over a specific age or they have to be mentally fit and not under the influence of alcohol as if one of the parties are then the contract will become void as they will be classed as a minor or unstable to bind into a contract as they need to have a full understanding of what they are signing for. If a contract becomes void then it means there is no legal binding of that contract and therefore if something went wrong and they backed out of it the courts could not take action. With my Vodafone contract they have a capacity that nobody under the age of 18 is allowed to take out a contract as they are known as a minor but any payments can be taken out of the minors account after three payments have been made, this is to ensure that they have an  adult who is responsible for making sure all payments are going to get paid and if not it is them that will be taken to court as the contract will be in their name.