Transformation of the Tragedy in Oedipus, King Lear, and Desire Under The Elms :: comparison compare contrast essays

Transformation of the Tragedy in Oedipus Rex, King Lear, and Desire Under The Elms   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚   Over the course of time, many things tend to transform significantly. Such is the case of tragic literature and the cathartic effect it has on the reader, which has deteriorated a great deal from Sophocles' writing of the true tragedy, Oedipus Rex. King Lear exemplifies partial decomposition of catharsis, whereas Desire Under The Elms epitomises an almost total collapse of the cathartic effect. It is assumed that the lower the social status of the tragic hero, the weaker the ability of the 1990's audience to identify with the character's flaw. The term 'identify' refers to the ability to relate to the situation or idea. The lower social status of the protagonist in Desire Under The Elms allows a weaker level of reader identification than that experienced in King Lear or Oedipus Rex, which is made evident by examining stages two and three of catharsis.    The lower social status of the protagonist in Desire Under The Elms allows a lower level of reader identification than that experienced in King Lear or Oedipus Rex which is made evident by examining stage two of catharsis. The classic tragedy, Oedipus Rex tells the story of the King of Thebes, Oedipus, who foolishly tries to challenge fate and evade a prophecy which proclaimed that he would murder his father and marry his mother. When trying to free Thebes of a plague, he discovers that the prophecy had, in fact, come true and he did murder his father and marry his mother. According to Aristotle, there are three main elements in the second stage of catharsis (The Cathartic Moment) which include the tragic hero's point of greatest misery, the fall of shields which protected him from an ultimate truth about himself, as well as the hero's moment of enlightenment. The play Oedipus Rex displays the three elements of the cathartic moment almost perfectly. Oedipus' point of greatest misery occurs after he realizes that the prophecy had come true and he discovers that his wife, Jocosta has hung herself in her bridal-room after she finds that Oedipus was her son. A messenger tells the chorus of the incident in the following quote:    She died by her own hand....cried to her husband Laius in the grave, with mention of that seed whereby he sowed death for himself, and left her a son to get her fresh children, shamefully.

Emile Durkheim – Division of Labor

DIVISION OF LABOR IN SOCIETY The Division of Labor in Society by Emile Durkheim explains how in the modern societies the division of labor affects individuals and society contradicting Marx’s belief that the division of labor will all result to alienation. Durkheim argued that the division of labor is not necessarily â€Å"bad† for it â€Å"increases both the productive capacity and skill of the workman; it is the necessary condition for the intellectual and material development of societies; it is the source of civilization. More importantly, it creates a feeling of solidarity among the people. For Durkheim, the result of Division of Labor is positive for there is no need for competition in the sense of struggling just to survive but the division of labor may signify that there are sufficient material resources for all in the society, and in this division allows a certain form of cooperation and because people need each other this produces a solidarity in the society. *As we noted previously, Marx saw both alienation and class conflict as inevitable (or â€Å"normal†) in capitalist societies.By contrast, rather than seeing social conflict as a â€Å"normal† condition of capitalism, Durkheim maintained that anomie results only in â€Å"abnormal† conditions of overspecialization, when the rules of capitalism become too rigid and individuals are â€Å"forced† into a particular position in the division of labor. *Causes of Division of Labor: division of labor develops regularly as history proceeds. This fact certainly depends on causes that are likewise constant, causes that we shall investigate. † (p. 179). â€Å"THe increase in the DOL is therefore due to the fact that the social segments lose their individuality, that the partitions dividing them become more permeable. IN short, there occurs between them a coalescence that renders the social substance free to enter upon new combinations. † {p. 141} The key to the expansion of the DOL is the increase in social interaction, particularly functional differentiation. * This is what gives moral value to the division of labor. Through it, the individual becomes aware of his dependence upon society; from it come the forces which keep him in check and restrain him.In short, since the division of labor becomes the chief source of social solidarity, it becomes, at the same time, the foundation of the moral order. * Moreover, far from being trammeled by the progress of specialization, individual personality develops with the division of labor. To be a person is to be an autonomous source of action. Man acquires this quality only in so far as there is something in him which is his alone and which individualizes him, as he is something more than a simple incarnation of the generic type of his race and his group.The division of labor itself contributes to this enfranchisement, for individual natures, while specializing, become more complex, and by that are in part freed from collective action and hereditary influences which can only enforce themselves upon simple, general things. The most visible example of social solidarity that Durkheim mentioned was law. Law is the organization of social life in its most stable and precise form. The classification of law depends on the type of solidarity corresponds to it. The first type of law is the repressive law which imposes a fine or injury on the perpetrator.The second one is the restitutory laws which refer to restoring the previous relationship which have been disturbed from before the crime was committed. Repressive law tends to stay diffused througout the society, restitutory law works through more specialized bodies like in courts, magistrates and lawyers. *Despite the removed role of restitutory law from socirty, society still intervenes in restitutory sanctioning. The formation of a contract directly concerns the parties involved: nonetheless, id a contract has a binding forc e, it is a society which confers that force.If society does not give its blessing to the obligations that have been contracted, then these obligations are reduced to only moral promises. Hence the presence of society in restitutory law, although not necessarily felt, is nonetheless essential. negative control – regulations which make a person refrain from acting ex. do not help a farmere with his crop, simply prevent him from stealing his neighbor's positive control – regulations which make a person act ex. impose a certain method of farming upon a farmer. Mechanical Solidarity or solidarity by similarities, it is deeply rooted in everyone doing or feeling the same thing.It is the type of solidarity that is associated with repressive laws that corresponds to crimes resulting in repressive punishments. Durkheim pointed out in his book that how the repressive or penal rules demonstrates the strength of resistance of collective response to a crime. Thus it is now called c ollective consciousness which is the â€Å"totality of beliefs and sentiments common to average citizens of the same society forms a determinate system which has its own life. † Therefore, it is summarized as an act is only criminal if it offends the â€Å"strong, well-defined states of collective consciousness. *Mechanical solidarity is typified by feelings of likeness. Mechanical solidarity is rooted in everyone doing/feeling the same thing. Durkheim maintained that this type of solidarity is characteristic of small, traditional societies. In these â€Å"simple† societies, circumstances compel individuals to be generalists involved in the production and distribution of a variety of goods. Indeed, in small, traditional societies, specialization in one task to the exclusion of others is not possible because the society depends on each individual providing a host of contributions to the group.For instance, men, women, and children are often all needed to pick crops at harvest time, and all partake in the harvest-time celebrations as well. Durkheim argued that a significant social consequence of the shared work experience characteristic of traditional societies is a shared collective conscience. People in traditional societies tend to feel â€Å"one and the same,† and it is this feeling of â€Å"oneness† that is integral in the maintenance of social order. Yet, Durkheim saw that in large, complex societies, this type of solidarity was waning.In large, modern societies, labor is specialized; people do not necessarily all engage in the same work or share the same ideas and beliefs. *â€Å"Since the rules are inscribed upon everyone's consciousness, all are aware of them and feel they are founded upon right. † â€Å"Undoubtedly if an act is punished, it is because it is contrary to a mandatory rule, but this rule is not expressly spelt out. There can be only one reason for this: it is because the rule is known and accepted by ev erybody. † (p. 5) â€Å"we should not say that an act offends the common consciousness because it is criminal, but that it is criminal because it offend that consciousness. † (p. 42) [133] *What separates repressive law from civil law – law that simply restores previous order? First, recall that crimes are those things that affect the common consciousness: Thus, â€Å"†¦since the sentiments that crime offends within a single society are the most universally collective ones of all, since they represent especially powerful states of the common consciousness, they cannot possibly brook any opposition. †¦. e need a more violent form of satisfaction. † (p. 55) The kinds of offenses that give rise to repressive law assault transcendent values, â€Å"when we demand the repression of crime it is not because we are seeking a personal vengeance, but rather vengeance for something sacred which we vaguely feel is more or less outside and above us. † ( p. 56) At this point (right around p. 57 and 58), E. D. makes a subtle and important point. That punishing criminal activity reinforces the common consciousness. â€Å"Crime therefore draws honest consciousnesses together, concentrating them. † He provides an example.In a small town, everyone talks about the criminal scandal. Just like when horrible things happen in the news, we respond. By discussing the crime and punishment with people we know, we reinforce our opinion about the immorality of the action. â€Å"In short, since it is the common consciousness that is wounded, it must also be this that resists; consequently, resistance must be collective. † But why this resistance is organized remains to be explained. Historically, crimes were judged by the WHOLE people, then as society progressed, certain samples of people and judges took the place of the whole. bottom of p. 59) – the organization into courts is a division of labor response: the world got bigger, and needed more people to split up the work of policing the common consciousness. (Note, of course, that this is exactly the moment that greater individual variation in what, exactly, people have in common starts to magnify). â€Å"Thus, it is certainly the nature of the collective sentiments that accounts for punishment, and consequently for crime. † Organic Solidarity, on the other hand is characterized with the other type of law which is the restitutory law.Organic solidarity assumes that people are different from each other and they are interdependent with other forming a complex web of cooperative associations. Unlike the mechanical solidarity, the solidarity in this case is from each person cultivating individual differences and knowing that each one is doing something for the betterment of everyone. Moreover, Durkheim said that the organic solidarity arises only when the division of labor is spontaneous or voluntary. Because the division of labor is pushed too far the n it becomes dangerous for the individual for t may result to the isolation of in their special activity or skill. Thus making the division of labor a source of disintegration for the individuals and the society. *†Damages awarded have no penal character: they are simply a means of putting back the clock so as to restore the past, so far as possible, to its normal state. † (p. 69) †¢ Restitutory laws put the world back together — they restore what was before. †¢ Restitutory laws are not (usually) part of the collective common consciousness. Instead, they apply to very specific areas (corporate law, accounting law, housing law, contract law, etc. ) and, E. D. laims, a violation of such a law does not elicit the emotional need for expiation that a criminal offense does. â€Å"The idea that murder can be tolerates sets us up in arms, but we very readily accept that the law of inheritance might be modified, †¦. Since these prescriptions do not correspo nd to any feeling within us, an as generally we don no know their scientific justification, since this science does not yet exist, they have no deep roots in most of us. † [137] †¢ Since restitutory laws do not affect everyone, the solidarity that restitutory laws relate to cannot rest on a uniform similarity across everyone in the group. For Durkheim, organic solidarity refers to a type of solidarity in which each person is interdependent with others, forming a complex web of cooperative associations. In such situations, solidarity (or a feeling of â€Å"oneness†) comes not from each person believing/doing the same thing, but from each person cultivating individual differences and knowing that each is doing her part for the good of the whole. Thus, Durkheim argued that the increasing specialization and individuation so readily apparent in modern industrial societies does not necessarily result in a decline in social stability or cohesion.Rather, the growth in a so ciety’s density (the number of people living in a community) and consequent increasingly specialized division of labor can result in simply a different type of social cohesion. Abnormal Forms. (1) Anomic Division of Labor is cause by the lack of regulation or a weakened common morality that can occur in modern society. Usually surfaces when there are industrial or commercial crises or there are conflicts between capital and labor. Durkheim discusses conditions of the worker under capitalism and it somewhat very close to Marx’s description of lienation and exploitation. However, he says that situations like this are not in the normal form but is something resulting from an individual who does not have a sufficient vision of the whole process of production. (2) Forced Division of Labor is where the division of labor is not allowed to develop spontaneously and where some act to protect themselves and their positions. It is the consequence of a structural condition where t he distribution of social functions does not match to the distribution of natural talents. (3) Another Abnormal Form.Durkheim’s observation that the function of an organism can become more active only on the condition that they also become more continuous one organ can do more only if the other organs do more, and vice versa. When this continuity is missing then the functional activity of the specialized parts decreases, resulting in wasted effort and loss of productive capacity. Increased activity also results to a stronger bond of solidarity but when mismanagement arises, the activity of the worker is reduced, functions become discontinuous, and solidarity is destabilized.

Why Math Is Difficult - Math and Brain Types

In 2005, Gallup conducted a poll that asked students to name the school subject that they considered to be the most difficult. Not surprisingly, mathematics came out on top of the difficulty chart. So what is it about math that makes it difficult? Have you ever wondered? Dictionary.com defines the word difficult as: â€Å"...not easily or readily done; requiring much labor, skill, or planning to be performed successfully.† This definition gets to the crux of the problem when it comes to math, specifically the statement that a difficult task is one that is not â€Å"readily† done. The thing that makes math difficult for many students is that it takes patience and persistence. For many students, math is not something that comes intuitively or automatically - it takes plenty of  effort. It is a subject that sometimes requires students to devote lots and lots of time and energy. This means, for many, the problem has little to do with brainpower; it is mostly a matter of staying power. And since students dont make their own timelines when it comes to getting it, they can run out of time as the teacher moves on to the next topic. Math and Brain Types But there is also an element of brain-style in the big picture, according to many scientists. There will always be opposing views on any topic, and the process of human learning is subject to ongoing debate, just like any other topic. But many theorists believe that  people are wired with different math comprehension skills. According to some brain science scholars, logical, left-brain thinkers tend to understand things in  sequential bits, while  artistic, intuitive, right-brainers  are more global. They take in  a lot of information at one time and let it sink in.  So left-brain dominant students may grasp concepts quickly while right-brain dominant students don’t. To the right brain dominant student, that time-lapse can make them feel confused and behind. Math as a Cumulative Discipline Math know-how is cumulative, which means it works much like a stack of building blocks. You have to gain understanding in one area before you can effectively go on to â€Å"build upon† another area. Our first mathematical building blocks are established in primary school when we learn rules for addition and multiplication, and those first concepts comprise our foundation. The next building blocks come in middle school when students first learn about formulas and operations. This information has to sink in and become â€Å"firm† before students can move on to enlarge this framework of knowledge. The big problem starts to appear sometime between middle school and high school because students very often move on to a new grade or new subject before they’re really ready. Students who earn a â€Å"C† in middle school have absorbed and understood about half of what they should, but they move on anyway. They move on or are moved on, because They think a C is good enough.Parents don’t realize that moving on without a full understanding poses a big problem for high school and college.Teachers don’t have time and energy enough to ensure that every single student understands every single concept. So students move to the next level with a really shaky foundation. The outcome of any shaky foundation is that there will be a serious limitation when it comes to building and real potential for complete failure at some point. The lesson here? Any student who receives a C in a math class should review heavily to make sure to pick up concepts theyll need later. In fact, it  is smart to hire a tutor to help you review any time you find that youve struggled in a math class! Making Math Less Difficult We have established a few things when it comes to math and difficulty: Math seems difficult because it takes time and energy.Many people dont experience sufficient time to get math lessons, and they fall behind as the teacher moves on.Many move on to study more complex concepts with a shaky foundation.We often end up with a weak structure that is doomed to collapse at some point. Although this may sound like bad news, it is really good news. The fix is pretty easy if we’re patient enough! No matter where you are in your math studies, you can excel if you backtrack far enough to reinforce your foundation. You must fill in the holes with a deep understanding of the basic concepts you encountered in middle school math. If you’re in middle school right now, do not attempt to move on until you understand pre-algebra concepts fully. Get a tutor if necessary.If you’re in high school and struggling with math, download a middle school math syllabus or hire a tutor. Make sure you understand every single concept and activity that is covered in middle grades.If you’re in college, backtrack all the way to basic math and work forward. This won’t take as long as it sounds. You can work forward through years of math in a week or two. No matter where you start and where you struggle, you must make sure you acknowledge any weak spots in your foundation and fill the holes with practice and understanding!