Heroic styles of Beowulf and Sir Gawain Essay

Throughout history, different cultures have held different virtues in the highest regard. The Anglo-Saxons, like the anonymous scop of the poem Beowulf, valued strength and courage over any other quality. On the other hand, the earliest English people, like the poet of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, respected honor and the basic codes of chivalry over all else. Both Beowulf and Sir Gawain, therefore, display the most favored qualities of their people: Beowulf by defeating monsters, performing great feats of courage, and telling of his deeds; Gawain by being loyal, brave, and honest. Both sets of qualities are displayed throughout each tale. In Beowulf, written in about the fourth century AD, the hero’s first major test is to fight a huge monster. In doing so, he proves his physical abilities, and thus establishes his hero/ leader status. To be the best, you have to be the strongest, and he says â€Å"Fate saves/ the living when they drive away death by themselves!† (572-73), showing how much Beowulf relies on his physical strength. On the other hand, Gawain’s first test is not physical, but psychological. He is forced to prove his loyalty to Arthur, by offering his life to the Green Knight. He does not claim to be the best, or the strongest, and in fact claims: â€Å"I am the weakest, I am aware† (part 16). Gawain is displaying his modesty, and the medieval belief that a person should be humble about himself. This displays the immediate difference between the two cultures. For the Anglo-Saxons, if you wanted people to know you’re a hero, you tell them you’re a hero. For Gawain, and the Knights of the Round Table, they must act humbler, in order to appeal to their Christian beliefs. However, both societies do require their heroes to display some similar traits, the most common being courage. Gawain must show how brave he is by making a long and difficult journey to fulfill his oath, and die at the hands of the Green Knight. Beowulf must show his courage by fighting off large monsters, even to the last day of his life. â€Å"Why should I be dismayed? /Of doom the fair or drear/ by a man must be assayed† (24) shows how Gawain believes a hero should conduct himself, with dignity and honor. He does not believe that journeying to his death will be such a bad thing, since it will allow him to keep his honor intact. This sounds very similar to â€Å"Let me live  in greatness/ and courage, or here in this hall welcome my death,† Beowulf’s concept of bravery. Beowulf believes that either he is going to win, and kill Grendel, or Grendel will win and kill him. Either way, it is up to wyrd, his Fate. The resemblance continues with the theme of generos ity. Both try their very hardest to not simply keep all their earned wealth (or lack thereof) to themselves. Beowulf, upon receiving heaping treasures from Hrothgar, promptly dispenses it among his men. He even â€Å"rewarded the boat’s watchman/ who had stayed behind, with a sword that had hammered/ gold wound on its handle,† (1901-03) showing how he treats all his men as equals. The watchman’s job, to him, was just as important as all the other warriors that actually traveled with him. Similarly, Sir Gawain tells the lord of the house that he appreciated the hospitality of the host by remarking â€Å"I would give you some guerdon gladly, were I able† (82) immediately before departing. He says this to show the host his graciousness, but also displays his generosity, displaying the similarities between the two cultures. Finally, each has an opposite view of their importance in society. Beowulf believes that the best thing someone can do is become the most famous, and to have your name live on forever. â€Å"Fame after death/ is the noblest of goals† (lines 1388-89). For him to die in battle is the single most important thing he can do, to ensure he lives on in legend. On the other hand, Gawain thinks that he must do his part, and better the whole of Camelot. â€Å"Since this affair is so foolish that it nowise befits you,† (part 16) says that Gawain is willing to sacrifice his own life to save his king. He thinks he is the least of the Knights, and the most nonessential of them, and therefore the best candidate. Furthermore, â€Å"I would fainer fall dead than fail in my errand† (42) shows his dedication to the task he set out for. The two characters are in stark contrast between their concepts of self-worth. As you can see, the Anglo-Saxon and early English people held widely varying notions of what a hero/ leader figure should be. For the anonymous scop that wrote Beowulf, battle, glory, and fame were paramount; to the unknown singer of Sir Gawain, honor, honesty, and loyalty to one’s country had top priority.

Definition and Examples of Absolute Phrases in English

Definition and Examples of Absolute Phrases in English An absolute phrase is a group of words that modifies an independent clause as a whole. Its etymology is from the Latin, free, loosen, unrestricted. An absolute is made up of a noun and its modifiers (which frequently, but not always, include a participle or participial phrase). An absolute may precede, follow, or interrupt the main clause: Their slender bodies sleek and black against the orange sky, the storks circled high above us.The storks circled high above us, their slender bodies sleek and black against the orange sky.The storks, their slender bodies sleek and black against the orange sky, circled high above us. An absolute allows us to move from a description of a whole person, place, or thing to one aspect or part. Note that in traditional grammar, absolutes (or nominative absolutes) are often more narrowly defined as noun phrases...combined with participles. The term absolute (borrowed from Latin grammar) is rarely used by contemporary linguists. Examples and Observations The absolute phrase that adds a focusing detail is especially common in fiction writing, much more common than in expository writing... In the following passages, all from works of fiction, some have a participle as the post-noun modifier...; however, youll also see some with noun phrases, others with prepositional phrases. There was no bus in sight and Julian, his hands still jammed in his pockets and his head thrust forward, scowled down the empty street. (Flannery OConnor, Everything That Rises Must Converge)Silently they ambled down Tenth Street until they reached a stone bench that jutted from the sidewalk near the curb. They stopped there and sat down, their backs to the eyes of the two men in white smocks who were watching them. (Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon)The man stood laughing, his weapons at his hips. (Stephen Crane, The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky)To his right the valley continued in its sleepy beauty, mute and understated, its wildest autumn colors blunted by the distance, placid as water color by an artist who mixed all his colors with brown. (Joyce Carol Oates, The Secret Marriage) A second style of absolute phrase, rather than focusing on a detail, explains a cause or condition: Our car having developed engine trouble, we stopped for the night at a roadside rest area. We decided to have our picnic, the weather being warm and clear. The first example could be rewritten as a because- or when- clause: When our car developed engine trouble, we stopped... or Because our car developed engine trouble, we stopped... The absolute allows the writer to include the information without the explicitness of the complete clause; the absolute, then, can be thought of as containing both meanings, both when and because. The absolute about the weather in the second example suggests an attendant condition rather than a cause. (Martha Kolln, Rhetorical Grammar: Grammatical Choices, Rhetorical Effects, 5th ed. Pearson, 2007) Nominative Absolutes Nominative absolutes are related to nonfinite verb phrases... They consist of a subject noun phrase followed by some part of the predicate: either a participle form of the main verb or a complement or modifier of the main verb. . . . [C]omplements and modifiers may take almost any form...Absolutes have traditionally been called nominative because the absolute construction begins with a noun phrase as its headword. Nevertheless, they function adverbially as sentence modifiers. Some [absolutes] explain reasons or conditions for the action described in the main clause; others... describe the manner in which the action of the main clause is performed. (Thomas P. Klammer, Muriel R. Schulz, and Angela Della Volpe, Analyzing English Grammar, 5th ed. Longman, 2007) More Examples of Absolute Phrases Roy circles the bases like a Mississippi steamboat, lights lit, flags fluttering, whistle banging, coming round the bend. (Bernard Malamud, The Natural, 1952)Harry froze, his cut finger slipping on the jagged edge of the mirror again. (J.K. Rowling,  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Scholastic, 2007)Bolenciecwcz was staring at the floor now, trying to think, his great brow furrowed, his huge hands rubbing together, his face red. (James Thurber, University Days)The spider skins lie on their sides, translucent and ragged, their legs drying in knots. (Annie Dillard, Holy the Firm, 1977)His bare legs cooled by sprinklers, his bare feet on the feathery and succulent grass, and his mobile phone in his hand (he was awaiting Lionels summons), Des took a turn round the grounds. (Martin Amis, Lionel Asbo: State of England. Alfred A. Knopf, 2012)When Johnson Meechum came up the three steps of his purple double-wide trailer and opened the front door, his wife, Mabel, was waiting for him, her thin hands clenched on her hips, her tinted hair standing from her scalp in a tiny blue cloud. (Harry Crews, Celebration. Simon Schuster, 1998) Six boys came over the hill half an hour early that afternoon, running hard, their heads down, their forearms working, their breath whistling. (John Steinbeck, The Red Pony)Whenever you heard distant music somewhere in the town, maybe so faint you thought you imagined it, so thin you blamed the whistling of the streetcar wires, then you could track the sound down and find Caleb straddling his little velocipede, speechless with joy, his appleseed eyes dancing. (Anne Tyler, Searching for Caleb. Alfred A. Knopf, 1975)Still he came on,  shoulders hunched, face twisted, wringing his hands, looking more like an old woman at a wake than an infantry combat soldier. (James Jones,  The Thin Red Line, 1962)A tall man, his shotgun slung behind his back with a length of plow line, dismounted and dropped his reins and crossed the little way to the cedar bolt. (Howard Bahr, The Year of Jubilo: A Novel of the Civil War. Picador, 2001)The men sit on the edge of the pens, the big white and silver fish between their knees, ripping with knives and tearing with hands, heaving the disemboweled bodies into a central basket. (William G. Wing, Christmas Comes First on the Banks) Hundreds and hundreds of frogs were sitting down that pipe, and they were all honking, all of them, not in unison but constantly, their little throats going, their mouths open, their eyes staring up with curiosity at Karel and Frances and their large human shadows. (Margaret Drabble, The Realms of Gold, 1975)The accused man, Kabuo Miyamoto, sat proudly upright with a rigid grace, his palms placed softly on the defendants table - the posture of a man who has detached himself insofar as this is possible at his own trial. (David Guterson, Snow Falling on Cedars, 1994)The superintendent, his head on his chest, was slowly poking the ground with his stick. (George Orwell, A Hanging, 1931)You can get a fair sense of the perils of an elevator shaft by watching an elevator rush up and down one, its counterweight flying by, like the blade on a guillotine. (Nick Paumgarten, Up and Then Down. The New Yorker, April 21, 2008)Two middle-aged men with jogging disease lumber past me, their faces pur ple, their bellies slopping, their running shoes huge and costly. (Joe Bennett, Mustnt Grumble. Simon Schuster, 2006) At a right angle to the school was the back of the church, its bricks painted the color of dried blood. (Pete Hamill, A Drinking Life, 1994)Ross sat on the edge of a chair several feet away from the table, leaning forward, the fingers of his left hand spread upon his chest, his right hand holding a white knitting needle which he used for a pointer. (James Thurber, The Years With Ross, 1958)One by one, down the hill come the mothers of the neighborhood, their kids running beside them. (Roger Rosenblatt, Making Toast. The New Yorker, December 15, 2008)I could see, even in the mist, Spurn Head stretching out ahead of me in the gloom, its spine covered in marram grass and furze, its shingle flanks speared with the rotting spars of failed breakwaters. (Will Self, A Real Cliff Hanger. The Independent, August. 30, 2008)Down the long concourse they came unsteadily, Enid favouring her damaged hip, Alfred paddling at the air with loose-hinged hands and slapping the airport carpeting with poorl y controlled feet, both of them carrying Nordic Pleasurelines shoulder bags and concentrating on the floor in front of them, measuring out the hazardous distance three paces at a time. (Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections. Farrar Straus Giroux, 2001) Source Macmillan Teach Yourself Grammar and Style in Twenty Four Hours, 2000.

The Scarlet Letter6 essays

The Scarlet Letter6 essays Multiple meanings and discussion providing insight into the letter The letter A was to be worn as a punishment, to be worn in shame, to be worn as adulteress. This may not have been clearly and directly stated to the reader, but throughout reading the book, you gather possible hidden meanings of Hesters scarlet letter. Although the sense of the meaning adulteress is constant, the metaphoric, emotional, and moralistic meanings of the scarlet letter vary from positive to negative interpretations throughout the novel The Scarlet Letter. The Puritan community was a dark, strict society, feeling indifferent to the humanity of the woman standing before them on the scaffold, with her infant daughter against her chest. The beautifully embroidered letter does not glow in the eyes of the people. The letter shapes the way they look at Hester and the way they treat her. They isolate Hester not only socially but also through her location, which ultimately causes her own emotional isolation. It had the effect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity and inclosing her in a sphere by herself. (40) However, the peoples attitude does change. It goes through various roller-coasters of positive and negative meanings throughout the course of the novel. The symbolism of the scarlet letter is expanded in Chapter Five, Hester at Her Needle. Whereas at first it represented Hester's adultery and also her needlework skills, it now takes on more meanings. The letter begins to represent the hidden shame of the community. This shame is shown through Hesters reactions around the community, like when she almost covers up the letter with her hand. Preachers will stop in the street and give sermons when they see Hester. The letter therefore becomes an example of crime and acts as a deterrent for others in the community. Throughout the beginning chapters Hester is is...

Hear, Hear!

Hear, Hear! Hear, Hear! Hear, Hear! By Maeve Maddox Dave Moloney has asked for a post on the pernicious misuse of the term hear hear as†¦Here here. Ive tried to find examples of the misspelling here, here on the web, but without much success. I did find a CD with the title Here, Here, and Here. If youve ever watched a session of the House of Commons on television, youll have heard shouts of Hear, hear! These are shouts of approval. The shouters are expressing agreement with whatever a speaker has said. For example, the Daily Mail (Online) describes the response to a remark by David Cameron that the previous administration had broken the nations covenant with [the British] armed forces: The moment he spoke this line the hall erupted in defiant shouts of hear hear and, from one man near me, bloody right. The phrase is a contraction of Hear him, Hear him, meaning listen to what the mans saying. According to some commentators, it is sometimes used ironically. Caitlyn Jenner, you are a normal woman right now, today. You dont need a man to make you a woman. Hear, hear! We reached out to Thomas, who contacted us about the Facebook meme, to tell him it was a fake. He said it just goes to show, â€Å"Everything you read on Facebook isn’t the gospel truth written in stone by Moses. You need to check your sources.† Hear, hear! Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Comparative Forms of Adjectives75 Idioms and Expressions That Include â€Å"Break†10 Tips to Improve Your Writing Skills

Linear algebra Research Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Linear algebra - Research Proposal Example ed perception that linear algebra is just about lines and vectors, of X’s and Y’s or variables and constants (Larson, Kanold & Stiff 277) that are so far away from the layman’s life. In addition, the internet is widely used now by most entrepreneurs who are the focus of this study who would greatly benefit in knowing how their businesses will succeed in a number of months or years. These projections will not only catch a large number of entrepreneurs’ attention but will also let them appreciate the faculty of this study, seeing the beauty of algebra in the solution of such disciplines as economics as well as engineering, physics and geometry (Ellis & Gullick 67). Background: I will conduct my study through online and face to face interviews with at least twenty entrepreneurs. I will avail of copies of their monthly online sales, which if the entrepreneur would not be willing to give could be in terms of the nearest approximate figures. This information will then be used as data for projecting sales in the future using graphs as well as tables and sets of ordered pairs as these are important methods of communication in business, science and social studies (Baley & Holstege 101). Scope: I will have ten face to face interviews and ten online interviews to complete the desired number of samples. I will particularly ask questions about their capital, the date of the start of business, their monthly income and their projection of sales in six months, one year and two years. I will also ask about their basis for these projections to be compared to a more scientific process with the use of linear algebra. Theoretical Framework: I will be doing the study in the context of solutions to equalities, involving two variables (Larson et al. 277) which will be time and sales. Mathematical modeling will also be used in an accurate and simple manner for it to yield meaningful answers and to be usable not only by those who specialize in numbers and graphs but also by

Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut - Essay Example It appears that in a world where no superficial handicaps were added, Hazel would have had less-than-average intelligence, which was the reference point for other people’s abilities in the current world. She cannot think about things for long periods of time and seems to lack any ambitions concerning her future; therefore, she is not a threat to the powers that be. They do not have to worry about her because her mental abilities would not be a potential threat to the status quo as seen through her assertions. On the bottom paragraph of page 1, Hazel talks about how envious she is of her husband who gets to hear all this different sounds, and even suggests that she would have used chimes on Sunday to respect religion. Such sentiments would only come from a person whose mental abilities are highly wanting; she even confessed that she has no idea what normal means. George is highly burdened by his handicaps because they cause severe exhaustion and unusual vigilance on his part; if he lets go of these handicaps or even lightens the load, he might face the possibility of imprisonment or huge monetary fines. In an effort to make everyone mentally equal, the authorities have had to impose undue burden on the physical aspects of average and above average intelligent people. George has to carry the handicaps everywhere he goes even when he wants to sleep, yet people like Hazel bear no such burden. In essence, true equality has not been achieved because one segment of society; that is, the majority, has to live life with heavy loads, constant surveillance and intrusive noises while another section does not. The author describes Harrison as something akin to the god â€Å"Thor†; he is physical fit, tall and quite handsome; one can deduce this from the excess handicaps placed on him as well as the other artificial deformities that disguise his physical

What was the most valuable thing that you learned in BUS656 this term Essay

What was the most valuable thing that you learned in BUS656 this term - Essay Example This concept provides numerous ways to create market segments that can be used to leverage business potential. The highlighted point is that of defensible market segments, which would actually help in capturing market share for a large as well as small business. The defensible market segments not only create business but also sideline competition from others in the industry. Creation of defensible market segments allows a particular business to stay on the top until competitors surpass the defensible segments with better products and/or customers’ needs change. Defensible segments can be of value with the positioning strategy of the business, especially in weak market segments. Understanding customers’ buying behavior and needs help in creating defensible segments. In addition, customer behavior in terms of frequency of purchase, attitude towards a particular product and a new product of the same brand can be advantageous to creation of defensible market strategy. Positioning strategy of products aimed at defensible segments provides opportunity to increase market share of new products. Greater product differentiation and an established brand automatically increase purchase size of customers, but cannot create defensible segments. This module highlighted the significance of defensible segments and acquiring market share as well as identifying market segments that can be used to find a slot for a particular product. Understanding markets will also help in designing products to meet the market/customer demands, which may be used for positioning the products. Once the market and customer needs are identified, it becomes simpler to find positioning strategies accordingly. It is difficult to capture greater market share of products that create defensible segments. Here, a strong positioning strategy would be of great value for the business. Positioning strategy helps in putting