My Experience With A Patient With Chest Pain - 1542 Words

The aim of this ten minute reflection is to show my experience of how my mentor and I used the ABCDE approach when dealing with a patient with chest pain. The concept of this ten minute reflection is to outline the areas that I can develop on for my future placements. This ten minute reflection will show my emotional state and my knowledge that I applied in this situation. It will outline my learning and development when in my placement area and help me to decide if a better outcome could have been achieved if I performed differently. From my learning to date, by completing this ten minute reflection it has enabled me to critically analyse my own practice and compare this to what I would of done now upon completion of this module. This reflection has highlighted how much my skills, knowledge and performance has improved from last year. In accordance of the NMC (2008) a pseudonyms will be used in order to protect the patients’ identity. No1. The issue that I will be reflecting on throughout this template will be based upon following the ABCDE assessment when assessing the critically ill or deteriorating patients. This patient will be called Peter for the purpose of this reflection. No2. This reflection will be based on a personal experience when a 68 year old male called Peter was admitted onto the ward with chest pain. Originally this patient had assumed that he was suffering from heartburn. Peter’s wife had given him gaviscon. My mentor and I went to see theShow MoreRelatedEvaluation Of An Integrated Care Pathway1379 Words   |  6 Pagescare, placed within a set timeline, to aid a patient with a specific condition or set of symptoms to move progressively through a clinical experience to positive outcomes, It is one of the main tools used to manage the quality in healthcare concerning the standardisation of care processes and therefore promotes organised and efficient patient care based on evidence based practice. (British Medical Journal, 1998). In this essay I aim to justify a patient pathway of care with reference to national andRead MoreThe Emergency Room With Chest Pain832 Words   |  4 Pagesemergency room with chest pain. Several nurses rush to g et her vitals, blood samples to send to the lab, and obtain an EKG. While performing an assessment on Mrs. Smith, the nurse inquires about the amount of time she has been feeling this way. Mrs. Smith replies My sister passed away 2 weeks ago and I have been having this chest pain ever since. After the physician reviews over all of Mrs. Smith s lab and radiology test results, he informs her that she is not having chest pain from a heart attackRead MoreAn Interesting Case I Attended To Involved An Elderly Man1474 Words   |  6 Pagesand sweaty, which is the typical appearance of a cardiac patient. He presented with chest pain that he gave a pain score of 8/10, and which worsened upon inspiration. He also presented with vomiting and shortness of breath. Electrocardiogram (ECG) indicated a ST Elevation Myocardial Infarction (STEMI). Paramedic believes it was an anterior infarct with elevation in V2, V3, V4 leads and reciprocal depression in Leads II, III and aVF. The patient had sev eral risk factors for heart disease such as highRead MoreEssay on Pneumothorax1322 Words   |  6 Pagesof her right lung is collapsed and is not taking part in gas exchange 4. The physician needs to insert a chest tube. What are your responsibilities as the nurse? Preinsertion: †¢ Support patient with comfort and emotional needs – see next question for pain med thoughts †¢ Educate the client and any family that her lung collapsed and that the doctor is going to put a tube in her chest to get rid of the air and help her breath on her own again. 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Baccalaureate degree program encompasses all these in its core curriculumRead Mo reEvaluation Of The Standardized Patient Experience900 Words   |  4 PagesReflective Evaluation The standardized patient experience was useful and interesting for me because I became more confident and active during nursing practice after that practice exam. This practical exam helped me recall my professional experience from year 2012 and 2013 when I worked as a nurse in my country. After that practice exam, I knew how staff nurses deal and communicate with patients from a different culture and spoke different language. My specialization is nursing education, but I wanted

Emily Dickson Life - 1088 Words

Emily Dickinson Life’s Emily Dickinson was an American writer that changed the way people view poetry, females’ authors, and symbolism. Her work are celebrated the world over for their simplicity, beauty, and imagery. Also her life is very well-known and a topic of interest for millions of people around the world. Emily Dickinson was a very influential poet and will be remembered in history forever. Dickinsons poetic accomplishment was known from the moment her first volume appeared in 1890, but never has she loved more approval than she does today. As soon as Thomas H. ended her complete body of 1,775 poems available in his 1955 variorum edition, The Poems of Emily Dickinson, concern from all quarters soared. Readers instantly discovered a poet of colossal depth and stylistic convolution whose work eludes categorization. For example, though she frequently employs the common epic poem meter associated with hymnody, her poetry is in no way inhibited by that form; rather she performs like a jazz artist who uses rhythm and meter to modernize readers perceptions of those structures. Her fierce insubordination of literary and social authority has long appealed to feminist critics, who constantly place Dickinson in the company of such major writers as , Elizabeth Browning, Sylvia Plath, and Adrienne Rich. Dickinson was born 10 December 1830, in Amherst, Massachusetts, where she lived up to her death from Brights disease on 15 May 1886. There she consumed most of herShow MoreRelatedPoem Analysis : I m Nobody ! Who Are You894 Words   |  4 PagesNobody! Who are you?† a poem by Emily Dickinson explains that in life it is best to be a humble person than a proud person who need spend their life maintaining their status in front of others. The central focus of this poem is just being humble and being yourselves. By reading her poem she is likely talking about herself also it can inferred she is reclusive and it is supported by Betsy Erkkila in her article discussing about Emily Dickinson, â€Å"Spent her entire life in the household of her parentsRead MoreAnalysis Of John Donne, Emily Dicks, And Michael Obi With The Idea Of Believing And Follow God1175 Words   |  5 Pages In this paper I will argue about the struggles John Donne, Emily Dicks, and Michael Obi with the idea of bel ieving and follow God. The speaker in Holy Sonnet 14 struggles with not deserving to have a relationship with God. Emily Dickson fights with if there is an afterlife and if it is real (Poem 501). Michael Obi struggles with whole ideas of religion and looking to the past since he is all about the looking forward (Death Men’s Path). 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Emily Dickinson was a woman who made her Christian faith the main focus of her work especially when it came to her poems that had all been written on death. In christianity it is believed that once you die you either go to Heaven or Hell based on how you been living your life. Dickson’s views had remained pretty consistent whenRead More`` Because I Could Not Stop For Death ``880 Words   |  4 PagesDeath is an aspect of life that everyone becomes acquainted with sooner or later. The poem, â€Å"Because I Could Not Stop for Death,† by Emily Dickinson, is seen as a reflection of the passing of time in one s life while living. No one knows when it is their time to die, and we live everyday as if tomorrow it promised. Dickinson is saying that since we as humans tend to live on the expectation for tomo rrow, we don t think about the end of our life or when it will be. That time will stand still whenRead MoreAn Analysis of The Soul selects her own Society884 Words   |  4 PagesEmily Dickinson’s â€Å"The Soul Selects her Own Society† presents herself as absolute and her rights as unchallengeable. The poem puts forward the idea of â€Å"friendship or love† which means choosing a significant person and excluding other people. Dickinson reveals that she was shutting people from her life, but because it had been so long, they are no longer interested in taking part of her life. Dickinson’s actions imply that the ability to create and construct a world for oneself, such as choosing yourRead MoreEmily Dickinson s Death Of Life873 Words   |  4 Pages Known for her ability to succinctly pen elegant and thought provoking poems on a wide range of topics: from self reliance to the turmoils of war, Emily Dickinson remains a pillar of talent and inspiration to this day. While most, if not all, poets reveal elements of themselves within their works Dickinson seems to lay herself bare before her readers; leaving very little left to the imagination. Dickinson achieves this by combining symbolism, allegory and often nimble punctuation within her stanzasRead MoreI Heard A Fly Buzz When I Died Essay1330 Words   |  6 PagesEmily Dickinson s â€Å"I heard a fly buzz when I died† is an elegy written from the perspective of the speaker who is already dead and who is reflecting back on the last moments of her life and the moment of her death. The speaker tells the story of his/her own deathbed scene: describing the final experiences and sensations before the exact moment of death. The poem uses specific language, descriptive visual an d aural imagery, and other poetic devices to convey the confusion and frustration that speakerRead MoreEssay On Emily Dickinson1348 Words   |  6 PagesEmily Dickinson The beloved poet, Emily Dickinson lived as a recluse to become the greatest American woman poet of the 19th century. Even in such peculiar circumstances, her works remain alive as she unites people through her talent. Furthermore, her poems were not recognized until after her death, her art is now praised with its impact on society. She intrigues readers with prominent themes of life and death and its comparison to living and nonliving aspects. Dickinson’s unique background, interestingRead MoreEmily Dickinsons Poetry Analysis1282 Words   |  6 Pagesimaging big dreams, big things, but never finding anything in this monotonous reality. Surrounded by same objects, people, big roads, big decisions, choices. We, the people-we are unique, we are a mosaic with rare, colorful pieces. The way we live the life, enjoy the world, see the things, makes us who we are. In dark or light, confident or not, walking or halting. Under the sun, warm and relieved; under the cold moon, mysterio us sky, thinking in sadness. Often in reality, rarely in our mind. Every time

The Solitary Reaper Free Essays

It has become a truism in recent years that the Romantic poets were preoccupied with the fundamentals of their own poetic talents. Clearly, a view of poetry which places so much emphasis on the poet not as an interpreter, nor as a mirror, but as a creator of reality, must impose a severe self-consciousness on the individual artist, and it is not surprising that running through Romantic poetry there is a sense of awe, sometimes precipitated into uncertainty at the immense power of the imagination.Wordsworth’s â€Å"The Solitary Reaper,† unlike his â€Å"Immortality ode,† or Shelley’s â€Å"Ode to the West Wind,† is not normally a poem which we associate with this turbulent introspection, nevertheless it has become increasingly apparent to admirers of Wordsworth’s poetry that many of his short lyrics are self-reflective even when they seem least to be so. We will write a custom essay sample on The Solitary Reaper or any similar topic only for you Order Now â€Å"The Solitary Reaper,† I believe, provides us with a good instance of what we frequently feel to be true of his shorter poems, which is, that beneath the lyric grace there is a quite startling intensity of imaginative commitment.Wordsworth’s imagination always transfigures what it touches, and in one important sense this particular poem is only marginally concerned with what appear to be its principal subjects; the reaper and her song. I want to look at the poem in some detail, for despite its apparent plainness I believe it to be a work in which Wordsworth meditates with considerable subtlety on the status of the creative act, and its importance as a 92 GEOFFREY J. FINCH basic human endeavour.A s my discussion of the poem is, as I have said, fairly detailed, I think I ought to reproduce the entire text first of a l l : The Solitary Reaper B e h o l d her, single i n the field, Yon solitary Highland Lass! R e a p i n g a n d s i n g i n g b y herself; Stop here, or gently pass! A l o n e she cuts a n d binds the g r a i n , A n d sings a m e l a n c h o l y s t r a i n ; 0 l i s t e n ! f o r the V a l e profound Is o v e r f l o w i n g w i t h the sound.N o N i g h t i n g a l e did ever chaunt M o r e welcome notes to w e a r y bands Of t r a v e l l e r s i n some shady haunt, A m o n g A r a b i a n sands: A voice so t h r i l l i n g ne’er w a s heard I n spring-time f r o m the Cuckoo-bird, B r e a k i n g the silence of the seas A m o n g the farthest Hebrides. W i l l no one t e l l me w h a t she sings? P e r h a p s the p l a i n t i v e numbers flow F o r old, unhappy, far-off things, A n d battles l o n g ago: O r is it some m o r e h u m b l e lay, F a m i l i a r m a t t e r of to-day?Some n a t u r a l sorrow, loss, or pain, T h a t has been, a n d m a y be a g a i n ? W h a t e ‘ e r the theme, the M a i d e n s a n g A s i f h e r song could have no e n d i n g ; 1 s a w h e r s i n g i n g at h e r w o r k , A n d o’er the sickle b e n d i n g ; — I listened, motionless a n d s t i l l ; A n d , as I mounted u p the h i l l , T h e m u s i c i n m y heart I bore, L o n g after it w a s h e a r d no more. 1 Much of the power of this very haunting poem comes from a series of ironies or paradoxes which Wordsworth allows to emerge implicitly through the imagery and structure of the verse.A s G. Ingli James has remarked, we do not normally associate the use of irony or paradox with Wordsworth’s â€Å"The Solitary Reaper,† but there seems to be no other way of describing the enigmatic quality of the poem. The first, and most obvious point, which we notice in reading it, is that for the first three stanzas the pretence is made that the incident is occurring in the present, 2 WORDSWORTH’S SOLITARY SONG 93 whereas in the fourth stanza the whole event is distanced by use of the past tense. More important than this, however, is the paradoxical nature of the ong, which in substance is sad, but which does not produce sadness in the poet. Then again, the song is † t h r i l l i n g , † it profoundly moves Wordsworth, but nevertheless its final effect is not to stimulate, but to set the emotions at rest. The song itself is a human entity, made as a work of art is made, but yet Wordsworth sees it as profoundly natural, as the song of a bird is natural. Yet again, the song is a product of the girl’s solitariness, but it suggests to the poet the glamour and warmth of â€Å"Arabian sands. Finally, although the title is â€Å"The Solitary Reaper,† we learn practic ally nothing of the girl herself. Wordsworth’s mode could be described as meditative, because the poem does not explain, but contemplates. The frequent repetition of words and ideas suggests the way in which Wordsworth’s imagination centres round certain important facets. There are a number of allusions, for instance, to the girl’s activity: stanza one, â€Å"reaping and singing,† â€Å"cuts and binds†; stanza four, â€Å"singing at her work,† † A n d o’er the sickle bending. Wordsworth listens not only † s t i l l † but â€Å"motionless. † The subject matter of the song is qualified, in the first half of the third stanza, by â€Å"old,† â€Å"far-off,† â€Å"long-ago,† and in the second half, by â€Å"sorrow,† â€Å"loss† and † p a i n † (words which if not completely identical nevertheless connote the same idea). The girl herself is â€Å"single,† â€Å"solitary,† â€Å"by herself,† and â€Å"alone,† while the reader is commanded three times in the first stanza:— Behold . . . Stop . . . . listen.Wordsworth’s method has the indirect quality of the meditative mode similar to that attributed by Conrad to Marlow’s tale in The Heart of Darkness: â€Å"The yarns of seamen have a direct simplicity, the whole meaning of which lies within the shell of a cracked nut. But Marlow was not typical (if his propensity to spin yarns be excepted), and to him the meaning of an episode was not inside like a kernel 94 GEOFFREY J. FINCH but outside, enveloping the tale which brought it out only as a glow brings out a haze, in the likeness of one of those misty halos that sometimes are made visible by the spectral illumination of moonshine. I am not suggesting that â€Å"The Solitary Reaper† is mysterious in the sense that Marlow’s tale is, but simply that Wordsworth’s poem is of a kind that does not obviously state what it is about. We learn nothing material about the girl or the song she sings. The poem has an indefinite, imprecise suggestiveness which only on reflection crystallizes into a precise meaning. Wordsworth skilfully manages to arouse the reader’s interest without completely satisfying it.The form of the poem in its use of the present and past tenses balances the vividness of the incident against its fundamental remoteness. If we approach the poem, then, with the idea of getting at the kernel inside, it will elude us. The real meaning lies in the outer shell of Wordsworth’s own response. 3 The poem begins, as Ingli James notes, with an arresting tone, to which the present tense gives a heightened sense of immediacy. But â€Å"Behold† does more than this. It has an archaic biblical ring about it, and as such adds dignity and weight to the command.Together with the measured movement of the rhythm it conveys the feeling of powerful admiration. The girl’s solitariness obviously fascinates Wordsworth, but it is not simply that she endures an existential aloneness that is common to all. The girl has a quality of â€Å"apartness† or distinctiveness that is best conveyed by the word â€Å"single. † The metrical regularity of â€Å"reaping and singing† and â€Å"cuts and binds† suggests the rhythmic style of her labour. She is working to the accompaniment of her song.She clearly is absorbed, but not simply in the ordinary sense of absorption. It is important to notice that she does not stop to sing, for the song is not only an accompaniment to her work but in some way is linked to the hard, unremitting nature of her lot. The girl, the reaping and her song are fused in the poet’s con- WORDSWORTH’S SOLITARY SONG 95 templation. She is not an instance of alienation, but of belonging. Nevertheless, although the singer belongs to her labour and her environment, she is distinguished from it i n the mind of the poet by the sound of her voice. The quality of its music is suggested in the last two lines in which the tone of command in â€Å"Behold† and â€Å"Stop† has softened to an almost reverential appeal, † O listen. † Together with the soft s’s, f’s, and l’s, and the open vowels of â€Å"sound,† â€Å"profound,† it conveys the exceptional sweetness of the song. Thus the stanza moves from a simple contemplation of the girl to what is going to be the essential concern of the poet; the beauty of the song in which the girl and her work are transfigured.She is a type of the artist forging from humble material a sweet sound, a preserver of joy, and it is in this that her â€Å"apartness† lies. She is fundamentally a creator and as such deserves the awe with which Wordsworth contemplates her. The first stanza then, establishes certain paradoxes which the rest of the poem explores. In this way Wordsworth implicitly suggests to the reader the synthesizing quali ty of the aesthetic response, in which opposites are held together. The girl is apparently ordinary yet distinctive; she is alone and yet there is no sense of alienation; her song is sad but it produces pleasure.The imagination of the poet creates a unity out of disparate elements, and the remaining three stanzas of the poem each explore a different aspect of this unity. In the second stanza, Wordsworth’s imagination expands beyond the narrow confines of the Highland setting to suggest a strange exotic quality about the song; â€Å"shady haunt† and â€Å"Among A r a bian sands† do not bring to mind the arid wastes of the real Arabia, but the eastern romance of the kind invoked by Pope in † A n d all Arabia breathes from yonder B o x † (The Rape of the Lock, Canto I, 1. 34). The imagination, as Wordsworth frequently tells us, is not passive in appreciation, but active. The senses â€Å"half create† the object of perception (â€Å"Tintern Abbey,† 11. 106-8), so that it is the 96 GEOFFREY J. FINCH poet as listener who completes the song of the girl. It absorbs him, and becomes a fundamentally aesthetic mode of communication in which the poet joins with the girl, her song and her work. The use of the archaism â€Å"chaunt† is significant here.It is clearly convenient because it rhymes with â€Å"haunt† — and perhaps Wordsworth is also using the secondary meaning of â€Å"haunt† to suggest the haunting quality of the song — but more than this, the archaism avoids the impression of mechanical utterance in â€Å"chant† and with its richer vowel sound indicates the fulness of the music. The nightingale image then conveys the richness of the song and the sense of wonder aroused in the poet. The cuckoo image, however, alters the perspective.The nightingale’s song is restful and welcoming i n a luxuriant sense, and it is interesting here to note the way i n which the run-on lines throw the voice forward on to the significant phra se â€Å"Among Arabian sands,† but the cuckoo’s is † t h r i l l i n g † and dramatic; it takes us from the east to the far north. The rhythm picks up speed and gives to the lines a buoyant, vibrant quality. We associate â€Å"springtime† of course with the awakening of life, with activity and movement, not with rest. This meaning is vividly rendered by the stress on â€Å"Breaking. The voice breaks into the quietness of the line — â€Å"the silence of the seas† — creating ripples, like a stone dropped into a still pond. We have then, in stanza two, a further series of paradoxes which expand the significance of the song; it is both exciting and peaceful, dramatic and yet exquisite; it makes Wordsworth think of the warmth of the east as well as the cold austerity of the north; and finally, and perhaps most interestingly of all, it seems spontaneous, a thing of nature like the songs of the nightingale and cuckoo, but yet it is the product of human endeavour.The reaper’s song, like all important art, represents a form of human distinctiveness in which the marks of conscious effo rt are hidden. F o r the poet it is the apex at which art tips over into nature, providing for both singer and listener a uniquely human naturalness. WORDSWORTH’S SOLITARY SONG 97 Stanza three explores yet another dimension of the girl’s song. Putting it briefly, in the second stanza Wordsworth’s imagination extends in space; in the third it extends in time. The reiteration in â€Å"old,† â€Å"far-off,† and â€Å"long ago† arouses the impression of vast ages of time, receding backwards into the mists of history.The girl’s song suggest to Wordsworth the grand scale of time. Not only this; it would seem that if the song arouses a present joy, it does so paradoxically by perpetuating the memory of past unhappiness. But the most important aspect of Wordsworth’s speculation that the subject matter is something secreted in the history of the girl’s race, is that it implies that the song has the impersonal quality of art. This is interesting because the suggestion in the second half of the stanza touches on a quite different aspect of the song. Wordsworth realised, I think, that an historical subject matter has an intrinsic romantic sweetness about it. † A n d battles long ago† is reminiscent of a child’s storybook. But there is for Wordsworth a powerful hint of real † p a i n † about the song. Whilst the first half then suggests the typical impersonal quality of the traditional ballad, the second half intimates the presence of a strongly felt personal element in the song, which moves the poet to ask whether it concerns the girl’s own life. â€Å"Humble,† â€Å"familiar,† and â€Å"natural,† balance â€Å"old,† â€Å"far-off,† and â€Å"long ago. The rhetorical repetition in â€Å"sorrow,† â€Å"loss,† and â€Å"pain,† in which the focus gets sharper, and the sombre reflection in the last line â€Å"and may be again,† create the powerful impression of a continuing unhappiness. In the third stanza, then, we are presented wit h different perspectives, which, as in the previous stanza, arouse the reader’s awareness of the strangely paradoxical quality of the song. In the first half the girl is dwarfed by the impression of a vast time scale, whilst in the second half the lens is adjusted to a close-up view of the girl’s own situation.The inherently romantic element of the traditional ballad is balanced by the implication of genuine personal grief. The song is both impersonal and personal. 98 GEOFFREY J. FINCH Its beauty represents a triumph, but whilst it preserves joy it also keeps alive the sense of sadness. The song in fact has for the poet a multiple suggestiveness. It no longer seems to be a particular song but to have the larger inclusiveness of art itself. In the final stanza the questions raised by Wordsworth are left, and we return completely to the world of the poet.The poem has been in the nature of a flashback, a few moments of contemplative intensity which leave the poet and the reader with the final enigma as to what the song is really about. The song itself continues as if belonging to an external world — â€Å"as if her song could have no ending† —†¢ but the poet belongs to the world of time. It is true that he bears the music in his heart and in this sense it is timeless. Nevertheless, there is the unmistakable ring of sadness, a kind of â€Å"dying-fall† about the last line † L o n g after it was heard no more. † The final paradox of the poem is that beauty must essentially be remote.Hence I think in Wordsworth’s case his wistful fascination with the solitary girl and her song. In a sense he is writing about his own solitariness, about his feeling of being left out. They belong to a world which the poet can contemplate and even briefly enter, but never finally possess, yet it is only because of this that the song, and consequently Wordsworth’s poem, can achieve the profoundly moving, yet fundamentally impersonal quality of all creative art. The point is made clearer in Wordsworth’s final summation of his attitude as listener: â€Å"I listened, motionless and still. The repetition is not only designed to tell us that he did not move. The effect of the music was not simply to make him keep still, but to set the emotions at rest. The line itself, with its calm stately movement, underlines the sense of tranquillity. In spite of the song’s dramatic quality its final effect is one of serenity. The movement of Wordsworth’s imagination is both towards and away from the object of contemplation. In the second WORDSWORTH’S SOLITARY SONG 99 stanza we have a powerful imaginative identification of the poet with the girl’s song in which the circle of girl, poet and song is closed.In the third stanza, Wordsworth has moved back to the position of bystander: † W i l l no one tell me . . . .† Finally, the poet is content not to know â€Å"Whate’er the theme . . . ,† and it is because he stands both inside and outside the world of the song, and because the poem balances the urge to possess against the need to let be, that Wordsworth’s final aesthetic experience is â€Å"static,† in the sense in which Stephen Daedalus uses the word in Joyce’s A Portrait of The Artist as a Young Man: â€Å"I mean that the tragic emotion is static. Or rather the dramatic emotion is.The feelings excited by improper art are kinetic, desire or loathing. Desire urges us to possess, to go to something; loathing urges us to abandon, to go from something. The arts which excite them, pornographical or didactic, are therefore improper arts. The esthetic emotion (I used the general term) is therefore static. The mind is arrested and raised above desire and loathing. † Wordsworth’s response moves from an appreciation of the song’s quality, to an apprehension of its formal unity as music. It is not only the poet who is † s t i l l . The reaper’s song has the stillness of Eliot’s Chinese jar which â€Å"Moves perpetually in its stillness† (â€Å"Burnt Norton,† V, 6-7). 4 Both Eliot and Joyce are talking about the kind of tranquil intensity — â€Å"the mind is arrested† — which Wordsworth is contemplating and also experiencing in his poem. In the poet’s case however, it is an experience reached not through â€Å"desire and loathing,† but through the contrary movement of the imagination. Paradox is central to this movement because it suggests the substance of Wordsworth’s own aesthetic response.The suspension of activity which he experiences is reached not through lack of emotion but through the very force of it. Aesthetic experience, the poem implies, is at its deepest level the moment when the urge for identity is held against the sense of 100 GEOFFREY J. FINCH separateness. Interestingly, Lawrence was to make the same point about sexual love in its most ecstatic moments, but perhaps Wordsworth’s lines point forward most surely to T. S. Eliot’s â€Å"still point† where â€Å"the dance i s † (â€Å"Burnt Norton,† II, 63), and where for a fragment of life the human condition is transfigured in a vision of unity. In conclusion then, Wordsworth’s â€Å"The Solitary Reaper† is a poem in which the main subject is more than its apparent subject matter. It defines for us the nature and substance of aesthetic enjoyment, but it does so by resisting the urge to define. In contemplating the reaper and her song Wordsworth was clearly drawn in kinship to a fellow creator. He was contemplating not simply another song, but what he considered to be true art, and his poem is surely the best vindication of the human importance of such singing. How to cite The Solitary Reaper, Papers

Pride and Prejudice Research Paper free essay sample

During Jane Austen’s time, in the early 1800’s, women were around to be married off, bear children, and cater to their man. Men were meant to work and instruct their women, and the more money you had, the more respected you were. A woman’s goal in life was to marry higher than her class, and social status was everything. History often has a way of repeating itself, whether that history is bad or good, and Austen was not oblivious to this fact. She created a novel to portray the ways of her time, and to appropriately criticize her era where criticism was due. Austen’s Pride and Prejudice effectively opposes the conservative views of her time through her diction and plot throughout the novel in order to inform readers of the idiocy of acting in a non-progressive manner. The point of view in Pride and Prejudice is free indirect discourse; the story is told through Elizabeth, but not in first person. We will write a custom essay sample on Pride and Prejudice Research Paper or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page As a result, the events in the novel lack much drama or emotion. According to Maria Rosa Menocal on JSTOR, â€Å"The atmosphere is intellectual and cold, and there is not much detail or warmth throughout the novel. The darkness and bland mood that results from Austen’s use of free indirect discourse can be a representation of Austen’s negative opinion towards what is going on in the novel. Austen obviously disagrees with the conservative values of her era, and finds it repulsive to look for marriage or any kind of fulfillment based on money or social class. The actions and events in the novel derive from the opinions, ideas, and attitudes of the characters and their society, which essentially advances the plot of the novel. The emotions in the novel are open for interpretation by the audience, since they are not expressed to readers directly. Austen’s brilliance is revealed in her novel, as she is able to relay such a complex message to her audience while still using such simplistic style. The way Austen starts her novel is almost enough to prove that Pride and Prejudice is in fact a progressive novel. The novel starts out, â€Å"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife† (3). According to The Literature Network website, â€Å"In this statement, Austen has cleverly done three things: she has declared that the main subject of the novel will be courtship and marriage, she has established the humorous tone of the novel by taking a simple subject to elaborate and to speak intelligently of, and she has prepared the reader for a chase in the novel of either a husband in search of a wife, or a women in pursuit of a husband. † Austen’s use of sarcasm and satire in this opening statement already enables readers to know that she is taking an opposing stance on conservatism and the way that things are â€Å"supposed to be. The first line sets the mood and easily defines the author’s purpose for the rest of the novel. Austen is against the emphasis on man in his social environment rather than in his individual conditions, and this is clear to readers from the beginning just by reading the very first sentence. Although the vast majority of the cha racters in the novel have a conservative view on life, Austen’s indirect criticism of these characters actually proves that she does not agree with them, therefore making her literary work progressive. Elizabeth’s mother, Mrs. Bennet can arguably be considered one of the most conservative characters in the novel. At the beginning of the novel, Mrs. Bennet excitedly reports to her husband, â€Å"A single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls! † (3). At this point in the novel, Mrs. Bennet knows absolutely nothing about this man that she is more than willing to let one of her daughters go off with, other than his income and the existence of his wealth; yet she is still certain that it is a fantastic idea for one of her daughters to end up with him. It is extremely relevant that Mrs. Bennet pays no mind to which daughter should be with him- it simply does not matter to her. She takes no time to think of which daughter may like him best or if any of them will even like him at all. She is primarily concerned with the surface level issues of her society, and the importance of marrying well in society without regard to the compatibility of the two people. All that matters to Mrs. Bennet is social ranking, wealth, and marriage. While these are all extreme conservative views, Austen is actually mocking Mrs. Bennet with the exaggerative manner in which she has Mrs. Bennet go about life. Austen describes Mrs. Bennet as â€Å"a woman of mean understanding, little information, and uncertain temper. When she was discontented she fancies herself nervous. The business of her life was to get her daughters married; its solace was visiting and news† (4). A woman of â€Å"little information† can only mean a woman without much of a brain or smarts. The fact that Austen would describe a character with such conservative views as an ignorant being proves that Austen’s goal of Pride and Prejudice was to stray away from conservative teachings and move forward in a progressive manner. The idea of marrying for love versus money majorly comes into play throughout this novel. It can definitely be argued that this is indeed a conservative novel because almost everyone’s intentions throughout the story are to marry for convenience, wealth, and social status. However, it can also be argued that Austen’s exact opinions and viewpoints are expressed through Elizabeth’s actions and beliefs. A well-known and respected literary critic of Austen, Claudia L. Johnson, explains, â€Å"In all of Austen’s novels, but especially Pride and Prejudice, pursuing happiness is the business of life† (349). Elizabeth is one of the few characters to actually realize that she does not want a life of convenience or wealth- she just wants to be happy. This stance is very different from most of the opinions of those around her during her time period. In a Jane Austen magazine, author Laura Boyle states in her article, â€Å"In the first volume, Darcy is â€Å"bewitched† by Elizabeth Bennet, but in the second he loses her. The third volume starts with his coming to a mature love for her and he wins his bride. Austen does not show us romantic tenderness in Pride and Prejudice from Elizabeth for much of the novel. † The action of Mr. Darcy â€Å"losing† Elizabeth is a very non-conservative one. In an ideal conservative situation, a man of wealth would never, under any circumstance, lose any woman, and especially one that he is actually interested in. By the end of the novel, Elizabeth does indeed marry Mr. Darcy for nothing other than love, and complete happiness has been achieved through true love and feelings, which is a very progressive notion. Essayist Diana Francis of Ball State University reflects about the ending of Pride and Prejudice, â€Å"Austen means to critique the shallow definition of a suitable marriage, one in which love or even compatibility plays no part, and makes the statement that wealth certainly does not necessarily equate to manners, intelligence, or class. † Before Elizabeth really knew Mr. Darcy or had any feelings for him, she denied his marriage proposal and wanted no part of it. It was not until she truly wanted to be with him and developed deep feelings for him that the marriage worked out and was able to take place. The fact that Austen would not let the most sensible character of the novel, Elizabeth, marry until she wanted to shows the audience where she stands on marriages occurring for anything other than love, which is a very progressive take on the matter. Other types of marriage, such as marriages out of convenience or sole sexual attraction are also addressed in the novel. Although the audience knows almost nothing of how Mr. and Mrs. Bennet got together, it can be inferred by their conversations at the beginning of the novel that their marriage was similar to the relationship between Lydia and Wickham. Mr. Bennet married a woman that he found sexually attractive while overlooking the fact that she was just a plain stupid woman. At the beginning of the novel, Mr. Bennet says, â€Å"You and the girls may go, or you may send them by themselves, which perhaps will still be better, for as you are as handsome as any of them, Mr. Bingley might like you best of the party† (3). The only compliment that Mr. Bennet ever really gives his wife is about her looks, which is a very superficial and surface level thing. He has nothing other than that to really explain why he married her or why he is still with her. She provides him with satisfaction of his sexual needs, and he provides her with stability; alas, a marriage of convenience and sexual attraction. Paula Cohen says in her scholarly journal, â€Å"Although Austen gently parodies the young girls awkward entree into her role, she clearly supports, in this novel, the conventional initiation process as proper to female development. Indeed, the brunt of the novels satire is directed at those who, as poor role models, would not seek either wittingly or unwittingly to thwart her progress or pervert it to some other end than that of being pleasing and useful to the man whom she will eventually marry. Austen is very much against women making their life goal to get married and please a man. She mocks and indirectly criticizes every female character in the novel that falls under this category, thus revealing her opinion on the subject matter. Mrs. Bennet’s favoritism towards Lydia, the most out of control and foolish of the sisters, and her comments on how she was once as â€Å"full of life† as Lydia reveals the similarities between them. Mr. Bennet’s comment on Wickham being his favorite son-in-law is also significant in the sense that similarities can be revealed about them as well. Mr. Bennet’s self-realization near the end of the novel when he discovers that his lack of attention towards his family had led them to be the people that they had turned into came too late to change anything. Overturning the conservative values of her time, Austen shows that the man will not always â€Å"save† the woman- men can also do wrong and portray a weak character, and are just as likely to mess up as a woman. It is no coincidence that the two characters presumed to be two of the dumbest characters in the novel would end up together. It is also rather interesting and no coincidence either that one of the two protagonist characters of the story, Mr. Darcy, was inspired by a man that Austen knew in real life. According to the New York Times, Ben Sisario reports, â€Å"A portrait of the man believed to have inspired the character of Mr. Darcy in Jane Austen’s â€Å"Pride and Prejudice† is going on sale†¦ Thomas Lefroy†¦ born in Ireland, met Austen in 1796, when both were in their early 20s. They had a flirtation, and Lefroy, whose family was poor†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Although this man that Austen met came from no wealth, he was still the inspiration for the character with the most sense and progressive views in the novel, therefore revealing to the audience that Austen had no regards for wealth or superficial values in a relationship, thus enabling her to go against the conservative views of her time yet again. Because Elizabeth is so sharp and such an observer of other people, she recognizes her mothers silliness and vows to never have the same life or â€Å"love† as her parents. This stubbornness of Elizabeth’s, however, is paradoxically a trap in itself; by going solely by her own observations and always against and refusing the opinions of others, Elizabeth threatens her future life and love with Mr. Darcy. Critics in favor of a â€Å"conservative† Austen can easily say that this particular point of the plot of the novel represents an opposing view to progressivism, since when a woman finally speaks up and makes her own decisions, she messes up her life and ruins her own happiness. Another well-known and respected literary critic, Marilyn Butler, believes, â€Å"The more one examines the novel the more difficult it becomes to read into it authorial approval of the element in Elizabeth which is rebellious† (321). While this may seem true on the surface, there is a deeper message here to read into. Although Austen was writing her novel to attack conservatism, she was still well aware that most likely no change would come from her writings or beliefs. Her time period was not really prone to taking a progressive view on anything, and making any kind of a step in the direction towards a freer and non-conservative life style would probably not happen. Austen portrays this realization through the slight surrender of Elizabeth when she accepts Mr. Darcy’s marriage proposal. However, this was not a full surrender, as Elizabeth only accepted his proposal because she truly loved him and wanted to be married to him. The act itself of Elizabeth and Mr.