Differentiate between the humanities and other modes of human and Essay

Differentiate between the humanities and other modes of human and expression - Essay Example The paper will focus on defining the term humanities, distinguish it from the modes of human inquiry and expression and explain the way Art, Music, Architecture, Philosophy, and Literature are reflecting the current development in politics, socioeconomics and technology. Science is entirely separated and segregated into two classes, which include Social science and natural science, but humanities are separate from present day science since it associates with non-scientific approaches in human mode of inquiry (Lyn, 1997). Therefore, humanities are not focused on establishing validated theories and scientific laws; instead, humanities focus on interpretation of the historic and cultural context of art. It also explores the analysis of written text and validation through a comparison with other sources, which relate to presented material from other disciplines such as philosophy, history and sociology. On the other hand, Art, Music, Architecture, Philosophy and Literature have depicted the contemporary development in politics, socioeconomics and technology, for instance, Art has been applied in the process of expressing the social and economic factors. In fact, an exemplary example, relates to a famous artist, Donatello, who made humanistic expressions during the Medieval Times and his sculptures were admired, since he produced marble, bronze and wood. His work was in Gothic style, and this evolved into naturalism, which is known from the classical antiquity. In relation to this, the artists in the present day are using paintings and sculptures to display expressions of human enquiry, in fact, there are different kinds of art that are being enjoyed by people in different museums in the worldwide. Music has been used for worshiping, as a technique of worshiping in religion, and as a way of sending messages. In fact, during the slavery period, the lyrics of slave songs were used to express the need for freedom, and relaying messages to the other slaves. For example, slaves would use music to plan an escape, whereby the hymns offered substantial information like the meeting venue and departure time. Technology has been reflected through Architecture, where there are modern designs being developed through technology. For example, the architects are now using software such as Auto card to make designs. On the other hand, technology is enabling the exploration of arts into distinct past, through deployment of various pieces of art galleries, hence inhabiting them on the web pages; thus, art is being incorporated in art studio around the world, hence offering competition to the museums. Music also has also been integrated with technology leading to a decrease in the use of traditional instruments like trombone, flute and an organ, which were used for composing. In fact, the artists and producers are experiencing challenges of privacy since music can now be easily downloaded without charges from the internet. Literature has also depicted an element of philosophy, whereby different books has been written by various authors aiming to extend knowledge regarding a theory, and his has become vital sources of knowledge. For example, different scholars in the present world are use literature to review ideas from different books in order to provide evidence to support their notions. On the other hand, literature has been integrated w

Diversity Management at BRIGGS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Diversity Management at BRIGGS - Essay Example This HRM policy will be based on the principles of equality and diversity at the workplace. It should also be noticed that the particular characteristics of the firm’s workforce have to be taken into account when designing and implementing the specific strategy. In accordance with the Public Employment Office of New South Wales Government â€Å"The concept of diversity is based on individual acceptance and respect. It is an understanding that individuals are unique and different. Diversity includes race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, culture, age, physical ability and religious, political and other beliefs† [1]. Moreover, it is made clear that a cultural diversity workplace could lead to the improvement of the firm’s performance or the increase of productivity on a national basis. In this context, it is supported that â€Å"a culturally diverse workplace promotes equity and enhances staff skills and agency success; agencies working with diversity have identified the significant benefits to of having a culturally diverse workplace† [1]. From a different point of view, in accordance with a definition given by the Civil Service (Cabinet Office) in UK, a proper diversity policy should be base d on the following criteria: â€Å"there must be no unfair discrimination on the basis of age, disability, gender, marital status, sexual orientation, religion or belief, race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, or (in Northern Ireland) community background, working pattern, employment status, gender identity (transgender), caring responsibility, trade union membership† [2]. The issue of diversity has been examined by several aspects; however in all definitions given there are common elements and characteristics. For this reason, in a definition of diversity given by the University of Oregon [3] it is noticed that diversity means â€Å"understanding that each individual is unique, and recognizing our individual

Compare And Contrast Ipv4 And Ipv6

Compare And Contrast Ipv4 And Ipv6 Before we discuss about how the IP works at the network layer to provide connectionless, best effort service to the upper layers, we should understand what the role of IP is. To help us more understand about the question. Below are a few explanation of the important role in the question. The Internet Protocol (IP) IP is a protocol used for communicating data across a packet-switched internetwork using the Internet Protocol Suite, also referred to as TCP/IP, while the connectionless service is provided by IP version 4. IP version 4 is just design with limited lower overhead to ensure it deliver speed. The Network Layer -It is the 3rd layer of the seven-layer OSI model of computer networking. The network layer responds to service requests from the transport layer and issues service requests to the data link layer. Upper layer The last 3 layers of the OSI model, Session, Presentation and Application layer are referred to the Upper layers. These layers are responsible for applications communicating between hosts. None of the upper layers know anything about networking or network addresses. Connectionless/Best effort Service communication between two network end-user in which a message can be sent from sender to receiver without knowing of the receiver. The Internetwork Protocol (IP) provides a best effort network layer service for connecting computers to form a computer network. Each computer is identified by one or more globally unique IP address. The network layer PDUs are known as either packets or datagram. Each packet carries the IP address of the sending computer and also the address of the intended recipient or recipients of the packet. Other management information is also carried. The IP network service transmits datagrams between intermediate nodes using IP routers. The routers themselves are simple; since no information is stored concerning the datagrams which are forwarded on a link. The most complex part of an IP router is concerned with determining the optimum link to use to reach each destination in a network. This process is known as routing. Although this process is computationally intensive, it is only performed at periodic intervals. An IP network normally uses a dynamic routing protocol to find alternate routes whenever a link becomes unavailable. This provides considerable robustness from the failure of either links or routers, but does not guarantee reliable delivery. Some applications are happy with this basic service and use a simple transport protocol known as the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) to access this best effort service. Internet Protocol provides in Version 4 (IPv4) is to ensure that the IP packet header is error-free through computation of a checksum at the routing nodes. This has the side-effect of discarding packets with bad headers on the spot, and cause the lost of data packet. The design of internet protocol is one of the reason cause connectionless services. It assumes that the network infrastructure is inherently unreliable at any single network element or transmission medium and that it is dynamic in terms of availability of links and nodes. Without any central monitoring or performance measurement facility exists that tracks or maintains the state of the network. So in order to easy the work, the intelligence in the network is purposely mostly located in the end nodes of each data transmission. Because of it, the network only can provide the best transmission and it was call the best-effort protocol. Advantages: They are stateless having no previously defined protocol. It is easily accessible. Fast deliver Speed Disadvantages: The lack of reliability allows any of the following fault events to occur: data corruption lost data packets duplicate arrival out-of-order packet delivery The primary goal of IP is to provide the basic algorithm for transfer of data to and from a network. In order to achieve this, it implements two functions: addressing and fragmentation. It provides a connectionless delivery service for the upper-layer protocols. This means that IP does not set up a session (a virtual link) between the transmitting station and the receiving station prior to submitting the data to the receiving station. It encapsulates the data handed to it and delivers it on a best-effort basis. IP does not inform the sender or receiver of the status of the packet; it merely attempts to deliver the packet and will not make up for the faults encountered in this attempt. This means that if the data link fails or incurs a recoverable error, the IP layer will not inform anyone. It tried to deliver (addressed) a message until failed. IP submits a properly formatted data packet to the destination station and does not expect a status response. Because IP is a connectionless protocol, IP may receive and deliver the data (data sent to the transport layer in the receiving station) in the wrong order from which it was sent, or it may duplicate the data. Again, it is up to the higher-layer protocols (layer 4 and above) to provide error recovery procedures. IP is part of the network delivery system. It accepts data and formats it for transmission to the data link layer. (Remember, the data link layer provides the access methods to transmit and receive data from the attached cable plant.) IP also retrieves data from the data link and presents it to the requesting upper layer (Naugle, 1999). Compare and contrast IPv4 and IPv6. Justify your answer. There are two version of the internet protocol are implemented in the network layer today, which is Internet Protocol version 4(IPv4) and Internet Protocol version 6(IPv6). Today, most the internet are still implement the IPv4 but some of the internet are already move to IPv6, which is the newest version of the internet protocol. He also said that the Internet Protocol version 5(IPv5) is for experimental purpose, not for deployment purpose (White, 2009, p.348). There are differences between the current of IPv4 and IPv6. The main difference between the IPv4 and IPv6 is the addressing of the IPv4 and IPv6 that provided. White (2009, p.348) elaborate that there have only 32-bit addresses that used by IPv4, which means only support until 32-bit of the IP address that provide by IPv4. Forouzan (2007, p.549) argues with White that the IPv4 is 32-bit address, which mean the IPv4 address are unique, means the address are only one and universally when the connection between the source and destination. Forouzan also stated that the two devices cannot have the same internet protocol (IP) addresses when the connections are established between the source and destination. For example, if the source or destination at the network layer has m connections to the Internet, it will require having m address. In IPv6, there have 128-bits long address that provided by IPv6 compare to IPv4, which consist of 32-bits address, means that the IPv6 address consist 4 times to IPv4 address! Another difference between the current of IPv4 and IPv6 is the notation of the address that shown by the IPv4 and IPv6. Currently, the IPv4 addresses are being show as 32 bits in binary notation, which is support 1 and 0 only. 1 is represent hostid and 0 is represent netid, and also computer only can understand the language which the human cannot understand. Each 8 bits are representing 1 octet, mean the 1 octet are consist of 1 byte. That why IPv4 are only support to 32-bit of address or 4-byte address. The following to show the example of the IPv4 address in binary notations: 01110101 10010101 00011101 00000010 In order to make the human can understand and read the binary notation, the internet are converted the binary-notation into decimal and separating the byte by using dot. The following to show the example of the IPv4 address in dotted-decimal notation: 117.149.29.2 Refer to the figure 1.0, it represent that both the binary notation and dotted-decimal notation of the IPv4 address. Because each octet are represent 8-bits, the range of each octet are 0 until 255(Forouzan, 2007, p.550). Figure 1.0 Dotted-decimal notation and binary notation for an IPv4 address (Source: http://www.comptechdoc.org/os/linux/manual4/ipdecimal.html). Similar to IPv6, the IP address in IPv6 also represent in binary notation. Only different is the IPv6 are using the hexadecimal colon notation to make the address understandable and readable. Refer to figure 1.1, 128-bit are being divided into 8 sections in the hexadecimal colon notation. Each section has 2 byte and each 2 byte is requiring 4 hexadecimal digits (Forouzan, 2007, p.567). Figure 1.1 IPv6 address in binary and hexadecimal colon notation (Source: http://www.slideshare.net/WayneJonesJnr/ch19-3361671) Another the different between the IPv4 and IPv6 is the IP datagram format that represent by the IPv4 and IPv6. In IPv4, there are 15 fields in the IPv4 packet header. Refer to the figure 1.3, it show that the number of the field, the format of the IPv4. The Version field contains the version of IP, which is version number of the IPv4 is number 4 and ensures the device send the packet through to the internet from source to destination implement the appropriate various field. The Intermediate Header Length (IHL) specifies the size of the packet header, which the multiples of 32-bit words. If the options require in the datagram, it will require filling the padding bytes with unusual multiple of 32 bit. The Type of Service (TOS) fields allow the process to determine the precedence, which is relative priority of the application data and preferred attributes associated the following path. The Total Length (TL) or Packet Length (PL) field will display the whole packet size, including byte of header and data (Halsall, 2005, p.322). The Flags field consist three control flags, which is reserved control flags, Dont Fragment control flags and More Fragment control flags. Two control frags, which are Dont Fragment control flags and More Fragment control flags, use to control the fragmentation (The TCP/IP Guide, 2005). The Time-to-Live (TTL) field is to indicate the maximum the packet can be transmitted through the Internet. When the packet passes through the router, the TTL will decrement the number of transit of the packet remaining by one hop. When the TTL become 0, the packet will be discarded by the router. The Protocol field is enables the Network layer to pass the data to the correct upper layer protocol. The Header Checksum field is to identify the error at packet header. It also applied to protect from packet corruption during the transmission of the network. The Source Address and Destination Address field is containing the address where the packets send or comes from (Halsall, 2005, p.324). There are 5 fields in the options fields, which is copied fields, option class fields, option number, option length and option data. An option field is make all fragments of fragmented packets will save into the option if the option is being set by 1. Option class is define as a common option category, which 0 is represent control option and 2 is represent debugging and measurement option. The 1 and 3 is for reservation(Wikipedia,2010). Figure 1.3 IPv4 datagram/packet format and header fields (TCP/IP Guide, 2005) In IPv6, there are only 9 fields in the IPv6 packet header, means that the IPv6 field has been simplified compare to the IPv4, contains 15 fields, as shown in figure 1.4. The Version field contains the version of IP, which is version number of the IPv6 is number 6 and ensures the device send the packet through to the internet from source to destination implement the appropriate various field (TCP/IP Guide, 2005). The Traffic Class field is similar function as TOS in IPv4, which is allow the process to determine the different priority of the application data and preferred attributes associated the following path (Akashah, 2006). The Flow Label field is provided the additional support datagram delivery and quality of service (QOS) features with creating a large field. The Payload Length field is does not like the TL field from the IPv4, which is display whole size of packet but only display the payload byte number. The length of the extension header would be counted if the extension header will be included, means including the Hop-by-Hop Option, Routing, Fragment, Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP), Authentication Header (AH) and Destination Option. The Next Header field is to determine the first extension header of the next header in the datagram if the datagram contain the extension header. If the datagram contain only the main header and does not contain the extension headers, it will function as the IPv4 Protocol field. It also contain the same value, which the IPv6 version of the common protocol use though the new number. The Hop Limit (HL) field is similar function as TTL from the IPv4 field, which is remaining life of packet travel through the internet before discarded by the router while become 0. The purpose of the HL is preventing the packet infinite loop at internetwork. Before the packet send to the destination, the sending host will set the HL value. When the packets pass through the router, the router will decrease the HL value by 1 and until become 0, the packet will be discarded. The Source Address and Destination Address is similar function as the Source Address and Destination Address from the IPv4 field, which Source Address is contain the address where the packet are comes from. The Destination Address is contain the address that where the packet send to. Figure 1.4 IPv6 datagram/packet format and header fields (TCP/IP Guide, 2005) Section 2 Introduction of the chosen game. The three games that we choose is Peter Packet. Peter Packet is the education game represents the how the packets deliver through the internet. These games also represent how the packet can avoid from attacking virus and hackers. This game also can learn the lesson while the players play this game. How to play the chosen game? You may print screen the layout to support your reports. Here we have the instruction how to play the Peter Packet this game. This is Peter Packet. He is responsible to deliver the life packet through the internet. Figure 2.0 The screenshot is represent which difficulties you want to choose. Before you want to play this game, first you want to choose the difficulties of the game as show in figure 2.0. Figure 2.1 The screenshot is show which destination you want to choose After we choose the difficulties, then we choose which destination we want to proceed as shown in figure 2.1. This bar is show that the health status of the character.After we choose our destination we want, then we will show you the instruction how to play this game. Click the skip button to skip this section. The bar is show you that how many mission remaining you want to complete. Click the character if you want learn more about it. Press the back button if you want proceed to next section. Press the back button if you want back to previous section. Press the help button if you want to learn the tutorial again. Press the mute button if you want to silent or you want the sound. Figure 2.2 Speed up the character by using mouse right or press the right arrow Figure 2.2 is show that if you want speed up the character you must press the right arrow or move the mouse to your right. Figure 2.3 Slow down the character by pressing left arrow or move the mouse left The figure 2.3 is show that if you want to slow down the character, you must press the left arrow or moves the mouse to left. Get the encryption shields to protect from being caught Figure 2.4 Get the encryption shields that protect from caught by Hackers. Figure 2.4 shows that if you want get rid from the Hackers; you must to get the encryption shields to protect the character. Otherwise you will jump up by using up arrow or move up mouse to avoid being caught. Same as the virus, if you want to kill the virus, you must get the antivirus spray Figure 2.5 double click or pressing the up arrow twice if you want the character adds a flip. Figure 2.5 shows that if you jump not enough high, you can apply the flip for the character by pressing the arrow twice or double click. What are the benefits of playing this game to each of your groups member? Share your experiences and justifications. Leong Yun Siong The Benefit that I gain from playing this game is know how the internet play role important are, how the packet pass through the internet and the world started to emphasis the education, especially the women and the children from hardcore poor family and the personal hygiene. I also know how the router chooses the faster path of the network and also know how the electromagnet interference will interrupt the packet will cause the network congestion. I also know how the packet segmenting and reassembling. Phang Won Meng The Peter Packet is a funny game which contains a lot of useful information. By playing this game, we can understand there are many obstructers like hacker, Viruses and Route disruptions may occur when the packet are under the deliver. The game also provides and friendly user interface design with meaningful explanations and introduction to let player can learn more efficiency when playing the game. Inside the story of Peter Packet, Users can also find a lot of extra information like can learn information about social and environmental challenges in 3 countries that are Zimbabwe, Haiti and India in the developing world. Inside the story of Peter Packet, Users can also find a lot of extra information like that many people have died of AIDS and been exposed to HIV in Zimbabwe. Peter has the mission of helping to spread the word about this disease and get international aid. Players learn about the problems of lack access to clean drinking water in Haiti caused by years of environmental degradation from the harmful practice of intensive clear-cutting of trees, resulting in pollution and saltwater contamination. This useful information will help increase users knowledge and improve his moral.

Portrayal of Puritan Society in Hawthornes The Scarlet Letter :: Scarlet Letter essays

Portrayal of Puritan Society in Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter      Ã‚  Ã‚   In the introductory sketch to Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel the "The Scarlet Letter", the reader is informed that one of the author's ancestors persecuted the Quakers harshly. The latter's son was a high judge in the Salem witch trials, put into literary form in Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" (Judge Hathorne appears there). We learn that Hawthorne feels ashamed for their deeds, and that he sees his ancestors and the Puritan society as a whole with critical eyes. Consequently, both open and subtle criticism of the Puritans' practices is applied throughout the novel.       Hawthorne's comments have to be regarded in the context of the settlers' history and religion. They believe that man is a creature steeped in sin, ever since Adam and Eve's fall from innocence. To them, committing the original sin strapped human beings of their own free will, so that God now decides about their lives. Everything that happens is seen as God's will, and providence plays an important role.       Through the sacrifice and righteousness of Christ, however, there is a chance for people to be saved. One cannot definitely know who will be saved, although pious and faithful people are of course more likely to. The experience of conversion, in which the soul is touched by the Holy Spirit, so that the believer's heart is turned from sinfulness to holiness, is another indication that one is of the elect. Faithfulness and piety, rather than good deeds are what saves people. If someone has sinned, public confession is believed to take some of the burden of this sin off him.       The initial reason for the Puritans to leave their homes was the treatment they had to suffer from in their native England. They were brutally persecuted and were not allowed to practise their religion, because they said that the beliefs taught by the Anglican church were against the Bible. When they arrived in the New World, they were confronted with numerous threats from the outside. Their trying to take land away from the Indians caused many fights and attacks. Moreover, they had to deal with the total wilderness surrounding them. Under these frontier conditions, they needed harmony and peace inside the community in order to survive.       As a result, Hawthorne's founding fathers immediately saw the necessity to Portrayal of Puritan Society in Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter :: Scarlet Letter essays Portrayal of Puritan Society in Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter      Ã‚  Ã‚   In the introductory sketch to Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel the "The Scarlet Letter", the reader is informed that one of the author's ancestors persecuted the Quakers harshly. The latter's son was a high judge in the Salem witch trials, put into literary form in Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" (Judge Hathorne appears there). We learn that Hawthorne feels ashamed for their deeds, and that he sees his ancestors and the Puritan society as a whole with critical eyes. Consequently, both open and subtle criticism of the Puritans' practices is applied throughout the novel.       Hawthorne's comments have to be regarded in the context of the settlers' history and religion. They believe that man is a creature steeped in sin, ever since Adam and Eve's fall from innocence. To them, committing the original sin strapped human beings of their own free will, so that God now decides about their lives. Everything that happens is seen as God's will, and providence plays an important role.       Through the sacrifice and righteousness of Christ, however, there is a chance for people to be saved. One cannot definitely know who will be saved, although pious and faithful people are of course more likely to. The experience of conversion, in which the soul is touched by the Holy Spirit, so that the believer's heart is turned from sinfulness to holiness, is another indication that one is of the elect. Faithfulness and piety, rather than good deeds are what saves people. If someone has sinned, public confession is believed to take some of the burden of this sin off him.       The initial reason for the Puritans to leave their homes was the treatment they had to suffer from in their native England. They were brutally persecuted and were not allowed to practise their religion, because they said that the beliefs taught by the Anglican church were against the Bible. When they arrived in the New World, they were confronted with numerous threats from the outside. Their trying to take land away from the Indians caused many fights and attacks. Moreover, they had to deal with the total wilderness surrounding them. Under these frontier conditions, they needed harmony and peace inside the community in order to survive.       As a result, Hawthorne's founding fathers immediately saw the necessity to

Individual Analysis for Engstrom Auto Mirror Plant

Engstrom Auto Mirror plant, as a privately owned business, it manufactured mirrors for trucks and automobiles. The managers aimed to increase productivity for sustainable development of the company. Back in 1998, to pursue highly productivity, the plant was redesigning its production lines to incorporate new technology, however, the transition was not smooth, some problems had emerged, such as the staffs' moral and efficiency declining and the internal contradictions being intensified between the managers and employees. As the result of it, the previous manger resigned in 1998.After that, the new manager, Ron Bent believed in the power of worker incentive programs and wanted to establish one at Engstrom. Eventually, the plant adopted the Scanlon Plan as incentive program because a substantial majority of workers wanted it. Due to institute the plan, the plant was achieving growth, higher profits and consistent quality standards, the employees were also receiving good financial reward s. Over a seven-year period, business had been good in the company, However, a downturn hit the industry in 2005 because of the declining of the workforce's morale along with the sales figures.In 2006, Bent had been forced to lay off 46 of his 255 employees. The trust between the managers and employees was shaken and the main problems by the complaints of workers was distrust of bonus calculations and question of fairness between the supervisors and employees. In this situation, Bent thought to make changes urgently before conditions deteriorated further. There are several factors that cause the issues in the Engstrom. Firstly, according to the equity theory, employees focus on the fairness of their work outcomes in proportion to their work inputs.In the Engstrom, some employees thought that supervisors did not working as hard as them, however, the supervisors got the bonus probably higher or equal to them. Therefore, employees complained about unfairness and the unreasonableness of the situation that could be a decline in morale. More seriously, the trust between the managers and employees were likely to declined dramatically because they felt the award or punishment system was not fairness to them that will be a negative effect for the normal operation of the plant. Secondly, the plant was lack of setting up of flexible incentive mechanism.Although the plant instituted the Scanlon Plan to motivate their employees, the managers did not consider to further improve the incentive program before the issues was appearing. Additionally, they did not properly feedback and value views of employees, why the enthusiasm waned and suggestion rates dropped. The employees gradually were a lack of a sense of belongingness and low recognition from the company. For me, I will give two possible options for Bent to ease the crisis for their plant. 1. The plant should improve the Scanlon Plan by the managers.It means that the managers should focus on the recognition and apprecia tion for their employees which as integral components of a winning strategic reward system. It could be posted a top twenty list of employees who perform their jobs excellently in every month. At the same time, it sends personal letters in the name of the company to convey appreciation to them. 2. The second option is to change the Scanlon Plan with another plan that is collect different ideas from the staffs (sometimes are workers' representative) in every week by face-to-face meeting.If some ideas could be accepted by managers, the employees who give the recommendation will be praised at the meeting. Further, the company will give rewards to employees if their suggestions through practice bring economic gain for the Engstrom. According to my analysis, the problems are distrust between the managers and employees and unfairness of rewards between the employees and supervisors. In order to keep productivity and profitability of the plant, it should resolve the issues urgently before the situation deteriorated further. I recommend the option two is better for Bent to deal with these problems for the plant.Firstly, communication is the most important factor that affects the relationship between managers and employees. If the managers could listen advices of the work in time from their employees, it not only will be more easier to handle the existing problem in the company, but also will improve the relationship between managers and employees because the staff feel the company takes, to respect and to trust them, feel oneself is in enterprise's one, and they can have the confidence and the sense of responsibility for the development of their company.Secondly, it is to give the appreciation by managers to employees frequently that will improve the employee morale because they will feel more attached to their company. As the result of this, employees will devote to their work without any complaint. Consequently, because of the improvement of relationship and employe e morale, the efficiency and productivity of company will improve with the efforts of all staff and give them corresponding reward.Although the first option is probably to resolve the crisis for the Engstrom, it is not a long-term incentive program because the communication between the managers and employees is not so much compared with the second option and some problems in the plant may be not addressed immediately by managers. Therefore, the Engstrom should change their incentive plan to built the good relationship, seek advices from subordinates and give employees corresponding reward. In conclusion, I suggest that Rent could choose the second option to handle this crisis in their plant before conditions deteriorated further.

The Ethical Implications Of Science And Technology

Science and technology are advancing at an extremely rapid pace, sometimes without regard to consequences. In the 1950’s Robert Briggs and Thomas King were successfully able to clone frogs using nuclei from embryonic cells. Then in 1996, Ian Wilmot cloned a sheep named Dolly from an udder cell of an adult cell. The news of Dolly rocked the world to its core. All types of people began surfacing with the ethical concerns about its potential uses and terror of what might come next: human cloning. As reported in the article, â€Å"Clinton Bars Federal Funds for Human Cloning Research† by CNN, in 1997, President Clinton stopped all federal funding for cloning. â€Å"Clinton also called on privately funded researchers to voluntarily implement a temporary moratorium on human cloning research ‘until our bioethics advisory committee and our entire nation has had time to... debate the ethical implications’† (CNN). With scientific discoveries such as cloning ma ny people rely on the wisdom of repugnance to decide what is right and wrong. The wisdom of repugnance, which is more commonly known as the â€Å"yuck† factor, is used in arguments to appeal to our sense of disgust. Some believe that the wisdom of repugnance is an instinctive negative response to an idea or practice that should be interpreted as evidence for the intrinsically harmful. Repugnance should not be the sole determining factor when making a judgement, which is what author Leon R. Kass unjustly bases his against cloning on. 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A queer theory reading of Oscar Wildes A Picture of Dorian Gray

Sample details Pages: 24 Words: 7273 Downloads: 8 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Statistics Essay Did you like this example? Aestheticism dictates that life should be lived by an ideal of beauty and a movement embodied by the phrase of art for arts sake. There is perhaps no greater advocate of such beliefs as Oscar Wilde, and the characteristics of aestheticism run through much of his work, both plays and stories, particularly in the character of the dandy. It would be difficult to analyse any of Wildes work without considering his own personal life and consequently, almost impossible to analyse his use of aesthetics without tackling the elements of homoeroticism. Living in a society largely intolerant to homosexuality, Wilde was obviously restricted to some extent with regard to what he could writeabout explicitly and as a result secrecy becomes an important influence over Wildes work. This makes for an extremely interesting relationship between aestheticism and homoeroticism, and it is this relationship that will form the main focus of this essay. What are the forms and techniques that Wilde uses to aestheticise homosexuality, and why? And how by doing this his literary works reveal aspects of his own life and sexuality, ultimately creating the figure of Wilde the aesthete, dandy, and campy witticist who has become a public icon forhomosexual men in Britain and America. It will focus primarily on The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Importance of Being Earnest and The Happy Prince and Other Stories. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "A queer theory reading of Oscar Wildes: A Picture of Dorian Gray | English Literature Dissertation" essay for you Create order The Portrait of Mr. W.H portrays Shakespeare as being a slave to beauty that is the condition of the artist! This concept of theartist as worshipper of beauty is a recurring characteristic of Wildes literature and will be dealt with later in this chapter. Firstly, itis necessary to look at the ideal of beauty that Wilde presents as worthy of worship. There is an overwhelming resemblance between Wildes portrayal ofbeauty and the concept of beauty in the Greek era. As Summers observesin his book Gay Fictions: Studies in a Male Homosexual Literary Tradition, both The Portrait of Dorian Gray and The Portrait of Mr.W.H focus heavily on portraits of androgynous young men bothstories allude to famous homosexual artists and lovers in history andthey both assume a significant connection between homosexual Eros andart. Same-sex desire is referenced heavily throughout Greek literature, for example, during the sixth century, the poet Sappho wrote numerous homoerotic verses concerning young women, with the term lesbian derived from the name of her island home of Lesbos. Platoalso referred to same-sex desires and relations, even forming his own theory on the pre-determined nature of different sexualities. In words taken from The Portrait of Mr. W.H, the ideal of beauty is a beauty that seemed to combine the charm of both sexes, and to have we dded, as the Sonnets tell us, the grace of Adonis and the loveliness ofHelen. Wilde uses this Greek ideal of beauty as a means of adding authority to his allusions to homoeroticism, to make the content of the two aforementioned works more acceptable to a Victorian audience. Itis important to note that there is a marked difference of public attitude towards homosexuality and homoeroticism between Greek and Victorian society. Donald Hall observes that during the Greek eraadult male sexuality, had much more to do with power status and social positioning than it did with any expression of identity-determining desire for the same or other sex. Wildes ideal of beauty also overlaps with the Greek concept of the muse. The Portrait of Dorian Gray presents us with Dorian, the muse topainter Basil Hallward, and The Portrait of Mr. W.H provides us withan insight into the life of one of the most famous muses of all, the young man who Shakespeare addressed many of his sonnets to Who was he whose physical beauty was such that it became the very corner-stone of Shakespeares art; the very source of Shakespeares inspiration; the very incarnation of Shakespeares dreams. The muse, defined as asource of inspiration especially for a creative artist succeeds in objectifying the subject, transforming a human presence into aesthetic fodder to fuel the creative mind, as well as something far superior tothe person beholding the muse. With regard to The Picture of Dorian Gray, Summers suggests that, the implied link between homosexual Erosand creativity is clear in Dorians effect on Basils art. Dorians beauty and the ideal that he represents ca use Basil to see the world afresh and inspire him to his greatest work as an artist. This is where the idea of worshipping beauty comes into play. TheHappy Prince, for example, is distinctly removed from everyday lifeand is admired from afar in a quite literal sense. However, Dorian isperhaps the best illustration of Wildes fascination with the worshipof beauty. The novel suggests that to other young men Dorian seemedto be of the company of those whom Dante describes as having sought tomake themselves perfect by the worship of beauty. Like Gautier, hewas one for whom the visible world existed. At the same time,Dorian is presented to us as the worshipped, with regard to hisrelationship with Basil Hallward. The experience of the muse in the manner of Basil and Shakespeare (asportrayed by Wilde) seems to present something of a double-edged sword,producing feelings of such passion that joy and despair becomeintertwined. The narrator of The Portrait of Mr. W.H suggests thatShakespeares muse was a particular young man whose personality forsome reason seems to have filled the soul of Shakespeare with terriblejoy and no less terrible despair. In a similar vein, Basil hasominous feelings on meeting Dorian for the first time, I knew that Ihad come face to face with someone whose mere personality was sofascinating that, if I allowed it to do so, it would absorb my wholenature, my whole soul, my very art itself. The effect of beauty canbe seen as both gift and curse in the same way that Wilde perhapsregarded homosexuality in Victorian society. The importance that Wilde places on the worship of beauty is closelyrelated to his strong beliefs in aestheticism. The distance that Wildeseeks to construct between the observer and the object of beauty can beread as a mechanism of aestheticism whereby he aims to eliminate anyattachment to moral and wider societal concerns. The following chapterwill analyse the relation of aesthetics to Wildes literary works, andhow far he is able to separate the appreciation of art from moralvalues. Mary Blanchard, in Oscar Wildes America suggests that the personaof the invert or male homosexual was an emerging concept during the1880s, and the connections between aesthetic style and a homosexualsubculture cannot be overlooked. And with other critics referring toWilde as the high priest of aestheticism, its clear that Oscar is noexception to this rule. He lived a hedonistic lifestyle, flitting as asocial butterfly from one experience of art and beauty to the next. InVictorian times the male dandy soon became a symbol of this aestheticage, with no finer literary examples than Dorian and Lord Henry of ThePortrait of Dorian Gray, and Algernon and Jack of The Importance ofBeing Earnest. Lord Henry declares that pleasure is the only thingworth having a theory about and it is this preoccupation withmaterial things and surface-level emotions that characterises thedandy, a choice of style over substance. As a result Dorian becomesfascinated with acquiring commodities such as perfumes, je wels andmusic. Wilde dedicates pages of description to this search forsensations that would be at once new and possess that element ofstrangeness that is so essential to romance. The concept of dandyism is closely linked to that of Victoriandecadence. Goldfarb, in his essay on Late Victorian Decadenceprovides us with a useful definition of decadence, highlighting itsresemblance to aestheticism the value to be gained from experienceof all sorts and from indulgence in a life of sensation. Because ofthis emphasis, decadent literature is animated by the exploration ofimmoral and evil experiences; never does it preach morality, nor doesit strongly insist upon ethical responsibilities. This separationbetween decadence and morality is also a characteristic common toaestheticism. Glick studies the concepts of dandyism at length in her essay onThe Dialectics of Dandyism, identifying an opposition betweencritical thought on dandyism and arguing that two different modelslocate dandyism at the opposite poles of modernity, simultaneouslypositioning the queer subject as a privileged emblem of the modern andas a dissident in revolt against society. Therefore, on the one handthe reader can accept the dandy as person who embraces the aestheticsof culture and celebrates beauty as a preoccupation with surfacetrends to conceive of gay identity solely or primarily in terms ofartifice, aesthetics, commodity fetishism and style. Or, beneath thesurface, we can read a protest against the commodification of modernlife and a rejection of common values and aspirations. Goldfarb note asimilar contempt for modern society in the movement of decadence, aself-conscious contempt for social conventions such as truth andmarriage, by an acceptance of Beauty as a basis for life. Bothaest heticism and decadence seek to remove beauty from the confines ofmodern society and use it to their own ends in a self-created sensualand fantastical lifestyle. Wildes use of aestheticism can be read as an attempt to showhomosexuality as a sign of refined culture, as a means to his desiredend where such a topic becomes more acceptable. In the same way thatWilde alludes to the Greek ideal of beauty to disguise what couldotherwise be seen as a direct and possibly offensive portrayal ofhomosexual desire, by adhering to the rules of aestheticism Wilde isable to divert attention from any moral attack on his writing. Themovement of aestheticism shuns any notion that art can be connectedwith morality and passionately encourages individual freedom and socialtheatricality. Ironically, whilst it can largely be seen as arebellion against Victorian sensibilities, it is simultaneously amethod of retaining a covert nature to the expression of homoeroticdesire. In the case of Basil Hallward, he finds art an outlet for suchdesires, there is nothing that Art cannot express. Through Dorian,Basil is able to discover a new manner in art, an entirely new mode of style not just when he is painting Dorian, but when he is merelypresent. It allows him a new way of looking at life, having realisedthe power of homoeroticism In presenting homosexuality through the lens of aestheticism andconsequently presenting it as a refined culture with close links to theidealised and romantic image of the Greek age, Wilde also separates thelifestyle of the homosexual man from the classes of heterosexualsociety. As Elisa Glick suggests in her essay on the dialectics ofdandyism, Wilde depicts Dorians seemingly endless appetite forexotic, luxury objects as the exterior manifestation of his innerintellectual and artistic superiority. This presents Doriansdesires and those of other aetheticism advocates as elitist andultimately superior to other classes. Through the use of aestheticism,it can be argued that Wilde attempts to give homoeroticism the power totranscend class. By describing such episodes in this romantic andfantastical manner, he places homosexuality in a highly refined classof its own, in a position out of reach from the realities of theworking class and bourgeoisie. To take this concept one step further, Wilde can also be seen toreject the realities of common society entirely, as an aesthetepreferring to lose himself in sensual experiences and ultimatelydreaming of an escape from reality to a place where such experience canbe fully realised. Glick goes on to note that Dorians acquisition ofluxuries and curios not only seems to affirm his aristocraticdistinction, but also aims to build a self-created world byaestheticizing experience itself. Gray yearns not so much for theenjoyment provided by an individual object, but for the aestheticpleasure provided by its reincarnation of part of his collection.Indeed, Dorian does become obsessed with creating his own desiredversion of reality, in which worshipping beauty and living by thesenses is the priority. Having embarked on this aesthetic journey-largely instigated by Lord Henry Dorians passion to adhere to theseideals becomes clear, It was the creation of such worlds as these thatseemed to Dorian Gra y to be the true object, or amongst the trueobjects of life. Early in the novel Wilde even goes so far as toassociate reality directly with the lower classes and as therefore,something ranked below the aspirations and lifestyle of those likeDorian; in this extract no sooner is Dorian overcome by fascinationwith Lord Henry than he is brought down to earth by the entrance of aservant: Dorian Gray never took his gaze off him, but sat like one under aspell, smiles chasing each other over his lips, and wonder growinggrave in his darkening eyes. At last, liveried in the costume of the age, Reality entered the roomin the shape of a servant to tell the Duchess that her carriage waswaiting. By personifying Reality Wilde presents it as something that can bedefeated, beaten by those who have enough desire and strength of mindto do so. In the same way Wilde often capitalises and personifiesArt to add character to the subject and emphasise his position onthat subject. Although in one respect this separation of the dandy or aesthetefrom reality may seem to alienate him from others in society, thecontent of Wildes narration does not necessarily isolate him from amoral standpoint. It is interesting to note that we are given verylittle information on the uglier types of experience that Dorianseeks. As readers, we understand the influences and transition thatthe protagonist is going through as his soul darkens, but we are noteducated in the exact nature of the experiences. This allows lessopportunity for concentrating on the moral aspects of his lifestylechoices, and more opportunity for pondering on the nature ofaestheticism; we focus more on the influences on Dorian and theconsequences, rather than on judging his actions and decisions. Whenone delves deeper to find a moral standpoint on Wildes part, it isdifficult to do so, and consequently, easier to assume that the absenceof analysis in this area suggests ambiguity on his part. Summer seeks to find an answer to this moral ambiguity in the worldof Oscar Wilde himself, and in relation to The Portrait of Dorian Grayfound that Wilde summarised the moral as all excess, as well as allrenunciation, brings its own punishment. The painter, Basil Hallward,worshipping physical beauty far too much, as most painters do, dies bythe hand of one in whose soul he has created a monstrous and absurdvanity. Dorian Gray, having led a life of mere sensation and pleasure,tries to kill conscience, and at that moment kills himself. Thiscomment of Wildes confirms the notion that becoming a slave to beautyis a condition of art, illustrated by the tone of the inevitable thataccompanies the phrase as most painters do, an observation that wecan easily transfer to the experience of other artists as well. Wildegoes on to explain that Lord Henry Wotton seeks to be merely thespectator of life. He finds that those who reject the battle are moredeeply wounded than those who take part in it. I n this respect bothBasil and Henry are ultimately doomed, thus suggesting no clear moralpath that the reader need follow for salvation. Moral ambivalenceoccurs frequently as a result of the narrators attitude; the narratoris sympathetic towards whichever character he is describing, and inparticular, often seems just as seduced by the strong and influentialcharacter of Lord Henry as Dorian is. With this in mind, Summersconcludes that notwithstanding the retributive ending of the book, theFaustian dream of an escape from human limitation and moral stricturesultimately triumphs over the condemnation of excess and therebysubverts the apparent moralism. To summarise, he argues that theFaustian dream is rendered more appealingly than the superimposedlesson of dangers of narcissism. However, if we accept Summersreading, it still remains impossible to read the novel withoutquestioning the relationship between aestheticism and morality.Whether we believe Wilde to subvert or strengthen common moral values,their presence within the narration is undeniable and invites furtherthought from the reader. To conclude this chapter on aestheticism, we can see that Wildesliterature aestheticism and homosexuality exist co dependently. Thisobviously has an effect on the publics reading of his works, and howreadily and comfortably they associate these two aspects. As Summerssuggests it is interesting to note that The Picture of Dorian Gray wasamong the first novels in the language to feature (though blurred andinexactly) a homosexual subculture Summers wrote that homosexualreaders would certainly have responded to the books undercurrent ofgay feeling, and may have found the very name Dorian suggestive ofGreek homosexuality, since it was Dorian tribesmen who allegedlyintroduced homosexuality into Greece as part of their militaryregimen. In contrast, Mary Blanchard notes a negative consequenceconcerning heterosexual readers during the Victorian era Allyingaesthetic style with the masculine self provoked attacks from someVictorian men unsure of their own gender orientation. This raisesthe iss ue of how a heterosexual readership can be seen to react to theundertone of homosexuality, and how a readers interpretation canchange when fuelled by more knowledge of Oscar Wildes personal life.Before looking at the effect of the writer on what is ultimately afictional narrator, this essay will look at the importance of secrecyin the life of the homosexual man. Todays society is obviously more accepting of Wildes sexuality andits effect on his art, Summers illustrates this point by suggestingthat Wildes demise meant that he ultimately functioned as Saint Oscar,the homosexual martyr. But of course it was not until some timeafter the late nineteenth century that Wilde was fully appreciated by awider audience. Miller and Adams in Sexualities in Victorian Britainobserve that the Victorians were notorious as the great enemies ofsexuality: indeed in Freuds representative account, sexualitysometimes seems to be whatever it was that the middle-class Victorianmind attempted to hide, evade, repress, deny. In this respect thehomosexual man had a double secrecy to adhere to that of sexuality,as well as homosexuality. In Victorian society there was very much aclear-cut idea of what was natural and unnatural, of what was normaland abnormal. Consequently, Wilde set himself up as a figure to beattacked by the press as unnatural and abnormal the Victorian presspublicized in wildly inflammatory ways Wildes eccentric dress,effeminate, and haughty demeanour, all held up as important signifiersof his unnatural sexuality and the threat he posed to normal,middle-class values. Being such an extravagant and extrovertedcharacter, Wildes sexuality was not particularly covert and eventuallyprovided Victorian society with a case by which to lay down the law asto what was acceptable in terms of sexuality. As Ed Cohen suggests inhis essay, Writing Gone Wild: Homoerotic Desire in the Closet ofRepresentation, the court proceedings against Wilde provided aperfect opportunity to define publicly the authorized and legal limitswithin which a man could naturally enjoy the pleasures of his bodywith another man. Despite the fact that it was Wildes indiscrete homosexual behaviourand demeanour that led to his downfall, aspects of secrecy featureheavily in his literary works and certain narrative techniques aid tothe covert nature in which homoeroticism is often presented. To recap,by relating same-sex friendships to aestheticism and ideals of beauty,Wilde is able to divert attention from aspects of homosexuality thatwould be otherwise be interpreted as immoral by Victorian society.Also, Wilde omits any direct reference or description of same-sexphysical relations and hardly even alludes to such activities. Thecontent of the narration and emphasis on aestheticism means that ahomoerotic reading of Dorian Gray is not immediately obvious at leastnot to a heterosexual readership. Therefore, homosexual love becomesthe love that cannot be spoken of and is fundamentally secretive. The secret language of homosexuality is particularly evident in TheImportance of Being Earnest, a play riddled with code words alluding tohomosexual behaviour. Karl Beckson argues that the title of the playis not only a pun on the name of Earnest, but is also a representationof same-sex love since the term Urning (a variant of the more commonlyused Uranian) referred to same-sex desire in fin-de-siecle London.Beckson also argues that Wildes use of the term bunburying as ameans for Algernon to escape responsibility also has Uranianimplications. With the action of bunburying being such a focal pointof The Importance of Being Earnest, this reading of the play suggest aserious preoccupation with the secret world of the homosexual. It isalso interesting to note that an unnamed critic in Time suggests thatBunburying was shorthand for a visit to a fashionable London malewhorehouse (2 February 1979, 73), an opinion reaffirmed by JoelFineman in 1980. Understandably, after the success of play t hephrase bunburying became a commonly used term as same-sex slang.John Franceschina notes other code words used in the play as musical,effeminate, and aunty, all of them Victorian expressions for same-sexactivity. Yet, again Wilde diverts attention from a moral reading bywriting in a style that is based on farce and euphemism, a style thatrejects an immediate analytical reading. In her essay Dialectics of Dandyism, Elisa Glick observes theissue of secrecy within both modern and Victorian society and suggeststhat modern gay identity is pervaded by the trope of the secret.She pays particular interest to the dichotomy of appearance and whatlies beneath, in her words the opposition between outward appearanceand inner essence. This split between appearance and essence of apersons character and desires is central to Wildes portrayal ofhomosexuality, as illustrated by the character of Dorian Gray. Dorianis a contradiction of appearance and essence, with the portrait beingan omnipresent reminder of this. And to return to The Importance ofBeing Earnest, the very act of bunburying on Algernon Moncrieffs partsuggests a web of deceit where appearances are never compatible withreality. One might think that such a heavy reliance on secrecy might lead tosome resentment by those forced to hide their sexuality from anintolerant society, but in the case of Wildes dandies, this does notseem to be the case. In fact, such characters appear to activelyembrace a world of secrecy. If we equate Dorians portrait withhomosexuality, then we can read his response to the secrecy that isforced upon him as something of a guilty pleasure pride ofindividualism that is half fascination of sin, and smiling with secretpleasure at the misshapen shadow that had to bear the burden thatshould have been his own. This seems to suggest that throughsecrecy, a homosexual man can avoid all the negative consequences thatwould be thrust upon him by an offended Victorian society. Glickobserves that it the portrait is not just related to the secret worldof Dorian, but that it also functions on a wider scale, Wilde makes itclear that the portrait does not exhibit a single secret; rather it isthe site f or a circulation of secrecy in which all these characters Basil, Dorian, and Lord Henry are implicated. The portraittherefore, becomes a symbol of the secrecy of the homosexual man, whichis simultaneously associated with issues of aestheticism. Glick goeson to suggest that Basil expresses the sense of homosexuality as bothknown and unknowable the double bind of gay identity when hedeclares, I have come to love secrecy. It seems to be the one thingthat can make modern life mysterious or marvellous to us. Thecommonest thing is delightful if only one hides it. But just how realistically can homosexuality exist by these secretcodes of conduct? Just as Wilde suffers at the hands of an intolerantsociety, so does Dorian Gray struggle to live a life of doubleidentity. By the end of the novel it becomes clear that he issuspended between two worlds, with no lasting way of marrying the two.To return to the essay of Elisa Glick, Dorian must die when he stabsthe portrait because he can only exist in the relation between thepublic and the private, a relation that Wilde literalizes in theportrait and its subject. Right from the outset of The Picture ofDorian Gray we are presented with the concept of that part of anartists inspiration that remains secret and personal to them.Therefore, the portrait of Dorian Gray does not merely conceal thesecrets of Dorian, but also the secrets of the painter of the subject -the portrait is a mysterious form because its outward appearanceconceals its inner essence. it reveals the essence of both painterand painted. T he secret desire hidden within the painting is broughtto our attention by Henrys shallow comment that the painting looksnothing like Basil; the fact that his retort misses the point entirelymerely succeeds in enhancing our understanding that there is much moreof Basils desires and passion in the painting than is immediatelyobvious from its surface attributes. Interestingly, this revelationcontradicts the concept of appreciating art purely for its appearanceand with no relation to moral values. In many cases living by thesenses reveals much about the person, and experiences cannot be soeasily detached from emotion and personal feeling. For example, whenDorian falls in love with Sibyl Vane, Henry observes that out of itssecret hiding place had crept his Soul, and Desire had come to meet iton the way. Within the stereotypical lifestyles of the aesthetes,inner feeling will inevitably show its face and with it, bring at leasta fleeting ponder on moral values. Having analysed The Importance of Being Earnest and The Picture ofDorian Gray with regard to elements of secrecy, both positive andnegative consequences of such an influence on homosexual lifestyle areapparent. But it is the story of The Happy Prince that puts Wildesfinal and definitive seal of opinion on the issue of secrecy. Once theswallow has sacrificed his life for the statue of the Prince, the twoTown Councillors far from understand the relationship between theswallow and prince, becoming preoccupied with the trivial matter of whoshould be the subject of the next statue. However, there is ultimatelya happy ending with the swallow and Prince receiving recognition andacceptance from God, for in my garden of Paradise this little birdshall sing for evermore, and in my city of gold the Happy Prince shallpraise me. The relationship between Prince and Swallow does havehomoerotic undertones, with the Swallow often read as the dandycharacter, in this case fascinated by the beauty of the statue. Thehomoerotic aspect of the tale culminates in a kiss between the two,but you must kiss me on the lips, for I love you. If we are toaccept a homoerotic reading of The Happy Prince then accordingly wecan read the ending as Wilde voicing his opinion of homosexuality asnatural and literally giving such a lifestyle the blessing of God. InThe Portrait of Dorian Gray, Wilde uses a similar technique whereby hepresents the character who can most easily be classified as homosexual,as the very character who is the most morally sensitive. However, a homoerotic reading of The Happy Prince, indeed of anyof Wildes literary works, relies on and is substantially influenced byour knowledge of Oscar Wildes personal life. This brings us to thefinal chapter of this dissertation, a chapter that will analyse therelationship between the writer and the narrator, and the effect ofthis relationship on aesthetic and homoerotic readings of Wildesfiction. Chapter 5 -Wilde the storyteller So far we have looked mainly at The Importance of Being Earnest andThe Picture of Dorian Gray and we have touched upon the fact that it isoften difficult to read such works without considering the personallife of Oscar Wilde. A Victorian audience would have held someknowledge of Wilde, considering that he was an extremely sociablecharacter with social critiques often published in Reviews of thetime. And of course, his two years imprisonment would have beenwidely publicised and consequently common knowledge. There is no doubtthat it was around this time that heterosexual readers would havestruggled to accept the links that Wilde makes between aestheticism andhomosexuality, fearing a similar fate merely for sharing thecharacteristics of aestheticism. Reading in the twenty-first centurywe now have the privilege of even further information on Wildesprivate life. The nineteenth century novel largely focused on the third person,omnipresent narrator, and in doing so inevitably drew attention to thepersona of the narrator and subsequently to the author himself. Wildeis no exception to this rule and it is difficult not to see his owncharacter or what we believe to be his own character shinethrough. As suggested in the previous chapter, it is not just thecondition of the artist to worship beauty, but also to allow his owncharacter and desires to become a part of his art. In the case of ThePortrait of Dorian Gray, our knowledge of Wilde as a dandy and aesthetecolours our interpretation of characters such as Lord Henry andDorian. Knowing what we do about Wildes extravagant social life andturbulent relationship with the press, lines such as You dont wantpeople to talk of you as something vile and degraded spoken to Dorianby Basil, begin to take on more significant meaning. With this quotein mind, it is possible to read between the lines and observ e a feelingin Wilde that he wishes somehow, outside of his literature not to belooked upon as vile and degraded. This desire for acceptance isoffset by the more typical tongue in cheek wit of Wilde, the use ofwhich diverts attention from serious emotions. This type of humour canbe seen in Dorians retort to Basil on hearing gossip, I love scandalsabout other people, but scandals about myself dont interest me. Theyhave not got the charm of novelty. It seems that Wilde isdeliberately poking fun at himself and joining in with the popularridicule that was present in Victorian society about the life of theaesthetic gentleman. Many cartoons and caricatures were in circulationat the time that sought to make fun of the extravagances of theaesthetic lifestyle. Numerous satirical works were also released,worth particular mention is Robert Hitchens Green Carnation, asatirical novel on decadence influenced by the authors beliefs inaestheticism as unconventional and exhibitionist. The Importance ofBeing Earnest also has a farcical tone throughout, which often servesto allow the reader to question Wildes authority, whilst also allyingthe comments of certain characters with Oscar himself. For example, aline of Gwendolen appears to point directly at Wildes personal life,And certainly once a man begins to neglect his domestic duties hebecomes painfully effeminate, does he not? And I dont like that. Itmakes men so very attractive. However, many critics would argue that the very definition of fictiondictates that the reader should accept that there need not necessarilybe a connection between narrator and author. In the same way that anactor does not need to have experienced a similar history and lifestyleto the character they play, so too should we allow the writer to assumedifferent characters. This very point crops up in the story of ThePortrait of Mr W.H whereby the narrator argues that To say that only awoman can portray the passions of a woman, and that therefore no boycan play Rosalind, is to rob the art of acting of all claim toobjectivity. Indeed, this type of reading does take some of thepressure away from Wilde and means that he can be judged as an authorless readily. Having said this, in reality this is an extremely thinveil of protection. And in the writing of The Portrait of Mr. W.Heven seems to invite a reading based on his own life. For example, heuses a first person narrator and a style that can easily be mistakenfor a factual piece of writing concerning validated research. Wildeclearly walks a fine line between fact and fiction, keeping the focuson fiction just enough to allow him to present his work as fiction, andrely on the cover of other narrative techniques such as the beliefs ofaestheticism. Wilde toys with his audience and seems to delight inkeeping them guessing as to where the line between fact and fiction isdrawn. This can be linked back to the issue of secrecy withinhomosexual culture and the pleasure that can be gained from suchsecrecy. The Importance of Being Earnest, The Picture of Dorian Gray and ThePortrait of Mr W.H all feature aspects of the male dandy and overlapwith what we know to be Wildes lifestyle. But when it comes to othertales in The Happy Prince and other stories, they are much furtherremoved from Wildes reality and experience, located in fairy talesettings and seem to offer the content of a fable. Written in such adifferent style to the works already discussed, where can theseremaining tales be positioned in relation to Wildes stance onaestheticism and lifestyle as a homosexual man, and does the fact thatWilde has adopted a fairy tale style mean that there is more separationbetween narrator and author? The Happy Prince and other stories do have elements of Wildes wideropinions and ideas on aestheticism, and in some instances, undertonesof homoeroticism. However, before considering the stories in relationto these issues, it is important to draw attention to Wildes intendedreadership/audience. Having married Constance Lloyd, Wilde was thefather of two and there is no doubt that consequently assuming thisrole influenced the content and style of these particular works.Although his two sons were still very young when he wrote The HappyPrince and other stories, he would ultimately have had them in mind ashis desired audience. As Owen Dudley Edwards comments: This is not tosay that the stories were first told to his two sons, though simpleversions of them may have beenBut they were written with the intentionof telling them to his sons. They are stories from an unselfconsciousfather who knows how to move the storyteller in and out of thenarrative with mild self-mockery, as opposed to some assertive malechauvinist brute thundering his own dignity and morality for theedification of his wretched offspring. The Happy Prince, The Selfish Giant and other tales in thecollection all have characteristics of the fairy tale, as well as thebible story and epic tradition. Wildes target audience wouldobviously have influenced his apparent adherence to Victorian moralvalues and religious beliefs. With a folklorist for a mother and aneducation in the classics, Wildes storytelling influences can clearlybe traced back to his upbringing. Owen Dudley Edwards suggests thatWildes stories in almost all cases travel back to a Celtic folk-worlddominated by ghosts and God. The presence of God in The Selfish Giantfor example, focuses on a religious message of humanity and the afterlife, and as a result it allows for a clear-cut moral, something thatWildes other works shy away from. There is less ambiguity concerningthe conclusions we come to at the end of these tales. It can perhaps be argued that these stories are an outlet forWildes desire to be accepted by Victorian society. Influenced by hischildren an aspect of his heterosexual life they appear to be thetype of sugary tale that would be embraced by a society obsessed by thedistinction between right and wrong, normal and abnormal. Although,there are still moments of typical tongue in cheek Wilde humour, themorals of the stories fundamentally serve those of the Victorian ideal. Animosity toward Wilde during the late nineteenth century came aboutlargely as a reaction toward perceived immoral aspects of his work.However the very nature of aestheticism invites a reading entirelyunrelated to moral values. As Lord Henry Wotton suggests at the veryend The Picture of Dorian Gray As for being poisoned by a book, thereis no such thing as that. Art has no influence upon action. Itannihilates the desire to act. It is superbly sterile. The books thatthe world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.That is all. It seems that while Wilde would ideally like the rest of society toread his works as art for arts sake, the reality of it all is thatresponsibility cannot be transferred quite so easily. Art isinescapably linked with the character and inner feelings with theartist and will be read accordingly by the reader. Both Dorian andBasil realise this, and in this respect we can perhaps see evidencethat Wilde himself was dubious as to just how far he could separatehimself from his art Dorian begins to experience a similarrelationship with Art, Appreciate it? I am in love with it, Basil. Itis part of myself. I feel that. Dorian soon comes to realise thatthe painting is a part of him, and does not merely objectify him, nordoes it exist independently from himself and Basil. No sooner has itbeen created than it is a part of their lives, of their experiences andfeelings. Toibin highlights this as problem concerning all of Wildesliterary works, particularly his plays is that they are forced tocompe te with the drama of his own lost years. Numerous biographieshave been published on Wilde, even films documenting his life. Havingbecome a part of popular culture today, most people know something ofWildes history, particularly his tumultuous relationship with AlfredDouglas. It is impossible to approach Wildes fiction with fresh eyesand no prior conceptions of what we suppose will be references to hisown lifestyle. Throughout the chapters of this dissertation, it has become clearthat art cannot exist purely for arts sake; a host of other factorsand influences come into play during the observers appreciation of theart. Wildes art cannot be experienced as art for arts sake, it isart to make a point, as a vehicle for Wilde to express his own opinionsand feelings. Just as the picture of Dorian Gray proves what sin cando to a man, so the novel raises its own issues and aims to make itsown point, as ambiguous as this may be The sitter is merely theaccident, the occasion. It is not he who is revealed by the painter, itis rather the painter who, on the coloured canvas, reveals himself.Recognising this, Wilde calls upon numerous narrative techniques todraw attention away from aspects of his own personal lifestyle. Thesetechniques include referencing the accepted ideal of beauty from theGreek era, injecting an element of farce in order to invite a questionin the authority of the narrator, and referencin g beliefs inaestheticism. Well-known in the late nineteenth century for his socialcritique and outspoken character, Wilde would often use this to hisadvantage by making extreme remarks on society that would defy beingtaking seriously, for example, I am too fond of reading books to careto write them, Mr Erskine. I should like to write a novel certainly; anovel that would be as lovely as a Persian carpet and as unreal. Butthere is no literary public in England for anything except newspapers,primers, and encyclopaedias. Of all people in the world the Englishhave the least sense of the beauty of literature. Instead of askingfor trouble, Wilde succeeds in creating a style that allows him morefreedom by taking on a role of questionable authority. Toibin suggeststhat Wilde is ready to mock and amuse, use old creaky plots and oldcreaky characters, and use them to play with a world of surfaces andsecrets. Mistaken identities, long-lost children, lost jewels,overheard conversations and many e xits and entrances are placed besidecynicism and corruption, opportunism and a large number of aphorismswhich manage to seem both glib and indisputable. Thus, he drawsattention away from his own personal life and allows himself much moreliterary freedom of expression through misunderstanding and the worldof farce. Wilde is only able to escape the restraints of aestheticism whenrelating true experience. His work, De Profundis, written fromReading jail between January and March 1897 is described her by Toibin:The tone of De Profundis was calmly eloquent; there was a hurtbeauty in the sentences, and a sense of urgency, a sense of hard thingsbeing said for the first time. Wildes old skills at paradox, hisability to use words as a way of turning the world on its head, were nolonger used to seduce an audience but to kill his own pain and griefHehad suffered too much to care if his tone seemed too emotional, writtennot as art, but as matter. The reference to seducing an audienceimplies that Wilde sought an acceptance that could not have been gainedwere he more serious and were he truthful. His skills of turning theworld on its head can therefore be read as defence mechanisms todisguise the man behind the face of the narrator. Despite the pleasure of secrecy described in Chapter 4, Wilde wasperhaps more concerned about conforming within the confines ofVictorian society than would be apparent at first glance. An importantevent with regard to Wildes moral values is that of his arrest andsubsequent trial. To quote Summers: the theme of martyrdom is athread that runs through much of his work, early and late, and probablyreflects the strong masochistic element in his personality, even as italso mirrors his sense of alienation. Moreover his disastrous decisionto prosecute the Marquess of Queensbury for alleging that he posed as asodomite was itself reactionary rather than defiant in nature,reflecting both his ambivalence toward homosexuality and his desire toappear to conform to the Victorian standards that he so oftenridiculed. This is to suggest that Wildes desire to conform mayhave had more of an influence over his actions than any early crusadefor gay rights or rebellion against Victorian morals and values.T oibin states that The personal became political because an Irishmanpushed his luck. The covert nature of homosexuality and thestrategies Wilde used within his literary works to concealhomoeroticism, may have given him a false sense of security and enoughbravado to believe that he could call upon Victorian standards toprotect him from slander. In the words of Summers: Although Wilde frequently (and sometimesself-servingly) asserted the impersonality of art, his own art isinseparably bound to his personality, or at least to the personal he soassiduously cultivated and promoted, and thus his works cannot beappreciated in isolation from his life. As a homosexual manattempting to exist successfully in Victorian society, whilst leading asomewhat secretive homosexual lifestyle, Wilde was ultimately unable tomarry the two markedly different worlds. Living in an intolerantsociety, Wildes only potential saviour was aestheticism, bringing withit the power to validate homoeroticism and invite acceptance from widerVictorian society. Yet, it was the elitist nature of aestheticism thatisolated others from joining the movement, and instead it became anexclusive club that provoked ridicule from many of the bourgeoisie andmiddle class. Just as Wildes fiction was inextricably linked with hispersonal life in Victorian society, so, over one h undred years afterhis death he remains an iconic writer, known equally for his lifestyleand his art. 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