Learn how to give your cartoon drawing some legs with expert artist advice in this free online drawing and cartooning lesson video clip. Expert: Danny Page Bio: Danny Page is a professional cartoonist and illustrator. Filmmaker: Nathan Boehme
One of the more fascinating things you can think about when you’re bored is why the spam is so different depending on where you have accounts. Perhaps I’m just lucky, but I get very little spam through my ISP. Mostly, it’s just to persuade me to buy viagra and other more obviously fake ways of producing sexual enhancement. I suppose the way I trawl the web to find stories to write about here sells my name as someone desperate to find a way of overcoming sexual inadequacy. But, when it comes to Gmail, my inbox is more evenly divided between viagra and gambling sites. And then come the yahoo accounts (I have several for different purposes). Almost without exception, I am flooded by the Nigerian scam mail. It seems the spammers target different user groups depending on the mail servers they use. A research team based at the University of California has been digging into the problem — it’s completely fascinating to see how some research teams spend their time. Anyway, this team decided to try estimating how much money the spammers made out of persuading people to buy viagra. Their guess? $3.5 million a year. How did they come up with this number? Well, like cunning hackers, they wormed their way into the Storm botnet. For the uninitiated among you, this is one of the control centers for all those hacked computers around the world. Storm lets you send out millions of e-mails. To monitor responses, they set up two websites of their own to promote. One offered to sell viagra. The other was designed to mimic infecting the users with trojans — the same little bits of code that allow spammers to hijack machines in the first place. Both were actually harmless but counted the traffic and downloaded benign bits of code. Now comes the exciting bit. They sent out almost 470 million e-mails. There were 350 million to promote the viagra site with 10,500 people responding and 28 people attempting to buy viagra in quantities worth more than US$100. So the low conversion rate did not mean low profits. By scaling up this hit rate, the research team arrived at their annual estimate for gross revenue. But it’s actually quite expensive to send out all this spam so the only way the operation pays is if the spammers also run the sites they promote. The infection site was more efficient, converting an average of 6,000 PCs a day to clones. OK, so now you know who to blame for some of that spam you have been receiving, you can all get your own back by e-mailing the research team which is based at the campuses at Berkeley and San Diego. The dog that didn’t bark during the night One of the very best throwaway lines from Sherlock Holmes comes in The Silver Blaze. Asked what is significant about the way in which the horse was stolen, he identifies the failure of the dog to bark as the most important clue. I have always liked the idea of the answer to mystery novels turning on some simple insight. Too often, an author gets so caught up in his or her own cleverness that plot becomes too complicated and characters less interesting as they do increasingly odd things just to fit in with the need to arrive at the solution. So it is, when people like me come to write about why to buy viagra. We beat out our brains trying to find something new and exciting to say when all the new and exciting things have already been said. Then we remember the simple rule. If in doubt, talk about an animal. By now almost everyone on the planet knows that viagra is the best thing since the invention of sliced bread when it comes to a cure for erectile dysfunction. As an aside, I should note that sliced bread is completely useless as a remedy for impotence. Anyway, what is slightly less well known is that viagra is also used under a different brand name for the treatment of pulmonary hypertension. This affects the main arteries and veins in the chest, through the lungs and leading to and from the heart. If blood pressure rises too high, it can cause dizziness and difficulty in breathing. Unchecked, it leads to the risk of heart failure, particularly during exertion. In treating erectile dysfunction, viagra works by dilating the arteries leading into the penis. The same qualities make it a vital way of relieving high blood pressure in the chest. So how do we draw all this together into the big reveal at the end of this little mystery? Well, for that, you have to travel with me to Highgate in London. Look around and ask for Bentley. He’s quite a local character. You see, he got problems with his pulmonary arteries and was prescribed viagra. Now, he’s back on his feet again, chasing rabbits and doing all the doggy things that Springer spaniels do when they are fit again. The local veterinarian was absolutely correct in his diagnosis. The failure to bark probably indicated an imminent heart attack. The use of viagra dilated the arteries and allowed the blood to flow more smoothly. He was “cured”. Unfortunately, Bentley was neutered when young so we are unable to report if his sexual prowess also improved. Other than that, take this story to heart. Even dogs sing the praises of viagra! Buy viagra online right now!
The Application of Gender Roles within “Much Ado About Nothing” and
“The Taming of the Shrew”
In his works William Shakespeare exploits many different themes to uncover the message of the works, impress reader and make a narration more vivid and colorful, sophisticated and interesting. The treatment of gender roles plays an important role in the plays under analysis being an integral part of plot and characters development. In Much Ado About Nothing and The Taming of the Shrew, William Shakespeare attempts to portray a more positive and accepting view of how women should be regarded and treated.
Shakespeare constructs gender role according to characters functions in the play. “In Much Ado About Nothing”, most of the male characters is depicted as brave soldiers. Leonato, Claudio and Benedick. They are courageous and clever men. For all their concentration on mundane details, Shakespeare’s novels depicts survival, heroic adventures of social mobility in which individuals single-handedly confront and conquer a host of adverse circumstances. In “The Taming of the Shrew”, the major characters Petruccio and Lucentio are joined by friendship. Despite the apparent crudity of their narratives, Shakespeare’s novels are animated by a quality more usually identified with a more self-consciously sophisticated form of gender relations. In both plays, women characters are depicted loving and sympathetic, nevertheless very proud and ambitious.
In spite historical epoch and predetermined gender roles of woman as subordinate, Shakespeare underlines that gender role between women and men are not so important as considered to be.
“Now Kate, I am a husband for your turn,
For by this light, whereby I see thy beauty
Thy beauty that doth make me like thee well” (The Taming of the Shrew, p.272).
In contrast to men, the function of women is to be a good wife and mother. In “Much ado about nothing” he writes that: “They say the lady is fair. ‘Tis a truth, I can bear them witness. And virtuous’tis so, I cannot reprove it. And wise, but for loving me. By my troth, it is no addition to her witnor no great argument of her folly, for I will be horribly in love with her” (Much ado about nothing, p.204).
Gender roles are stable in the plays in spite of the changes in appearance of the characters. From the very beginning in “The Taming of the Shrew”, Shakespeare portrays changes in the statuses of the hero. Sly is dressed as a lord, and a pageboy dressed in women’s clothing: “Am I a lord and have I such a lady? Or do I dream? Or have I dreamed till now? I do not sleep: I see, I hear, I speak”. (The Taming of the Shrew, Induction, Scene 2, lines 28-30). In the other play, Claudio and Hero decide to play a game, and force Beatrice and Benedick to fall in love. Their changes in appearance are successful helping Beatrice and Benedick to stop arguing. In “Much ado about nothing” the main hero says “What should I do with himdress him in my apparel and make him my waiting gentlewoman? He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man; and he that is more than a youth is not for me, and he that is less than a man, I am not for him” (Much ado about nothing, p.28). Contradictions like these – and there are many other celebrated examples in the plays – have often been taken as evidence of a slap-dash approach to the gender roles. Yet the pattern of these contradictions, in which characters preach like moralists yet act like ruthless opportunists, goes to the heart of Shakespeare plays. In any case, these heroes preserve their identity as males and females. These changes in the appearance, do not influence the status of woman in the society and do not humiliate them. Judgements like these derive from the tendency to identify Shakespeare with the narrators of his plays.
Exploiting the ambiguities of female function, a subdued creature and a strong and loving person, Shakespeare portrays complex female characters from positive side. For instance, in “The Taming of the Shrew” ill-tempered Katherine is contrasted to her “lovely” and calm sister Bianca. ‘Katherine the Curst’ A title for a maid, of all titles the worst” (The Taming of the Shrew, Act 1, Sc. 2, Lines 130-131). Shakespeare portrays Bianca as: “‘Tis deeds must win the prize, and he of both hat can assure my daughter greatest dower
Shall have my Bianca’s love.” (The Taming of the Shrew, Act 2, Sc. 1, Lines 361-365).
In general, Shakespeare’s reputation contributed to the stereotype of the moral author.
Plays which conformed to social mores were more widely acceptable as serious literary plays. The strong gender roles system made a clear distinction between the aristocratic lady as a graceful accomplishment, and the woman who went against the nature of sex.
Although the terms of the relative judgement has sometimes altered, the temptation to draw comparisons between male and female. High morality of women is underlined throughout the plays. The morality of Shakespeare is based on a simple antithetical contrast; natural instinct versus social hypocrisy, goodness of heart versus cunning of head. Part of the satisfaction of the plays comes from the combination of the formal symmetry of role structure with the apparent freedom and randomness of some episodes. At the end of the play, Katherine declares, “Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper, Thy head, thy sovereign, one that cares for thee, And for thy maintence commits his body To painful labor both by sea and land” (Act 5, Sc. 2, 162-180). Using this episode, Shakespeare contrasts female characters underlining that women are treated according to their behaviour and character, which has little to do with gender roles. “I cannot be a man with wishing, therefore I will die a woman with grieving.” (Much ado about nothing, p. 224).
In both plays, women voices construct great psychological complexity. In its treatment of the contradictions between ‘virtue’ as reputation and virginity as an extension of moral integrity, Shakespeare highlights the social hypocrisies where the marriage market puts a price on maidenhood. Shakespeare urges the conventional solution of marrying the seducer, but Katherine follows the path of self-imposed martyrdom. The play depicts simplistic morality, based on eternal virtues and justice.
“I am ashamed that women are so simple
To offer war where they should kneel for peace” (The Taming of the Shrew, Act 5, Sc. 2, Lines 361-365).
This quote provides a notable contrast to the male treatment of female characters. It was the development of the female characters. By creating an distance between the heroines and the heroes, Shakespeare uses this theme to make a social comment on women’s nobles focusing on their good and bad sides.
“Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more,
Men were deceivers ever,-
One foot in sea and one on shore,
To one thing constant never” Much ado about nothing, p.101).
Shakespeare uses the narrative of a woman asking readers to decide what is good and what is bad. He shows an intelligent but naive men tricked out of a woman virtue (Bianca). In drawing attention to the dangers faced by the good- natured but ill-advised heroine contributes to the social debate on the status of women, using the play as an entertaining medium of discussion. This is the way to kill a wife with kindness (The Taming of the Shrew, Act 4, Sc. 1, Lines 201).
Attempting to portray positive image of women, Shakespeare underlines that it is a man who helps women to survive. Women do not have a possibility to interfere into life of men, nevertheless they do so in the plays. Women decide what is good for them and choose the ways to “reach a man”. For instance, Bianca ask Lucentio to be her tutor. Also, Claudio impulsive vitality is made acceptable by the artful manipulations of the narrator’s tone.
Women’s life, their destiny defined and depended upon the men, and, particularly, upon the their marriage. Although men had an influence on women’s behavior and exaggerated them in many life situations: “”That a woman conceived me, I thank her; that she brought me up, I likewise give her most humble thanks; but that I will have a recheat winded in my forehead, or hang my bugle in an invisible baldrick, all women shall pardon me.” (Much ado about nothing, p. 221).
Shakespeare describes that female characters are strong, as physically so mentally, because their life status requires a masculine strength, but all female characters copes with it perfectly. Shakespeare uses mainly masculine adjectives to underline thier strength.
And do you tell me of a woman’s tongue,
That gives not half so great a blow to hear
As will a chestnut in a farmer’s fire? (The Taming of the Shrew, Act 1, Scene 2, lines 200-209).
The main characteristics outlined are not independent, separate qualities of women but are all mutually interrelated while having an inter-dependent essence in each case. They serve to summarise and unify all characteristics inherent to women. Their character features appear as a guideline or norm that helps women to judge what is or is not right or good in their life. Feeling and practicising care, seeking peace of mind, holding to truth and desiring justice are intrinsic aims. That is, the degree of realisation of positive values in thought and action depend on the nature of the accumulated tendencies of a person interacting with others.
“Such duty as the subject owes the prince,
Even such a woman oweth to her husband” (The Taming of the Shrew, Act 5, Scene 2, lines 12-13).
With the help of Hero, Shakespeare points out the readers’ attention to virtues of conciseness, strong, clear imagery, symbolism, understatement, humor, and irony. These fluctuations reflect the tragic tension within males: Claudio is at once too ambitious to allow his conscience to stop behaving his way and too conscientious to be happy with himself. At the end, Shakespeare depicts Claudio as a man whose character lacks strength, because of ambition. Women attempt to prove that their are strong enough to live in a masculine world, but they reach this through men’s love:
“O Hero! What a Hero hadst thou been
For thee I’ll lock up all the gates of love,
And on my eyelids shall conjecture hang
To turn all beauty into thoughts of harm,
And never shall it more be gracious” (Much ado about nothing, p. 271).
Even if Shakespeare portrays women from a positive side gender roles in the plays are limited. Wmen’s life and their destiny will be defined and depended upon the men, and, particularly, upon the their marriage. Although men will have an influence on women’s behavior and exaggerate them in many life situations. To look deeply into the problem it is possible to say that women have fought to be independent and be equal to men, but they have no rights. On the one hand marriage connects with ideology and sees as the state intervention in marriage and a abuse of rights. Women are treated as wives and mothers primarily.
“Lord! I could not endure a husband with a beard on his face: I hath rather lie in the woolen” (Much ado about nothing, p. 211).
In any case, woman represented in the plays of Shakespeare do not suffers because their role as wives. This a positive moments in treatment women. The old-new conservative approach to marry a prosperous person (a man or a woman) comes to nothing when the love is taken into account. In contrast to epoch represented by Shakespeare, marriage means love and happiness. Nevertheless, the existence of institution of marriage, in which men played the dominant role and wielded control, determine the gender roles, and placed women at the mercy of their male counterparts. Katherine says:
“My mind hath been as big as one of yours,
My heart as great, my reason haply more,
To bandy word for word and frown for frown;
But now I see our lances are but straws” (The Taming of the Shrew, Act 5, Scene 2, lines 140-144).
Some day women attempt to put an end to the long-established meaning of women’s roles and became feminists who were ready to fight against men. Women could move beyond the constrictions of the ideology.
It is possible to conclude that both plays embody functional division of gender roles: women are wives and men are husbands. Nevertheless, Shakespeare goes far beyond this simplistic representation of genders portraying that women can perform men’s functions successfully. This style of writing revels in its own vivacity and wit, offering its readers a rich and varied interpretation of gender roles and gender relations together with literary sophistication. Gender roles are based on moral introspection and psychological insight dramatizing the dilemmas of individual social choice. Love as care does not refer to an emotion or a state of mind so much as to a human faculty of identification with others, sympathy with all beings. Female’s sympathy seeks many and various channels of realisation. It is developed through experience and gradual self-realisation. Women’ poetic nature helps the reader to understand that female characters have a natural charm so attractive to others.
With its tone, both plays are a brilliant indictment of a society in which gender roles has abnegated the natural ties of humanity and love.
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Andrew Sandon
Learn how to give your cartoon drawing some hands with expert artist advice in this free online drawing and cartooning lesson video clip. Expert: Danny Page Bio: Danny Page is a professional cartoonist and illustrator. Filmmaker: Nathan Boehme