Oliver Twist Essays - English-language Films,

Oliver Twist Charles Dickens, probably one of the most popular writer and humorist of his century was born at Landport in Portsea, on February seventh, 1812. His father, John Dickens was a clerk in a navy-pay office, and mother Elizabeth Borrow, along with his eight other siblings, which the other two died in infancy, lived in Portsea, and were fairly poor. Because of the arising poverty in his life time, Charles Dickens was forced to work as a child laborer when he was just twelve year of age. Although Charles Dickens faced many challenges in his young life, his love for writing dominated all of the challenges he faced in life. Perhaps, his book, Oliver Twist, was about, well, mainly about his life as a child. Although Dickens wrote Oliver Twist while he was finishing The Pickwick Papers and editing Bentley's Miscellany, he managed to make the novel remarkable for it's clarity of purpose and it's sustained intensity(The Cambridge guide to Literature in English; Ian Ousby). The story that lies behind the infamous story of a little orphan boy named Oliver is very different from his other previous novels. Other critics say that Oliver Twist is barely a novel, but more as a satire or sarcasm about the victorian era. First of all, the story begins with a young woman who gave birth to a boy whom they named Oliver. The young woman did not even have any time to hold her new born, but just in time to kiss him, then shortly died after that, the boy on the other hand survived, not knowing what kind of twist and turn his life would take as he grows and faces the real world. As the boy grew in a very vain and cruel environment, his turns in life was not going too good either. Having the parish not enough facilities for his care, Oliver was forced to move and work as a child laborer and in the care of a very greedy woman named Mrs. Mann. Child labor was very common back then, and there was an actual law that was set to eliminate poverty by starving the poor, that was called the Poor Law of 1834.(The Life of Charles Dickens;John Forester) Dickens used this law in his story to satarize the living in London, in the 19th century, and probably because he experienced child labor when he was growing up, and therefore tried to emphazise the way he lived back then. As soon as Oliver turned nine years old, Mr. Bumble, the beadle of the parish which where Oliver was born, took Oliver with him to work as an oakum picker. But because of the increasing of poverty, Oliver and the other workers were only fed little pieces of food. In the midst of starvation, one of Oliver's friend pursued Oliver to ask for some more food, and by that, Oliver was taken to a dark room for a week for his "disrespectfulness." Perhaps, Dickens was trying to tell the readers how the life of a poor boy be so unimportant to those who dominates him, and thus the other children living in povety also. This challenge of Oliver's life is just preparing him for the other eventful changes in his immediate future. Soon after, a reward was posted on a board for anyone who would like to take an orphan boy to their care, and will be offered five-pounds. Mr. Gamfield was willing to accept the boy for a bribe of five-pounds, but because of his bad publicity, meaning he had already lost the lives of several of his apprentices, he was told to be paid three- pounds and ten-shillings, instead of the five-pounds that was promised. Mr. Gamfield agreed to the proposition, and so did the board. Later, brought before a local judge for approval that Oliver was to be cared by Mr. Gamfield, the near sighted judge, searching for his ink bottel, caused him to look at the frightened face of Oliver, and then quickly realized that he would do something wrong if he let Oliver go with Mr. Gamfield, dropped and refused to sign the papers of approval, and told Oliver to return to the workhouse where the offering of five-pounds to anyone that

Medeas Monologue by Euripides (Mother Character)

Medeas Monologue by Euripides (Mother Character) In one of the most chilling monologues in all of Greek Mythology, Medea seeks revenge against the heroic yet callous Jason (the father of her children) by killing her own offspring. Found in the play Medea by the Greek writer Euripides,  this monologue offers an alternative to the traditional female monologues found in classic literature. In the play, Medea kills her children (offstage) and then flies away on the chariot of Helios, and while many have argued that this play demonizes women, others contend that Medea represents literature’s first feminist heroine, a woman who chooses her own destiny despite the hand she was dealt by the gods. Although not the typical  mother character monologue, Madeas monologue  is deeply expressive of the difficulty and multiplicity of the emotions love, loss, and revenge, making it a truly excellent audition piece for female actors who want to convey their ability to portray a depth of complex emotions. Full Text of Medeas Monologue Taken from an English translation of the Greek play by  Shelley Dean Milman  found in The Plays of Euripides in English, vol ii, the following monologue is delivered by Medea upon discovering Jason has left her for the princess of Corinth. Upon this realization that shes been left alone, Madea attempts to take control of her own life and says: O my sons!My sons! ye have a city and a houseWhere, leaving hapless me behind, withoutA mother ye for ever shall reside.But I to other realms an exile go,Ere any help from you I could derive,Or see you blest; the hymeneal pomp,The bride, the genial couch, for you adorn,And in these hands the kindled torch sustain.How wretched am I through my own perverseness!You, O my sons, I then in vain have nurtured,In vain have toiled, and, wasted with fatigue,Suffered the pregnant matrons grievous throes.On you, in my afflictions, many hopesI founded erst: that ye with pious careWould foster my old age, and on the bierExtend me after death- much envied lotOf mortals; but these pleasing anxious thoughtsAre vanished now; for, losing you, a lifeOf bitterness and anguish shall I lead.But as for you, my sons, with those dear eyesFated no more your mother to behold,Hence are ye hastening to a world unknown.Why do ye gaze on me with such a lookOf tenderness, or wherefore smile? for theseAre your last s miles. Ah wretched, wretched me!What shall I do? My resolution fails.Sparkling with joy now I their looks have seen,My friends, I can no more. To those past schemesI bid adieu, and with me from this landMy children will convey. Why should I causeA twofold portion of distress to fallOn my own head, that I may grieve the sireBy punishing his sons? This shall not be:Such counsels I dismiss. But in my purposeWhat means this change? Can I prefer derision,And with impunity permit the foeTo scape? My utmost courage I must rouse:For the suggestion of these tender thoughtsProceeds from an enervate heart. My sons,Enter the regal mansion.  [Exuent SONS.]  As for thoseWho deem that to be present were unholyWhile I the destined victims offer up,Let them see to it. This uplifted armShall never shrink. Alas! alas! my soulCommit not such a deed. Unhappy woman,Desist and spare thy children; we will liveTogether, they in foreign realms shall cheerThy exile. No, by those avenging fiendsWho dwell w ith Pluto in the realms beneath,This shall not be, nor will I ever leaveMy sons to be insulted by their foes.They certainly must die; since then they must,I bore and I will slay them: tis a deedResolved on, nor my purpose will I change.Full well I know that now the royal brideWears on her head the magic diadem,And in the variegated robe expires:But, hurried on by fate, I tread a pathOf utter wretchedness, and them will plungeInto one yet more wretched. To my sonsFain would I say: O stretch forth your right handsYe children, for your mother to embrace.O dearest hands, ye lips to me most dear,Engaging features and ingenuous looks,May ye be blest, but in another world;For by the treacherous conduct of your sireAre ye bereft of all this earth bestowed.Farewell, sweet kisses- tender limbs, farewell!And fragrant breath! I never more can bearTo look on you, my children. My afflictionsHave conquered me; I now am well awareWhat crimes I venture on: but rage, the causeOf woes most grievous to the human race,Over my better reason hath prevailed. Even Euripides contemporaries found the monologue and play to be shocking to the Athenian audiences at the time, though this may have stemmed more from the artistic liberties Euripides took in retelling Medeas story- the children historically were said to have been killed by the Corinthians, not by Medea- and the play itself was ranked third of three at the Dionysia Festival where it premiered in 431 B.C.