Thursday, November 28, 2019

Before Act 1 Scene 3 Essay Example

Before Act 1 Scene 3 Essay Before Act 1 Scene 3, Romeo and Juliet got married in private, as their two families had been rivals for years. If the families had found out about this secret arrangement, both Romeo and Juliet would have been disowned. This is an example of Shakespeares use of dramatic irony because in the play only the audience, along with two other characters the friar and the nurse knew that they were married.In Act 3 scene 1, Benvolio and Mercutio were in the public place in Verona. Benvolio tried to convince Mercutio to go home but he refused adamantly. Benvolio wanted to leave before Tybalt and the Capulets arrive but Mercutio refused. The Capulets arrived and Tybalt confronted Mercutio. But Tybalt did not intentionally seek Mercutio to quarrel with him; he wanted Romeo as he gatecrashed the Capulets party. Romeo arrived and saw Mercutio arguing with Tybalt. Romeo tried to keep the peace but Tybalt attacked him.Mercutio jumped in and started a fight with Tybalt. Romeo again tried to interve ne but was not successful and Tybalt accidentally stabbed Mercutio and died. Tybalt, horrified at what he had done, ran off with the rest of the Capulets and Romeo gave chase. Romeo caught up with Tybalt and both of them had a duel. Romeo slayed Tybalt. Realizing what he had done, Romeo ran to the church where friar Lawrence consoled him. In the Town Square however, all the officials and the families of the deceased gathered together and the final judgement of the prince was to banish Romeo.In the play, this scene is a turning point, as the banishment of Romeo created a need for Juliet to escape Verona by the mock death plot in which Juliet would take a concoction that would intoxicate her and cause her to sleep for some days. Her parents would think her dead and bury her and when she awoke she would go and find Romeo. However, it was unsuccessful because the distance created a breakdown in the communication between the lovers because Romeo did not receive Juliets letter explaining her plan. The rumour spread and Romeo heard that Juliet was dead he believed it and poisoned himself, by her side.In the play, many of the characters are portrayed differently. Benvolio is portrayed as a pacifist who tries to keep the peace. We know this because in the film, when the Montague servants encounter the Capulet boys, and start a brawl, Benvolio tries to keep the peace. I do but keep the peace. Put up thy sword, or manage it to part these men with me.Tybalt on the other hand is often presented as an aggressive person for example in Act 1 Scene 1, his response to Benvolios plea to help stop the servants fighting is, What talk of peace? I hate the word, as I hate hell, all Montagues and thee. But in Act 3 Scene 1 he is determined to fight Romeo but he is peaceful towards the other Montagues. When Romeo finally comes, Tybalt says, Well peace be with you, sir: here comes my man. Mercutio is portrayed as a belligerent joker who likes to show off. He even jokes at the hour of h is death.Ask for me tomorrow and you find me a grave man. This shows that he is determined to maintain his honour even if he going to die and this is a pun because it means that he would be dead but what he meant that he would be a sober man. Romeo changes his characteristics quite a lot. At first he is portrayed as a hapless lover and dreamer who is hopeless in romance. Why, such loves transgression; Griefs of mine own lie heavy in my breast. He is then portrayed as a peacemaker in act 3 scene 1. And so, good Capulet, which name I tender as dearly as my own, be satisfied. This is dramatic irony once again as only the audience, the friar and the nurse know that Romeo and Juliet have got married but nobody else so Mercutio is shocked.The film is different from the play in many different ways. In the film, in Act 3 Scene 1, it is clear from the expression on Benvolios face (played by Dash Mikok) that he is apprehensive about the possibilities of impending violence. The audience sees the expression of his face as the Director (Baz Luhrman) shows a close up of Benvolios face to dramatise the anxiety that he is facing.When the Capulet boys arrive, they are dressed in black and they are armed which immediately shows that they want to cause trouble and are ready for a western High Noon shootout. When the Capulet boys confront The Montague boys, Mercutio, being the provocateur that he is, mocks Tybalt and Baz Luhrman dramatises this part as the cameras spin round the two characters as Mercutio attempts to strike Tybalt.One of the most important parts of this scene is the part where Tybalt attacks Romeo. The director dramatises this by showing a close up of Tybalt savagely attacking Romeo who does not strike back. The other most important part of this scene is the part where Mercutio exclaims, A plague in both your houses! In the play, Mercutio utters these words three times, but in the film he screams it out and it echoes over and over again. The weather changes fro m light and sunny but then it goes dark and cloudy and it starts to rain. This is dramatic as it is more powerful the way it sounds and the way Baz Luhrman used the weather to add effect is known as pathetic fallacy.The ending of the scene, when Romeo kills Tybalt, is very important as well. The weather (pathetic fallacy) is also gloomy in this part and when Tybalt and Romeo are driving, the director shows a close up of both their faces, which indicates that something bad is going to happen as they both have the same expression on their faces, which is that of anger and desperation. It is shown in slow motion as well and the director uses that to make it more powerful. When Romeo confronts Tybalt, He screams at him, Either thou, or I, or both, must go with him! This is dramatised as Romeo and Tybalt seem to be the only ones in the square and once again Baz Luhrman (director) uses pathetic fallacy to add to the tension.There are many people to blame for the death of Romeo and Juliet. Firstly theres Tybalt: the impetuous, violent person, the leader of the Capulet boys. He wanted revenge for when Romeo gatecrashed the Capulets party and he is the plays first murderer as he kills Mercutio. Another person to blame for the murder of Romeo and Juliet is Mercutio. If he had listened to the advice of Benvolio and had left the scene, he still would have been alive.Romeo is also to blame for his and Juliets death because he should have told everyone, including Tybalt, that he had married Juliet and this would have stopped Mercutio from getting angry. Oh calm, dishonourable, vile submission! Mercutio thought that Romeo was giving in to Tybalts beatings and this is why he was angry. Also if Tybalt had known, he wouldnt have viciously attacked Romeo. Fate had the biggest hand in the whole play. Even if the lovers had avoided making all those mistakes, fate was out of their hands and each event and mishap in each scene built up to the tragic deaths of both Romeo and Juliet.T his scene links up to the rest of the play as the main themes are love Romeo and Rosaline and then Romeo and Juliet, hate Tybalt and Romeo, Rivalry Montagues and Capulets and fate the death of the lovers. These are all found in the play and the film and they epitomise the play. This scene also shows the biggest duel of the Montague family and the Capulet family. But in the end they realise the wrong they have done and the loved ones that they have lost. Without this scene the play would not have been as powerful because all the previous scenes build up towards this scene. If this scene was not in the play, the ending wouldnt be so climaxed and dramatised and tragic.The reaction of an Elizabethan audience would be different because during the Elizabethan period, they valued honour and pride greatly and the scene when Romeo gate-crashed the Capulets party and wounded Tybalts pride would have caused a negative effect on an Elizabethan audience but it would not cause any effect on t odays audience.

Sunday, November 24, 2019

Vygotskys Sociocultural Theory and Hong Kong Essay Example

Vygotskys Sociocultural Theory and Hong Kong Essay Example Vygotskys Sociocultural Theory and Hong Kong Paper Vygotskys Sociocultural Theory and Hong Kong Paper Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory focused on the affect of the surroundings, namely the culture, peers, and adults, on the developing child. Vygotsky proposed the â€Å"zone of proximal development† (ZPD) to explain the influence of the cultural context. ZPD refers to the range of tasks which a child cannot finish alone since they are too difficult, but such tasks can be completed with guidance and aid from more-skilled individuals. The lower limit of ZPD is the level of skill that the children can reach alone, and the upper limit of ZPD is the level of skill that the children can reach with guidance from a more skilled individual, such as teachers, parents and more-skilled peers. Imagine a child is having difficulty writing book reports. With suitable aid from teachers and parents, this child can improve in writing book reports and eventually he/she can finish a detailed book report after reading on his own. In this example, the upper limit of the ZPD is to finish a book report and the assistance provided by the adults is called scaffolding. The assistance provided by the more-skilled individuals will act as a scaffolding to help the children to develop into their upper limit of ZPD. As the children are making progress, the assistance will gradually reduce and removed when the children can complete the task in their upper limit of ZPD on their own. Vygotsky also emphasized on the importance of language in a child’s development. The use of language by children to self-regulate is called private speech. According to Vygotsky, private speech, which Piaget deemed egocentric and immature, is crucial during early childhood years as children use it for planning, guiding and monitoring their actions and help them finish tasks. Vygotsky suggested that children who use private speech will be more socially competent as children must be experienced in using language to communicate with others before making the transition from external to internal speech. In the past, the main emphasis of education of Hong Kong is to get good grades in public exams, as they provide more opportunity towards success. This results in schools focusing on instructing knowledge to students like feeding chickens in a farm and doesn’t really care whether the students understand the knowledge instructed or not. This exam-oriented style of education ignores the students’ development as a whole, and generates many graduates with good grades in school and struggled in workplace. The old educational style of Hong Kong seems not to fit with Vygotsky’s theory. Nowadays, the emphasis of education in Hong Kong seems to be starting to shift from instructing knowledge to assisting students to construct knowledge. As teachers will not only instruct knowledges, but also guides students in finishing tasks such as laboratory exercises and group projects. This implies the ZPD as teachers will now try to dig students’ potential and help students to reach them. Peer mentors are also very common in secondary schools nowadays. Senior form students will volunteer or be recruited by teachers to assist junior form students to finish assignments or group projects. Cross-age mentoring is more common than same-age mentoring. Same-age mentoring will only occur in class, as students with better understanding on the subject will help explain the concepts to other students and assist them in finishing in-class assignments. The peer mentors are suggested to adjust the amount of guidance according to the progress of the tutees. This implies the scaffolding concept and that culture is important in learning as the tutees are making progress, the peer mentors will reduce the amount of assistance by allowing the tutee to think on his own. Also, the mentors can act as a guide to the tutees so that the tutees can learn from both the teachers and peer mentors. This can also stimulate thinking and the mentors can learn from tutoring as well. The idea of private speech is not very popular in Hong Kong, as children exercising it will be deemed stupid and immature, and parents will feel embarassed and think their children have mental issues. In Hong Kong, a â€Å"good† child should be quiet when working. Therefore, the use of private speech when working on tasks are not encouraged. Students in Hong Kong are now encouraged to take part in various activities such as field trips and museum visits. These activities implies the key concept of Vygotsky’s theory: the importance of culture in learning by creating simulations of real-world circumstances and help students to construct the knowledge the teacher desired. However, such activities are not very popular among Hong Kong students as they tend to think such activities as a waste of time and money. In Hong Kong, the culture emphasizes on creating good results with the least effort. This results in students attending expensive tutorials just to get desired grades and attend desired universities. It seems to me that all the effort from the Education Bureau and schools to turn an instructive, exam-oriented education ystem to a more constructive, all-rounded system are ineffective as the students consider this as redundant. It’s very common for students in Hong Kong to say things like â€Å"I prefer past papers to field trips† as past paper will help students get good grades but field trips won’t. To conclude, implications of Vygotsky’s theory can be found in traditional schools in Hong Kong. In my opinion, the key concept of Vygotsky’s theory and other social constructivists’ theory is to stimulate thin kning and construct knowledge through sociocultural activities. This can definitely help students to develop a better understanding of knowledge and stimulate all-round development as a person. However, the education system in Hong Kong, even with addition of elements to exercise Vygotsky’s theory, is still very exam-oriented. This is mainly due to the reluctance of the students and teachers. As students find these additions of elements redundant and a waste of time, some teachers may also find these additional workload is tiring and ineffective.

Thursday, November 21, 2019

If computer security is the answer, what is the problem, and how can Essay

If computer security is the answer, what is the problem, and how can computer security solve that problem - Essay Example As stated above, computer security deals with several issues, which are related to technology (Wong & Yeung 2009). Facebook is one of the most popular social network site globally (Kirkpatrick 2010). However, there are several security issues that pose a danger to the users. It is quite clear that Facebook has fallen victim to various security issues such as hacking, hoax applications, counterfeit product pages and affiliate spam among other issues (Stoll 2011). The number of facebook hackings has continually increased in the recent years. There are numerous aspects that make Facebook more prone to hacking since, most individuals usually post their personal information (Sterling 1993). This information enables the hackers steal the personal identity of the account (Reese 2008). Therefore, it is much easier to protect account hacking using computer security. There are several methodologies that can be employed to impede hackers from accessing a facebook account. These methodologies include using a strong password, logging out after finishing, changing the password more often and using an anti-spyware software (Erickson 2008). Using complicated passwords is one of the best ways to deal with facebook security issues. In fact, individuals are advised to use complicated passwords, which hackers are not able to retrieve (Kabay & Bosworth 2011). This will ensure that their personal information and that of their friends is protected against any alterations. Facebook users are also supposed to logout immediately they are done using the social network (Tipton & Krause 2012). This is because another individual can download malware and key loggers which affect privacy terms of the account (Burger 1991). Changing the password more often also reduces the chances of the account being hacked (Mitnick, Simon & Wozniak 2011). This toughens the ability of the hackers to find out