Use of Color in Cranes The Red Badge of Courage Essay

Use of Color in Cranes The Red Badge of Courage The Red Badge of Courage uses both color imagery and color symbols. While Crane uses color to describe, he also allows it to stand for whole concepts. Gray, for example, describes the both the literal image of a dead soldier and Henry Flemings vision of the sleeping soldiers as corpses and comes to stand for the idea of death. In the same way, red describes both the soldiers physical wounds and Flemings mental visions of battle. In the process, it gains a symbolic meaning which Crane will put to an icon like the red badge of courage (110, Penguin ed., 1983). Crane uses color in his descriptions of the physical and the metaphysical and allows color to take on meanings ranging from the†¦show more content†¦Obviously, the fires are red. But Fleming characterizes the blazes as the enemys glowing eyes. He continues this metaphor in the next chapter: From across the river the deep red eyes were still peering (58). Crane then transforms this metaphor into a conceit used throughout the text: Staring once at the red eyes across the river, he conceived then to be growing larger, as the orbs of a row of dragons advancing (59). The red of the campfires comes to represent eyes of the enemy, of dragons. The monstrous dragons are, indeed, the opposing army: The dragons were coming with invincible strides. The army, helpless in the matted thickets and blinded by the overhanging night, was going to be swallowed. War, the red animal, war, the blood swollen god, would have his fill (130). Flemings metaphysical images of war, in all of their forms, are essentially red. First there is the aforementioned red animal, war, the blood swollen god (71). This icon, for Fleming, rules over and feasts on the battles. Battles themselves are a crimson roar; the screams, the gunfire, the killing sounds red to Fleming. In the same way, the historical battles set forth in the Iliad, the Aenid, and other texts read as crimson blotches on the pages of the past (103, 46). The red world of battle is much like the red world of Hell. Crane seems to make this connection with a prisoners curse for his captors: He consigned them to the red regions.Show MoreRelated Stephen Cranes Red Badge of Courage Essay1237 Words   |  5 PagesStephen Cranes Red Badge of Courage   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When reading the Red Badge of Courage, it is necessary to understand the symbolism that Stephen Crane has created throughout the whole book. Without understanding the true intent of color use, this book loses a meaningful interpretation that is needed to truly understand the main character, his feelings and actions. 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Fools and folly are widely used in comedy to create humour To what extent does this apply to Twelfth Night Free Essays

In this essay I will be exploring Twelfth Night and focusing on the extent at which folly is used to create humour. The word folly means â€Å"a silly person† or â€Å"one who uses folly for the entertainment of others† etc. In William Shakespeare’s comedy, Feste -licensed fool- the clown is not the only fool who is subject to foolery; others include Sir Andrew Aguecheek (natural fool), Malvolio who is exposed to be the natural fool and Sir Toby who is deemed to be the Lord of Misrule. We will write a custom essay sample on Fools and folly are widely used in comedy to create humour To what extent does this apply to Twelfth Night? or any similar topic only for you Order Now Overall, fools and folly are widely used in Twelfth Night and form the basic plot. In Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, Feste’s role in this Illyrian comedy is significant. Feste plays the role of a humble clown and is employed by Olivia’s father thus playing the role of the licensed fool of their household. Olivia states that Feste is â€Å"an allowed fool† meaning he is licensed to speak the truth of people around him in order to entertain others. This is also seen when Curio states to the duke that â€Å"Feste the jester†¦a fool that the Lady Olivia’s father took much pleasure in†. Even though Feste is employed to be foolish, when compared to the other characters he is deemed to be the wisest, wittiest and the most philosophical of all the characters. Viola echoes this by saying â€Å"This fellow’s wise enough to play the fool. † By having the role of a licensed fool, Festes main role is to speak to the truth. Comedy is achieved through the truthfulness of the character. The first true glimpses of folly in Twelfth Night are seen in Act 1 Scene 3. Sir Andrew serves as an excellent example of the idea of Satire which Shakespeare throughout the play uses to undermine the so called rich, upper class characters. Sir Toby encourages Sir Andrew to â€Å"accost† Maria, which translates as â€Å"chat her up† and Sir Andrew foolishly addresses Maria as â€Å"Good mistress accost†. Shakespeare interestingly uses satire but also comedy of manners to illustrate his feelings towards the rich and powerful. His intentions are clearly seen here for the rest of the play; he starts with a powerful character being made a fool of and also ends with Malvolio being made a fool of, not weaker characters like Maria (servant) feste (clown). In this area of the scene, the audience expects a prominent, smart character to emerge on stage due to the description given by Sir Toby: â€Å"Why, he has an income of three thousand ducats a year,† which again links to the idea of comedy of manners- ‘a plot revolving around greed’. Subsequently, Sir Andrew is a naive, un-intelligent person who creates comedy and folly by miss-understanding Sir Toby. Knights in Shakespeare’s time would easily be able to gain respect through women due to it being an attractive occupation. However, Sir Andrew is the complete opposite and this allows the audience to laugh at how a character can be so different from the usual stereotype. Sir Andrew being so naive and thinking that he can easily add Maria to his endless list of women creates dramatic irony, the audience know that Maria thinks very poorly of him yet on the other hand Sir Andrew being so un-intelligent still thinks he is a wonderful human being. Alternatively, this area of Act 1 could show that even though Sir Andrew is rather naive, he still achieves because of the fact that Sir Toby mentions his â€Å"three thousand ducats a year† and Sir Andrew himself states to Maria that he is not â€Å"such an ass† and that he can keep his â€Å"hand dry,† this promotes the fact that when we wants to be, Sir Andrew can be smart and keep his â€Å"hand dry† which results in the audience weighing up what’s to come in the future for Sir Andrew. Ultimately, Sir Andrew fails to â€Å"woo† Olivia resulting in Sebastian marrying Olivia. Overall, this links back to the idea of comedy of manners and satire as both Sir Toby and Sir Andrew have been socially undermined with it being Sir Toby’s idea to set Andrew with Olivia and Sir Andrew failing in this quest. Feste who is employed to be funny and possibly ‘foolish’ is quite the opposite when compared with Sir Andrew. Feste is a philosophical, smart and witty character. In relevance to the question, a fool (feste) is employed to make people laugh yet there is no doubting that he comes across as anything but a fool. Shakespeare uses this character to highlight and contrast the frailties in the other characters such as Sir Andrew for example by allowing the natural fool to be the â€Å"natural wit† which is a very clever tool, the audience aren’t laughing at Feste being employed as fool yet laughing at how he makes others look like a fool. In act 1 scene 5, we don’t laugh at Feste for being a so called â€Å"fool†, we laugh at the witty re-marks that he creates and how undermines the people above him. Feste when talking to Maria regarding Countess Olivia states that â€Å"Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage†. This has two comical meanings. Firstly, Feste is saying to Maria that sometimes its better being killed than entering marriage but to increase the comedy the phrase could also mean that a â€Å"well hung†(sexual connotations) man can prevent a â€Å"bad marriage†. When compared to today, a modern day audience would still find that funny due to IY being true yet in Shakespearean comedy, the audience would have been very surprised for a ‘fool’ to come out with such a controversial phrase, thus increasing comedy. Shakespeare understands the need for ‘surprise’ because the audience are laughing more at the surprise element rather than the joke itself. By putting this comical line in the final scene of the act, the audience have now gained a further understanding for the character and worked out how intelligent, witty Feste is. This will increase the popularity towards the character as the audience may have forgotten what happened previous to this scene when in act 2 yet the comical line from Feste would have stayed in their heads. Personally, Shakespeare wanted this immensely and therefore in relation to the question, yes fools are used to create humour but not through being stupid but by being witty and controversial as audiences like to be surprised. I believe the â€Å"bad marriage† area of the quote highlights the philosophical values that Feste has; he is giving the audience his opinions on marriages which he has seen from a fool’s point of view. Shakespeare is also handing a lot of power to feste as he could be forecasting the future for the marriages of Sir Toby and Maria, Olivia and Sebastian etc. Finally, Shakespeare can be seen to use juxtaposition in order to allow the gag of Feste contrast with the ‘well behaved’ Maria, this makes the audience possibly dislike Maria, an opinion shared by Shakespeare due to the time that he lived in, with the disrespectfulness of women. By the end of Act 2 scene 5, we gain the basic underlying plot. In scene 3, foolishness is definitely used to create comedy; Shakespeare uses the main idea of dramatic irony to create comedy. Three characters (Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, Maria) construct a plan to help make Malvolio look a fool, Shakespeare uses three characters to make the plot seem more severe, linking to the idea of a minor form of black comedy. In this scene we learn that foolishness is enhanced by using more people to gang up on another. Sir Toby speaks that â€Å"He shall think, by the letters that thou wilt drop, that they come from my niece, and that she’s in love with him. † This quote firmly shows; He’ll think these letters are from Olivia and that she’s in love with him. Shakespeare uses a gang approach to this due to Malvolio being a so called ‘kill joy’, Sir Andrew and Maria show their opinions on the plan with phrases like â€Å"Sport royal† â€Å"I have ’t in my nose too. † Which again highlights the mood of the other characters, the audience will ultimately laugh in feeling guilt towards Malvolio. In today’ world, a gang culture shows power due to power in numbers but in Shakespeare times it could be sign of wealth and power to be able to create a group situation. The word â€Å"drop† signifies the height at which this will drop Malvolio and purposefully ‘drop’ his heart when he finds out he is made out to be a fool. Subsequently, Malvolio foolishness creates huge comedy due to him being imprisoned because of his actions towards Olivia. The idea of a gang creating a plan to make another human being look a fool allows Shakespeare to experiment how Malvolio could act. By the end of the play he is seen to be very spiteful and out for revenge. Comedy isn’t always seen through people being fools or made out to be fools. Comedy is also achieved through other ventures. In order to gain approval in the kingdom Viola dresses as a man and therefore can work close to Orsino and takes on the name Cesario. This creates comedy because the audience know that she is a women beneath the disguise yet the characters don’t (dramatic irony) therefore power is given to the audience and they enjoy this. We understand in Act 1 scene 2 that she is going to take up some disguise by saying â€Å"Conceal me what I am, and be my aid†. At this moment in time, Viola seems very determined and confident towards being a man and she has reason so due to marrying Orsino at the end of the play. Therefore comedy isn’t just seen through the eyes of folly and foolishness it’s also achieved elsewhere. Due to it being a live play, the audience would be able to see it’s a disguised woman, even though all actors were men, and thus again increasing comedy. Twelfth Night was once a day to mark the end of the Christmas festivities. It was the feast of fools and even now, the Christmas season is a time where we all seek entertainment in the form of amusement and folly. Therefore Twelfth Night is still relevant today. Even now we love to see people make fools of themselves and the characters we don’t like to be served with just retribution. In conclusion to my question, the answer is simply yes. Shakespeare doesn’t just have fools to laugh at (feste) which would seem the normal idea but he makes others look fools. This is through Malvolio being miss-lead, the naivety of Sir Andrew and possibly Orsino not having Olivia and having to make do with Viola. Interestingly, Shakespeare warms to the so called lower class characters like Feste, Maria by creating strong and confident characters that make the more upper class characters around them look fools. Comedy is also achieved in the play by the mistaken identity of Viola, the concept of black comedy and the comedy of manners. All key integral parts of how this play is seen comical. Overall, the main comedy comes from people acting foolish or looking foolish as well as the idea of comedy of errors. How to cite Fools and folly are widely used in comedy to create humour To what extent does this apply to Twelfth Night?, Papers

Communication Is Complex free essay sample

When two or more people are sharing information, they both are sending and receiving at the same time, sometimes without even saying a word but by simply sending and receiving certain signals. Listening makes one the receiver and at the point when you respond, you become the sender and this interchanging and complex role shifting happens very fast. Non verbal sending and receiving is just as complex. A child could be crying (sending a message) and the parent put her arm around her for reassurance (receiving), when the parent pats the child’s back (sending), the child calms down receiving). The attitude of the people involved will largely determine the quality of their sending and receiving and the strength of their signals may affect how the messages are received. Messages a. Everything that is communicated is categorized into symbols. A symbol is something that stands for something else. Symbols are everywhere around us. The eagle in the United States stands for that country, the Statue of Liberty stands for freedom. The complex issue is that; any one symbol may have hundreds of interpretations depending on what sense the receiver makes out of the symbol. Any one symbol may have many contrasting definitions largely depending on cultural backgrounds. The human communication is made up of two kinds of symbols. The words that are used in a language are verbal symbols. Where no words are used, then that becomes nonverbal symbols. When the word refers to a physical object like someone says, ‘pads’,, this is called a concrete symbol because it represents an object. A female listener may think the sender is referring to the sanitary pads and the motor mechanic may assume that the sender is referring to the brake pads. Symbols are subject to different interpretations largely depending on the attitude, culture and background of the listener. Even more complex are the abstract symbols, these are the intangible or non figurative symbols like the word ‘love’. Various and interesting assignations may be given to the word depending largely on culture and background. A child brought up in a strict religious order may think it refers to the love that the Deity has over mankind and yet on the other hand a child raised by a mother of loose morals, may construe it to mean lust or the desire that may shared by two consenting and sexual partners. In nonverbal symbols, the communication has no written or verbal words. These symbols include but not limited to; facial expressions, gestures, posture, vocal tones and appearance. A yawn may mean that you are tired or bored and yet in another culture it may mean that you are sleepy and need to rest. Over ninety percent of messages sent and received by Americans are nonverbal. Thus, we see complexities arising out of the symbols, care and due diligence is therefore critical in deciphering symbols to be as near as possible to the intentions and definitions of the sender. Channels This refers to the channel or route that we use when communicating. In verbal symbols, we use sound and sight. The receiver has to interpret the sound and what he/she is seeing to come to a conclusion of what the sender is trying to send out. In nonverbal communications, people use several channels, like a firm handshake may denote confidence, jittery and nervous expression at a presentation may mean poor preparation and shallow knowledge. Use of a wrong channel will give a wrong message altogether and defeat the purpose of the communication. Feedback Feedback refers to the responses that the sender gets from the receiver. In a conversation, both sender and receiver get feedbacks as they talk. Feedback helps to assure the sender that the receiver is attentive and is responsive. When no feedback is given, it may send a wrong signal to the sender. In a lecture, if students don’t ask questions after the presentation, then the deliverer may assume that they have understood when in fact they have not. Noise Any interference that prevents a message from the sender from being delivered to the receiver is called ‘noise’. Noise is found in three forms; external, internal and semantic. External noise comes from the outside, the environment. While having a good conversation with your Pastor, you may be disturbed by the Pastor’s mate asking for the car keys from their mate or a squashed sitting area in a taxi might make you unbearably uncomfortable to lose out on what the person sitting next to you just said. Internal noise refers to what the receiver may be going through internally that he/she may fail to hear what the teacher just said. These are internal thoughts, and distractions Setting This refers to the environment in which the communication process occurs. The setting affects and influences the kind of communication process that will take place. The setting itself communicates a message to the participants. A divorcing couple would chose to meet in the lawyer’s office as that is perceived as neutral. From the above discourse, it is clear that the communications elements can pose a great challenge to the whole process of communication. Parties to the process should make sure that all the elements are in the ideal size, to effectively communicate as desired. Complexities will always exist, the parties to communication can only minimise them to enhance the process. Self Perception A human being is a complex individual. The process of communication starts with the self perception and the value that humans put on themselves. Self concept is how a person thinks about themselves. Sometimes in a communication process, people are so worried about how other people think they are and this ideally makes them less effective in their communication process and fail to either deliver their message or fail to get the correct message as intended by the sender. Social comparisons occur when people compare themselves on how they measure up to other members of the communities. When we fail to measure up to a certain standard that we see ion others, most likely we lose all home and get de-motivated and in worst case scenarios, become emotional wracks. The way in which the individual sees himself/herself is called self perception. Self perception is largely grounded on the past experiences. Positive experiences will influence a better perception and the opposite also holds true. The state of mind about oneself eventually impacts on performance. Its becomes dangerous when self esteem is too high as a failure results in negative and bad attitudes. Acts of perception require a form of expectations. ‘Without expectations, or constructs through which you perceive your world, your surroundings would be booming, buzzing confusion’ The perception process involves; selecting the information, organizing it and interpreting it. Perfect perception is always because of deletions, distortions, and generalizations. There are also perceptions filters.