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Is Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice a successful romantic comedy?

This is an interesting question, and a tough one to answer. On the one hand, it would appear that the play is something of a comedy, and a romantic one at that: there's the courtship between Portia and Bassanio, humorous sequences (such as the ring prank during the end of Act 4 and in Act 5), and a seemingly happy ending without any loose ends. By all accounts, these seem to be the qualities of...

On the other hand, we have Shylock. A controversial character, Shylock is tough to characterize. Is he a bloodthirsty villain rendered with blatant anti-Semitism, or is he a tragic victim, an individual assailed by the racism of his fellow Venetians? However you see him, one thing is clear: it's difficult to avoid sympathizing with Shylock. For example, in Act 3, Scene 1, Shylock struggles to establish his status as a human in the face of the prejudice that oppresses him, saying, "I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew / eyes?" (51-2) and "If you prick us, do we not bleed?" (57-8). This poignant speech is one of the most famous points in the whole play, and it helps the reader understand that members of the Jewish community in the play are viewed as more or less subhuman. With this idea in mind, Shylock becomes the most sympathetic and relatable character in the play, and it becomes very difficult to rejoice in his humiliation during the later courtroom scene.

To put it simply, there are elements of romantic comedy in the play, but there are also much darker layers hidden beneath the glittering, comedic facade. As such, one would be hard-pressed to call The Merchant of Venice a successful romantic comedy, as Shylock's complex character consistently destabilizes such an easy reading.

In The Call of the Wild, Buck wanted to be the leader and didn't always do what Spitz wanted. What was the result of this?

Buck fights and kills Spitz and takes over as lead sled dog.

Spitz is the leader of the sled dog team, and Buck grows to hate him. He refuses to give in to Spitz, eventually killing him and taking his place as the leader.

One day, Buck sees Spitz fighting Curly. The brutality of the fight upsets Buck. Once Spitz attacks the dog, all of the others attack her too with no mercy.

So that...

Buck fights and kills Spitz and takes over as lead sled dog.

Spitz is the leader of the sled dog team, and Buck grows to hate him. He refuses to give in to Spitz, eventually killing him and taking his place as the leader.

One day, Buck sees Spitz fighting Curly. The brutality of the fight upsets Buck. Once Spitz attacks the dog, all of the others attack her too with no mercy.

So that was the way. No fair play. Once down, that was the end of you. Well, he would see to it that he never went down. Spitz ran out his tongue and laughed again, and from that moment Buck hated him with a bitter and deathless hatred. (Ch. 2)

Buck is determined not to go down. He is learning the ways of the wild, and the Law of Club and Fang. Basically, that means that whoever is strongest is in charge. The humans have the club, and the dogs have the fang.

Spitz knows that Buck is a “dangerous rival” and is careful of him, always showing aggression toward him and never letting his guard down. Buck also does not back down. A conflict between the two of them is inevitable, and they both know that when they fight it will be a fight to the death. François and Perrault know this too, but François believes that Buck is the fiercer one.

There was no hope for him. Buck was inexorable. Mercy was a thing reserved for gentler climes. He manoeuvred for the final rush. The circle had tightened till he could feel the breaths of the huskies on his flanks. (Ch. 3)

Buck takes Spitz’s place as lead dog when it is time to strap everyone in. The men are surprised. Perrault tried to make Sol-leks lead dog, but Buck wouldn’t have it. It was his spot. He earned it.

What is the best way to determine tone in the short stories "A Rock Trying to Be a Stone" by Sergio Troncoso and "Guests of the Nation" by Frank...

The best way to determine tone in "A Rock Trying to Be a Stone" and "Guests of the Nation" is to examine diction and syntax. For example, in "A Rock," the diction reflects the socioeconomic status of the barely educated youths dealing with a brutal lack of opportunity: the narrator holds most emotion in check, stating facts coldly, objectively. In "Guests," the diction reflects the narrator's generally pleasant emotion as he describes people and events,...

Tone is the attitude, perspective, and emotion that the speaker has toward the subject matter being written about. Tone is detected in the diction a speaker uses and elements of syntax. To avoid a mistake often made, remember that tone is not detected in setting. Setting reveals something very different from tone: mood. Setting establishes mood within the story; diction and syntax establish author tone external to the story. Tone descriptors identify attitude (a way of thinking reflected in behavior), perspective (point of view regarding something), and emotion (feeling occurring toward someone, something, or some occurrence). Tone may be critical and subjective or critical and objective; it may be solemn or cynical. Tone may also be humorous or straightforward (think of "Garfield" compared with an economics textbook).

The clearest connection of diction to conflict and theme appears in the titles of both short stories. In "A Rock Trying to Be a Stone," the difference between a rock and stone highlights both conflict and theme as Turi tries to understand and do right in an environment that doesn't offer much opportunity for either. He is a rock trying to be a [gem] stone in a rocky environment. In "Guest of the Nation," the difference between guest and hostage dramatizes the conflict and theme as "chums" have to choose between duty to friends and duty to country. The bitterly ironic contrast between a guest protected by the nation and a hostage shot by the nation highlights the struggle the men are going through.

How is Jack in William Golding's The Lord of the Flies presented as militaristic?

Jack, who has red hair that symbolizes his association with blood, constantly carries a knife around with him. He is responsible for hunting, and when he at first fails to kill a pig, "he snatched his knife out of the sheath and slammed it into a tree trunk" (page 31). As the novel goes on, Jack becomes increasingly more violent, and his knife is often withdrawn from his sheath. He relies on violence to increase his power. Jack resents Piggy's intelligence, and he wants to rid Piggy of his glasses, the symbol of Piggy's learning. For example, when the boys are lighting a fire in the hope of being rescued, Jack says, "His specs--use them as burning glasses!" (page 40). Jack prefers to use Piggy's glasses to make a fire than to allow Piggy, the resident intellectual, to see.

Later, Jack, constantly seen with a spear in hand and often bloodied from hunting, gives up all attempts to be rescued. Instead, he uses his violence, symbolized by the spear, to take control of the boys and become the de facto leader on the island. The boys follow him in a primitive, violent way and abandon Ralph, who stands for law and order.

I need to compare Judith Wright's poems "Brothers and Sisters" and "South of My Days," focusing on themes and techniques about Aboriginals and...

Wrights' "Brothers and Sisters" and "South of My Days," as well as Noonuccal's "No More Boomerang," all speak about the changes that occurred in Australia after British settlement. However, Wright's poems speak from the British point of view, and Noonuccal speaks from the Aboriginal point of view.

"Brothers and Sisters" is about a British family that settled in Australia in a place where "The road turned out to be a cul-de-sac." The dead-end street is a...

"Brothers and Sisters" is about a British family that settled in Australia in a place where "The road turned out to be a cul-de-sac." The dead-end street is a metaphor for the family's lost dreams, as the bridge they had hoped for is never built. Their dreams are deferred as "now their orchards never would be planted." They spend their time listening to an old pianola that doesn't work properly, and "the bush moved one step nearer." The bush is a reference to the Australian wilderness, which is encroaching on the family. Their dreams of turning their property into a western-style orchard fail, as Australia reverts back to its natural landscape. In "South of My Days," the narrator of the poem recalls the tableland of her youth. The tableland is also a feature of the Australian landscape. In the poem, the narrator recalls the stories of Dan, who told stories about the drought in 1901. Again in this poem, the landscape of Australia is harsh and unforgiving, and the tableland of the narrator's childhood has changed.

"No More Boomerang" by the Aboriginal poet Oodgeroo Noonuccal is also about the changes that modernity has brought to Australia. Unlike Wright's poems, this poem is written from the Aboriginal point of view. In each stanza, the poet speaks about what has changed and poses questions about whether the changes are for the better. For example, she writes, "Now we track bosses/To catch a few bob/Now we go walkabout/On bus to the job." This means that the Aboriginals have given up hunting to work for a few dollars, and they go on "walkabout," or on a traditional Aboriginal journey, not in the outback but on buses. Later, she writes, "Black hunted wallaby/White hunt dollar." Wallaby are animals that are hunted by the Aboriginals, but now the Aboriginals have been forced to hunt for money, like white people. Their landscape has been forever changed, but not necessarily for the better. They face the same sense of decay and decline from a more hopeful and freer past that the characters in Wright's poems do.

In Thomas Friedman's book The World Is Flat, what is it to be flat?

When Thomas Friedman uses the term “flat” in The World is Flat, what he means is something like “fair” or “providing everyone with an equal chance to succeed.” When he says that the world is flat, or is getting flatter, he does not mean this in a topographical sense. Instead, what he means is that the world is, economically speaking, becoming fairer. Our world has started to provide people from many different countries with...

In the United States, at least, we often use the metaphor of a sports field when we talk about economic competition. This might, for example, be a soccer field. Imagine playing soccer if one team had to run uphill while the other got to run downhill. This would not be at all fair to the team that had to run uphill. It would be a serious disadvantage. When competition is fair, we say that there is a level playing field. This field does not provide an advantage to either team. When Friedman talks about the world being flat, he is saying that the economic playing field has become level.

In the past, businesses in poor countries were, in essence, playing on a field that was not flat. They had to run uphill while their competitors in the rich world got to run downhill. In recent times, however, various changes have made the playing field flatter. He says that things like outsourcing, offshoring, and, most importantly, the boom in communications technology, have created a more level playing field where firms from more countries can actually compete on level terms. This is what he means when he says that the world is flat.

In this book, then, to be flat is to be fair and/or to provide everyone with an equal chance to compete economically.

How did Islam spread all over the world?

After Prophet Muhammad’s death (pbuh), followers of Islam were organized into caliphates and the spread of the religion was majorly through propagation, missionary activities and trade. The Arab world saw the emergence of powerful empires that conquered vast territories in Asia, Middle East, parts of Europe and Africa. The conquered people were mostly allowed to practice their religion, but they were required to pay a special tax to the conquering administration. Over a period of time, the conquered people gradually converted to Islam. Reasons for conversion may have been due to restrictions imposed on non-Muslims by the administration. In the Far East, Islam was spread through trade. The people interacted with the Muslim traders and were attracted to their conduct. The situation led to increasing conversion among the native population. In addition, migration of the Turks to Anatolia and Balkans saw the spread of Islam in those areas.