Monday, January 27, 2020

Corporate Social Responsibility In Developing Nations Sociology Essay

Corporate Social Responsibility In Developing Nations Sociology Essay The phenomenal stretch of Globalization has touched and affected, positively or negatively as well, practically every aspect of human existence, through its varying tentacles in its ever-propagating areas of influence. The recognition and acceptance of the phenomena of Corporate Social Responsibility (hereinafter referred to as CSR), in developed as well as developing countries, is a doting example of the same. It needs a special mention that CSR is nowhere a legally sanctioned document or observance, but it indeed, has come forth as a minimal standard as to the governance of business at global level, with international reference standards set by the United Nations, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) guidelines and International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions. The primary reason as to why this phenomena is rising at such a fast pace, is the global competitiveness ensuing between the business houses of different countries. The corporates mainly demonstrate the extra responsibility to earn the goodwill of the market, and CSR helps in building loyalty and trust amongst shareholders, employees and customers. In this sense CSR denotes a voluntary endeavour by the big business houses to look into the varied issues and concerns of the public at large, apart from the profit-maximising objectives. CSR is closely linked with the principle of sustainable development, which argues that enterprises should make decisions based not only on financial factors such as profits or dividends but also based on immediate and long term social and environmental consequences of its activities. CSR has a significant role in controlling the perils of uncontrolled development, satisfying the needs of the present generation and at the same time ensuring that the resources of future generations is not jeopardized.  [1]  The inclusion of the objective of sustainable development within the CSR agenda magnifies the duties and responsibilities of the big business houses, upto a large extent, which cannot be made limited as per any parameters. The realization of the ultimate objective of sustainable development is a long and continuous process, and is rather more inclusive, which includes the interest of the developing nations also. The impact of CSR in context of developing nations, as evident, is rather a negative impact. The primary reason as identified by the authors seems to be the inappropriate approach towards the practical applicability of the CSR in the developing countries. There is lacunae in the structural approach towards implementation of the CSR agenda within the developing countries, mainly due to the irresponsible inactiveness on the part of the government of the developing countries, in framing its policies and regulations as per the international norms and requirements, as CSR is largely a global phenomena. In this research paper, a structural and conceptual analysis is done with regard to the difficulties faced by the developing countries in implementing the CSR initiatives. This paper is an attempt to identify such issues which attributes to the failure of CSR in developing nations, and also identify the correct possible approaches to properly reap up the benefits of the CSR agenda and initiatives evolved mainly through the internationalization of the initiatives taken in the developed countries, by various approaches to be discussed herein. EVOLUTION OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AS A FULCRUM OF SOCIAL RESPONSIVENESS What exactly is inferred from the social responsibility of the corporations? The corporations are generally expected to strengthen and mobilize the economy by enhancing profit, the social implications of which are highly overlooked. The concept of CSR refers to the general belief held by many that modern businesses have a responsibility to society that extends beyond the stock holders or investors in the firm. That responsibility, of course, is to make money or profits for the owners.  [2]  In 1960, Keith Davis suggested that social responsibility refers to businesses decisions and actions taken for reasons at least partially beyond the firms direct economic or technical interest. Also it has been argued by Eells and Walton (1961) that CSR refers to the problems that arise when corporate enterprise casts its shadow on the social scene, and the ethical principles that ought to govern the relationship between corporation and society.  [3]   The current wave of interest in CSR dates from the early 1990s.  [4]  However, in recent years the CSR has emerged as an inclusive and global concept to embrace corporate social responsiveness, and the entire spectrum of socially beneficial activities of businesses. It follows the trend of a diffusion process of policy instruments from North to South and therefore of a global convergence of policy structures.  [5]   Now the term social within the CSR is again a vague concept and enlarges the sphere of the corporate responsiveness. The social dimension of the CSR can effectively be attributed to the organizations stakeholders, who are in the immediate connect to the corporation. Stakeholders denote the group of persons who have a stake, a claim, or an interest in the operations and decisions of the corporation. This bond of the corporation with the stake-holders practically denotes the area of social operation of the corporations. The The idea of CSR cannot be traced as to the place of its origin and evolution, since it is mainly a progeny of the globalization, which is encumbrancing in itself, the world at large. Therefore, the concept of stake-holder management becomes an effective instrument to analyse the social impact of the corporations. This methodology can have, or rather it has appeared to be an aberration, which practically excludes the impact on the developing nations, as it is a very common fact that the activity of the stake-holders of the developing nations cannot match upto that of the developed ones. One tangible result that has certainly been achieved by the current CSRmovement is that it has got people talking about worker rights, global governance, sustainable enterprise and all manner of topics that have relevance to the well-being of the poor and marginalized.  [6]   The effective implementation of CSR in developing countries has come forth to be recognized as a challenge after the vision in the year 2000 was instilled in the Milleneum Development Goals (MDGs) as a world with less poverty, hunger and disease, greater survival prospects for mothers and their infants, better educated children, equal opportunities for women, and a healthier environment. CSR AND DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: IDENTIFYING THE CONNECTION The CSR in connection with developing countries can be considered as to represent the formal and informal ways in which business makes a contribution to improving the governance, social, ethical, labour and environmental conditions of the developing countries in which they operate, while remaining sensitive to prevailing religious, historical and cultural contexts.  [7]  The analysis of the effectiveness of the CSR cannot be considered to be complete unless its impact on the developing countries is identified, as they represent the most rapidly expanding economies, providing for a lucrative market for the growth of the corporate business. It is a common fact that the worlds poor are distressingly plentiful, and despite of the vastness of their market, they are largely unexplored by the multinational companies, in assumption that the people of the developing countries are more busy in sustaining their normal living rather than going for any developmental incentives. Also it is ass umed that various barriers to commerce corruption, illiteracy, inadequate infrastructure, currency fluctuations, bureaucratic red tape etc, make it impossible to do business profitable in these regions. The authors assert this fact that the above notions and assumptions are largely outdated. It is well-evident in the current scenario that the large number of corporate houses prefer the markets in the developing countries only, as it provides them with ample oppurtunities to maximize the profitability, and the restrictions assumed are hardly existent. Moreover, certain positive trends in developing countries from political reform, to a growing openness to investment, to the development of low-cost wireless communication networks are reducing the barriers further while also providing businesses with greater access to even the poorest city slums and rural areas.  [8]   Since in developing countries, rural areas represents more than half of the population, for instance in India, 60% of GDP is generated in rural areas. The critical barrier to doing business in rural regions is distribution access, not a lack of buying power, but new information technology and communications infrastructures especially wireless promise to become an inexpensive way to establish marketing and distribution channels in these communities.  [9]   CURRENT STATE OF CSR IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES It is argued that the practice of CSR is a work in progress. The idea of evolution of CSR as a concept clearly envisages the fact that it has mainly evolved through an active participation of the developed world, and then it got internationalized, and ultimately it is in a process of reaching to the developing ones also. In the present scenario, no matter what kind of effect it is producing, but it is propagating at a very fast pace, in the developing countries due to the ample market available therein. It has been seen that the developing countries also opened up their economy and whole-heatedly welcomed the advent of foreign companies into their territory as a part of their liberalization strategies. It has been quite beneficial for the foreign investors as well, since the developing countries enrich them with huge profitable market. With increased emphasis on the profit-making, the CSR development agenda has definitely taken a backseat in the developing countries. In his analysis of the relationship between companies and poorer local communities, Newell concluded that mainstream CSR approaches assume a set of conditions that do not exist in most of the world. CSR can work, for some people, in some places, on some issues, some of the time  [10]  . And in the process, the CSR looses the connect with the real life situations of the developing world. Following are the bases on which the CSR is rendered ineffective in context of developing countries: The Stakeholder Concept It has been observed that, in the present time, it benefits some people and some companies in some situations. The success of CSR initiatives can be linked to the stakeholder dialogue and stakeholder engagement, who can bring together representatives of business, non-governmental and public sectors in order to identify and address aspects of social responsibility. However, in context of developing countries, this stakeholder dialogue cannot be effectively realized due to various unwanted barriers such as language, culture, education and pluralistic values, which adversely affects the negotiations and decision-making. Moreover, one more obstacle that hampers the positive advantage of CSR in developing countries is the prioritization of the interest. As the stake-holders represents the common will of the civil society, but it depends upon their priorities and interest, the success of the CSR, for instance, those groups whose issues and problems are not taken up by the civil society organizations may also be ignored by firms. Notwithstanding the role of organized labour, the unorganized sector can rarely present a threat to a firms productivity, nor is the firms dependence on them likely to be high. Elaine Sternberg alleges that stakeholding is unworkable and destroys accountability within a firm, as the stakeholders are usually seen as all those who affect or are affected by a corporation.  [11]  This shows that the CSR for the unorganized sector, which represents a significant proportion of the population in developing countries (more than 50% in India) is highly neglected. The CSR business case It is a common practice that the companies are generally meant for their profit-maximising attributes based on the competitive advantage, and to maintain corporate reputation, the beneficial impact on staff morale, etc, and thereby the lessening the involvement of theirs in developing countries. The business case is simply the arguments and rationales as to why business people believe these concepts bring distinct benefits or advantages to companies, specifically, and the business community, generally. One of the possible explanation to the business case of the corporate is given by Simon Zadek, who says that the corporate follow the defensive approach, i.e., companies should pursue CSR to avoid the pressures that create costs for them.  [12]  The second approach identified by Zadek is the cost-benefit approach, which holds that firm will undertake those activities that yield a greater benefit than cost. The third approach can be that the firms will recognize the changing environ ment and engage in CSR as a part of a deliberate corporate strategy. As a consequence, CSR is commonly focused on add-on measures and technical solutions, to a certain extent neglecting the contextual environment or even the intended beneficiaries that are addressed by the CSR measures. In this sense, the big business-hubs only act so as to maintain their healthy reputation, and thereby neglecting their social responsibilities, and even if they pursue their social responsibilities, the interest of the developing countries is even not represented there, as the issues are normally evolved in the developed world, which are quite different to that of the developing world. The inappropriate CSR agenda Though CSR has evolved as an umbrella concept, but still there many issues which are left unaddressed under the ambit of CSR, and which renders the effective applicability of CSR in developing countries, a potentially difficult task to achieve. The CSR agenda are mainly framed in developed countries, and hence they could not identify the practical situations faced by the developing world, like tax avoidance and transfer-pricing problems, the resource curse effects of the influx of the foreign aid or revenues, etc. This problem is ever-propagating since there is inactiveness on the part of the developing countries, mainly represented through the very few stakeholders, who do not at all represents the actual situation. The appropriateness of the CSR agenda can be ascertained once the representation of the developing countries is adequately ensured while framing the agenda, so that a more inclusive approach can be taken into consideration, including the varied concerns of the developing countries, ab initio. POSSIBLE APPROACHES TO EFFECTIVELY IMPLEMENT THE CSR IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES So far, the concept of CSR has mainly evolved through the concerns and interest of the investors, companies, campaign groups and consumers based in the developed countries. As a result of this, the CSR agenda with regard to the developing countries is very difficult to realize. It has been observed that the impact of CSR in context of the developing countries is rather negative, due to various conceptual as well as structural inadequacies. However, as observed, the developing countries are a potential hub for the growth of CSR accordingly to achieve its ultimate cherished goal of sustainable development. Although the CSR is a global phenomena, its implications can very well be sensed at the local boundaries of the individual States as well. Due to various structural differences within the developing countries, the State Activism needs to be enhanced to properly harvest the ripe benefits of the CSR initiatives. The States need to mould the national policies so as to recognize the conc erns of the stakeholders of the developed countries. The following initiatives could go a long way for procuring the positive outcome of the CSR in developing Countries: Free acces to market As it is well-known that the markets in the developing countries provides for a potential market and the CSR mainly acts through the stake-holders, the CSR objectives can be effectively realized by making possible maximum number of participation from the consumers, so that minute interest of the consumers which are often neglected being unidentified, can be given due consideration. The market policies of the States should be so formulated, as to promote extended participation from the consumers. This becomes especially relevant as more and more companies from developing countries are globalizing and needing to comply with international stock market listing requirements, including various forms of sustainability performance reporting and CSR code compliance. Socio-Political Reforms The Government of the developing countries should induce political reforms so that the problems and issues at the ground level can be identified, and then only the CSR initiatives could be effectively realized forthwith. For example, De Oliveira (2006) argues that the political and associated social and economic changes in Latin America since the 1980s, including democratization, liberalization, and privatization, have shifted the role of business towards taking greater responsibility for social and environmental issues.  [13]   Enhancing the investment incentives It is a common assumption that there is not much scope for investment in the poorer countries as they are largely occupied by the fulfilling of their basic requirements. There comes the responsibility of the concerned Government to frame policies so as to promote socially responsible investment (SRI), so that the corporate houses could be attracted to invest in the developing countries. For instance, In some developing countries, like South Africa, the SRI trend is well documented (AICC, 2002). In addition to featuring prominently in the SRI movement in the 1980s through the anti-apartheid disinvestment phenomenon, since 1992, South Africa has introduced more than 20 SRI funds nationally which track companies social, ethical, and environmental performance (Visser, 2005a). Propagating Stakeholder Activism As discusses earlier, that the CSR mainly works with respect to the stakeholders, who have certain pecuniary interest in the whereabouts of the business house, and they represent a very segregated part of the actual mass of population, and hence, the interest of the large part of the developing world could not be identified. The stakeholders are generally confined in the furtherance of their own petty interest, and therefore, it becomes impossible for the Corporate to identify the interests of the consumers at large. And hence, the onus shifts on the concerned government to intiate such policies to enhance stakeholder activism. In the developing world, the stakeholders agencies such as NGOs, Trade Unions, International Business Associations could be mobilized to ensure their participation in CSR activities, as they represent the class of stakeholders who mainly work at the primary level and are well aware of the existing issues and circumstances. Newell identifies the Stakeholder Act ivism in developing countries as civil regulation, litigation against companies, which go a long way in procuring the interest of the developing world. There are numerous examples of civil regulation in action in the developing world of which South Africa is a rather striking case in point. This has manifested itself mainly through community groups challenging companies over whether they are upholding the constitutional rights of citizens. Various landmark cases between 1994 and 2004 suggest that, although civil society still tends to lack capacity and resources in South Africa, this has been an effective strategy. Stakeholder activism has also taken a constructive approach towards encouraging CSR, through groups like the National Business Initiative and partnerships between business and NGOs.  [14]   The theory of Organizational Legitimacy as a possible solution the implementation of CSR in developing Countries This theory of Organizational Legitimacy can have various dimensions, but through a strategic view-point, the focus rests on the organization and assumes a relatively high degree of managerial control over the legitimating process. In the institutionalist tradition, a broader perspective is taken (society looking in), focusing on how organisations or groups of organisations adapt to their institutional environments in order to manage legitimacy. Here, legitimacy is not seen as an operational resource, but rather as a set of external constraints, forming the actions of the organization.  [15]  Therefore, this theory of organizational legitimacy imposes upon the business houses, a certain kind of ethical constraints, to be complied with, for effective implementation of the CSR agenda. Suchman defined Legitimacy as a generalized perception or assumption that the actions of an entity are desirable, proper, or appropriate within some socially constructed system of norms, values, belie fs, and definitions. This definition denotes the principle of moral legitimacy which the organizations follow to appear consistent with ones external expectations in order to be able to continue business as usual. This theory need not be made universally applicable as in the judgment whether an organization and its actions are legitimate or not, is rather socially construed, and therefore subject to change depending upon the socio-political environment, the organization is established into. CONCLUSION In view of the above discussion, it is well-evident that the CSR has not been able to properly stretch its tentacles in the developing world, due to various conceptual and structural obstacles. The reason could be primarily attributed to the fact that mostly the issues are not recognized and thus have not come forth within the ambit of the CSR agenda, due to the shortcomings in the policies of the developing countries. It is pertinent to observe the conceptual aspects of the CSR beyond the customary approaches being carried thereon. It cannot be necessarily assumed that CSR is ineffective in context of developing countries, rather there is problem with the identification and acknowledgement, of the issues which needs to be addressed. If the CSR standards with respect to the workers right and natural resource management are looked into, it is observed that for people in developing countries, it has been inadequately addressed. This issue of identification of the problems at the ground level can be mainly attributed to the fact that the stakeholders, who are primarily in touch with the CSR agenda, represent a very minimal proportion of the actual working population, and also the stakeholders are primarily bothered about their own self-interests. The policy of Stakeholder Activism initiated by certain States is a welcome move in this regard, and this could go a long way in ensuring the representation of the larger mass of population in the mainstream CSR agenda. Thus it is inferred that the failure of CSR agenda in the developing countries is a mainly a structural inadequacy rather than any practical or procedural aberration. However, regarding CSR in the context of developing countries, the explanatory power of organizational legitimacy goes beyond its customary tradition. The institutional array of organizational legitimacy proves as a useful body of theory to inform CSR in a developing country context, since it is able to address cultural factors and goes beyond business case considerations. Therefore, the CSR initiatives being seen through the organizational legitimacy theory can effectively solve the problem of non-implementation of the CSR policies in the developing world. It is pertinent to observe at this juncture, that State Activism is urgently required to mobilize the dormant effect of the CSR policies, in the developing countries. The State needs to frame regulations and policies, in their municipal laws so that CSR initiatives could reach to the people at large, rather than being confined to the minor stakeholders. The ineffective realization of the CSR policies is mainly a structural aberration, which needs to be solved by taking into consideration the issues and problems at the ground level.

Sunday, January 19, 2020

Phyllis Rose, Tools of Torture

Gaston Havandjian Professor Hubbell English Comp I Essay Four 11/13/12 Human Nature: Another Tool For Torture? Driving your car to a dinner with friends you go by hundreds of advertisement slogans at the side of the road. Reading them seems to be a good way to entertain your mind with all those miles ahead and since you didn't decide what are you going to order yet you think that maybe some of them will give you an idea. One of them captures your attention in a special way, it shows the image of a laughing sheep and below it says: â€Å"Meat is real food†. Eureka!Now you have a guess of what your order will be, but as long as you keep thinking in this phrase you wonder what they meant with the word â€Å"real†. If they are stating such a thing it means that they also believe that there is other food that is not real or not as real as meat. A second thought crosses your mind when you remember a column you read in the newspaper a few days ago which was titled as followed: â€Å"Studies have found that the consumption of meat and animal products increase the development of chronic diseases including high blood pressure, diabetes, coronary heart disease, obesity, kidney failure, osteoporosis and cancer†.What if the advertisement was aimed to convince us that meat is good for you when it's actually not? What if after those studies were revealed the owners of the meat industry felt their businesses threatened and ignoring the facts are still poisoning our bodies and killing thousands of animals a day just for a profit? Vegetables, fruits and grains are not real enough and healthier perhaps? When you arrive to the restaurant you bring up the theme and one of your friends provides a fact which supports the studies credibility, and from your point of view, it gives the whole discussion a clear ending.He tells you something you didn't know, that health insurance companies offer discount rates to vegetarians and vegans. Every company's goal is to make money. Insurance companies determine a person’s risk of death by analyzing his habits and based on these results they charge a fee. In today's world, where money is more powerful than any religion, government or social institution, there is no better evidence than this to prove that the ingestion of meat is actually not good for humans. For hundreds of years we have been persuaded of the opposite and still are.What about the people working in the slaughter houses, what would they do if they knew that the blood they spill every day is contributing to reduce our life expectation? Animals are not just being killed for food; they are also being used for the manufacture of products such as milk, cheese, eggs and many other more. Clothing, sport hunting and fishing, entertainment (Circuses, zoos and aquariums) and product experimentation are other examples of how animals are exploited for the â€Å"benefit† of man.The conditions were these creatures live are detrimental. Ca ges and chains, metal and fire, artificial breeding and separation from their cubs, a life of captivity and a slow and painful death are just a few examples of how they live a life of torture and agony until the day they become a steak on your table or a coat to provide warmth. So, what moves a person to desire working in a place where killing becomes a routine and suffering and fear is perceived by every single sense?Of course that making a living and the lack of jobs would be one of the reasonable answers, but there should be something else that pushes someone to do such terrible things to these innocent living beings unable to even defend or speak for themselves. Is it something ingrained in our â€Å"human nature† or perhaps external agents, such as institutions and industries, convince them that they are working for a great goal? In order to answer these questions we are going to use some ideas taken from a text written by Phyllis Rose titled â€Å"Tools of Torture†.Rose published many books and contributes frequently to periodicals such as the Atlantic Monthly and the New York Times Book Review. Rose situates us in an art gallery in Paris where an exhibition of medieval torture instruments takes place. The high number of different tools that she sees, and the many uses someone can give them, makes her think that â€Å"pain must be as great a challenge to the human imagination as pleasure† (Rose 175). This idea is reinforced after she shares her experience of a facial treatment in a dark booth of a beauty salon where she was exposed to ointments and electrodes.By associating the electrodes with what happened in Algeria and the ointments with masks dipped in acid, she concludes that the aesthetician and the torturer share the same area of expertise; pain, and that â€Å"Should that loving attention to the body turn malevolent, you have torture. (Rose 177) The author believes that â€Å"The secret of torture, like the secret of French cuisine, is that nothing is unthinkable† (Rose 176) and to illustrate this she uses an analogy where a man is tortured with a wheel and a snail is baked in its own shell.There are no limits in the world of torture and this fact may be a reason to believe that humans use their imaginary to accomplish the most horrifying things, but â€Å"torture didn’t come into existence to give vent to human sadism. It is not always private and perverse but sometimes social and institutional, vetted by the government and, of course, the Church† (Rose 177). Religions are probably the most influential institutions in our societies. They proclaim that the values and norms they promote are the only true and that not living according to them will bring a life of sin and shame and an afterlife of suffering and torture.Even if we don’t believe in any religion we still live under their rules. Christianity for example, by introducing the Ten Commandments, offered the basis for es tablishing the moral and legal laws; the institution of marriage is also an exemplar of how we organize our societies based in biblical patterns. It is not the intention of this discussion to analyze if basing our lives according these doctrines is a force for good or not; what seems relevant here is that sometimes the most heinous and aberrant things are justified by uttering these words for the benefit of a certain group of people.Usually the objective is to persuade a bigger group of people to work for their own causes convincing them that they are doing it for the common good, and the most effective tool to accomplish this seems to be manipulating people’s faith. If we take a look back about five hundred years ago we can see how the biggest genocide in the history of humanity was perpetrated in the name of god. The continent where we live today witnessed how the same people who came to these lands to convert the natives into Christianity broke every single of the rules th ey believed in.The main goal of the promoters of this campaign was taking all the gold, silver and riches to Europe and stealing the land, but somehow they managed to make people believe that their true intention was to save the souls of the natives, considered as animals, by making them adopt the true and only religion because that was god’s command. Under these commands it is amazing to see how people can, among other things, â€Å"overcome their repugnance to the task of causing physical pain to other† (Rose 177).Christianity also makes us believe that man is the ruler of this world and that all the other living creatures are at our service. The meat industry, in their many ways to legitimate their business, tries to persuade us that animals don’t feel pain and that ingesting their meat is good for us. In their efforts to keep selling their products they even have paid doctors and nutritionists supporting their cause.With these powerful institutions favoring the supposed benefits of animal products there is no wonder why we keep using them in our diets with a blind conviction that they are good for us. This seems to be also the main reasons why the workers in the animal industry are able to do their jobs without remorse. Just as â€Å"there aren’t squads of sadists beating down the doors to the torture chambers begging for jobs† (Rose 177) there aren’t squads of animal murderers beating down the doors to the slaughter houses begging for jobs.In hundreds of years of research there’s still no evidence that a human nature exists, and let alone that it coerces us to perform the most atrocious acts. The only thing we share as human beings are our human needs. No matter in which part of the world a person lives all he needs is food, water, air, a shelter and a social group where he feels valued and contented. It is in the interests of certain groups of the society to make us believe just the opposite even if it cau ses death, suffering and pain.The more informed we are, the less vulnerable we are to their lies. The author believes that â€Å"If taking one’s goals too seriously is the danger, the best discouragement of torture may be a radical hedonism that denies that any goal is worth the mean, that refuses to allow the nobly abstract to seduce us from the sweetness of the concrete† (Rose 178). Hedonism is a school of thought that argues that pleasure is the only intrinsic good but what people finds pleasurable could be rather more personal than social.This philosophy doesn’t seem to be the answer for the eradication of torture, war or a diet that brings disease and death since it pursues an arbitrary goal. The common goal is not actually a bad path to walk through; the problem appears when what it is believed to be as common is just the goal of a few. Make that goal the fulfilling of the needs of every person in this world and feed them also with the truth so they can ma ke their own decisions and in a few years after that we could be looking into a much more optimistic panorama.

Saturday, January 11, 2020

Similar Motifs Between Wuthering Heights And Hamlet English Literature Essay

The human head is comprised of a myriad of personalities, emotions, and provinces, all of which greatly influence the manner we act. Many writers now explore these deep crevasses of the human mind, and show their overpowering power over others, changing the natural class of life greatly. Two such literary plants that investigate mental power are Hamlet and Wuthering Heights. William Shakespeare ‘s and Emily Bronte ‘s texts both have comparatively similar motives, the most outstanding of which are the suppression of young person, fury, and retaliation. The suppression of young person by their higher-ups can be seen in both transitions. Hamlet is usurped by his intriguing uncle Claudius, who stepped in to take the throne, even though it truly belonged to the immature prince. When Young Fortinbras of Norway was repressed by his uncle, who had besides taken the throne rightful to him, his uncle clearly had power over him, as Claudius announces, â€Å" we have here writ / to Norway, uncle of immature Fortinbras / – Who, impotent and bedrid, barely hears / Of this his nephew ‘s purpose – to supress / His farther pace herein † ( Shakespeare I.ii.27-31 ) . Claudius believes that the uncle does hold formidable power over Fortinbras and has the ability to discontinue his mobilisation of military personnels, if it be directed at Denmark. After the passing of Mr. Earnshaw, Hindley became the proprietor of the Heights, and the caput of the household. He decided to suppress Heathcliff, as he resented him, and decline him rights to basic demands, such as an instruction with the minister of religion. Much later, Heathcliff felt that because he was abused and mistreated by Hindley old ages ago, it is his right to squelch Hareton, his lone kid. This was all before Hindley ‘s passing. Alternatively of handling Hareton decently, as the nephew he is, Heathcliff oppresses Hareton, and treats him more like a retainer than a close relation. Legally, the Heights should ‘ve been inherited by Hareton, but Heathcliff had intervened and took over it by force. â€Å" In that mode Hareton, who should now be the first gentleman in the vicinity, was reduced to a province of complete dependance on his male parent ‘s inveterate enemy † ( Bronte 183 ) . Heathcliff had interfered with Hareton ‘s legal rights, and in making so, took over Wuthering Heights, and finally Thrushcross Grange every bit good. Oppression can frequently spur choler in the victim taking to ruinous consequences. Fury has led to many jobs in both novels, oftentimes which have black consequences. Two characters that have extended choler direction jobs are Hamlet, and Heathcliff. Throughout the novel, Heathcliff ‘s fury seems to hold been spurred on from his early childhood, due to Hindley ‘s relentless maltreatment. This changeless mistreatment had compounded over the old ages, and finally, Heathcliff had become a cruel, barbarian animal towards the terminal of his life. The same can be said for immature Hamlet, in his self-titled drama. From the beginning, he is portrayed as a meek young person, merely mourning his male parent ‘s decease. Subsequent being informed of his male parent ‘s slaying by agencies of his uncle, Hamlet ‘s sense of force additions with every passing scene. Similar to a scene from Shakespeare ‘s ain Macbeth, Hamlet name upon greater powers to do him go more violent: â€Å" Now could I imbibe hot blood, / And make such bitter concern o n this twenty-four hours / Would quiver to look on. / Let me be cruel, non unnatural / I will talk stickers to her, but use none † ( Shakespeare III.iii.374-6, 379, 380 ) . Here, his morality immensely changes from more inactive to more barbarous. This fury is exhaustively released through that concluding ‘friendly ‘ affaire d'honneur with Laertes, which culminates in the deceases of Hamlet, Laertes, and the King and Queen. A similar thought can be traced to Heathcliff ‘s life, where shortly after his lover Catherine had passed off, he had begun to turn more aggressive. Most of this choler was channelled towards Hareton, the lone kid he could mistreat as requital towards Hindley. The staying mistake had fallen onto younger Cathy, who Heathcliff had punished after she had become his captive. Even towards the terminal of his life, Heathcliff ‘s fury had dominated a bulk of his life style. His rage and force was curbed by cipher, non even his married woman , Isabella Linton. Out of choler, Heathcliff exclaims, â€Å" I have no commiseration! I have no commiseration! The more the worms writhe, the more I yearn to oppress out their visceras! It ‘s a moral dentition ; and I grind with greater energy, in proportion to the addition in hurting † ( Bronte 150 ) . His pitilessness finally leads to his bend to insanity, and finally, his ain decease. Fury is seen in both the drama and novel, in both of which lead to decease. This fury can construct up over clip, and culminate as being expressed in the signifier of retribution. The most common and strongest motive shared between these two texts is the impression of retaliation ; retaliation that oftentimes leads to decease. In Shakespeare ‘s drama, the shade of his male parent demands that Hamlet exact retaliation on his uncle, who had killed his male parent. â€Å" If 1000 didst of all time thy dear father love – / Revenge his most disgusting and unnatural slaying. † ( Shakespeare I.v.23, 25 ) Claudius has committed the ultimate wickedness, one found in the Bible: the slaying of Abel via his brother Cain. Hamlet believes that although his male parent ‘s decease should be avenged, it would be foolish to slay the King, supplying merely the absurd ground that ‘a shade told him to ‘ . The full drama is centered on immature Hamlet plotting his retaliation against Claudius, and continually wavering in carry throughing his male parent ‘s ghostly, profound bids. His retaliation is eventually enacted on the King when Haml et ‘s inevitable and sudden decease is realized, and he takes action and finalizes the class of action. Laertes, the late Polonius ‘ eldest, desires to seek retaliation against Hamlet, for he had by chance murder his male parent, and drove his sister, Ophelia, mad. Laertes ‘ purpose to kill Hamlet during their baronial swordfight gives rise to flush his ain death, as Hamlet picks up his poison-tipped blade and scratches him with it every bit good. Upon hearing of Claudius ‘ immorality secret plan to extinguish him, Hamlet takes affairs into his ain custodies and eventually executes his uncle, as his ghostly male parent had commanded. Heathcliff kept many scores throughout his old ages. The initial disturbance comes from Hindley ‘s changeless maltreatment of Heathcliff as a kid. This emotionally upsets him, although he keeps it bottled up until he returns from his three-year absence, to extort retaliation on his bedraggled brother. â€Å" Afterwards set tle my mark with Hindley ; and so forestall the jurisprudence by making executing on myself † ( Bronte 97 ) . Once he has taken over the Highs, and efficaciously the full Earnshaw household, he feels as though he has dealt with the state of affairs. Edgar and Isabella Linton had both made rude comments about Heathcliff ‘s race, being the lone dark adult male for stat mis. He had kept these verbal assaults in his head for a piece, until he had the power to extort retaliation upon them. Catherine betrays Heathcliff by get marrieding Edgar Linton. This greatly cholers Heathcliff, and alternatively of harming his true love Catherine, he decides to take his choler out on Isabella Linton, Edgar ‘s sister. After Isabella and Edgar Linton dice, Heathcliff still does non experience satisfied with his retribution. He so continues to demand retaliation on his ugly brother ‘s boy, Hareton. But even so, his choler is fuelled by his lover Catherine ‘s decease. After his boy, Linton, is forced to get married immature Cathy, Heathcliff unleashes more choler on her, by insulating her from society in her room. At around this clip, he feels as though he has achieved his ain Eden. â€Å" My old enemies have non beaten me ; now would be the precise clip to avenge myself on their representatives – I could make it, and none could impede me. But where is the usage? I do n't care for contact, I ca n't take the problem to raise my manus! † ( Bronte 306 ) . Heathcliff feels as though he had the opportunity now to demand retaliation on more people who had angered him throughout the old ages, but finds no usage to it. His life is approaching to an terminal, and this retribution would be ineffectual. Finally, one time Heathcliff had breathed his last and his retaliation had all been exhausted, the falling action begins. Retaliation throughout both literary plants lead to the deceases of legion characters, including Hamlet, Laertes, Claudius, Gert rude, Hindley, Isabella, Edgar, and Linton. The subjects of the suppression of young person, fury, and retaliation have profound effects in Hamlet and Wuthering Heights, both of which cause legion deceases. Hamlet and immature Fortinbras are suppressed by their uncles, while Heathcliff does most of the subjugation against his unsought relations. This spurs fury in Hamlet, whilst Heathcliff ‘s fury increased exponentially throughout the novel. These furies lead to avenge against other household members ; Heathcliff against the young person of the novel, and Hamlet against his King and female parent. Both these texts portion these common subjects, which strengthen the secret plan as a whole, and increase the suspense and machination of the reader, doing them instant literature classics.

Friday, January 3, 2020

The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari - 1429 Words

The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari, directed by Robert Wiene first made its appearance in 1920. The film is considered one of the most defining German expressionist film out of the Avant-garde cinema movement. The film became a template for future films that is horror based and also influenced the film style of film noirs with its lighting. With its gothic tone that pays homage to expressionistic paintings that depicts human emotions, the film shows us a place that is distorted and twisted through the narration of the film’s deranged character. I will explore how the film show us the various stylistic elements that is associated with expressionist films and how this helped to create the distorted looking world through the vision of a madman. After the Germans loses in World War I, the American government was in control of the art of expressionism that is occurring in Germany at the same time. Reality for them was intolerable and therefore to escape this insufferable reality, they turned to arts. This reality was the fact that after their loss, they were traumatised by it and could not fathom the fact of their economic depression, the colonising of American culture and their politics. They used this arts to express their inner feelings and that is why German expressionism is associated with the human emotions. The film tells the story of the crazy hypnotist Dr.Caligari through the narration of Francis. Francis and his friend Alan, meets Caligari at a carnival in their town. PartShow MoreRelatedThe Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari1261 Words   |  6 Pagesten minutes of Robert Wiene’s 1920 film, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. The last scene of Wiene’s film begins after the asylum director, revealed as Dr. Caligari, is investigated for the murder case and soon after the police found dead Cesare in the forest. The scene cuts away from the police picking up Cesare’s body to have them reappear in the hallway outside of director’s office door. Francis then leads the party’s way into the office. Dr. Caligari can be likened to the empires that were powerfulRead MoreThe Cabinet of Dr. Caligari Essay977 Words   |  4 PagesThe Cabinet of Dr. Caligari The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is the first film by Germany to be an Expressionist film. Authorities of an avant-garde movement believed that by using Expressionism in films (as they did in paintings, theater, literature, and architecture) this might be a selling point in the international market. The film proved that to be true and because of its success other films in the Expressionist style soon followed. Siegfried Kracauer discusses The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari inRead More Critique Of The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari Essay examples490 Words   |  2 Pages Critique Of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari was written by Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer, and directed by Robert Weine. It was produced in 1919 by Erich Pommer for Decla-Bioscop. 1919 was a year in which the movie industry was transformed into a giant industry. Although the movie was produced in 1919, it was not released in the United States until 1921. A time when film makers were out to prove that film was indeed art. In the yearRead MoreArt Imitating Life? a Film Analysis of the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari1137 Words   |  5 PagesArt Imitating Life? In his assessment of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, (1920), Noel Burch describes the film as a play on â€Å"carefully contrived ambiguity,† (Burch, 174). The spectator of the film, the audience is both drawn in as a participant, a â€Å"motionless voyager† (Bordwell, 96, quoting Burch) forced to imagine their own dialogue, action, and expression, and then all at once, harkened back to severe reality with contrived moments. This play between audience immersion and expulsion from the film’sRead MoreAnalysis Of Robert Wienes Film Das Cabinet Des Dr. Calligari876 Words   |  4 Pages1920 film Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari) is a staple of German Expressionist film. Following the experience of the World War I, the film reflects a distrust in the figures of authority who have manipulated the common man. The figures of power are represented by the hypnotist Dr. Caligari and the conditioned common man by his somnambulist Cesare, who commits murders on Caligari’s behalf. Through an engagement with this concept, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is ultimatelyRead MoreAnalysis Of German Expressionism In The Cabinet Of Dr. Calligari826 Words   |  4 PagesThe Cabinet of Dr. Caligari Response Paper #5 The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a German Expressionist film that was released in 1920. The film was directed by Robert Wiene. Expressionism is defined as a visible world that is reshaped and even, distorted by internal forces such as soul, spirit, subjectivity, and emotion. A major component of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is it contains various examples of mise-en-scà ¨ne, which is associated with visual aspects such as props in the background or clothingRead MoreGerman Expressionism and Tim Burton Essay2030 Words   |  9 Pages(1993), Batman (1989) and Batman Returns (1992), all draw parallels to expressionist films of the era and the characteristics these films feature. Burtons expressionist style films are predominantly similar to that of Robert Weines The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), F. W. Murnaus Nosferatu (1922), and Fritz Langs Metropolis (1927). German expressionism was first seen in famous artworks such as The Scream by Edvard Munch (1893), and continued to spread into other areas such as architectureRead MoreReality Of Cinem A Subjective Perspective1506 Words   |  7 Pagesreality† in cinema doesn’t exist, there are types of representations of reality that can have seriously damaging implications. These are representations of the world which are intended to be impetuses for the harm of others. Films like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Battleship Potemkin showcase this potential to dictate and distort reality. First, in order to decide whether reality distortion through film has any immediate implications, we must establish that it is impossible to capture an â€Å"objectiveRead MoreRumble Fish By Francis Ford Coppola1140 Words   |  5 Pagesalone couldn’t. However, the no movie is completely free from external inspirations and I was able to draw parallels between some of the movie’s major themes to earlier movies and detect traces of the French new wave. Another movie influence is the Cabinet of Calgary -German expressionist and film noir are the main significant inspirations on the cinematographic style of Rumble Fish. Traces of those genres can be detected in the film’s storyline, mise-en-scene, cinematography, and sound. Like in anyRead MoreFascism During The 1930 S1360 Words   |  6 Pagesradio, movies, and TV appeal more to the masses than say for example, newspapers. One fascist piece of artistic work was the film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. It was a silent film from the 1920’s, in which the main premise is centered around brainwashing. The main character Dr. Caligari is a hypnotist who uses his sleepwalker to commit murders for him. Dr. Caligari is comparable to a fascist dictator who has cut of his citizens, the sleepwalker, from the world and is having them do his bidding. On