By: Manoj Sapkota
Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities (1859) is a historical novel set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The novel depicts the pathetic condition of French peasantry and the brutality demonstrated by the revolutionaries towards the former aristocrats in the initial years of revolution. As it is a historical novel, though the characters are fictitious, it reveals the injustices, oppressions and the social problems of the then French society in addition to the violent appearance of revolution with excess of bloodshed. This paper explores the pitiful and wretched condition of former aristocrats caused by the barbarous nature of revolutionaries so as to take personal revenge in the name of politics, the plight of French peasantry demoralized by the aristocrats and the role of women in the revolution and its later depiction in French and the world literature.
The novel revolves around the French Revolution and the tension in England. Here, Dickens gives the tale of a family handling the extreme difficulty and obscurity in the conflict between aristocracy and the revolutionaries. His voice varies from being sympathetic with the revolutionaries due to their method of revolting. So, his neutrality though sometimes wavering from side to side, can be found apparent through the whole novel.
The historians have acknowledged that the French Revolution was one of the greatest revolutions of the west. Much has been said and discussed about the origins and the structure of the revolution, from the incompetency of Louis XVI, ignorance of the aristocracy and the hardship of French people’s life but much less had been said about the brutality of the revolutionaries and the role of women in the revolution and its later portrayal in the native as well as world literature.
New Historicism is a critical theory which aims to understand the work through its cultural context and to understand intellectual history through literature. As a critical approach to literature, it rejects the autonomy of text as well as the autonomy of the author rather it views the literary texts as only fore-grounded form of politico-cultural, social and economic background. So, it is inseparable from the historical background and the author is also in the grip of historical circumstances of the period of text. Thus history is an embedded element to literature and vice versa since literature is not simply the consequence of history rather it makes use of history through its participation in discursive practices. In this regard, Luis Montrose asserts:
The new(er) historical criticism could to be new in refusing unexamined distinction between ‘literature’ and ‘history’, between 'text' and 'context' is resisting a tendency to posit and privilege an autonomous individual whether an author or a work to be set against a social or literary background. To emphasize this view of Montrose, M.A.R. Habib says, “The new historicism argues that analysis of literary texts could not be restricted to texts themselves or to their author's psychology and background, rather the larger contexts and cultural conventions in which texts were produces needed to be considered.” (398/766)
So, the literary texts cannot provoke the crystal clear reality as they are influenced by psychological state of the author, her perception as well as the reaction towards the circumstances. And new historicism is such a literary theory based on the idea that literary texts should be studied and interpreted within the context of both the history of the author and the history of the critic. Thus the new historicism looks at the literature in a wider historical context, examining both how the writer's times affected the work and how the work reflects the writer's times.
The novel reveals the oppressions done from the aristocrat's side. Marquis Evremonde, the representative of aristocrats, drives his carriage over an innocent child of peasant and shows the inhuman characteristics. Evremonde, a man of about sixty, handsomely dressed, naughty in manner is a sociopath who sees cruelty as entertainment. He despises his own class but he can only unleash his hatred on those who cannot fight back like the farmer over whose son he drives the carriage. We find him crashing through the streets in his carriage, whipping his horses to froth and terrifying pedestrians. “It's extraordinary to me” (157), he tells the crowd that gathers at the scene “that you people cannot take care of yourselves and your children. One or the other of you is for ever in the way. How do I know what injury you have done my horses” (157)? This is the good example to show that Evremonde was a cruel ruler to enjoy at the trouble of others. After killing the child, he takes out a golden coin and throws to the crowd in compensation to the loss. It clarifies his attitude to objectify the peasants. Thus this novel written with sorrow and concern exposes the inhumanity of aristocrats. It shows sympathy for the miserable life of the oppressed and expresses extraordinary ideas about the mass revolution through the ambivalent attitude of the writer.
But in the next hand, in the novel, writer shows us a revolution where no one is right; no one is even being rational. Revolutionaries like Madame Defarge are killing innocent people to get revenge. But it is not given the more significance in the novel. The first characters to show very irrational and inhuman actions are the revolutionaries during the French Revolution. The cash broken in the streets of poverty striven down where the people were poor and looking for the way to end their suffering. The people rushed to the wine and began scooping it up with their hands. These ravenous actions are no humane and civilized.
As the aristocrats, the revolutionaries in the novel also hold many depositions. Charles Darnay who has already got detached from his uncle Marquis Evremonde seems to have a noble soul but he comes from the corrupted roots. He had a type of tussle with his uncle Evremonde who attempted to put him in prison. So, Darnay rejects the family name as shameful and rejects to assume his place as heir and prefers his penniless English life. But later on, though he was innocent and hadn't done any crime to the revolutionaries, due to being from the aristocratic background, he is imprisoned and told that he would be sentenced to death. It is not a justifiable action done by the revolutionaries. So in addition to the cruelty of the aristocrats, the revolutionaries also possess a type of inhumane and brutal attitude.
Due to being associated with Darnay, Lucie and her father, Dr. Mannete are also at the centre and closely observed by Madame Defarge to take the revenge with Darnay. They, including Darnay leave that place to save their lives. Because Syndey Carton becomes unable to win the heart of woman he loves, Lucie Mannete, he redeems himself giving up his own life so that Lucie's husband, Darnay might live. Thus, for the death of Carton too, the cruel role of the revolutionaries is responsible.
In the novel, Dickens traces the private lives of people caught in the cataclysm of the revolution. But the readers are unable to bear its clear picture in their mind. The whole action revolves around the Paris and London women. Those women provide the moral climate of the group or family throughout the whole narratives. In The Tale of Two Cities the emotional foundation has been provided to men by those women and that causes the man to act for or react against what the women represent.
Lucie Mannete and Madame Defarge are the two characters who ultimately put the Revolutionary France and England against each other. Lucie doesn't have the active role but she is highly influential. She influences others through who she is but not through what she does. Lucie created the comfortable home which provides the men with comfort in her life and her compassion for others really inspires them. They are able to uplift their status and they find the strength to escape the prison of their lives due to her goodness. She demonstrates the faith in the overriding power of gender as natural determinant of female identity. Her appeal to the sanctity of the middle class family and to the women's status as relative creatures within it can be found. In the novel, the writer presents her as a compassionate and virtuous woman who inspires affection in the other characters. Though she doesn't seem to be an important character in the poem, it is actually important her role. Because of her unconditional love and compassion, Lucie is used to demonstrate how strong their characters really are in the violent situation too.
In another side, though Madame Defarhge is sitting in her small wine shop knitting the death register, she is the acting leader of the revolutionary act in France. Regarding it, Bloom says, “Dickens provides us with the lady Macketh in Madame Defarge, the fiercely attractive genius of the French Revolution” (n. pag.). So, Defarge initiates the violence. She is childless and merciless. Although she is the antithesis of Lucie Mannete, they both possess the common ability that is to inspire others. She is the antithesis of Lucie in this sense that Lucie is creative and nurturing to life where as Defarge is destructive. Because Defarge was perished by her family in her early age, she seeks the revenge not only in her family but in the whole class. She knits a register of the oppressors which represents her patience and urge and she wants to doom them to destruction. Her knitting is a history which records the past in a mysterious manner. The register which she knits produces a shock in its implicit linkage of images and emotions. The creativity and maternal affection including nurture are linked with violence and death. The line “A rose lay beside her, and if she now and then glanced at the flower , it was with no infraction of her usual preoccupied air (249)” is the related example that the rose Fefarge pins in her head-dress as threatening sign to her fellows. It is important in another way also that the aesthetics of feminine ornament are organized in the service of revolution. Hence, as Defarge's handwork promotes violence and destruction, she is an important acting leader of French Revolution.
In parallel and contrast, Madame Defarge is described as a ‘tigress’ and absolutely without pity. Here Waters asserts, “As the careful juxtapositioning of Madame Defarge with Lucie Mannete in the novel shows, the universal human nature which Dickens is attempting to portray through these techniques of parallelism takes gender as the trans-historical constituent of identity and yet at the same time grounds it in the ideology of the Victorian middle class family” (139). So for the definition of female identity produced through the opposition between these women, Defarge and Lusie Mannete, hinges upon the expanded formation of domestic ideology as well as the propagation of values of home in Victorian middle-class culture.
In the name of politics, the revolutionists take the revenge with the aristocrats. Whatever they do, that is only to take the revenge of the suffering, embarrassment and agony they got from the aristocrats in the past. They have just disguised them in the form of the politicians and carry out the brutal acts against the former leading class. Their reaction is no less brutal and atrocious than the actions of upper class people. So, they have used the masks of politicians and to knit the conspiracy so as to imprison the former aristocrats.
To sum up, Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities depicts the disguised form of the revolutionists taking revenge in brutal manner in the name of politics. We find female hinged upon the enlarged arrangement of domestic ideology. Defarge, a cruel and merciless woman who encourages devastation is a leading person of French Revolution. Though much remarkable role cannot be seen, Lucie is a weighty character around whom most of the actions of the novel move around. The role of the revolutionists is humane and brutal which takes the life of aristocrats as well as of former aristocrats and innocent people too. The images of the plight of revolution are demoralized by the aristocracy and the images of the predicament of aristocrats as well as former aristocrats caused by the uncultured traits of revolutionaries are significant in the novel.
Works Cited:
Bloom, Harold. ed. “Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities Bloom’s Notes”. Broomall: Chelsea House Publishers, 1996.
Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities. London: GRW Publishing Limited, 2003.
Greenblatt, Stephen. “Renaissance Self- Fashioning: Form More to Shakespeare”. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980.
Montrose, Louis Adrin. “New Historicisms”. Redrawing the Boundaries: the Transformation of English and American Literary Studies. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt and G. Gunn. New York: MLA Press, 1992. 392-418.
Waters, Catherine. Dickens and the Politics of the Family. Cambridge: Cambridge, 2000. 139.
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Contemporary Patriarchal Society in Bronte’s Wuthering Heights
By: Sarita Pantha
Bronte’s Wuthering Heights wanted to tackle the issue of female problem through the mouth
piece of Catherine and this novel considered to the age of Victorian period and
in this period the rise of the novel as a genre is closely linked to the rise
of women as writers of novels. The form and conventions of novel writing were
largely shaped by these women writers and the socioeconomic conditions they
were negotiating.
Wuthering Heights mainly focuses on the racial
discrimination and problem of contemporary society through the eyes of two
different narrator Nelly Dean itself a female and Lockwood as well. Victorian
period had due respect toward male oriented society and family relations. It
does have the quite good effect of patriarchal society. M. H. Abrams in his A Glossary Of Literary Terms says:
Patriarchal is
the basic view of western civilization- that is it is male-centred and
controlled is organized and conducted in such a way as to subordinate women to
men in all cultural domains: familial, religious, political, economic, social,
legal and artistic. (94)
The
novel considered with the Victorian period, in Victorian period, women were
treated as inferior human beings. Such a belief was so deep rooted in the
Victorian society that even doctors and physicians believed that women’s
physically affected their mentality. According to them, women’s physiological
function was very complicated. Because of this complication twenty percent
their creative power is diverted from brain activity. In other words women in Victorian
era were supported to have twenty percent less mental creativity then man had.
Wuthering Heights is very imagery novel, while
reading novel we can see vivid images of that so called male society who
dominated female. Heathcliff as a man protagonist of the novel, encounter with
different situation some where with revenge, love and harted. Heathcliff was
adapted by Mr .Earnshaw is the early age of his life at Liverpool
and take both lodging and fooding at one roof of Earnshaw family but Earnshawn’s
son Hindley detest him. Earnshaw had two children named Hindley and Catherine. Catherine
at first hate Heathcliff but after few months she is in love with him but
Catherine does not accept him as her husband. The whole story walks with
Catherine and Heathcliff past event told through the voice of Nelly Dean.
On
the surface, the novel is the history of two families which crisscross in many
complex ways over three generations. What makes the novel unique however is
that along with being a chronological narrative, it becomes a story of
elemental forces at work. This is primarily achieved by the narrative technique,
the delineation of character and the language used .Virginia Woolf, writing in
the first part of the twentieth century, describes the novel thus Wuthering Heights
is not about the love of men and women. Emily was inspired by some moral
general conception …. The impulse which
urged her to create was not her own suffering in or her own injuries .She
looked out upon a world cleft in to gigantic disorder and felt with in her
power to unite it in a book. It is this suggestion of power underlying…. That
gives the book its huge stature among other novels.
In
the patriarchal society women ought to speak as permitted by male. According to
patriarchal thought, Society is supposed to be created by male than selves. In
the novel Wuthering
Heights also female’s
attitude toward society was shaped by so called male society. In the both
families Catherine and Isabella were victimized by male. Women are always
suppressed by the male counterparts. They even deprived of power so in
Wuthering Heights Catherine’s longing for power can be seen in different
scenes. Firstly when Mr. Earnshaw asked her what he would bring her when he
returned from Liverpool… “What shall I bring
you? You may choose what you like what you like. Only let it be little, for I shall
walk there and back, sixty miles each way, that is a long spell!” Hindley named
a fiddle and then he asked Miss Cathy; she was hardly six years old, but se
could ride any horse in he stable and choose a whip” (Chap. 14).
Catherine
was not sure who she actually was. Calling herself as a pet, Catherine
expressed her wish to escape from domestic encloser. Later in her madness she
tore the pillow with her teeth. Tearing the pillow and letting the feathers go
free seem to be very meaningful. Being a girl belonging to farming culture
Catherine always wants to have a better life. That’s why she married Edgar
Linton instead of Heathcliff. Catherine rejected Heathcliff as a husband
because he was socially and economically inferior to Linton.
In
Victorian period, women have to follow the rules, values and institutions that
were established to favour men. But right from her childhood Catherine
challenges all these values, institutions and even relationships. Catherine
tries to lead two lives. She hopes to require authenticity with social
conventions, running in harness an anthological commitment to Heathcliff with a
phenomenal relationship to Linton. She says ‘I am Heathcliff but rejects him
and marries Linton. To lead a two life was surely a great challenge to the
values, the values set by the male society.
Marriage
is one of the most important social rite and rituals till date. Before deciding
to marry someone one should take the suggestions from guardians in the
Victorian era. However Catherine goes to opposite of the old tradition and
decides to marry Edgar on her own. But she is not sure whether she made a good
decision or not. So she asked Nelly Dean whether her choice was right or wrong.
As we can she in chapter 9 as “Today, Edgar Linton asked me to marry him, and I
have given him an answer.---” I accepted him , Nelly. Be quick, and say whether
I was wrong!”
Wuthering Heights is fully of imageries from which
we can see the clear picture of contemporary male dominated society where
female can not get rights of education, health, marriage etc. They should think
about their family and children. In the novel female are victimized in the case
of love, marriage, revenge and detest. There is no doubt that Heathcliff loves
Catherine but the passionate love brings massive destruction in the novel.
Catherine died after giving the birth of younger Catherine and Frances also
died after giving birth of Hereton. From this we can conclude that in Victorian
Era a woman are treated as the machine to produce the baby but does not care
about their health condition.
In
the names of revenge Heathcliff also treat a bad behaviour toward Isabella and
she escape from these torture and does not come back to Heathcliff. After the
death of both father and mother of young Catherine, Heathcliff keep her in his
home and treated badly. Heathcliff’s mind was full of revenge for Edgar and
Isabella because in the early age of his childhood they treated them as slaves.
They ignore and does not give permission even enter in their house.
In
conclusion, female knows female sufferings very well. The writer herself is a
female. She may also face the problem of contemporary society in her writings.
She is from Victorian Era; this period is highly influenced by male dominated
society. In the novel male dominated the female can not get rights of
education, health, marriage. Before deciding to to anything which is accordance
with owns life someone one should take the suggestions from guardians. Women
have to follow the rules, values and institutions that were established to
favour men. Challenging all these values, institutions and even relationships
is a tough job at that period. Patriarchal is the basic view that is it is
male-centred and controlled is organized and conducted in such a way as to
subordinate women to men in all cultural domains: familial, religious,
political, economic, social, legal and artistic.
Interplay between Nature and Human in Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein
By: Mahesh Datt
Pant
One of the
earliest examples of science fiction in English literature Frankenstein
by Mary Shelly has great deal of interrelationship between human and nature. It
makes us making aware of the fact that nature is wonderful as well as dangerous
thing i.e. it nourishes us as mother as well as controls within its values as
father figure. This research shows how nature checks and defends human
activities but humans, because of their unique abilities, try to control it
rather than controlled by it due to new technologies. It also conveys us a
message that scientific experimentations and expeditions against the natural
rules can never be accepted by nature and surely resisted. Therefore, this
novel can be considered as a significant representation of powerful nature and
its resistance on human challenge towards its eternal rules.
Mary
Shelly’s Frankenstein is a significant representation of powerful nature
in the sense that nature is found resisting human activities throughout the
novel. The novel criticizes the human foolishness to conquer the nature through
their knowledge. Bill Philips supports this idea that nature resists human’s
intention to conquer it. He quotes:
… nature
has a habit of reminding us it is there, just as the monster, a force of nature
perverted by human ingenuity, is constantly reminding Victor Frankenstein of
his existence, just as the tsunami of December 26th 2004, and the Pakistan
earthquake of October 10th 2005, remind us that we inhabit a world we do not
control. (67)
Philip’s
argument gives us sense that we human beings so called most intelligent
creature on earth are pretending to be unaware of the fact that we are digging
our own grave by challenging the nature. Therefore, this novel tries to make us
aware that it is better to mend our hostile attitude and live in harmony with
nature instead of challenging its power.
Eco-criticism
is a combined term of ecology and criticism. Ecology is the science which
studies about the interrelationship of living things with the nature. Criticism
is concerned with defining, analyzing, interpreting, evaluating the literary
works through some principles. Therefore, we can define eco-criticism as the
critical study of the ecological interrelationship through literature. Human
beings, the most intelligent creature on the earth, are also part of this
ecology and found many times challenging the natural rules through its
abilities. So, eco-criticism also studies about relationship the human being
and the nature through literary works. A
Glossary of Literary Terms by M.H. Abrams defines, “Eco-criticism designates
the critical writings which explore the relations between literature and the
biological and physical environment, conducted with an acute awareness of
devastation being wrought on that environment by human activities” (71). It
also studies literary expression of human experiences in a naturally and
culturally shaped world. According to Greg Garrard, “Indeed, the
widest definition of the subject of eco-criticism is the study of the
relationship of the human and the non-human, throughout human cultural history
and entailing critical analysis of the term ‘human’ itself” (5). One of the
best known science fiction novels Frankenstein by Mary Shelly has many
allusions which link human and nature. It gives us sense about the power of
nature which conducts human activities with different kinds of signs. Thus
eco-criticism helps us to analyze how nature has nourished the human species
and controlled excess human curiosity through this novel.
During
this novel the writer make a connection between nature and human through its
different perspectives. From very beginning of the novel she uses the horrible
scene of nature and tries to show that nature is not in favor of the
characters. Walton, a young and passionate navigator wants to conquer natural
rule and curiously wants to explore “a part of the world never before visited,
and may tread a land never before imprinted by the foot of man”(1-2). Through
his way he faces many difficulties and a horrible accident where the ice broke
and freed his ship. At this point he was introduced to a stranger named Victor
Frankenstein and enlightened about the results of extreme curiosity of a human
through his story.
As Walton,
Victor, the central character of this novel is also an ambitious person who
wants to learn “the hidden laws of nature” (19), “secrets of heaven and earth”
(20). He tries to challenge the role of the God by creating life through
scientific experiments and faces different kinds of environmental crisis
throughout the process. Knowledge and passion of Victor makes him to create
life under his terms and conditions rather focusing on natural role. Lewis
Wolpert discusses that ‘knowledge is dangerous’ extracting words from myths,
“Prometheus was punished for bringing knowledge to the world, and Faust for
wanting it too much. Lest one thinks that the biblical tree of knowledge, for
the tasting of the fruit of which man was expelled from Eden, was only about
the knowledge of good and evil, Milton's version in Paradise Lost makes
the issue clear” (151). As myth, Victor tries to be a mother figure by giving
life to a naturally death body. It seems
as if he allowed nature to determine his fate in contrast what he had done by
creating the monster. He disobeyed nature’s power and put a strain on his
society by creating the unnatural creation and paid by losing his beloved ones.
This shows that there is a limitation to take knowledge otherwise every
creature in this world has to pay for it.
We can
observe many instances where nature resisting Victor’s efforts to challenge the
rule. He observes “most violent and horrible thunder-storm” (22) at his teenage; Elizabeth caught by
severe illness, his mother fell sick and died before he leaves for the
University of Ingolstadt are the signs of nature which were making him to
resist from doing the inhuman thing he was about to do. But he stubbornly led
himself to create the “daemon” and finally couldn’t endure the aspect of being
he had created. He quotes:
Oh! no
mortal could support the horror of countenance. A mummy again endued with animation
could not be so hideous as that wretch. I had gazed on him while unfinished; he
was ugly then; but when those muscles and joints were rendered capable of
motion; it became a thing such as even Dante could not have conceived. (37)
This shows
however human challenge the nature but it gives glimpse of realization through
many ways and signs. It’s upon human to realize it rather running behind his
blind curiosity. Glen A. Love in his Practical Ecocriticism: Literature,
Biology and environment quotes Joseph Wood Krutch as, “We have engineered
ourselves into a position where, for the first time in history, it has become
possible for man to destroy his whole species. May we not at the same time have
philosophized ourselves into a position where we are no longer able to manage
successfully our mental and spiritual lives?” (27). He ironically indicates
that our superiority is about to harm our existence if we won’t realize our
right position. Therefore, we must try to develop a friendly relation instead
of competing with its eternal power.
Frankenstein
faces another thunder-storm after he reaches Geneva after he gets news of his
brother’s death which makes him a sight of the monster. This was a warning of
nature to him that it is time to pay for his curiosity. “A flash of lightening
illuminated the object, and discovered its shape plainly to me; its gigantic
structure, and the deformity of its aspect, more hideous than belong to
humanity, instantly informed me that it was the wretch, the filthy daemon, to
whom I had given life. (53).” This incident made him aware that he could know
the truth that his own creation has come to take revenge with him. We can take
examples of different disasters human civilization facing because of
unnecessary efforts to experiments on natural resources as opposing effort of
nature. Though nature always tries to resist us showing its wilderness for
exploiting its rules but we stubbornly through our curiosity lead ourselves to
be ruined as dinosaurs disappeared many centuries ago.
Another aspect of debatable issue in
Frankenstein may be the scientific experimentation of human being.
Science and nature has a long history of conflict. Western scientists firmly
tried to challenge the role of nature rather thinking of consequences of their work
time to time. As a result whole human race is paying for it by facing different
kind of disastrous side-effects. We can consider the commitment of USA
President Roosevelt for the creation of atom bomb as inhuman activities of
science. Lewis Wolpert quotes a petition signed by some scientist to president
which never reached to him:
. . . a
nation which set the precedent of using these newly liberated forces of nature
for purposes of destruction may have to bear the responsibility of opening the
door to an era of devastation on an unimaginable scale. . . . We, the
undersigned, respectfully petition first, that you exercise your power as
Commander-in-Chief to rule that the United States shall not resort to the use
of atomic bombs in this war unless the terms which will be imposed upon Japan
have been made public in detail and Japan knowing these terms has refused to
surrender . . . . (156)
As a result in
Second World War Japan had to face that destructive atom bomb and its
side-effects are still in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In this novel Victor
Frankenstein is representing the western scientists who are making discoveries
and formulating experiments on how God’s creatures work. CFC’s role in ozone
depletion, global warming, fears of destructive world war etc. are the biggest
problems we are facing nowadays just because of scientific invention. It also
verifies that human beings are bound to follow the natural rule and should work
within it.
After Frankenstein abandons his own
creation and reaches to Clerval disoriented, exhausted and confused with fear
of that ‘daemon’, he tries to recover taking solace through the natural
beauties around Ingolstadt. He looks as if discovering pleasure of life within
the natural beauty beyond his laboratory with a warm company of his friend. His
words has glimpse of his enjoyment and recovery after the heart breaking
moments through nature:
I became
the same happy creature who, few years ago, loved and beloved by all, had no
sorrow and care. When happy, inanimate nature had the power of bestowing on me
the most delightful sensations. A serene sky and verdant field filled me with
ecstasy. The present season was indeed divine; the flowers of spring bloomed in
the hedges, while those of summer were in already in bud. I was undisturbed by
thoughts which during the preceding year had pressed upon me, notwithstanding
my endeavors to throw them up. (47)
This shows how
a person gets pleasure within the nature even after horrified events keep a
person in solitude. We can observe the development of Japanese ‘haiku’ – a
poetic form that represents “the poet’s emotional and spiritual response to a
natural object, scene, season of a year” (Abrams 120) – in Japanese American
prison camps during destructive Second World War. These ‘haiku’ are the result
of confinement through the world war effects as Frankenstein has after making
the monster. Angela Waldie quotes, “The internment haiku provide a unique
counter-balance to this work, as they help to illuminate the role of the
natural world in a place not home, but exile, and the ways in which immersion
in the natural world can help one to express a reaction to being unjustly taken
from one’s home” (54). We can find many events in this novel where Victor
visits nature and tries to get pleasure and thinks as if he gets rid of burdens
in the lap of nature. This justifies that whenever human gets in any kind of
frustration, exhaustion or confinement physically or mentally it takes support
from natural beauty to get rid of it.
After
Victor attempts to play the role of mother by creating the monster and abandons
his duty, that monster learns his life through nature. Like an abandoned
infant, the monster is forced to learn by itself or to seek some mother figure.
Nature, as witness of the abandonment of the creator, adopts the wretched
creature in order to live his life. Do Animals Have Right? by Alison
Hills explains, “It is natural to think that some animals have minds that are
very similar to ours: many animals can suffer pain and fear, some appear to be
able to think, and some, like the great apes, can even be taught a basic
language” (4-5). Though the monster was abandoned he had brain to adopt the
nature. The Monster first finds a pool to drink water and learns the dangerous
of fire by touching inflamed branches. Then his hunger made him aware of food
and found a shelter as a hovel joined to a cottage belonged to a pheasant
family. Though the monster couldn’t throw him in that family thinking he could
be abandoned by them as his creator did. He learns language imitating to a
pheasant family as “we learn our language and driving skills from other humans
in our society: no one is born knowing English or which way to point their car”
(64). By imitating the family and using tools around them the Monster could learn
happiness, generosity and affection as well as the pain. “If such lovely
creatures were miserable it was less strange that I, an imperfect and solitary
being, should be wretched” (83) was his reaction on the pathetic condition of
the family. He learns what pleasure or relief is after he helps the family by
bringing firing sufficient for them. The knowledge gained by the monster can be
connected with the animal’s struggle to have knowledge through nature. He
didn’t have anyone to teach him life but he could perceive all that through
nature itself. So, we can consider nature as mother figure for the monster that
nourished and helped him to survive.
Another aspect of interplay between
human and nature in this novel is the realization of human being about the
consequences of their activities. Victor Frankenstein realizes what he is going
to commit creating a female species for the monster and destroys it. Though he
had promised the monster to create his companion with a condition to leave
Europe but finally realizes what he was going to do is harmful for his own
species. Frankenstein argues as:
Even if
they were to leave Europe, and inhabit the deserts of the new world, yet one of
the first result of their sympathies for which the daemon thirsted would be children,
and a race of devils would be propagated on the earth, who might make the very
existence of the species of man a condition precarious and full of terror. Had
I right, for my own benefit, to inflict this curse upon everlasting
generations? I had before been moved by sophisms of the being I created; I had
been struck senseless by his fiendish threats; but now, for the first time, the
wickedness of my promise burst upon me; I shuddered to think that future ages
might curse me as their pest, whose selfishness had not hesitated to buy its
own peace at the price, perhaps, of the existence of the whole human race.
(131)
This is the
realization which every human being has to think of if they want their race to
continue for long time. Victor realizes that even he has to pay lives of
himself and his beloved one he gives us a sense what is nature all about. Tim
Lindgren in his article “Composition and the Rhetoric of Eco-Effective Design”
extracts words by McDonough and Braungart as:
As
descendants of the Industrial Revolution, we have come to accept as normal an
industrial paradigm in which our products, routinely made with toxic chemicals,
hurtle through their short lives toward landfills, there to wait until our
grandchildren are forced to deal with them. . . . Such a system of production
creates the environmental problems we face today – pollution, deforestation,
species extinction, global warming – and it bequeaths even worse problems to
future generations. (112)
This shows that
if we do not change our attitude nature will be forced to take its correcting
measures which may result collapse of human existence. By including this
realization Mary Shelly wants to make her readers to think of consequences of
their curiosity and trying to give a strong message to scientists to think of
nature before they discover anything. We can consider this realization is a
part of nature that it controls human behaviours as father figure.
To
conclude, this novel considers nature as a parental figure for human beings
that plays vital role in development of their knowledge. It also shows nature
encourages as well as controls human mind for their daily work through
different kinds of signs but it’s upon us to realize what nature is pointing us
to do or not to do. This novel gives a strong message that scientific
experimentations and expeditions should be held keeping nature and its rule in
mind. If we will not be able to realize it in time our own discovery may be
used on us as destructive force as nature uses the monster on Victor Frankenstein.
So I consider Frankenstein by Mary Shelly is a significant
representation of powerful nature and its resistance on human challenge towards
its eternal rules.
Works Cited
Abrams, M.H. A Glossary of Literary Terms.
Bonston: Thomson Wadsworth, 2005.
Gerrard, Greg. Ecocriticism. New York:
Rouledge, The Taylor and Francis e-library, 2004.
Hills, Alson.
Do Animals Have Rights?. Cambridge: Icon books Ltd, (2005)
Lindgren, Tim. “Composition and Rhetoric of
Ecoeffective Design.” Coming into Contact: Explorations in Ecocritical
Theory and Practice. Athnes and London: The University of Georgia Press, 2007. 111-127
Love, Glen A. Practical Ecocriticsm :
Literature Biology and The Environment. London
: University of Virginia press, 2003.
Phillips, Bill. “Frankenstein and Mary
Shelley's “Wet Ungenial Summer.”’ Atlantis 28.2 (2006): 59-68.
Shelly, Merry. Frankenstein. New Delhi: Robin Books,
2003.
Waldie, Angela. “Challenging the Confines: Haiku
from the Prison Camp.” Coming into contact: Explorations in Ecocritical
Theory and Practice. Athnes and London: The University of Georgia Press, 2007. 39-57
Wolpert, Lewis. The Unnatural Nature of Science.
Cambridge: Harvard University
Press, 1994.
Split Personality of Catherine in Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights
By: Raj kumar Ghimire
Catherine as a central character of
Bronte’s novel Wuthering Heights (1847) moves with split personality
where she draws two males and houses together. She is in between with her heart
and mind that determines her relations with two males; Heathcliff and Edgar.
She becomes almost mad and shows split personality at Thrushcross Grange after
Heathcliff’s returning. Her character brings two identities as being Earnshaw
and Linton both at once. She has adopted both qualities; wilderness and
civilization because she is brought up in two different places and taught by two
cultures. She shows her different natures in terms of love and marriage because
of her psychology and unconscious state of mind. Therefore, Catherine has split
personality that represents two houses with two families which are totally
opposite and different in nature where she is trapped between love and
responsibility and shows her both gentle and wild behaviors with her actions at
once.
Oxford English dictionary defines the word
‘split’ as “divide into branches or break forcibly” (738). It means the thing which is divided or parted
into different branches is known as split. Then ‘split personality’ is a
condition of altering or breaking the interests, behaviors, activities,
speeches and so on into pieces which show different identities at a single time.
Here, Wuthering Height stands for nature with wilderness and Thrushcross Grange
as culture with civilization where Catherine has adopted both. She is torn
between love (Heathcliff) and mind (Edgar) which is the real existence of her
split personality.
There are two sides of Catherine who
belongs to two men: one Heathcliff and another Edgar where she has got both
identities as Catherine Heathcliff and Catherine Linton. These two
characteristics shown by her can be taken as the parts of her life. She feels
difficulty to decide whether she belongs to Heathcliff or Edgar. In her
conversation with Nelly, she says as: “Oh, I will die” (94), and at the same
time she exclaims: “No I’ll not die he’d be glad-he does not love me at all-he
would never miss me” (94). It shows her madness or instability of mind where
she is in dilemma whether to die or not and she has not faith upon both males;
husband and lover. Thus, it clearly shows her split nature in the novel.
Louis Tyson in her book Critical Theory
Today talks about Freud’s psychoanalysis theory regarding behavior of a
person as: “you can’t always get what you consciously want, but you get what
you unconsciously need” (12). It means as a human being we cannot get the
things as we want but as a result we get those things unconsciously to fulfill
our need. There is clash between conscious want and unconscious need. In this
novel, Catherine was too intimate with Heathcliff at her childhood so she
consciously want him at her adulthood but she unconsciously need husband so she
gets Edgar. Now, here we can raise a question, who is she actually? To whom she
belongs then? She is trapped between the two males and two families. She tries
to lead two lives at once is the split nature of Catherine.
The French philosopher Gilles Deleuze and
psychological analyst Felix Guttari in their book Anti Oedipus’ first volume ‘Capitalism
and schizophrenia’ discuss about capital society and mentality of a person
where people’s dual nature lies. The line is as; “an extreme state co-existence
with the capitalist system itself and capitalism keeps enforing neurosis as a
way of maintaining normality” (23). It means there is the connection between
psychology of a person and society. Our psychology is guided by our family
which works as desiring machine and society as capital practices. In the novel
Catherine’s desire to get Heathcliff and her social need to be with Edgar both
comes at once which brings her dual nature of her character.
On the other hand, according to Deleuze
and Guttari the term ‘Schizophrenia’ means “a mental disorder which is not a
disease but a situation or condition of a person where peoples show their
disorderness or dual nature at once” (23). So the term ‘schizophrenia’ breaks
up the person’s identity where both desire of people and society display this
tendency. Moreover they say: “schizophrenia is the process of the production of
desire and desiring machines” (24). As Nelly says; “Catherine has adopted a
double character without intending to deceive anyone” (52). It is really
difficult to find out whether Catherine’s behavior belongs to the Height or to
the Grange. Though, her intension was not like that to deceive anyone but she
happens to do so. The ‘unconscious’ stands as the desire of Catherine in the
novel where lies mediation between two aspects; realms of desire and the
society. Catherine moves with two identities as beloved of Heathcliff and wife
of Edgar is the clear view of her dual nature.
When Heathcliff returns back being a rich man
after three years she again shows her interest towards him. If she loves Edgar
then, why she turns toward Heathcliff? She becomes so happy by seeing
Heathcliff and says; “Oh, Edgar darling! Heathcliff come back- he is!” (74). It
clearly shows her interest and love upon Heathcliff but she is not aware about
her nature. She wants to make them as friend and says to Edgar as; “yet for my
sake you must be friends now” (74). Now she thinks that she needs both of them
as love and husband and says for my sake you two should become friend. When she becomes alone with Heathcliff she
talks a lot with him but when Edgar comes near to them she leaves Heathcliff
and talks with him. Her interest is divided into two parts, isn’t it a duality
of her character?
Next point is that, because of her unconscious
mind and psychological instability she acts both violently and gently at once.
Her psychology is guided by her upbringing and recent environment. According to
Freud our mind consists of three impulses: “id, ego, super ego” (Tyson 25). It
means id is our desire and super ego is moral or civilized force to control
that desire whereas ego is in between them which balances id and super ego. In
this novel Catherine can be taken as ego that she is in between of Heathcliff
as unconscious desire or id and Edgar as the civilized person or super ego. She
tries to become happy after her marriage but cannot. As Edgar says to Nelly
like: “. . . and, Catherine try to be glad without being absurd” (74). It shows
that Catherine is not happy with Edgar and wants to be with Heathcliff
demonstrates her duality.
The dream of Catherine symbolizes her willing to
get Heathcliff who is source of happiness for her. In the dream she remembers
her past and regrets being separated with him at Thrushcross Grange. Tyson
talks about dream as; “Freud says repressed or unfulfilled desires come in our
dream” (25). Catherine sees Heathcliff in her dream because of her unfulfilled
desire. After Heathcliff’s returning she says “I shall think it a dream
tomorrow” and Heathcliff replies “A little more than you have thought of me”
(76). It shows they both cannot forget them in their separation. But at the
same time she says “I have such faith in Linton’s love!” (77). Because of this
mad condition she falls in a great depression and becomes ill or had a fever.
She says to Nelly “I am dying” (127), it shows she cannot lead her both life at
once and she feels difficulty in her life.
Catherine feels uneasy and cannot sleep because of
her attachment with Heathcliff. At the mid night she happens to remember him
and says to Nelly that; “I cannot rest Ellen” (77). It clearly shows her
instability of mind and desire to be with Heathcliff who is not happy with
Edgar. And she says “I require to be let alone” (93). She cannot bear the
situation and lead both lives at once where she cannot sleep properly and wants
to be alone. She even says that “Edgar, you – you leave me” (93). She requests
her husband to leave her alone where she can feel free and fresh. This kind of
activities shows her madness where she divides her interest towards two boy
presents her dual nature.
Furthermore, she is the real representative
character of Victorian society because she chooses Edgar just for the sake of
her class status only. Lois Tyson presents Marx’s idea about class structure
as; “haves and have nots or bourgeoisie and proletariat” (54). It means every
society is based on class structure where haves all the time dominate and uses
have nots. Because of Heathcliff’s status Catherine also decides to leave him.
Edgar calls him as “what a gipsy- the plough boy” (74). Because Heathcliff does
not have any class so Edgar calls him by that word shows class consciousness of
upper class people. Wuthering height and Thrushcross Grange is the real
representation of Victorian era and Catherine’s decision to marry with Edgar
also shows class consciousness. Therefore, class consciousness divides her
identity into two parts; one love and another life which bring dual nature of
Catherine.
Likewise, in the course of her conversation with
Nelly she says “I shall like to be the greatest woman of the neighborhood, and
I shall be proud of having such a husband” (61). It clearly shows her belief
and thinking about money and material things. She wants to be the great woman
in the society and become successful in the material matter which is the most
powerful reason for choosing Edgar as a husband. That is not only the choice of
love but the choice of status or level too.
Since Heathcliff runs away from her she had no other choices left, what
to do next? So she accepts Edgar’s proposal. The narrator, Nelly opines: “you
love Mr. Edgar because he is handsome, and young, and cheerful, rich and loves
you” (61). In this line the word love comes after rich that shows their
intention upon property rather than love.
On the other hand Catherine cannot bear the
situation created by her. Catherine says, “You and Edgar have broken my heart,
Heathcliff!” (124). It shows she is not in a good condition where she feels as
if her heart has broken and cannot lead her life properly. Though she loves
both of them but they cannot understand her. Now she regrets about her decision
and says; “Nelly, you have helped to unsettle me!” (98). Because of her
decision and activities she is torn and trapped between that worst condition.
She moves with love and responsibility at once but cannot settle or fix her
life shows her split personality.
Catherine has got double nature up to the end of
her life when she says: “oh, don’t go. It is last time! Edgar will not hurt us.
Heathcliff I shall die! I shall die!” (127). It presents she still loves him
and cannot forget but wants to be reunited. She wants Heathcliff and but she
can’t leave Edgar too. So, she is not happy and satisfied with Edgar. They both
become the part of her life. After their death she in between Heathcliff and
Edgar, both of them are buried next to her, one on either side, once again
placing her in the middle of them. She remained middle of the two males; they
both are her parts too. She wants both in her life as well as after death too.
So, the graveyard is also made like that which also brings her dual nature.
In conclusion, Catherine is confused about her
real identity whether she is civilized lady or wilder one where she acts with
both violent and gentle nature. She is in between the two guys, may be because
of lack of proper guidance and unconscious mind. At the graveyard also she is
in between of the two males; one is lover and another is husband. She is the
representative character of both Wuthering Height and Thrushcross Grange. She
chooses Edgar because of his wealth and looking which are Victorian women’s
thoughts, beliefs and interests. She moves with love and money both at once
brings her duality. So, we cannot say her exact identity to which house and
male she belongs. The great factor to determine her behavior is her psychology
that leads her as a mad and shows dual nature. She cannot get what she
consciously wants but she gets what she unconsciously need. She cannot develop
her real identity and proper relation and cannot lead both of them properly.
Until the death of two males she remains disturbed and unsatisfied and used to
come as a ghost to haunt. Therefore, all her activities, behaviors, thoughts
and beliefs shows her dual nature in this novel Wuthering Heights after
becoming like a mad.
Works Cited
Bronte,
Emily. Wuthering
Heights. 4th
ed. Ed. Richard J. Dunn. New York:
Norton, 2003.
Deleuze,
Gills, and Felix Guttari. Anti Oedipus. Vol.1 Trans. Robert Hurley, Mark
Seem, and
Helen R. Lane. London: 2004.
Elliot, Julia, ed. Oxford
Compact English Dictionary. 19th ed. New
York: Oxford
University
Press, 2008.
Tyson,
Lois. Critical Theory Today. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge Taylor and Francis
Group,
2006.
Plagiarism: The Theft
By: Shisir Parajuli
The
overarching purpose of this term is to examine plagiarism as a theft in
academic writing and ways of avoiding that. Plagiarism means taking information
or ideas from another writers and using them in our own work without
acknowledging the source in an accepted manner. It has been seen that all
students have to face the issue of plagiarism because it can be a serious
offence in an academic work.
Diane
Pecorari in her book Academic Writing and
Plagiarism defines “The plagiarism
is not complete until the ‘taker’ writes or speaks about the work or idea,
identifying it as his or her own” (1). Plagiarism is, therefore, fundamentally
a specific kind of language in use, a linguistic phenomenon. Ang´elil-Carter,
defines “The word plagiarism itself has origins in antiquity, and its negative associations
stretch back as far: ‘the derivation from the Latin word meaning “kidnap” or
“plunder” is indicative of how since its first usage in this way it has been
regarded as a criminal activity—parallel to stealing other people’s offspring!”
(17). If to plagiarize is to ‘take (the work or an idea of someone else) and
pass it off as one’s own’, as the Concise Oxford
English Dictionary says, then the ‘passing
off’ occurs when the work or idea is articulated by the person who took it. Plagiarism in its modern
sense, though, could not exist without the closely related ideas of copyright
and intellectual property, the initial development of which, in the fifteenth
century, was contemporary with that of the printing press.
Not providing
a reference when we have used somebody’s idea in our own work is relates with
plagiarism. If you provide reference but not using quotation marks is also
falls under plagiarism. Copying a few sentences from other’s article or work on
the internet without giving reference in an accepted manner, taking paragraph
or a few paragraphs from our friend’s writing without giving reference, making
direct duplication by taking material from a book or websites, or other
resources without acknowledging it, using parts of several other person’s work
joining them together without mentioning the source, taking other’s ideas and
organization without acknowledging them and using the summary which is
substantially same to the original; all these ideas are relates towards
plagiarism. Plagiarism
occurs when a writer intentionally or unintentionally passes off another
writer’s words or ideas as his or her own. Remember that you commit plagiarism
even if you do not quote directly, but paraphrase or summarize (parts or all)
another person’s text, statements, or remarks without clearly indicating where
the borrowing starts and ends. You also commit plagiarism if you provide a list
of references (bibliography, works cited, etc.) at the end of your work, but
fail to include parenthetical citations or footnotes/endnotes showing where in
the body of your text you refer (in any way) to the sources listed as
references. The same rule applies to anonymous texts published on the Internet.
Plagiarism is a serious
academic offense equivalent to theft. Like theft, plagiarism is penalized by
Polish law. Whether the stolen object is a candy bar or a car, a single
paragraph or a whole essay, we are dealing with theft. At the Institute of English
Studies, any instance of plagiarism results in a
failing grade—either for the assignment or for the whole course.
The writer or researcher
needs to avoid plagiarism in his/her work in order to maintain academic
honesty. Avoiding plagiarism means ‘respecting the ideas and words of others’.
In order to avoid plagiarism, Bailey mentions:
To avoid plagiarism, and
also to save having lengthy quotations in your work, it is necessary to
paraphrase and summarize the original. Instead of this, students sometimes hope
that changing a few words of the original will avoid the charges of plagiarism.
Clearly you are not expected to alter every word of the original text, but your
summary must be substantially different from the original. (7)
There are different ways of avoiding
plagiarism. Some of them are; integrating quotations into the text, creating
citation and paraphrasing, etc.
Integrating quotations into the text provides support for the writer’s
argument, give examples of different viewpoints on the topic, suggest or
indicate a relation between his/her own work or argument and others’, introduce
authority of the viewpoints of the recognized authors and disagree with the viewpoints
of others. According to Hamp-Lyons and Heasley, if quotations are to fulfill
their function, they need to be identical to the original, word for word, and
must be attributed to the author. Firstly if the quotation that consist of a
phrase or clause must be contained within a sentence. Secondly, if the quotation consists of one or more
complete sentences, it can follow a colon and requires quotation marks and
thirdly, longer quotation that consist of more than 60 words or 5 lines need to
be ‘set off’ from the text. It is to be treated differently. In this situation,
quotation marks are not needed.
Creating
citation also helps to avoid the plagiarism. In the text citations need to be
fully identified in the ‘Reference’ or Works Cited list at the end of the text.
These sources are arranged alphabetically by author’s last names, or when there
is no author, by the first word of title excluding ‘A, An or The’ at beginning.
Within the list, if a particular author is cited more than once, then the author’s
entries’ are ordered chronologically by date (with most recent first). Mainly
MLA (Modern Language Association) and APA (American Psychological Association)
systems have been widely used for identifying resources.
MLA format
Basic format for a book
Heinemann, Margot. Puritanism and Theatre: Thomas Middleton and
Opposition Drama under the Early Stuarts. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1980. Print.
Reprint or subsequent
edition of a book
Anderson,
Sherwood. Winesburg,
Ohio. 1919. New York: Viking, 1960. Print.
Book by two or more
authors
Jewkes, Wilfred T. and Jerome B.
Landfield. Joan of Arc: Fact, Legend, and
Literature. New York:
Harcourt, Brace, and World, 1974. Print.
Edited book:
collection/anthology
Dowling, Maria, and Peter Lake,
eds. Protestantism
and the National Church
in Sixteenth-Century England.
London:
Croom Helm, 1987. Print.
Article/story/poem in a
collection/anthology
Grant,
Patrick. “Imagination in the Renaissance.” Religious
Imagination. Ed. James Mackey. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 1986.
86-101. Print.
Article
in a journal
Clark, Charlene Kerne. “Pathos With a Chuckle: The
Tragicomic Vision in the Novels of Carson
McCullers.” Studies in American Humor 1.3 (1975): 160-65. Print
On-line book
Bok, Sissela. Mayhem: Violence as
Public Entertainment. Reading,
MA,1999. Questia – The Online Library. 2002. Questia Media America, Inc.
Web. 13 Jan. 2012.
Article in an on-line journal
Rapping, Elayne. “The Politics of Representation: Genre, Gender Violence
and Justice.” Genders 32 (2000):
50-63. Web. 20 May
2012.
Film
Fight Club. Dir. David Fincher. Perf. Brad
Pitt, Edward Norton, and Helen Bonham Carter. Fox, 1999. Film.
APA format
Basic format for a book
Chomsky,
N. 1957. Syntactic structures. The
Hague: Mouton.
Book
by two or more authors
Katz,
J.J. and Postal, P. 1964. An integrated
theory of linguistic description. Cambridge,
Mass.: MIT Press.
Edited book
Hale,
K. and Keyser, S.J. (eds.). 1993. The
view from Building 20: Essays in linguistics in honour of Sylvian Bromberg. Cambridge, Mass.:
MIT Press.
Edited volume and article in an
edited volume
Abraham,
W., Epstein, S.D., Thrainsson, H. and Zwart, C.J.-W.
(eds.). 1996. Minimal ideas: Syntactic
studies in the minimalist framework. Amsterdam
and Philadelphia:
John Benjamins.
Haegeman,
L. 1996. “The typology of syntactic positions: L-relatedness and A/A’-
distinction”. In Abraham, W., et al. (eds.). 141-165.
Article in a journal
Eide,
K. and Afarli, T. 1997. “A predication operator: Evidence and effects”. Working Papers in Scandinavian Syntax
59. 33-63.
On-line book
Steed, R. P., Moreland, L. W.,
& Baker, T. A. (eds.). (1997). Southern parties and
elections: Studies in regional political change. Tuscaloosa, AL: University
of Alabama Press. Retrieved June 10, 2004, from NetLibrary database.
In conclusion, Researchers and authors do not
claim the words and ideas of others as their own; they give credit where credit due. They should
use quotation marks to indicate the exact word of other’s writing, they have to
credit the source in the text. The key principle of avoiding plagiarism is that
authors and researchers do not present work of other as if it were their own
work. When the authors carry out a study after one done by someone else, the
originating author should be given credit; if the source is not given credit,
it is called plagiarism and it is strictly forbidden in an academic work
because plagiarism is a form of intellectual dishonesty or theft.
Works Cited
Bailey, Stephen. Academic Writing: A Handbook for
International Students.
New York: Rutledge.
2010.
Hamp- Lynos, L. & Heansely, B. Study Writing: A Course in Writing Skills
for Academic Purposes. New
York: Cambridge
University Press. 2008.
Pecorari, Diane. Academic
Writing and Plagiarism:
New York:
Continuum
International Publishing
Group. 2010.
Monday, July 7, 2014
By: Shisir Parajuli
As if
parents did not already have enough to worry about now they need to worry about
their children displaying negative psychological effects from over using
facebook.
Facebook is very popular social networking site over eight
hundred million users. As an avid user of facebook myself, I find it hard to
believe that at one point it didn’t exist. Infact, it has become so much apart
of people’s lives that you can learn their life story just by checking their
page. Their friends, likes and dislikes relationship status
Phone numbers address everything.
Social
media like facebook may both positive and negative effects. Talking about
positive aspects of facebook, it helps to keeping touch with family and friends
making new friends, expressing you.
As we have
many positive aspects of facebook we have many negative aspects and effects of
the social media. Use of social media may harm on our creativity and knowledge.
Creative power may get generated from social media but it doesn’t make that
creative power of learning.
Facebook
has many possibilities of doing well in life. We can find relevant things which
we need in our life including authentic knowledge about different application,
instant news, word-making games, IQ test, etc. Facebook mainly used by
different people having different perception. Some of them used facebook as
communication tool, some as the media which is helpful in their daily lives.
Negative
psychological effects of facebook from ‘Overdosing’. Latest research which
examines teens and facebook was conducted using 1,000 teen surveys and
observation of 300 teens actively studying. It concluded that multiple negative
psychological effects could result from spending too much time on facebook and
other social media.
Negative
effects of facebook on teens who overuse this social media include; teens whose
facebook frequently may became narcissistic, teens who have a strong facebook
presence may display psychological disorders, such as anti-social behaviours,
and mania and aggressive tendencies.
Facebook do
not only effects on mentally but it also effects in educational aspects.
Although this pretty much goes without saying, being connected to technology on
a ongoing basis can seriously impact on teen’s education.
The time
has come to determine which should take and which should left for using social
media. Parents and families also have the responsibility to lessen the negative
effects of facebook and its overuse on their children. Parents should not
foster their children to monitoring such software at home.
Psychological
and educational effects of facebook, other technologies and media on children
is invaluable. Perhaps attentive family/parents have already take action. But
for those that have not, it is the time to wake up to the consequences of
facebook and overuse can have on our children and combat it.
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