Under The Gaslight Essays - Film, Cinema Of The United States

Under The Gaslight "Under the Gaslight," an 1838 melodramatic play, written by Augustin Daly, presents itself to the reader in a very superficial tone. As for the title alone seems to portray this superficiality before giving the reader a chance to even begin reading act1. It is known that this play was done during a time when gaslights were becoming a modern extravagance to the theatre, this new technology was used for what were considered to be the best plays, which were usually viewed by the rich, upper-class of society, therefore being "Under the Gaslight" was the same as being under a grand spotlight. Sabino 2 As the play begins this pretentious characteristic continues to prevail. The first scene as the curtains would be opening, takes place in NewYork at the well appointed home of the Courtlands. The people in the play obviously appear to be somewhat wealthy and only associate with high-class people, this turns into the irony of the play. This scene introduces Pearl Courtland, cousin to Laura Courtland the star of the play, and Ray Trafford who is Laura's boyfriend, perhaps soon to be fianc, as implied by Pearl: "won't you have a cup of coffee?"Ray: "No." Pearl: "Ain't you hungry?" Ray: "No - you torment." Pearl: "O dear! I suppose it's because you're going to be married shortly to Laura." (Drama and Performance, Daly 524) This begins laying out the plot of the story. The plot of this story is dependent upon the relationship between Ray and Laura. As the play continues Rays true love for Laura is put to the ultimate test. He is forced to be courageous, Sabino 3 both, in the sense of coming to her rescue when her life ends up in danger, and having to risk his high societal standing once her dreadful secret from the past is revealed, that she may not really be a Courtland. If Ray stays with her he risks becoming an outcast, which is what she once descended from, besides the fact that he temporarily feels betrayed and deceived. The emotion behind this play is quite powerful and can be depicted from the most trivial lines, such as when PeachBlossom was talking to herself while cleaning. PeachBlossom: "The stove won't shine. It's the fault of the polish I know. That boy comes here, just fills the bottles with mud, and calls it stove polish. Only let me catch him. Ah! Ah! I declare I'd give it up if I didn't want to make everything look smart before Miss Nina comes in." (Drama and Performance, Daly 530) This statement could be taken out of it's literal context, and used as a comparison; Laura, thought to be stove polish is really just mud that has Sabino 4 been put into a stove polish bottle, or a retched poor girl put into a wealthy, beautiful, well respected life. I personally feel a strong sense of morality from this play, the situation really emulates the question of; which is more important, true love, people and their feelings, or social standing, what the upper class people think of you, and how much money you have? Of course as in most good stories, love conquers all in the end, but I feel that in this play Daly really makes the reader think about the struggle behind such values.

Process Essay - How To Enjoy Summer Essays - Fun, Recreation, Kids

Process Essay - How To Enjoy Summer Essays - Fun, Recreation, Kids Process Essay - How To Enjoy Summer How To Enjoy Summer How can I enjoy summer? Do you know? I have some ideas for the end of June when school ends.For us students our days will be free. What I thinkpeople should do first, is enjoy the first week by resting. The next thing to do is plan some funactivities, such as playing sports and hanging outwith friends. At the beginning of vacation sleeping late in themorning seems like a privilege after completing ahard year of school. After a week of rest and relaxation its time to get involed with more fun activities. Playing sports is more fun after a restful week.Kids could join a team or just play for fun withfriends. Until the fun of summer sports, comes to anend and its time to move on to other fun activities that we can do in the rest of the summer. Hanging out with friends in the summer is an experience compared to no other. We learn moreabout ourselves and our friends. We can hang out by going to the movies, going out for pizza and go shopping with your friends. All in all there are many more ways to enjoysummer than I put here, but those reasons I statedare what I would do in the summer. Everyone has many different ways of enjoying summer these aremine. To finish the point it doesnt matter how one enjoys summer or where one goes. What matters most is to relax and have fun because, we need to rewardourselves for hard work weve done and plan to donext year.

International Monetary Fund Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

International Monetary Fund - Essay Example ..As Jacob Viner put it 'trying to reverse the whole trend of policy and practice of the world at large in the field of international economic relations since 1914 and especially in the ill-fated years since 1929" (www.globalexchange.org). From the establishment the Bank was planned to challenge protectionism and economic depression. The Government of United States was chiefly involved in designing The World Bank and it is situated in Washington. It was based on a synthesis of the economic theories put forward by Harry Dexter White (U.S.) and Maynard Keynes (U.K.). America had 36% of the voting power in 1946 and offered the biggest part of the official finances and hence was considered as a dominating power. Moreover, the president of The World Bank has always been an American. In 1944, at Bretton woods conference, two different but complementary institutions were established. IMF was designed to help government maintain their balance-of-payments, whereas, the World Bank was founded with the basic intention of post-war re-stabilization of countries by giving loans to the affected countries. The proper name given to The World bank is 'International Bank for Reconstruction and Development'. The World Bank and International Monetary Fund were set up in the finishing stages of World War II, at a convention in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire; USA. The participants signified the governments quickly to win the battle in opposition to fascism. The participants wanted to rebuild Europe and the global economic system which was harshly affected by that destructive war (Peet, 2003). The main objective of the conference held at Bretton Woods was among the British and US delegations addressing the moderate and conservative ideas of worldwide economic institutions. Maynard Keynes represented the views of British Delegation and proposed that the new IMF should be a helpful fund for the countries facing economic crises, to aid them in maintaining economic and employment activities during periodic crisis. This vision recommended an IMF serving governments to operate as the US government had during the New Deal in reply to the great downturn of the 1930s. On the other hand, the US delegation put forward a view that IMF should be more similar to a bank and the needy countries are liable to return the debts on time. This view was more conservative and was less concerned to solve the problems of recession and unemployment. However, the US vision succeeded and this is the way how economic crises have been controlled since WW-II (Harris, 1988). The International Monetary Fund has been helping the governments facing economic crises since the Second World War by offering them, loans for a certain period of time. These loans are widely known as 'Structural Adjustment' loans as their main objective is to aid borrowing governments to adjust the structure of economic activity. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) was established on December 27, 1945. Twenty nine states accepted its Articles of Agreement in the expectations of avoiding a reappearance of the economic procedures that donated to the United States Great Depression in the 1930's. Other objectives of the IMF comprise the endorsement of international monetary cooperation, the development of worldwide trade, and the feature that has become its major identity is the loan of funds it provides to member countries.