Guest House Essays - Pride And Prejudice, Bingley, Mr Bennet

Guest House The first chapter introduces Mr. and Mrs. Bennett. We don't know their first names because the wife calls her husband Mr. Bennett and he calls her ?my dear?. They have five grown up daughters and one is named Lizzy or Elizabeth who is the father's favorite. The mother thinks Jane is handsome (or good-looking) and Lydia humored. The other two daughters have not been introduced yet. Mr. Bennett thinks they are all silly and ignorant, except Lizzy. Mrs. Bennett wants the father to go with her to visit an eligible, ?well to do? bachelor who will move into a neighboring estate at Michealmas the 29th of September, so she can aquaint him with her 5 available daughters. She would love to marry them off to money. There's not much going on in her life except worrying about marrying her daughters and visiting with the other neighbors. Mr. Bennett, however, is not interested in meeting Mr. Bingley form Northern England and after twenty three years of marriage fancies himself to be the greater mind of the two. Chapter II Mr. Bennett goes ahead and is one of the first people to visit Mr. Bingley. He doesn't tell them straight out that he has been to visit him, because he knows they're all dying to meet him. So, he teases them about it first by telling them that hey may be the ones to introduce him to some of the other neighbors. They still don't catch on until he drops the bomb that he's already been to visit. He enjoys their shocked reaction, but doesn't stick around. In this chapter we find out that Lizzy (the fathers favorite) is the second daughter. We also find out that one of the other daughter's name is Kitty and she has an annoying cough and is really sensitive about it. The other girl's name that we didn't know is Mary, who is a bookworm. She is quiet. We also find out that Lydia is the youngest, but is also the tallest of the 5 girls. She appears to have a little spunk to her. Chapter III The girls along with their mother try to get their father to tell them about Mr. Bingley. They try every cleaver thing that they can think of to get even a hint of that he looks like or personality. But he eludes all their questioning. I think he is enjoying superiority in this situation. They get a second hand report form the neighbor whose husband tells her that Mr. Bingley was young, handsome, nice, and had plans to attend the next ball. This was great news that he liked to dance. The custom of the day was to return a visit and being a proper gentleman. Mr. Bingley calls on Mr. Bennett. He is also hoping to get a glimpse of the young ladies and them of him, but all the girls see of him is his clothes, and he saw nothing of them. He is invited to dinner, but he can't make it. When they all get to the ball the eligible bachelor brings his two sisters, a brother-in-law, and another gentleman named Mr. Heust. At first he seems to be very dashing and charming. He also has a lot of money. In the course of the evening his true colors come out. He comes across as haughty, proud, and disagreeable. Elizabeth Bennett overhears a conversation between the 2 friends that leaves no doubt that he thinks he is to good for all of them. Being the lively spirited girl she is also wants some time to try to tell her friends Book Reports

Star Trek Essays - Star Trek, Bajoran, Pavel Chekov, Free Essays

Star Trek Essays - Star Trek, Bajoran, Pavel Chekov, Free Essays Star Trek INTRODUCTION: Television programs provide one of the most popular forms of entertainment today. From The Simpsons to The X-Files, television shows amuse, shock, sadden, and excite us by turns. Television does more, however, than simply entertain. Television shows are cultural products, and as such, they reflect, reinforce, and challenge cultural ideas. It acts as a mirror and a model for society. In examining and understanding those cultural messages and popular appeal of certain television shows, we should understand something about the society that has created and sustained them. Arguably, Star Trek is one of the most popular television shows ever produced. Today Star Trek includes four television series and nine motion pictures . Like some of the other television shows, Star Trek has been subject to the vagaries of producers and writers so it is difficult to generalize about the intent of the authors of Star Trek or the viewpoint of the readers. Yet, it is also clear that Star Trek has at various times been reflective, informative, and critical about the culture -American culture- that produced it. Star Trek has addressed a wide variety of issues, including war, capitalism, individualism, technology, race, gender, prejudice, religion, etc. The list can be extended to many other issues but here I will focus on race, gender, prejudice and religion only. As portrayed on television such issues are representations of socio-cultural perspectives on broad human concerns. For taking a closer look to those issues, in the continuing parts I will give some examples fro m a number of Star Trek episodes that had written in different times. RELIGION: The portrayal and treatment of religion in the Star Trek television series and films provides an important cultural commentary on the place of religion in society. Although no single coherent approach to religion appears in Star Trek, the series is nevertheless variously reflective of, informed by, and critical of societal attitudes toward religion. The portrayal and treatment of religion in much of the Star Trek franchise is negative: religion is often presented as superstitious, outdated, and irrational. An underlying and consistent theme of the Star Trek series is the presentation of rational scientific humanism as an alternative to religious faith. A newer theme, notably found in episodes from the Deep Space Nine and the Voyager series, explores the potentially positive value of religion. Since the viability and popularity of Star Trek have spanned such a long period of time, it is inevitable that the series would begin to diverge from original assumptions in response to changing cultural attitudes. The recent potentially positive portrayal of religion within Star Trek both reflects and reinforces a particular cultural change. Gene Roddenberry was Star Treks creator and executive producer. While he was alive and continued to have a direct hand in the production of the show, religion as a theme was rarely treated. When it was -I believe- the portrayal of religion reflected Roddenberrys own distrust of an antipathy toward organized religion. In Star Trek, organized religion tends to be portrayed as the product of a pre-rational age, antithetical to science and reason, and God is depicted as a category mistake -an advanced alien form- from mistaken for a god. However after his death, and particularly evident in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager, religion as a theme far more often tends to be treated in a more sophisticated and sympathetic manner2. The setting of Deep Space Nine is a Federation space station situated next to the planet Bajor. The people of Bajor are united by their common religious faith guided by a religious oligarchy. Invisible spiritual guides called the Prophets directed them. The two hour premiere episode of Deep Space Nine: Emissary featured than -Commander Siskos encounter with the Prophets, one that led both to his emotional healing and to his identification as a Bajorans long-awaited spiritual Emissary. This introductory episode so explicitly involving a spiritual motif set a compelling tone for the exploration of religious themes in this series. On Deep Space Nine religious faith is treated as more than simply the product of superstition and the suspension of rationality depicted in the earlier series. On the other hand, certain episodes, like Shakaar, deal with the Bajoran