Happy Days By Samuel Beckett

“The quality of mercy is not strained,” is a line from the Shakespeare play The Merchant of Venice. This line is used in the book Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt. This line means that people should not be forced to be kind or show mercy. Showing mercy is something that should happen naturally in humans and not be to benefit themselves or be forced to do it. It should come from the kindness of your heart. Relating to the plot line of Wednesday Wars, the mean old teacher, Mrs. Baker, shows mercy towards one of her students, Holling Hoodhood, when Holling brings in cream puffs for the whole class to eat, but the class rats eat and destroy all of the cream puffs. To illustrate, the text states, “‘Thank you for the cream puffs,’ I said. ‘The quality of mercy is not stained,’ she said. Mrs. Baker looked up

“Listen to the mustn’ts, the shouldn’ts, the impossibles, the won’ts, and the never haves. Then, listen to me. Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.” This is a poem the famous children’s poet Shel Silverstein. Now, if he was best known for being a children’s author, how could he even be considered to be controversial? Now, Shel Silverstein, while having no earlier inspiration for his career to draw and write for children, wrote many famous poem books, such as Falling Up and Where the Sidewalk Ends: however, with him writing these books came some controversy with it, such as claims that he promoted cannibalism and suicide.

A comedic story can be summed up as one thing; a hero who triumphs over evil and wins the day. In these tales, our main character encounters around one hardship and overcomes it with much ease. The ancient Greek playwrights had a similar view on comedic tales: in order for something to be a comedy, the main character must reach a positive outcome. So no matter what comes their way, our hero will be in a better spot than he was at the beginning. Well-known comedies include A Midsummer Night 's Dream, The Taming of the Shrew, and Cyrano de Bergerac. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Taming of the Shrew, the main character achieves their goal with few hardships. Yet, in Cyrano de Bergerac, our main character’s ambitions are never

What is a comedy? According to a famous filmmaker, Woody Allen, thinks “Comedy is rather like a dessert, a bit like meringue.” A Midsummer Night’s Dream - a play written by William Shakespeare, is a comedy which talks about a love story between four lovers that live in Athens. Demetrius, Lysander, Hermia and Helena are all fighting for each other. The play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” written by Shakespeare, consisted of a lot of humorous situations, for example: When Titania fell in love with Bottom who had an ass; when Lysander suddenly fell in love with Helena, when Demetrius suddenly fell in love with Hermia. This essay is considered as a comedy, as it consists of exaggeration, irony, funny characters,

“The Importance of Being Earnest,” a satirical play written by Oscar Wilde, discusses a vast variety of criticisms regarding the late Victorian societal period. In this comedic drama, focusing on and analyzing certain minor characters leads to a more effective interpretation of the messages attempting to be portrayed to the audience. For example, through the persona of Lady Bracknell, Wilde effectively mocks the concept of marriage for social status rather than love. Additionally, interpreting the roles of the lower class servants allows the readers to internalize the desperate need for social reform that the author felt at the time period. Finally, the entire concept of Bunburyism, or masquerading as an alternate persona, satirizes the hypocrisy of the Victorian Era.

Although everyone is their own individual, society determines who is considered “normal.” In Flowers for Algernon, Charlie Gordon struggles to fit in with the people around him because of his mental illness. Elie Wiesel faces the same struggles while trying to survive in a concentration camp in Night. Charlie and Elie have both been challenged by the concept of identity. In Flowers for Algernon and Night, these characters have faced many conflicts including not having their identity accepted by society, having insecurities about their identity, and being mistreated based on their identity.

An issue that has been circulating is whether or not to conform. Rob Siltanen says, “... The ones who see things differently. They 're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can 't do is ignore them. Because they change thing.[...]” ( cited) What he says is agreeable because the one that does not conform, will be the one that changes themselves,their society and even their future. This matter is an open topic of debate because one may agree that an individual does not need to conform to society 's ideals in order to find their happiness or be successful in life.

As human beings we are naturally wired to seek happiness wherever we can find it. When we don’t, we may enter a stage of anger, anxiety, or distress. That’s why it is our personal goal to look for happiness and preserve it once we acquire it. Many have explored ways to find what triggers this feeling of “happiness” and what we can do to keep it; nonetheless, the evidence found is hardly sufficient to make a public statement on how to find happiness. For this reason, most of the time we speculate what might provoke this feeling of contentment. “Happiness is a glass half empty,” an essay written by Oliver Burkeman, highlights the importance of happiness and discloses how we can find delight through unorthodox methods. The prime objective of this piece of writing is to inform the audience about the effect of happiness on their lives and how their usual attempts of becoming happier can sabotage achieving this feeling. Furthermore, he wants to promote the benefits of pessimism and describe how it can help us in the long run. The author utilizes pronouns, logos, and pathos in order to prove his point and draw the audience into his essay, in an attempt of making them reconsider the way they live their lives and adopt this new pessimistic way that would greatly boost their level of happiness.

The play Cyrano de Bergerac, written by Edmond Rostand, was written based on the life of the real Cyrano de Bergerac. Even so, the setting of the story itself contributed greatly to the character Cyrano de Bergerac and the development of the story itself. Overall, the play has very specific stage directions and gives a very detailed description of the setting for every scene. This helps the character develop as the story continues, while also giving background and mood to that scene in which it describes. For example, things like the season being autumn in act five, stage directions stating “the green lawn has turned red” (Rostand 199) and “spots of darker color formed by box shrubs”(Rostand 199) showing how death is coming. It is being represented by the falling leaves and its change in color. The setting of the play also gives cultural background to the society in that time period.

In the story “O Pioneers!” by Willa Cather presents a young intelligent woman who had an American dream. Alexandra Bergson is a perfect model of emotional strength, strong-will and courage. She not only motivated herself but she always had a drive to encourage others to never give up on their dream. Building up the land, having more patience and passion than men, and self-sacrifice were some conditions Alexandra Bergson faced as a young woman. Overall, all of the obstacles she overcame granted her to live an American Dream she had planned to live all her life.

In Emily Yoffe’s essay entitled “Seeking”, she explores how the World Wide Web has provoked human’s brains to constantly seek information and knowledge. Yoffe opens the essay by stating her thesis, “Sometimes it feels as if the basic drives for food, sex, and sleep have been overridden by a new need for endless nuggets of electronic information, we are so insatiably curious we gather data that could get us in trouble, or we do not need to know” (“Seeking” 572). In the beginning, of the essay she highlights the research of Psychologist James Olds, who is believed to have found the brain’s pleasure center through various studies. She then moves on to explain the findings of neuroscientist Jaak Panksepp, who tries to account the reason for humans incessant need to seek information. Yoffe draws from Panksepp’s findings, “For humans, this desire to search is not just about fulfilling our physical needs, but our abstract ones as well, and in doing so we find a drug like satisfaction” (“Seeking” 573). Yoffe then explains how Psychology professor Kent Berridge tries to understand how the brain experiences pleasure. She speaks of how in Berridge’s work he has been able to distinguish how wanting is equivalent to Panksepp’s seeking system, and the liking system is believed to be linked to the brain’s reward center (Yoffe “Seeking” 574). Yoffe also explains how in Berridge’s work he has come to find that our minds are stimulated rather than satisfied, which

The play, The Importance of Being Earnest, by Oscar Wilde was written in the Victorian Age of England. During this time morality was connected with sexual restraint and strict codes of conduct in public. This play hilariously critiques Victorian moral and social values while the characters in the play try to figure out the meaning of “earnestness”. Wilde uses humor and irony to publicly ridicule the self-aggrandizing attitude of the Victorian upper classes, as well as to expose their duplicity and hypocrisy in regards to their social behaviors.

The play Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare, is set in an anti-feminist era. Women traditionally have been seen inferior to men. This was an intellectual as well as a physical issue. Women were to raise a family, cook, clean, be pretty and not be smarter than any man. The main characters Ophelia and Gertrude are both depicted with these characteristics as powerless and frail people. This illustration of helpless women affects one's understanding of what their true selves could be.

Grief is keen mental suffering or distress over affliction or loss; and sharp sorrow. Grief is something that can take a massive toll on one’s mental health and actions. It can change a person’s thinking and what they do. In “Hamlet” by William Shakespeare, grief is shown in many ways but with each person who is grieving they begin to act differently than they normally would.

Home is about a Korean War veteran named Frank Money who needs to save his sister from dying. The story starts with Frank describing a scene from his childhood with his sister. They were in a field with horses he describes the horses being beautiful and brutal, but on the other side some men were burying a dead African American in a hole. When Frank becomes an adult he is soon committed to a mental hospital after his time in the war. Frank soon gets a letter stating that his sister was in danger and could die if he did not hurry to save her. Then he remembers his family being evicted and not being able to take any possessions. Frank then escapes the bastion of the