Schnitzler's Naturalism As A Moralist

This book relates to the course because it is an example of the general indifference that was felt towards the life of others in the Western Civilization from ancient times to the mid-17th century. Another example of how this book is related to this course is the acceptance of state-sponsored violence which was seen during World War II in the Holocaust and it was also seen in Wars or Reformation. The final example is cruelty in general, because a lot of cruel dark things took place in both the Holocaust and the Western Civilization from ancient times to the mid-17th

Arcadia is a play obsessed with many different kinds of knowledge. The characters seek three different kinds of knowledge: mathematical knowledge, historical knowledge, and sexual knowledge. By intertwining two stories of the same family both past and present, Arcadia seems to ask a particular question: what is the meaning of self and how does one know it? Though the two stories have strictly separate plots, settings, and words, there persists the same question of identity for all characters. This search for identity is related to the performance theory Schechner discusses in Performance Studies: An Introduction and the performative nature of societies around the world.

The article criticizes Armand’s behavior in the story “Desiree’s Baby.” Armand is describe as a cruel master of slaves. Due to the importance of his tittle, Armand has a reputation to maintain. The article emphasizes the pressure that Armand had for upholding his position. Even though, Chopin gives clues about his past, the end of the story is a complete surprise for the reader. Also, the article questions the possibility of Armand knowing about his heritage due to the fact that he was eight years old when his mother died. The author justifies his actions by stating that they were a result of the “nineteenth century racism.” In the following article a better

The play, Friedrich Schiller’s William Tell, is about a legend, Wilhelm Tell who is a hero of Switzerland, and the rebellion against Gessler, who is a tyrant and Governor of the Swiss cantons. Friedrich Schiller managed to create Wilhelm Tall as a hero without him being the one who leads the charge against Gessler. Gessler is this terrible tyrant who believes that his people should be punished by not doing the smallest of things, Gessler is seen as bloodthirsty and merciless. The play has five acts within it, all showing the readers different plot lines. In Act One, Tell helps Baumgarten flee, after he killed the governor of Unterwalden. Stauffacher is told to create a union with three cantons, Unterwalden, Schwyz, and Uri; Stauffacher meets Uri to receive support. In Act Two, the men of the three cantons meet and plan a rebellion. In Act Three, Rudenz listens to Bertha about supporting the cause. Tell does not salute to Gessler’s cap and is ordered to shoot

The cruelty on the part of the German army and scientists is legendary, but to Holocaust survivors it has been haunting. They did not even treat the Jews like people. For Wiesel, the things he witnesses and experiences at the hands of the Nazis and even desperate Jews, never leaves him. One incident in particular takes the brutality and inhumanity of the Nazi soldiers to a new extreme: the hanging of the pipel, an imprisoned young boy with a beautiful face. The Germans hang a child, not even heavy enough to grant himself a quick death, without remorse. This, the apex of cruelty, again shows the lengths the Nazis are willing to go to simply to make a point and scare the others. This horror adds to the theme when Elie, forced to witness this hanging, recalls, “Behind me I heard the same man asking ‘Where is God now?’ And I heard a voice within me answer him: Where is He? Here He is. He is hanging here on the gallows.”

Hate is gasoline. Indifference is fire. In society, indifference is the force that ignites the true colors of evil to emerge - to cause the darkest decades known to man. The concept of indifference, in more ways than one, becomes a predominant force in the life of Elie Wiesel, author of the memoir Night. Wiesel provides a raw account of the Holocaust’s horrors and the devastatingly life-altering effect it had on his character, intertwining the concept of indifference and its crucial role in the events that transpired. The undertone of the theme of indifference within Night is represented symbolically within the characters Moshe the Beadle and Madame Schächter, through the examples of father and son relationships, and lastly in the development

The focus of this paper will be R. G. Frey’s passage in “Moral Standing, the Value of Lives, and Speciesism”. The intended objection of the focus will be two moral theories, Kantianism and Act Utilitarianism. Act Utilitarianism being the rebuttal of the Kantianism view on the moral issue at hand.

In the short story, An Episode of War by Stephan Crane, Naturalism is exhibited in two different situations. Naturalism is described by ordinary people doing everyday things who believe that there are forces beyond their control. The first example of Naturalism appears in this story when the lieutenant was shot. He was shot while giving out coffee to the soldiers, and this incident is a form off Naturalism because he was minding his own business and did nothing to provoke it. This quote explains why it was out of his control, “During this moment the men bout him gazed statue like and silent, were not expected…” Another example of Naturalism in the story is when the lieutenant’s arm was amputated. After being shot and returned to the medical

This week’s Lecture was focused on the third play in the four comedies book named “The Merchant of Venice”. This play was known for being controversial but also very interesting play that captured the attention of the viewers. Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice” is set in Renaissance Venice, with a few scenes in a town called Belmont. The setting is important – Venice was one of the wealthiest towns in Europe, as it was right on the sea, with excellent shipping facilities for trading with the east. During this time, there was a large population of Jew’s in Europe, although 16th-century Venice was more tolerant of foreigners than Elizabethan England, Jews in Venice were confined to ghettos at the time Shakespeare wrote “The Merchant of Venice”. If a person compares “The Merchant of Venice”, to the other Shakespeare’s plays that have been covered in this class already and also to the ones that have not be covered yet, such as “As You Like It” or “Much Ado About Nothing”, some common features can be found throughout each of these plays. Some of the common features are: Multiple plots, Dual settings, Games/Trials/Practical Jokes/Music, Love Vs. Friendships/Multiple Marriages, Different types of relationships and a comic villain. Each of these features will be explained in greater details.

"Nowadays the plays' meaning is usually blurred by the fact that the actor plays to the audiences hearts. The figures portrayed are foisted on the audience and are falsified in the process. Contrary to present custom they ought to be presented quite coldly, classically and objectively. For they are not matter for empathy; they are there to be understood and politely added

Stella Adler, famous actress and acting teacher once stated that “the theatre was created to tell people the truth about life and the social situation.” Woyzeck by Georg Büchner is a play that perfectly represents Adler’s view on theatre. The plot of the play revolves around a troubled lower class man named Woyzeck, who ultimately murders his lover, Marie. But it is not merely the plot that makes this play align with Adler’s view, rather, it is the naturalistic style of the Woyzeck. Naturalistic theatre examines the human psyche and how one is influenced by nature and nurture. Through Büchner’s use of plot structure and thought, Woyzeck will be directed in a manner that makes the audience realize that human behavior is not simply a byproduct of nature versus nurture, that there is indeed a third option: self-will.

Guilt is defined as an emotion of regret or accountability for some offense, which drives a person to make amends in some way. Shame is defined as a painful emotion arising from the consciousness of committing something immoral. The Reader, by Bernhard Schlink, is a novel that is filled with various examples of guilt and shame. Guilt is especially important because the symbolic meaning of the story contains illustrations of both collective and personal guilt. This emphasis on guilt begs the question: “How can the novel, The Reader, be seen as a study in collective and personal guilt?” The Reader can be seen as a study in collective and personal guilt because it shows how Hanna and Michael represent the guilt of Germans communally and individually.

Naturalism is a philosophy which emphasizes “the effect of heredity and environment on human nature and action” (Zhang) and incorporates realism to “suggest that social conditions… and environment [have] inescapable force in shaping human character” (Zhang). Furthermore, the Stanford Encyclopedia of Natural Philosophy explains that to Naturalists, “reality is exhausted by nature, containing nothing ‘supernatural’, and that the scientific method should be used to investigate all areas of reality” (Papineau). Naturalism (in literature) is an idea that suggests everything about humanity is measurable, detectable, manipulatable, and traceable to a cause, and therefore the characters of Naturalist literature would be illustrated as simply the products of their environments; vessels devoid of spiritual guidance or fate that are subject only to their environments. An example of a Naturalistic novel is The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton; a novel set in late 19th century New York that follows Lily Bart: a young woman who was born rich but is slowly losing both her societal status and her money whilst she repeatedly avoids marriage, her only option to escape her fate: a life of poverty. With this in mind, The House of Mirth is an exemplary example of a Naturalistic novel because of its portrayal of characters as the product of their environments.

The theory of moral development, advanced by psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg is one of the most well-known persuasive theories in the field of cognitive science and stems from the work of Jean Piaget, which hypothesizes on the direct correlation that exists between moral and cognitive development. Kohlberg speaks of the appearance and understanding of what is right and wrong from childhood to adulthood and explains by this transition through the identification of various levels of morality known as pre-conventional, conventional and post conventional. People will make decisions based on the understanding of the possible outcome and through reasoning of morals. (Target Concept)

Hans is a passionate, caring man who earns his living as a house painter by day and an accordion player by night. Liesel believes his eyes show kindness, and is closer to him from the beginning than to her foster mother. He is one of a few in their village who is not a registered member of the Nazi party, which comes to have serious repercussions on the family as the book progresses. Rosa Hubermann is a stern, strong woman who looks like a “wardrobe with a coat thrown over it” and would be “cute,” but appears perpetually annoyed. She peppers her language with epithets like “Saumensch” and “Saukerl” and “Arschloch”. “Sau” refers to “pig” and mensch is girl and kerl is man, arschloch sounds pretty close to its English equivalent. From the beginning Liesel is “saumensch,” which at first refers to Rosa’s annoyance at taking this girl in, even though it does mean more money for the family. But by the end, it has become a term of true endearment. Liesel’s best friend in the village is a little boy named Rudy, “the boy next door who was obsessed with the black American athlete Jesse Owens.” Rudy is in love with Liesel and always pesters her for a kiss, which he does finally receive, after some pretty serious turns in the story. He is a simple, almost naïve boy, and would do almost anything for her, including jumping into a nearly