Loss of Top Predators in the Ocean

Loss of Top Predators in the Ocean It is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the sign of deterioration within the population dynamics of marine apex predators. Sharks, mammals, and large teleost fish amongst others species, play a critical role in maintaining a stable and balanced marine ecosystem by regulating species abundance, diversity, and distribution (Stier et al., 2016). Recently, researchers have shown an interest in the increasing densities of medium size predators known as the mesopredators due to rapid decline in apex predators (Brook et al., 2008). However, these rapid changes are having a serious adverse effect on the marine community, thereby leading to a top-down trophic cascade due to the removal of a top predator (Shackell et al., 2010). To be more specific, the loss of top predators affects the aquatic community on a number of levels: trophic, behavioral, and populations. This essay will provide an overview and highlight the importance of top predators in marine ecosystem as well as change in trophic levels and behavioral patterns that affect the aquatic food web. Apex predators have been victim to human imposed activities such as overexploitation through fishing industries, habitats destruction, introduction of invasive species and increased anthropogenic pollutants creating unfavorable conditions to thrive (Madin et al., 2016). The major impact relating to loss of top predators manifests in the trophic aspect following in a close correlation between the decline of the predators and preys (Baum and Worm, 2009). Extensive research indicates that the existences of the invasive species has a negative contribution towards the top predators (De Poorter et al., 2010). For example, in 1980s the comb jelly fish (Ctenophora) originally from North America was introduced in the black sea, which lead to a dramatic alteration within the food chain, thus releasing toxin causing the death a total of 14 humpback whales (De Poorter et al., 2010). On the other hand, overfishing across the globe has led to 90% decrease in large shark biomass regionally (Heupel et al., 2014). Due to the decline of larger sharks it has led to the inflexion of a particular ray species which diet constitute about 70% of scallops thus contributed towards the drop of scallop fishery causing ecological and economic losses in the North Atlantic Ocean (Ferretti et al., 2010) (Grubbs et al., 2013). For instance, a research conducted on the U.S eastern seaboard indicates that a decrease in 11 types of large sharks results in the additio n of 12 to 14 small mesoconsumers (Madin et al., 2016). Additionally, a decline in catch rates of 13 large pelagic predators results in an upsurge catch of pelagic stingrays and other small animals (Madin et al., 2016). Furthermore, studies showed that decline in the Canadian cod (Gadus morhua), led to the upsurge in the number of small pelagic and marine invertebrates. As a result, this has led to the cascading alterations in the copepod in addition to the phytoplankton communities (Araà ºjo and Bundy, 2012). Studies have also shown that shifts in the diet by destroyer whales, which move along the Aleutian island have resulted from a reduction in the number of sea otters present in the island. In effect, urchins are released from the predations thereby causing the reduction of kelp forest due to their overgrazing (Heithaus et al., 2008). Therefore, it is evident that there is a close connection between the decline of the predators and the prey in the ecosystems. Another aspect that should be closely examined is the behavioral one. The scholars believe that aquatic life uses the behavioral responses to different risk in efforts to avoid encountering predators. For instance, dolphins and other animals forage in productive shallow seagrass during a time when the number of sharks is reduced. However, they move to less industrious but harmless surroundings when the population of sharks in the ecosystem is high (Griffin et al., 2008). Additionally, when top predator disappear the mesoconsumer population increases and may shift their behavior in foraging pattern, which affect the ecosystem. For instance, shark and killer whale help maintain the seal population but due to loss in numbers the fur seals (Arctocephalus forsteri) in New Zealand thrives causing the temperate reef fish (morwong Chelilodactulus nigripes) to reduce foraging effort, leading to reduced grazing on turf algae (Heithaus et al., 2008). The impacts of behavior response to predation risks among the prey may include experiencing energetic cost and the lack of adequate utilization of resources (Langerhans, 2007). As such, their growth and reproductive outputs are limited in the ecosystems by the predation risks (Abdulla, 2004). In other cases, the risks of tiger sharks limit the number of prey and activate trophic cascades. Tiger sharks ultimately decrease browsing on the sea grasses in risky places but escalating in harmless environments that are portrayed in longitudinal processes of seagrass nutritional components (Griffin et al., 2008). Having examined all the points, that were mentioned in the paragraphs above, one is able to come to the following conclusion: top predators are important as they regulate the species abundance, diversity, and distribution that contribute to a healthy marine ecosystem. The significance of the risk effects as well as individual predator species depends on the community diversity, habitat heterogeneity, life history features of mesoconsumers and predators. A decrease in the predator diversity in some occasions leads to positive impacts on the mesoconsumers (Baum and Worm, 2009). The comparative impacts of specific predator type elimination can decrease per an upsurge in variety, which relies on the pursuing strategies utilized by the alienated slayers in the population. The environmental structures have an influence on the ecological effects of top predators declines as well as the relative strengths of risk effects. Furthermore, the decreased number of predators results in the increase d prey populations and other adverse effects such as shifting coral reefs to algae dominated habitats, a decline of seagrass among others. Resent research states the predators play a major role in carbon cycling within the ocean (Atwood et al., 2015). Therefore, there is the need to protect these predators from future declines through establishing some effective strategies. The strategies may include decreasing the demand for shark products, reducing the number of top predators reared for commercial fisheries and ensuring improved management. References Abdulla, A., 2004. Predator-prey interactions in coral reef fish: The implications of Predation risk on the behavior and growth of prey (Doctoral dissertation, James Cook University). Atwood, T.B., Connolly, R.M., Ritchie, E.G., Lovelock, C.E., Heithaus, M.R., Hays, G.C., Fourgurean, J.W and Macreadie, P.I., 2015. Predators help protect carbon stocks in blue carbon ecosystem. Nature Climate Change, 5(12), pp. 1038-1045. Araujo, J.N. and Bundy, A., 2012. Effects of environmental change, fisheries and trophodynamics on the ecosystem of the western Scotian Shelf, Canada. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 464, pp.51-67. Baum, J.K. and Worm, B., 2009. Cascading top down effects of changing oceanic predator abundances. Journal of Animal Ecology, 78(4), pp.699-714. Bourdaud, P., Gascuel, D., Bentorcha, A. and BrindAmour, A., 2016. New trophic indicators and target values for an ecosystem-based management of fisheries. Ecological Indicators, 61, pp.588-601. De Poorter, M., Darby, C. and MacKay, J., 2010. Marine Menace. Alien invasive species in the marine environment, IUCN. Edwards, H., 2016. When Predators Become Prey: The Need For International Shark Conservation. Ocean and Coastal Law Journal, 12(2), p.5. Ferretti, F., Worm, B., Britten, G.L., Heithaus, M.R. and Lotze, H.K., 2010. Patterns and ecosystem consequences of shark declines in the ocean. Ecology letters, 13(8), pp.1055-1071. Griffin, E., Miller, K., Freitas, B. and Hirshfield, M., 2008. Oceana: Predators as Prey: Why Healthy Oceans Need Sharks. Grubbs, R.D., Carlson, J.K., Romine, J.G., Curtis, T. and McElroy, D., 2013. Save the bay, eat a ray: a purported trophic cascade mediated by declines in large shark populations and the consequences of applying simplistic models to complex ecosystems. Conference abstract. In 141st American Fisheries Society meeting. American Fisheries Society, CITY, Maryland. Abstract_Book_ (pp. 9-20). Heithaus, M.R., Frid, A., Wirsing, A.J. and Worm, B., 2008. Predicting ecological consequences of marine top predator declines. Trends in Ecology Evolution, 23(4), pp.202-210 Heupel, M.R., Knip, D.M., Simpfendorfer, C.A. and Dulvy, N.K., 2014. Sizing up the ecological role of sharks as predators. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 495, pp.291-298. Langerhans, B.R., 2007. Evolutionary consequences of predation: avoidance, escape, reproduction, and diversification. In Predation in Organisms. Springer Nature, pp. 177-220. Madin, E.M., Dill, L.M., Ridlon, A.D., Heithaus, M.R. and Warner, R.R., 2016. Human activities change marine ecosystems by altering predation risk. Global change biology, 22(1), pp.44-60. Myers, R.A., Baum, J.K., Shepherd, T.D., Powers, S.P. and Peterson, C.H., 2007. Cascading effects of the loss of apex predatory sharks from a coastal ocean. Science, 315(5820), pp.1846-1850. Shackell, N.L., Frank, K.T., Fisher, J.A.D., Petrie, B. and Leggett, W.C. 2010. Decline in top predator body size and changing climate alter trophic structure in an oceanic ecosystem, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 277(1686), pp. 1353-1360. Stier, A.C., Samhouri, J.F., Novak, M., Marshall, K.N., Ward, E.J., Holt, R.D. and Levin, P.S. 2016. Ecosystem context and historical contingency in apex predator recoveries, 2(5). Thomsen, S.K. and Green, D.J., 2016. Cascading effects of predation risk determine how marine predators become terrestrial prey on an oceanic island. Ecology, 97(12), pp.3530-3537.

Relying On Senses To Provide Truth Philosophy Essay

Relying On Senses To Provide Truth Philosophy Essay The absolute truth is a journey that leads to never-before experienced realms. The end of this road could never be reached and even the best man will only go a few steps in the right direction. To determine what the truth is and what it is not, a reliability is placed upon what we identify from our senses. This is the standard approach that we as humans take but, it is not necessarily the correct one. Many problems came up when establishing the truth based on our senses and thus they can rarely be fully trusted, this is what we can say when taking bad decisions. Sense is scientifically defined as any of the faculties by which stimuli from outside or inside the body are received and felt, as the faculties of hearing, sight, smell, touch, taste, and equilibrium. Senses are important in our lives. We are born with them and we would not be able to live without them, but we have a problem with them we can not identify whether they are true or not. Whether they tell us the truth. We are ab le to see, hear, touch, smell but we are not aware how much these senses matter to us, we are not able to use them properly. Our senses work best in trying to prove if something stimulating our knowledge of reality, not if what we know is absolutely true, but rather if a new truth stimulates known truths, and the old ways remain the same way. Experience that has been done with our senses previously lets us know that something is not working quietly good. Our actual senses convey the physical world to the extent they can do it without being tricked they are mechanisms, they do not understand and interpret, they give us complete information. Our sensory areas in the brain immediately start to simplify this information till we can attach meaning to it. From that point on the information is interpreted as truth( not counting the wavelength, certain pitches, because this would make a minor difference to our understanding of truth). There has always been a problem in distinguishing between something that is true and something that is not true, because how exactly do we know if its true or if its not. In this essay truth is going to be defined as conformity with fact or reality; verity.Truth can be defined by senses, however it is very hard to say that form the definition. For example lets have two brothers Andy and Harry. Andy and Harry have the same perfumes and wear the same clothes. Harrys friend thought he saw and smelled Harry passing by but actually it was Andy. We can now say that our senses are not right, because as the friend smelled Harrys perfumes and saw the clothes of Harry his senses were wrong it was Andy which passed by. This example is showing that senses can tell us truth, only on certain grounds. So there are five definite senses: sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch. Going back to the essential question, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¾When should we trust our senses to give us truth?à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¸ In other words, in what aspects of our life can we trust ourselves to understand the true reality of what we believe is happening? Must we really rely on our sense perception for everything? The functioning of all the senses may give us true, but isnt true based on our perception A good example of the above statement is the belief in God we believe in him but actually we dont see him. So do we really trust our senses if we believe in God. We can not see him we can not hear him we can not touch him and we believe in him, also here is the truth in that. So do we really relay on our senses and do they really tell us the truth? Now what causes that is that the faith and for us that becomes the ultimate truth. Another example would be when you have a cold or you are sick can you still trust your senses? If you have a blocked nose then you can not smell anything, so should you still trust your sense of smell? Or should you just ignore that and trust the other senses. A well known philosopher A.J. Ayer. A.J. Ayer (1910-1989) was only 24 when he wrote the book that made his philosophical name, Language, Truth, and Logic (hereafter LTL), that was published in 1936. This book defines, explains, and argues for the logical positivsm, sometimes referred to as the criterio n of significance or criterion of meaning. It explains how problems might be solved by the principle of verifiablity. In these views Ayer saw himself as continuing in the line of British empiricism established by Locke and Hume, whose representative was Russell. Throughout A.J Ayer subsequent career he remained with his traditions rejection of the possibility of synthetic a priori knowledge. He saw philosophy method to be the analysis of the meaning of key terms, such as causality, truth, knowledge, freedom.. He has investigated the concept justified true belief. Ayer has argued that existence is not a predicate( what is a predicate? In the sentence. Alex is slow is slow is the predicate) A persons sense of perception isnt exactly true that the object exists. Using the above example is Alex exists or not this does not change the fact that the perceive of Alex is slow. Basically what he was trying to say that for something that has to be known, it has to be believed, justified( sense s for example) and true. The difficulty is proving if something is true or not for example in science we dont prove something we just support it. There is also the question how to test for accuracy which also can make our true different, so for example if we have a really accurate results for testing truth this can lead us to finding out what is truth actually. There is another theory of knowledge known as justified racialism this thory is about that where in order for a knowledge claim to be knowledge it has to be believed, true and justified according to a reliable cognitive process there is a lot of debate over what constitutes a reliable cognitive process and in particular about whether the senses are trustworthy enough to be this process. Summarising your senses are the inner being of our souls and that is what needs to be used fist. Trust can be broken our senses tell us when something is wrong and if we chose to ignore our senses and trust what someone is telling us we can end up being hurt and if we go on emotions boy, children get hurt many times when they feel that bad and trust that a bad person with a sob story will tell them. This is when they do not trust their senses for example if their hand is hurting and their friend tells them to play they ignore their senses and just continue playing then they sib at home, due to the fact that the hand is hurting and they cant play football any more, because their hand is broken. So we do need to trust our senses. But our senses as I said before never give us true they give as data which we can use or ignore as the kid in the story above. Truth is not something we sense, it is something we recognize. The data that our senses give us is pretty accurate, we just have to k now how to use it correctly. On the other hand our interpretation of that data is many times in error. Emotion is the bodys reaction to thought, I will again use the example of the boy playing football he didnt trust his senses he kept playing football and after when he came back home he couldnt lay any more football, his body reacted to his emotion, the hand was hurting. We can trust the information that emotion imparts only as far as we have been able to become aware of how it operates in our lives. All emotion is giving us information about ourselves and the best way of accepting that is to know our way of living. If we know our reaction to emotions we know ourselves. Concluding we can not identify if we should trust our senses or not, sometimes we should trust our senses and sometimes there are situations that we should not trust our senses.

Operating Theatre Practice Reflective Assessment

Operating Theatre Practice Reflective Assessment Activity 1 Register nurses who work in the operation theatre where they are trained to care patient before, during and after surgery. There they gain both classroom learning and hands on experience. Strengths: â€Å"Strengths-based learning is the process of acquiring knowledge or skills by applying what makes you strong. Put simply, it is new learning that builds on past success.† (Dunedin, 1960) There is strength that is available in my private hospital such as the library, it is to provide better understanding example as Berry and Khons books. The staff or student to get will be able to get information regarding the surgical field. Question and answer are also given by the nurse instructor regarding what procedure is done by the student or staff. Each week every staff has their own date given by the nurse manager to do presentation. Presentation can be done any topic regarding the surgical field. Internet access is also available to acknowledge staff or student to find out information. Staffs are also been sent for fire safety program and advance cardiovascular life support to be able to perform during emergency. Challengers: In every job there are challengers that will give us experience to procedure further. Moreover, in my department as well there is a popular reason of staff shortage. It will be difficult for the any staff to go for training due to no replacement. Too many new learners will also increase the stress level to the mentor because she or he could not handle by observing each student and more mistakes will be done by the student example during the surgical field even though the student or staff are been though to perform swab count but due to lack of supervision mistake may occur. Working long hours in the operation will lead to stress and tiredness to the staff due to dragging of cases. Next day the particular staff couldn’t perform well and more error will occur example medication error during general anaesthesia. There are also some of the surgeon will complain about the staff performance to the nurse manager this will prevent the staff to be assign with the particular surgeon aga in by the nurse manage end up the staff finally couldn’t learn the way of the surgeon operate. During the school holidays there will be increase number of cases in this period most of the staff and student will have though time to perform their theory session only rushing to finish the cases, end up no improvement in knowledge. Opportunities: The main opportunities working in the operation theatre is the willingness for the staff and surgeon to except the particular person with the way she or he perform their duties. There are the learning methods that are available such as the internet and library. Log books are provided for the new staffs to make sure they are able to learnt each skill during the probation period. By practicing they will learn faster other than only memorizing, and observing but this actually also depending individually. Barrier: There are the barrier between the staff and the working environment, depending on the staff. Some person will encounter difficult in communication in understanding their task given due to different language. If proper orientation is not given to the new staff they will be lack of confident in performing their duties. Teamwork can also lead to barrier example how the person getting along with each other to achieve goal to improve the quality of life and the outcome. Mentor is also a very important person in the practice area to organize and coordinate student learning, supervising student and providing feedback if they are lack of knowledge the junior staff will not be guided in a proper way to provide good service to the patient. Activity 2 My main strengths As a professional in practice: I have been working the private hospital since year 2008.I has completed my operation theatre practice and diploma in nursing sponsor by the private hospital. I have also done my fire safety program, advance cardiovascular life support and standard people practice course. I am also trained in the central sterile supply department, catheterization lab, general anaesthesia, circulating and also scrubbing. Area for improvement and action plan: I would like to improve in my scrubbing area to do better in the orthopaedic cases and neurologic cases because usually for this cases special instrument and machine are required. For the orthopaedic case mostly screws, plating and on loan instruments will be use from other company such as Johnson and Johnson or Stryker depending on type of surgery. Moreover, for the neurologic cases different machine are use example selector which is to suck the tumour from intracranial. The instruments that are used are tumour forceps, brain retractor or dora retractor. Action plan: I have to scrub neurologic and orthopaedic cases more often. I also must do note book and prepare presentation to be presented with other staffs to exchange idea and knowledge.I can also ask for the instrument broacher from each company so I will be more familiar with the instrument and able to handle in future. As a learner: As a learner there have been dreams for me to increase my knowledge and experience. I would strictly love to continue my degree in nursing because education is the most useful thing to the people, especially as a result of complex nature of the day. After completing degree I will happily go forward to continue my master in nursing. I also would like to go for the AO trauma course to be more familiar with the types of fracture. Areas for development and action plan: I would like to increase my education level because education is important to national development in that it allows to further progress in the nation. Education promotes better ideas for management and experience. I would also like to more into the management site. The AO trauma is important to make sure I am able to manage fracture and also will be trained in the techniques for management of common fracture .In my action plan I must first apply degree in a university which the program has been approved by the Ministry of Health and Malaysia Nursing Board and also an affordable price. Which currently I am studying and happy with it, I would also like to continue my master here. For the trauma course that I wanted to attend I must apply though internet and inform my nurse manager about it once the application is open I can go it is only for 3 days course. As a mentor or educator in practice: As a mentor having a interpersonal and professional working relationship to support the learning environment. Organizing and coordinating the learning activities by supervising the student or new comers. Assessing the student’s skill, attitudes and behaviour enable me to provide the evidence of achievement. Areas of development and action plan: Coaching involves regular discussion between the mentor and mentee to improve their performance example develop a plan to improve the employee skill and knowledge. Counselling is a discussion to help the mentee to sort out problems. Teaching with revolves soft skills which can be build such as focus on communication skills, interpersonal skills ,problem solving and professionalism. Show them why they should develop a career plan and help them see their future role in the organization Activity 3 I am working in one of the private hospital more than 2 years, I am trained in the operation theatre and also completed my certificate as a trained theatre technician. My hospital is a place to learn and practice all the facilities of learning are available and practical there is superb but there are also areas of improvement .When I was a junior I had an experience that I learn from it. It was a spine endoscopic surgery which was done by a new surgeon, assisted by a junior staff nurse, this surgery was a new procedure in our place using scope for disectomy. The junior staff did very well , the surgery went smooth and at the end when the skin already stitch then the scrub nurse noticed that one of the patties is missing when the patient was already on the trolley extubated, on the way to recovery. The junior nurse got scared and immediately she informed the surgeon. Once again the patient was push back in to the operation room, incubated the patient and he reopen the surgery site, th ere was patties retain in the patient. This was a major mistake because final count was not done before closing and this is considered as a medical error. From the experience above, I would like to reflect upon three areas for improvement using the Gibbs Model of Reflection. At that time, I felt that the induction program was not done properly because the scrub nurse didn’t count the patties. It was a bad experience for the staff because it was her first time doing Endoscopic Disectomy. On the other hand, this experience also though her about the important of proper patties count. At the situation the scrub nurse was so nervous and anxious because was her first time scrubbing with a new surgeon. In my view, I decently think that the induction program that usually done only for 2 months should be increase to at less 4 months to make sure the new comers absorb the input and also know the important of counting the swab or patties before, during and before closing the skin to prevent retain of foreign body. The scrub nurse was also new staffs who were left all alone with no supervision. It was very unfair for the nurse manager to do such an assignment with no any senior staff. From the positive site, the staff is trained to be alone to build her confident level and the negative site without supervision error happens which is also unfair to the patient. To prevent any error in future the nurse manager must assign senior staffs who are able to bring a new staffs and guide in a proper manner. Furthermore, I also suggested the nurse manager to prepare a competency checklist because the staff was not given any chance but immediately inform to scrub for the case. She was also new staff afraid the nurse manager would get angry if she refused it. From this experience, everyone and even I realized that if the staff was done a competency checklist by her mentor or senior staff, we can identify which area she is weak and does she knows the important of patties count. In future I hope this incident will never occur again, during the investigation was done towards the junior nurse no senior or even the nurse manager stood by her. Everyone was just blaming the junior staff from that situation I did the analysis where the mistake happened. I even suggested to the nurse manager for improvement of these three areas before we could blame the junior staff but finally she was sent to the recovery area and no more scrubbing again. am I.I also felt that the nurse manager was so unfair to us for not giving us any senior staff. I also felt miserable because i didn’t remind her about the count and even didn’t perform the patties checklist.There was also no

Innocence Is Bliss in OConnors Short Stories Essay -- Literary Analy

There’s is no freedom from the post-lapsarian world. The attributes of this fallen world are very prominent in O’Connor’s short stories. However, she chooses not to include all of her characters into this nutshell. Instead, she gives her female characters innocence and monist ideals. Ironically, O’Connor isolates them from the rest and gives them a pitiful image as she goes on to mock their ways. The obliviousness and innocence of the characters is effortlessly destroyed in the post-lapsarian world because of their lack of foundation. O’Connor centers her stories on the attributes of the post-lapsarian world, which is the world after the â€Å"Forbidden Fruit† was eaten in the Garden of Eden. The fact that these stories were written soon after WWI also obstructed their outcome. The carnage of the war exemplifies the malevolent nature of O’Connor’s characters. For instance, in her story: â€Å"The Misfit,† a mass slaughter of an entire family occurs. After killing the last family member, The Misfit tells his assistant: â€Å"Take her off and throw her where you threw the others,† (O’Connor 22). The Misfit doesn’t bother looking back at the massacre he had just executed. This is a manner of establishing that such cruel and spiteful actions take place only in the evil of the post-laspsarian world. Likewise, in â€Å"A Circle in the Fire,† three boys take the liberty of allowing themselves to Mrs. Cope’s farm with no intentions of leaving. Not only does Mrs. Cope welcome the boys, she is also very hospitable towards them. Yet, the malicious and ill-mannered actions of these boys force Mrs. Cope feel obliged to them to leave. In response to the insult of being asked to leave, they decide to incinerate her farm. O’Connor creates these charac... ...ld beyond their homes. The characters learn the hard way that there is no escaping reality, especially since they are parts of it. This enlightening is why their blissfully happy lives have to be terminated. Works Cited 1. O'Connor, Flannery. A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1977. Print. 2. Schaum, Melita. ""Erasing Angel": The Lucifer-Trickster Figure in Flannery O'Connor's Short Fiction." The Southern Literary Journal 33.1. Department of English of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2000. Web. 12 July 2010. . 3. Sparrow, Stephen. "The Innocents of Flannery O'Connor." Flannery O'Connor: Comforts of Home, The Flannery O'Connor. N.p., 22 July 2002. Web. 12 Oct. 2010. .

Shakespeare - Tragic Heros Essay -- essays research papers

The name "tragic hero", which has become synonymous with Shakespearean dramas, was developed before Hamlet, Macbeth or any of Shakespeare’s well-known plays were written. The literary term was actually discovered around 330 BC by the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle. Through his theory of catharsis, Aristotle debated that the great plays of Sophicles, Euripides, and other Greek playwrights contained tragic heroes similar to each other, which all portrayed four basic characteristics ("English Lit."). These qualities were a tragic flaw, or harmartia, they all were from a noble class, with very human personalities, and they all face their tragedy with dignity. It is not until the late 1500s that Shakespeare began to utilize Aristotle’s observations in the production of his many tragedies (Desjardens). Probably the most important characteristic of a Shakespearean tragic hero is that one must posses a tragic flaw, because without the flaw, there would never be a downfall. The ultimate flaw varies from one play to another, King Lear’s flaw is that of arrogance while Macbeth’s it one of ambition. Some characters may be guilty of harboring many flaws, like Othello. Among Othello’s wrongs are gullibility and stupidity. In either case, the character never realizes ones flaws until act five, however, by that time it is too late (Desjardens). While the tragic flaw is the key element in a tragedy, the tragic hero’s social status i...

An Analytical Essay on Hamlet as Ghost Story, Detective Story and Revenge Story :: The Tragedy of Hamlet Essays

An Analytical Essay on Hamlet as Ghost Story, Detective Story and Revenge Story    William Shakespeare's play Hamlet, is a ghost story, a detective story and a revenge story all within one plot. Throughout the play, qualities of all three types of stories are displayed. The ghost story consists of Hamlet Senior and the circumstances surrounding his untimely demise at the hands of the present King, Claudius. He is being tortured in hell until his death is properly avenged. The detective aspect of Hamlet is brought about by Hamlet trying to figure out whether or not his fathers ghost was real and also to what, if any extent, his mother the "virtuous" Queen Gertrude was involved with the murder of his Father. Both Hamlet and Laertes, bring yet another aspect to this most versatile play, by seeking revenge for their fathers death, each in their own way. By viewing the play as either one or all of these different aspects we learn to have different perspectives on the play.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The story of Hamlet Senior's death is the ghost story aspect of the play. Hamlet Senior, the late king, was being tormented in hell throughout the daylight hours and during the night he was forced to walk the castle. He stated that he was "Doom'd for a certain term to walk the night, And for the day confin'd to fast in fires, Till the foul crimes done in my [being the late King's] days of nature Are burnt and purg'd away (50 lines 10-13). His release from this torture would not be permitted until his avenger is retaliated against by his son. Hamlet, Francisco and Bernardo all see the ghost of the late king, but the apparition will only speak to his son. The ghost brings an unnatural feel to the drama and leaves the reader/viewer wondering if it was real or all in Hamlet's mind.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Hamlet is made to do some detective work in this melodrama. His first order of business was to figure out if the ghost of his father that he thought he saw, was in fact real and if it was, was it unfeigned or a demon. Then, he must decide if the ghost of his father was truthful about Claudius, his father's brother, Hamlet's uncle who was also the reigning King, committing fratricide against his father. To find evidence of Claudius' involvement, Hamlet uses the players, to bring about his uncles deep seated feelings hopefully lodged in his conscience.

Essays --

In 1803, Thomas Jefferson, the president of the United States of America at the time, acquired an enormous amount of land from France in what would later be dubbed the Louisiana Purchase. The newly received land covered about 828,000 square miles and it was bought for roughly 15 million American dollars. In basically doubling the United States land, a simple 15 million for the land is considered one of the most rewarding political trades made in history. Previous to American ownership, France controlled this land for most of history with Spain having it for several years as well. France is documented to have held the land from 1699 to 1762 when it gave the territory up to Spain who was an ally at the time. However, under Napoleon Bonaparte’s reign, France recaptured it in an effort to create a global empire. Jefferson, however, realized the potential of the land west of the Mississippi and additionally the area of New Orleans. He arranged a settlement with Napoleon to fund Fra nce $15 million on their home front in return for the land of the purchase, which the French leader agreed to. Jefferson identified Napoleon’s desperate need for capital at the time, as the war versus Britain in Europe was on the brink of occurring as well as a French slave revolt in Haiti during the early 1800’s. Napoleon recognized this as well and gave up on ambitions for a secondary North American empire. In retrospect, this acquisition was incredibly beneficial to United State’s expansion and now the massive amount of land encompasses all or part of many U.S. states and a pair of Canadian provinces. The modern day states with all or sections of their area within the purchase include; Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, North ... ...ht the land from France it was agreed upon that the land extended as far as the 50th parallel. In the Anglo-American Convention of 1818, however, the land from the 49th parallel to the 50th was traded to the British in a deal for the Red River Basin, which is located just under the 49th. Much further south, the southeastern boundary of the Purchase was rather ambiguous as well. The United States wanted the land until the Perdido River and Spain wanted it as well. The United States truly just wanted the whole region and passed the Mobile Act in 1804, which recognized the western sections of Florida as part of the United States’ land. True resolve would only be found in the aforementioned Adam-Onis Treaty of 1819, with Spain. In this treaty, the United States really made further progress in defining boundaries and making their newfound lands as expansive as possible. Essays -- In 1803, Thomas Jefferson, the president of the United States of America at the time, acquired an enormous amount of land from France in what would later be dubbed the Louisiana Purchase. The newly received land covered about 828,000 square miles and it was bought for roughly 15 million American dollars. In basically doubling the United States land, a simple 15 million for the land is considered one of the most rewarding political trades made in history. Previous to American ownership, France controlled this land for most of history with Spain having it for several years as well. France is documented to have held the land from 1699 to 1762 when it gave the territory up to Spain who was an ally at the time. However, under Napoleon Bonaparte’s reign, France recaptured it in an effort to create a global empire. Jefferson, however, realized the potential of the land west of the Mississippi and additionally the area of New Orleans. He arranged a settlement with Napoleon to fund Fra nce $15 million on their home front in return for the land of the purchase, which the French leader agreed to. Jefferson identified Napoleon’s desperate need for capital at the time, as the war versus Britain in Europe was on the brink of occurring as well as a French slave revolt in Haiti during the early 1800’s. Napoleon recognized this as well and gave up on ambitions for a secondary North American empire. In retrospect, this acquisition was incredibly beneficial to United State’s expansion and now the massive amount of land encompasses all or part of many U.S. states and a pair of Canadian provinces. The modern day states with all or sections of their area within the purchase include; Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, North ... ...ht the land from France it was agreed upon that the land extended as far as the 50th parallel. In the Anglo-American Convention of 1818, however, the land from the 49th parallel to the 50th was traded to the British in a deal for the Red River Basin, which is located just under the 49th. Much further south, the southeastern boundary of the Purchase was rather ambiguous as well. The United States wanted the land until the Perdido River and Spain wanted it as well. The United States truly just wanted the whole region and passed the Mobile Act in 1804, which recognized the western sections of Florida as part of the United States’ land. True resolve would only be found in the aforementioned Adam-Onis Treaty of 1819, with Spain. In this treaty, the United States really made further progress in defining boundaries and making their newfound lands as expansive as possible.