The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne Essays

The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne Essays The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne Paper The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne Paper Essay Topic: Film The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne was written by Brian Moore and set in pre Troubles Belfast in the 50s. When Jack Clayton decided to make a film of the book in 1987 he decided to move the location to 1950s Dublin. At first these seems quite a strange thing to do, they were obviously two very different cities in, one could argue, two different countries. By setting it outside Belfast, the director is making a conscious decision to simply eradicate the major section of a community which must have some implications upon the integrity of the story line and character development. This is what I would like to discuss tonight. Furthermore the portrayal of the major characters has definitely been altered. Part of this can be put down to the directors own interpretation but it cannot be ignored that he has deliberately changed the personality of some of these characters. Now, I am going to assume that none of you has watched this film and not many of you have read this book. But what I am assuming is that everybody has a basic idea of the situation in the North. I propose therefore to first of all give you a broad outline of 1950s society in both Belfast and Dublin so that we can open a discussion comparing the two. And then Im going to choose three or four passages taken from the novel and show the clips in the film. In this way you get a rest from me! And, if you dont mind doing a little bit of reading, it makes for a more informed discussion. Let me first tell you something about Brian Moore. He was born in 1921, which was a very important year for Ireland as a whole. First of all they established independence from the British Empire and secondly we had partition in the North. Moore was one of nine children. His father was a surgeon and on the whole the family experience was a happy one. Moore attended St. Malachays, a grammar school where, according to Moore they were beaten all the time So you could go through the entire day being beaten on the hands, day in, day out, everything was taught by rote. This was a Catholic school in a predominantly Protestant milieu; therefore we had to get better marks than the Protestant schools. We were then beaten and coerced into achievement, and we werent really taught anything. Moore left St. Malachays without the leaving cert because he failed his Maths. He experienced the Second World War as a volunteer coffining dead bodies but was then hired by the British Ministry of War Transport to go as a Port Official to Algiers, North Africa. After one brief visit to Belfast after the war, Moore finally emigrated to Canada where he worked as a reporter. Belfast, which he considered a claustrophobic backwater trapped in the nightmare of history, left him feeling angry and bitter. It was at this stage that he felt the need to try and write Belfast out of his system and look for a new world in which I and my characters could live. It was at this point that he began writing The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne which was published in 1955. The reasons for Moore writing Judith Hearne and the themes highlighted within the novel do call into question the decision to situate the film in Dublin. Briefly, the story centres on middle-aged Judith Hearne who moves from one bed and breakfast to another. Having devoted the best years of her life to the welfare of a severely demanding maiden aunt she has little respite in her life other than romantic dreams and the communal fellowship of Sunday Mass. As if in answer to a prayer, James Madden comes on to the scene, her landladys brother and recently returned from America. He upon seeing some expensive jewelry on her, is misled into believing she has money and views her as a potential financial partner. Although she finds him a trifle common Judith Hearne tempers her dreams with a certain amount of realism and realizes that Madden is her last chance to fulfill a desperate desire to be loved. What follows is a tragedy of errors and when the awful realization of the situation dawns on Judith Hearne she turns first to drink as a way of escape and then to the church where the priest mismanages her cruelly. The novel reaches its climax when Judith Hearne attacks the sanctuary in her desperate crisis of faith and collapses in a scene of total degradation and despair. The novel ends with Judith Hearne in a sanitorium having lost her dignity and her faith-a rather bleak future. That essentially is a synopsis of the story line. What may be useful, however, is if I give you an idea of what each of these cities was like in the 1950s. It is important to realize that the novel Judith Hearne very much reflects Moores feelings about the city. This novel and the two novels that followed was his attempt at trying to exorcise Belfast out of his system and there are various passages in the novel which highlight the isolation and alienation felt by the Nationalist community and it was from this he trying to escape. But in trying to escape he couldnt shake off this feeling of terrible loneliness and this is one of the main themes running through the novel. Looking at the make up of Belfast it is easy to understand these feelings. Belfast was, unlike Dublin, an industrial city. Im sure that when you think of Belfast you think of the sectarian conflict and the murals but one of its enduring images is the big shipping gantries with H and W on them. In fact those little link films on the BBC shows a group of boys skateboarding with those gantries behind them. The message is probably lost on most of the population but this was intended to show a more positive image of Belfast, an industrial, prosperous city that built the Titanic. But this is a very Protestant image and Belfast is a very Protestant city. Protestants believed that they had created Belfast through hard work and enterprise, a triumph over mud and water, the result of successive merchants, engineers and entrepreneurs. The Nationalists on the other hand, believed that Belfast had always been theirs and that the land had been taken from them. Furthermore they were excluded from the job market. Belfast in the 50s saw Protestants quite powerful and Catholics very isolated and marginalized. Belfast was an unhappy, fragile city where violence seethed below the surface. So what about Dublin? Can it compare with Belfast? Well, Dublin, having achieved independence from the British Empire and then endured a very bitter civil war was under the control of a politician who still believed in Mother Ireland and who attempted to maintain a rural way of life. The laws of Ireland were entwined with the Catholic church which resulted in a highly conservative, restrained and many would say oppressed nation Its relations with Britain were extremely poor, where embargoes were imposed by Britain causing a collapse in the economy and massive unemployment. Irelands position of neutrality in the Second World War if anything worsened relationships and it would be fair to say that Ireland was the sick man of Europe high unemployment and huge emigration. Lets have a look at the first clip which covers the opening of the novel. Ive included some extracts for you to read in order to compare the two scenes. In the novel, I believe Moore was quite keen to portray Middle Class Belfast in decline and to give a sense of its isolation and decline through its shabbiness. Moreover, Moore wants to present us with a middle aged, unattractive, snobbish and desperately lonely spinster who is herself kept out of the most powerful institution upheld by the Catholic Church and that is the woman seen as the wife and the mother and the heart of the home. Judith Hearne fails to achieve the role expected of her and as a result she is only ever a visitor to those domestic spaces normally assigned to women. This is what we see in the first clip. Incidentally, Ive included in the novels extracts Judith Hearnes reaction to Bernard Rice, the landladys son. She is a woman who feels the pressure to view every man as a potential suitor but I do find the directors interpretation rather interesting. Perhaps what the Catholics do have in common in both cities is this repressive apparatus of the church and the family which dominates their lives. You will see that Moores characters are very much determined by Catholicism. Its strictures dictate the attitudes, behaviour and beliefs of the Catholic community both in Belfast and in Dublin. Freedom within such a structure is merely an illusion and any attempt to live outside its tenets or indeed question its ideology can result in psychological distress. This is exactly what happens to Judith Hearne, her whole existence is dependent upon the church and her faith and when this faith is shaken and she begins to question the very existence of God she has also to question her very reason for being, which leads to a breakdown. This well see in one of the later clips. The main difference, I can see between Belfast and Dublin is this feeling of being at once locked out and hemmed in. There is no doubt that the Nationalist community suffered feelings of dislocation after Partition and that the Unionists endeavours to keep them essentially ghettoized and poor led to feelings being locked into small spaces. Hence the use of the Bed and Breakfast as a backdrop, where as Moore puts it all the houses are partitioned off. This is very much a statement Moore was making about the Nationalist community in Belfast. The way many Nationalist writers coped with these feelings was through nostalgia and an abiding involvement with the past. This we can see in the first clip when Judith Hearne unpacks her photograph of her dead aunt and the oleograph of the Sacred Heart. She continually returns to the past to seek some comfort which is in fact exactly what Moore is doing. I included the first meeting between James Madden and Judith Hearne just so you could see the relationship develop. For Hearne, Madden represents that opportunity to become part of that role assigned to women. But to the first question which is does it really matter that the film is changed to an entirely different city? Does it work? In the second clip, which is about 15 minutes long we see the fourth date between Judith Hearne and James Madden and this rather unfortunate misunderstanding between the two characters which results in the start of Judith Hearnes breakdown. I have included two important passages from the book which have been totally removed from the film but are of some significance to Moores novel as a whole. The first takes place at the end of the movie theyre watching which clearly situates the action in Belfast. As does the second which follows the couple through the city centre of Belfast as opposed to a bridge across the Liffey in Dublin which is what we see in the film. If you read those two passages and maybe we could open a debate over whether their exclusion is a problem. The second issue is the latent violence which lies beneath and throughout the novel. This violence will become obvious as you watch the clip and Ill be interested to here what you make of it because again there is a very good reason why Moore included this scene in the novel but Im not sure if it is fully explored in the film because of changing the location.

'Australian banks have remained very sound by international Research Paper

'Australian banks have remained very sound by international standards,despite the global financial turmoil' observed the IMF, and impact on Australian Bank - Research Paper Example It is apparent that if a residential mortgage shock is joined with corporate losses, it will definitely harm banks. Local reports on Australian banks performance indicated that a stress test is based on a worse case scenario that would categorize other banks in the world in the same position (IMF 2010). In fact, it is argued that although such observations from the IMF stand to be correct, Australian banks were believed to obtain considerable aid from taxpayers and the Reserve Bank. Besides, it is argued that Australian federal government helps banks in events of crisis. Overall, reports have indicated that the Australian banking system was resilient during global financial crisis due to intensive supervision and regulation. Although, the four major Australian banks capital ratios are place below global average for large banks, their conservative approaches in implementing Base II framework indicates that their headline capital rations underestimate their capital strength. The major financial soundness indicators that these banks concentrated on include profitability, capital adequacy, asset quality and provisioning, and liquidity. On particular, the Australian banks’ loss given default rates are arguably higher than those of several other countries. Additionally, higher risk weights were endorsed for certain residential mortgages. Moreover, reduced risk weights, which are allowed in the Basel II framework’s standardized approach, were introduced for retail lending (IMF 2010). Nevertheless, the risk weighted assets numbers can not be comparable across nations. All in all, due to APRA’s conservative eligibility and deduction rules, Australian banks have a propensity of holding higher quality capital. According to RBA, in regard to Basel III requirements, banks will need to hold more and higher quality capital. In light with this, the Australian banks can be argued

Socio-cultural Influences on Consumption Japan Speech or Presentation

Socio-cultural Influences on Consumption Japan - Speech or Presentation Example Shintoism and Buddhism are the major religions in Japan. Some people practice both, as the religions complement each other in many ways. Coming to the language, Japanese is official and widely used, even in case of business communication. Interpreters do the translation in case of language-handicap experienced with overseas business clientele. They expect their language to be valued, even while using it for business, promotional or packaging purposes. People are respected by age and the ancestors are worshipped in Japan. Extended families consisting of uncles, aunts and grandparents were of common occurrence until recent years, when the hike in real estate prices made nuclear families more feasible. However, all the relatives meet up during festivals. Thus, the consumption pattern of the consumers have changed based on the variations in the family structure. Food is an essential part of Japanese culture. The head or the eldest or the most important person is allowed to start the meal first. Soup is an accompaniment, rather than being a starter and slurping noodles even in formal meetings is usual. Japanese remain communicate less while eating, because mealtime is meant for enjoying food. Their food philosophy is of total well-being, termed as Shokuiku. Brief cereal breakfasts, packed or bought lunches and detailed dinners with family are common (International Markets Bureau, 2010). Japanese consumers hold certain taboos, which need consideration in understanding their behavior. Saying ‘no’ is not of common practice in Japan. Pointing anything with chopsticks; usage of number ‘4’; white shirt, black trousers and black suit; exchanging food with chopsticks, etc., remind them of death and funeral and thus, these gestures must be avoided (kwintessential, 2004). Harmony and cooperation are the values that are promot ed in Japan. Education, home and business settings revolve around working with others, being polite even in case of disagreement and learning to live in collaboration. Thus, the societal norms in Japan are community oriented. Diligence and empathy are part and parcel of their behavior, which places the thoughts and feelings of others, before one’s own (Kogler, 2006). People assist others who need their help, by putting aside their own job at hand and they feel embarrassed when they are not in a condition to do the needful. This again reflects the emphasis on consumer service orientation and apt response to command and authority of the employees in the nation (kwintessential, 2004). The code of conduct for businesses in Japan essentially emphasizes courtesy, compassion and consideration. Maintaining a business card in Japanese, exchanging it on important occasions and treasuring those extended by the others form a part of this protocol of reverence. While attending a business gathering, everyone is expected to look well-groomed, formal and be punctual (kwintessential, 2004). Establishing long-term business relations is preferred to immediate

Classification and division Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Classification and division - Essay Example Thus schools are classified mainly into three broad categories; Elementary school, middle school and high school, for educating the children of different ages in a proper manner. Elementary schools are institutions in which children get their initial education. It is also referred as primary schools in some parts of the world. Elementary education includes kindergarten education or pre-primary education and primary education. Children within the age group of 3-11 are usually admitted in the elementary schools. Story telling methods are usually adopted in elementary teaching because of the interests of elementary school children in hearing stories. Problem solving or analytical methods cannot be applied in elementary school stages because of the difficulty of small aged children in grasping topics through such methods. Elementary education usually ends in the fifth standard. At the end of elementary education, middle school education starts. Middle schools are institutions in which th e children of 11 to 14 years old undergo the learning process. Usually, education from grade sixth to eighth is included in middle schools. â€Å"Young people undergo more rapid and profound personal changes between the ages 10 and 15 than at any other time in their lives.

Ozone :: Ozone Layer Oxygen Environmental Essays

Ozone Ozone (O3) is a molecule consisting of three oxygen atoms, similar to the oxygen we breathe (O2), however oxygen consists of only two oxygen atoms. In the stratosphere, a region high up in the upper atmosphere, light rays are responsible for the breaking down of oxygen (O2), breathable oxygen into its two separate oxygen atoms. Lone oxygen atoms are markedly reactive. When a lone oxygen atom comes into contact with a breathable oxygen molecule (O2) it combines to form ozone (O3). The ozone layer is a small residual amount of ozone concentrated in a band in the upper atmosphere. This band of concentrated ozone resides approximately between twenty and forty kilometers high in the stratosphere. The ozone layer reactions that both create and destroy ozone has come into a dynamic equilibrium. This dynamic equilibrium is very delicate and resulted during atmospheric formation (Environment Canada, 1996). Ozone, however, is very rare even in the ozone layer. Oxygen makes up approximately twenty percent of air and ozone makes up only 3 x 10-5 percent of air. Furthermore, this minuscule amount of ozone is enough to protect the earth from most ultraviolet light. Ozone prevents most UV-B radiation from reaching the surface of the earth (Environment Canada, 1996). Ozone is very important to life on earth because the harmfulness of high-energy UV-B radiation stems from the high energy of these light rays, enabling them to penetrate deeply into water, plant tissue and epidermal tissue of animals. Increased UV-B radiation results in harming the metabolic system of cells and ultimately damage to genetic material present in effected cells. Living organisms on the surface of the earth have always been exposed to some, and only slightly differing levels of UV-B radiation depending of geographic location and season. Through evolution, cellular repair mechanisms have evolved to safeguard cells against damage done by UV-B radiation. With the increase in the UV-B radiation, more damage is done to cellular functions then the natural protection system can deal with (Environment Canada, 1996). Life on earth would more or less be void if not for the formation of the ozone layer during atmospheric formation (Porter, 1996). With out the ozone layer the harmful UV-B radiation would not allow the growth of autotrophic plants, resulting in reduction in oxygen production; ultimately the destruction of most living organisms on the earth surface would result. Increased UV-B radiation has been linked to many incidence of increased health problems among humans. UV-B radiation leads to increase skin cancer, eye damage, and possible inhibition of the immune system (Health Canada). These incidence have been noticed in humans, and it is presumed that these problems will occur

Political Theory Essay

Introduction While approaching the writings of major philosophical figures in the 16th century and the 17th century there emerges several weaknesses in addition to their political thought in their time. In his work, The Foundations of Modern Political Thought, Quentin Skinner’s emphasises the ‘textualist’ approach by the ones writing within the genre of political theory and further claim that they â€Å"rarely supplies us with genuine histories†. 1 Skinner seems to engage in a ‘historical’ approach to the writings of political thought, which goes hand in hand with the social and political context of the period the major works were composed. Indeed, this proves fruitful for this analysis, and therefore it will be provided a narrow historical review of the period the works were written, in order to present the remarkable similarity between the causes of political thought. Accordingly, there will be implemented a comparison of the philosophers, Thomas Hobbes and Jean Bodin, focusing primarily of their concept of the state and the church and the differences between the two models of political thought. In terms of the state, the focus will lie on the citizens and the sovereign rule; in terms of the church, an analysis of its place within the governmental framework will be provided. The primary sources used as a basis for this analysis is the work of Jean Bodin Six Books of the Commonwealth, translated by M. J. Tooley, and Hobbes On the Citizen, edited by Richard Tuck & Michael Silverthorne. In grasping the political works of Thomas Hobbes and Jean Bodin it is important to remember that their perception of the state was born in an age of crisis. As central themes of his political thought Hobbes was concerned with peace, security and order; however, religion was omnipresent throughout his experience of life and through his works. For Hobbes the only valid proposition of a natural religion was that something must have created the world, but who or what is not for certain. 2 Most important he also believed that religious division was a significant factor for the origins of war. The basics of Hobbes theory was to add the will to avoid religious conflict and restore peace into one or a group of biological people that was to further secure the will of the state. Like Hobbes, Bodin was concerned with preserving order and his relation to religion is said to be complex. Although he was less familiar with the New political from his religious thought. ’3 However, entering deeper into the religious life of Bodin it is palpable that he never adhered to one true theological standpoint throughout his lifetime. 4 Another factor of correlation between the two political thinkers is their personal historical background containing the experience of war, which largely contributed as one of their causes for writing. Most known for his work and best-seller, Leviathan, the Englishman Thomas Hobbes was to be acknowledged as an important contribution to the philosophical field in his lifetime and all the way to the 21th century. Hobbes was born in 1588 in Westport raised by his non-wealthy family, fortunately being paid for by his uncle to get an education when the time was right. 5 Entering the field of the enlightened, Hobbes at an age of 54 later produced his first claim to fame, De Cive (On the Citizen), published in Latin edition in 1642 which is characterised as one of the forerunners to his major work Leviathan. Here, it is important reconsider what is omnipresent throughout both, De Cive and Leviathan, namely fear: in order to understand his political thought. Some tend to regard Hobbes as a synonym to the concept of fear even though this impossibly cannot be so, however it does not reject King’s argument that Hobbes had experienced disorder in society and therefore feared political chaos. 6 England during the 17th century can in be referred to as a period of transformation both in terms of politics and religion. Historically, throughout Hobbes lifetime (1588 – 1679) the political circumstances in the years of 1642 to 1651 prove to stand out painted in the colour of red. The Reformation left deep traces and was not yet to relinquish as its religious struggles was to turn into a fight of power between the King and the Parliament. 7 The English Civil war provided an environment such as extreme disorder and civil insecurity to be explanatory for the horrors it brought the 6? 7’8†²? 9 # â€Å" $? *: )? â€Å" : ;0?. / 1– 1? ’? :?! ( 4 ?!! /? $ < @ ( 5 JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES,? ‘? = ‘? 1? *9/? ‘ ;6-. A=? B ;- HTTP://WWW. JSTOR. ORG/STABLE/3745504 0 , $ *3 @ 3 9 )? +? 2 ;A1. / =0 A? 8? ‘? 9’? C D7 @ % $E $ ‘ ‘ * ‘ F;0.? //’? F B -1 G/? HH222’I ‘ H! H 6;0-6 3 13 Political Theory country8. In a chaotic England, Hobbes had to face his own opponents after he had written the first outline of the philosophy of the state, Elements of Law, Natural and Politic, which created an unstable environment for him to live. Indeed, adversity was for Hobbes the reason he decided to flee and choose the life in exile crossing the national boarders to France. 9 When the Civil War was over, he returned home to the end of his life, still absorbed in scientific activity. A lesser-known philosopher yet one of the most ambitious and prolific French scholars, Jean Bodin, was born in 1529 or 30 in the French area of Angers. Although living in separate time periods Bodin is born three years after Machiavelli’s death (1469 – 1527) and died when Thomas Hobbes was eight years of age and therefore spans precisely between these two. 10 Throughout his lifetime he was, in resemblance to Hobbes, to experience war that provoked his political thinking which prospered into what was to be known as The Six Books of the Commonwealth (1955). Bodin was an admirable scholar and by the time he had to face his mortal destiny he made contributions to the area of science stretching from historiography to political economy. 11 Noticeable that he was among the more enlightened characters of his time, Bodin went to Paris in his youth for educational matters studying humanities. Further curious about the juridical nature of society he went to study civil law until the 1560s, and after he turned to a political career becoming a king’s advocate in Paris. A decade later he became a counsellor of the Duke of Alencon which secured him a seat at the table of the royal family, which ceased before 1576. He then further joined the Catholic League (sometimes referred to as the Holy League) which played a major part in the French Wars of Religion (1562–98) eradicating the Protestants also called the Huguenots. 12 Primarily, The Wars involved the Catholic crown attempting to impose religious uniformity upon the large F? > What further divided the citizens in contemporary France was their support for various versions of the Christian faith that created a warfare of self-righteousness, which for Bodin, was an erroneous societal condition. What Bodin’s beliefs could be said to represent at the time is further dubiously, but as Summerfield argues, Bodin might have believed that â€Å"Catholicism was the best ‘civil religion’ for his countrymen†. 13 Further, Bodin supported religious diversity in that Catholics should have the opportunity to embrace their faith just the Huguenots without having intolerance towards each other. By offering a narrow description of the historical period relevant to both Hobbes and Bodin and further suggest a biographical outlook of both philosophers, the main focus have been on the facts of importance for further analysis. Main section As discussed to some extent in Bodin’s case, it is applicable to both philosophers that they were living in a time where religion was inseparable from their political thinking. Today it may seem strange that politics of much importance was molded around religious beliefs, because we live in a time where each person is free to decide what to believe and which religion to adhere to. During the period of discussion, the church and the state had too many common interests that a division between them seemed unthinkable. For Bodin, his thought behind his Republic was the hope to restore the splendour and serve the interest of the French Monarchy, which functioned as a cornerstone in his description of the commonwealth. 14 In accordance to Hobbes, much like in the case of Bodin, his impetus of his work De Cive lie primarily in providing a solution to the religious moral conflict prevailing in 16th, 17th century England. Bodin and the family In this section, the discussion will point to Jean Bodin’s concept of the state at a micro level. – In Book I, chapter I of the Republic the first sentence acknowledge what Bodin understands to be the nature of the Commonwealth, namely its internal structure being organised around the ?6?

Theories Underlying Marxism A Theory Of Tradition...

Theories underlying Marxism: †¢ Hegelian dialectic †¢ Diagram of Marxist conceptions †¢ Assumptions that are made in order to reach these conclusions The Labor Theory of Value is a theory of tradition Marxian economics which explains how the working class are exploited under capitalism and how capitalist society works. This theory explains that that the value of commodity is measured by the average hour needed to produce it. It was developed in Marx‘s â€Å"Capital† (1867). Marx is trying analyze the theory with a different perspective from other capitalist, still using principles of classical economics. He also stands closely to Ricardo concerning notion that rent is capture of productivity by landlords, they are not actively producing anything. He believed that his version can explain the value of all commodities, including the commodity that laborers sell to capitalists for a wage. Marx called this commodity labor power. He clarified that the labor power must depend on the number of work hours it takes society to accommodate, dress and feed the laborer that he would have a capacity to work. He claimed that owners in privileged position exploit workers, even though if they get paid the fair wage in some ways capitalist still pushes the laborers to work more time than it is actually needed to create the labor power of worker. Marx received criticism of this idea because it is vaguely explained, thus shows the weakness of its logic and underlying assumptions. Marx believed that