Shift In Plagued Society :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Many aspects of European life changed as a result of â€Å"the Black Death.† Not least among these changes was the shift that occurred among the economic standing of the medieval family and the ultimate â€Å"ushering out† of the feudalistic age. Prior to the plague, society in Europe remained largely feudalistic. Kings had their lords, lords their dukes, dukes their barons, and so on and so forth, with the majority, the peasants, sitting at the bottom virtually providing for all the nobility above them. Providing for the masters of the land was not easy for the peasants, taxes here and there kept there worth low, and their only assets to begin with were the little they had, â€Å"their land, family labor, and capital†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Hanawalt, p112)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Regrettably, for the nobles, things began to shift in the economic make up of Europe. As a noble, one was expected to maintain an army at call in return for land received from the king. Each successively lower noble had less land and a smaller army to maintain, but it remained that in order to be a noble one had many expenses to provide for. As the trade routes began to reopen after the plagues, people began to find the cities much more attractive than the farms that entailed a life of servitude to a lords.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Prior to the plagues, the population of Europe as a whole had been largely stagnant, while there were famines rather frequently, they were merely a result of population overspill, and society as a whole did not topple. (Herlihy, p39) With the introduction of the plague to Europe, the city populations rapidly declined, thus making room in the cities for the farmers who eagerly entered the cities. Because they were, of course, not farming in the cities, people had to take up trades and so Europe began to flourish again economically. But because the people were living in the cities, they had little need to pay taxes to a lord, and thus emerged the middle class, a class that was able to make good money off of their trade, but, unlike the nobility, had no need to spend their money on armies and land maintenance, and could save for themselves. Furthermore, with the sharp drop in overall population peasants who continued to farm had a much smaller population to support, and as some peasants moved to the city, so did the farming peasants move to take over the land left over.

Bridget Jones Diary Essay

In the novel Bridget Jones Diary, author Helen Fielding portrays men and women as superficial observers who act on their superficial judgment and are mentally affected by this. There are many different social messages being conveyed but they all seem to be of some superficial nature. They mostly express a man or a woman’s sexual lust or interest to some extent, and are shown as superficial. One of the gestures of superficiality is Bridget’s constant documentation of her weight. It shows how her weight directly affects her appearance towards men which affects her mood from happy to sad vice versa. Bridget states â€Å"Today is a historic and joyous day. After eighteen years of trying to get down to 119 lbs. I have finally achieved it. †(90) and then goes on to argue how if it’s a tapeworm then its staying which shows how she’s content with whatever makes he make her attractive no matter the cost towards health. Bridget then says â€Å"I am not in love with Daniel anymore. I am free. †(91) Which conveys how Bridget’s loss in weight made her instantly feel more confident. This shows her superficiality because she lets her weight become a gauge for how she should feel about herself which leads to her more positive thoughts. Bridget would change her personality to adapt to situations and cause certain reactions from people like Daniel. When Daniel attempted to undo Bridget’s skirt for the first time Bridget reacted to his brash actions by denying him saying she isn’t interested. After a few weeks however, Bridget said â€Å"Still no word from Daniel. Cannot face thought of entire Sunday stretching ahead with everyone else in the world except me in bed with someone giggling and having sex. †(37) which shows her fickleness after denying Daniel which I believe started with her talk with Sharon when she says â€Å"†¦ Emotional fuckwittage, which is spreading like a wildfire among men over thirty. As women glide from their twenties to thirties, Shazzer argues, the balance of power suddenly shifts. Even the most outrageous minxes lose their nerve. †(17) This was the introduction of â€Å"Emotional fuckwittage† which was the reason that Bridget denied Daniel. This depicts that women can see through men for their desire to mess with women’s emotion by their lust. The social message being conveyed about men shows that men are only interested in sex with no regards to collateral damage to women’s emotions. Thus Bridget let her view of men affect her emotionally. There were many portrayals of what women and men wanted out of relationships and were also based off of superficial judgments of men and women, where men wanted sex, and women wanted marriage. Throughout the book Bridget is pressured to get married by her family and acts as if there is some sort of obligation at her age to be married which is conveyed when she responds to her mom’s pressure by saying â€Å"Mum, I’ve told you. I don’t need to be fixed up with. †(9)

Exercise in Sentence Combining with Adverb Clauses

As discussed in part one and part two, adverb clauses are subordinate structures that show the relationship and relative importance of ideas in sentences. They explain such things as when, where, and why about an action stated in the main clause. Here well practice building and combining sentences with adverb clauses. Practice Exercise:Building Combining Sentences with Adverb Clauses Combine the sentences in each set below by turning the sentence(s) in bold into an adverb clause. Begin the adverb clause with an appropriate subordinating conjunction. When youre done, compare your new sentences with the sample combinations on page two, keeping in mind that multiple combinations are possible. Example:Sailors wear earrings.The earrings are made of gold.Sailors always carry the cost of a burial.They carry the cost on their own bodies.Combination 1: So that they always carry the cost of a burial on their bodies, sailors wear gold earrings.Combination 2: Sailors wear gold earrings so that they always carry the cost of a burial on their bodies. It is unlikely that Cleopatra actually committed suicide with an asp.The species is unknown in Egypt.The boy hid the gerbil.No one would ever find it. Our neighbors installed a swimming pool.The pool is in their backyard.They have gained many new friends.My parents and I watched in awe.We watched on a hot August evening.Erratic bolts of lightning illuminated the sky.The bolts of lightning were from a distant storm. Benny played the violin.The dog hid in the bedroomThe dog whimpered.Natural rubber is used chiefly to make tires and inner tubes.It is cheaper than synthetic rubber.It has greater resistance to tearing when wet. A Peruvian woman finds an unusually ugly potato.She runs up to the nearest man.She smashes it in his face.This is done by ancient custom.Credit cards are dangerous.They encourage people to buy things.These are things that people are unable to afford.These are things that people do not really need.I kissed her once.I kissed her by the pigsty.She wasnt looking.I neve r kissed her again.She was looking all the time.Some day I shall take my glasses off.Some day I shall go wandering.I shall go out into the streets.I shall do this deliberately.I shall do this when the clouds are heavy.I shall do this when the rain is coming down.I shall do this when the pressure of realities is too great. When youre done, compare your new sentences with the sample combinations on page two. Here are sample answers to the practice exercise on page one: Building and Combining Sentences with Adverb Clauses. Keep in mind that multiple combinations are possible. Because the species is unknown in Egypt, it is unlikely that Cleopatra actually committed suicide with an asp.The boy hid the gerbil where no one would ever find it.Since our neighbors installed a swimming pool in their backyard, they have gained many new friends.On a hot August evening, my parents and I watched in awe as erratic bolts of lightning from a distant storm illuminated the sky.Whenever Benny played the violin, the dog hid in the bedroom and whimpered.Natural rubber is used chiefly to make tires and inner tubes because it is cheaper than synthetic rubber and has greater resistance to tearing when wet.By ancient custom, when a Peruvian woman finds an unusually ugly potato, she runs up to the nearest man and smashes it in his face.Credit cards are dangerous because they encourage people to buy things that they are unable to afford and do not really need.I kissed her once by the pigsty when she wasnt looking and never kissed her again although she was looking all the time.(Dy lan Thomas, Under Milk Wood)Some day, when the clouds are heavy, and the rain is coming down and the pressure of realities is too great, I shall deliberately take my glasses off and go wandering out into the streets, never to be heard from again.(James Thurber, The Admiral on the Wheel)