Psychoanalitic Approach to The Minister’s Black Veil Essays -- Ministe

  Ã‚   "All within hearing immediately turned about, and beheld the semblance of Mr. Hooper, pacing slowly his meditative way towards the meeting-house. With one accord they started, expressing more wonder than if some strange minister were coming to dust the cushions of Mr. Hooper’s pulpit ·" Working in the realm of the Gothic, Nathaniel Hawthorne hits upon psychological points that few of his readers are willing to explore. Of course, one may not be able to relate to an example involving such an "eccentric" display as Mr. Hooper’s. There is a sudden hush throughout the audience, followed by a rush of low whispering. He walks past them, oblivious to the goings-on and proceeds to the front. Something has changed, and everyone is aware. It is painfully obvious that he wanted everyone to know, for the wounds of the change were self-inflicted · Putting the scenario this way helps to give an anonymous and general view to the former example. This method is used to show how realistic, even common, this somewhat absurd event may actually be. In a psychological analysis, this is a necessary element in both de-personalizing a situation and giving it potential for universal application. In Hawthorne’s "The Minister’s Black Veil," many interpretations by way of psychological analysis are possible, and, once exposed, quite apparent. Once revealed, there are many routes for understanding the story in a psychoanalytical context. The main approaches this essay will take involve a "Jungian" analysis, that is, one involving the use of some of the theories and conclusions of German psychoanalyst and pioneer, Carl Gustav Jung, a former student and friend of Sigmund Freud, in interpreting the actions of the characters in the story. Jung’s discord with Fr... ...Jung, whose assertions not only help in the clinical aspect, but in the search for the common message in all of human literary (this includes oral) tradition. Hawthorne’s Gothic shows, whether conscious or not, the underlying conflict that lies within the people of his time as well as the time in which each of his stories take place. It is with this that the key to understanding the self lies within the commonly untapped recesses of the unconscious, an uncomfortable and unnerving concept for everyone, particularly those that have many things to hide. Works Cited Jung, Carl Gustav. Abstracts of the Collected Works of Carl G. Jung. Rockville, Maryland. 1976. Jung, Carl G. The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche. Tr. R. F. C. Hull. New York, NY. 1960 Lauter, Paul, et al. The Heath Anthology of American Literature. New York, NY; Boston, Mass. 1998   

Retirement vs. Strife in Old Age Essay

A man that spends many years in active service be it for himself or for a more noble reason such as his country or people, would more certainly than not find retirement a disorienting prospect once he faces it. Retirement means stopping whatever has kept one alive and working for most of his healthy years. It means realigning his goals, getting used to other, more leisurely and less strenuous habits as befitting old age, and preparing to face death with peace and resignation. In Lord Alfred Tennyson’s poem â€Å"Ulysses†, the mythical hero of Homer’s epics expresses his anxiety about coming back home to Ithaca to reclaim his old responsibilities as king after years of traveling overseas and fighting the Trojan war, and his desire of undertaking a new adventure, instead. The poem begins with Ulysses dreading his return to resume the job of â€Å"an idle king† (Tennyson 1). He could not imagine the relevance of staying home â€Å"with an aged wife† (Tennyson 3) and to â€Å"mete and dole† (Tennyson 4) rewards or punishments to the people he governs—most of whom he does not know nor they of him but for his position as king. Ulysses does not like his former life of idleness and monotony even if it was a life of comfort and wealth. He prefers to travel and seek for adventures, testing life to its limits. For Ulysses, traveling means enjoying and suffering unpredictable moments. The sea and foreign lands, unlike a kingdom, presents varied and new experiences. Those that he had experienced so far have given him â€Å"a hungry heart† (Tennyson 12). His voyages have brought him to strange places, allowed him to interact with different peoples, customs and cultures, and meet creatures unimaginable if one simply stayed in one place all his life. Moreover, he has experienced the â€Å"drunk delight† (Tennyson 16) of war in Troy. Nothing in his kingdom could equal the things he did and witnessed. All that Ulysses saw and did made him what he has become and has produced a kind of restlessness or thirst upon his soul that cannot now be satiated by ruling a kingdom. This past life as king has become dull in comparison to his life as a voyager and soldier. According to him, a person who is contented with his present life is like rusting and acknowledging that the only purpose of life is to breathe. Ulysses wants to â€Å"follow knowledge like a sinking star/ Beyond the utmost bound of human thought† (Tennyson 31-32). He would like to keep exploring and test the boundaries of the capacities of an ordinary mortal, even one who is already old and less agile. He believes that one’s age is not a factor to consider because â€Å"old age hath yet his honor and his toil† (Tennyson 50). Only death can stop and end the possibilities that life has to offer. In the end, Ulysses appoints his son, Telemachus, to take his place as king, leaving him â€Å"the scepter and the isle† (Tennyson 34). Meanwhile, he prepares to embark on another journey. The speaker’s exhortations to his former companions in the final stanza may well be read as words that any man should well take heed as a personal advice, especially those who are contemplating a sedentary retirement in their senior years. The lines encourage everyone to not worry about the physical limitations that old age imposes upon every individual because the weakness of the body can easily be overcome when one is â€Å"strong in will† (Tennyson 69). This is also how a heroic life is lived.

Synthesis Essay

â€Å"One person's craziness is another person's reality†(Tim Burton). In this quote, Tim Burton is pointing out that people have our own reality. Philosophically, reality is whatever we think or perceive. There is no true or real perspective. Our perspective depends on our morals and beliefs. All our life, we perceive knowledge and information through different forms of language. Hence, our perspective is also limited by the language. Language is one of the unique things that people have. Language puts limits on our thoughts. For example, when someone says dog, we all picture a different dog, therefore we perceive the information differently. Similarly, religious books influence the way of our thinking through the words or language in the book. Those words are ideas of someone else but we get so influenced by those words that we base our morals on it. Words are part of language which fixes an image in our minds. When we say dog, we picture a dog, not a lion or fish, because we are imprisoned by the language that we ourselves created. Those words in the biblical texts are from a perspective of a different person but we believe in his/her words, borrow the idea and we make our own beliefs which is still inspired by someone's perspective. Those beliefs define the world around us. Thus, through language we create our own limited world and imprison ourselves. Likewise, in the excerpt Cosmic Prison from the book The Invisible Prison by Loren Eiseley, the author argues, that human perspective is limited by language, culture and origin. In the Cosmic Prison, the author, Eiseley attempts to point out that perspective is limited and bounded by language. Language limits our thoughts and imagination: â€Å"Language implies boundaries† (Eiseley 31). Whenever we name a thing, we put limits in our imagination. According to Eiseley, man creates an â€Å"unnatural world of his own, which he calls the cultural world and in which he feels at home†(Eiseley 31). We are comfortable with our cultural world that we created ourselves but at the same time we feel imprisoned and long to escape. Eiseley develops an interesting analogy between man in his prison and white blood cells imprisoned within a living body. Both man and white blood cells a self contained and they don't seem to understand the world outside of them. Their perspective is limited by the boundaries of their realm. A cell may not know that it might be living inside another body. They don't see outside of their world. Similarly, people have their own perspective and they might think that the action done by another person is wrong whereas according to that person, his actions are right. People tend not to go outside of their perspective to walk the world through different shoes. We believe and trust our own perspective which is influenced by human knowledge obtained through language. Our perspective might be influence by someone's words or actions like media uses persuasive language and repetition to make us believe in something. For example, media showed most Muslims as terrorists only, thus making us believe that Muslims are terrorists. It changed our perspective on Muslims and limited our knowledge. Therefore, language creates boundaries and restricts our perspective. Furthermore, culture and our values limits our perspective too. In the article