...The Bubonic plague also known as “The Black Plague” was one of the worst tragedies to happen to Medieval Europe.The plague started in 1346 and lasted til 1353. The plague killed an upward of 50 million people in Europe which was the equivalent to 60% of the whole population of Europe. The Black Death first started in Europe by sea in October 1347 when 12 Genoese trading ships docked at the Sicilian port of Messina after a voyage through the Black Sea”. The people who gathered to meet the sailors and the ships once they were docked realized that they were faced with a horrifying surprise. Most of the sailors and crewmen aboard the ships were dead, and those who surprisingly still alive but were gravely ill. They were faced with this issue...
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...In Aesop’s fable, “The Wolf and the Lamb,” the moral of the story asks the reader to examine the desire for an object—and how we justify our behavior if we cannot obtain that object. This moral is graphically presented through the repeated use of key words to describe the fox’s repeated failure to get what he wants. The fox’s first attempt is foiled as he “just missed” the grapes (35). He attempts “again and again”, running and jumping repeatedly, but has “no greater success” (35). He then becomes disgusted and walks away. These successive descriptions of his failure build to his disdainful comment that the grapes are probably sour (35). The repeated demonstration of fox’s failures and his self-rationalization of why is he walking away—not that he has failed but because he has decided that the grapes are sour and he does not want them anyway—cleverly portrays the moral of the fable: if you can’t get it, blame something else, not yourself. It therefore asks the readers to Aesop’s Fables 3 of 93 The Wolf and the Lamb Once upon a time a Wolf was lapping at a spring on a hillside, when, looking up, what should he see but a Lamb just beginning to drink a little lower down. ‘There’s my supper,’ thought he, ‘if only I can find some excuse to seize it.’ Then he called out to the Lamb, ‘How dare you muddle the water from which I am drinking?’ ‘Nay, master, nay,’ said Lambikin; ‘if the water be muddy up there, I cannot be the cause of it, for it runs down from you to me.’ ‘Well...
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...The Black Death, a disease that stemmed from a combination of bubonic, pneumonic, and septicemic strains, was the most significant historical development of the fourteenth century . The black plague started in Europe after the Mongols attacked the Genoese trading post of Caffa on the Black Sea. The merchants of the Genoses trading outpost and soldiers retreated to safety. Well, what they thought was safety. Twelve ships left the Genoese trading post and set sail to Messina, Italy. By the time they reached the dock half the people on board were dead and the rest was dying. The Sicilian authorities hastily ordered the fleet of “death ships” out of the harbor, but it was too late: Over the next five years, the mysterious Black Death would kill...
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...During the 15th and 16th century a big disease came into Europe making it a big agony and a suffering death for many people. This illness would be called “The Black Death,” for a reason because “They were covered in mysterious black boils that oozed blood and pus.”("Black Death.")They would have to overcome a fever, unable to keep food down and causing delirious pain.Imagine yourself being in bed knowing that the black death is around and your perfectly healthy but knowing you could be dead the next morning. This wasn’t something that the people expected to happen and all of this came from something so tiny. So we are all wondering the same thing where would this disease start from? How did it spread so fast like wildfire? Well, your answer is “Fleas” these small animals rode on rats that hosted the disease-carrying fleas. This wasn’t the only thing that transmitted the disease if there was any contact with contaminated fluid or tissue you would end up getting bubonic plague or septicemic plague. “Scientists think that plague bacteria circulate at low rates within populations of certain rodents without causing excessive rodent die-off. These infected animals and their fleas serve as long-term reservoirs for the bacteria. This is called the enzootic cycle.”(“ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”)...
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...Ashleigh Hamilton The Black Death A catastrophic event that changed the way medical science would function thereafter was the Black Death or the Bubonic Plague that hit Asia and Europe back in the 14th Century. At the Sicilian Port of Messina, back in 1350, a ship arrived after going through a tedious journey in the Black Sea. The ship brought with it some dead and some ailing sailors, inflicted by a strange disease that had caused black boils on their skins which were pus filled and oozed blood out, giving the mysterious illness the name of the Black Death. Spread by a germ called YersinaPestis, the Black Death was a disease that spread from one person to another through the air, through water droplets or moisture or by the bite and infestation of rodents such as rats. Rats were thought to be the main carriers of the disease as they had travelled by ship and had supposedly contaminated the food the sailors had on the ship,or they suffered from rat bites. The disease was spread in Europe shortly after it hit the coasts of Messina, making its way through Italy, France as these pests were commonly found there. By the mid of the 14th century, the Black Death was rampant in Paris, London and other adjoining parts of the country. The biggest crisis of the time was the lack of knowledge and understanding about how the disease got transmitted from one person to another. Moreover, there was no idea in Europe about how the disease could be cured or prevented, and there...
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...The first evidence of the plague hitting Europe was at Sicilian port of Messina in Italy after a long voyage was taken place from the Black Sea. Many of the sailors boarding the ships were either found dead or ill from a mysterious cause that was unknown and therefore spreading the plague. This impacted the European society and lifestyle in that the economy and population were declining rapidly in just a few years. Several people during this time turned to their religious beliefs and blamed themselves because they believed God was punishing them for their sins. This leads to the question: “How significant was the belief in the Catholic faith during the Black Plague in Medieval Italy and what impact on society did this have?” To this day, the Black Plague is an event that can be interpreted in many ways. By investigating the event through the religious view, it challenges the views of...
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...line ‘Ashes, Ashes we all fall down.” meaning that millions of people were dying during that time. The famous plague is know as the Bubonic Plague (The Black Death). Nobody in those days knew much about the plague, but they definitely encountered it. The fatal Bubonic Plague caused by a bacteria known as Yersinia, resulted in devastation, deaths throughout Europe and in some cases loss of faith. The Plague first began in small animals like rodents, and mice. According to (Seekers, DNEWS) “The bubonic plague first emerged in China more than 2,600 years ago.”...
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...The story “The Masque of the Red Death” is about widespread death and mixed extreme emotions on the plague. Over half of the population has already caught and died from this plague, therefore people are panicked and trying to hide from dying. Prince Prospero gathers all the rich people to live and hide from the deadly plague in his castle. Prince Prospero bolts himself and the other rich people in his castle with plenty of food and liquids to survive for the longest time possible. They put music, entertainment, family and friends to hide in the castle. There were seven different rooms that all had different meanings and colors in the castle. These rooms were like a big maze. The first room was blue and stood for birth. The second room was...
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...The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe 1. Plot. The story takes place at the castellated abbey of the "happy and dauntless and sagacious" Prince Prospero. Prospero and one thousand other nobles have taken refuge in this walled abbey to escape the Red Death, a terrible plague with gruesome symptoms that has swept over the land. Victims are overcome by convulsions and sweat blood. The plague is said to kill within half an hour. Prospero and his court are indifferent to the sufferings of the population at large. They intend to await the end of the plague in luxury and safety behind the walls of their secure refuge, having welded the doors shut. One night, Prospero holds a masquerade ball to entertain his guests in seven colored rooms of the abbey. Each of the first six rooms is decorated and illuminated in a specific color: blue, purple, green, orange, white, and violet. The last room is decorated in black and is illuminated by a scarlet light, "a deep blood color". Because of this chilling pairing of colors, very few guests are brave enough to venture into the seventh room. The same room is the location of a large ebony clock that ominously clangs at each hour, upon which everyone stops talking or dancing and the orchestra stops playing. Once the chiming stops, everyone immediately resumes the masquerade. At the chiming of midnight, the revelers and Prospero notice a figure in a dark, blood-splattered robe resembling a funeral shroud. The figure's face resembles...
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...Presence of Poe Edgar Allan Poe is regarded as one of the great American writers in history. He had a unique way to present his stories, his imagination stretched into the darkest corners of his mind. One can say his characters were developed from personal experiences in his life. His use of writing techniques was ingenious and unsurpassed. These are just a few reasons why he is a permanent reminder whenever horror stories come to mind. Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston on January 19, 1809. His parents were David and Elizabeth Poe. He was one of three children including his brother Henry and his sister Rosalie. His mother separated from his father when he was about two years of age and took her children with her. She died about a year later, when he was two years of age. He was separated from his siblings and was adopted by Mr. and Mrs. John Allan; this is where his name became Edgar Allan Poe. John Allan was a successful merchant, so Poe grew up in good surroundings and attended excellent schools. When he was six, he was sent to school in England and attended for five years. He then returned to the United States to continue his studies. At seventeen, Poe went to the University of Virginia but dropped out less than a year later because he could not support himself. John Allan shunned him. He enlisted in the Army because he had no money and nowhere to go at the age of eighteen. He did reasonably well attaining, the rank of sergeant-major, and got accepted to...
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...The Dark Knight- English ESSAY The Dark Knight, released in 2008 and written, directed and produced by Christopher Nolan is set within a year after the events of Batman Begins. Batman, Lieutenant James Gordon, and new district attorney Harvey Dent successfully begin to round up the criminals that plague Gotham City until a mysterious criminal mastermind known as the Joker appears in Gotham, creating a new wave of chaos. Through the use of various visual codes and conventions the central ideas of Chaos vs Order, Heroes vs Villains and Light vs Dark are reinforced during the final scenes of the film. Viewers of The Dark Knight are challenged to respond to the central themes and ideas and explore the in depth characterization within the film. The idea of order within Gotham collapses when Harvey Dent, once seen a symbol of order as Gotham’s elected DA declines rapidly and becomes a representation of chaos or anarchy. This is revealed through Harvey Dent’s dialogue at the ending scene in the film, saying “the only morality in a cruel world is chance”. This dialogue is paired with the symbolic action of flipping a scorched 2 headed coin, signifying Harvey’s change from a symbol of order or Gotham’s “white knight” to his decline into chaos. The Joker is known throughout the film as a agent of chaos as he said during this dialogue with Harvey Dent in the hospital “Introduce a little anarchy, upset the established order and everything becomes chaos. I am an agent of chaos. Oh, and...
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...William Soller God and Poetry Throughout human experience, we have sought ways of understanding the universe. Stories of gods appeared as an answer to a multitude of questions. These gods began guiding the world into the realm of creation, from monuments of belief to the passing of belief through the written word. Christianity grew out of Judaism with the coming of Jesus Christ. Four Gospels were written as tribute to his life as the New Testament, and, with the combination of the Torah as the Old Testament, the Bible was crafted. The distinction between the Old and New Testaments create very different images of God. In the Old Testament, there is a God a vengeance and power. In the New Testament, God is merciful and full of love. Poets, such as William Blake, Countee Cullen, and Robert Frost have commented on this duality, inscribing their own beliefs onto paper. William Blake shows the contrast in God’s creations through two poems, The Lamb and The Tyger. The Lamb opens with a question: “Little Lamb, who made thee?” The speaker questions the lamb on how it was made, how it obtained its “clothing” of wool and its “tender voice.” In the next stanza, the speaker answers his own question: the lamb’s maker “calls himself a Lamb” and who resembles both the lamb and the speaker, a child. While the child’s question is an innocent one, it resounds as the constant philosophical question of creation that religion tries to explain. In the first stanza where the child poses the...
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...Marlon Maloney May 10, 2005 Section 3 Religion and Dracula Bram Stoker’s Dracula In modern day society pretty much everyone has heard of and/or seen an interpretation of vampires and, the supposed king of all vampires, Count Dracula, whether it be in all the several different variations and interpretations that can be seen in movies (most recently the series of Blade movies starring Wesley Snipes) that have been released over the last few decades all the way to “The Count” on “Sesame Street” the long running children’s television show) or “Count Chocula” (on the cover of a children’s cereal box). When people hear either the word vampires or Dracula, most of the time people tend to think about the mythical blood sucking race of immortals called vampires and also some people that know a little more than the average person does about vampires may think about several of their stereotypical characteristics such as: they are from a place called Transylvania, they have sharp, pointy teeth to draw blood from the necks of humans, they can not come outside during the day, they sleep in coffins, turn into bats, and they are killed by pure silver, garlic, and several religious artifacts. However, people do not really think about all the connections between the vampires and all of the religious artifacts that are said to kill them. Religion plays a major role in the story of Dracula, because when one looks closely enough to what vampires and Dracula...
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...contracts waved goodbye from the decks. They fed and guarded the stowaways and helped them ofT in Cuba, New York, Bali, Hawaii. 'We'll meet in California next year,' they said. All of them sent money home. "I remember looking at your aunt one day when she and I were dressing; 1 had not noticed before that she had such a protruding melon of a stomach. But I did not think, 'She's pregnant,' until she began to look like other pregnant women, her shirt pulling and the white tops of her black pants showing. She could not have been pregnant, you see, because her husband had been gone for years. No one said anything. We did not discuss it. In early summer she was ready to have the child, long after the time when it could have been possible. "The village had also been counting. On the night the baby was to be born the villagers raided our house. Some were crying. Like a great saw, teeth strung with lights, files of people walked zigzag across our land, tearing the rice. Their lanterns doubled in the disturbed black water, which drained away through the broken bunds. As the villagers closed in, we could see that some of them, probably men and women we knew well, wore white masks. The people with long hair hung it over...
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...The Spanish Inquisition In 1469, the marriage of Ferdinand V of Aragon to his cousin Isabella of Castile united the two most powerful provinces of Spain (Hauben, 23). During this time, Spain was becoming one of the wealthiest nations in the world. Much of Spain’s wealth was contributed by the Jewish population, which was very successful during this time period because of Christian church laws against usury, which is an illegal practice of charging unfair rates on loans. Prejudice against the Jews and strong feelings of anti-Semitism had also grown during this time, especially after a riot on Ash Wednesday (March 15,1391), started by a Spanish archdeacon named Martinez. Martinez called out to all Spanish citizens to “purge themselves of the filthy Jews”. Martinez incited his congregation to riot. The crowd moved enmasse towards the Juderia (Jewish quarter). Some of the participants were captured by the police and flogged or beaten, but that was not enough to stop the mob. Although they did not succeed that day to destroy the Jews, the feelings that Martinez had evoked lay simmering until June 6th when the mob sacked the Juderia of Seville. It is believed that the victims numbered in the hundreds, if not thousands (C. Roth, 1964). The estimated number of victims for the riot is said to be a little over one thousand. After this ordeal, a number of Jews, called conversos, professed themselves as Christians to escape persecution. Many Christians were questioning the validity of...
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