Although it is clearly a product of its time, The Speckled Band holds :: Free Essay Writer

Although it is clearly a product of its time, The Speckled Band holds the interest of a modern audience and s a fine example. â€Å"Although it is clearly a product of its time, The Speckled Band holds the interest of a modern audience and s a fine example of the detective story genre.† Do you agree with this comment on Conan Doyle’s story? The Speckled Band has a Victorian context and in the Victorian times stories had different aspects, which they found appealing, but as a modern audience we are attracted to other aspects of stories. Because of these different appeals we know that The Speckled Band is a product of its time. The Speckled Band keeps the modern reader guessing the solution to the crime. This is very entertaining for the reader as they must try to find the answer before Sherlock Holmes does. Sherlock Holmes is characterised as an almost super human person with amazing powers of deduction this makes us admire him. Watson (Holmes’s accomplice) is a key character as he is someone who we relate to as he goes on the same journey as us. The speech in the speckled band is in a formal tone, â€Å"my name is Sherlock Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate Dr Watson† this is different to our modern stories as we like to show less restrained emotions, so some readers may find the tone boring. The sentences spoken are long and complicated in structure they have an exaggerated style, â€Å"I observe that you are shivering†. We see again that The Speckled Band is a product of its time as there is a lot of old fashioned language, like â€Å"sorry to knock you up† and â€Å"haggard†. One of the popular appeals in Victorian times was melodrama and there is lots of this in the story. The helplessness of Helen Stoner and the fact that she needs Holmes to â€Å"advise [her] how to walk amid the dangers which encompass [her]†would appeal to the Victorians a lot as in those times women were considered the more vulnerable sex, but a modern audience may find this over the top because it is over exaggerated to us. The modern audience may find it even more overdramatic that Helen Stoner needs Sherlock to â€Å"throw a little light through the dense darkness which surrounds [her]† the modern audience sees this melodrama as too forced and false. But Victorians loved it as in their times men were considered as strong, brave and the ones who would stand up for women. This also shows that The Speckled Band was a product of its time.

Influential People Essay

In my life, I have had many various influential people, but I would have to say that my Mother has made the biggest impact of all. Most everything that I am today is a outcome of inspirations and instances I have established from my Mother. She has made so many different opportunities presented to me, without which I do not know where I would be. I find my Mother to be a very inspiring person; the reasons for this are infinite. My Mom has been through multiple hardships over the course of her life and throughout it all she has become an exceptionally strong, loving, and wise person. This fact alone amazes me and when compounded with the fact that my Mother, among it all, still manages to have a quick, clever, and upbeat sense of humor I am left fascinated. The things I have learned and continue to learn from my Mother are endless; she has taught me all of the founding principles of my life and for that I am eternally thankful. Though my Mother and I have many discussions on various subjects, within whom I learn many different things, I believe that many of the things I learn from her are discovered and observed from example. This summer would be an instance. Together, we faced many hardships that really pulled and tugged on our relationship. We worked through possibly one of the hardest things a mother could ever go through. It not only brought us closer together, but it made me realize how much she loves me, and how she is always going to be there for me. It is common knowledge that not everyone is perfect, even heroes, and in realizing this I know that I although I wish to be like my Mother in most ways I do not in all. This realization may be one of the most important things I have learned, my Mother has taught me to base my decisions in life not solely on the examples and actions of others but simply on what I gather and learn from the examples and actions of others. In other words, she has taught me not to follow blindly but to make my own decisions based on what I think is important. My relationship with my Mother is something that I treasure above everything else in my life. We are able to play and joke like young children and have serious in depth conversations on some of life hardest subject like mature adults. The various levels that my Mother can reach me on astound me and I think that it is what makes our relationship truly special and what makes her such a wonderful influence.

Disability as Power in the Works of Mary Duffy, Frida...

What do you do without either of your arms? What do you do for a living constrained to a wheelchair? What do you do without control over your own body? Many people in the world today spend their lives wishing things were not as they were, attempting to forget how they are, or trying to change how they are going to be. When disabled people succeed, it is commonly thought that those individuals are amazing for overcoming their disabilities and thriving in life. Is this really what they are doing? The following three women, Mary Duffy, Frieda Kahlo, and Vassar Miller transform their disabilities into the ability to create complex forms of art that force the audience to gain a different perspective on disabilities. Their disabilities†¦show more content†¦As Rosemarie Garland Thomson states, Disability performance art is a genre of self-representation, a form of autobiography, that merges the visual with the narrative. (Thomson 1). Duffy, an Irishwoman, is armless and has a delic ate hand attached directly to one shoulder. She is a survivor of the effects of the Thalidomide drug. This drug was introduced in West Germany in 1956. The Thalidomide drug was used to treat nausea and vomiting associated with pregnancy, in addition to its uses as a sedative and hypnotic. It was not until 1961 that the drug was taken off the market, being identified as a human teratogen. More than 10,000 infants worldwide were born with malformations attributed to this drug, specifically malformations in the upper extremities. Mary Duffy uses the stare and tell method in her performances. Duffy uses this method by exposing her body in the nude, a body that has always been hidden, and therefore summoning the stare. By presenting her body to the viewer, the visibly disabled performance artist generates the dynamic of staring, the arrested attentiveness that registers difference on the part of the viewer. (Thomson 1). By calling upon the stare, the artist forces the audience to create and contemplate the question of What happened to you?. Therefore Mary Duffy incorporates narrative into her performance as well. She is then able to address issues, answer questions, and challenge commonly misinterpreted questions with her own thoughts and