Impact of e-commerce

Impact of e-commerce E-commerce is the process of managing online financial transactions by individuals and companies. This includes business-to-business (B2B), business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-government (B2G) transactions. The focus of e-commerce is on the systems and procedures whereby financial documents and information of all types are exchanged. This includes online credit card transactions, e-cash, e-billing, e-cheques, electronic invoices, purchase order and financial statements. E-commerce is particularly concerned with the technologies that enable EDI-type functionality on the Internet. To be done an internationally agreed working definition of e-commerce it was accepted the need for three dimensions to be spelt out as part of the definition process. These dimensions relate to the: Networks over which the relevant activities are carried out; Processes that ought to be included within the general domain of electronic commerce; and Actors involved in the transactions. Networks are specified through broad and narrow definitions. The broad definition considers an electronic transaction to be the sale or purchase of goods or services, whether between businesses, households, individuals, Governments, and other public or private organizations, conducted over computer mediated networks. The goods and services are ordered over those networks, but the payment and the ultimate delivery of the good or service may be conducted on- or offline. The narrow definition considers an Internet transaction to be the sale or purchase of goods or services, whether between businesses, households, individuals, Governments, and other public or private organizations, conducted over the Internet. The goods and services are ordered over the Internet, but the payment and the ultimate delivery of the good or service may be conducted on-or offline. Concerning the processes that ought to be included many countries want to restrict the definition to the purchasing and selling aspect incorporated in the above definitions, many others want to include other types of business processes, such as marketing and advertising. Developing countries will also favour a definition that includes business activities that go beyond purchasing and selling, given the restrictions that some of those countries face in conducting online payments. E-commerce is often described as being one of three varieties business-to-business (B2B), business-to-consumer (B2C) or business-to-government (B2G). Much of the interest and the literature has focused on B2B and B2C electronic commerce and most of the statistical indicators have also been in respect of these two forms. About 80 per cent of the total value of electronic commerce in the world today are accounted for by B2B e-commerce. It provides also the greatest potential benefits in terms of productivity gains. B2C e-commerce has the potential to substantially affect the way in which people live and interact with each other and is therefore a key aspect for statistical measurement. Only a small number of countries have so far undertaken much work with respect to the measurement of B2G e-commerce. E-commerce today is very much a business-to business affair. Enterprises in developing countries should not let themselves be fooled by the much higher visibility of the business-to-consumer dotcoms. Those enterprises in developing countries that make goods or deliver services that are necessary for the productive process of other enterprises are the ones that should first consider incorporating the Internet (which does not necessary mean the web) as an instrument to enhance their opportunities to complete and grow. Due to the lack of reliable and internationally comparable e-commerce statistics, numerous national statistical offices have started to collect data on e-commerce and, generally, the use of ICT and the Internet. They have the advantage of guaranteeing the confidentiality of the collected data, having a more neutral position when it comes to collecting and interpreting the data and being able to use their existing methodologies and infrastructure for data collection, processing and analysis. Some countries are already benefiting from the results: they are now in a position to benchmark their economies with competitors internationally; they are able to identify the number of qualified people needed to advance their countrys information economy or to calculate the amount of investments needed to provide business with access to the Internet. There are several important steps involved in collecting e-commerce-related data. First, a country needs to decide what kind of data it wants to measure, reflecting the level of its e-commerce activity. Most developing countries would be probably focus on collecting readiness indicators, such as the number of businesses with computers and access to the Internet, and intensity indicators, such as the number of businesses the receive orders over the Internet and the value of those orders. But how does one define these indicators? The member States of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) have agreed on the above-mentioned working definition of e-commerce that could be used in the measuring process. The definition includes the network over which e-commerce is carried out (Internet or other), the specific business processes related to e-commerce and the different actors involved (business, households or Governments). On the basis of this definition, a set of priority indicators for e-commerce has been established by a number of internationa l and national bodies. Examining the e-commerce important question is what impact ICT and the Internet have had on the productivity growth. It reduces transaction costs; allocates recourses better; increases economies of scale; improves the competitiveness of business in general; increases efficiency; generates important changes in the management and production processes of business. Acceleration of the growth of productivity is notified but the reason for this is rather controversial. However the UNCTAD secretariat agrees that there are reasons to believe that much of the acceleration of productivity growth is structural and attributable to changes induced by ICT and the Internet, through improvements in all aspects of corporate organization, production, finance, marketing and logistics. Although the speed at which companies in several advanced countries invest in ICT has decreased in the past few months, in the medium term there are several reasons to expect that ICT will continue to support rapid productivity growth. First, the cost of computing power is predicted to keep falling at a steep rate for several years. Secondly, most enterprises are still learning how to reorganize themselves in order to benefit fully from the Internet. Finally, in many countries there is a lot of catching up to do in the application of ICT to business. As firms in other developed economies and, most importantly, in developing countries engage in e-business, global productivity growth should accelerate. We should have a look at the process of moving from traditional to online payment. Online versions of nearly all-existing payment methods are appearing rapidly. Conventional financial instruments with online analogues include cash, money orders, giro transfer, cheques, drafts, notes and bills of exchange. The existing modes of third-party protection against the risks of non-payment and non-performance, including documentary credit, credit insurance, bonding, factoring and forfeiting, are also rapidly developing their online equivalents. The same applies to wholesale payment systems, including so-called automated clearing house (ACH) networks, wire transfers for large-volume payments and interbank payments networks. Credit and debit cards are principal payments instrument in B2B and B2C e-commerce. The move from cards with magnetic strips to smart cards with multifunctional chips that include security features is the next Internet-centered stage in the development of the payments cards industry. In parallel, Internet technologies to provide security in online payments have been evolving. Still the most widely accepted standard, is the Secure Socket Layer (SSL), a set of built-in browser protocols designed initially by Netscape to protect card-based financial transactions on the Internet. A more secure and complex bank-centered Secure Electronic Transactions (SET) software is being used more and more by online payments providers. In the field of Internet banking ACH debits and credits, as well as domestic and international wire transfers became possible with systems such as the Bank Internet Payment System (BIPS). The Society for Worldwide Inter-Bank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) also started its move to the open Internet platform. Banks and financial services companies in the developing countries will need to adopt online payment systems and practices that will meet their clients new needs arising from a shift to e-commerce. They will need to adopt systems that address the key issue of concern to users, namely security, confidentiality, identification of sellers and buyers, verification of buyers solvency guarantee of delivery. To obtain e-trade finance and equity investment, companies from developing countries need to be registered in local, regional and global Internet-based commercial risk database. For that, company registries, public courts, accountancy and audit, and other business-related services should undergo substantial enhancements. Non-bank financial services such as credit information, credit insurance, factoring and leasing should develop. Local banks should adapt to e-banking and move online their customer credit risk databases, and their individual and corporate customer payment services and financing, including trade finance instruments. Tourism and its Internet incarnation, often called etourism, is regularly cited as one of the fastest growing e-commerce sectors. Considering the importance of the tourism economy for Bulgaria and many other developing countries, and in particular its role as an employer and earner of foreign currency, the need to maintain and increase competitiveness through adopting e-commerce best practice is acute. The main actors in the tourism industry include Governments, tour operators, distributors and wholesalers, hotels, airlines and other transport operators, and most important of all, the tourists themselves. Each of these actors has a stake in the development of the electronic market and will be affected in different ways by electronic commerce. Tourism is an interesting sector for appreciating the potential of electronic commerce for the economies of developing countries in several respects. Tourism is a sector in which a significant number of developing countries have established competitive advantages over the years and it has remained largely a traditional service activity in which, until recently, buyers, sellers and intermediaries were well defined. Tourism producers and destination organizations in developing countries that adopt the Internet and e-commerce best practice have a chance to improve their competitiveness by producing better products, with greater tailoring to clients, more efficiently, faster to market with less waste and fewer inputs, and at better prices. Infomediaries in developing countries should develop their e-business strategy having in mind the technical capacities of their national or regional tourism producers for using Internet technologies. Solutions must be appropriate for both consumers and producers. The fundamental challenge is to take the traditional tourism product, delineate its information from its physical components, and selectively manage them using Internet and e-commerce technologies. The winner in the competitive etourism game will be the company that inspires consumer confidence, through quality data and physical product performance, and is able to offer a comprehensive yet tailor-made product. While Internet and e-commerce technologies offer unprecedented possibilities for interactivity and dialogue, traditional surveying and gauging tools estimating customer preferences and satisfaction are still very relevant. Footwork and face-to-face interviewing may be a necessary starting point for building a B2B network or business web. Market research, whatever the technology or even without technology, is a hugely important activity. A fundamental factor for success is to speak the language of the prospective customers. A successful etourism strategy must assess the linguistic origins of its major client groups and replicate Internet content in their languages. Understanding their Internet habits and ways of learning, openness to on-line dialogue and attitudes towards privacy, as well as the underlying legal system. Online payment facilities for retail clients using credit cards are an absolutely fundamental business toll that must be made available to the national tourism sector. Destination marketing organizations (DMOs), be they government bodies or business associations, can favourably contribute to modernizing the tourism industries of developing countries. DMOs can provide a voice to the fragmented industry producers in promoting their requests to the financial authorities and banks to provide them with online payment. When online payment is in place DMOs may, on behalf of the entire tourism industry, negotiate with domestic banks better terms and conditions for online payment than particular tourism companies would manage on their own. DMOs may be instrumental in informing their tourism industry about secure transactions and risk management techniques. Most of the above actions cannot be implemented without empowering and enabling people to take advantage of new Internet and e-commerce technologies. E-commerce and Internet technology can improve communication and can make doing business easier. The ability of people at both ends of the message or transaction to use these technologies is a precondition for their wide adoption and impact. In conclusion, it is expected that in the few years the productivity gap between the European countries and the United States (leader in e-commerce activities) will close rapidly as European productivity growth increases faster than that of the United States. This process is known as convergence in productivity. Convergence in productivity takes place when the countries that lag behind the technological frontier grow more rapidly in productivity than the leading countries. The same could be true for developing countries, with a reasonable degree of readiness. The impact of e-commerce on developing countries could be even stronger than that on developed countries because the scope for reducing inefficiencies and increasing productivity is much larger in the developing countries. To summarize, by cutting costs, increasing efficiency and reducing time and distance, e-commerce could become an important tool for development. Impact of E-Commerce Impact of E-Commerce Jay Kybert   As the retail industry develops, more services are introduced to entice customers to use their shops. There are varieties of services that are being used by companies to attract attention and make it easier for customers to use their websites, in the hope of increased revenue. Services like Next-Day Delivery tempt customers to purchase their item sooner, since it will arrive the following day. This makes increased profits for the company by charging for the service. These services essentially persuade the customer to buy the product at a higher price but with (usually) a faster delivery, tracked item, etc. Since E-Commerce is becoming increasingly popular, traditional retail businesses are losing money since fewer customers shop in stores. Larger companies have the resources and money to create optimised websites that allow their customers to shop on the internet. This leads to a negative economic impact for smaller businesses but, as an entire society, a richer economy as there are new ways to shop. Also, socially, fewer people will be shopping in stores. This could lead to retail shops closing from a lack of revenue, especially in smaller businesses that cannot support themselves with a lack of funds. Bricks and Clicks is a new approach to commerce in its entirety. The name Bricks and Clicks refers to physical retail stores (Bricks) and online shopping (Clicks). As E-Commerce grew in popularity, businesses realised they can make a greater profit from online shopping; this is called Bricks and Clicks because they have both physical stores as well as an online store. There are benefits and drawbacks to both approaches (Physical vs Digital), but having both increases the range of the potential audience. This is because physical stores may attract people who are simply walking past the shop or people who are regular customers. Having a digital store on top of this targets (potentially) every person with an internet connection. Companies can increase traffic to their website by advertisements on popular websites, directly increasing awareness of the brand. One of the main benefits for customers using E-Commerce is the availability. Physically shopping requires going to the nearest shopping centre, looking for the specific shop and finding the wanted item within it. Online shopping provides an easy alternative available whenever. Being able to access the website whenever (unless it is down for maintenance) makes it easier for anyone wanting to buy a specific item, as they dont have to consider the closing time for the shop. In addition, people who have unusual work hours at their job may struggle with physical stores as they close in the evening. Therefore, having the option to buy from a store whenever using the internet provides an easier alternative. Online shopping isnt perfect; there are problems with the financial side, especially whether companies can be trusted. After a customer enters their information (Name, address, credit/debit card, etc.) the company has a responsibility to protect that information from unauthorised sources, the most common being hackers. There is always the possibility, and it has occurred, that major corporations have been hacked and their customers information has been released to the public or sold. However, as hacking becomes increasingly common, internet security is improved to prevent it. Internet shoppers shouldnt just worry about the website being untrustworthy, malware and other viruses could steal the information from the computer, the most common being a Keylogger. As the name suggests, it is either a physical hardware component installed into the computer or a program that logs all of the keystrokes on the computer. This is one way that information can be stolen not directly from the websit e. E-Commerce has, and will continue, to have an effect on employment. If people start to only shop online, store workers may lose their jobs because of financial difficulties. However, delivery services will have to hire more employees to keep up with the demand of online shopping. In addition, since companies require websites for online shopping, website developers, network administrators and a variety of server-related jobs are needed. Therefore, people working in retail stores may lose their jobs if people continue to isolate themselves from physical shopping and choose online shopping. However, more job opportunities open up relating to technology. The social divide is becoming more important as technology progresses. People with little income focus on essentials before purchasing luxuries. Therefore, it would be difficult for people with little income to purchase a computer or another electronic device capable of online shopping. However, since the majority of people can afford, and use their electronic devices for shopping, companies target these people since they make up the majority. This affects the companys decisions, for instance, they may begin to close down retail stores and instead focus on E-Commerce. This doesnt affect people who have enough disposable income to purchases these devices, but it does affect people with little income. This leads to these people struggling to shop, since they cant afford the platform needed for online shopping. Therefore, leading to a social divide between people with little disposable income and people with greater disposable income.

The Elegy in Thomas Gray and Shelley

LYRIC AND THE INNER LIFE COURSEWORK ‘Elegy is about mourning for one’s own condition’ Stuart Curran, ‘Romantic Elegiac Hybridity’, in The Oxford Handbook to Elegy (Oxford, 2010), ed. Karen Weisman, p. 249 Discuss Curran’s comment in relation to the work of Thomas Gray and Percy Bysshe Shelley. ‘One of the major tasks of the work of mourning and of the work of the elegy is to repair the mourner's damaged narcissism'[1]. This quote by literary critic Peter Sacks, flourishes from Sigmund Freud's model of primary narcissism which suggests that ‘we love others less for their uniqueness and separateness, and more for their ability to contract our own abundance, that is, to embody and reflect back that part of ourselves that we have invested in them'[2]. Sacks expands this coalescence in his criticism of elegies such as Milton's Lycidas and Tennyson's In Memoriam. Using this model of narcissism and literary mourning along with key aspects of history, language and critical reviews, I will explicate how an ‘elegy is about mourning for one's own condition[3] in Thomas Grays' Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard and Percy Shelley's Adonais, Before delving straight into how the poems serve as elegies to the poets themselves, I will first discuss how the poems appear and attempt in their best capacity not to do so. Samuel Johnson famously commented on Gray's Elegy saying that ‘The Churchyard abounds with images which find a mirror in every mind, and with sentiments to which every bosom returns an echo'[4]. The portrayal of such a literary universality springs from the poem's apparent mourning of the common man. Gray laments a ubiquitous sense of mortality, paying homage to the archetypical ‘weary plowman'[5] who falls prey to ‘dumb Forgetfulness' (85) and lies forgotten in his ‘lowly bed' (20). This notion that the poem ‘is life in its most general form, reinterpreted so as to speak to mankind generally, where all men are comparable and consciousness seeks a universal voice'[6] can be understandably gathered from a superficial analysis of the poem. The poem is not just an elegy, but a pastoral elegy, a literary form that encompasses idyllic rustic life with death, a technique employed by Gray to enhance his mournful depiction of the common, simple man who labours away unfulfilled only to die unremembered. Phrases such as ‘mopeing owls' (10), ‘twitt'ring swallows' (18) and ‘ecchoing horns' (19) create the image of a bucolic and generic place, one where villagers engage in rural and generic activities – ‘oft did the harvest to their sickle yield' (25) and ‘how bow'd the woods beneath their sturdy stroke' (28) The constant use of third person plural pronouns such as ‘they', ‘their' and ‘them' allow the reader to merge these villagers into one, once again echoing the universality of the poem. Although the title tries to deliver a place for the poem, ambiguous descriptions such as ‘the glimmering landscape' (5), ‘the distant folds' (8), ‘the upland lawn' (100) and the ‘custom'd hill' (109), accentuate the poem's attempt to be nowhere and everywhere. Marshall Brown in his essay Gray's Churchyard Space' suggests that â€Å"everything and nothing is shared with all and none in a world that is nowhere and everywhere†[7]. This displacement coupled with the fact that the poem refers to no one in particular, creates a sense of timelessness in keeping with it's universality, thereby supporting Johnson's credo that ‘The Churchyard finds a mirror in every mind'[8]. Marshall Brown further reveals that the ‘poem evokes the possibility of a language and a consciousness beyond station, beyond definition and beyond identity'[9]. Gray accomplishes this by the illustration of an all-encompassing world. The poem drifts from a ‘solemn stillness' (6) to the ‘cock's shrill clarion' (19), from a ‘blazing hearth' (21) to a ‘frozen soul' (52), from ‘parting day' (1) to the ‘incense-breathing morn' (16), from the ‘desert air' (56) to the ‘smiling land' (63), etc; creating an image of the world that comprises all heights, weather, feelings and time. Gray's exploration of the opposite poles of class, the ‘pomp of pow'r' (33) and ‘simple annals of the poor' (32), and his empathy for the poor rather than the rich – ‘nor you, ye Proud, impute to These the fault, if Mem'ry o'er their Tomb no Trophies raise' (37-38), heightens this indiscriminate sense of inclusion and the all-embracing voice of his elegy. Thus we see how Gray tries to attribute a sensitivity that amplifies the appeal of his apparently universal elegy, as seen by this uote from Stephen Cox's essay, Contexts of Significance: Thomas Gray – that ‘the individual self [in the Elegy] is significant even when it lacks any visible signs of significance, such as power, wealth, or social recognition'[10]. Thus, we see how it can be interpreted that Thomas Gray's elegy focuses on a common condition rather than his own, but a closer analysis reveals that the all-embracing attempts made by Gray in the poem is part of a manipulation to create a n image that adequately appeases his own narcissism. Firstly, although he paints a generic and timeless world he also places himself far away from it. The poem is seeped in an isolation that springs from Gray's differentiation of himself from the world he's creating – ‘The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, the lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea, the plowman homeward plods his weary way, and leaves the world to darkness and to me' (1-4). From the start of the poem itself we are plummeted into the poet's segregation from the rural, rustic all encompassing world, and into the image he creates of himself as the poetic lonely outsider. Wallace Jackson in his essay Thomas Gray and the Dedicatory Muse, supports this when he says that ‘Gray's ideal self is situated like a melancholic outcast and the village oddity. He is constellated in a poetic heaven, in any event, alone'[11]. While Gray spends the first 23 stanzas expounding his sensitivity for the ‘unhonored Dead' (93), the next 9 stanzas are wholly based on him and the image he tries to further enhance of his ‘mindful' (93) and ‘lonely' (95) self. Howard Weinbrot in his essay Restoration and the Eighteenth Century, points out that ‘no one in particular is being mourned as the elegy opens, but it soon become clear that the speaker is mourning his own repressed potential'[12]. The shift between referring to himself as ‘me' (4) in the 1st stanza to ‘thee' (93) at the start of the 23rd stanza, elucidates a respect he demands for his shallow efforts to praise the common man. Andrew Dillon in his essay Depression and Release, includes a reference by Ketton-Cremer, Gray's biographer – ‘the man of reading and reflection often feels an envious admiration for the man of physical skill'[13], and this is seen in the parallels Gray draws between himself and the villagers, who in death resemble the same ‘fame and fortune unknown' (118) of Gray. However, he shatters this connection through his elaborate and verbose epitaph for himself. While the simple ‘bones' (77) of the forgotten ‘plowman' (3) rests beneath ‘some frail memorial erected nigh' (78), Gray's memorial is far from ‘frail' – ‘Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere' (121). Jackson confirms this in his essay, when he says that the poem's ‘motive is grounded in a further, yet concealed, rendering of the self-image, present especially at the close of The Elegy'[14]. Freud's belief that melancholia is a consistent form of mourning can be seen in his epitaph for himself – ‘melancholy marked him for her own' (120) and ‘he gave to misery all he had' (123). This coupled with the undercurrent of still sadness that permeates the poem places Gray in a constant state of mourning. On a simplistic level, the epitaph echoes his application of a universal mortality unto others and himself, but what is more haunting is the thread of fatalism that laces these last few stanzas. Dillon writes, ‘the Elegy can be read as a journey of recognition conceived in dusk and worked out – not in a miasma of depression – but in the light of symbolic self-destruction'[15]. The quiet acceptance Gray achieves seems to transcend the idea of everyman's mortality, and is rather an active realisation of his own. In the line ‘Ev'n from the tombs the voice of Nature cries, ev'n in our Ashes live their wonted Fires' (91-92), Gray moves away from the constant grouping of the villagers (they, their and them) to include himself (‘in our ashes') tilting the poem towards his own self-destruction. Dillon explores this in his essay when he contemplates ‘whose ashes are these? They are those of the safe dead, yet they also form a melancholic, personal estimation of the poet – alive but in the ashes of an entombed self'[16]. Thus we see that Gray is aware of the image he is creating of his own condition. His reference to himself in third person in the words of the Swain divulges his yearning for a posthumous sympathy. This along with his concern with the way he is perceived, his reconstruction of himself in death and his self-appointed social position in his glorious epitaph, all seal the idea that in fact he is trying to repair a ‘damaged narcissism'[17] and in doing so is ‘mourning his own condition'[18]. Unlike Gray, whose poem appears to mourn the common man, Shelley's Adonais remembers one man in particular – John Keats. However, this specificity does not detract from the idea that, similar to Gray, Shelley's elegy is intwined ith his own condition as well. The disquieting refrain ‘weep for Adonais – he is dead! ‘[19] is instrumental in diverting the readers attention from Shelley onto Keats, constantly reiterating the idea that the elegy is about Adonais – a name he assigned to Keats that amalgamates the Greek myth of Adoni, and Adon ai, the Hebrew word for God. However, our first instinct that the poem isn't just about Keats springs from its historical background. Shelley, upon hearing of Keats death, was convinced that Keats was killed by the envenomed reviews of Keats' longest poem, Endymion. This belief is reflected in the classical allusion to Adoni, a youthful man who met an early and untimely death when he was killed by a wild boar, an event symbolic of Keats' apparent death by cruel reviews. In Nicholas Roe's Keats and History, he reveals that on the 8th of June 1821, Shelley requested his publisher Charles Ollier to ask Keats' friends the exact circumstances of his death, and ‘transmit to me any information you may be able to collect and especially as to the degree in which, as I am assured, the brutal attack in the Quarterly Review excited the disease by which he perished'[20]. Roe uses this letter to suggest that although this request ‘may arise from Shelley's characteristic attention to historical detail', it also reflects something else: an appetite for a history already conceived, a history the outlines of which applied to Shelley himself, for the Quarterly had also taken aim at his poetry and character'[21], thus proposing that Shelley's own wounded narcissism is tied to his portrayal of Keats' death. Stanza 37 of Adonais reveals this bitterness towards the critics – ‘And ever at thy season be thou free to spill the venom when thy fangs o'erflow: remorse and contempt shall cling to thee! ‘ (329-31). Shelley, who even now is closely associated with Keats, was an avid admirer of Keats' work. The godly portrayal of Keats in his poem reveals this reverence – Shelley calls him a ‘star' (494) and places him in league with Thomas Chatterton, Sir Philip Sidney and Marcus Lucan, poets who died young and never received the chance to flourish to the maximum of their literary prowess. Though Shelley considered himself a lesser poet, he felt they shared a common thread. In regard to Adonais, he is known to have written, ‘the total neglect and obscurity in which the astonishing remnants of his mind lie, was hardly to be dissipated by a writer, who, however he may differ with Keats in more important qualities, at least resembles him in that accidental one, the want of popularity'[22]. This connection that Shelley felt they had explains his outrage at the critics' reviews, as they dashed the growing popularity of Keats and Shelley many a time. Eleanor Hutchens in her essay Cold and Heat in Adonais says ‘the earlier part of Adonais suffers from an artificial chill, cast over perhaps by Shelley's primary intention not of mourning Keats but of using a fellow poets death as an occasion for expressing certain attitudes of his own'[23]. This belief isn't entirely true; although it is certain that Shelley uses Keats' death to battle the critics that scorned them, there is a significant difference in the two acts – that of mourning and that of expressing his opinions – as they are inevitably and exclusively related with each other, as seen in Clewell's credo that ‘By resuscitating the other in memory, the mourner attempts to reclaim a part of the self that has been reflected on to the other'[24]. To Shelley, Keats is a part of him and he is a part of Keats, as seen when he says ‘I have lately been composing a poem on Keats, it is better than anything I have yet written, and worthy both of him and of me'[25]. Shelley believes that in writing the elegy and in mourning Keats they are both experiencing a sense of liberation and resolution. This idea is seen in the first stanza itself when Shelley says ‘with me died Adonais' (6-7) and recurs throughout the poem, especially in stanza 34 when Shelley describes one of the mourners at Keats' grave – ‘All stand aloof, and at his partial moan smiled through their tears; well knew that gentle band who in another's fate now wept his own' (300). In the case of Shelley's elegy, the major disquietude of its reflection on his own condition lies in the fact that it acts as elegy for him without meaning to. It transcends Shelley's narcissistic intentions, echoing beyond even the time of composition. In Roe's Keats and History he says that ‘Indeed one of the posthumous fates of Adonais itself was its retrospective (or uncannily prophetic) application to Shelley'[26]. Adonais was an elegy for Shelley himself in that it foreshadowed his own early and untimely death. Peter Sacks stated that ‘Shelley's conclusion to the poem is ‘profoundly disturbing' when we remember, as we must, that Shelley died a year later at sea'[27]. Some believe his death wasn't accidental and a product of years of depression that lead to his eventual self-destruction, a theory perhaps encouraged by the suicidal tone in the last stanzas of Adonais – ‘What Adonais is, why fear we to become? ‘ (459). But whether this is true or not, Shelley's association with Keats is undeniable, especially considering that a book of Keats' poems was found in the pocket of Shelley's jacket that confirmed the corpse was his. After Shelley's death, his wife Mary is known to have said ‘Adonais is not Keats's, it is his own elegy'[28] and his dear friend Leigh Hunt confirmed that Shelley himself said the poem was ‘more an elegy on himself than the subject of it'[29]. Shelley's cousin, Thomas Medwin beautifully wrote in Memoir that ‘there was, unhappily, too much similarity in the destinies of Keats and Shelley: both were victims of persecution, both were marked out by the envenomed shafts of invidious critics, and both now sleep together in a foreign land'[30]. Thus, we see how both poems reflect a situation stemming from the poet's own condition. While Andrew Dillon believed that ‘the Elegy works because of the exquisite beauty of its language and the psychic complicity of the minds of readers with that of Thomas Gray'[31], critic Katherine Duncan-Jones felt that ‘Adonais is fundamentally an elegy on one poet by another, a poem whose force comes more from the problems and concerns of the living poet, than from the precise character and circumstance of the dead one'[32]. Both poems exhibit a damaged narcissism that the poets try to appease or console through the act of mourning, whether it is Gray's desire to be remembered in a perfect melancholic image of himself, or Shelley's to chastise the embittered critical reviews that plagued his career and Keats'. However, the sense of isolation, fatalism and admiration in their poems evokes a posthumous and timeless sympathy in readers that cannot be disregarded, particularly in the case of Shelley, even if we are aware that they mourn themselves. Bibliography: Bieri, James, Percy Bysshe Shelley: a Biography (Massachusetts: Rosemont Publishing, 2005) Brown, Marshall, â€Å"Gray's Churchyard Space†, in Preromanticism (California: Stanford University Press, 1991), pp. 42-8. Clewell, Tammy, ‘Mourning Beyond Melancholia: Freud's Psychoanalysis on Loss', Journal of the American Psychoanalytical Association, 52. 1(2004), p. 46-48. Cox, Stephen, â€Å"Contexts of Significance: Thomas Gray†, in The Stranger within Thee: Concepts of Self in Late-Eighteenth Century Literature (Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh University Press, 1980), pp. 2-98. Curran, Stuart, ‘Romantic Elegiac Hybridity', Oxford Handbook to Elegy (Oxford: Oxford Printing Press, 2010) Dillon, Andrew, â€Å"Depression and Release†, North Dakota Quarterly, 60. 4 (1992), pp. 128-34. Duncan-Jones, Katherine, â€Å"The Review of English Studies†, New Series, 22. 86 (1971), p. 75-171. Gray, Thomas, Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard: with the complete works of Thomas Gray (Virginia: Peter Pauper Press, 1947) Hutchens, Eleanor, â€Å"Cold and Heat in Adonais†, Modern Language Notes, 76. 2 (1961), p. 24. Hurtz, Neil, The End of the Line (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009) Jackson, Wallace, â€Å"Thomas Gray and the Dedicatory Muse†, ELH, 54. 2 (1987), pp. 277-98. Roe, Nicholas, Keats and History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995) Shelley, Percy Bysshe, The Selected Prose and Poetry of Shelley (Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions Limited, 1994) Weinbrot, Howard, â€Å"Restoration and the Eighteenth Century†, Studies in English Literature 1500-1900, 18. 3 (1978), pp. 537-551. ———————– 1]Tammy Clewell, ‘Mourning Beyond Melancholia: Freud's Psychoanalysis on Loss', Journal of the American Psychoanalytical Association, 52. 1(2004), p. 48. [2]Clewell, p. 46. [3]Stuart Curran, ‘Romantic Elegiac Hybridity', Oxford Handbook to Elegy (Oxford : Oxford Printing Press, 2010), p. 249. [4]Neil Hurtz, The End of the Line (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009), p. 73. [5]Thomas Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard: with the complete works of Thomas Gray (Virginia: Peter Pauper Press, 1947), line 3 (all subsequent references will be made in the body of the text). 6]Marshall Brown, â€Å"Gray's Churchyard Space†, in Preromanticism (California: Stanford University Press, 1991), pp. 42-8. [7]Brown, pp. 42-8. [8]Hurtz, p. 73. [9]Brown, pp. 42-8. [10]Stephen Cox, â€Å"Contexts of Significance: Thomas Gray†, in The Stranger within Thee: Concepts of Self in Late-Eighteenth Century Literature (Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh University Press, 1980), pp. 82-98. [11]Wallace Jackson, â€Å"Thomas Gray and the Dedicatory Muse†, ELH, 54. 2 (1987), pp. 277-98. 12]Howard Weinbrot, â€Å"Restoration and the Eighteenth Century†, Studies in English Literature 1500-1900, 18. 3 (1978), pp. 537-551. [13]Andrew Dillo n, â€Å"Depression and Release†, North Dakota Quarterly, 60. 4 (1992), pp. 128-34. [14]Jackson, pp. 277-98. [15]Dillon, pp. 128-34. [16]Dillon, pp. 128-34 [17]Clewell, p. 48. [18]Curran, p. 249. [19]Percy Shelley, The Selected Prose and Poetry of Shelley (Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions Limited, 1994), line 1 (all subsequent references will be made in the body of the text). 20]Nicholas Roe, Keats and History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), p. 23. [21]Roe, p. 23. [22]Roe, p. 33. [23]Eleanor Hutchens, Cold and Heat in Adonais, Modern Language Notes, 76. 2 (1961), p. 124. [24]Clewell, p. 47. [25]Roe, p. 33. [26]Roe, p. 36. [27]Katherine Duncan-Jones, â€Å"The Review of English Studies†, New Series, 22. 86 (1971), p. 75. [28]James Bieri, Percy Bysshe Shelley: a Biography (Massachusetts: Rosemont Publishing, 2005), p. 239. [29]Bieri, p. 239. [30]Roe, p. 36. [31]Dillon, p. 128-34. [32]Jones, p. 171.

Obesity in America Essay - 1472 Words

Introduction This essay will discuss obesity in America and the statistical data found surrounding the subject. This is an interesting and personal topic and something very interesting to learn about. The essay will cover different vantage points of obesity including obesity’s relationship to poverty in the U.S., parents’ fight for more physical activity in schools to combat childhood obesity, statistical data about America’s obese population and even a spurious correlation between obesity and sleep duration in children. The relationship between obesity and health has been a major factor in drawing national attention to the growing prevalence of obesity. As the second leading cause of preventable deaths in the United States, obesity†¦show more content†¦Obese and overweight persons also represent 67 percent of those with type 2 diabetes. That is a huge number and main indicator of how unhealthy it is to be obese. Increases in weight gain, whether modest or large, can increase one’s risk of illness and death. For example, individuals who have gained 11 to 18 pounds double their risk of developing type 2diabetes, while those who gain 44 pounds or more have four times the risk of type 2 diabetes. Strong evidence suggests short-term weight loss (as modest as 5 percent to 15 percent of excess total body weight) in overweight and obese individuals reduces risk factors for diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Statement of the Problem The obesity rates in the U.S. are on the rise and so many children are moving the direction of the adults they see each day indulging in unhealthy eating habits. In a study conducted by Thomson Reuters, approximately two thirds of the sample population had a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 25 or greater which put them in the overweight category. There is a need for awareness about the growing problem of obesity and this report will explore, in some part, promote that awareness. 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Obesity is defined as having excess body fat† (â€Å"Centers for Disease Control and Prevention†). When energy input and output get out of balance, obesity arises. Many factors can cause someone to become obese such as genetics, metabolism, level of physical activity, and more. â€Å"Overweight and obesity

Negative Effects Of The Scarlet Effect - 1551 Words

Effects of the Scarlet Letter on Dimmesdale The scarlet letter is the Puritan’s method of broadcasting Hester’s sin to the world, but it also has an internal effect on Dimmesdale. Puritanism is a strict religion where pleasure is strictly forbidden and is punishable. When Hester Prynne is discovered to have committed adultery, she is forced to wear a scarlet A, which is short for ‘adultery’. When this is first revealed, Hester stands in the jail carrying baby Pearl and, with the people jeering, is asked by Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale if she would tell the world who the Pearl’s father is; Dimmesdale is relieved when the answer is ‘no’– and it is later revealed that Dimmesdale is the father. Over the course of the novel, Dimmesdale’s†¦show more content†¦When Chillingworth enters town, Dimmesdale’s reputation begins to change because the people believe that Dimmesdale is associating with the ‘black man’- Chillingworth. The community has seen that Dimmesdale’s association with Chillingworth has had a negative impact, and that causes his reputation to suffer. From the point in time when Chillingworth entered the town, the people have seen Dimmesdale become thinner and more nervous and darkness consume Chillingworth, leading to this change in reputation. Dimmesdale has also started holding his hand over his heart frequently, leading to the communal belief that the A was having more of an effect, especially through its effect on Chillingworth and Dimmesdale: â€Å"To sum up the matter, it grew to be a widely diffused opinion, that the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, like many other personages of especial sanctity, in all ages of the Christian world, was haunted either by Satan himself, or Satan’s emissary, in the guide of old Roger Chillingworth† (112). By the end of the novel, Dimmesdale’s reputation was at it’s lowest point due to the revelation that he was Hester’s co-adulterer. The people were shocked when this was revealed, as â€Å"the multitude, silent till then, broke out in a strange, deep voice of awe and wonder, which could not as yet find utterance, save in this murmur that rolled so heavily after the departed spirit† (222). The conclusion to the novel discussed the repercussions of Dimmesdale’sShow MoreRelatedThe Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne1153 Words   |  5 Pages i. 1. The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a romantic novel that takes place in sixteenth century Boston, Massachusetts. 2. As a romantic novel, it focuses on the various relationships between the characters and the drastic experiences caused by the scarlet letter between the four main characters being Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, Roger Chillingsworth, and Pearl Prynne, with the condemnation of the Puritan society 3. 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