The Cardboard Box Essay Example

The Cardboard Box Paper What do the Sherlock Holmes stories tell us about Victorian Britain? The essay will examine how much the Sherlock Holmes stories can tell us about Victorian times. It will provide an overview of what Victorian Britain was like, as depicted by three Sherlock Holmes stories: The Cardboard Box, The Man with the Twisted Lip and The Speckled Beard. They were written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who was so popular and well respected for the writing of these books he was knighted for it. These stories were written during the 1880s to the early 1900s during Queen Victorias reign. The Sherlock Holmes stories fall under the detective genre which means there will be a mysterious crime, a charismatic investigator, the process of deduction and the revealing of the culprit and the motive behind it. The Victorians respected their class very highly and thought that whatever class you were born into was the class you should stay in. The vast majority of people lived in extreme poverty around 70% of people were working class, 20% middle class and a mere 10% upper class. The Sherlock Homes stories appealed to a lot of people, but particularly those in the higher class, because they often depicted upper class people where something had gone wrong or they had committed a crime and not lived up to the expectations of their class. This gave a secret element of thrill to those in higher society. The Man with the Twisted Lip would appeal to the Victorians as it delineated a higher class person who had another life as a professional beggar. This quote Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D. D. We will write a custom essay sample on The Cardboard Box specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on The Cardboard Box specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on The Cardboard Box specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer , principal of the theological college of St. Georges was much addicted to opium. This tells us that although he was high class and well respected by his peers he was an opium addict, so he had a darker side to him, which appealed, because many Victorians behind their high class had a craving for the gothic. This identified that the story is about a higher class person who falls into disrepute and as it was mainly upper class people that read the books, like the other Holmes stories, we can assume that the Victorian upper class preferred to read about their own class. The Speckled Band is about an upper class family that have lost most of their money. This would appeal to the readers because its an upper class family that is on the brink of becoming a lower class. The Cardboard Box has a family of middle class women (3 sisters), granted middle class status, because their father was a general in the army. Two of the sisters loved a sailor called Jim Browner, one of whom married him. The third sister thought it was absolutely preposterous that they, a well respected middle class family, should have anything at all to do with a lower class sailor. One particular passage showed some of Jim Browners lower class qualities of being a vicious drunk the last six months that she was here she would speak of nothing but his drinking and his ways. This indicates that the people of Victorian Britain liked reading about this sort of thing, the mixing of two different classes because it should not be done and was a bit mischievous. In Victorian times there was a lot of poverty and crime about, with over 70% of all people in this time living in extreme poverty. In cities there were ghettos in which disease and crime were rampant. Victorian towns and cities were dangerous and full of beggars. With this there came a strong feeling of us and them between the classes, although all the other classes either frowned upon, hated or pitied the poor. In The Man with the Twisted Lip, there is a lot of poverty and crime depicted within it There is a trap door which could tell a few tales of what has passed through it upon moonless nights what! You do not mean bodies? Aye, Watson, bodies . This highlights that in Victorian Britain there was a lot of crime and murders, many of which went unnoticed by the police, largely because they were murders of the poor and were not to be bothered with. The other two stories do not depict as much poverty or say that much about the everyday crimes of that of Victorian London, other than focussing on the main crime the story is based on. Although in The Speckled Band, the step father to the two sisters was once very wealthy but had squandered away all his money that had been left to him by his ancestors, he once worked in India and in a fit of rage he beat his native butler to death, and narrowly escaped a capitol sentence.

Learn More About Marie Curie and Radioactive Elements

Learn More About Marie Curie and Radioactive Elements Dr. Marie Curie is known to the world as the scientist who discovered radioactive metals such as radium and polonium. Curie was a Polish physicist and chemist who lived between 1867-1934. She was  born Maria Sklodowski in Warsaw, Poland, the youngest of five children. When she was born, Poland was controlled by Russia. Her parents were teachers, and she learned at an early age the importance of education. Her mother died when she was young, and when her father was caught teaching Polish - which had been made illegal under the Russian government. Manya, as she was called, and her sisters had to get jobs. After a couple of failed jobs, Manya became a tutor to a family in the countryside outside Warsaw. She enjoyed her time there, and was able to send her father money to help support him, and also send some money to her sister Bronya in Paris who was studying medicine. Bronya eventually married another medical student and they set up practice in Paris. The couple invited Manya to live with them and study at the Sorbonne - a famous Parisian University. In order to fit in better at the school, Manya changed her name to the French Marie. Marie studied physics and mathematics and quickly received her masters degrees in both subjects. She remained in Paris after graduation and started research on magnetism. For the research she wanted to do, she needed more space than her small lab. A friend introduced her to another young scientist, Pierre Curie, who had some extra room. Not only did Marie move her equipment into his lab, Marie and Pierre fell in love and married. Radioactive Elements Together with her husband, Curie discovered two new elements (radium and polonium, two radioactive elements that they extracted chemically from pitchblende ore) and studied the x-rays they emitted. She found that the harmful properties of x-rays were able to kill tumors. By the end of World War I, Marie Curie was probably the most famous woman in the world. She had made a conscious decision, however, not to patent methods of processing radium or its medical applications. Her co-discovery with her husband Pierre of the radioactive elements radium and polonium represents one of the best-known stories in modern science for which they were recognized in 1901 with the Nobel Prize in Physics. In 1911, Marie Curie was honored with a second Nobel prize, this time in chemistry, to honor her for successfully isolating pure radium and determining radiums atomic weight. As a child, Marie Curie amazed people with her great memory. She learned to read when she was only four years old. Her father was a professor of science and the instruments that he kept in a glass case fascinated Marie. She dreamed of becoming a scientist, but that would not be easy. Her family became very poor, and at the age of 18, Marie became a governess. She helped pay for her sister to study in Paris. Later, her sister helped Marie with her education. In 1891, Marie attended the Sorbonne University in Paris where she met and married Pierre Curie, a well-known physicist. After the sudden accidental death of Pierre Curie, Marie Curie managed to raise her two small daughters (Irà ¨ne, who was herself awarded a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935, and Eve who became an accomplished author) and continue an active career in experimental radioactivity measurements. Marie Curie contributed greatly to our understanding of radioactivity and the effects of  x-rays. She received two Nobel prizes for her brilliant work, but died of leukemia, caused by her repeated exposure to radioactive material.

Free Essays on Taming Of The Shrew And Comedy Of Errors

The concept of finding one’s identity, the process of it changing and the events that transpire that make or help it change is a prevalent theme in Shakespeare’s plays, especially Taming of the Shrew and Comedy of Errors. Taking a look at these two plays one can argue a strong case that everyone is in a daily process of finding their self and dealing with the changes they face. The changes within Taming of the Shrew are both physical and internal. The physical changes are easily adapted by the characters in changing their appearance as Hortensio does as a school teacher and Tranio disguised as Lucentio (II.i.38). The internal lasting changes that take place within the play are ling developing and are shown that they do not happen over night but are slowly transformed over time and events. The biggest change of all the characters is Katherina. She begins as a belligerent daughter wanting nothing to do with her family or any suitors until Pertrutio comes along and persistently chases her and wins her hand from her father. By trying to test and push Pertrutio she slowly becomes obedient and one could say love him. They have a maturity about them and mutual respect for each other (V.ii.135) that the other couples at the wedding lack. Kate learned how to love and respect a man that was willing to put up with her fits and attempts at retaliation and Pertr utio saw this and gave her the respect of being able to deal with the changes, not her choice, in both their lives that ended up the both of them a better position than before. Kate’s change from the shrewd to an obedient, somewhat loving wife affected and changed the rest of her family because they saw what a different woman she had become and Baptista showed the loving father figure he always wanted to but could never get past his condoning voice towards her. Pertrutio was the most closely touched when he came into the picture he was using Kate as a means to get to the ric... Free Essays on Taming Of The Shrew And Comedy Of Errors Free Essays on Taming Of The Shrew And Comedy Of Errors The concept of finding one’s identity, the process of it changing and the events that transpire that make or help it change is a prevalent theme in Shakespeare’s plays, especially Taming of the Shrew and Comedy of Errors. Taking a look at these two plays one can argue a strong case that everyone is in a daily process of finding their self and dealing with the changes they face. The changes within Taming of the Shrew are both physical and internal. The physical changes are easily adapted by the characters in changing their appearance as Hortensio does as a school teacher and Tranio disguised as Lucentio (II.i.38). The internal lasting changes that take place within the play are ling developing and are shown that they do not happen over night but are slowly transformed over time and events. The biggest change of all the characters is Katherina. She begins as a belligerent daughter wanting nothing to do with her family or any suitors until Pertrutio comes along and persistently chases her and wins her hand from her father. By trying to test and push Pertrutio she slowly becomes obedient and one could say love him. They have a maturity about them and mutual respect for each other (V.ii.135) that the other couples at the wedding lack. Kate learned how to love and respect a man that was willing to put up with her fits and attempts at retaliation and Pertr utio saw this and gave her the respect of being able to deal with the changes, not her choice, in both their lives that ended up the both of them a better position than before. Kate’s change from the shrewd to an obedient, somewhat loving wife affected and changed the rest of her family because they saw what a different woman she had become and Baptista showed the loving father figure he always wanted to but could never get past his condoning voice towards her. Pertrutio was the most closely touched when he came into the picture he was using Kate as a means to get to the ric...