Divorce as a Social Issue Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Divorce as a Social Issue - Essay Example r, the belief in religion and ethics or morality are diminishing at present because of the advancements in science and technology and changing life styles and life philosophies of people. Family concepts have less value in contemporary American society which motivates the people to change their husbands and wives just like changing their dresses. This paper briefly analyses the different dimensions of divorce and the major impacts it may cause to the society and family. Cruel treatment, Impotence, Inebriation, Adultery, Desertion etc were the major reasons for divorce in America during seventeenth century. But in twentieth century, the reasons for divorce changed a lot. Loss of sanity, Instances of incompatibility and Long term separations were the reasons of divorce during the initial half of the twentieth century. However, the reasons of divorce kept on changing and during the latter half of the twentieth century; Increase in the earning potential of women, more social acceptance of divorce, an enhancement in the pursuit of joy (i.e. the possibility to locate a better partner) and the presence of no fault laws were the motivating factor for divorce (History of Divorce in America). The above facts clearly show that the reasons for divorce during ancient centuries were biological or behavioral and more genuine when we consider the reasons for divorce in the present century. Divorce laws were tougher earlier compared to that of the current divorce laws which forced people to think about a divorce only in the extreme cases. However, most of the current divorces are taking place because of silly reasons. Even the husband and wife do not know the exact reasons for their divorce. According to Winchester & Beyer (2001); â€Å"during and after divorce, many parents feel guilty and confused† (Winchester & Beyer, p.47). This because of their lack of awareness about the reasons of their divorce and the possible consequences divorce can cause in their future life. â€Å"Around

Rhetorical Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 13

Rhetorical Analysis - Essay Example She jumps to the stage and starts singing and dancing, and along with her, everybody dances. The dwarfed dancers sing and dance aside the eatables over the tables as the astonished and overwhelmed real-size guests watch them. In the end, one of the female guests passes a compliment for the girl, appreciating her energy and performance. The commercial ends with the girl’s wink to the audience. The main idea of the whole commercial is that Pepsi is the answer to all the thirst and tiredness, and the effect is equally strong upon people of all ages and all ethnicities. Pepsi instills all the freshness and energy in the person who drinks it that he/she needs to rock. The performers have been purposely dwarfed in the commercial. This variation in size not only adds a lot of drama in the commercial, but also suggests that those who drink Pepsi are taken by its joy into an imaginary world of happiness and joy where they can sing and dance and party wherever they want. Nothing could be more appropriate to end the commercial with than the wink of the girl that has been the center of attention throughout the commercial. Ever since the conception of Pepsi around the start of the 20th century, one of its primary goals has been outselling Coca-Cola because it is Pepsi’s main competitor. Pepsi has been using commercials to promote its product for decades. Pepsi has run numerous campaigns, including famous celebrities in many of them to make a claim. The fundamental ideology behind this has been that ordinary people should drink Pepsi because stars and celebrities drink it. For instance, the â€Å"Joy of Cola† campaign of Pepsi run in the late 90’s, Pepsi used a combination of factors including catchy jingles, humor, and celebrities to sell itself. The pathos, logos, and ethos used in â€Å"Joy of Cola† have helped Pepsi bring its consumers in the new millennium. The Pepsi jingle for this campaign was a very suitable jingle for Pepsi because it had the tendency

Career Opportunities with Commerce Education Essay Example for Free

Career Opportunities with Commerce Education Essay Commerce Education As a stream of study, Commerce can be studied right after 10 years of schooling. After the 10 years of schooling commerce is available as an option in 10+2 or the Higher Secondary level. This paves the way for higher studies in commerce related subjects. The undergraduate and postgraduate Education in Commerce is offered at University departments and colleges spread all across the country. Specializations are offered at post graduate and at research levels. A number of subjects can be studied under disciplines of Commerce in conjugation like; accountancy, economics, mathematics, business, finance etc. Most commerce colleges in India offer the following subjects: Business economics: This would cover concepts like the laws of demand and supply, law of returns, elasticity, theory of pricing under different market forms etc. Financial accounting: This subject would deal with the preparation of profit and loss statements, balance sheets and final accounts of a company, knowledge of Indian and international accounting standards, calculation of depreciation and valuation of shares and goodwill of a company. Cost accounting: This would include process, Job and contract costing, costing of overheads, standard nd variance costing and budgetary control. Income tax: This would encompass the nature and basis of charge of income tax, tax planning, tax deduction, incomes not taxable etc. Business finance: This would include in its scope financial analysis as a diagnostic tool, the management of working capital and its components as well as capital structure leverages. Business law: This subject would discuss the different laws in India relating to, among others, the Companies Act and the Consumer Protection Act. Programs Offer in Commerce Education S. No. Traditional Programs: Following study programs are offered by different niversity departments and colleges in India. 1 Intermediate in Commerce (Class X): This is the preliminary stage (senior secondary level) where students get basics of commerce education. This is a two year course offered by various central boards (viz. CBSE, ICSE), state boards and councils. 2 Eligibility Criteria: A candidate must have completed 15 years of age and 10 years of schooling during the time of admission for this program. 3 Under Graduate (UG) Programs: In general, B. Com. (Bachelor of Commerce) is awarded under this program. There may be two options. One can simply take up 3Com as a pass course or can take up with honours. Eligibility Criteria: A candidate must have completed 17 years of age and 12 years of schooling during the time of admission for this program. Candidate also requires fulfilling the eligibility criteria laid by the University / Institutions / Departments in which he / she seek admission. 5 Post Graduate (PG) Program: In general, M. Com. (Master of Commerce) in relevant discipline is awarded under this program. One has to choose candidate must have completed Bachelors Degree during the time of admission. He / she also require fulfilling the eligibility criteria laid by the university department in which admission is sought. Master of Philosophy (M. Phil. ): This is pre doctoral program offered by various university departments. Generally admission to this program is offered on the basis of Interview and past academic record. 8 Eligibility Criteria: This program is offered to candidates who shows research aptitude and who have good academic record. The minimum eligibility criterion for admission into this program is M.

Neoliberal Policies on Media Regulation

Neoliberal Policies on Media Regulation Amirah Shafie Neoliberal policies vs Governmental regulations and policies Cultural industries are involved in the production and dissemination of products that can influence our understanding and knowledge of the world (Hesmondhalgh, 2013). Because of its influential nature, the question of who should own and regulate the industries and commodities produced has been a highly contested topic. Proponents of Neoliberal policies argued that public ownership and regulation of cultural industries are inefficient and provide insufficient choice and perspectives for viewers. Thus, they postulate the best way to increase this choice was to provide more commercial (private) channels coupled with the end or lessening of governmental regulation. On the other hand, the ideological imperatives of a commercially driven media system drive huge concerns on the quality of cultural commodities that will be produced, resulting in support for cultural industries to remain public with strong governmental regulations so that public interests will be protected. Through analysing Murdoch’s global media empire, this paper takes the public interest stance and argues that Neoliberal policies, while seemingly progressive and adopted to liberate production, distribution and consumption of cultural commodities, ironically legitimises the decreasing media diversity and low quality news content. There must, therefore, be appropriate amount of government intervention when it comes to controlling the cultural industries. From the 1970s onwards, neoliberal supporters argued the economic downturn of that period was a consequence of public ownership and governmental regulations. The basis of the neoliberal approach to culture is the idea that free, unregulated competition will produce efficient markets and producing such markets should be the main goal of public policy (Hesmondhalgh, 2013). As a result, the 80s onwards witnessed major historical changes in the policy landscape. Hesmondhalgh terms these policy changes as marketization, which refers to ‘the permeation of market exchange as a social principle’. These changes include having broadcasting institutions privatised or unrestricted to terrestrial, commercial broadcaster, cable and satellite providers. Controls on content such as amount of advertising, laws and regulations on media ownership were also eradicated or greatly lightened. On the global scale, the impetus for neoliberal marketization peaked in the 1997 WTO agreement (Jin, 2 005). Under the agreement, many states made market access commitments which decreased or removed restrictions on foreign ownership and licensing in communications. It has been argued that marketization would allow companies to compete with one another and by doing so, will produce quality products more efficiently in order to get the most audience. This would also mean that audience could get different and better types of information at a cheaper and more accessible way. No doubt, the marketization of cultural industries has allowed global audience to access news from different channels apart than the ones offered locally. However, if we were to take a closer look, most of these channels are actually produced by a few large conglomerates, namely Rupert Murdochs News Corp, Viacom, Bertelsmann, Warners, Sony, AT T, and Disney. Rather than increasing diversity globally, marketization of cultural industries have ignited a surge of mergers acquisitions because giant communication firms consistently moves aggressively into deregulated domestic communications markets around the world. This means that marketization resulting from neoliberal policies has allowed for the concentration of ownership among a few mega-media giants and the world actually gets exposed to news produced from these same media giants, weakening the neoliberal stance that competition produces diverse choices. Once of these media giants include News Corp. The growth of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp commenced in Australia when he started buying newspaper companies in which he now owns two-thirds of the nation’s newspaper production. With the relaxing of regulations, News Corp further expanded into Britain to include both newspapers and television stations, thus further dominating much of the content in that area. By the 1990s, News Corp became the biggest press publisher in Britain. News Corp also partly gained controlled over a pioneer satellite television system BSKYB, which is the television source for most British homes. Next, Murdoch expanded the reach of his News Corporation in the United States by buying over 20th Century Fox which include Fox News, Fox Sports, and FX. He then purchased the New York Post and Fox 5 in New York. Then in 2003, the News Corporation was allowed to buy Direct TV, the largest television satellite service in the United States. Murdoch also bought satellite television networks in Asia and Lati n America. Globally, Murdoch satellite systems are estimated to reach more than three hundred million homes. With Fox Television and 20th Century Fox providing content, this satellite system, which is consistently moving toward conquering the global market, signals an expanding global vertical integration (Broe, 2004). This desire for total control prompts more concentration by the other media conglomerates to contest News Corp’s control, as seen by Comcasts attempts to take over entertainment provider Disney in 2004 and Time Warner in 2014. This conglomeration of companies like Murdoch’s News Corporation is worrying as it has the power to influence the diversity of global news content. Simply take a look at how News Corporation’s company in India, Star News, is run. Star News has no permanent foreign correspondents of its own, even in neighbouring countries, as there seem to be no economic or corporate sense to invest in running foreign bureaux or lease time on costly satellite networks for live transmission of news stories. Therefore, Star News uses footage provided by News Corporation’s other international news networks such as Fox Channel from News York and Sky News from London. It is not alarming, then, that Fox opinions and take to news is apparent in India, as evidenced during the Iraq invasion in 2003, when Star News simply repeated, often word-for-word in Hindi, the Pentagon line on ‘Operation Iraqi Freedom’ (Thussu, 2007). Here, we can see that by relegating cultural industries such as news companies to the rigours of the market has allowed conglomerates such as News Corp to control news production all over the world and disseminate their ideology (in this case Pentagon support for Operation Iraqi Freedom) easily, affecting the diversity of global news content. Quality of news is also affected with the marketization of cultural industries. Privatising and commercialising news companies means that these companies are now responsible to shareholders. In order to make sure that news generated would provide profits to the channel, Murdoch’s News Corp has been regularly sensationalising its news as they vie for attention. Murdochs early statement that newspapers were meant to entertain not educate has served as a template for much of News Corp contents. This style of exaggerated story filled with invented quotes; the rewriting of laconic news-service copy into lavish sensationalized; the eye-shattering, usually ungrammatical, irrelevant and gratuitously blood-curdling headline yarns (Leper Rapes Virgin, Gives Birth To Monster Baby) has been used in many of its news coverage (Broe, 2004). Murdoch’s News Corporation has established what is labelled as the ‘four S’ model of journalism – ‘scare headlines, sex, scandal, and sensation’ in order to secure commercial success in almost all of its major acquisitioned properties (Arsenault Castells, 2008). Such strategies in incorporating aspects of new sensationalism have replaced the original value of â€Å"objective† news reporting. Critics have also emphasized that the gimmickry, opinion and comments such as the ones on Fox News is detrimental to long-established journalistic principles to ‘objectively’ inform citizens about the world (Cushin Lewis, 2009). In this case, the commercial and ideological aims of News Corp, that is to gain greater audience share and present a partial view of the world does not promote a public service ethos focusing on audience understanding and democratic participation. Evidently, market forces do not guarantee that the media companies will serve their non-economic roles as ethical institutions of the democratic public sphere and this has taken a toll on the quality and diversity of democratic media due to the dangerous concentrations of media power. Hence, it is important that there continues to be news industries that are publicly owned in order to balance the commercial imperatives of private industries. There also needs to be stronger regulations that can control the size of these media conglomerates so as to ensure that they do not abuse their power in influencing the diversity of news contents as well as the quality of news produced. For example, in 2005, News Corporation’s subsidiary company, News of the World was caught for phone hacking of several high profile celebrities and Britain’s royal family members, causing a huge political and public fury. The government had to intervene for the protection of individuals’ privacy and ethical reporting of news. Due to this hacking scandal, News Corp. was forced withdraw its bid for full take-over of the British satellite broadcaster BSkyB, as Prime Minister Cameron announced a wide-ranging public inquiry into the British media (Wintour, Sabbagh Watt, 2011). Here, we can see the importance in governmental intervention in ensuring that this media company does not abuse its power. We also see the extent to which the market forces of competition can push companies to go beyond the boundaries to beat their competitors to get the juiciest information. As quoted by Raboy on media and communications regulation, â€Å"as media are paramount social institutions, public intervention with respect to their orientation is both legitimate and necessary† (Lunt Livingstone, 2012). Those who object government regulations would rather choose neoliberal policies in the name of democratic freedom. What they fail to see is that freedom should also come in the form of public interest and government regulations can protect these freedom that democracy so seriously advocate. There is also nothing democratic and free when it comes to having big conglomerates who can control easily global production and dissemination of news content. McChesney (2000) was adamant about the fundamental incompatibility of democracy with patterns of consolidated media ownership. In response to Murdoch’s power in the media industry, McChesney (2000) said, ‘‘there is no human, no single firm, no single entity that should have this sort of power. That’s just a core democratic value and principle.† Certainly, having full governmental regulation on media companies would also be unnecessary and dangerous. I am not proposing that there should be full governmental control with no privatisation of media companies. What I am proposing is that private and public media companies need to be present in any country so that both these entities can act as watchdogs. However, the government needs to be strong enough to be able to develop social and cultural policies that can encourage fair deliberation and engagement through intergovernmental, regional and global cooperation (Lunt Livingstone, 2012). These policies should focus on positive as well as negative freedoms, whereby the role of governments is not only to protect citizens but also to ensure conditions for a civic culture together with diverse and quality engagement. Without a much robust attitude towards media concentration and the chase for meaningful diversity and quality, current public interest considerations are unlikely to b e protected against aggressive marketization. Protecting the public interest requires both a more determined stance on media concentration and a more imaginative approach to securing media diversity, one that is based not simply on economic benefits but on the advantages of stimulating mindful debate and critical perspectives. References Cushion, S., Lewis, J. (2009). Towards a ‘Foxification’ of 24-hour news channels in Britain?Journalism,10(2), 131-153. Retrieved March 31, 2015, from http://jou.sagepub.com/content/10/2/131.abstract Wintour, P., Sabbagh, D., Wat, N. (2011, July 14). Rupert Murdoch gives up BSkyB takeover bid.The Guardian. Retrieved March 30, 2015, from http://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/jul/13/rupert-murdoch-gives-up-bskyb-bid McChesney, R. (2000). The political economy of communication and the future of the field.Media, Culture Society,22(1), 109-116. Retrieved March 29, 2015, from http://mcs.sagepub.com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/content/22/1/109.refs Broe, D. (2004). Fox and Its Friends: Global Commodification and the New Cold War.Society for Cinema Media Studies,43(4), 97-102. Retrieved March 20, 2015, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3661159 Lunt, P., Livingstone, S. (2012). Media regulation: Governance and the interests of citizens and consumers. London: SAGE Publications Ltd. doi: http://dx.doi.org.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/10.4135/9781446250884 Jin, D. (2008). Neoliberal restructuring of the global communication system: Mergers and acquisitions.Media, Culture Society,30(3), 357-373. Retrieved March 20, 2015, from http://mcs.sagepub.com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/content/30/3/357 Arsenault, A., Castells, M. (2008). Politics: A Sociological Analysis Switching Power: Rupert Murdoch and the Global Business of Media.International Sociology,23, 488-513. Retrieved May 20, 2015, from http://annenberg.usc.edu/Faculty/Communication and Journalism/~/media/InternationalSociology.ashx Thussu, D. (2007). The ‘Murdochization’ of news? The case of Star TV in India.Media, Culture Society,29(4), 593-611.

Self-defense in Criminal Cases Essay -- essays research papers

Self-defense in criminal cases. One of the frustrations faced by many businesses is that after the perpetrators of crimes have been identified, the District Attorney's office will not pursue the case. One option is for victims to sue the DA in an attempt to compel him to prosecute, but this would be costly and proving dereliction of duty would be difficult. The DA is effectively immune. Other options are more promising. The law should encourage (and prosecutors' offices should welcome) private preparation of criminal cases. Prosecutors' budgets simply do not allow vigorous prosecution of all the available criminal cases. Logic and evidence show that in private law, plaintiffs win about 50 percent of the cases that are tried. This is because the parties are more likely to settle lopsided cases out of court. Public prosecutors, by contrast, win far more than 50 percent of their trial cases because they have budget constraints and so elect whenever possible to go to court with only the cases they are likely to win. Vi ctims should be allowed to hire private attorneys and other professionals to prepare cases against the accused and thereby extend public prosecutors' resources. The attorneys can be retained pro bono (for the good) or for compensation. This is already done in some white collar cases where financial complexities exceed the prosecutors' expertise, such as complicated embezzlement cases, some oil and gas swindles and cases involving the misapplication of construction trust funds. At present, many cases are never prosecuted for one reason or another. For example, in about 40 percent of federal embezzlement and fraud cases, charges are dropped because of insufficient evidence to convict, given the resources at hand.85 In some instances prosecutors "deputize" attorneys to try cases, too. Many private attorneys have criminal experience as former prosecutors or public defenders. A logical extension of private preparation for trial is the complete privatization of the prosecutor's job by contracting out. Private attorneys, of course, are often appointed on a pro bono basis for criminal defense. Private attorneys could be deputized for a single trial or for ongoing prosecutor's work, either pro bono or under contract. The same remedies are available to finance criminal prosecution as civil litigation. Commercial insurance policies could be exp... ...ting witnesses before a grand jury, or the person being investigated, has become a well orchestrated, even cynical, minuet. The first and most important task may be overcoming the cynicism of so many lawyers in and out of government to whom concern for "fairness" somehow signifies weakness. It is a cynicism that government lawyers should not have the luxury of acting upon. In reality, a commitment to fairness is a highly reliable sign of strength and confidence in the merits of one's position, and it is usually those who fear the fairness of the forum who most fear outcomes based on merit. Recently, a controversy has erupted over whether Justice Department lawyers are bound by state codes of ethics and analogous local federal court rules of practice. The issue stems from rules that restrict contact by lawyers with parties known to be represented by counsel, including corporate parties. In essence, the government is seeking to exempt its own lawyers from state and federal court ethical restraints in ways that would go far beyond issues of witness contact. Courts, thus far, have been unsympathetic to this government effort at unilateral exemption from the rules of ethics.

The warmth of human emotion :: essays research papers

The Warmth of Human Emotion Heat and warmth are usually depicted as elements of comfort and security. This warmth is what people crave to achieve this comfort. In Evelyn Lau’s â€Å"Family,† the heat and warmth give deeper meaning in regards to human emotion. The contrasting images of ice and cold as well resemble the abstract human emotion in the short story. The elements are used in such a way as to satisfy the hunger of emotional warmth in regards to the characters Zoe and Douglas. As the story unfolds there is a sense of coldness surrounding the community. The setting stage for the action is in fact a community in a cold winter. Through warmth is how one reaches one’s own comfort level. It is noted to the extent that one must almost search for the warmth inside one’s self to achieve this comfort. In the case of Zoe she achieves warmth though emotional stability. Both Zoe and Douglas do search for this but by intention are both quite different. As the friendly relationship between the two progresses, it soon evolves into a hot and steamy relationship full of adultery and deception. Lam 2 Zoe in the case of the relationship is the one who seems to crave this warmth. It is soon noted that her attraction towards Douglas becomes almost too great for her to control herself. Even though she knows that the man she desires is a well-respected man with a wife and children, she feels compelled to satisfy her own desire, thus deeming herself as being selfish. Yet at this point, as she is acquainted with the wife, Ellen, she still thinks about the warm touch of Douglas’ hand and how she is drawn to his warmth. As Zoe is left alone by herself, thoughts of sexual depictions come into her mind. As cold as she feels she pictures Douglas and his Wife in a cuddling scenario in the master bedroom. At this point she feels somewhat jealous of the fact that Ellen is his wife instead if herself. By occupying her mind with images of Douglas â€Å"wrapp[ing] his arms around his wife, her stomach and, her breasts† (Lau 1153), Zoe feels even more compelled to satisfy her desire f or Douglas. Her craving for Douglas’ emotional warmth becomes too unbearable for her as she watches the dead animals hung up in the organic-foods market. She â€Å"resist[s] the urge to lean forward and stroke her fingertips down the grain of their feathers and fur, towards the belly warm as the belly of a sleeping man† (Lau 1154).

Extended commentary of ‘On the Departure Platform’ by Thomas Hardy Essay

On the Title: This is obviously a metaphor for the ending of a â€Å"moment†, as well as the literal description of the place where many of the images (within the poem) are based; on a train platform, where the persona and his female love interest part. The title introduces the poem’s key theme to the reader – a separation of young love, but not a permanent one. As one reads further into the poem itself, the persona comments on the painful fact that humanity leaves behind time as well. Overall Structure: Hardy writes in 6 stanzas of English quatrains with an alternate rhyme scheme (a similar technique used in other poems) to concentrate the poem. The last line of these stanzas is conspicuously shorter than the others – usually four or five syllables to the other nine or ten. Hardy does this to a) draw attention to them but also b) to the theme they nearly all have in common. They all illustrate, in the first four stanzas, a diminuation in the woman’s size; as an optical effect, she gets smaller the further she moves away into the crowd. This, in some ways, adds to the poignancy of the poem. Themes: Time (the way that it works), Distance, Pain Difficult Language Notes: ‘Nebulous’ means cloudy. First Stanza Notes: Hardy’s poem is full of visual ideas – they are continuous to provide an important effect to be later considered. Thus his opening line is of an image; â€Å"We kissed at the barrier; and passing through/ She left me.† Hardy intentionally uses a stark and blunt image – the enjambment highlights the phrases â€Å"passing through† (immediately presenting images of movement, perhaps through Time as well) and â€Å"She left me†. One can feel the emotion in that conspicuously short phrase. â€Å"And moment by moment got/ Smaller and smaller.† Continuing with the diminuation of the woman’s figure, Hardy uses mirroring comparatives to emphasize the change. The stanza then ends with the shortened line; ‘She was but a spot;’. Notice the empty sounds in ‘spot’, but the harsh consonance – it invokes a decisively negative emotion. Also note the semicolon at the end of the line. The sense of the sentence continues into the next stanza; viewing the poem as a whole is crucially important. Second Stanza Notes: Again, Hardy presents an image; ‘A wee white spot of muslin fluff’ – the use of the word fluff (as in a fluffy cloud) is complimented by the use of ‘nebulous white’ later on. Hardy imagines the woman as a cloud; an indistinct mass of hazy material. This is important metaphorically. We receive no description of the woman’s face, only her clothing. She has no name, no identity; this memory of a by-gone moment whilst in love (as revealed later) bears none of the crucial intimacy that one would expect such a relationship to possess. You would expect a lover to be able to remember at least facial features! This lack of distinction is to be later explored. Hardy introduces his ideas about perspective and sight in this stanza. He introduces key renaissance optical theory in the line ‘down that diminishing platform bore’. This is the idea of two converging lines eventually reaching a vanishing point. The diminishing platform mirrors the diminishing view of the woman – is this (metaphorically) an emotional statement along with a literal visual one? Note; ‘through hustling crowds of gentle and rough’ refers to the class system of ‘gentlefolk’ and the ‘rough’ of the lower classes. Its only importance is in distinguishing between the figure of the woman and the crowd – the persona is only focussed on her! Third Stanza Notes: Hardy then explores the same image further, with a focus on colour contrast: â€Å"Under the lamplight’s fitful glowers, Behind dark groups from far and near, Whose interests were apart from ours, She would disappear,† Hardy compares the darkness of the scene – which is, remember, in a typically smoky Victorian railway station – to the pure white of the woman’s dress. It stands out. Indeed, he focuses entirely upon this image, as it is the beauty of it which he wishes to recall; therefore, all other individuals become ‘dark’ metaphoric areas in his memory. The line â€Å"Their interests were apart from ours† further advances this – the persona does not care about any other intentions other than his own, and perhaps his partner’s. It could be argued that Hardy creates an intimidating scene around the woman. ‘Glowers’ are angry expressions. The fact that they are considered ‘fitful’ – or appropriate – for the occasion reveals an odd nuance in the persona’s attitude. If it is appropriate, then is the persona angry too? Why would he be? Upset, understandably, but is he frustrated at losing his love? Or is he angry at slowly losing the moment (in terms of memory) itself? On a final note, observe how there is a comma at the end of the stanza. This allows the sense of Hardy’s verse to ‘roll on’, like an exaggerated form of enjambment. Fourth Stanza Notes: Hardy does this to invite comparison between the segmented lines: â€Å"She would disappear,/ Then show again,† He emphasizes the apparent suddenness of the woman’s appearances, whilst also increasing a sense of distance between the figure and the persona. Note how she ‘flickers’ – is this flickering due to a slow loss of clear recollection of memory? This is a nice idea! The figure of the woman herself changes in the following lines, either in memoriam or literally (â€Å"that flexible form, that nebulous white,†). Despite occupying the persona’s entire mental capacity, the image lacks any definition in terms of facial or emotional features. This is highly inconsistent with the idea that the persona cherishes her! (As, indeed, he confirms; â€Å"she who was more than my life to me†.) Why compare an individual whom one should know so well to a cloud? In any case, it is at this point that the figure disappears entirely, with a noticeable ellipse. Here Hardy comes out of his historic mood and into a (near) present tense. Fifth and Sixth Stanzas Notes: Hardy once again comes to the point of his poem at the end, in a comment upon the inability to retain a moment, and the irony of suspending such a moment in literary form. Although the persona views the memory fondly, and has penned â€Å"penned new plans since†, there is a decided lack of evidence for any future physical recurrences of the woman. It is perhaps suggested, therefore, that the relationship has ended at this point – in terms of language, the persona has yet to see her again and maybe never will. Indeed, Hardy uses polysyndeton and recurring dashes, along with the conditional tense to emphasize the uncertainty as to the relationship’s future. Hardy’s point does not regard the relationship, however – therefore the truth is left purposely unclear. By contrast, the aim of the poem is to point to the fact that â€Å"nought happens twice thus† – the persona will never experience such a moment again. This idea is introduced in the last line of the fifth stanza (â€Å"But never as then!†), in a phrase made noticeable through its contracted nature. Then Hardy switches to a present tense exchange. â€Å"-And why, young man, must eternally fly A joy you’ll repeat if you love her well? * O friend, nought happens twice thus; why, I cannot tell!† Whilst also emphasizing the persona’s youth, Hardy makes his tragic point clear once again. However, there exists an irony rooted in his words. For, due to the existence of the poem itself, it can be argued that the moment is quite attainable (as proved above!), but through the use of literary suspension.