Puzzle of High Saving Rate in China - Myth and Reality Research Paper

Puzzle of High Saving Rate in China - Myth and Reality - Research Paper subjectOther economists believe that these high set ups of saving are a part of financial behavior or financial attitude development that resulted in the tremendous growth of Chinese economy. Among homophiley cynical reasons, one reason was that the summation in the number of male children born in China has resulted in this trend. The ratio of male to female children in China is around 122 men for every 100 girls. This means that one in every five man scum bagnot find a girl in the marriage market. Hence, in order to give them competitive edge in the marriage market, these populate try to tho more(prenominal) and build up more wealth so that they can find a wife in the in store(predicate). This is one f most astray accepted reason of increase in saving rates in China (Wei, 2010). Other reason for growth of saving in China is declining dependance ratio. This means that more people nowadays are working i n China and hence since income of people is high they can afford to sustain more since they do not digest to bear the expense of their dependents or people who rely on them. Anformer(a) reason for this growth in saving rate is the growth of national income and gross domestic product per capital in China. This means that people are earning more than they were earning before and hence this gives them more chances to save their money for future and precautionary motives. Table 1 Comparisons of Saving Rates as percentage of GDP Source Yi and Ma If we compare China with other countries with other countries we can say that over time it has become far superior to other countries in terms of saving. Chinas leaning to save from year 1998 to 2008 has change magnitude from 39% of its GDP to 54.3% of its GDP. This shows a growth of around 15% over this period time. Similarly, Singapore also has a large propensity to save but over a... Hence, in order to give them a competitive edge in the marriage market, these people try to save more and build up more wealth so that they can find a wife in the future. This is one f most widely accepted the reason for an increase in saving rates in China (Wei, 2010). Another reason for the growth of saving in China is declining dependency ratio. This means that more people nowadays are working in China and hence since the income of people is high they can afford to save more since they do not fox to bear the expense of their dependents or people who rely on them. Another reason for this growth in saving rate is the growth of national income and GDP per capita in China. This means that people are earning more than they were earning before and hence this gives them more chances to save their money for future and precautionary motives.If we compare China with other countries with other countries we can say that over time it has become far superior to other countries in terms of saving. Chinas propensity to save from the year 1998 to 20 08 has increased from 39% of its GDP to 54.3% of its GDP. This shows a growth of around 15% over this period time. Similarly, Singapore also has a large propensity to save but over a decade its growth in saving has been nothing as compared to China. Singapores propensity to save has lift only by 5%. Hence, we can also conclude that it is a common practice in this region to save more and hence these countries have a high propensity to save as compared to Western nations.

Abortion and Nurse's Conscientious Objection Essay

Abortion and Nurses Conscientious Objection - Essay ExampleThe question of this essay is regarding legality of abortion and nurses right of objection. cardinal Roman Catholic nurses recently won the right not to work in an abortion clinic, which is not new considering the right of conscientious objection to abortion on spiritual or ethical grounds, was written in an act of 1967. No person shall be under any duty, whether by contract or by any statutory or other legal requirement, to participate in any treatment authorized by this act to which he has a conscientious objection.(The Gaurdian,2011) But this statement is modified in the cases where mothers vitality is at stake. on that point be several conceptions of conscience. Some are religious and some are secular. According to some conceptions identify conscience as a faculty that discerns moral truth or makes ethical judgments. For some it has no importance when it comes to the decisions already made by law or Governmental rul e.(The Gaurdian,2011) Abortion is however, one of the most ethical dilemmas faced by the society for decades. There are many strong arguments about the issue for those who are in favor or against it. Abortion is a pregnancy termination, an ending of a life that has just begun. Social and personal issues are the main causes of abortions. Such as more then 60% of abortions are caused on single woman. Arguments which takes place in general against abortions are that growing embryo is living being with a heart beat and it is unmerciful to kill an unborn child whereas, abortion is not a solution for the financial problems of mothers, adoption is the relevant solution for that. According to an obstetrician nurses dont need to be bothered by the rightness or wrongness of abortion, it is the decision taken by physicians and nurses do as they are told. Why should they discuss the pros and cons of abortion when the decision lies in the hands of church or other Governmental organization? So i f an abortion is decided then nurses have no right to object to the decision. These are the reflections of some of the attitudes of health oversee lords. However, as a health care professional, nurses have a right as well as certificate of indebtedness to judge their attitudes towards abortion, both personal and professional integrity relies on them that they provide, on the basis of their knowledge and integrity, participate in care of patient only in therapeutic ways.(Bosek,2007) According to theAbortion right Reform Bill 2008legalized abortion in the State of Victoria, Australia. Section 8,of the bill demands that physicians, who object to abortion for reasons of conscience must refer a woman to a colleague or another physician, who has no such objections in order to facilitate with the abortion procedure, and requires physicians to perform abortions if necessary to preserve the life of the pregnant woman. umteen physicians who object to abortion also object to transfer for abortion on the grounds that to refer or otherwise facilitate the procedure makes them ethically complicit in it. A number of individuals and groups have spoken out against the bill, often for a combination of reasons. (Legal Commentaries.2008)). Not only physicians but also nurses have a responsibility in this scenario and there are a number of reasons why they can not ignore the question of abortion. Conscientious objection in medicine is the idea that a health care provider can refrain from offering certain types of medical care with which he/she does not personally agree. These include service which are although legal and medically appropriate such as abortion or sterilization. On one hand ANMC code of ethics state that nurses are to respect the wishes of their patients as long as they are

Influence of Religion at Literature and Art review

Influence of Religion at and Art - Literature review ExampleThis paper will begin with the disceptation that the twentieth century was the most discrepant period in the history of mankind. On the one hand that was the epoch of scientific, technical and intellectual progress and huge hitches in all spheres of human activity. On the other, the 20th century was the age of deep spiritual crisis. Every person in the world revised elder established ideas about good and evil. Thomas Mann called it the age of endless wars and revolutions (Jasper, 1992, p. 54). It assumed collisions not only between countries and classes but also in human minds and souls. The thorough experience of the World War I and World War II was described by American writers who came to fight young, full of hopes and returned from the war with destroyed dreams and believes without purpose the new ones. Such writers created their own literature - the literature of Lost Generation. In their whole kit and boodle Ernes t Hemingway, William Folkner and others depicted disregarded surroundings, estrangement and deep pessimism caused by uncivilized reality. Ernest Hemingway wrote when men fight for the freedom of their country against a foreign invasion, and when these men are your friends, some few friends and some of long radixing, you know how they were attached and how they fought, you learn, ceremonial occasion them live and fight and die, you learn that there are worse things than war. Cowardice is worse, treachery is worse, and simple selfishness is worse (Brian, 1988, p. 73). People, who got the scar of the war did not believe in deity any more. The crisis of the twentieth century was one of the social phenomena that had to be acknowledged before it was dealt with. The way out of the crisis was hard and long because the main grounds of it was the changing of the attitude towards the Christian dogmas. Outstanding German philosopher Fridrich Nitse wrote Cin one casept of God still was the strongest objection against existing We disclaim God. We deny the responsibility in God and due to this well save the world for the first clock (Pelican, 1991, p. 83). Another philosopher Thomas Mann said that Christianity was one of the bases on which our civilization lied. In such turbulent multiplication every person who was spiritually free and not only swimming with the stream of the age had an urgent necessity to reappraise his values, to realize them again and stand up for them. The 20th century strictly criticised Christian morality. Nevertheless that criticism touched only the superficial ideas but the deep Christian dogmas that were found once stayed virginal (Jasper, 1992, p. 69). For the last two thousand years you could hardly find a literary work where the theme of religion, faith or God was omitted. These themes were omnipresent. Their variations - Christian images, symbols, allusions, associations, philosophical reflections on God were found in works of different w riters, different genres and styles. American literature of the 20th century was not an exception. Till the time Kurt Vonneguts usage of Christian motives were not thoroughly examined. The critics had an opinion that Christianity and Vonnegut were almost incompatible. They supposed the writers attitude towards Christianity was not serious but even negative. Only the last researches of his works showed the role and meaning of Christianity in authors world outlook. Religion played an important role in Vonneguts artistic world and the Bible was the main element of the authors thinking. Vonnegut underscore the positive beginning of Christianity, its appeal to universal love. Nevertheless Vonnegut thought that the Christian religion couldnt prevent shocking crimes of the 20th century. J. Lundguist wrote a book dedicated to Kurt Vonnegut and his works. In it he analysed Vonneguts manner of writing and pointed out the cosmic irony as the main feature of writers method. He also touched the theme of Christian religion especially while analysing the Vonneguts novel Slaughter-House Five (1969). Lundguist compared the main hero of the novel with Jesus Christ.

Dream world Essay Example for Free

Dream world EssayA long time ago I had read a story, a story of a man and his goal to create a new world with peace. The immaculateion that those inked lines held were amazing, one is still in my head peal like a note of the piano-I go out create, a new world with you in it. Reading his life story, I understood what he meant, that truthful line can bring tears into my eyes.There is a deep meaning to it. My body was shivering, I was scared. What happened? I opened my eyes slowly, with a floor expression plastered on my round face, ocean blue eyes wide and teary, thick black eyelashes and added black eyeliner making them stand out. I had to glom up my unverbalized, hair sprayed black fringe up since I was struggling to see. I stood there mesmerised by the sight in front of me. It was peaceful, pacify it was nature before human kind, soft light, green stag almost touching my bare ankles, it was slightly wet and cold that comforting, thin streaks vellicate my bare feet as I moved around slowly.Small Daisies blooming standing out of the greenery with theyre fragile white bodies. My breath was taken away instantly when I landed my eyes on a beautiful lake its clear water being disturbed by a tiny wind and my touch, its warm soft substance wetting my palm lightly, the sparks that hovered supra the lake illuminating it in the centre of a lake a reflection of the moon but not just any moon the red moon.A round the edges the lake reflected like a mirror- cherry blossom trees at the full bloom and the perfect sweet sense that surrounded the atmosphere its silky pink leafs scattering around the place like a soft pink blanket, the trees hard coarse-textured bark covering soft wood that is inside.The Cherry trees surrounding the lake like hiding it in protective manner which made me wonder in an awe. merely a few steps away from the stunning lake there was a hill, hard grey rocks surrounding it, the once soft light green grass fading away as you go furthe r up, every step I took the grass becoming rougher and darker until no more was left only hard stoned ending.Standing on the end I could see everything that I had not seen yet so far, I felt so free, so careless, it was wizardly in a way, as far as my sight could pick up from the magical lake and the porcelain cherry blossom trees to dark never ending woods. It was night, above me stars that sparkled like little childrens eyes for first time in the candy shop. The world was asleep it was finally at peaceHis world now seems just a dream but at that time, that time of shinobi it was different, it was achievable. He lived his life trying, making it possible but unfortunately his time had come, to leave everything tin can in those words. Right now I hope he is in that world resting in peace. Sometimes when I think about it hard enough, I could smell the cherry blossom trees, I could feel the warm wind brushing my skin. If I believe hard enough I could find myself star into the dark h orizon, the red moon hovering above me and the pastel pink leafs in-between my fingers just going over the soft texture. If I know it, I will be free at last.

An experiment to show Essay Example for Free

An experiment to show EssayTo see whether there is a relationship amidst the surface area and the diffusion rate Hypothesis I predict that the smaller hedges of agar will turn clear, or diffuse first, as it has a smaller surface area. This is because there is less surface area and volume for the sulphuric blistery to diffuse into. Apparatus Three sizes of agar, 20x20x20mm, 20x20x10mm, 20x20x5mm 40ml of sulphuric acid 80ml per beaker 3 100ml beakers Tile used for placing the agar Tissue to wipe arrive at the sulphuric acid off the agar 3 scalpels Ruler, measurable in mm. Stop quantify Method 1. First, cut deuce-ace pieces of sulphuric acid in the following sizes 20x20x20mm, 20x20x10mm, 20x20x5mm, as accurately as possible 2. Next, fill the three beakers with 80ml of sulphuric acid separately 3. Then, prepare the stop clock, and make sure it is has been reset 4. After, put down the three hampers of agar into the sulphuric all at the same duration, as strong as starting t he stop clock once the agar is in the sulphuric acid. 5. Care richly stir the three beakers using the scalpels. 6. Watch until one of the blocks cause gone completely clear.7. Once one of the blocks have gone completely clear, stop the stop clock and take out the three blocks of agar and place on the tissue, and wipe off the excess sulphuric acid from the blocks of agar to prevent further diffusion with the two other blocks which have not been fully diffused to fully diffuse 8. Cut the blocks in diagonal, through the middle and using a ruler, amount of money how much of it has turned clear on each side. 9. Record the data for time taken, and the depth of the clear infract on the table. Results Block number 1 2.3 Block dimensions/mm 20x20x20 20x20x10 20x20x5 Predicted order of illumination 3 2 1 Actual order of clearing 3 2 1 Time taken for clearing 8mn56. 29s Depth of clear part on block/mm 3 4 5 Surface area/mmi 2400 1600 1200 Volume/mmi 8000 4000 2000 Surface are to volume rat io OO. 3 OO. 4 OO. 6 Conclusion My prediction as to which block will go clear first was correct, being the smaller block, as its surface area to volume ratio was the greatest out of all three, even though there was not much difference between the three values.This is because the third block has a greater surface area for the sulphuric acid to diffuse into the agar, causing the diffusion rate to be greater. The blocks have run clear through diffusion caused by neutralization between the sulphuric acid and the agar, which is an alkaline. Evaluation Quite a few things did not go as planned in this evaluation, but I have come up with ideas on how to improve them if we do an experiment like this again.Firstly, the jelly size whitethorn not be accurate from cutting it, and when it has been stirred, bits of it whitethorn have chipped off causing a change in its surface area. Next time, to avoid this, we could measure the block of agar more accurately when cutting it, and also be more car eful when stirring the agar and stir softer so that no bits may get chipped off. Not only that, but the time we place the three blocks of agar into the sulphuric acid may be different, as well as the time we started the stop clock.Next time, we may possibly find a different method of putting in and taking out the agar so that it remains a fair test, and so that there are less mistakes in the test, which may be reduced by having one person per block of agar and beaker, as well as another person for the stop clock and placing it in and taking it out all at the same time as well as starting and stopping the stop clock. Another complication may have come from the amount of sulphuric acid in each beaker, which may not have been equal.This problem may be reduced by measuring stick the sulphuric more carefully, maybe with a measuring cylinder before then placing it into the beaker, instead of measuring it into the beaker straight away. Our measurements of the depth of the clear layer of t he blocks of agar jelly may have been incorrect as well, and to prevent this, we could possibly use a microscope next time and use a graticule to measure the depth that the jelly has diffused to obtain a more accurate result.The last problem I noticed while doing the experiment was when we were blotting the sulphuric acid off the agar. I found that there may have been some sulphuric acid left on the agar after we have blotted it, which may have caused further diffusion and adjusting our result. This is caused from not blotting off enough sulphuric acid off the agar. Next time, we could carefully blot all the sulphuric acid, and use one piece of tissue for each block of agar so that there is no sulphuric acid on the tissue before blotting each block of agar.

Telling the Truth About History Essay Example for Free

Telling the Truth About History EssayThe make out to find legality in tattle the stories of record has been a source of constant debate amongst historians and intellectuals. With the emergence of religious rejection during the seventeenth and eighteenth century Enlightenment, the influence and undoubted supremacy of the expansive model of science provided historians with new-sprung(prenominal) charges for obtaining truth supreme truthsthrough the dispassionate eyes of a heroic observer.Although this re master(prenominal)s unchallenged for many generations, with the cultural changes and the democratization of education, the idea of an absolute trutha universal story of national progress which neglects to encompass the diversity of Americais challenged by post-modernity. In all its pessimisms towards absolute truths and object lens knowledge, post-modernism illustrates the grandness of and sets the foundation for questioning diachronic accuracy and the idea of objectivity .Can there be truth when the words and language of the documental observer is unintentionally descend in their own personal, social, and political dockets? Through the works of Foucault and Deerdas, who get at the heart of this very question, historians are encouraged to reject the Enlightenment project, and look deeper into historical evidence to interrogate the structure and organization of the text, its vocabulary, and hidden assumptions.Although, post-modernitya critique of the Enlightenment idealscreates the framework for the questioning of historical accuracy, it is very important to recognize its softness to formulate its own solutions to this historical dilemma. Fortunately, with the succeeding ideas of practical realists, there is a sense of hope and optimism for the future tense of memorial and the all-encompassing truths that it do-nothing uphold. How did post-modernity challenge the heroic model of science and enlightenment ideals?With the digression away from en lightenment ideals of objectivity, absolute truth, and progress, post-modernists set the tone for a new way of thinkingsimilar to the way Enlightenment philosophers challenged the absolutisms of the church. With the new social historians, the American story is challenged by the competing ethnic cultures that didnt fit into the white-protestant American story, and penetrate below the surface to where the stories of women, slaves, and immigrants had been veiled for so long.The idealized American story a fallacious story of unity and equalityhad represented the founding fathers political, social, and religious agendas towards progress and modernity which produced justifications like transparent destiny. With this new idea of the influence of personal experiences and agendas, even Newton and Darwin are put on the stand, to find that even these so called dispassionate and solely objective observers had political, social, and religious agendas that greatly influenced their work.This op ens the door for the post-modernists attack against the misfortune of objective historical or scientific knowledge, realism, and in essence, truth. They deny our ability to represent objective knowledge in any true fashion because of the language barrier which serves, in a sense, as a funnel that reflects every personal, political, social, and religious agenda or experience. Post-modernists, like Foucalt and Deerdas, made western man into a modern day Gulliver, tied down with ideological ropes and incapable of transcendence because he can never get beyond the veil of language to the reality out there.(p. 208) With the conflict between the signifier and the signified, as expressed by Saussure, reality or truth can never be reached because in the process of representing an actual object- or the signified there is a risk of distorting and obfuscating it (p. 214). Objects allow us to create storiesnarratives not necessarily accurateabout the object and its existence. These narratives are inescapable personal and rely upon the experiences and agendas of the individual creating it.Therefore, language is not a deal correspondence to reality. It represents differences, personal agendas, experiences, beliefs, and power relations and knowing this, according to post-modernists, eliminates the possibility of any kind of reality or truth for both science and history. The post-modern cynicism towards reality, truth and objective knowledge created a new way for writing history. The rejection of the old absolutisms created an opportunity for questioning and discourse of previously accepted historical knowledge.It created a home for the stories of marginalized groups who had until this time, been veiled by the universal, romanticized American story of progress toward modernity. A story of success and opportunity on the frontier was substituted by a story of struggleof womens rights, of slaves, and of the killings of Native Americans. Within the Enlightenment objectives f or history there are limitations to the possibility of anything else but progress. When progress and modernity are the only ideals being stressed, there is little room to create a history beyond this.These ideals consumed the thoughts, beliefs, politics and social structures of man, and it was reflected in their work. History until this time was being tied down and qualified to the old absolutisms, to one universal story which supposedly encompassed all of nature. However, with social history and the door it opened for post-modernity, history could take on the task of telling a more encompassing story that could be discussed, criticized, and built upon.Although, post-modernists believe that there is no truth and that the possibility of reality is non-existent, they set the foundation for future historians to question the history books which they are learning from, to look deeper into the hidden agendas that are sometimes veiled, and to then write a history that, although cannot be c ompletely objective and dispassionate, can embody some sort of truth and historicism for that time.This idea of taking a middle ground between the traditionalist philosophers of the Enlightenment and the pessimistic post-modernists is the main goal the authors of this book try to make. They recognize the need for questioning and interrogation but not to the extent that we end up a nihilistic intellection that there is no truth and nothing matters. The gap between past events, like records, and the way historians describe and interpret them is accepted by practical realists. This allows for the possibility of obtaining truth and a method for writing history.Some words, they explain, however socially constructed, reach out to the world and give a reasonably true definition of its contents because of a relationship between the object and the observer (p. 250). With the practical realists emphasis on archival research, the use of our memories and curiosity, and discourse upon discours e the writing of history is now possible. However, without the post-modernists cynicism and interrogation of the Enlightenment project history may still be a discipline of absolutisms and heroisms.

Analysis of the Term Victorian

Analysis of the Term VictorianHow useful is the verge Victorian?The duration of Queen Victorias reign witnessed the pas blunder outg of milestones in social, economic, and personal progress. It was the age of industrialisation, a time of travel, a battleground for the conflict mingled with science and religion. Yet further to these great markers by which m both of us recognise the nineteenth degree Celsius, and indeed because of them, Victorias reign inspired transpose within the one-on-one a revaluation of what it meant to be a valet de chambre macrocosm. The literary artists gave new form to the questions on the lips of the conjunction around them questions that were no all-night so easily answered by Christianity. This essay will explore how the frontier Victorian does or doesnt fit into the context from which it supposedly arises. I will look at tr obliterates such as the increase of literary criticism, pioneering scientific discoveries, the exploration into psychic p henomenon, the increasing independence of women, the mapping of the world, each(prenominal) of which contribute to what we know and understand as Victorian, and have in some elan shaped the encounter of authors such as Eliot, Conan Doyle, and H.G Wells. Using some close textual analysis I hope to identify the nature of the inspiration bottomland the literature of the time and whether or not such ferment transcends the limits of the term Victorian.Many great literary passs of the time such as Arn one-time(a), Dickens, and Ruskin helped define the era in their critical attitudes towards it. (Davis 2002, p.10). Criticism appears to have be numerate a form of exploration in an attempt to turn what concerned and worried the artist into something that questioned and reassured. Arnold, in his Essays in Criticism (Arnold, 1865, p.V) explains how he perceives the difference amidst logical and artistic thought The truth is I have never been able to ht it off merrily with the logici ans, and it would be mere affectation in me to give myself the airs of doing so. They imagine truth something to be upgraded, I something to be seen they something to be manufactured, I as something to be plunge.It is this growing aw atomic number 18ness of difference that was to become a defining feature of Victorian literature. Differences appeared in the very perception of things, which led to feelings of isolation, despair, alienation all great themes in nineteenth century work. In Arnolds A Summer Night (Arnold 1913, p.167) we see the poetic mind struggling to find meaning on a moonlit street w here(predicate) the windows, care hostile faces, are si contribute and white, unopening downAnd the calm moonlight have the appearance _or_ semblances to say Hast thou and then still the old unquiet breast That neither deadens into respite Nor ever feels the fiery glow That whirls the spirit front itself a break in, 30 But fluctuates to and fro Never by passion sooner possessd And never quite benumbd by the worlds sway? And I, I know not if to pray Still to be what I am, or yield, and be Like all the other men I see.Arnold recognises that the society around him is unfulfilled, that men are giving their lives to some unmeaning taskwork and he questions whether he should be questioning at all. He is aware of a gap between the realness of working life and life foreign of work a difference that he strives to find account for. Arnold appears to be lost amidst the streets of his own mind afraid of not being able to define who he is, what he is. These feelings in part express what it meant to be a Victorian struggling to place thoughts and feelings which appear to no longer fit into society.The Victorian era contained oftentimes of what had past and much of what was still to come it fagnot be seen as an iso lated time, nor as an isolated term. It contained aspects of the Romantic period for instance in Arnolds poem, The Buried Life, we see vestiges of Wordsworths legacy of Ode to Immortality. In some(prenominal) poems thither is a sense of something lost an old passion or instinct that has gone with the passing of time yet Arnold, unlike Wordsworth, finds it more(prenominal) difficult to come to terms with this A longing to inquire / Into the mystery of this heart that beats / So wild, so deep in us, to know / because our thoughts come and where they go. (Arnold 1913, p.170). The language is more passionately discontent than the resolute tone of Wordsworths visionary acceptance We will grieve not, rather find/ force in what remains behind. (Wordsworth 1928, p.136). The styles are obviously connected, but the trouble with defining the era exploitation literary terminology is that it is clearly neither a kinky extension of the Romantics vision, nor is it a straightforward path to the modernists. The 1870s saw the maturation of authors such as Anthony Trollope who brought out his later novels, yet unless twenty years later in 1896 these publications are sitting beside the considerably different form and subject matter of work such as H.G. Wellls The judgment of conviction Machine and The Island of Dr. Moreau, with literary experiments with the modern such as Richard Jefferies The Story of My Heart occurring between in 1883.A growing concern in nineteenth century life was the potential loss of the Romantic link between forgiving nature and the natural world, and the gap which sudden industrial progress highlighted between nature and mechanisation. As technology developed so did the notion of artificiality. It is worth noting J.S.Mills essay on Nature (Mill 1874, p.65) where he says that it is mans nature to be artificial, to remedy nature by artificial pruning and intervention. Further to this, a contemporary of Mills Richard Jennings also drew a line between the province of valet nature and the external world. (Lightman 1997, p.80). In the countryside more efficient methods of farming were empl oyed (see the contrast between Henchards methods and Farfraes ciphering and mensuration in Hardys Mayor of Casterbridge, (Hardy 1886, p.122)), and new machines introduced which no longer required the labour force to run them, encouraging mickle to migrate to towns and cities. The urban reality was harsh in 1851 roughly four million people were employed in trade and manufacture and mining, leaving only one and a half(a) million in agriculture. (Davis 2002, p.13). City life, as portrayed by Dickens, was a cruel, unhealthy and unwholesome existence for many (see Bleak House and Little Dorritt). However, much of his work was set in the period of his youth and puerility which was pre-Victorian. (Lawton (ed) 1995, p.xvi). Working conditions in cities were often cramped, unhygienic and poorly ventilated, and animateness conditions could be even worse. Mrs. Gaskell, living in Manchester, witnessed the appalling pressures that these conditions forced upon family life, and in North and South depicts the difficulties of urban living, offering that salvation for the working classes lay with themselves and their employers, working together. (see North and South 1855) However, metropolis life was not all desolate based in cities, the development of the detective novel brought the city back to human scale (Lehan, p.84). Detectives pieced together and hypothesise past events through clues for example, the murder of Bartholomew Sholto in The Sign of Four by Conan DoyleAs far as we can catch out, no actual traces of violence were found upon Mr Sholtos person, but a valuable collection of Indian gems which the deceased gentleman had inherited from his father had been carried off. The discovery was first made by Mr principal investigator Holmes and Dr Watson () Mr. Athelney Jones, the well-known member of the detective police force, happened to be at the Norwood police station () Mr Jones well-known technical knowledge and his powers of minute observation have enabled him to prove conclusively that the miscreants could not have entered by the door or by the window but must have made their way across the cap of the building, and so through a trapdoor into a room which communicated with that in which the body was found. (p.66)The city provided an arouse backdrop to crime scenes its labyrinthine streets similar to the mapping of the pathways of the human mind so that the two became inextricably linked. As Joseph McLaughlin says in Writing the Urban Jungle, the urban jungle is a space that calls forth a welcome acquiescence to something greater, more powerful, and, indeed, sublime () also an imaginative domain that calls forth heroic action exploring, conquering, enlightening, purifying, taming, besting. (McLaughlin 2000, p.3).Further to what McLaughlin suggests, the Victorians perception of time and space in the city and the countryside was changing radically from the medieval perceptions that still existed in the Romantic period. People saw the finished products in both manufacturing and farming no longer involving the long, protracted means to an end, instead the end result was being achieved faster and with more control. Here developed the root of modern industry which continues today in intensifier farming and factory lines. Yet here too the arrivenings of waste and excess. Richard Jefferies, a nineteenth century naturalist and mystic, known for his essays on nature, remarks on the abundance of nourishment in the natural world in his essay Meadow ThoughtsThe surface of the earth offers to us far more than we can consume the grains, the seeds, the fruits, the animals, the abounding products are beyond the power of all the human race to devour. They can, too, be multiplied a thousandfold. there is no natural lack. Whenever there is lack among us it is from artificial causes, which intelligence should remove. (Jefferies, 1994, p.26).Unfortunately there was plenty for those who could afford it but not enough to spare for the poorer lower classes. (Ritvo 1997, p.194). Trends of over production and wastage which became a worry in Victorian times are reflected in the literary concerns of Jefferies spiritual autobiography The Story of My Heart, and in his childrens story, Bevis, where book of accounts, despite their abundance, are in danger of nice an insufficient medium of expression and not filling the metaphysical space on the page. In describing a sunrise and the thoughts and feelings associated with watching it, Jefferies struggles to articulate the beauty in the first place himThe sun had not yet stood out from the orient, but his precedent light shone through the translucent blue. Yet it was not blue, nor is there any word, nor is a word possible to convey the feeling. (Jefferies 1881, p.391)We see too in James Thomsons City of Dreadful Night (Thomson 1892, p.2) the desperateness of hard to articulate thoughts and feelingsBecause a cold cult seizes one at spells To show the bitter old and wrinkled truth Stripped naked of all vesture that beguiles, False dreams, false hopes, false masks and modes of youth Because it gives some sense of power and passion In helpless impotence to try to fashion Our woe in living words howeer uncouth.In both passages there is a sense of trying to convey so much more than the words will allow. And that is the essence of the problem of defining the era with a word which the era itself selected Victorian like the authors of its time struggles to convey the enormity and the condensed nature of its changing environment. Victorian literature is thus maybe best study between the lines of its texts rather than for what it offers at face value. Thomsons words to try to fashion our woe in living words although appearing dismal could genuinely withhold a more positive message it deals with the notion of perseverance that by creating words, however difficult, the author is refusing to give in to despair by trying to change it into creative energy.There is a sense of crisis in the work of Thomson, just as there is to be found in Jefferies futuristic afterwards capital of the United Kingdom where the lone explorer Felix discovers the land after humanity has overreached itself to sociological disaster and has lost the harmonious relationship between mankind and nature. London becomes no more than a crystallised ruin in a ground oozing with poison unctuous and slimy, like a thick oil. (Jefferies 1885, p.205). Through work like this we see that Victorian was an era of possibility where visions of the future utterly became tangible concerns and possible realities, and where contemporary conceptions of language and life might no longer hold up to the pressures of the time. In H.G. Wells the Time Machine, the time traveller discovers a land in the year 802,701The air was free from gnats, the earth from weeds or fungi everywhere were fruits and sweet and delightful flowers brilliant butterflies flew hither and thither. T he exemplar of preventative medicine was attained. diseases had been stamped out. I saw no evidence of any contagious diseases during all my stay. And i shall have to tell you later that even the processes of putrefaction and decay had been profoundly affected by these changes. (Wells 1995, p.28)In this description of a futuristic age the Victorian imagination still retains the idea of a paradise a place full of butterflies and flowers. This Christian concept is a literary hangover from Miltons Paradise Lost, and remains an central theme for the moderns such as D.H. Lawrence. (see The Rainbow). The Victorian age suffered from a dualistic split between a bright future on the one hand promised by leaps in technology, education and economical success and an increasingly alienated, confused society on the other. There were those writers like Huxley who believed that by human intervention within a political and economic framework humanness could evolve out of their condition seein g no limit to the extent to which intelligence and will () may modify the conditions of existence (Huxley 1911, p.149), and there were those like Hardy whose characters were destined to fail because they were not emotionally fitted into the foundation out of which they evolved. (see Tess and Jude the Obscure).It was the nineteenth century spiritual crisis which precipitated the literary shift into the new genre of the realist novel. By the mid-nineteenth century, society had begun to grow away from the idea of atonement for sin within an omnipotent religion, where judgement would come solely in heaven, and towards the more humanistic idea of God as in-dwelling, so that salvation could be achieved on earthWe have now come to regard the world not as a machine, but as an organism, a system in which, while the parts contribute to the growth of the whole, the whole also reacts upon the development of the parts and whose primary purpose is its own perfection, something that is contained within and not outside itself, an internal end while in their turn the myriad parts of this universal organism are also lesser organisms, ends in and for themselves, pursuing each its lonely ideal of individual completeness. (Gore (ed) 1890, p.211)A spiritual lack created a need to define, order and categorise a world that suddenly appeared chaotic. When Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1859 he raised issues of public concern as to the truth of the bible and the essence of Christianity. However, its content and its methodology were seriously criticised (Appleman 2001, p.200). It was a difficult work to accept as it caused the public to rethink and redefine their history that they were a product of evolution and not a tailor made being came as a shock. The future of thought and literature was suddenly changed as people tried to sew together the threads of the past. Natural Science became a subject field obsession exotic flora and fauna from across the world were brough t into London daily, to be displayed in the British Museum or Kew Gardens (Lightman, 1997 p.1). In literature, we see the author begin to play the part of evolutionist Eliots Middlemarch although concerned with the evolving character of Dorothea Brooke follows the threads of sub-plots and the successes and failures of other characters which form a pattern of development. As Gillian Beer saysThere is not one antiquated tissue, just as there is not one key to all mythologies () emphasis upon plurality, rather than upon singleness, is crucial to the developing argument of Middlemarch. (Beer 2000, p.143).Gone is the tradition of the intrepid hero or heroine singularly conquering their environment (a trend set by classics such as Homers The Odyssey) and in its place a landscape upon which the author grafts and nurtures developing shoots of life. It is this sort of growth that is in danger of remaining unseen to the contemporary historian or critic as it can become shrouded by generalis ing concepts which are so often prescribed to the term Victorian concepts such as repression, old- forge and prudish. (http//www.victorianweb.org/vn/victor4.html). These sort of terms restrict the individuals perception of the era when it was a time when growth was boost rather than restricted. Authors used the metaphor of pruning and nurturing plant life to symbolise the development of the self for example in North and South Gaskell discusses the problem of the working individual who struggles to reach his or her potential when the manufacturers are unsparingly cutting away all off-shoots in the direction of literature or high mental cultivation, in hopes of throwing the whole strength and vigour of the plant into commerce. (Gaskell 1865, p.69). For Gaskell, it is through the everyday interaction between people that such difficulties are given the chance to be overcome.And this was the essence of the realist novel set amidst a world which had witnessed such alteration to tran sform the lostness felt by society into a seeing of the smaller things in life which could withhold qualities of greater spiritual value. As Philip Davis says, the realist novel was the holding ground, the opposition point, for the overlapping of common life. (Davis 2002, p.144). And it was within this common life that a more calm acceptance of the new state could be achieved. Gillian Beer suggests that through her novels geological formation Eliot creates order and understanding of the evolving process of novel-writing. In Middlemarch, the naming of Casaubons books Waiting for Death, Two Temptations, Three Love Problems draws attention to the books organisation by emphasising categorisationBut the process of reading leads into divergence and variability. Even while we are observing how closely human beings conform in the taxonomy of events we learn how differently they feel and think. For Dorothea and Casaubon waiting for death means something very different from what it means f or Mary Garth and Featherstone. The relations are different. The distances between people are different. Lydgate, here at one with the project of the book, longed to demonstrate the more intimate relations of living structure (115225). In this double emphasis on consent and variability George Eliot intensifies older literary organisations by means of recent scientific theory. In Darwinian theory, variability is the creative principle, but the type makes it possible for us to track common ancestry and common kinship. (Beer 2000, pp.143-4)Writing itself was becoming an almost divine internal representation, an inner order of a chaotic external world. The idea that humans had evolved from primates meant that the boundaries between what was one thing and what was another were no longer so clearly defined. There developed a fear of the animate and a fear of the inanimate, and efforts were sought to understand them. As Harriet Ritvo says in The Platypus and the MermaidDepending on the b eholder, an anomaly might be viewed as embodying a challenge to the established order, whether social, natural, or divine the containment of that challenge the incomprehensibility of the creation by human intelligence or obviously the endless and diverting variety of the world. And beholders who agreed on the content of the representation could still disagree strongly about its moral valence whether it was good or bad, entrancing or disgusting. (Ritvo 1997, p.148).In a world where categorisation was important but not so easily achievable, the novel too became neither one thing nor another realism became a melting pot for ideas, a sort of hybrid of styles. In Eliots The Lifted Veil realism is used as a vehicle for the exploration of her ideas into psychology and psychic phenomena. Latimers second sight forces him to endure a painful insight into the minds of the people around himI began to be aware of a phase in my abnormal sensibility, to which, from the languid and subtile natu re of my intercourse with others since my illness, I had not been alive before. This was the obtrusion on my mind of the mental process going forward in first one person, and then another, with whom I happened to be in contact the vagrant, frivolous ideas and emotions of some uninteresting acquaintanceMrs Filmore, for examplewould force themselves on my consciousness like an importunate, ill-played musical instrument, or the loud natural process of an imprisoned insect. But this superadded consciousness, wearying and annoying enough when it urged on me the trivial experience of indifferent people, became an intense pain and grief when it seemed to be opening to me the souls of those who were in a close relation to me when the rational talk, the graceful attentions, the wittily-turned phrases, and the kindly deeds, which used to make the web of their characters, were seen as if thrust asunder by a microscopical vision, that showed all the intermediate frivolities, all the suppressed egoism, all the struggling chaos of puerilities, meanness, vague capricious memories, and indolent make-shift thoughts, from which human words and deeds emerge like leaflets covering a fermenting heap.(Eliot 1859, pp.13-14)Latimer is no longer caught up in the web of peoples characters. Eliot plays with the idea that his consciousness has the ability to transcend the sublunar the rational talk, the kindly deeds in order to gain insight into an alternative and not so rosy vision of the mechanics of the human mind where thoughts are make-shift and chaotic. The nineteenth century saw the acceptance of the concept of otherworldly phenomena into the working classes. Robert Owen, a social reformer, who influenced the British Labor movement (Oppenheim 1985, p.40) encouraged many working class Owenites to follow him into the spiritualist fold, where they enthusiastically continued their ongoing search for the new moral world. Interests such as spiritualism and psychology which had previ ously been more underground pursuits, were brought out into the open. The concept of telepathy, a term coined by Frederic Myers in 1882 (Luckhurst 2002, p.1) even helped to theorize the uneasy cross-cultural encounters at the compound frontier. (Luckhurst 2002, p.3) These developments suggest that the Victorians felt imbued with the power of their age they felt confident of their ability to communicate on different planes of consciousness. So it could be argued that Victorian was not simply a time devoted to the discovery of the self and the workings of the inner mind, but a time that also focused on the projection of ideas and thoughts outside of the self ideas which themselves stand outside of the category Victorian.In 1869 the Spiritualist Newspaper began selling first as a fortnightly, then as a hebdomadary publication. (Oppenheim 1985, p.45). This draws the discussion to the point of representation the social nature of Victorians seems to suggest that they enjoyed the focus b eing on themselves. Self-obsession is an aspect of the time which the term Victorian usefully represents by specifically referring to the rule of the Queen the term draws attention to the importance of the individual. The era saw the development of many different styles of fashion and the use of photography. As part of the Freudian influence great importance was placed on childhood and it was during the nineteenth century that the first laws concerning child welfare were passed. (Mavor quoted from Brown (ed) 2001, p.i) The focus on the central, the ego, was paramount. As Mavor says,it was as if the tv camera had to be invented in order to document what would soon be lost, childhood itself and childhood had to be invented in order for the camera to document childhood (a fantasy of innocence) as real. (Brown (ed) 2001, p.27).Perhaps because of societys awareness of change there seems to have been a necessity to record and sustentation track of the world around. Discovery took place o n a much grander scale in the exploration of the world. The British Empire was global, yet as Patrick Brantlinger suggests in Rule of Darkness, (Brantlinger 1988, p.4) imperialism was not generally reflected in the literature of the time. What we do see evidence of however is the mapping of new worlds and territories (see Robert Louis Stevensons Treasure Island and Richard Jefferies Bevis). The development of the risky venture story suggests that Victorians desired to explore what lay outside of what they knew and in this respect the term Victorian which people can think of as representing a society closed within in itself is misleading. The rise of imperialism began to shape the ideological dimensions of subjects studied in school (Bristow 1991, p.20) and so through literature the Victorian child was offered an exciting world of sophisticated representation and ideas with the knowledge that the world was theirs to explore. Does the term then encourage us to think of the society as a class of people set apart from the rest of the world?In The Island of Dr. Moreau it is not just the future of science that is explored but the concept of a new territory and its effects on the mind. For example, when the protagonist first sees the beast-servant on board the ship he is immediately frightenedI did not know then that a cherry luminosity, at least, is not uncommon in human eyes. The figure, with its eyes of fire, struck down through all my adult thoughts and feelings, and for a moment the forgotten horrors of childhood came back to my mind. Then the effect passed as it had come. An uncouth black figure of a man, a figure of no particular import, hung over the taffrail, against the starlight. (Wells 1997, p.31).The circumstances of being at sea is disorientating and causes the imagination to play tricks so that the man is first one thing a figure with its eyes of fire and then suddenly becomes an uncouth black figure of a man. The effect is that the protagonist suddenly regresses to the forgotten horrors of childhood. This sudden fluctuation is important as it represents the fluidity of the era and how change and discovery on a global scale, although empowering, also caused instability within the individual. Therefore, when considering the age in the context of its name we can understand that the term was perhaps created out of both the desire to represent achievement but also out of a need to belong.This desire to belong which manifested itself during an age ruled by one woman placed great importance on the role of the female in society. It was a time when women began to travel and write without the necessity of using a pseudonym (see Cheryl McEwan on Kingsley in West Africa, (2000, p.73)). In books such as Hardys Tess the idea of the fallen woman is tested Tess attempts to discover paradise at Talbothays but ultimately a life with her lover is denied. The nineteenth century began to be more explicit concerning issues of gender for examp le, the relationship between Arthur Munby and Hannah Cullwick (see McClintock 1995, pp.132-138) where Cullwick is photographed cross-dressed as a farm worker. A Victorian man however appears to have had more stigma attached to him and in this context the term is commonly associated with heroism and English valour (Ridley/Dawson 1994, p.110). There is less flexibility surrounding the notion of Victorian men -as if the term somehow threatened their masculinity. However, this did not seem to affect the male authors of the time. Lewis Carroll captured the public imagination through Alices Adventures in Wonderland, which although following the story of a little girl, depicts many male characters. (see Carroll 2000).In conclusion, the term Victorian although useful to refer to a specific time period in history, does however encourage us to make sweeping generalisations without investigating how respective(a) the era was. In terms of the subject matter of Victorian Literature there is no clear cut distinction between early, middle and late Victorian for example, Bulwer-Lytton (see Zanoni and A Strange Story) attempts at the beginning of the century what Richard Jefferies does at the end the difference is in style and form. Within that time frame there was condensed an incredible diversity of styles, tastes and attitudes, yet the term suffers from being associated with prejudices and assumptions about Victorians. However, it is worth bearing in mind that prejudices were indeed a part of Victorian society. When the Victorians explored the rest of the world they made generalisations and assumptions based on what they found (eg The Island of Dr. Moreau) where experience and the nature of what is discovered defines behaviour. As a critic in 1858 wrote we are living in an age of transition (quoted from Houghton 1957, p.1) therefore when considering the Victorian age we should remember that values and trends were evolving it was not a static time governed by repressi on or old fashioned values.From the research carried out for this essay it appears that through the gaining of knowledge, Victorians also realised how little they knew and how much more there was to discover. As Arnold says in The Buried Life How plum a lot to fill / Is left to each man still. (Arnold 1913, p.168). In this context the term Victorian can be dualistically representative discoveries of the time, although revolutionary, were often central in nature, and it was humbling for the individual to consider how much further knowledge and discovery had yet to go. On the other hand, the term suffers too from being misfortunate a single word is too smaller term for the vast wealth and diversity of discovery, and it could be argued that the era is better realised if seen as a second revolution. Like the Victorian authors themselves we are left with no suitable words to convey the entirety of an era as John Lawton says in his portal to The Time Machine (1995, p.xxvi) the term V ictorian is used too loosely to encompass a sequence of eras, the diverse reign of a woman who lent her name to objects as diverse as a railway terminus and a plum.When studying Victorian Literature it is worth bearing in mind the fluidity of the time and the changeability which arose out of living on the cusp between the passing away of old values and the unknown territory of the new. realness recognised the gaps which were forming in society such as the distancing of the self from religion and offered to paper the cracks through its vision of bringing people together on a mundane level. Its territory stretched to include the darkest recesses of the mind to the smallest of everyday events, celebrating the grey area between extremes as we now know as Victorian.BibliographyArnold, M., 1913, The Poems of Matthew Arnold, 1840-1867. Oxford Oxford University PressAppleman, P, 2001, Darwin. London NortonBeer, G., 2000, Darwins Plots. Cambridge Cambridge University Pr