Hamlet and Laertes received the same types of education and were taught to follow the same ideals and morals. This made both of them exhibit comparable aspects of respect, love, and revenge. Although Hamlet and Laertes display similar qualities, they vary in that Hamlet is indecisive, rational, wise, and motivated by reason while Laertes is impulsive, irrational, and passionate.
Despite similar upbringings, no two people can be typically alike. Even twins raised in the same milieu, living almost the same life, and doing same activities, are likely to behave differently when confronted with the same circumstance. As depicted in Shakespeare’s Hamlet play, people develop their own way of life, personality, and character. Hamlet and Laertes had similar upbringings and shared family customs. They were born and raised into nobility and treated as such throughout their lives. They received the same types of education and were taught to follow the same ideals and morals. This made both of them exhibit comparable aspects of respect, love, and revenge. Although Hamlet and Laertes display similar qualities, they vary in that Hamlet is indecisive, rational, wise, and motivated by reason while Laertes is impulsive, irrational, and passionate.
Throughout the play, Shakespeare draws attention to their commonalities. Hamlet and Laertes are royal sons, with Laertes being the son of King Polonius’ trusty advisor and Hamlet being the heir of Denmark’s former genuine ruler, king Hamlet. This is evident in the way both families live, in which they enjoy quite similar lifestyles, and their children Laertes and Hamlet are remarkably similar. For example Hamlet and Laertes, have a special bond with their fathers. In Hamlet’s first soliloquy, he expresses his admiration for his father by stating that he was a great monarch, comparable to the brilliant sun god of Greek mythology and that he loved his wife, Gertrude (Haque 57). Moreover, despite the fact that Laertes has no idea who murdered his father, he swears that he will avenge him matter what happens to him later. “Laertes will feel obliged to avenge his father” (Instructor’s Last Name n.p.). This indicates that Laertes had great love for his father and that he would not leave to see anyone harm his father without taking stern action.
Another connection to Hamlet and Laertes’ ostensibly identical behavior is their mutual esteem for one another, despite the twisted assassinations and deaths of their treasured friends. Hamlet and Laertes are about to engage in a duel, which Hamlet did not know its aim. Finally, to Hamlet’s chagrin, he discovers that the duel’s prime objective was for Laertes to wreak revenge for the deaths of his father and sister. Despite this, Hamlet overcomes his irrational behavior and publicly apologizes to Laertes for the murders of Polonius and Ophelia. With the apologies, Laertes responds that he has pardoned Hamlet. However, he must keep the fight to defend his respect and that of his family, which Hamlet gratefully accepts.
Despite all of Hamlet’s and Laertes’ similarities throughout the play, there is one clear difference between them: how they behave when presented with the difficult duty of revenge. It is clear that Hamlet’s character and personality, which leads to his vengeful action, is rational, whereas Laertes’ revenge is motivated by passion and instinct. When Hamlet’s father appeared to him as a ghost, revealing that Claudius had slain him, Hamlet ignored the information and never proceeded to get his revenge right immediately.
Hamlet’s response was that of a thoughtful and meticulous person. It took a while for Hamlet to believe that the ghost was his father’s good spirit, conveying honest words so that his soul may finally be at peace, but again, Hamlet desired further confirmation. Hamlet was not willing to act unless he was certain and had proof of Claudius’ guilt (Haque 57). Hamlet together with Horatio, was able to authenticate the truth conveyed by his father’s spirit and tell Claudius’ culpability through the scene he added to the drama, which was re-enacting his father’s death. Hamlet had been struggling with moral dilemmas and concerns up until this point.
Before any more blood was spilled, Hamlet sought to be sure Claudius was the killer of his beloved father. It took evidence and reason of Claudius’ culpability for Hamlet to fully be convinced that he could revenge his father’s death (Hamlet 43).In contrast, Laertes never acquired the same level of proof to avenge his sister and father’s deaths. Even though he has no idea who is to blame for either, Laertes is passionately eager to threaten vengeance. “Ironically, Laertes says that he would cut Hamlet’s throat even in church (Scene 7 Line 139), drawing a starking contrast with Hamlet who refused to kill his uncle in church” (Instructor’s Last Name n.p.). This shows how Laertes is driven by impulse and unwise personality to take his vengeance against the person who murdered his beloved ones.
Experience and wisdom are things that truly come with life. Every moment of one’s life is a great opportunity to learn how to act and react in different situations. Individuals can be raised in the same parenthood, home, and school environment but adapt very differently when confronted with extreme situations as avenging the death of a loved one. It is unthinkable and incorrect to say that another person would do the same given the same condition. Life’s challenges are what propel one to the next level and that no two obstacles, no matter how comparable, are ever the same.
Works Cited
Hamlet, Pairing Shakespeare’S., Matthew Quick’S. Forgive Me, and Leonard Peacock. “Revenge, Mental Health, and Suicide.” Shakespeare and Young Adult Literature: Pairing and Teaching (2021): 43.
Haque, Farhana. “Revenge and Vengeance in Shakespeare’s Hamlet: A Study of Hamlet’s Pursuit and Procrastination Regarding Revenge.” Journal Of Humanities And Social Science 21.9 (2016): 55-59.
Instructor’s Last Name, First Name. “Hamlet Prince of Denmark: Act I, III, IV & V Lecture Notes.” Literature and Languages, University Name. Date handout was received. Course handout.
Grey Squirrels: Fieldwork Observations
The grey squirrel is a mammal that is native to the United States and some provinces of Canada. Due to its grey fur, the squirrel frequently occurs in city environments since the color increases the species’ survival rate in urban conditions. As a consequence, these animals and their behavior are of great interest to researchers. Fieldwork observations might help understand their behavioral patterns better and measure the intelligence and cognition of the grey squirrel, which live in close proximity to humans. Interacting with other species and modifying their behavioral patterns, these animals adjust and survive successfully.
First of all, the behavior of grey squirrels can be considered as highly vigilance with regard to cues of safety. Lilly et al. (2019) show in their research that grey squirrels adapt adequately to the environment to protect themselves from predators. More particularly, researchers pay their attention to the interaction of these animals with birds: they respond to “bird chatter,” perceiving it as an indicator of the lack of danger.
Lilly et al. (2019) compared the behavior of squirrels when birds chirp and when there was no chatter but “playback recording of a red-tailed hawk.” Hence, they have found that, in the second case, squirrels more frequently looked up and demonstrated vigilance behavior, whereas, after the chatter, they showed a lower level of alertness. In other words, it suggests that they use information included in bird chatter as a signal of safety. Given that, it can be claimed that grey squirrels adjust their behavior and the level of alarm in accordance with species, which shares the same carnivores. Thus, such interspecies interaction as a measure of safety might prove the high rate of intelligence of the grey squirrels.
Concerning grey squirrels behavior in terms of evolution and learning, they show a high degree of readiness to change preferred behavior and a willingness to switch to other methods of resolving problems. With regard to learned behavior, Chow et al. (2019) found that grey squirrels can inhabit innate and learned behavior when it becomes unproductive and search for alternative solutions. When an animal finds a successful method for solving a problem, it learns and applies it as a cognitively economical method for solving similar problems. However, animals need some adjustment mechanisms in order to change these behavioral patterns if they are not effective anymore.
These behavioral adjustments reflect animals’ cognitive flexibility essential for problem-solving success (Chow et al., 2019). In other words, the researchers outlined two indicators of problem-solving flexibility. They found that all squirrels successfully dealt with the altered problem, which could not be solved through the previous methods, on the first trial. Moreover, animals showed “solving durations comparable to their last experience of using their preferred solution” (Chow et al., 2019). Thus, it can be claimed that, due to their inhibitory control, grey squirrels do not necessarily emit innate or learned behavior if it is not effective; as a consequence, they adapt successfully to changing environment.
Furthermore, there is no relation between brain lateralization and grey squirrels’ learning success. Leaver et al. (2020) examined the connection between lateralization and cognitive performance in Sciurus carolinensis. The researchers used the measurement of left or right paw preference as a behavioral assay of cerebral lateralization, while the squirrels’ learning speed was a cognitive efficiency assay. They discovered “a negative relationship between the strength of paw preference and performance on the learning task” (Leaver et al., 2020). Hence, it can be said that grey squirrels are strongly reliant on spatial memory, which is essential for food caches, and might profit from the bilateral redundancy presented by a more symmetrical brain.
Regarding the possible implications of the observations and research articles for measuring animal intelligence and cognition, the presented articles provide relevant information. According to the researches, it is possible to estimate the intelligence level of grey squirrels as high enough. The need to adapt to the urban environment forces them to interact with other species, in particular birds, to defend against common enemies. The ability to perceive signs of other species shows a considerable degree of organization and brainpower. Furthermore, the significant flexibility of the learning processes and the symmetrical brain, revealed in the presented studies, makes it possible to assess the high-level consciousness of grey squirrels.
The studies that are surveying the behavior of squirrels in the course of conducted experiments have discovered not only special behavioral patterns but also confirmation of superior intelligence and consciousness.
To conclude, the fieldwork observations showed a high rate of animal intelligence and cognitive flexibility. Living in urban environments, grey squirrels adapt successfully to quickly changing circumstances due to their willingness to modify behavioral patterns to be more effective, interspecies interactions, and their cognitive efficiency. Grey squirrels demonstrate the ability to protect themselves against predators due to bird signals’ perception and change their performance if the previous one became less productive. Moreover, the presented observations of grey squirrels’ behavior might be implemented for estimating animal intelligence and cognition.
References
Chow, P. K. Y., Lea, S. E. G., de Ibarra, N. H., & Théo, R. (2019). Inhibitory control and memory in the search process for a modified problem in grey squirrels, Sciurus carolinensis. Animal Cognition, 22(5), 645-655. Web.
Leaver, L. A, Ford, S., Miller, C.W, Yeo, M.K., & Fawcett, T. W. (2020). Learning is negatively associated with strength of left/right paw preference in wild grey squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis). Learning & Behavior, 48(1), 96-103. Web.
Lilly, M. V., Lucore, E. C., & Tarvin, K. A. (2019). Eavesdropping grey squirrels infer safety from bird chatter. PLoS One, 14(9), 1-15. Web.
Eggers’s “The Circle”: Characters And The Theme
In the age of social media, people are more defenseless than ever, as their information becomes readily available for various organizations and applications. Eggers’s The Circle, a short story written in 2013 when the issue was already burning, reflects that defenselessness. The author reveals the devastating effects of social media on people and their relationships. This essay will analyze how the POV, the characters, and the theme strengthen and help relay the message.
The author uses effective third-person narration to drive the story and present the issue. The POV character is Mae, who is at the point of dating her co-worker, Francis. The story’s scope limits her perspective to the place where the presentation occurs, but it is sufficient to expose all three relevant characters, including Gus. Mae’s changing feelings reflect her development: at first, she “felt happy,” then Mae “laughed out loud” with everyone, and further progression sees her “dizzy and terrified” (Eggers, 2013, para. 1, 9, 25). Her characterization is that of a victim whose private information is on display, and the other two characters, Francis and Gus, seem unfazed because they were “transformed” by the stage (Eggers, 2013, para. 25). Mae hates that version of her would-be boyfriend to the point that she “wanted to kill” him (Eggers, 2013, para. 45). Their relationship is likely ruined by the incident, although Francis will probably not realize what he did wrong. The characters exemplify real-life archetypes: profit-driven social media creators, those who benefit from using them, and unfortunate victims of both.
As mentioned, the story’s message is about the negative impact of social media on people, and it exists within the general theme of human relationships. Gus wanted the application to be a positive force in helping pairs, but the intent backfires as the presentation proceeds to spoil Mae’s affection toward Francis. Perhaps, the “high-powered and very surgical search machinery” is not the right way to develop relationships (Eggers, 2013, para. 13). The author could imply that the slower but surer centuries-old way to become familiar with a person is superior.
In conclusion, The Circle reflects the topic issue of how social media can affect human relationships. On the one hand, the characters are real – people suffer after oversharing their information online, which later can be used against them. On the other hand, the theme is ever-relevant – building relationships with people, and the application in question is not the way.
Reference
Eggers, D. (2013). The Circle (excerpt). In M. Grønvold & H. Ohland-Andersen (Eds.), Footprints (p. 148). Gyldendal.