Thursday, December 26, 2019

Wallis Simpson Life, Legacy, Marriage to Edward VIII

Wallis Simpson (born Bessie Wallis Wakefield; 19 June 1896—24 April 1986) was an American socialite who gained notoriety for her relationship with Edward VIII. Their relationship caused a constitutional crisis that ultimately led to Edward’s abdication. Fast Facts: Wallis Simpson Known For: Socialite whose relationship with Edward VIII caused a scandal and led Edward to abdicate the British throne.Given Name:  Bessie Wallis WarfieldBorn: June 19, 1896 in Blue Ridge Summit, PennsylvaniaDied: April 24, 1986 in Paris, FranceSpouses: Earl Winfield Spencer, Jr. (m. 1916-1927), Ernest Aldrich Simpson (m. 1928-1937), Edward VIII aka Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor (m. 1937-1972) Early Life Wallis was born in Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania, a popular resort town near the Maryland border. Her father, Teackle Wallis Warfield, was the son of a wealthy Baltimore flour merchant, and her mother, Alice Montague, was a stockbroker’s daughter. Although Wallis always claimed her parents married in June 1895, parish records show that they weren’t married until November 1895—meaning that Wallis was conceived out of wedlock, considered a big scandal at the time. Teackle Warfield died in November 1896, when Wallis was only five months old. His death left Wallis and her mother dependent first on Teackles brother, then on Alice’s sister. Walliss mother Alice remarried in 1908 to a prominent Democratic politician. When Wallis was in her teens, she attended an elite all-girls school in Maryland, where she excelled academically and gained a reputation for her polished style. First Marriages In 1916, Wallis met Earl Winfield Spencer, Jr., a pilot with the U.S. Navy. They married later that year. From the beginning, however, their relationship was strained, in large part due to Spencer’s heavy drinking. By 1920, they entered an on-and-off period of temporary separations, and Wallis had at least one affair (with Argentine diplomat, Felipe de Espil). The couple traveled overseas in 1924, and Wallis spent most of the year in China; her exploits there were the subject of much rumor and speculation in later years, though little was ever confirmed. The Spencers’ divorce was finalized in 1927, at which point Wallis had already become romantically involved with Ernest Aldrich Simpson, a shipping magnate. Simpson divorced his first wife, with whom he had a daughter, to marry Wallis in 1928. The Simpsons set up a house in the wealthy London neighborhood of Mayfair. In 1929, Wallis returned to America to be with her dying mother. Although Walliss investments were destroyed in the Wall Street Crash of 1929, Simpson’s shipping business was still booming, and Wallis returned to a comfortable and wealthy life. However, the couple soon began to live beyond their means, and financial difficulties loomed. Relationship with the Prince Through a friend, Wallis met Edward, Prince of Wales, in 1931. After crossing paths for a few years at house parties, Wallis and Edward entered a romantic and sexual relationship in 1934. Edward abandoned his previous mistresses and the relationship deepened. He even introduced Wallis to his parents, which caused a huge scandal, seeing as divorced people were not typically welcome at court. On January 20, 1936, King George V died and Edward ascended to the throne as Edward VIII. It quickly became clear that Wallis and Edward intended to marry, as she was already in the process of divorcing Simpson on the grounds that he had committed adultery. This presented several problems. From a social and moral perspective, Wallis was not considered a suitable consort. Even more pressingly, from a religious perspective, her marriage to Edward was constitutionally forbidden, since the the monarch is the head of the Church of England and the Church forbade remarriage of divorced persons. Abdication of Edward VIII By the end of 1936, Wallis’s relationship with the king had become public knowledge, and she managed to flee to her friends’ home in France just ahead of the media frenzy. Despite pressure on all sides, Edward refused to give up his relationship Wallis, and instead chose to abdicate the throne in the face of a constitutional crisis. He officially abdicated on December 10, 1936, and his brother became George VI. Edward departed for Austria, where he waited out the end of Wallis’s divorce proceedings. Wallis and Edward married on June 3, 1937—the same day as Edwards late father’s birthday. No members of the royal family attended. Edward had become the Duke of Windsor upon his brother’s accession, and while Wallis was permitted the title of â€Å"Duchess of Windsor† upon their marriage, the royal family refused to let her share in the â€Å"Royal Highness† style. Duchess of Windsor Wallis, along with Edward, was soon suspected of being a Nazi sympathizer—not a far jump, since the couple visited Germany and met with Hitler in 1937. Intelligence files at the time also suspected Wallis of carrying on an affair with at least one high-ranking Nazi. The couple fled their French home to Spain, where they were hosted by a pro-German banker, then to the Bahamas, where Edward was sent to perform the duties of governor. Wallis worked with the Red Cross and devoted time to charitable causes while in the Bahamas. However, her private papers revealed a deep disdain for the country and its people, and the couple’s Nazi connections continued to come to light. The couple returned to France after the war and lived socially; their relationship may have deteriorated over the years. Wallis Simpson published her memoirs in 1956, reportedly editing and rewriting her own history to portray herself in a more flattering light. Later Life and Death The Duke of Windsor died of cancer in 1972, and Wallis reportedly had a breakdown at his funeral. By this time, she was suffering from dementia and other health problems, and her lawyer, Suzanne Blum, took advantage of Wallis’s state to enrich herself and her friends. By 1980, Wallis’s health had declined to the point where she could no longer speak. On April 24, 1986, Wallis Simpson died in Paris. Her funeral was attended by several members of the royal family, and much of her estate was, surprisingly, left to charity. Her legacy remains a complicated one—an ambitious and glamorous woman whose great romance led to great losses. Sources Higham, Charles. The Duchess of Windsor: The Secret Life. McGraw-Hill, 1988.King, Greg. The Duchess of Windsor: The Uncommon Life of Wallis Simpson. Citadel, 2011.â€Å"Wallis Warfied, Duchess of Windsor. Encyclopaedia Brittanica, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Wallis-Warfield-duchess-of-Windsor.

Wednesday, December 18, 2019

Heart of Darkness Commentary - 893 Words

Tiffany Thet November 26, 2011 IB English Year 1 Heart of Darkness Commentary Heart of Darkness is a novella written by Conrad, a parallel of the very experiences that Conrad has gone through and ultimately a look at human nature at its lowest and cruelest form. The book centers around Marlow, an introspective sailor, and his journey up the Congo River to meet Kurtz, reputed to be an idealistic man of great abilities, as if he was a deity. Ultimately Kurtz’s mental collapse and subsequent monstrosities culminate into a tragic anti-climatic death in which Kurtz utters the dying words â€Å"The horror! The horror!† His dying words seem to reflect Kurtz own feelings and realizations of his very being, his demise and his regret for†¦show more content†¦This is also coupled with the fact that the words are emphasized with exclamation points despite the fact that it was â€Å"a cry that was no more than a breath† further drives home the sense of urgency and pain that Kurtz’s last moments on Earth were. In the context of the structure and the moment in the novel that it takes place it only further cause the reader to have a sense of pity towards Kurtz. His dying words come at an almost anti-climatic stage of the novel further eliciting the sense of pity and regret that surrounds Kurtz. It’s an abrupt ending to this once god-like character which seemed to be â€Å"above† everyone. Conrad’s use of separating his dying words from the passage that describes his death leaves the reader feeling disjointed and makes the death seem almost broken further fueling the sense of regret and pain that surrounds Kurtz’s last words. Ultimately, whether or not Kurtz finds redemption in death the reader may never know however perhaps it is not the brutality, nor the madness, perhaps not even the dark realizations of the character that is Kurtz’s legacy. Perhaps it is Kurtz’s potential for, in spite of his twisted and psychotic mind, greatness and sheer ambition that will be his legacy. Perhaps this is what Conrad wants us to merely see in Kurtz’s dying words, perhaps this is all we untouched humans will see: theShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Joseph Conrad s Heart Of Darkness1250 Words   |  5 Pages Written in 1902, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness follows the character Marlow in his journey up the Congo River to find the mysterious Kurtz, an ivory trader. In the story, Conrad explores the issues of colonialism and imperialism. The Company has enslaved native Congolese to help them mine for ivory and rubber in the area. The Congolese experience brutal working conditions as the company p rofits off their free labor. Racism is evident throughout the story with Marlow calling the blacks â€Å"savages†Read MoreEthnocentrism: with Whom Resides the Heart of Darkness?790 Words   |  4 PagesEthnocentrism 1 Ethnocentrism With Whom Resides the Heart of Darkness? Antonio Arevalo James Campbell High School Ethnocentrism 2 Abstract This paper discusses Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrads most acclaimed novel, and attempts to determine what the heart of darkness that Conrad speaks of is. I found, through my interpretations, that the heart of darkness is the ethnocentrism that Europeans maintained in the age of colonialism. 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In Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad suggests that humans only seek personal profit, shown through character relationshipsRead MoreImperialism Within the Heart of Darkness1143 Words   |  5 PagesImperialism within the Heart of Darkness A phenomenon, The Heart of Darkness, is a classic novel by Joseph Conrad, who reward individuals with their dark nature. The darkness that the characters face within themselves is the anchor towards the main theme of imperialism. Native Africans, around the early 1900s, were victims of imperialism in the novel. The Europeans saw themselves as prodigies and felt everyone redundant wanted to be like them for they perceived themselves as extraordinary. TheRead MoreStevenson and Conrad: The Duality of Human Nature 949 Words   |  4 Pagesalso employs the literary device of symbolism to further display the theme, the duality of human nature in his novella Heart of Darkness. Three major examples of symbolism are evident in this novella. These examples include, light and dark, the Congo River, and ivory. Similar to Stevenson, Conrad uses light and dark symbolism throughout his novella. Yet curiously in Heart of Darkness, light does not symbolize genuine goodness nor does dark symbolize p ure calamity. Marlow proves this when he says asRead MoreThe Ideas of Reality and Perception in Heart of Darkness1350 Words   |  6 Pageswe have been reading. The Heart of Darkness explores reality and perspective in several interesting ways; these include amongst others the interplay of reality and objectivity, the use of otherness to define one’s own identity and the construction of that otherness in direct association with one’s perceptions of oneself. This essay seeks to trace the interconnectedness of the ideas of reality and perspective in Heart of Darkness with a view to both the process and results ofRead MoreNarrative Structure In Heart Of Darkness, By Joseph Conrad736 Words   |  3 PagesA frame narrative structure allows authors to incorporate their character’s reflection and their own opinions into a story. The novella Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, uses a frame structure to tell the story of Marlow, a European seaman, as he journeys into Africa to extract an ivory hoarder. However, in the frame of the story, the people who hear Marlow’s tale seem to be unmoved and do not take Marlow seriousl y. The lack of response from the group suggests they do not want to hear Marlow,Read MoreAn Analysis of Conrads Heart of Darkness Essay1465 Words   |  6 PagesAn Analysis of Conrads Heart of Darkness In the twentieth century, nihilistic themes, such as moral degeneration, mans bestial instincts at the core of the soul, and cosmic purposelessness, have

Tuesday, December 10, 2019

Music App. Notes Essay Example For Students

Music App. Notes Essay From the Syllabus Course Content: Outline for the Elements of Music (from your textbook): 1. Melody (The Tune): The main idea in a piece of music. Melody is the single line of notes heard in succession as a coherent unit. A melody has a shape moving up or down in ways that capture and hold our attention over a span of time. A melody is like a story: it has a beginning, middle, and an end. 2. Rhythm (The Time): The organization of beats or pulses in time. Rhythm is the ordering of music through time. Not all music has a melody, but all music has rhythm. A drum solo, for example, makes its effect primarily through rhythm. Rhythm can operate on many levels, from a repetitive, underlying pulse or beat to rapidly changing patterns of longer and shorter periods. 3. Harmony (Supporting the Melody): The chords or pitches that are sounded simultaneously. Harmony is the sound created by multiple voices playing or singing together. Harmony enriches the melody by creating a fuller sound than can be produced by a single voice. 4. Texture (Thick and Thin): The basic fabric of a piece of music made up of various elements used by the composer. Texture is based on the number and general relationship of musical lines or voices. Every work of music has a texture from thick: (many voices) to thin (a single voice). Sometimes one line or voice is more important; at other times all the lines or voices are of equal importance. 5. Timbre (The Color of Music): The characteristic of musical sounds. The same melody sounds very different when performed by a violin, a clarinet, a guitar, or a human voice. These sources can all produce the same pitch, but what makes the same melody sound different is the timbre of each one. 6. Dynamics (Loud to Soft): The degrees of volume. The same music can be performed at many degrees of volume, from very soft to very loud. Dynamics determine the volume of a given work or passage in a work of music. 7. Form (The Architecture of Music): The overall layout of a piece of music. A single melody is usually too short to constitute a complete work of music. Typically a melody is repeated, varied, or contrasted with a different melody. The way in which all these subunits are put together The structure of the whole is musical form. Form is based on repetition (AAA), variation (AAA), contrast (AS), or some combination of these Music App. Notes By swallowtails The origin and vocabulary of music terminology. If there is text to be sung, we must consider the relationship of the words to the music. How does the music capture the meaning and spirit of its text? And even if there is not a text to be sung, many works have titles that suggest how we might hear them. Titles like Winter, Rodeo, and The Rite of Spring strongly influence the way in which we hear these works. Some composers have even written detailed descriptions of what a particular work is about in what we call program music. 9. Genre (Great Expectations): The particular style of a piece of music. When we get into a car, we imagine what kind of trip we are about to take and where we are going: business, pleasure, across town, across state. When we listen too work of music, we have similar expectations. Symphony, opera, and song are all examples of genres.

Monday, December 2, 2019

The Joy of Winning Essay Example For Students

The Joy of Winning Essay Long, long ago, about 10 years to be exact, a young boy enters his creation into the county fair with the hopes of taking home the blue ribbon. Once it is entered he wanders off in search of the prime location to set it so that the judges can bask in its glory. He goes home later that night and for the next three days he sits and bites at his nails nervously waiting to hear that the rankings have been posted. As soon as he does, he rushes to look at his masterpiece and finds a lone red ribbon on it. He got second place yet again. We will write a custom essay on The Joy of Winning specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now This wasn’t the first nor would it be the last, but there were many victories yet to come. At the age of five all I did with my spare time was play with Legos. I had buckets and boxes full of them. At times it was even difficult to walk around in my bedroom because my floor was covered with pieces of Lego; I don’t know how many times I stepped on them. My bedroom was set up so that I had a lot of room after the end of my bed where I could play, and play I did. As soon as you walked through the door it seemed to me like walking into heaven, or Legoland, being that I had little â€Å"stations† set up for different projects. Throughout the year, I would make different things: buildings, statues, creatures; anything a person could think up in their imagination. Each year at the beginning of August, I would think through all of the things I had made during the past year, then recreate the ones I thought were the most complex and cool to rebuild and submit them to the county fair. There were multiple size categories, so I was able to enter more than one of my creations. The categories were based on complexity, or how many pieces the entry had. Therefore, I was able to use three different pieces of my work. One was very small, only about seventy-five pieces, it somewhat resembled a spaceship, the largest one was over a thousand pieces, this was a large imaginative cityscape, and the other was somewhere in-between, this one was not that memorable of a piece. After I had entered in, I went to take a gander at my competition. Many were impressive, though some were just builds that you bought from the store with instructions, such as: space ships from Star Wars, scenes from Indiana Jones, or farms with a large barn with animals in it. Later, I went home and went on with the rest of my week waiting in anticipation for Sunday when I could go and see how my building skills were. Thankfully my mother knew how important this was to me and took me to the fair each day so that I could jaunt around and behold all of the marvels people had enrolled to give me new ideas of what to compose for next year. The moment we arrived on Sunday, I dashed to find my entries. To my stupefaction, there was a blue ribbon on my hefty make. Even though the others were red and green ribbons, I was ecstatic! I brought three projects home and after displaying the winner for close to a month, I disassembled all of them and was on my way to new and better creations. It was the closest thing I had to a trophy, so I cherished it. I bragged about my accomplishment at school by pinning the bright blue ribbon to my backpack and bringing the other less fortunate warriors of the fair for show-and-tell. Over the next year, I tried making more intricate, complex buildings rather than trying to win by sheer mass. .u01f1da9ec2eef29b9c68070c183eb045 , .u01f1da9ec2eef29b9c68070c183eb045 .postImageUrl , .u01f1da9ec2eef29b9c68070c183eb045 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u01f1da9ec2eef29b9c68070c183eb045 , .u01f1da9ec2eef29b9c68070c183eb045:hover , .u01f1da9ec2eef29b9c68070c183eb045:visited , .u01f1da9ec2eef29b9c68070c183eb045:active { border:0!important; } .u01f1da9ec2eef29b9c68070c183eb045 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u01f1da9ec2eef29b9c68070c183eb045 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u01f1da9ec2eef29b9c68070c183eb045:active , .u01f1da9ec2eef29b9c68070c183eb045:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u01f1da9ec2eef29b9c68070c183eb045 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u01f1da9ec2eef29b9c68070c183eb045 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u01f1da9ec2eef29b9c68070c183eb045 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u01f1da9ec2eef29b9c68070c183eb045 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u01f1da9ec2eef29b9c68070c183eb045:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u01f1da9ec2eef29b9c68070c183eb045 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u01f1da9ec2eef29b9c68070c183eb045 .u01f1da9ec2eef29b9c68070c183eb045-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u01f1da9ec2eef29b9c68070c183eb045:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Nuclear Energy (1712 words) EssayThe end results were stupendous airplanes and ornate vehicles, these took me much longer to manufacture, and the end result gave me a feeling of deep accomplishment. Signing in to the competition the next year was much more difficult than before because of how intricate my designs were. I was forced to simplify my designs to be allowed to enter them in multiple size categories because of how many small parts there were. I actually lied on one of them because I felt like it would be a dishonor to the build if I took pieces off. To my utter disappointment, that year I unfortunately did not make even third place with any of my works of art. The top three places were: The Millennium falcon in first place, a large Godzilla looking build in a ruined town in second, and a calm, cool beach scene in third. Skip forward quite a few years to when I was age thirteen. My handiwork consisted of: dragons, exo-suits, and realistic cityscapes. Now that I am older, the difficulty of beating my peers has become more challenging, though with greater reward. Since there is now money involved, for first through third place, the children I faced in my younger years have upped their game and invest more time and effort into their builds, just as I have done my whole life. Once I enroll my new generation of competitors, I go on with my normal life for the next couple of days hoping that I’ll be lucky this year, since the last couple haven’t been to good. I return at the end of the week and am disappointed to find that I was not up to par for the second year in a row. Year after year, I would enter new works thinking that they would be powerful and bewilder the judges. As the challenge becomes tougher each year, I grow with it and become a better competitor against my peers. I don’t have as much free time to spend building, so when I do it is very intense. I have earned a fairly decent amount of money while competing, though most of it has been spent on more Legos. Looking back, it still seems like my most successful masterpiece was still the city I made at five. I await the new challenge to create something I haven’t before and look towards the future and the friends, enemies, and ideas to come.