The Canterbury Tales Character Sketch - 956 Words

Author Geoffrey Chaucer describes in-depth several characters who intend to embark on a religious pilgrimage in his piece The Canterbury Tales. One of the prominently featured characters is the Friar. The Friar is certainly one of the most unorthodox characters in the piece who is the antithesis of the character qualities expected of a friar. Chaucer’s description and implications reveal that the Friar is an adulterous, cold-hearted individual with a disingenuous personality that is rooted in his self-absorbed nature. Chaucer’s description of the Friar is quite extensive comparative to that of the other pilgrims he discusses, allowing the reader to develop a complete picture of him. Throughout the description, Chaucer reveals the†¦show more content†¦He reveals, â€Å"He was an easy man for absolution Where he looked forward to a contribution† (67 lines 218-219). The Friar blatantly contradicts his calling to uphold Scripture by granting absolution in ex change for a bribe. This clearly indicates that the Friar is not concerned with the welfare of others but rather is interested in profiting from their sins. The Friar’s inconsiderate nature is further revealed by Chaucer when he describes how the Friar would react to an encounter with a direly impoverished woman. Chaucer predicts, â€Å"Should a woman have no shoes against the snow, So pleasant was his ‘In principio’ He would have her widow’s mite before he went† (68 lines 245-247). It is quite uncommon to characterize a friar, whose duty it is to minister to the poor, as an individual who would express no willingness to aid a woman in desperate poverty. Yet Chaucer describes the Friar as one who would exhibit such an indifferent, cold-hearted response. In both of these scenarios, Chaucer illustrates the Friar’s contrasting interactions with the public and his lovers, which reveals his disingenuous personality. Not only does the discrepancy b etween public and private interactions indicate the Friar’s disingenuous personality, but also Chaucer’s description of his behavior around those individuals who can offer him something. Chaucer explains, â€Å"To deal with such riffraff; but with the rich, With sellers ofShow MoreRelated Women in Anglo-Saxon England Essay1685 Words   |  7 Pagesposition in society. Character Analysis The Wife of Bath In the fourteenth century, English poet Geoffrey Chaucer wrote his famous work called The Canterbury Tales. He was one of the first writers to pay attention not only to noble characters, but to people from the lower and middle classes. One of his outstanding characters is Dame Alisoun, called the Wife of Bath. She is a very open, straightforward woman that impresses me the most of all the characters in The Canterbury Tales. I believe that sheRead MoreWilliam Blake was born in London on November 28, 1757 to James and Catherine Blake. His father,1600 Words   |  7 Pagesantiquities, due to the high cost of drawing school (Merriman 2). During his seven year apprenticeship, Blake learned the skills he would need for his career as a professional engraver and painter (Ross 1). Basire exposed Blake to Gothic styles, having him sketch images of tombs and monuments in Gothic churches and Westminster Abby. There, Blake was inspired for his own eventual illustrations (Merriman 2). In 1778 Bl ake attended the Royal Academy, but soon left after having disagreements about art with theRead MoreAmerican Literature11652 Words   |  47 Pages Rationalism / Age of Enlightenment period of American Literature - 1750-1800 Content: ï‚ · ï‚ · ï‚ · ï‚ · national mission and American character democratic utopia use of reason history is an act of individual and national self-assertion Genre/Style: ï‚ · ï‚ · ï‚ · ï‚ · ï‚ · political pamphlets travel writing highly ornate writing style fiction employs generic plots and characters fiction often tells the story of how an innocent young woman is tested by a seductive male Effect: ï‚ · ï‚ · ï‚ · ï‚ · patriotism growsRead MoreA Picatrix Miscellany52019 Words   |  209 Pagescombination of all three reasons. At all events, a similar method of presentation is apparent in one of the principal sources of The Aim of the Sage, the encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity (Ihwà ¢n al-Safà ¢). What follows is a survey of the whole, with a sketch of the sources, as far as they can at present be identified. No attempt has been made to impose a logical order on the illogicality of the book. Book I In the preface, after some autobiographical material, the author gives his reason for writing the

Warren and Rehnquist and the Effects of Major Court Cases on the Law Enforcement of Today Free Essays

Have you thought about how much the Supreme Court decisions really affect your life and what we do on a daily basis or how important these decisions are to our civil liberties? Earl Warren and William Rehnquist are two of the most well knows Supreme Court Chief Justices. Each having different opinions on the importance’s of civil liberties and public order maintenance. Many of the court cases that each Chief Justice would hear would change the very way that we live today. We will write a custom essay sample on Warren and Rehnquist and the Effects of Major Court Cases on the Law Enforcement of Today or any similar topic only for you Order Now As well as how law enforcement interact with regards to the 5th, 6th, 8th, and 14th Amendments. In this essay we will discuss compare and contrast the Chief Justice Earl Warrens Court versus the William Rehnquist Court, with special regards to how they effected the law enforcements, then finally addressing how the current Supreme Court balances out civil liberties against public order maintenance. Earl Warren was born on March 19, 1891 in Los Angeles, California. He attended the University of California, Berkeley, he majored in political science for three years before entering UBS’s School of Law. He received his B. S. degree in 1912 and his J. D. degree in 1914. On May 14, he was admitted to the California Bar (http://warren. csd. edu/about/biography. html). After he graduated Warren got hired on at law offices in San Francisco and Oakland. In 1925, he was appointed Alameda County district attorney when the incumbent resigned. He won election to the post in his own right in 1926,1930, and 1934. During his fourteen years as district attorney, Warren developed a reputatio n as a crime fighter. In those years he never had a conviction reversed by a higher court. Earl Warren was a republican although he had broad bipartisan support because of his centrist to liberal views. He was then elected to governorships of California in 1942, 1946, and 1950. In 1953 President Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed Earl Warren the fourteenth Chief Justice of the United States. Earl Warren is one of the most well know Chief Justice because of his most popular Supreme Court decisions in the case Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, 1955, which ended segregation in school. This decision and many others like this are important cases that the Earl Warren Court made. The Warren Court left a legacy of judicial activism in civil rights law and individual liberties. The focus was specifically on the rights of the accused as addressed in Amendments 4 through 8. In the period from 1961 to 1969, the Warren Court examined almost every aspect of the criminal justice system in the United States, using the 14th Amendment to extend constitutional protections to all courts in every State. This process became known as the â€Å"nationalization† of the Bill of Rights. The Warren Court’s revolution in the criminal justice system began with the case of Mapp vs. Ohio (367 U. S. 643 [1961]) (http://www. infoplease. com/us/supreme-court/cases/ar19. html). In 1957 Cleveland, Ohio, police thought a bombing suspect, and illegal betting equipment might be in Dollree Mapp’s home. Three officers went to Mapp’s home and asked permission to search, but Mapp refused. Mapp requested the police obtain a search warrant. Two officers left the home while one remained. About three hours later, the two officers returned with several other police officers. The returning officers flashed a piece of paper at Mapp, and broke her door entering the residence. Mapp asked to see the â€Å"warrant† and took it from an officer, putting it down the front of her dress. The police fought with Mapp and regained the paper. They handcuffed the non-compliant Mapp for being belligerent. Police did not find the bombing suspect or the betting equipment during the conduct of their search, but found some pornography in a suitcase by Mapp’s bed. Mapp said that she had loaned the suitcase to a renter and the contents were not her property. Mapp was arrested, prosecuted, tried found guilty, and sentenced for possession of the pornography. No search warrant had been obtained during the course of the investigation of this case, and was not produced as evidence at her trial. When Mapp vs. Ohio reached the Supreme Court in 1961, the decided in a five to four decision that the exclusionary rule applies to the states. It concluded that other remedies, such as reliance on the due process clause to enforce fourth amendment violations had proven worthless and futile. In this landmark case, it changed the way law enforcement at the state level operated. Where illegally obtained evidence had been admissible in State Courts previously, now under the Mapp ruling this would no longer be tolerated. In another landmark case Terry vs. Ohio (392 U. S. 1 [1968]) Martin McFadden, a police detective for 39 years, was patrolling the streets of Cleveland, Ohio, on October 31, 1963. In the afternoon, McFadden saw two men, John Terry and Richard Chilton, hanging out on a street corner. McFadden’s training and experience told him the two men looked suspicious, so he began to watch them from nearby. As McFadden watched, Terry and Chilton took turns walking past and looking inside a store window, they did this twelve times. At that point a third man joined them for a brief discussion on the street corner. Ten minutes later they headed down the street in the same direction as the third man whom they had met. McFadden believed the three men were getting ready to rob the store they were casing. McFadden again through his training and experience believed the suspects were armed and dangerous. McFadden followed Terry and Chilton and confronted them in front of Zucker’s store with the third man. McFadden said he was a police officer and asked their names, and received only mumbled responses. McFadden grabbed Terry, spun him around to face the other two men, and frisked him. McFadden felt a gun inside Terry’s coat, and ordered the men inside the business. Inside, McFadden removed Terry’s overcoat and found a . 38 caliber revolver. McFadden ordered the three men against the wall, and patted them down. McFadden found an additional revolver in Chilton’s overcoat. Ohio convicted Terry and Chilton of carrying concealed weapons. In an eight to one decision, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Ohio stating the police officer’s training and experience in this case gave him â€Å"reasonable suspicion† a robbery was going to occur. This allowed him to stop and frisk the suspects, which led to him finding pistols on two of them. From this court case the Supreme Court concluded reasonable suspicion is required to stop and frisk a person. How to cite Warren and Rehnquist and the Effects of Major Court Cases on the Law Enforcement of Today, Essays

Microsoft free essay sample

Microsoft became more aggressive in application software for IBM- standard PCs. It began to bundle Word, Excel, and PowerPoint into a popular suite, MS Office. It also began to offer competitive upgrades discounts for customers who were switching from WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3. Starting in 1995 and all the way to 2008, MS was the dominant provider of word processors, spreadsheets, and presentation software. Internet Browsers. Bill Gates sent a memo to his top team in 1995, making it clear that their focus on the Internet is crucial to every part of their business. A section in the memo titled Competition highlighted Netscape as a new competitor born on the internet. Promising to embrace and extend the internet, MS released Internet Explorer (E), their own version of a web browser. It was offered for free and bundled with Windows. Soon after, versions of IE were available not only for Windows, but also for Apple and Unix OSs. We will write a custom essay sample on Microsoft or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page MS also made deals with Internet Service providers (ISPs) who agreed to install IE when they provided internet to their customers. They also went to he extent of allowing AOL to place their icon on the Windows desktop, even though they were competitors. Netscape tried keeping up but their costs went up and webmasters started optimizing their sites for IE and not Navigator. All of this prompted the U. S. Department of Justice to bring an antitrust case against MS in 1998. They said that MS abused the power of its OS monopoly in order to create a new monopoly in the browser market. n 2001 MS reached a settlement with the government where they were required to disclose ceratin aspect of its software code o other firms and prohibited discriminatory agreements with PC makers. It also barred MS from bundling other applications with Windows unless rival amkers had equal access to being bundled with Windows. Java. As the internet went up, so did a programming language called Java, from Sun M icrosystems. MS licensed Java from Sun in 195. MS then developed and promoted a version of Java that ran best with Windows and not so well across other platforms. Sun sued them for creating a polluted version of Java and later for making Java ncompatible with Windows XP. The government later found an e-mail from a MS employee that advocated stealing and killing Java. The settlement reached in 2004 included a $1. 6 billion payment to Sun and resolved the dispute. Linux. News about a new threat starting circulating throughout MSs top ranks: open-source software, more specifically the Linux operating system. At first, Linux was used mostly on servers, but it was predicted that they would soon expand to desktops and laptops. Microsoft launched a response to Linux to include customer education fforts, opening the MS server OS code to some degree, selling stripped-down versions of their server OS at lower prices, and looking for competitive weaknesses in Linux in a lab. Later on, MS made a deal with Novell to work with them to make Windows server OS compatible with Novells version of Linux. Customers were scared of being sued by MS for using Linux without permission, but MS promised not to sue people that didnt pay for Novells Linux, without saying anything about other Linux versions. Some people saw this as a threat.

Life In A Highschool Essays - Social Groups, Youth, Adolescence

Life In A Highschool Life in a High School Bart Hayes Eng102sec.065 4/27/00 Cliques are small groups of between two and twelve individuals. Cliques are small enough that the members feel that they know each other better than do people outside the clique. Members of a clique share common activities and friendships. They are social settings in which adolescents ?hang out?, talk to each other, and form closer friendships. Groups of friends, called cliques can be important for social upgrading, but in most cases the enormous power and effects of these cliques can create alienation, exclusion , and destructive results. In my high school , as well as every other high school in America there are social groups of individuals, called cliques , that effect every individual whether they are an insider or an outsider. Generally there are the cool cliques , the athletic cliques, the freak clique, the skater clique, the smart clique, and the average clique. Almost everyone finds their place in one of these cliques, but there are always a few outsiders who go through high school never knowing where they belong. these are the people who are constantly ridiculed, picked on , and talked about day in and day out. The effects can be devastating, even deadly. In Littleton, Coloraldo two outcast teenagers came into school one day and began shooting, targeting the athletes and other students who had made their lives awful by ridiculing them constantly. ?Seniors Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold stormed their suburban Denver school with guns and bombs last April 20, killing 12 students and a teacher before taking their own lives?(Kenworthy 1). Augustana University education professor Larry Brendtro explained ?kids who feel powerless and rejected are capable of doing horrible things?(Cohen 4). A high school student, Jason Sanchez understands why the two outsider snapped by saying ?If you go to school, and you don't have friends, it drives you to insanity?(Cohen 4). So what do these lonely outcast kids do if they are rejected by everyone? Roger Rosenblatt discusses in his article, ?Welcome to the Works of the Trench Coat? , how kids will ?discover self-worth by hating an enemy?(Rosenblatt 1). The kids of Columbine for example ?look alike; they conceal differences. People who are attracted to clans and cults seek to lose their individuality and discover power and pride in a group. As individuals , the killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, were vulnerable, taunted by the other tribes in school-- the cliques, the athletes-- as geeks and nerds?(Rosenblatt 1). The end result as a young girl involved in the murders reported was , ?He just put a gun to my head, and he started laughing and saying it was all because people were mean to him last year?(Rosenblatt 1). The social warfare of cliques has no limits or boundaries; anything can and will happen. Columbine High School is only one example of how high school cliques can be damaging to teenagers. At Glen Ridge High School a group of jocks raped a retarded woman. ?In that attractive upper-middle-class New Jersey suburb, thirteen jocks were present in the basement where the young woman's body was penetrated by a baseball bat and a broomstick. The country was sickened by the inhumanity of a bunch of guys who were among the most admired and envied young men in their community and high school? (Lefkowitz 653). These star athletes were not even afraid of being punished. They told their friends and schoolmates of the incident not trying to hide it at all. Athletes are treated as kings of the school. This is not only true for the athletes , but for the cheerleaders too. In the article by Adam Cohen he says ?While others plod through high school, they glide: their exploits celebrated in the pep rallies and recorded in the school paper and trophy cases?(Cohen 2). Another high school student Blake McConnell says that ?The jocks and the cheerleaders have the most clout, they get out of punishment -- even with the police. Joe Blow has a wreck and has been drinking, and he gets the book thrown at him. The quarterback gets busted, and he gets a lighter sentence? ( Cohen 2). How does this

Sample Essay on SWOT Analysis

Sample Essay on SWOT AnalysisA sample essay on SWOT analysis can be a good way to obtain information about the various aspects of analyzing data. There are many different online courses or books that can help you get started. Some of these classes have been written by instructors with expertise in this field. When you have made a decision, you will then need to choose from one of these options or look for others based on the needs you have.It is not unusual for someone to start by reading sample essays and find them very helpful in helping to find the information they need. There are some great writing styles available in the online discussion boards as well. It is usually possible to find the most popular and most recent essays in different websites.Many people choose to write their own course or book about SWOT analysis. These books can often be found at Amazon or other internet book stores. The online author will take the information and provide you with the analytical skills you need to develop your own program.Many people won't be comfortable choosing one of these materials over another. They will also want to learn more about the basics and terminology before they delve into more advanced topics. There are several online classes available that give you the basics on how to analyze and create a model before moving on to the more advanced analysis.An online course is a great way to gain information on the things you need. You may find this information in an online course or books. You will find out what the format of the course is and what will be expected from you.If you choose to create your own online course or book, there are many components that you will need to consider. You will need to create your own writing style, learn grammar, write about relationships, and write about your specific subject. This type of program can help you learn how to make any book or course you are working on look more professional.You can also purchase your own personal boo ks. A good one can cost as little as a few dollars. However, if you are serious about learning, you should spend a little bit more money on the materials and software you use.

How to Use Italian Definite Article Forms

How to Use Italian Definite Article Forms The Italian definite article (articolo determinativo) indicates something well defined, which is assumed to be already acknowledged. If, for example, someone asks: Hai visto il professore? (Have you seen the professor?) they are alluding not to any professor, but to one in particular, that both the speaker and listener know. The definite article is also used to indicate a group (luomo à ¨ dotato di ragione, that is, ogni uomo- man is endowed with reason, every man), or to express the abstract (la pazienza à ¨ una gran virtà ¹- patience is a great virtue); to indicate parts of the body (mi fa male la testa, il braccio- my head hurts, my arm), to refer to objects that belong strictly to oneself mi hanno rubato il portafogli, non trovo pià ¹ le scarpe- they stole my wallet, I cannot find my shoes), and is also used with nouns that signify something unique in nature (il sole, la luna, la terra- the sun, the moon, the earth) and the names of materials and matter (il grano, loro- wheat, gold). In certain contexts the Italian definite article functions as a demonstrative adjective (aggettivo dimostrativo): Penso di finire entro la settimana- I think Ill finish by the end of the week (or later this week); Sentitelo lipocrita!- Listen to him the hypocrite! (this hypocrite!) or a demonstrative pronoun (pronome dimostrativo): Tra i due vini scelgo il rosso- Between the two wines I choose the red, (the one thats red); Dei due attori preferisco il pià ¹ giovane- Of the two actors I prefer the younger (the one thats younger). The Italian definite article may also refer to individual members of a group: Ricevo il giovedà ¬- I receive it Thursday (every Thursday); Costa mille euro il chilo (or al chilo)- It costs a thousand euro a kilogam (per kilogram), or time: Partirà ² il mese prossimo.- Im leaving next month (in next the month). Italian Definite Article FormsIl, iThe form il precedes masculine nouns beginning with a consonant except s consonant, z, x, pn, ps, and the digraphs gn and sc: il bambino, il cane, il dente, il fiore, il gioco, il liquorethe child, the dog, the tooth, the flower, the game, the liquor The corresponding form for the plural is i: i bambini, i cani, i denti, i fiori, i giochi, i liquorithe children, the dogs, the teeth, the flowers, the games, the liqueurs Lo (l), gliThe form lo precedes masculine nouns that begin: with s followed by another consonant: lo sbaglio, lo scandalo, lo sfratto, lo sgabello, lo slittino, lo smalto, lo specchio, lo studiothe mistake, the scandal, the evicted, the stool, the sled, the enamel, the mirror, the office with z: lo zaino, lo zio, lo zoccolo, lo zuccherothe backpack, the uncle, the clog, the sugar with x: lo xilofono, lo xilografothe xylophone, the engraver with pn and ps: lo pneumatico, lo pneumotorace; lo pseudonimo, lo psichiatra, lo psicologothe tire, the collapsed lung, the pseudonym, the psychiatrist, the psychologist with the digraphs gn and sc: lo gnocco, lo gnomo, fare lo gnorri; lo sceicco, lo sceriffo, lo scialle, lo scimpanzà ©the dumpling, the gnome, to play dumb; the sheikh, the sheriff, the shawl, the chimpanzee with the semivowel i: lo iato, lo iettatore, lo ioduro, lo yogurtthe hiatus, the evil eye, the iodide, the yogurt NOTE: Nevertheless, there are variations, especially before the consonant cluster pn; for example, in contemporary spoken Italian il pneumatico tends to prevail over lo pneumatico. Also, before the semivowel i the use is not constant; in addition to lo iato there is liato, but the elided form is less common. When preceding the semivowel u, its necessary to distinguish between Italian words, which take the article lo in the elided form (luomo, luovo), and words of foreign origin, which take the form il: il week-end, il whisky, il windsurf, il walkman, il word processorthe weekend, the whiskey, the windsurfer, the Walkman, the word processor. With plural nouns the forms gli (gli uomini) and i (i walkman, i week-end) are used respectively. For words starting with h use lo (gli, uno) when preceding an aspirated h: lo Hegel, lo Heine, lo hardwarethe Hegel, the Heine, the hardware. And use l when preceding a non-aspirated h: lhabitat, lharem, lhashishthe habitat, the harem, the hashish. NOTE: In contemporary colloquial Italian there is a preference for the elided form in all cases, since even foreign words with an aspirated h (for example the aforementioned hardware, as well as hamburgers, handicap, hobbies, etc.) usually have an Italianized pronunciation in which the h is muted. However, in adverbial phrases the form lo (instead of il) is common: per lo pià ¹, per lo meno, corresponding to the use of the definite article in early Italian. The form lo also precedes masculine nouns that begin with a vowel, but in this instance it is elided to l: labito, levaso, lincendio, lospite, lusignolothe dress, the fugitive, the fire, the guest, the nightingale. As previously noted, before the semivowel i there is typically no elision. The form corresponding to lo in the plural is gli: gli sbagli, gli zaini, gli xilofoni, gli (or also i) pneumatici, gli pseudonimi, gli gnocchi, gli sceicchi, gli iati, gli abiti, gli evasi, gli incendi, gli ospiti, gli usignoli NOTE: Gli can only be elided before i: glincendi (but more frequently the entire form is used). The gli form is used instead of i before the plural of dio: gli dà ¨i (in obsolete Italian gliddei, plural of iddio). La (l), leThe form la precedes feminine nouns starting with a consonant or the semivowel i: la bestia, la casa, la donna, la fiera, la giacca, la ienathe beast, the house, the woman, the fair, the jacket, the hyena. Before a vowel la is elided to l: lanima, lelica, lisola, lombra, lunghiathe soul, the propeller, the island, the shadow, the fingernail. The form corresponding to la in the plural is lei: le bestie, le case, le donne, le fiere, le giacche, le iene, le anime, le eliche, le isole, le ombre, le unghiethe animals, the houses, the women, the fairs, the jackets, the hyenas, the souls, the propellers, the islands, the shadows, the nails. Le may be elided only before the letter e (but this happens rarely, and almost always as a stylistic device in poetry): leliche- the propellers. With nouns starting with h, unlike the masculine form, the non-elided form predominates: la hall- the hall, la holding- the holding company.

Definition and Examples of Sarcasm

Definition and Examples of Sarcasm Sarcasm is a mocking, often ironic or satirical remark, sometimes intended to wound as well as amuse. Adjective: sarcastic. A person adept at using sarcasm is sarcastic. Also known in rhetoric as  sarcasm and the bitter taunt. Sarcasm, says  John Haiman,   is  a particularly transparent variety  of cheap talk or hot air insofar as the speaker is overtly meaning (and saying) the opposite of what he or she ostensibly claims to be saying (Talk Is Cheap: Sarcasm, Alienation, and the Evolution of Language, 1998). Pronunciation: sar-KAZ-um ​​​Etymology: From the Greek, bite the lips in rage Examples and Observations Oh, a sarcasm detector. That’s a really useful invention!(Comic Book Guy, The SimpsonsOh, Lou, my mother would whine, dressed for a cocktail party in her muted, earth-tone caftan. Youre not going to wear that, are you?Whats wrong with this? hed ask. These pants are brand-new.New to you, shed say. Pimps and circus clowns have been dressing that way for years.(David Sedaris, The Womens Open. Naked. Little, Brown and Company, 1997Dr. House: So youre treating professional sports injuries now?Patient: Oh, no, Im not . . .Dr. House: . . . familiar with the concept of sarcasm. Dont sweat it, its new.(Dying Changes Everything, House, M.D.Abed: Another muffin basket, from another actress who wants to be in my next film.Jeff: Does that work?Abed: Yep. Meryl Streep has two Oscars because of her baking. Ah, thats sarcasm, but I forgot to inflect. This sounds way more like sarcasm. Inflection is so interesting.[Abed should have said intonation, not inflection.](Danny Pudi as Abed and Joel McHale as Jeff in Communication Studies. Community, Feb. 11, 2010 Neither irony or sarcasm is argument.(Samuel Butler)First, situations may be ironic, but only people can be sarcastic. Second, people may be unintentionally ironic, but sarcasm requires intention. What is essential to sarcasm is that it is overt irony intentionally used by the speaker as a form of verbal aggression.(John Haiman, Talk Is Cheap: Sarcasm, Alienation, and the Evolution of Language. Oxford University Press, 1998 Irony and Sarcasm Classical rhetoricians admired irony as a rhetorical device primarily because of its ability to engage the audiences interest. . . .However, as Aristotle pointed out, irony frequently implies contempt for its target and therefore it must be used carefully. Moreover, while Aristotle observed that irony befit[s] a gentleman, he warns that to be most effective, [t]he jests of the ironical man [should be] at his own expense, not at the expense of others. . . .For example, when [Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Antonin Scalia accuses] the Court of misleadingly describing its previous sex-classification cases, Scalias sarcasm is patent: The wonderful thing about these statements is that they are not actually falsejust as it would not be actually false to say that our cases have thus far reserved the beyond a reasonable doubt standard of proof for criminal cases, or that we have not equated tort actions, for all purposes to criminal prosecutions. He is equally sarcastic elsewhere.(Michael H. Frost, Introduction to Classical Legal Rhetoric: A Lost Heritage. Ashgate, 2005) Contrary to frequent usage, irony, the device, does not always communicate sarcasm, the effect. The speaker or authors rhetorical goal may be anything from gentle humor, intended to produce a mutual laugh and so establish rapport between speaker and hearer, to corrosive derision meant to insult the audience or reduce a target to a smoking ruin. What is attempted or achieved (the speech act or illocutionary dimension of the utterance) depends, as always, on the variables of the rhetorical situation, and on how the device and its detection contribute to those variables.(Jeanne Fahnestock, Rhetorical Style: The Uses of Language in Persuasion. Oxford Univ. Press, 2011)Let it be first provided that this figure (sarcasmus) be not used without some great cause which may well deserve it, as arrogancie, insolent pride, wilfull folly, shamefull lecherie, ridiculous avarice, or such like, for it is both folly and rudenesse to use derision without cause: but to mocke silly people, innocents, or men in misery, or the poore in distresse, argueth both the pride of the mind, and the crueltie of the heart.(Henry Peachum, The Garden of Eloquence, 1593) Adrian Monk: This is my assistant, Sharona.Ambrose Monk: Hello, we spoke on the phone.Adrian Monk: Oh, so you can dial a telephone! I was worried. I thought you might be paralyzed, or something.Ambrose Monk: I wasnt paralyzed.Adrian Monk: I was being sarcastic.Ambrose Monk: You were being sardonic. Sarcasm is a contemptuous ironic statement. You were being mockingly derisive. Thats sardonic.(Tony Shalhoub and John Turturro in Mr. Monk and the Three Pies. Monk, 2004)Whatever the reason, I was saddled with this strange name, which meant that I was constantly, constantly, being serenaded with the sometimes you feel like a nut Almond Joy/Mounds jingle, which I would have liked to quote in full, except that Hersheys legal staff denied me permission. I can certainly understand why. God only knows what ruin might befall Hersheys if this jinglewhich hasnt been used in two decadeswere suddenly brazenly resurrected by a young Jewish candy freak. One shudders to consider the fallout for the ent ire fragile candy-trademark-jingle trademark ecosystem.(Steve Almond, Candyfreak, 2004) Sarcasm is related to our ability to understand other peoples mental state. It is not just a linguistic form; it is also related to social cognition.(Dr. Shannon-Tsoory, qtd. by David Adam, Highest Brain Areas Spot Lowest Form of Wit. The Guardian, June 2, 2005)Sarcasm I now see to be, in general, the language of the devil; for which reason I have long since as good as renounced it.(Thomas Carlyle, Sartor Resartus, 1833-34) The Lighter Side of Sarcasm Teen 1: Oh, here comes that cannonball guy. Hes cool.Teen 2: Are you being sarcastic, dude?Teen 1: I dont even know anymore.Homerpalooza, The Simpsons) Leonard: You convinced me. Maybe tonight we should sneak in and shampoo her carpet.Sheldon: You dont think that crosses the line?Leonard: Yes. For Gods sake, Sheldon, do I have to hold up a sarcasm sign every time I open my mouth?Sheldon: You have a sarcasm sign?(Johnny Galecki and Jim Parsons in The Big Bran Hypothesis. The Big Bang Theory, 2007)Leonard: Hey, Penny. Hows work?Penny: Great! I hope Im a waitress at the Cheesecake Factory for my whole life!Sheldon: Was that sarcasm?Penny: No.Sheldon: Was that sarcasm?Penny: Yes.Sheldon: Was that sarcasm?Leonard: Stop it!(Johnny Galecki, Kaley Cuoco, and Jim Parsons in The Financial Permeability. The Big Bang Theory, 2009)