Personality inventories Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Personality inventories - Essay Example uestions can be answered in a variety of ways designed so that the respondent's instinctive response would be the indicator of how they are most likely to respond to a situation, 8) answering truthfully will give the best profile for the respondent's personality (UNSW, 2003). The Big Five Theory was developed by Costa and McCrae (1988). The five components are used to assess personality traits. The five factors include: Extroversion, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Openness to Experience, and Neuroticism. Since they are considered as relatively stable traits, they are used to described variances in human personality. Extroversion measures the volition to seek the company of others and outside stimulation. This factor deals with social skills, how a person relates with other people, confidence in society, assertiveness, empathy towards others and warmth. Conscientiousness demonstrates the desire to achieve, self-discipline, and responsibility.

Winter the worst season of the year Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Winter the worst season of the year - Essay Example I imagine cold weather, blizzards, and total lack of pleasant outdoor activities. Winter in New York can be really challenging with snow storms and severe weather conditions. Not to mention that very often snow can block traffic, create havoc, and even cut communication utilities In this cases winter can be indeed the worse season of the year. For me, I can say that this is so, because I can not stay outdoors for a long time and do my regular activities due to the incredibly cold atmospheric conditions. Then I find it extremely depressing to see grey colors all around, occasionally some while spots of snow here and there. Finally, to add to the lower spirits is the extreme weather which makes me worry about family and friends, who might be stuck and in trouble in unreachable places.Scientists always recommend prolonged outdoor activities, in order to keep one's body and spirit in good shape. There are numberless winter sports practiced in the open air, however, for me exposing my bod y to harsh temperatures and having numb limbs is not the ideal situation. Going to the gym is also acceptable, but then you have to walk back home exposed to the cold wind, after you have taken a shower, so one can catch cold or flu. Winter can be very unexpected and bring unconditional weather, which can lock you at home for days. In such cases I become languid and my mood is down. I am not able to go outside and enjoy the terrific sunshine and fresh smell of grass. I once read an article about the effects of colors and how they can influence people's moods and emotions. Although, the white color - I may say the symbol of winter, speaks about purity, I associate it also with paleness and death. Besides the white, the predominant color of winter is grey. This leads to down spirits and lack to motivation either to work or to study. The greyness carries with it depression and uncomfortable emotions. That is why for me winter is the worst season. Finally, the extreme weather conditions that we witness in New York make me anxious about my family, relatives and friends, who in occasions might get stuck in snow-drifts and get into trouble. In such harsh weather communication systems are also cut down, and we can not connect with them at all. Consequently, people panic and think that the worst has happened. Winter is unpredictable with its severity and forces me to see that sometimes nature is bigger than human actions and activities and even though we have skyscrapers and telecommunications, austere weather conditions can ruin them. For me winter is the worst season of the year, because it shows how unpleasant nature can be. It can form blizzards and leave people in hazardous situations. They are unable to practice their outdoor activities and have all reasons to worry about their families in a cold winter day. The grey surrounding dominates the color nuance and establishes a deep feeling of helplessness and anxiety. That is why winter is the worst season for me. Winter is also the worst season, because it causes many car accidents. Commuters who use the public transport do not need to worry much. However, people who work in New York and drive from New Jersey can encounter dangerous, slippery roads during the winter. Although the government spends a lot of money to secure the proper highway maintenance during the winter, weather conditions can be so severe that they can impede all efforts done. Another reason why I think that winter is the worst season is because people are exposed to freezing. Applying moisturizing creams helps us a little when handling the cold, however, if the temperatures drop really below the freezing point, people can experience serious limbs infections

Pearl in the Novel Scarlet Letter

Pearl in the Novel Scarlet Letter The novel scarlet letter was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. He wanted to expose the immorality that was committed by two parents of a daughter called Pearl. Nathaniels novel explores very clearly the themes of the themes of guilt, sin, and legalism. The plot of the novel takes place in the 17th century in Boston Massachusetts. The novel tells a story of Hester Prynne who gives birth to a daughter having committed adultery and tries all what she can so as to ensure that she live of repentance and dignity. In this paper we are going to explore the characteristics and influence of pearl, the daughter of Hester Prynne, and how she is used by the author in order to advance the themes of the novel. We are also going to look at how symbolism is used in this book and how it was successful in ensuring that Nathaniel Hawthornes massage was passed across. Pearl is among the characters that are complex and elaborate in the novel scarlet letter. Pearl is the daughter illegitimate daughter of Author Dimmesdale and Hester Prynne. As one reads through the novel they realize that she is a very dynamic individual who keeps on changing depending on the prevailing circumstances in order to survive and to also help in bringing out clearly the massage that the writer wanted to pass when he was writing the book (Mary, 99). The other members of the society keep on shunning and avoiding Pearl because of her mothers sin and she remains a constant reminder of to both the members of the society and also the reader of Hesters sin. They live in a bad house in the outskirts of Boston where they tend to avoid the humiliation in the hands the other villagers. Pearl is vividly described by Hawthorn in page 81 as the infant whose guiltless life was the product of inscrutable decree of providence (Mary, 133). He refers to her as lovely and a flower that that is immortal that does not realize the guilty that led to its existence. From the beginning of her life she is viewed as a punishment, a product of sin that should that everybody that has some dignity should avoid at all times. All this treatment affects Pearl and she is not like the normal of the society. Her only rescue is that nature and the animals around her treat her well and somehow accept her in a way that her community did not. It is also important to note that pearl was a very beautiful child. On page 81 and 82 Hawthorne describes her beauty very clearly. Pearl had beauty that really shone with deep and vivid tints. Unlike most of the other girls she had a bright complexion; she had eyes that possessed intensity of both glow and depth. Her hair was also beautiful; it had a deep brown that was glowed whenever she walked. All this physical characteristics made her really beautiful. She also had a good sense of fashion. She always wore lavish dresses that emphasized her beauty and many of the puritan people to think of her as a strange. The main re ason for this was that the other puritan children wore the traditional clothing and to them they could never consider a person who did not look liked them or dress like them as one of them. This treatment made Pearl a very troubled child and even when the other children for one reason or another showed her some interest she would be really irritated and pick up stones and fling them at them. Another characteristic of Pearl is that she is very strong and she turns every situation in to her advantage. Since other children are not willing to accept her as one of them she decides to live with nature and animals because these are the only things that show her acceptance. On page 168 hawthorn talks about the light that happily lingers about the child that is lonely as if it is glad to have found such a loving playing mate. We are also told that the sunshine accepts pearl as an equal. The great forest also becomes the playmate of this lonely child. The natural things become her only friends and this in the end makes this child a very weird child. Every child needs human company so that they may be able to grow in a way that can be considered normal. We are told that Pearl character lacked reference and she could not relate in any way to the world that she was born. She not affected in any way by the life of the Puritan life, the only thing that has influence to this child is on ly nature and its life. She has been thrust out of her communitys life and the only way of life that she can identify to is that of the forest and the things of nature. The people of her society views her as not only a weird and strange kid born out of a sinful act, they also consider and view her in very mixed feelings. Many people do not comprehend her. A good example is where Hester tells Dimmesdale that she hardly understands this child but she will love her to the end nevertheless. She goes on and states that sometimes she is afraid of little Pearl. To Dimmesdale, he is really confused in that he really loves the kid and in truth he wants to make peace with her and know her better but this is no possible because he is not prepared to lose his political and social status by acknowledging her in public. Pearl is a very sensitive and inquisitive child. These characteristics are brought about by the fact that she had a very elaborate and perplexing history. She is brought up without a father and she does not even know who her father is. The only person who she can freely identify with is her mother and even she is ostracized from the community as well. For this reasons she grows to be a very sensitive and a curious kid. She is always on her mothers case wanting to know what Hester would rather not tell her. She wants to know who her father is and why they live the two of them and not with their father like many of the other families in the society. Symbolism is used very much in this novel. Throughout the whole novel many of the characters represent other ideas. Nathaniel Hawthorne deliberately uses symbolism so as to enhance the themes of the novel. Pearl being one of the most misunderstood characters in the novel is used to advance different themes. Pearl throughout the book, develops into a symbol that is very dynamic. It is very important to note that pearl all through the novel symbolizes evil. She symbolizes evil in the sense that she is born through sin and therefore she represents the punishment that God inflicts on Hesters adulterous act. Pearl also symbolizes the guilt that her parents are experiencing. She defies the puritans law by being cheerful when she is associating with nature instead of suffering. Another way in which pearl symbolizes punishment is the fact that she keeps pestering and bothering her mother. All through this novel it is very important for the reader to note how mocking and pestering her mother, one may get the feeling that he is a witch baby send out to torment her mother. In many cases babies is a joy to their mothers but in Pearls case she was just the opposite and in this the author clearly and effectively used symbolism in pearls case to symbolize punishment and suffering. It is also important to note that the Pearl has strong emotions and she also has a bad temper with a capacity to do evil deeds. These characteristics ensure that Hesters life is full of misery and she once asked god what kind of being she had brought on earth. Her daughter constantly harass her over the scarlet A that she was wearing and in time Hester was the subject of a lot of ridicule from the members of the society and even her own daughter and when this became hard to bear she just decided to live on seclusion. Pearl as a person symbolizes the sins of both Hester and Dimmesdale. This child is the direct effect and results of the sin of adultery. She also represents the sin of lying. One has to notice the way; Hester and Dimmesdale keep on lying to the society about the affair that led to the birth of Pearl. These two keep on avoiding telling the truth about the biological father of the Pearl. Even Pearl herself did not have a clue who really was her father and this affected her life. We can also see the way Dimmesdale is undergoing a lot of internal pain in that He really wants to show his daughter love but the situation in which this girl was conceived makes it very hard for him to let the members of the society know that he is the real father of pearl. It is very important to also note that the Dimmesdale did not commit the sin of adultery but only the sin of concealing the truth that he was party to the act that brought Pearl to this world. It is very important to note that Pearl was a very clever child. She could read her surrounding and other people behavior to understand the things that she was not supposed to understand (Edwin and Louis, 143). A good example is where she was very perturbed by the behavior of Dimmesdale when he put his had across is chest just where his heart was. Pearl seemed to connect this to Hesters scarlet letter and know that something was not right. She is so smart to an extend that her mother thinks that she is not a real human being. Hawthorn also used symbolism in that he uses pearl to represent the scarlet letter. We are told that even when she was a baby she was attracted to the scarlet letter. This is confirmed on page 90 where we are told that her infant eyes could not leave the glimmering part of the gold embroidery. When she is a little bit older, Hester throws the letter on the ground and Pearl reacts very oddly when she screams demanding that the â€Å"A† be picked up. It is also important to note that the â€Å"A† is the only way that the colonialists choose to crime and punishment to the criminals in the society. The functions of Pearl in the novel are great. The reason for this is that she is the character that helps and guides the reader to really know what is happening in the story. There are some hidden meanings in the book and she also helps the reader to pick up these points so that they can really understand what the book is talking about. She aids the reader with her commentaries, her thought process and her inquisitive questions that she asks through out the novel (Edwin and Louis, 56). We can say that Pearl is an indispensable character to the reader that helps him to understand the themes that are being put forward by the author. One has to notice the way Pearl is different from the other children of her own age. She did not make any friends in the society. In fact any child that tried to make friend with were met with a moody child that preferred to play alone and only interact with the natural things. Being a lonely kid Pearl opts to communicate with her own reflection and this a lso helps the reader to know what is happening in the book. For her age, pearl is able to communicate effectively with adults like her parents. She relates with them in a very complicated way that other children her own age can not do and through this we see he asking her parents very hard questions. This characteristic helps the author to pass across the themes that he intended to pass when he was writing the novel like sin punishment and guilt. Work cited Budd, Louis, and Candy, Edwin. On Hawthorne: the best from American literature. Durham. Duke University Press, 1990. Cooper, Michael. The Scarlet Letter and Symbolism. January 2009. Retrieved on 30/07/2009. http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Scarlet-Letter-and- Symbolismid=78659. Hawthorne, Nathaniel, And Robinson, Herbert. The Scarlet Letter. Washington DC: Plain Label Books, 1954. Hurst, Mary. The voice of the child in American literature: linguistic approaches to fictional child language. Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 1990. Schmidt, Anja. Pearls Twilight Nature in The Scarlet Letter: Emblem of Sin or Self- fulfilling Prophecy?. Berlin: GRIN Verlag, 2007.

John Steinbecks Experience and Writing Essay -- Authors

At the age of thirteen, most children are still naà ¯ve to their future self-professions. However, in 1915, a boy at the mere age of thirteen was encouraged by his English teacher to become a writer (French 1). Unbeknownst to the teacher, the boy would arguably become a writer on equal terms to D.H. Lawrence, John Keats, or William Faulkner. The boy in question is John Steinbeck. Though Steinbeck’s era was a time of isolation and sorrow, between the economy and global conflicts the desperate times allowed many opportunities for Steinbeck. For example, he would intentionally immerse himself in unfavorable conditions that others experienced without a choice. In particular, the experiences with the Great Depression and World War II allowed John Steinbeck to change the world with a pen and paper. Perhaps the biggest influence in Steinbeck’s writing can be seen from his experiences of the Great Depression while he lived in California. Before Steinbeck made his living as a writer, he would experience the world from various points of views as he worked jobs such as a surveyor, bricklayer, ranch hand, and a store clerk (John Steinbeck). Seeing the world from the perspective of a hard laborer allowed Steinbeck to form his initial views that would become the basis for his early stories. The crisis that grasped California during 1930-1936 was the Dust Bowl, which according to a website dedicated to the great depression states â€Å"a million acres of farmland across the Plains became worthless due to severe drought and overfarming† (Causes of). Because of the despairing situation, Steinbeck was able to experience the severity first hand on many occasions. In fact, in 1935, Steinbeck was allowed to spend a week in Weedpatch where a camp wa... ... to realize before it is too late. Works Cited Bloom, Harold. John Steinbeck. New York: Bloom's Literary Criticism, 2008. Print. "Causes Of The Great Depression | The Great Depression | Causes, Effects, Timelines." Causes Of The Great Depression | The Great Depression | Causes, Effects, Timelines. Croft Communications. Web. 09 May 2012. French, Warren G. John Steinbeck's Nonfiction Revisited. New York: Twayne, 1996. Print. John (Ernst) Steinbeck." Contemporary Literary Criticism Select. Detroit: Gale, 2008. Literature Resource Center. Web. 7 May 2012. Noble, Donald R. The Steinbeck Question: New Essays in Criticism. Troy, NY: Whitston Pub., 1993. Print. Tedlock, E. W., and C. V. Wicker. Steinbeck and His Critics. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico, 1957. Print. Swisher, Clarice. Readings on John Steinbeck. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven, 1996. Print.

A Critical Review of Andrea Owens’ “The Mortgage Bailout that Worked.”

While the Harvard Business Review (HBR) has yet to publish anything specifically on the Obama Mortgage Stimulus Plan as of yet, this recent blog entry might give an idea as to what the HBR’s point of view might be. This is a very interesting piece, as it is a historical lesson on mortgage bailout plans and how they might work. In the 1920s, real estate, like in the 1990s, was considered a very safe investment. In New York just prior to the great crash, several dozen real estate guaranty companies sprang up, offering what amounted to â€Å"mutual funds† for investing in mortgages.These funds were guaranteed by the insurance division of the state of New York. Needless to say, with a few years, these investments sprang out of control. In fact, the companies themselves began to invest in their own guaranty schemes. They charged a fee of roughly 1% of the annual interest on the paper (not the real value). As soon as a slowdown hit, the guaranty firms put their marketing sche mes into a higher gear, selling more and more of them, even waving their fee for a time. When the collapse came by 1932, the marketing went even higher, and more mortgages were sold at more and more advantageous rates.Some were noticing that these guaranty firms were â€Å"on the hook† for some very questionable loans. They sold discounted mortgages to attempt to pay off already inflated mortgage values. It was a scam based on a lie. In 1932, the firms held the tremendous sum of about $2. 7 billion in paper, that itself represented about $809 million in actual value. The final collapse came in the Spring of 1935, and finally, the state stepped in. The measures the state took is really the lesson here. First, the state of New York passed two laws. The first was the Mortgage Moratorium Act.This basically stated that the homeowner cannot lose his home through foreclosure so long as the taxes and interest were paid. Second, the state created an institution called the mortgage Com mission whose job it was to take over the mortgages and seek to reclaim their value. The point of this latter institution was to maintain real estate values as close to the numbers on the paper as possible. It is here where the state met with some success. This commission hired a large number of researchers and investigators to track down each and every property that was represented (distortions and all) on the now worthless paper.Each property, once identified and appraised, was to be disposed of either through sale or rental. Those properties with unfinished improvements were kept afloat until the improvements were finished. The state assisted in any improvements at all on the properties that may maintain their value. But what is impressive is that, at least according to the HBR, by 1935-1936, the state had reclaimed about 84% of the paper value of these properties, which is quite impressive given the nature of the scam.Now, that being said, what are the issues that derive from th is relative to Obama and the mortgage stimulus/bailout? There are two: first, that those who are involved in the bailout/stimulus need to, like the state of New York many moons ago, keep track of all the properties that are recorded on the paper. And second, that the bailout/stimulus money be used to maintain property values to the greatest extent possible given the available liquidity. What the authors of such articles always forget is that there are real people under all this paper.People who have been taken advantage of for the profit of a few. Here, criminal acts have been perpetrated for the sake of quick profits: as a matter of course, it is the homeowner, rather than the schemers, that is punished. Hence, the remainder of this paper will deal with several issues that derive from the stimulus and the historical take on it from our chosen author. 1. Regardless of the nature of the stimulus, all foreclosures must be stopped immediately. It is not the fault fo the homeowner that they have been taken advantage of.Like the New York situation, no foreclosures should proceed even if the taxes cannot be paid. This is a form of reimbursement for the homeowner of the encouragement of such speculation under the fraudulent banner of â€Å"the free market,† which is neither free nor a market: it is the state’s guarantee of personal privilege. 2. All real estate taxes should be suspended for a single year. This will act as a negative stimulus for homeowners. That is, families that own their own homes should be free of real estate taxes for a single year.Like the New York case in the 1930s, the fact is that the regulators and the state was asleep at the switch while all of this was going on. The state, largely captive by the major speculators, refused to take action. Hence, the state that acted as a facilitator to these schemers/speculators. As a result, the state does not deserve the reward of smooth tax collection. If there is to be a moratorium on fore closures, then there also needs to be a cancellation of taxes on real estate for families who own homes, as well as a cancellation of any back taxes on property, etc.3. If the bailout is to proceed, then in addition to the above, the checks (which represent their own money anyway) should be made out to the homeowner, and not to the schemers or â€Å"guaranty firms. † 4. While it might sound extreme, the schemers and their hangers on should be sentenced to work camps for their role in the scam. If these people view money as the result of scam, then they need to be taught that the origin of value is work, that is, labor. Labor, not fancy financial footwork, is the source of wealth.The middlemen and speculators merely shift it around. If the value of the paper in their hands does not match the actual value of the real estate, that missing value did not disappear, it merely changed hands. The above ideas in terms of the bailout/stimulus itself, therefore, should be involved in re couping that value and transferring it to the taxpayer and homeowner. The fact remains that the middle class homeowner does not have an interest group or lobby that protects them. The schemers do, and the poor do, but the middle class taxpayer does not. 5.If the stimulus is to continue, then it seems reasonable to hold tha a certain percentage of the money should go to bringing the poor into the ranks f the middle class by subsidizing their entry into home ownership and financial stability. By the same toke, the state of indebtedness of the middle class should also be alleviated with this same money. In such a case, it will be a bailout in the truest sense of the word: not a bailout fo the financial system, but of individual poor and middle class taxpayers whose surplus value has been shipped to overseas tax havens and â€Å"foundations.† The reality here is that this crisis is systemic, not aberrational. The HBR’s primary sin is that they insist that this scam is not built into the system, but the result of a handful of criminal minds. In this they are wrong. The system has this kind of scam built into its very concept of value. The issues that can â€Å"unpack† this statement can be summarized this way: 1. The question of value: the manipulation of the value of labor is separated from the actual act of labor and work. In other words, the value of labor is taken by the schemers and manipulated for their own profit.But the fact is that that value is not theirs, but the labor that has created it in the first place: this includes the actual physical labor of building a house, but also the intellectual labor that provides the plans, the geography, the blueprints, etc. The surplus value of their work is taken by the likes of Madoff, and then gambled against other similar feats of labor. The fact is that this surplus value belongs to no one but the labor that created it. Hence, the scam is built into the system, and not aberrational. 2.Hence, i f taxes and foreclosures are all eliminated by state fiat (for a certain amount of time) it is merely a matter of financial reparation, not some sort of a gift, or a kind of state benevolence. This money and the labor it represents belongs to the middle class. Hence it is their own money that is being returned to them. 3. The stress in financial circles is not creation. The entire point of labor is to create things out of their natural state that makes life easier for humanity. While this seems elementary, the Wall Street mentality has no concept of it.Speculation itself is a kind of mystification in that speculation is a matter of gambling paper (in fact, representing labor on the ground) against other pieces of paper representing the same thing. When the value of this paper is inflated due to skillful gambling, who is to pay? The very same people who created the real (i. e. non paper) value in the first place. Therefore, the question of the bailout stimulus is misplaced, unless it aims not at the mortgage industry or finance in general, but the middle class whose chronic state of indebtedness is being exacerbated by more and more taxes.While it remains the cases that the system itself is responsible for the crisis, the middle class, always n the lookout for a good deal, made certain they were easy targets for the scam. But this is not the fault of this class–the very backbone of home-ownership. Hence, the schemers need to be punished, and the scammed bailed out, not the other way around. Value must be rejoined to the actual function of labor, rather than the fictional value of paper.

Greek mythological poem Essay

Subject: the poem is a Greek mythological poem about King Midas of Phrygia who had his wish granted everything he touches turns into gold. The poem is about the consequences of choosing money and greed which is presented to the readers through the wife’s perspective. Duffy presents a wide range of emotions through Mrs. Midas’s persona. Mrs. Midas complains about his husband’s selfishness and greed. Duffy gives a voice to women unheard in history. Duffy takes a historical character and translates them into present day. â€Å"Mrs. Midas† turns the noble king Phrygia into a pathetic greed middle-aged man.  The mood changes as the poem proceeds, reaching its peak of fear in the fifth to eleventh stanza then calmly comes down as Midas draws close to death. The language the character uses informs the reader about the mood of the poem. In the second and third of the first stanza Midas uses personified the kitchen as â€Å"its steamy breath gently blanching the windows†. This sets the calm relaxing atmosphere of the poem before the crisis. The poem is calm because Mrs. Midas uses smoothly and well-skilled sentences. The intonation changes suddenly, the sentences become short and factual lexis is used. For example in the fifth stanza Mr. Midas said â€Å"I moved the phone†. Mrs. Midas does this to make the situation seem more urgent chaotic and panicky. Short sentences are used in this poem to speed p the narration as the chaos happens in the poem. After the crisis is over, she reverts to her earlier relaxing mood. For example she said in last stanza Mrs. Midas said â€Å"I miss most, even now, his warm hands on my skin, his touch†. The language of the poem used by Mrs. Midas is elevated register. She uses descriptive lexis in the poem. This will be described further in the analysis.  The poem is a universal, therefore everyone can read it. The poem is moral lesson. For example in the sixth stanza Mrs. Midas said â€Å"it feeds no one† talking about gold. The moral lesson Duffy tries to teach us is money is a means to an end not an end, meaning money can be used to pay food to feed a person but it can’t physically feed a person. Money is not a solution to everything as she addresses the middle class who adore money. The class backgrounds of the characters are middle-classes as they drink Italian â€Å"wine†. Wealth is trivial if not used to solve problems like in this poem. Mrs. Midas uses adverbs such â€Å"gently† to emphasis how calm and relaxed she was before the crisis.  In the first stanza Mrs. Midas uses personification, for instance she said â€Å"the ground seems to drink the light of the sky†. The dynamic verb â€Å"drink† personifies the ground as a human. The quote means the day changes to night. Mrs. Midas uses symbolism in the poem; â€Å"rich† symbolizes gold referring to Midas having to spit out the golden corn out of his mouth. Another symbolism used in the poem is â€Å"work of art† which symbolizes a statue which her husband would turn her into like he touches her. What is Liberal Democracy? Liberal Democracy is an indirect and representative form of democracy whereby the right to rule is gained through success in competitive elections on the basis of political equality. In a liberal Democratic state the people are protected by individual rights such as the civil rights in America and a constitutional government which based on rules set out in a codified constitution like in the US constitution.  Mrs. Midas uses metaphors through out the poem. For example, Mrs. Midas said â€Å"turning the spare room into the tomb of Tutankhamun†. Her husband is turning his room into gold, mythological compared to the Egyptian pharaohs’ tombs which were dressed with gold. What is Democracy?  Democracy is rule by the people. This is reflected in the idea of government by the people therefore key political decisions are made by the people. Democracy reflects the idea of equal citizenship whereby each citizen has the right to influence political decisions. For example, in February 2003 one and a half million citizens took to the streets of London. They are protesting against UK’s involvement in the Iraq war. This reflects ‘people power’ to influence political decisions. England is an example of a democratic state while North Korea is an example of an undemocratic state. Duffy uses a simile to make an internal rhyme â€Å"its amber eyes /holding their pupils like flies†. This intensifies the interior personal life of the woman. Another internal rhyme â€Å"dream/streaming† is used to suggest that she will have a solitary life.  Duffy uses repetition in the poem. For example in the sixth stanza Mrs. Midas said â€Å"have wishes; granted. But who has wished granted? Duffy uses clever wordplay the first phrase is used as to notice that Midas has his wish â€Å"granted† and the second is turned into a question by using the past verb â€Å"granted†. Duffy does this to achieve a verbal humour. Define Representative democracy  Representative democracy is a limited and indirect form of democracy whereby the representatives act and speak on behalf of the people. The representatives can be chosen and removed by the public through elections. In a representative democratic state popular participation in government is limited and indirect to the act of voting very few years for a representative to represent them. There are uses of rhetoric in the poem. For example in the last stanza Mrs. Midas uses a repair â€Å"his hands, his warm hands†. Duffy uses repair to make Mrs. Midas’ character seem more realistic.  The poem is made up of eleven sestet stanzas. Most of the stanza are arranged perfectly to form a stanza. However in the in the fifth stanza the lines are merely joined together to make a stanza they are separated.