Morality in war Essay Example for Free

Morality in war Essay Is war ever moral? I feel that War is a necessary part of life. Sometimes force is the only way to defend yourself or others. We are all equals, and It is immoral to take the life of anyone, but it is also immoral to let the life of anyone be taken. We have a responsibility to help each other because cooperation is the only way the human race can survive; we also have a right to defend ourselves. This means that if someone else is threatening you or anothers life, and you are capable of helping, you have an obligation to protect yourself or them. Lethal force will never be moral, but what if it’s the only way to protect someone? Let’s say that an attacker has broken into your house and is holding a gun to you and your family. You also have a gun pointed at the assailant. In this hypothetical situation we must assume that the only way to save your family is to kill the attacker. You must make a choice to kill the attacker or let the attacker kill you and your family. Both options are immoral, so one has to ask if its more immoral to kill the attacker, or to let the attacker kill your family? The obvious choice to me is to kill the assailant. I feel this is the right choice because of two reasons. One, our responsibility to protect ourselves and our family is larger than the responsibility to not do harm to another. The second reason has to do with the proportion of damage. The attacker would be doing more harm in killing my family and me then I would be doing in killing him. This example allows us to see, on a small scale, when lethal force is necessary. Things get more complicated when we look at entire countries rather than just one family, but my view point remains the same. Lethal force is only permitted when it is the only option to defend yourself or others. War is necessary because people sometimes make immoral decisions that put others in a position where there is no other option, but is war ever moral? Killing is always immoral, and killing is part of war, so parts of war are immoral, but does this mean war is inherently immoral? Sometimes it is the least immoral choice; this makes it the most moral choice, so it is sometime moral. I believe that many of the wars we have had have been immoral. I don’t think that the United States has been justified in it’s actions every time. â€Å"It is alarming that military intervention in internal conflicts in foreign countries has become commonplace for the United States. † Vladimir Putin. I feel that it is in part due to the classical â€Å"male† approach to ethics which focuses on â€Å"independence, autonomy, intellect, will, wariness, hierarchy, domination, culture, transcendence, product, asceticism, war, and death,† Jaggar, â€Å"Feminist Ethics,† 1992 One can see that these characteristics would allow for war to be more often morally acceptable. A â€Å"feminist† approach to ethics would focus more on â€Å"interdependence, community, connection, sharing, emotion, body, trust, absence of hierarchy, nature, immanence, process, joy, peace, and life. †Jaggar, â€Å"Feminist Ethics,† 1992 These characteristics allow for a more peaceful world. The Syrian regime was accused of using chemical weapons against it’s own people in september of 2013. The weapon of mass destruction â€Å"Sarin† may have been used, and this action is against international law. The United states felt obligated to step in and punish the Syrian Government for this because they felt it was in the worlds best interest to not let these atrocities go unpunished. It could be more dangerous to let them get away with it because international law could fall apart and the world could turn to anarchy if nothing is done to punish wrong behavior. This being said, what is the best course of action to punish the Syrian government if they did infact use this weapon? Military action was debated, and President Obama was willing to attack if necessary, but I feel this is very dangerous. If the United States were to attack the Syrian government without UN approval It could have the same effect as doing nothing. This is because the united states would also be breaking international law, and this could also cause the UN to fall apart. If strong countries like the US bypass UN approval on military actions then International law means nothing. â€Å"The world reacts by asking: if you cannot count on international law, then you must find other ways to ensure your security. Thus a growing number of countries seek to acquire weapons of mass destruction. This is logical: if you have the bomb, no one will touch you. † -Vladimir Putin. In addition, military action would not be morally acceptable in this situation because it would not be in self defense; it would be an act of aggression causing more harm than good. A diplomatic approach would be a step in the right direction for this particular situation. This real life situation allows us to see how we can judge the morality of an action on a larger scale. In conclusion, war can be moral, but it is only a strategy to attain peace and safety for a group. All other options should be explored before war can be considered; this is because war involves some of the most immoral actions possible; the killing of others. â€Å"Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime. †- Ernest Hemingway http://www. brainyquote. com/quotes/quotes/e/ernesthemi108407. html#zB7XwPTRbCpbv7my. 99 http://www. nytimes. com/2013/09/12/opinion/putin-plea-for-caution-from-russia-on-syria. html? _r=0.

The Golden Ratio: Importance

The Golden Ratio: Importance The great architect of age and every culture, the basis of which is Golden Ratio. Thesis statement: What is the Golden Ratio? How can one number be so important that countless historical figures have spent many years of their lives studying it and proving its existence? And why is it still so relevant in todays design and architecture? Introduction What is the most satisfying proportion in today design? The Greeks thought they knew. Their temples were designed according to certain rules relating to the golden section. (Which is what we, layman, know as the Divine Proportion, the Golden Proportion, the Golden Number or even the Golden hat Mean.) In the 13th century, Fibonnaci, an Italian mathematician, put it all down on paper. He said, the golden section or perfect proportion was 0.618034 to 1 (about 5 to 8). The Parthenon (a temple in the Athenian Acropolis that the Greeks built, dedicated to the Greek goddess Athena) fits into Fibonnacis Golden rectangle. Incidentally, so do the pyramids at Giza. Does this make the Golden proportion a necessary rule to follow in design? In the 16th century, Leonardo Da Vinci wrote a book on geometric recreations called Divine Proportion. In 1948 Le Corbusier also wrote a book on mathematical proportioning. Others who have benefited this ratio are biologists, artists, psychologists and even mystics have pondered and debated on the basis of ubiquity and appeal. It is fair to say that the Golden Ratio has inspired thinkers of all disciplines like no other numbers in the history of mathematics. Throughout the generations, many architects have also searched for the golden rule of design, thinking that it is that of the Golden Ratio. However, their search is far from over. This is because mathematics alone will not tell you what the most eye-pleasing proportion for a buildings structure is. Proportion must be generically correct and determined by the nature of the material. In other words, it is one thing for stone, another for concrete, and something else for steel. This, we would discuss further in another segment. Present technology has also given architects and engineers unlimited range to compose new forms of design and exciting spaces. My stand is that the Golden Ratio is an important aspect in designing a building but it is not the most crucial. Besides having proportion in a building, functionality is also important. A creative design through the creative intuition of a designer will make the building outstanding. History Background Renaissance Period The Golden Ratio is related to many things in the world today, not only during the times of Renaissance, Le Corbusier and Alberti. It exists in architecture, art, music, design and even fashion. Since Renaissance, many artists and architects have proportioned their works to the Golden Ratio, especially in the form of golden rectangle, in which the ratio of the longer side to the shorter in the Golden Ratio, causing this proportion to be aesthetically pleasing. Mathematicians have studied this because of its unique and interesting properties applying it to geometry. Since then, it has opened up doors for me how I view design and architecture and how it balances harmony to architecture design in this modern world. Others who have benefited this ratio are biologists, artists, psychologists and even mystics have pondered and debated on the basis of ubiquity and appeal. It is fair to say that the Golden Ratio has inspired thinkers of all disciplines like no other numbers in the history of mathematics. B Body The Golden Ratio in the Past Firstly, let us consider what the ancients were trying to achieve by including the Golden Proportion in their design. Taking the building of the Parthenon temple as an example, the Greeks have shown a clear example of proportioned Golden Ratio and design, with it being circumscribed by golden rectangles. Some scholars, however, denied that the Greeks had any aesthetic association with Golden Ratio. It could have been just pure sense of good proportion by the architects at that time. Making a building pleasing to ones eyes and creating harmony in space was the main objective. the Greeks simply wanted to achieve perfection that pleases their God, Athena. The Parthenons facade is, or? Unlikely I feel, as it is seen from the pictures, the measurements and the superimpose golden rectangles, these choices are so well made that there must be some work of the mathematical calculations to derive such proportioned structure of a building. They feel that it was not until Euclid that mathematical properties were studied. Before Elements (308BC) the Greek merely regarded the number merely as an interesting irrational numbers, with regular pentagons and decagons and dodecahedron (a regular polyhedron) and regular pentagons. But one thing for sure, it was the Euclid where it is showed how to calculate the value. Vitruvius (a Roman writer, architect and engineer) discussed proportions where it can be expressed in whole numbers, as opposed to irrational proportions. Secondly, Are modern designers concerned with the issue of Golden Ratio to architectural design? Whether they still apply Golden Ratio? Le Corbusier is said to have contributed to many modern international style architecture, centering on harmony and proportion. Its faith in the mathematical order was closely bound by the Golden Ratio and the Fibonacci series. He uses the Golden Ratio in his modulor system for the scale of architectural proportion. He saw this system as a continuation of the long tradition of Vitruvius, and others who used the proportions of the human body, to improve the appearance and function of architecture. In addition to Golden Ratio, Le Corbusier based the system on human measurements, Fibonacci numbers and the double unit. He took Leonardos suggestion of the Great Ratio in human proportions to an extreme, he sectioned his model human bodys height at the navel with the two sections in the Golden Ratio, then subdivided those sections in Golden Ratio at the knees and throat; he used these Golden Ratio proportions in the Modulor system. The Villa Stein in Garches exemplified the Modular system. The Villas rectangular ground, elevation and inner structure closely approximate golden rectangles. Thirdly, Fractal Dimensions in Modern Architecture Recently, fractal dimensions have been calculated to be used frequently for Frank Lloyd Wrights and Le Corbusiers buildings. It can be found that both architects use the method of increasingly smaller rectangular grids. Frank Lloyd Wrights buildings display a self-similar characteristic over a wide range of scales (far and spaced versus micro small sizes), so those buildings are intrinsically fractal. However for this specific project, Wright was following the brilliant example of his teacher, Louis Sullivan. By contrast, Le Corbusiers architecture displays a characteristic over only two or three of the largest scales. In more detail, Le Corbusiers architecture is flat and straight, and therefore has no fractal qualities. A fractal dimension between one and two characterizes a design that has an infinite number of self-similar levels of scale, whereas the fractal dimension of Le Corbusiers buildings immediately drops to one. (Bovill, 1996. Salingaros, 1999.) Golden Ratio has also proven in the Art and Nature Leonardo da Vincis illustrated yet another divine proportion in the infamous painting of Mona Lisa. Other equally well known painting which has made use of the Golden Ratio is The Sacrament of the Last Supper by Salvador Dali. The Golden Ratio is expressed in the arrangement of branches along the stems of plants and of veins in leaves and even to the skeletons of animals including their veins and nerves, to the proportions of chemical compounds and the geometry of crystals, to the use of proportion in artistic endeavours. From this, the Golden Ratio has become a universal law in strive to create completeness and beauty, with both nature and art, in structure, forms and proportions, organic and inorganic, in the human form. According to Volkmar Weiss and Harold Weiss the Golden Ratio also affects the clock cycle of brain waves, known as psychometric data. Golden Ratio is Relevance in Present Times Modernising the Traditional Intimate Relationship Between Architecture and Mathematics The traditional intimate relationship between architecture and mathematics has changed in the 20th century. Architecture students no longer need to have a mathematical background according to the article Architecture, Patterns and Mathematics by Nikos Salingaros. It may be promoting an anti-mathematical mindset. Mathematics is a science of patterns, the presence or absence of patterns in our surroundings influences how easily one grasp the concepts that rely on patterns. However, it has been seen that an increase in technological advances, rather especially in the area of environmental factors, has made mathematics almost redundant in architecture. Environmental psychologists know that our surroundings influence the way we think, so if we are raised in an anti-mathematical environment, then we would deem to subscribe more human qualities. This is not an argument about preferences or styles, it concerns more about a trained functionality of the human mind! An example to illustrate the meaning of functionality in the human mind is made by Christopher Alexander where: the need for lights from two sides of a room; a well-defined entrance; interaction of footpaths and car roads; hierarchy of privacy in different rooms of a house and etc. It speaks about specific building types, about building blocks that can be combined in an infinite number of ways. This implies a more mathematical and combinatoric approach to design in general. Alexandrine patterns represent solutions which repeat itself in time and space, thus relating to visual patterns transforming into other dimensions. A new concept: Organic Architecture In recent years, there has been a shift in architecture looking away from Golden Ratio to other ways in which design can still have a sense of proportion by looking at nature for inspiration; the term given is Organic Architecture. The term organic architecture was coined by the famous modern architect, Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959), though never well expressed by his cryptic style of writing: So here I stand before you preaching organic architecture: declaring organic architecture to be the modern ideal and the teaching so much needed if we are to see the whole of life, and to now serve the whole of life, holding no traditions essential to the great TRADITION. Nor cherishing any preconceived form fixing upon us either past, present or future, but instead exalting the simple laws of common sense or of super-sense if you prefer determining form by way of the nature of materials Frank Lloyd Wright, written in 1939. While Organic Architecture does describe some form of individuality, it also expresses our need to connect the designs, we create, to Nature. Using Nature as a fundamental for design, from there a building or design must grow, as Nature grows, from the inside out. Many architects design their buildings as that similar to a shell and force their way inside. Nature grows from the idea of a seed and reaches out to its surroundings. A building thus, is akin to an organism and mirrors the beauty and complexity of Nature. Where the Golden Ratio Fits In However, in the research that I have done on this topic, many of the historic scholars who devoted their entire lives to studying the Golden Ratio has always studied nature for inspiration and they derived the Golden Ratio from nature itself. Modern architects who claim to move away from the Golden Ratio as it is too conformist and look towards nature for their inspiration for proportion instead still end up following the Golden Ratio as it was from studying nature that led to the discovery of Golden Ratio. Hence, the continuing relevance of Golden Ratio in todays architecture. How the Golden Ratio is evident in our everyday lives The Golden Ratio seen in Music Rhythm is everywhere in nature, at every scale from cosmic phenomena to the oscillations of atoms. Our every cell has its own clock, governing its own repetitive rhythms. Time itself, once measured by the motion of earth, sun and stars, is now defined, less memorably, as 9,192,631,770 oscillations of a single atom of an obscure metal. At the scale of the biosphere, the fidelity of replication in the genetic system is such that no more than about 200 errors are made in copying the 300 million bases strung into the chromosomes that hoard the design of our bodies. Without those errors, however, there could be no change and so no evolution. With this is mind, we shall now look at how rhythm ties in with the Golden Ratio. Much of the rhythm and movement and design of our bodies and normal everyday life experiences all tie in with the Golden Ratio, how we perceive an object and whether we find it pleasing all goes back to the Golden Ratio. Because it is the one of the universal constants that allow for the interactions between all things on earth, it continues to hold relevance in our lives, regardless of the advancements in technology, which in fact is actually discovering more and more how life and design is so intimately associated with the Golden Ratio. Architectural evidence of the Golden Ratio Take a look at modern architecture and you will soon realize that the last decades have produced an increasing number of buildings with exotic shapes. Of course, also in earlier times the design of buildings has been influenced by mathematical ideas regarding, for instance, symmetry. Both historical and modern developments show that mathematics can play an important role, ranging from appropriate descriptions of designs to guiding the designers intuition. C Case study Case Study One: Republic Poly Technology of Singapore by Fumihiko Maki Fumihiko Maki designed the new campus attempting to preserve the green qualities and the topography of the original site introducing landscape elements that contrast with the natural widerness and strengthen the sense of place based on Golden Ratio. Case Study Two: AL Mukminin Mosque In Jurong East by Forum Architects built in 1987 The adoption of the Fibonacci sequence as a design generator is the intriguing concept of this Mosque, a strong arithmetic pattern. The architects involved with questions of context and the sense of harmony is gathered from the aspiration. Case Study Three: Palladios Villa Rotunda. The Villa Rotonda design is completely symmetrical on all axes under a modern teminology, including diagonals. Case Study Four: Taj Mahai Taj Mahai in India contains the golden ratio in its design and it was completed in 1648. Case Study Five: CN Tower in Toronto The CN Tower in Toronto, the tallest tower structure in the world, has contains the also has golden ratio in its design. 342 meters was the ratio of observation deck and total height of 553.33 is 0.618 or phi, the reciprocal of Phi! Case Study Six: California Polytechnic State University The College of Engineering was also designed based on the Fibonacci number What I have perceived until this moment In my analysis, Golden Ratio forms the basis of understanding of architecture, however it is not the entirety. Because form follow function, function plays an important part of the architectural design because without understanding the functionally of form, it is not possible to develop a building of good use, for example a good architect must be able to understand the utility of function. For example, the architect must know how many rooms a house needs, whether a swimming pool is required or a badminton court needed. After a form is selected and function must go beyond the concerns of biotechnical materialism. The creative architects must go beyond utility technical knowledge to an awareness of experiential associations and symbolic meanings that lies behind the visible form. Beauty in design is not guaranteed when all of the above is satisfied. Some intuition is required by the architect and an outstanding design depends also in skill and intuition with functionality. Therefore, the great architect of age and every culture, the basis of which is mathematical. Word count : 2953

Profile of a Hate Crime Offender Essay example -- Papers

Profile of a Hate Crime Offender Sterilized from emotion, hate crime, also called bias crime, is those offenses motivated in part or singularly by personal prejudice against other because of a diversity-race, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity/national origin, or disability. Hate crimes are committed out of anger, ignorance, and lack of knowledge of another’s ideas and beliefs. There are many causes for an individual to commit a hate crime. Also, many different profiles fit the description of a hate crime offender. There are ways to prevent and control hate crimes, but they will always be present in society as long as every person has the right to express his or her opinion. The term hate crime first appeared in the late 1980’s as a way of understanding a racial incident in the Howard Beach section of New York City, in which a black man was killed while attempting to evade a violent mob of white teenagers, shouting racial epithets. Although widely used by the federal government of the United States, the media, and researchers in the field, the term is somewhat misleading because it suggests incorrectly that hatred is invariably a distinguishing characteristic of this type of crime. While it is true that many hate crimes involve intense animosity toward the victim, many others do not. Conversely, many crimes involving hatred between the offender and the victim are not ‘hate crimes’ in the sense intended here. For example an assault that arises out of a dispute between two white, male co-workers who compete for a promotion might involve intense hatred, even though it is not based on any racial or religious differences... ...Violence on College Campuses," (Baltimore: National Institute Against Prejudice and Violence, 1990). Fox, James and Jack Levin Overkill: Mass Murder and Serial Killing Exposed (New York: Dell, 1996). Freeman, Steven, "Hate Crime Laws: Punishment Which Fits the Crime," Annual Survey of American Law (New York: New York University School of Law, 1993); pp. 581-585. Hamm, Mark S. Hate Crime: International Perspectives on Causes and Control (Anderson: Cincinnati, 1994). Jacobs, James B. and Jessica S. Henry, "The Social Construction of a Hate Crime Epidemic," The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology (Winter 1996); 366-391. Jacobs, James B. and Kimberly A. Potter "Hate Crimes: A Critical Perspective," Crime and Justice: A Review of Research, Ed. Michael Tonry (University of Chicago Press: Chicago, 1997).

Mrs. Dalloway :: essays research papers

Mrs. Dalloway (1998) presents a day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, an upper-class English woman. Clarissa Dalloway is the wife of Richard Dalloway, a Conservative Member of Parliament. The story takes place in London on a day in June 1923, a day when Clarissa is giving a dinner party. She walks to the florist shop to buy flowers for the party. Admittedly, it's no easy task to make a silly woman's foolish choices an engrossing cinematic experience. For that reason alone the people who tried to make a film of Virginia Woolf's novel, "Mrs. Dalloway" get an "E" for effort. It has a sumptuous look, excellent supporting performances, and I wish I could have liked it more. The title character, Clarissa Dalloway, is played by Vanessa Redgrave while she plans a party at her impressive home. As she does, she begins to recall the choice she made years ago when pursued by two suitors who could not have been more different. Rather than reckless passion, her choice, born of cowardice, was for the security of a quiet life full of privilege. Peter Walsh, an old and close friend of Clarissa’s, has returned to England after five years in India, and comes to visit her. Peter Walsh once loved Clarissa, but she had refused to marry him. Clarissa introduces Peter to her daughter Elizabeth. Elizabeth is 17 years old, and has an older friend and tutor named Doris Kilman. Elizabeth goes to lunch with Miss Kilman. Miss Kilman is poor and physically unattractive, and resents the upper-class Mrs. Dalloway. Miss Kilman is a desperate and fanatically religious woman, who wants to take Elizabeth away from her mother, but conceals her feeling under the guise of religiosity and strident charity. Septimus Warren Smith and his wife Lucrezia happen to be walking on the street. Septimus Warren Smith never meets Mrs. Dalloway, but their lives are connected by external events, such as the sight of an airplane overhead, and by the fact that they are both sensitive people who feel empty. Septimus Warren Smith commits suicide the same day that Mrs. Dalloway is giving her dinner party. Clarissa Dalloway as a character in the novel is upper-class and conventional. She knows her life is shallow; her former lover Peter Walsh had called her the perfect hostess. She feels that her only gift in life is in knowing a person through instinct.

Causes of Natural Hazards Essay -- hurricanes and earthquakes

Hazards are possible sources of danger. Types of hazards are those such as hurricanes, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. A cause is what makes something happen and is a reason for it happening. The two types of hazards I will be outlining the causes for are hurricanes and earthquakes. A hurricane and tropical storms are cyclones. When the winds reach a constant speed of 74 miles per hour or more, it is called a hurricane. A hurricane is caused when a large mass of air is warmed up and the warm humid air begins to rise. As the air rises, it cools and condenses to cloud and rain. They are tropical storms. The hurricanes winds blow in a large spiral around a calm centre called the ‘eye’. The eye is usually 20-30 miles wide and the storm itself may have a diameter of 400 miles. As a hurricane approaches, the skies begin to darken and the winds grow stronger. The hurricane can bring torrential rains, high winds, and storm surge as it comes close to land. A single hurricane can last more than two weeks. An earthquake is a shaking movement of the earth’s surface. It results from faults. The earth’s surface is in continuous slow motion. This is plate tectonics – the movement of rigid plates at the surface of the earth in response to flow of rock within the earth. These plates cover the whole surface of the earth. Since they are all constantly moving, they rub against each other at the boundaries (for example, the San Andreas Fault in California). They sink beneath each other, or spread apart from each other (like the Mid-Atlantic Ridge). At such places the motion becomes less smooth - the plates are stuck together at the edges ... ... into the areas were blocked or bridges were destroyed. If the bridges had been built to survive a hurricane, aid would be able to get to the areas sooner and save lives as they would be able to reach people in time. MEDC’s and LEDC’s are both affected by hurricanes, although MEDC’s are able to respond to them quicker and more effectively then LEDC’s. Both of them need funding so that they can research and monitor hurricanes so that they can respond to them, but the difference between them is that MEDC’s are able to provide themselves with funding as apposed to LEDC’s who are unable to provide themselves with the funding required. The research helps people to learn more about hurricanes and the more people know about hurricanes, makes it easier for them to respond to them in the right way so that they can save lives.

Single Sex versus Co-ed

Single-Sex versus Co-education Education is very important for both boys and girls, but the place they are being educated in is very arguable. Nowadays, it has been noticed that in a single-sex educational experience students exhibit an eagerness to participate in discussions. In Australia, the percentage of students attending single-sex secondary schools was 55% of boys and 54% of girls, in 1985. However, by 1995 the proportion of students attending had dropped to 41% of boys and 45% of girls.Let us start by onsidering the fact that studying in separate school, boys and girls, can indisputably concentrate on their studies and not get distracted easily by the opposite sex classmates. In addition to this, some religious and traditional families might be keener to educate their children in separate schools. Generally, students of single- sex schools perform better than those at co-ed schools. On the other hand, it could be better for boys and girls to study together since they should b e taught fairly. Communication plays a big role in co-education schools.It helps pupils to communicate and socialize and it is easier for them in the future as they get to interact with others while working, in colleges and universities, etc. Moreover, students at co-ed schools learn to interact better with the other gender. After weighing the pros and cons, I would say that we live in a mixed world where interactions between both genders is compulsory, whether it was a debate at work or a group discussion among co-workers. The ability to speak out without intimidation is a vital feature in each individual. Written And Discussed By: JOY

Pride and Prejudice on Marriage

Marriage in the Words of Jane Austen 06 December 2013 In the modern world, when two people decide to make a lifetime commitment to one another, they are agreeing to devote their own lives to one another for the rest of their time on Earth. It is an allegiance that is not to be taken lightly, and with the upmost consideration and assurance. Marriage in modern-day society is a union that is based on love, compassion, understanding, and a devotion to another person. In the Regency Period in England however, the concept of marriage was far more complicated and structured than it is now.Men and women who were not yet married had very strict rules and regulations about how they should interact with one another, whether it be privately or publicly. Such rules included not conversing in private without the presence of a chaperone, having no intimate or physical contact -including hand shakes-, and only speaking of certain topics that were to be monitored by an elder. Marriages were often arr anged and were based on wealth and property, as opposed to love. Very rarely did people marry out of passion and true feelings.It was not common to truly fall in love with someone and marry for the ole purpose, presumably due to the fact that young women were in such a rush to find their future husbands. It was far more common to marry based on stability and economic background. In Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice, both types of marriages are reflected between the couples in the story. There are several examples of bad marriages, good ones, and the exceptional marriage of Darcy and Elizabeth.Though women were brought up to believe that marriage was about economic and social security, Elizabeth insists on getting married for love, and not for any other reason besides that. In the end sne is able to tind such love and marry Darcy. Jane Austen uses Elizabeth and Darcy's relationship to portray what a marriage should truly be based upon, and to teach people of the Regency Period to marry for love, as well as in an attempt to rid the idea of marrying based on social class and economic standing. The era in which Jane Austen lived was one in which social and economic ranking played a tremendous role in one's reputation and success.In terms of marriage, young women were taught to look for a man of wealth and security. Men also chose heir wives strategically, being that perhaps their ladies' fathers might offer them deals and treaties. It was sometimes an unfair arrangement in which a man and woman had to settle for one another based on material objects. Karen Newman, who wrote a critical essay on the novel in 1983 says, [Marriage] does after all refer to a real social institution that, in the nineteenth century particularly, robbed women of their human rights.The most cursory look at the legal and cultural history of women makes it clear that these narrative events reflect the social and legal limitations that women of the eighteenth and ineteenth centuries fac ed and that in turn reflect the way a patriarchal society has manipulated biological roles for its own advantage. (693-710) In other words, the morals and standards of the time took away many rights that women had as human beings. They were seen as property by their husbands and had very little choice in who they were to spend the rest of their lives with.She states that the messages in the novel directly reflect the constricting regulations that were set forth during their time period, and how men were superior to women. Many marriages were not based on love or happiness, but merely on oney and social ranking. This type of marriage presents itself in Charlotte and Mr. Collins, who marry without any sense of love for one another. Mr. Collins has been harassed by Lady Catherine De Burgh about finding a wife, and he wishes to please her by asking for a women's hand in marriage sooner rather than later.He believes that Charlotte's father is a reputable man, which was important during t his time. He also knows that Charlotte will most likely have a reasonable dowry. On Charlotte's end, she decides to marry Mr. Collins based on security. She wants a comfortable ome and children, and is aware of her lack of looks and money; therefore she accepts Mr. Collins proposal right away. Elizabeth is astonished by Charlotte's decision to marry for money, but Charlotte has her reasons for doing so. She says to Elizabeth, When you have had time to think it over, I hope you will be satisfied with what I have done.I am not romantic, you know; I never was. I ask only a comfortable home; and considering Mr. Collins's character, connection, and situation in life, I am convinced that my chance of happiness with him is as fair as most people can oast on entering the marriage state. (Austen, chapter 22, page 17) Charlotte has always believed that since people change so much during marriage, that it makes no difference how they feel about each other before hand. She believes that she wil l be happy enough with Mr. Collins, knowing that she will now have stability and a family.Whatever her thoughts may be, it still holds true that her marriage is one that is completely void of sentiment, passion or romance: it is simply a marriage of convenience. Charlotte and Mr. Collins's marriage is the epitome ot what marriages ere like during this period. It is matrimonies such as this one that Austen was fighting against, and attempting to prove wrong. She uses this relationship as a way to highlight the norm during this time, in order to have contrast to a great marriage based on love, which is later seen in that of Darcy and Elizabeth's marriage. There is also a clear distinction between Charlotte and Mr.