What are human rights?

 

What are human rights?

Human rights are rights we have simply because we exist as human beings - they are not granted by any state. These universal rights are inherent to us all, regardless of nationality, sex, national or ethnic origin, color, religion, language, or any other status. They range from the most fundamental - the right to life - to those that make life worth living, such as the rights to food, education, work, health, and liberty.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948, was the first legal document to set out the fundamental human rights to be universally protected. The UDHR, which turned 70 in 2018, continues to be the foundation of all international human rights law. Its 30 articles provide the principles and building blocks of current and future human rights conventions, treaties and other legal instruments.

In the UK the Human Rights Act 1998 sets out the fundamental rights and freedoms that everyone in the UK is entitled to. It incorporates the rights set out in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) into domestic British law. The Human Rights Act came into force in the UK in October 2000.

The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) protects the human rights of people in countries that belong to the Council of Europe.

( What is the Council of Europe? Formed in 1949, the Council of Europe is completely separated from the European Union and much larger, with 47 members compared to the EU’s 28. The UK became a Council member 24 years before it joined the EU.)

All 47 Member States of the Council, including the UK, have signed the Convention.

(In brackets the authors, novels or poems  you can ASSOCIATE the articles to!)

• the right to life (Article 2) The War Poets
• freedom from torture (Article 3) 1984, Refugee Blues
• freedom from slavery (Article 4)
• the right to liberty (Article 5) 1984
• the right to a fair trial (Article 6) 1984
• the right not to be punished for something that wasn’t against the law at the time (Article 7)
• the right to respect for family and private life (Article 8) Oscar Wilde’s life
• freedom of thought, conscience and religion (Article 9) 1984 Refugee Blues
• freedom of expression (Article 10) 1984
• freedom of assembly (Article 11) 1984
• the right to marry and start a family (Article 12)
• the right not to be discriminated against in respect of these rights (Article 14) Oliver Twist, Refugee Blues
• the right to protection of property (Protocol 1, Article 1)
• the right to education (Protocol 1, Article 2) Jane Eyre, Oliver Twist
• the right to participate in free elections (Protocol 1, Article 3)
• the abolition of the death penalty (Protocol 13)

The European Court of Human Rights

The European Court of Human Rights applies and protects the rights and guarantees set out in the European Convention on Human Rights.

 

Symphony in yellow by Oscar Wilde

 

Symphony in yellow by Oscar Wilde

An omnibus across the bridge                                                                                               Crawls like a yellow butterfly,                                                                                               And, here and there, a passer-by                                                                                           Shows like a little restless midge.

Big barges full of yellow hay                                                                                                  Are moored against the shadowy wharf,                                                                                And, like a yellow silken scarf,                                                                                              The thick fog hangs along the quay.                                                                                    The yellow leaves begin to fade                                                                                              

And flutter from the Temple elms,                                                                                        And at my feet the pale green Thames                                                                                  Lies like a rod of rippled jade.

THEMES

There seems to be quite a few 'themes' in this poem. I think one of the messages that came across to me was that people are always rushing for something and trying desperately to reach it without stopping to appreciate the nature that they are surrounded by. 

'Passers-by'(1st stanza) don’t stop and have a look at nature- they move on, which could represent the fact that people just don't notice what they have been given because they are too caught up in their own lives. 

Also in the 2nd stanza it shows that the 'yellow hay' in the 'barge' is moored on a shadowy wharf. Assuming that the hay represents the people, it shows that many people just pretend to know where their destination is while in fact they have no idea. Again, they are too rushed and hasty, driven by something human and sinful like greed, that they don't realize that they need to take things slow to figure out what their life is meant to be. 

Also this poem could be about people who are bright on the outside but empty on the inside, because they are lost and have no direction or that they seem positive, happy, and driven on the outside but there is still a vulnerability and insecurity that they are not willing to show in their outward appearance. 

That could be because they don't take the time to let God lead them to where they are really meant to be.

Answer the questions:

1)Where do you think the poem is set?
2)Make a list of all the things and objects in the poem that the narrator describes as yellow
3)What time of the year is the poem set?
4)Make a list of the similes (4) in the poem. Choose ONE of the similes and explain why you think it is effective.
5)Why might the river be compared to jade? Why is this a strange image to describe a river?
6)What is the narrator’s attitude of the city and the people who live there? Choose a tone and explain how diction and
imagery influenced your choice.
Think over the following aspects -YELLOW is the colour of flowers blooming and sunshine so it's connected to life, happiness and freedom, but in this poem it's also the colour of hay and fallen leaves. So it has a positive connotation- life and a negative one-death.
Also think over the contrast between a kind of elegant imagery such as the silken scarf and the jade ( a precious stone) and some plainer things like the barges, the midges, the fog and the wharf.
Finally reflect on this point - the last stanza shows transformation, because here the yellow apparently fades and sheds its leaves, which could signify a rebirth or something new after a cycle has taken place. The colour green becomes the main focus in the last two lines, which could also represent a new, fresh life.
As for a possible interpretation read the doc here attached!

Dandysm and fashion

 

History: Dandyism and fashion

The words ‘dandy’ and ‘dandyism’ were first used to describe a man who loved fashion and was particularly interested in his physical appearance. Dandies became common at the end of the 18th century in Britain and continued into the 19th century when they arrived in France too. Like Oscar Wilde, a typical dandy, they enjoyed a luxurious life, had very refined manners and were always dressed in the most fashionable, extravagant clothes. Nowadays it is common for men to be interested in their appearance but, in Wilde’s time, male vanity and an obsession for appearance and beauty was unusual. Dandyism became so important that some people compared it to a religion rather than an interest in fashion.

Original dandies wore lots of velvet, jewellery and lace. Their clothes were colourful and often completely impractical. One famous English dandy, George Brummel, apparently took five hours to get dressed every day. Oscar Wilde’s Dorian Gray is a typical Dandy; his only interest is in his own appearance and the beauty of those around him. His only desire is to remain in a state of perfect beauty. Even in his comic plays, like The Importance of Being Earnest, the dandy is always an important character.

THEMES 
THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY

• SPLIT BETWEEN APPEARANCE AND REALITY------------physiognonomy (appearance reveals character)
• ART for ART's SAKE
• SIN AND REDEMPTION
• VANITY
• THE DOUBLE ------------Good and evil
• THE NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES OF INFLUENCE/MANIPULATION
• ("Corrupting influence")
• THE SUPREMACY OF YOUTH AND BEAUTY
• THE OVERREACHER

The wild life of Oscar Wilde

 

Emily Dickinson The saddest noise, the sweetest noise

 

The saddest noise, the sweetest noise

The saddest noise, the sweetest noise,
  The maddest noise that grows,—
The birds, they make it in the spring,
  At night’s delicious close.

Between the March and April line—
  That magical frontier
Beyond which summer hesitates,
  Almost too heavenly near.

It makes us think of all the dead
  That sauntered with us here,
By separation’s sorcery
  Made cruelly more dear.

It makes us think of what we had,
  And what we now deplore.
We almost wish those siren throats
  Would go and sing no more.

An ear can break a human heart
  As quickly as a spear,
We wish the ear had not a heart
  So dangerously near.

 

Spring-season of rebirth

Dickinson subverts this classic convention

This moment should be full of joy and excitement

Spring-death, loss

Universal situation-all who live will die

Stanza one

Auditory images- three adjectives-noise can be heard but not understood

Spring and life is  noise- something incomprehensible

The birds make that sound in the spring-it introduces a second conceit-the passing of seasons , the idea of change-life begins, then one dies, the cycle is endless-lack of control

Night is dark and frightening

Delicious-nature stimulates the senses.

Stanza two

Line metaphor-boundaries-allusive

Frontier-military

Magic motif

These edges are, according to British myth, the realm of faery so these allusions bring with them an air of beauty tainted with mischief and loss.

Summer hesitates-personification-it suggests summer’s reluctance to experience this growth (fear to grow)

Heavenly-signifying the yearning to connect to nature and yet the necessity to accept that to wholly be part of nature one must die

There’s irony in the choice of the word. Dickinson’s fear of death- Paradoxical need to die in order to belong to nature

Stanza three

She uses inclusive language pointing out confidently the shared experience of losing a loved one and the pain of recollection

It stresses the bitter-sweet experience

The binary opposition depicts the paradox of life and death

There’s a kind of sorcery which shows the nature of human bereavement with hypnoting enchanting lyricism, highlighting the bitterness of loss and cruelty of making the emotions more powerful for those gone

Alliteration s sound-sauntered, separation, sorcery….us-s consonance

s-hypnotic, musical-life-death-relationships

 

Stanza four

Sense of loss

Inclusive language-shared experience

Past and Present tense

The use of had-past affects the present

Sirens-mythological allusion-image of seduction-sinful temptation-painful consequences

Sing no more-allusion-sin no more

It suggests the powerful desire for such pain and relationships to end

 

Stanza five

Synecdoche in the first line

To live is to expect to be broken-life is pain

The auditory experience is devastating

The simile-sharp suddenness of grief and shock

The reader’s desire not to be harmed by life’s relationships

Death-mortality

 

Life, love pain, loss

The noise of existence

The desire to connect and the impossibility to do so

To belong is to acknowledge your own mortality and that of those you love

The poem uses inclusive language, particularly first person plural, to generalise the experience. We, too, have lost loved ones and must suffer through reminders of that loss as the seasons change.

Henry II

 

1.What did Henry II’s mother want for him?

2. What nationality was her mother?

3. What does the verb vow mean?

4. Why did Matilda get angry?

5. What happened when he was nine?

6. When did he become King?

7. Who did Henry marry?

8. When was he crowned?

9. How many children did the King and his wife have?

10. What does have a say mean?

11. What was the state of England?

12. Who was the person the King trusted a lot?