Valentine Day's Fact That Happen Every Years

Looking for Love

188 million Valentine's Day cards are exchanged annually, making Valentine's Day the second-most popular greeting-card-giving occasion. (This total excludes packaged kids valentines for classroom exchanges.) (Source: Hallmark research)

Over 50 percent of all Valentine's Day cards are purchased in the six days prior to the observance, making Valentine's Day a procrastinator's delight. (Source: Hallmark research)

Research reveals that more than half of the U.S. population celebrates Valentine's Day by purchasing a greeting card. (Source: Hallmark research)

There are 119 single men (i.e., never married, widowed or divorced) who are in their 20s for every 100 single women of the same ages. Corresponding numbers for the following race and ethnic groups are:

• Hispanics: 153 men per 100 women
• Asians (single race): 132 men per 100 women (This ratio is not significantly different from that for Hispanics or non-Hispanic whites.)
• Non-Hispanic whites (single race): 120 men per 100 women
• Blacks (single race): 92 men per 100 women (The numbers of black men and women in this age group are not significantly different from one another.

There are 34 single men (i.e., never married, widowed or divorced) age 65 or older for every 100 single women of the same ages. Corresponding numbers for the following race and ethnic groups are:

• Hispanics: 38 men per 100 women
• Non-Hispanic whites (single race): 33 men per 100 women
• Blacks (single race): 33 men per 100 women
• Asians (single race): 28 men per 100 women

(Note: None of the ratios for the individual groups differ significantly from one another nor from the ratio for all people age 65 or older.)

904: The number of dating service establishments nationwide as of 2002. These establishments, which include Internet dating services, employed nearly 4,300 people and pulled in $489 million in revenues.

Be Mine

2.2 million marriages take place in the United States annually. That breaks down to more than 6,000 a day.

147,300 marriages are performed in Nevada during 2005. So many couples "tie the knot" in the Silver State that it ranked fourth nationally in marriages, even though it's total population that year among states was 35th.

The estimated U.S. median ages at first marriage for women and men are 25.3 and 27.1 respectively, in 2005. The age for women rose 4.2 years in the last three decades. The age for men at first marriage is up 3.6 years.

Men and women in northeastern states generally have a higher median age at first marriage than the national average. In Massachusetts, for example, women were a median of 27.4 years old and men 29.1 years of age at first marriage. States where people typically marry young include Utah, where women were a median of 21.9 years and men, 23.9 years.

57% and 60% of American women and men, respectively, are 15 or older and currently married (includes those who are separated).

72%: The percentage of men and women ages 30 to 34 in 2005 who had been married at some point in their lives - either currently or formerly.

4.9 million opposite-sex cohabitating couples maintained households in 2005. These couples comprised 4.3 percent of all households.

Candy is Dandy

1,241: The number of locations producing chocolate and cocoa products in 2004. These establishments employed 43,322 people. California led the nation in the number of such establishments with 136, followed by Pennsylvania with 122. (Source:http://www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/cbptotal.html)

515 locations produced nonchocolate confectionary products in 2004. These establishments employed 22,234 people.

The total value of shipments in 2004 for firms producing chocolate and cocoa products was $13.9 billion. Nonchocolate confectionery product manufacturing, meanwhile, was a $5.7 billion industry.

3,467 Number of confectionery and nut stores in the United States in 2004. Often referred to as candy stores, they are among the best sources of sweets for Valentine's Day.

The per capita consumption of candy by Americans in 2005 was 25.7 pounds. Candy consumption has actually declined over the last few years; in 1997, each American gobbled or savored more than 27 pounds of candy a year.

Flowers

The combined wholesale value of domestically produced cut flowers in 2005 for all flower-producing operations with $100,000 or more in sales was $397 million. Among states, California was the leading producer, alone accounting for nearly three-quarters of this amount ($289 million).

The combined wholesale value of domestically produced cut roses in 2005 for all operations with $100,000 or more in sales was $39 million. Among all types of cut flowers, roses were third in receipts ($39 million)to lilies ($76.9 million) and tulips ($39.1 million).

There were 21,667 florists nationwide in 2004. These businesses employed 109,915 people.

Jewelry

There were 28,772 jewelry stores in the United States in 2004. Jewelry stores offer engagement, wedding and other rings to lovers of all ages. In February 2006, these stores sold $2.6 billion worth of merchandise. (This figure has not been adjusted for seasonal variation, holiday or trading day differences or price changes). The merchandise at these locations could well have been produced at one of the nation's 1,864 jewelry manufacturing establishments. The manufacture of jewelry was an $9 billion industry in 2004.

Data courtesy of the U.S. Census Bureau

Valentine Day's Histories

Every February 14, across the United States and in other places around the world, candy, flowers and gifts are exchanged between loved ones, all in the name of St. Valentine. But who is this mysterious saint, and where did these traditions come from? Find out about the history of this centuries-old holiday, from ancient Roman rituals to the customs of Victorian England.

The history of Valentine's Day — and its patron saint — is shrouded in mystery. But we do know that February has long been a month of romance. St. Valentine's Day, as we know it today, contains vestiges of both Christian and ancient Roman tradition. So, who was Saint Valentine and how did he become associated with this ancient rite? Today, the Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred.

One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men — his crop of potential soldiers. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine's actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death.

Other stories suggest that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons where they were often beaten and tortured.

According to one legend, Valentine actually sent the first "valentine" greeting himself. While in prison, it is believed that Valentine fell in love with a young girl — who may have been his jailor's daughter — who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter, which he signed "From your Valentine," an expression that is still in use today. Although the truth behind the Valentine legends is murky, the stories certainly emphasize his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic, and, most importantly, romantic figure. It's no surprise that by the Middle Ages, Valentine was one of the most popular saints in England and France.

While some believe that Valentine's Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine's death or burial — which probably occurred around 270 A.D — others claim that the Christian church may have decided to celebrate Valentine's feast day in the middle of February in an effort to "christianize" celebrations of the pagan Lupercalia festival. In ancient Rome, February was the official beginning of spring and was considered a time for purification. Houses were ritually cleansed by sweeping them out and then sprinkling salt and a type of wheat called spelt throughout their interiors. Lupercalia, which began at the ides of February, February 15, was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus.

To begin the festival, members of the Luperci, an order of Roman priests, would gather at the sacred cave where the infants Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were believed to have been cared for by a she-wolf or lupa. The priests would then sacrifice a goat, for fertility, and a dog, for purification.

The boys then sliced the goat's hide into strips, dipped them in the sacrificial blood and took to the streets, gently slapping both women and fields of crops with the goathide strips. Far from being fearful, Roman women welcomed being touched with the hides because it was believed the strips would make them more fertile in the coming year. Later in the day, according to legend, all the young women in the city would place their names in a big urn. The city's bachelors would then each choose a name out of the urn and become paired for the year with his chosen woman. These matches often ended in marriage. Pope Gelasius declared February 14 St. Valentine's Day around 498 A.D. The Roman "lottery" system for romantic pairing was deemed un-Christian and outlawed. Later, during the Middle Ages, it was commonly believed in France and England that February 14 was the beginning of birds' mating season, which added to the idea that the middle of February — Valentine's Day — should be a day for romance. The oldest known valentine still in existence today was a poem written by Charles, Duke of Orleans to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt. The greeting, which was written in 1415, is part of the manuscript collection of the British Library in London, England. Several years later, it is believed that King Henry V hired a writer named John Lydgate to compose a valentine note to Catherine of Valois.

In Great Britain, Valentine's Day began to be popularly celebrated around the seventeenth century. By the middle of the eighteenth century, it was common for friends and lovers in all social classes to exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten notes. By the end of the century, printed cards began to replace written letters due to improvements in printing technology. Ready-made cards were an easy way for people to express their emotions in a time when direct expression of one's feelings was discouraged. Cheaper postage rates also contributed to an increase in the popularity of sending Valentine's Day greetings. Americans probably began exchanging hand-made valentines in the early 1700s. In the 1840s, Esther A. Howland began to sell the first mass-produced valentines in America.

According to the Greeting Card Association, an estimated one billion valentine cards are sent each year, making Valentine's Day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year. (An estimated 2.6 billion cards are sent for Christmas.)

Approximately 85 percent of all valentines are purchased by women. In addition to the United States, Valentine's Day is celebrated in Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, France, and Australia.

Valentine greetings were popular as far back as the Middle Ages (written Valentine's didn't begin to appear until after 1400), and the oldest known Valentine card is on display at the British Museum. The first commercial Valentine's Day greeting cards produced in the U.S. were created in the 1840s by Esther A. Howland. Howland, known as the Mother of the Valentine, made elaborate creations with real lace, ribbons and colorful pictures known as "scrap."

Analyzing : Romeo and Juliet Stories by William Shakespeare

Analysis of Major Characters

Romeo

The name Romeo, in popular culture, has become nearly synonymous with “lover.” Romeo, in Romeo and Juliet, does indeed experience a love of such purity and passion that he kills himself when he believes that the object of his love, Juliet, has died. The power of Romeo’s love, however, often obscures a clear vision of Romeo’s character, which is far more complex.

Even Romeo’s relation to love is not so simple. At the beginning of the play, Romeo pines for Rosaline, proclaiming her the paragon of women and despairing at her indifference toward him. Taken together, Romeo’s Rosaline-induced histrionics seem rather juvenile. Romeo is a great reader of love poetry, and the portrayal of his love for Rosaline suggests he is trying to re-create the feelings that he has read about. After first kissing Juliet, she tells him “you kiss by th’ book,” meaning that he kisses according to the rules, and implying that while proficient, his kissing lacks originality (1.5.107). In reference to Rosaline, it seems, Romeo loves by the book. Rosaline, of course, slips from Romeo’s mind at first sight of Juliet. But Juliet is no mere replacement. The love she shares with Romeo is far deeper, more authentic and unique than the clichéd puppy love Romeo felt for Rosaline. Romeo’s love matures over the course of the play from the shallow desire to be in love to a profound and intense passion. One must ascribe Romeo’s development at least in part to Juliet. Her level-headed observations, such as the one about Romeo’s kissing, seem just the thing to snap Romeo from his superficial idea of love and to inspire him to begin to speak some of the most beautiful and intense love poetry ever written.
Yet Romeo’s deep capacity for love is merely a part of his larger capacity for intense feeling of all kinds. Put another way, it is possible to describe Romeo as lacking the capacity for moderation. Love compels him to sneak into the garden of his enemy’s daughter, risking death simply to catch a glimpse of her. Anger compels him to kill his wife’s cousin in a reckless duel to avenge the death of his friend. Despair compels him to suicide upon hearing of Juliet’s death. Such extreme behavior dominates Romeo’s character throughout the play and contributes to the ultimate tragedy that befalls the lovers. Had Romeo restrained himself from killing Tybalt, or waited even one day before killing himself after hearing the news of Juliet’s death, matters might have ended happily. Of course, though, had Romeo not had such depths of feeling, the love he shared with Juliet would never have existed in the first place.
Among his friends, especially while bantering with Mercutio, Romeo shows glimpses of his social persona. He is intelligent, quick-witted, fond of verbal jousting (particularly about sex), loyal, and unafraid of danger.

Juliet

Having not quite reached her fourteenth birthday, Juliet is of an age that stands on the border between immaturity and maturity. At the play’s beginning however she seems merely an obedient, sheltered, naïve child. Though many girls her age—including her mother—get married, Juliet has not given the subject any thought. When Lady Capulet mentions Paris’s interest in marrying Juliet, Juliet dutifully responds that she will try to see if she can love him, a response that seems childish in its obedience and in its immature conception of love. Juliet seems to have no friends her own age, and she is not comfortable talking about sex (as seen in her discomfort when the Nurse goes on and on about a sexual joke at Juliet’s expense in Act 1, scene 3).
Juliet gives glimpses of her determination, strength, and sober-mindedness, in her earliest scenes, and offers a preview of the woman she will become during the four-day span of Romeo and Juliet. While Lady Capulet proves unable to quiet the Nurse, Juliet succeeds with one word (also in Act 1, scene 3). In addition, even in Juliet’s dutiful acquiescence to try to love Paris, there is some seed of steely determination. Juliet promises to consider Paris as a possible husband to the precise degree her mother desires. While an outward show of obedience, such a statement can also be read as a refusal through passivity. Juliet will accede to her mother’s wishes, but she will not go out of her way to fall in love with Paris.

Juliet’s first meeting with Romeo propels her full-force toward adulthood. Though profoundly in love with him, Juliet is able to see and criticize Romeo’s rash decisions and his tendency to romanticize things. After Romeo kills Tybalt and is banished, Juliet does not follow him blindly. She makes a logical and heartfelt decision that her loyalty and love for Romeo must be her guiding priorities. Essentially, Juliet cuts herself loose from her prior social moorings—her nurse, her parents, and her social position in Verona—in order to try to reunite with Romeo. When she wakes in the tomb to find Romeo dead, she does not kill herself out of feminine weakness, but rather out of an intensity of love, just as Romeo did. Juliet’s suicide actually requires more nerve than Romeo’s: while he swallows poison, she stabs herself through the heart with a dagger.
Juliet’s development from a wide-eyed girl into a self-assured, loyal, and capable woman is one of Shakespeare’s early triumphs of characterization. It also marks one of his most confident and rounded treatments of a female character.

Friar Lawrence

Friar Lawrence occupies a strange position in Romeo and Juliet. He is a kindhearted cleric who helps Romeo and Juliet throughout the play. He performs their marriage and gives generally good advice, especially in regard to the need for moderation. He is the sole figure of religion in the play. But Friar Lawrence is also the most scheming and political of characters in the play: he marries Romeo and Juliet as part of a plan to end the civil strife in Verona; he spirits Romeo into Juliet’s room and then out of Verona; he devises the plan to reunite Romeo and Juliet through the deceptive ruse of a sleeping potion that seems to arise from almost mystic knowledge. This mystical knowledge seems out of place for a Catholic friar; why does he have such knowledge, and what could such knowledge mean? The answers are not clear. In addition, though Friar Lawrence’s plans all seem well conceived and well intentioned, they serve as the main mechanisms through which the fated tragedy of the play occurs. Readers should recognize that the Friar is not only subject to the fate that dominates the play—in many ways he brings that fate about.

Mercutio

With a lightning-quick wit and a clever mind, Mercutio is a scene stealer and one of the most memorable characters in all of Shakespeare’s works. Though he constantly puns, jokes, and teases—sometimes in fun, sometimes with bitterness—Mercutio is not a mere jester or prankster. With his wild words, Mercutio punctures the romantic sentiments and blind self-love that exist within the play. He mocks Romeos self-indulgence just as he ridicules Tybalt’s hauteur and adherence to fashion. The critic Stephen Greenblatt describes Mercutio as a force within the play that functions to deflate the possibility of romantic love and the power of tragic fate. Unlike the other characters who blame their deaths on fate, Mercutio dies cursing all Montagues and Capulets. Mercutio believes that specific people are responsible for his death rather than some external impersonal force.

Themes, Motifs & Symbols

Themes

Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.

The Forcefulness of Love

Romeo and Juliet is the most famous love story in the English literary tradition. Love is naturally the play’s dominant and most important theme. The play focuses on romantic love, specifically the intense passion that springs up at first sight between Romeo and Juliet. In Romeo and Juliet, love is a violent, ecstatic, overpowering force that supersedes all other values, loyalties, and emotions. In the course of the play, the young lovers are driven to defy their entire social world: families (“Deny thy father and refuse thy name,” Juliet asks, “Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, / And I’ll no longer be a Capulet”); friends (Romeo abandons Mercutio and Benvolio after the feast in order to go to Juliet’s garden); and ruler (Romeo returns to Verona for Juliet’s sake after being exiled by the Prince on pain of death in 2.1.76–78). Love is the overriding theme of the play, but a reader should always remember that Shakespeare is uninterested in portraying a prettied-up, dainty version of the emotion, the kind that bad poets write about, and whose bad poetry Romeo reads while pining for Rosaline. Love in Romeo and Juliet is a brutal, powerful emotion that captures individuals and catapults them against their world, and, at times, against themselves.

The powerful nature of love can be seen in the way it is described, or, more accurately, the way descriptions of it so consistently fail to capture its entirety. At times love is described in the terms of religion, as in the fourteen lines when Romeo and Juliet first meet. At others it is described as a sort of magic: “Alike bewitchèd by the charm of looks” (2.Prologue.6). Juliet, perhaps, most perfectly describes her love for Romeo by refusing to describe it: “But my true love is grown to such excess / I cannot sum up some of half my wealth” (3.1.33–34). Love, in other words, resists any single metaphor because it is too powerful to be so easily contained or understood.
Romeo and Juliet does not make a specific moral statement about the relationships between love and society, religion, and family; rather, it portrays the chaos and passion of being in love, combining images of love, violence, death, religion, and family in an impressionistic rush leading to the play’s tragic conclusion.

Love as a Cause of Violence

The themes of death and violence permeate Romeo and Juliet, and they are always connected to passion, whether that passion is love or hate. The connection between hate, violence, and death seems obvious. But the connection between love and violence requires further investigation.
Love, in Romeo and Juliet, is a grand passion, and as such it is blinding; it can overwhelm a person as powerfully and completely as hate can. The passionate love between Romeo and Juliet is linked from the moment of its inception with death: Tybalt notices that Romeo has crashed the feast and determines to kill him just as Romeo catches sight of Juliet and falls instantly in love with her. From that point on, love seems to push the lovers closer to love and violence, not farther from it. Romeo and Juliet are plagued with thoughts of suicide, and a willingness to experience it: in Act 3, scene 3, Romeo brandishes a knife in Friar Lawrence’s cell and threatens to kill himself after he has been banished from Verona and his love. Juliet also pulls a knife in order to take her own life in Friar Lawrence’s presence just three scenes later. After Capulet decides that Juliet will marry Paris, Juliet says, “If all else fail, myself have power to die” (3.5.242). Finally, each imagines that the other looks dead the morning after their first, and only, sexual experience (“Methinks I see thee,” Juliet says, “. . . as one dead in the bottom of a tomb” (3.5.55–56). This theme continues until its inevitable conclusion: double suicide. This tragic choice is the highest, most potent expression of love that Romeo and Juliet can make. It is only through death that they can preserve their love, and their love is so profound that they are willing to end their lives in its defense. In the play, love emerges as an amoral thing, leading as much to destruction as to happiness. But in its extreme passion, the love that Romeo and Juliet experience also appears so exquisitely beautiful that few would want, or be able, to resist its power.

The Individual Versus Society

Much of Romeo and Juliet involves the lovers’ struggles against public and social institutions that either explicitly or implicitly oppose the existence of their love. Such structures range from the concrete to the abstract: families and the placement of familial power in the father; law and the desire for public order; religion; and the social importance placed on masculine honor. These institutions often come into conflict with each other. The importance of honor, for example, time and again results in brawls that disturb the public peace.

Though they do not always work in concert, each of these societal institutions in some way present obstacles for Romeo and Juliet. The enmity between their families, coupled with the emphasis placed on loyalty and honor to kin, combine to create a profound conflict for Romeo and Juliet, who must rebel against their heritages. Further, the patriarchal power structure inherent in Renaissance families, wherein the father controls the action of all other family members, particularly women, places Juliet in an extremely vulnerable position. Her heart, in her family’s mind, is not hers to give. The law and the emphasis on social civility demands terms of conduct with which the blind passion of love cannot comply. Religion similarly demands priorities that Romeo and Juliet cannot abide by because of the intensity of their love. Though in most situations the lovers uphold the traditions of Christianity (they wait to marry before consummating their love), their love is so powerful that they begin to think of each other in blasphemous terms. For example, Juliet calls Romeo “the god of my idolatry,” elevating Romeo to level of God (2.1.156). The couple’s final act of suicide is likewise un-Christian. The maintenance of masculine honor forces Romeo to commit actions he would prefer to avoid. But the social emphasis placed on masculine honor is so profound that Romeo cannot simply ignore them.
It is possible to see Romeo and Juliet as a battle between the responsibilities and actions demanded by social institutions and those demanded by the private desires of the individual. Romeo and Juliet’s appreciation of night, with its darkness and privacy, and their renunciation of their names, with its attendant loss of obligation, make sense in the context of individuals who wish to escape the public world. But the lovers cannot stop the night from becoming day. And Romeo cannot cease being a Montague simply because he wants to; the rest of the world will not let him. The lovers’ suicides can be understood as the ultimate night, the ultimate privacy.

The Inevitability of Fate

In its first address to the audience, the Chorus states that Romeo and Juliet are “star-crossed”—that is to say that fate (a power often vested in the movements of the stars) controls them (Prologue.6). This sense of fate permeates the play, and not just for the audience. The characters also are quite aware of it: Romeo and Juliet constantly see omens. When Romeo believes that Juliet is dead, he cries out, “Then I defy you, stars,” completing the idea that the love between Romeo and Juliet is in opposition to the decrees of destiny (5.1.24). Of course, Romeo’s defiance itself plays into the hands of fate, and his determination to spend eternity with Juliet results in their deaths. The mechanism of fate works in all of the events surrounding the lovers: the feud between their families (it is worth noting that this hatred is never explained; rather, the reader must accept it as an undeniable aspect of the world of the play); the horrible series of accidents that ruin Friar Lawrence’s seemingly well-intentioned plans at the end of the play; and the tragic timing of Romeo’s suicide and Juliet’s awakening. These events are not mere coincidences, but rather manifestations of fate that help bring about the unavoidable outcome of the young lovers’ deaths.
The concept of fate described above is the most commonly accepted interpretation. There are other possible readings of fate in the play: as a force determined by the powerful social institutions that influence Romeo and Juliet’s choices, as well as fate as a force that emerges from Romeo and Juliet’s very personalities.

Motifs

Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.

Light/Dark Imagery

One of the play’s most consistent visual motifs is the contrast between light and dark, often in terms of night/day imagery. This contrast is not given a particular metaphoric meaning—light is not always good, and dark is not always evil. On the contrary, light and dark are generally used to provide a sensory contrast and to hint at opposed alternatives. One of the more important instances of this motif is Romeo’s lengthy meditation on the sun and the moon during the balcony scene, in which Juliet, metaphorically described as the sun, is seen as banishing the “envious moon” and transforming the night into day (2.1.46). A similar blurring of night and day occurs in the early morning hours after the lovers’ only night together. Romeo, forced to leave for exile in the morning, and Juliet, not wanting him to leave her room, both try to pretend that it is still night, and that the light is actually darkness: “More light and light, more dark and dark our woes” (3.5.36).

Opposite Points of View

Shakespeare includes numerous speeches and scenes in Romeo and Juliet that hint at alternative ways to evaluate the play. Shakespeare uses two main devices in this regard: Mercutio and servants. Mercutio consistently skewers the viewpoints of all the other characters in play: he sees Romeo’s devotion to love as a sort of blindness that robs Romeo from himself; similarly, he sees Tybalt’s devotion to honor as blind and stupid. His punning and the Queen Mab speech can be interpreted as undercutting virtually every passion evident in the play. Mercutio serves as a critic of the delusions of righteousness and grandeur held by the characters around him.
Where Mercutio is a nobleman who openly criticizes other nobles, the views offered by servants in the play are less explicit. There is the Nurse who lost her baby and husband, the servant Peter who cannot read, the musicians who care about their lost wages and their lunches, and the Apothecary who cannot afford to make the moral choice, the lower classes present a second tragic world to counter that of the nobility. The nobles’ world is full of grand tragic gestures. The servants’ world, in contrast, is characterized by simple needs, and early deaths brought about by disease and poverty rather than dueling and grand passions. Where the nobility almost seem to revel in their capacity for drama, the servants’ lives are such that they cannot afford tragedy of the epic kind.

Symbols

Symbols are objects, characters, figures, and colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.

Poison

In his first appearance, in Act 2, scene 2, Friar Lawrence remarks that every plant, herb, and stone has its own special properties, and that nothing exists in nature that cannot be put to both good and bad uses. Thus, poison is not intrinsically evil, but is instead a natural substance made lethal by human hands. Friar Lawrence’s words prove true over the course of the play. The sleeping potion he gives Juliet is concocted to cause the appearance of death, not death itself, but through circumstances beyond the Friar’s control, the potion does bring about a fatal result: Romeo’s suicide. As this example shows, human beings tend to cause death even without intending to. Similarly, Romeo suggests that society is to blame for the apothecary’s criminal selling of poison, because while there are laws prohiting the Apothecary from selling poison, there are no laws that would help the apothecary make money. Poison symbolizes human society’s tendency to poison good things and make them fatal, just as the pointless Capulet-Montague feud turns Romeo and Juliet’s love to poison. After all, unlike many of the other tragedies, this play does not have an evil villain, but rather people whose good qualities are turned to poison by the world in which they live.

Thumb-biting

In Act 1, scene 1, the buffoonish Samson begins a brawl between the Montagues and Capulets by flicking his thumbnail from behind his upper teeth, an insulting gesture known as biting the thumb. He engages in this juvenile and vulgar display because he wants to get into a fight with the Montagues but doesn’t want to be accused of starting the fight by making an explicit insult. Because of his timidity, he settles for being annoying rather than challenging. The thumb-biting, as an essentially meaningless gesture, represents the foolishness of the entire Capulet/Montague feud and the stupidity of violence in general.

Queen Mab

In Act 1, scene 4, Mercutio delivers a dazzling speech about the fairy Queen Mab, who rides through the night on her tiny wagon bringing dreams to sleepers. One of the most noteworthy aspects of Queen Mab’s ride is that the dreams she brings generally do not bring out the best sides of the dreamers, but instead serve to confirm them in whatever vices they are addicted to—for example, greed, violence, or lust. Another important aspect of Mercutio’s description of Queen Mab is that it is complete nonsense, albeit vivid and highly colorful. Nobody believes in a fairy pulled about by “a small grey-coated gnat” whipped with a cricket’s bone (1.4.65). Finally, it is worth noting that the description of Mab and her carriage goes to extravagant lengths to emphasize how tiny and insubstantial she and her accoutrements are. Queen Mab and her carriage do not merely symbolize the dreams of sleepers, they also symbolize the power of waking fantasies, daydreams, and desires. Through the Queen Mab imagery, Mercutio suggests that all desires and fantasies are as nonsensical and fragile as Mab, and that they are basically corrupting. This point of view contrasts starkly with that of Romeo and Juliet, who see their love as real and ennobling.

Prologue

Summary

From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life. . . .

As a prologue to the play, the Chorus enters. In a fourteen-line sonnet, the Chorus describes two noble households (called “houses”) in the city of Verona. The houses hold an “ancient grudge” (Prologue.2) against each other that remains a source of violent and bloody conflict. The Chorus states that from these two houses, two “star-crossed” (Prologue.6) lovers will appear. These lovers will mend the quarrel between their families by dying. The story of these two lovers, and of the terrible strife between their families, will be the topic of this play.

Analysis

This opening speech by the Chorus serves as an introduction to Romeo and Juliet. We are provided with information about where the play takes place, and given some background information about its principal characters.
The obvious function of the Prologue as introduction to the Verona of Romeo and Juliet can obscure its deeper, more important function. The Prologue does not merely set the scene of Romeo and Juliet, it tells the audience exactly what is going to happen in the play. The Prologue refers to an ill-fated couple with its use of the word “star-crossed,” which means, literally, against the stars. Stars were thought to control people’s destinies. But the Prologue itself creates this sense of fate by providing the audience with the knowledge that Romeo and Juliet will die even before the play has begun. The audience therefore watches the play with the expectation that it must fulfill the terms set in the Prologue. The structure of the play itself is the fate from which Romeo and Juliet cannot escape.

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

Summary
This story was published in 1952 and is one of the most beautiful stories Hemingway ever created. It is about an old Cuban fisherman and his battle against a marlin far out in the Gulf Stream. The old man’s name is Santiago and his only friend is a young boy called Manolin, who also lives in the small fishing village near Havanna, Cuba. The boy used to go fishing with the old man until his parents stopped him because Santiago was regarded as "unlucky". Having not caught a fish for the last 84 days, Santiago sets out alone one morning… 

When he leaves the harbour it is still dark and he rows so far away that he cannot see the coast anymore. He starts talking to himself about nature and the beauty of the sea. He admits: "If the others heard me talking out loud they would think that I am crazy…But since I am not crazy, I do not care." While he thinks or even meditates he sees that a fish is taking the bait on one of the lines. After a while he starts to pull the fish up, but this is not really possible because the fish is too heavy; but very surprisingly the fish starts to pull the boat further and further out to the sea. The fish continues pulling for hours until the sun goes down and during the whole night; it seems to be a very strong fish. Just before sunrise on the second day Santiago begins to pity the fish: "He is wonderful and strange and who knows how old he is." The old man is uncertain whether he should kill the fish or whether he should leave it. He also calls the fish "his brother" and reveals that he loves and respects the fish.

Suddenly Santiago notices that the fish slows its speed; it finally jumps out of the water and he sees that it is a marlin, which is even longer than his boat. The fish is 5.40 m long and 340 kg heavy. The old man wishes that the boy were there to help him by killing the fish because his health is deteriorating. He repeats: "If the boy were here, if the boy were here." He feels very lonely and recognizes that the fish is much, much stronger than he himself is: "Man is not much besides the great birds and beasts. Still I would rather be that beast down there in the darkness of the sea. Unless sharks come. If sharks come, God pity him and me." And by saying this the old man reveals that he is afraid of sharks. 

It is evening and the old man sleeps a bit, but he is wakened because the fish jumps out of the water for more than 12 times. When the sun rises, the third day has started and the fish begins to circle the boat. The old man’s state of mind deteriorates, because he has not eaten anything for a long time. He feels dizzy and he is close to a physical and mental breakdown. Finally, when the fish is close enough, the old man takes his harpoon and kills it. Having killed the fish Santiago attaches the marlin to the outside of the boat and starts to sail home.

But only a short time afterwards sharks come, attracted by the blood from the heart of the fish. Santiago tries to defend the fish, but the sharks are much stronger. They eat up the flesh of the fish. In this situation Santiago is described in the following way: "He did not like to look at the fish anymore since he had been mutilated. When the fish had been hit it was as though he himself were hit." This description shows how proud he was to have caught such a beautiful and big fish; a parallel could be drawn between Santiago and the fish. The old man identifies with the fish and with his "death". Nothing of the fish is left except its skeleton. The few tools the old man had broke during his fight against the sharks. So there was absolutely no way of defending the fish.

The old man finally arrives at the harbour at the third day of his journey. It is night and the old man goes to bed. The next morning Manolin comes and visits him, but before that the boy had already been to the harbour and he had also seen the skeleton of the big fish. When the boy sees the old man he starts to cry. He tells Santiago that the coast guard and even airplanes had been searching for him. The boy also promises that they will go fishing together again.

Themes in the story
As the story is very complex many different ways of interpreting it are possible. I am going to discuss some possible themes which can be found within the story. The story is about an eternal combat. The old man represents the human race and the sea represents nature. The story could be regarded as a metaphor of the struggle that takes place between human beings and nature; but the story also proves that nature is always superior and that the human race is not able to win this fight. To support this thesis on could apply a statement made by the old man. " It is good that we do not have to try to kill the sun or the moon or the stars. It is enough to live on the sea and kill our true brothers." Santiago knows that mankind is always inferior; he admits that he is happy that he does not have to try and kill the moon or the stars because he knows that they are much stronger and that he would always lose a fight against them.

Another possible theme of the story is courage. It is about the courage necessary to get through the triumphs and tragedies that the sea represents. The sea could be regarded as a metaphor of life. So the story encourages you to be brave and to go through the ups and downs that life presents to us. So one can conclude that the story is also about endurance, heroism and the fact that one should never give up. The old man knows how important it is not to give up, because he repeats: "I must not give up now." 

It follows that another possible theme of the story is triumph. But as the fish was totally eaten up by sharks it also becomes clear that triumph is never final and that one has to fight a lot in order to keep it; but it is also shown that we cannot influence how long our personal "triumph" is going to last for.

The story is also about pride and it is also explained where pride comes from and what it can lead to: It is the old man’s pride that makes him travel to a dangerous place, far out in the sea, "beyond all people in the world." It is also mentioned that "he knew that he was going very far out…" Santiago knows exactly how dangerous it is so far out in the sea, but he undertakes all this because he is very proud. He wants the other fishermen to see that he is not too old and too weak to catch fish, even though he has not caught anything for a very long time.

Success is another possible theme of Hemingway’s story; but the author makes a difference between two types of success. First of all there is the "material" success; Santiago does not have "material" success because he lost all the material value of the fish which he would have sold if sharks had not eaten it up. And secondly there is the "inner" success: I think the old man can be regarded as successful even though he has lost the "material" fish. He is very successful because he has overcome his physical problems like hunger, thirst, wounds, a broken harpoon and a broken knife; this makes him undefeatable and in a certain way even more successful.

Finally the story is also about fate. Hemingway points out that we are never going to be able to influence or to foresee our fate; the author makes clear that there must be a power greater than ourselves who decides what is going to happen to us.

Symbolism
Many people have tried to interpret the symbols that can be found throughout the whole story. For example a parallel is drawn between the bleeding hands of Santiago and the suffering of Jesus Christ, whose hands were equally wounded by the nails used to crucify him.

The "great DiMaggio" is said to be a symbol of courage, endurance and success.But, nevertheless, we should also have a look at the statement made by Hemingway himself about the symbolism of that story. He says: "There isn’t any symbolism. The sea is the sea. The old man is an old man. The boy is a boy and the fish is a fish. The sharks are all sharks no better and no worse. All the symbolism that people say is shit. What goes beyond is what you see beyond when you know." And I personally think that we have to accept what the author says about symbolism, because he knows best what he wanted to say when he wrote this story.

Hemingway´s literary style
It is also important to look at the language that Hemingway uses in order to fully understand the author’s intention of this book. The author uses language to produce a realistic picture of the human beings that appear in the story. When the old man sits in his boat, he talks in monologues. They make the reader experience his long path through life as he often digresses to the time when he was young; the monologues also show that he is not only very lonely, but that he also tries to overcome his permanent loneliness. He longs for contact; that is the reason why he talks to the sea, the moon and the stars.

Santiago speaks in short, uncomplicated and very simple sentences; this is due to his job as a fisherman. He dos not have to make long speeches in front of many people as he spends most of his time fishing in the ocean all by himself.

This way of talking, namely the preference of talking in short sentences could be described as "staccato-style" compared to long, complicated sentences used by many other authors that could be named "legato-style".

The old man often repeats sentences ("If the boy were here, if the boy were here…") which seems to be quite typical of him. Language here is a very important indication of the social class and the background Santiago comes from.

Conclusion
What I like most about the story "The Old Man and the Sea" is its simplicity. I think this is one of the reasons why it has become so successful and word famous. Hemingway doesn’t try to impress the reader with an artificial, complicated and unrealistic story. It is the fact that every word of the story is essential and none is superfluous or meaningless. This is the reason why the story is so beautiful and unique within the literary world.

Analyzing :The Battler

The Battler by Ernest Hemingway  

The Battler is another story about Nick Adams, the protagonist of a series of Ernest Hemingway stories. In this one he is still an adolescent travelling by freight train somewhere near Chicago. He gets kicked off by a brakeman and is walking near the track, his face bruised from the fall. It is very dark and cold outside. A fire appears in the darkness and as Nick comes closer he sees a man sitting next to it. The man has a completely bruised face with only one ear left. He is small, but obviously quite strong. After being invited Nick sits down and tells the man what has just happened to him. The man calls him a tough boy and introduces himself as Ad Francis, a former well-known fighter. Another man called Bugs appears in the darkness. He brings some food with him and starts making a little dinner for them. When he asks Nick to slice the bread, Ad sees the knife and wants to have it. Bugs forbids him to take it and goes on talking to Nick. After a while, not saying anything, Ad stands up and wants to fight Nick. But he knows that Ad is much stronger than he and therefore wants to avoid a fight. Since Ad does not give in, Bugs sneaks behind him hitting him so hard that he loses his consciousness. The question why Ad becomes mad like this, Bugs answers with a story about Ad´s sister. First she was Ad’s manager during his time as a champion-fighter, and then they got married. A short time after the marriage she left him, and that was the time when Ad started to beat up people. It got so far that he was arrested. In jail he got to know Bugs and since then they have made their way together. After he has finished Bugs tells Nick to leave, so Ad will not be upset when he wakes up. He gives Nick another sandwich for his journey, then Nick goes out into the darkness, walking up the track again.

Which role does Ad play for Nick?

 
When Nick sees Ad for the first time they look very alike. Both have bruised faces, both fell down (Nick from the train, Ad from his life as a famous boxer), and now both are sitting by the fire. Nick admires Ad for his toughness and the success he once had. But what he does not see at first sight, is the fundament on which this life was based on and where it lead to. Ad achieved everything with brutality, his toughness and his physical power was all he needed to be on top of the world. But especially when you reach all your success by being brutal, it will not last forever. Ad could fight the strongest men, but he was not able to handle feelings like loneliness or sadness. So he could not comprehend the loss of his wife and went mad. Finally he fell so deep that he ended in jail and now lives the life of a poor man. He is not able to control himself anymore and he needs Bugs to take care of him. Although he probably knows about that, he is too proud to admit it even after all that time. Instead he tells Nick that his friend is crazy, too. At the example of Ad Nick can see, where brutality and false pride can lead to. At the beginning he admires Ad for exactly those characteristics, but maybe afterwards he has learned that this is not the path to happiness. 

During this encounter Nick also faces death, since a man who snaps in and out of reality like Ad could easily have killed him. But Nick remains calm without any cowardice; slowly backing up while trying to talk Ad out of the fight. Even though he is young, he shows mature behaviour and behaves the way Hemingway would want a real man to behave. 

Why does Hemingway refer to Bugs as negro and nigger?

 
There are two possible explanations for this. A first interpretation could be made on the grounds of Bugs´s very contradictory character; on the one hand he is very polite, gentle and nice - really caring for Ad – on the other hand he is brutal, being a former convict who was in jail for "cuttin‘ a man" as he says. He has to hit Ad to get Nick out of danger, but even while hitting he is careful not to hurt. Hemingway`s calling him negro as well as nigger could emphasise Bugs´s brutality.
Another possibility could be that Hemingway wanted to point out the racial discrimination which was prevailing in the USA at Hemingway’s time. A strong argument for this interpretation is that Bugs is such a friendly character through his hospitality, but is still abusively called nigger. Whatever he does, however he behaves, the nigger prejudice will follow him throughout his entire life. 

What is Bugs’s role in this story?

 
Bugs can be seen as a counterpart to Ad: he is nice, patient and calm. Ad on the other hand can snap in and out of reality at any moment, he is dangerous for society and has to be kept away from it. Bugs´s role is to keep him away, to protect him from himself. Bugs reminds the reader of a caring mother or a nurse: he protects Ad and Nick, feeds them, settles an argument and punishes.

Did Nick learn any lessons from this episode?

 
Maybe Nick did not learn explicit lessons, but it can be said that he made some crucial experiences which might have influenced his further development. He must have found out that brutality does not really help you in life, that the gentle way is the better one. Another thing he experienced is how to face senseless aggression without cowardice. Finally the horrifying story about Ad’s sister might have influenced Nick´s attitude towards women, since he could have interpreted it this way: Do not depend too much on a single person, do not fall in love to hard – a woman can always leave you and harm you by this. Do not become vulnerable, you can be as strong as you want to your environment, but a woman can still hurt you. And with reference to this story there is also the virtue not to project one´s aggressions on the environment as Ad did.

Why is this story called "The Battler" and not "The Boxer"? 

 
This story does not only refer to Ad’s struggle in the ring as a fighter, but also refers to Ad’s battle of life. It shows that life is an endless battle, and how a person can become if this battle is lost.

Analyzing : The Doctor and the Doctor´s Wife

Summary

Ernest Hemingway’s short stories are generally regarded as the best ones ever written as they lack the amount of symbols included in other short stories but possess the quality that human behaviour is presented purely and stripped to its skeleton. Hemingway always uses the so-called iceberg principle in his stories meaning that only a small part of the true nature of the story is apparent at first. 

The short story "The doctor and the doctor’s wife" can be structured into three different parts: the doctor´s argument with the Indians, the experience with his wife and in the end the experience with Nick. 

This short story begins with the father of Nick Adams, Hemingway’s actual hero but whom the narrator just mentions in the end, who sends three Indians to cut up logs. He faces very physical and masculine workers, who carry axes and saws. It also becomes clear that they seem to be prepared for the upcoming work. Before they reach the beach Dick Boulton, the half-breed, turns and shuts the gate. 

During the work an argument between Dick and the doctor arises because Dick says that the logs are stolen whilst the doctor prefers to call it driftwood which has been washed up after being lost by a steamer. Although it is obvious that the logs belong to a company as its name is engraved on the wood Nick’s father gets so nervous and upset about Dick’s accusation that he finally threatens him to knock his eye teeth down his throat. He can probably rationalize the theft himself, but does not want it to be stated by Dick. 

"The doctor was very uncomfortable" when it turned out that the logs belonged to someone else. On the one hand he wants the wood to be cut, but on the other hand he hesitates as Dick reminds him that it is not actually theirs. In this passage several weaknesses of the doctor are revealed. The first one is the fact that he actually does not care if the logs do belong to someone else as long as it is not spoken out loud. To him it is just crucial that they are referred in a correct way, their true ownership does not matter. Secondly his physical weakness exposes him also mentally after he has threatened Dick, who is a big man and likes "to get into fights". The doctor leaves angrily because he knows that he is not able to seriously fight this man. Despite the fact that he is very angry about Dick calling the logs his theft, he chews "his beard on his lower lip", a sign of nervousness and uncertainty, and then leaves the place. After a while Dick and the other Indians leave as well, but this time Dick leaves the gate open, which he closed in the beginning, demonstrating that he lost interest and this eager attitude he had before. 

When the doctor returns to his home he finds his wife, who can apparently guess what has happened despite the fact that he avoids to openly explain what has caused his rage. His wife is a Christian scientist and reminds him not to lose his temper by quoting from the Bible. At the same time the doctor starts to clean his shotgun and put shells in it. That might be a hint that is so controlled by his anger, which urges him to avenge the ‘lost fight’, but once again his wife manages to draw him away from the immediate desire to kill. He invents another story to satisfy her and to stop her reminding him of his good manners not to do any harm to anyone (with regard to his work as a doctor). Nonetheless his wife realizes what her husband is doing and thus tells him that she " can’t really believe that anyone would do a thing of that sort intentionally." This remark causes him to leave as by which he admits that he has lost a second time. This time his loss is due to the fact that his wife’s religious beliefs and her strong influence on him force him out. He slams the door announcing dissatisfaction with himself and anger which he now has to control. 

During his argument with Dick he orally threatened to harm him. Now his wife orally prevents him from doing Dick any physical harm and therefore displaying the doctor’s loss on a different level. Nevertheless he prefers frustration instead of arguing with his wife. 

The doctor then obeys his wife’s command to look for Nick, whom he finds reading a book; the doctor closes the book and takes Nick on a hunt for black squirrels. He or masculinity is controlled by femininity and tries to escape into a balanced world in which women do not disturb the environment: hunting.

In this short story open things are confronted by closed things. At the end of the first part Dick leaves the back gate open, thus giving a sign of his dismissal of the doctor. Another Indian, Billy Tabeshaw, who does not say a word, closes it. The doctor loses against many open things: Dick’s mouth, his wife’s bible, the open gate and tries to escape several times. When he finds Nick reading a book, also something open, he fights it off by closing it himself.

Analyzing : Cat in The Rain by Ernest Hemingway

Cat in the Rain by Ernest Hemingway  

Summary

The short story "Cat in the Rain" was written by Ernest Hemingway in the 1920´s. It is about an American couple that spends their holidays in an Italian hotel. It is a rainy day and the American woman sees a cat in the rain, which she wants to protect from the raindrops. When she goes out of the hotel, which is kept by an old Italian who really seems to do everything to please that woman, and wants to get the cat, it is gone. After returning to the hotel room, she starts a conversation with her husband George, who is reading all the time, telling him how much she wants to have a cat and other things, for instance her own silver to eat with. Her husband seems to be annoyed by that and not interested at all. At the end of the story there is a knock on the door and the maid stands there holding a cat for the American woman in her hands.

Peculiarities of the introduction
The first thing that caught my eyes was the long description at the beginning. First there is a description of the environment in good weather, which means spring or summer, then a description of the momentary situation in the rain. This description creates an atmosphere that is sad, cold and unfriendly. To create this atmosphere Hemingway uses words such as "empty" or "the motorcars were gone". Later on, by looking at the relationship of the two Americans, you can see that this description was a foreshadowing of the state of the couple´s relationship: First it was nice, the spring-time of their love, and now there is only rain, their relationship got cold and unfriendly. Another symbolic hint in this introduction is the war monument, which is mentioned three times. This maybe is done to tell us that a conflict is to be expected.

From girl to wife
The next thing I wondered about was the spontaneous reaction of the woman after she saw that cat. Usually only children want to protect cats or dogs from the rain, because a grown-up knows that rain does not do any harm to animals living on the street. From that point on you can find an interpretation which is quite complex and not that easy to explain: On the one hand the woman wants to protect that little cat, which now stands for something innocent and vulnerable, like a baby. So she wants to protect that vulnerable thing, which is more the behaviour of an adult. But on the other hand she acts like a little child by having this wish for a cat. Another hint for that is that the woman is referred to as "girl" in the following paragraph, not as "wife" like before.

The sequence in which we get to know that she likes the hotelkeeper a lot is next. She likes the way he wants to serve her. Why? Because it gives her the feeling to be grown up, to be treated like a lady. But the other reasons for fancying him originate from a more childish thinking, like the fact that she likes him because of his big hands. To underline this childish behaviour, all sentences in this part begin with "She liked..", which is the typical way of a child to want something: "I like cats, I like chocolate, I like bubble-gum "and so on. When she talks about the cat in this situation, she does not say "cat" but "kitty", which is usually a childish expression as well.

The next sentence that seems to be important to me is:" The padrone made her feel very small and at the same time very important. She had a momentary feeling of being of great importance." At this point we can see again the two parts of her personality. The child in her feels very timid because of the presence of this tall, old, serious man, the woman in her feels flattered by the way he cares for her. She seems to be like a girl of about fourteen, still being a child and now slowly noticing the woman inside her. 

Marriage problems
When she comes back to the hotel room, her husband is still reading. She tells him that she does not know why she wanted that cat so much, but we know it: She feels the need for something to care for, to be responsible for, that makes her grow up, for example having a baby. George does not need all that anymore, because he already is grown up, which is shown by his serious behaviour and that he treats his wife like a child. And now we understand why why they are having problems with their marriage - because they are on different levels: He already is a man, she is still a girl. They cannot find a mutual base for their relationship and that makes her bored by him and him annoyed by her.
But George does not understand the problem of his wife and therefore of their relationship, because when she talks about letting her hair grow to make her become more female, he just tells her with disinterest that he likes it the way it is.

But her wish for longer hair is only the beginning. She tells him that she wants her own silver to eat with and candles and that cat, standing again for something to be responsible for and new clothes. I am sure that her new clothes would be very female, because all these things stand for the world of a grown-ups. So she utters, without really recognizing it herself, the immense wish to be an adult at last - as quickly as possible. And that is why she is now referred to as "wife" again.

The sentence that she wants it to be spring again stands for her huge wish for a new spring in her relationship, now that the process of her growing up has started and she might attempt to find a way to be level with her husband, which maybe will help them to finally find a mutual basis. In the end she gets a cat, brought by the maid on request of the padrone. It is not important if it is the same cat she saw on the street or not, the only thing that matters is that she finally gets something to take responsibility for and that symbolizes the first step in the direction of a grown-up life.

Conclusion
Altogether I would say that the theme of the story are the problems that a relationship has, when one partner becomes dominant or repressive and the other is trying to change and improve the situation. If they are aware of their problems they might be able to save their marriage, but if they do not recognize that their relationship will become more and more like the depressive weather in this short story, until there will be winter when their love will die.