Having a Second Father: My Grandpa :: Personal Narrative Writing

Having a Second Father: My Grandpa It has been five years since I have spoken to my father. I was three years old when my parents got a divorce. Both my mom and dad remarried, however my dad didn’t waste any time in doing so. After he was married, I felt that I wasn’t a part of his new life. We had our problems like any relationship between children and parents, but most of the problems resulted from interference from his new wife. We would disagree on many things because of his wife. Her inputs and thoughts that she voiced oh so well became overwhelming. I know that it is easy to disagree with a parent at any time, however it is even more so when the parent is remarried with a new life and family. Since the day that he got married our relationship drifted downhill. I thought he was so strong and would always stand up for what he believed in and wanted. He used to think that I was his world. I soon realized that wasn’t true. His wife you could say â€Å"wore the pants’ in his new family.† He should have made decisions that concerned our relationship and me but he didn’t. I never dreamed the day would come when someone would come between one of my parents and I, at most a spouse of one of my parents. I was in his life long before she and his new family came into it. I felt that I was being treated unfairly. I was supposed to be daddy’s little girl just as most girls dream about. I always thought that I would come first. The life with my mom was the exact opposite. I came first and still do in her life. She was remarried and that didn’t change the fact that I was number one on her list. I look at the days and memories with my dad and notice that somewhere along the way he got sidetracked of what was important to him. I know my thoughts seem childish, but I was hurt and felt that I had been treated unfairly. All I could think was: â€Å"What had I done to make him not love me†. As a young child, everyone wants to fit in with his or her friends.

Investigate how the concentration of hydrochloric acid effects the rate at which it reacts with calcium carbonate :: GCSE Chemistry Coursework Investigation

Investigate how the concentration of hydrochloric acid effects the rate at which it reacts with calcium carbonate Investigation Plan Aim === Investigate how increasing the concentration of the solution hydrochloric acid effects and alters the rate at which it reacts with marble chip, calcium carbonate. Rate of reaction is affected by six main factors * Temperature * Surface area of a solid * Concentration of a solution * Pressure of a gas * By using catalysts * Using biological catalysts called Enzymes As outlined above the rate of a reaction increases when temperature increases, the concentration of dissolved reactants increases, the pressure of gases increases, solid reactants are in smaller pieces and of greater surface area and also if a catalyst is used. For this experiment I have been asked to pay particular attention to the factor CONCENTRATION, and the ways in which it affects the rate at which a reaction takes place. We can measure the rate of reaction by measuring the time at which the products of the reaction are produced or the reactants used up and there are a few different ways of doing this such as: By measuring gas volume Here the marble chips and dilute hydrochloric acid are put in a conical flask. This is connected to a gas syringe, which collects and measures the volume of gas formed. At regular time intervals a measurement is then taken of the volume of gas collected. Another way to measure the volume of gas produced is to displace water from a measuring cylinder as per diagram below. We can also measure the rate of reaction by measuring mass loss here when a gas is lost the mass decreases, which can be measured by placing the flask on a balance. The last way is to note how long it takes for a precipitate to form such as in the chemical reaction "the thiosulphate reaction". I conducted a preliminary experiment and from this determined that the most reliable and accurate way to measure the release of carbon dioxide gas would be by using a measuring cylinder to see the displacement of water and therefore determining how much carbon dioxide has been produced. Hypothesis I predict that as time increases so will the amount of carbon dioxide produced however throughout the experiment the rate of reaction will slow because as time increases there will be less and less un-reacted particles present to take part in fruitful collisions and result in carbon dioxide water and calcium chloride being formed, this means that the time between fruitful collisions will increase because a particle will take longer to find another un-reacted particle with enough activation energy to collide and react with. I hypothesise that as the concentration of the hydrochloric acid

Tinkering With Destiny :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Community is a group of people living or working together. The people who share the community should be united as one and work together to make their surroundings a better place. In reality, most communities strive for unity and try to have a commonground of understanding, but that rarely happens. To me it seems that a lot of communities have conflicts and do not try to do what is best for the community, because everyone wants to be in control. A lot of people are only thinking about themselves and don't want to help others. People also feel that they can not make a difference because they are only one person.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  So, what is best for a community? In my opinion a community should uphold their responsibilities to one another. A community should make the best of any situation and try to complete their goals. A community should reflect on what hasn't worked for them in the past and try to work on the ideal solution for the future. A community must have respect for one another and appreciate one another for their differences. It is important to notice that there are differences between people, but it's also important to accept those differences. A community should be aware of everyone's talents and creativities, and each of these aspects should be used to its fullest abilities. A community must be a strong and structured source that everyone can rely on in the time of need. A community should allow you to feel like family and friends surround you, and know that you can depend on them at any time. A community can give people the sense of belonging, that they are apart of somethi ng. It allows people to feel that they are needed, and their services will be useful. A community should enhance the feeling of security, unity, and peace.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When you are servicing to others, it makes you feel that you are needed and wanted. You have feel like someone is depending on you. Which makes you want to strive harder and do your best. When you are doing your best and putting your all into it, then that is what makes you feel that you are doing the duties of a community. If you are able to make a difference in just one person's life you have touched the community in a different way. When you work your hardest and giving it your all, then I feel that you are a member of a community.

Rh Bill Case Study Essay

There are 6 bills pertaining to reproductive health and/or population management that have been filed for deliberation in both the House of Representatives and the Senate for the 15th Congress. The most controversial of these bills is House Bill No. 96 authored by Rep. Edcel Lagman. House Bill No. 96, also known as the proposed â€Å"Reproductive Health and Population and Development Act of 2010,† will cover the following areas: * midwives of skilled attendance * emergency obstetric care * access to family planning * maternal death review * family planning supplies as essential medicines * benefits for serious and life-threatening reproductive health conditions * mobile health care service * mandatory age-appropriate reproductive health and sexuality education * responsibility of local family planning office and certificate of compliance * capability building of barangay health workers * ideal family size * employers’ responsibilities * multi-media campaign * implementing mechanisms * reporting requirements * prohibited acts * penalties The bill is controversial, as it is being opposed by concerned citizens, especially the pro-life, pro-family and pro-God groups, regardless of creed or religion. The Roman Catholic Church expresses its opposition against the bill on many counts, most especially the procurement and distribution of family planning supplies for the whole country, when the available evidence from peer reviewed medical journals supports the hypothesis that when ovulation and fertilization occur in women taking oral contraceptives (OCs) or using intrauterine devices (IUD), post-fertilization effects are operative on occasion to prevent clinically recognized pregnancy. Hormonal contraceptives and/or IUDs directly affect the endometrium. These effects have been presumed to render the endometrium relatively inhospitable to implantation or to the maintenance of the preembryo or embryo prior to clinically recognized pregnancy. These make pills and IUDS abortifacient. Pro-life groups, and many professionals in the medical and nursing fields, believe that physicians and policy makers should understand and respect the beliefs of patients who consider human life to be present and valuable from the moment of fertilization. Patients should be made fully aware of this information so that they can consent to or refuse the use of artificial contraceptives. However, the position of the Catholic Church and the pro-life groups does not mean that they espouse the attitude of â€Å"natalism† at all costs, as if the â€Å"number† of children, in itself, were the unmistakable sign of authentic christian matrimonial life. The sexual act, properly exercised within marriage only, is ordained primarily to the propagation of life. If there are reasonable motives for spacing births, such as serious medical conditions in the mother, or extreme poverty, then the Catholic Church teaches that married couples may take advantage of the natural cycles of the reproductive system and use their marriage precisely those times that are infertile (natural family planning). Other aspects of the bill being contested by concerned citizens include the classification of family planning supplies as essential medicines when their safety/toxicity profile and legal permissibility are questionable. At the same time, more importance should be given to the prevalent diseases, the top ten leading causes of morbidity and mortality in the Philippines, namely, infections such as pneumonia and tuberculosis. Financial resources allotted by foreign donors to assist the Philippine government programs could actually be better spent towards pursuing health programs targeting communicable diseases than purchasing artificial contraceptives. Very pertinent to the debate about reproduction rights is the right to life. The Philippine Constitution says that the State â€Å"shall equally protect the life of the mother and the life of the unborn from conception. If artificial contraceptives are medically proven to induce abortion as one of their mechanisms of action, then procurement and distribution of such family planning supplies are unconstitutional and illegal. INTRODUCTION The international aid environment has undergone considerable change in recent years. Internationally, principles of development cooperation. In some countries, civil society has achieved success in navigating the aid architecture and advocating effectively on behalf of sexual and reproductive health (SRH). In other countries, interacting and participating in key development processes has been more challenging due tolack of sufficient data or evidence to make a strong advocacy case, and weak understanding of terminology and processes, making access and influence difficult. For the past two years, WHO has supported the AHEAD project (completed in January 2011) implemented through the German Foundation for World Population (DSW). DSW had provided financial and technical support to civil society organisations (CSO) for developing and implementing locally devised advocacy action plans to raise levels of government funding for SRH in three countries. The countries are Bangladesh, the Philippines and Uganda. This report is a case study from the AHEAD project in Philippines. The case study begins by describing the socio political context in which the AHEAD project was implemented. The context covers three themes – an account of civil society movements, situation analysis of sexual and reproductive health and rights and background to the policy environment in the Philippines. The subsequent sections highlight findings from evaluation of the project including achievements from the implementation of the advocacy action plan, the challenges faced by AHEAD and finally the lessons learned. Literature Review The Reproductive Health Bill (RH Bill) has drawn opposing opinions from different sectors of the society. There are people who propose and support the RH Bill and there are those who strongly oppose it. Some find themselves in a crossroads wherein they agree on certain components of the RH Bill but remain doubtful about the other parts. Moral, economic and political conflicts continue to rise between opposing sectors. The debate goes on and on. The primary goal of the RH Bill is to guarantee universal access to methods and information on birth control and maternal care. There are six bills sharing common goals. There seems to be a general agreement when it comes to maternal and child health care but conflicts have risen concerning the proposal that the private sector and Filipino taxpayers fund the nationwide distribution of family planning devices to help control the country’s population. Meanwhile, the government shall continue giving out information on their uses through he alth care centers. Issues and arguments †¢ Population The Philippines has the fastest growing population in Southeast Asia. Studies have shown that most pregnancies in the Philippines, especially among the poor, are unplanned. Supporters of the RH bill claim that the increasing population of the country is something that cannot be ignored anymore. RH bill principal author Edcel Lagman said, â€Å"The Philippine population is growing at a much faster rate than can be sustained by the government or the country’s resources.†Lagman said that the Philippines is the only country in Southeast Asia that does not have a national reproductive health bill. Based on studies made by the University of the Philippines (one example here), the country tops the fertility rate in Southeast Asia at 3.3 percent. Following are Malaysia at 2.5 percent and Vietnam at 2.1 percent.

By Emily Ashford Essay

In the course of this essay I want to contrast and compare two poems by the Irish poet Seamus Heaney. His anthology â€Å"Death of a Naturalist† was written in reflection of childhood and the loss of innocence possibly based on his own experiences. This anthology has received much praise and recognition over the past few decades. Seamus was brought up in the deep hearted countryside of Ireland. He grew up alongside nature and alongside 8 other children, although he was the oldest and maybe understood some things before the other children; such as death and the â€Å"facts of life. † In the poems â€Å"Death of a Naturalist† he learns the true realities of nature, and how the frogspawn and frogs come to be there. In â€Å"The Early Purges† he learns not to be sympathetic toward cute and fluffy but ultimately resource draining animals. Both settings are rural rather than urban however, the each poem focuses on different areas of the countryside; â€Å"Death of a Naturalist† is based around where â€Å"all the year flax-dam† grows. Flax – dam it a stagnant pond where harvested flax is left to decompose to prepare for manufacture into linen and other materials. The poem is narrated by a young boy, he is recalling events in which he explored nature where the â€Å"flax – dam festered in the heart of the townland. † This implies that, at this time in the boys life, nature was especially important. In â€Å"The Early Purges† events are recalled on a farm. A â€Å"well run† farm where delicate and unnecessary animals are seen as â€Å"scraggy wee shits† and are slaughtered. The poem is narrated again, from a young boy’s perspective and perhaps even the perspective of the poet himself. Through the boys interaction with nature we are reminded and recognize the childhood innocence. In â€Å"Death of a Naturalist† the boy is fascinated with nature to the extent that even the most trivial and perhaps annoying things to most adults, such as â€Å"bluebottles† and â€Å"the warm thick slobber of frogspawn† become exciting to him. He likes these things â€Å"best of all. † The way nature is presented also shows us a childish imagination where many things are considered and elaborated in a way only a child could think. Also through the eyes of a child we learn about death, where at first this brutal inevitability â€Å"frightened† him. However, again the boy’s fascination with this process of killing and decaying is described in every detail. After the â€Å"kittens drown† and their â€Å"tiny din†¦ soused† the boy watches the corpses and follows the process of deterioration. Both poems involve a change in attitude, each of these changes represent a loss of innocence. In â€Å"Death of a Naturalist† this change is represented from the start of the second stanza. Contrasting to the first stanza he begins to describe the flax-dam in a negative way. Where it was once â€Å"green and heavy headed† it has now been invaded by â€Å"angry frogs† Seamus also uses military terms and plenty of similes and metaphors; like â€Å"blunt heads farting,† to draw attention to how daunting nature can be to a child.

Literary Analysis of Night

The Holocaust changed the lives of many people and survivors and had many adverse effects. Some began to question their faith in their beliefs and even questioned their god. They pondered upon the thought of how God could sit idly by and allow the atrocious actions committed within their own homeland be unjustified. Those that survived have many terrifying stories to tell. Many survivors are too frightened to tell their story because their experiences are too lurid to express in words or even comprehend. One of Wiesel's main objectives in writing Night is to remind readers that the Holocaust occurred, and hopes that it will never happen again. Night themes include the inhumanity of humans toward others and how death can cause potent harm to one’s psyche. In Night, Elie Wiesel uses many literary devices such as Tone, Imagery, and Repetition to portray the acts of death and inhumanity as well as their traumatizing effects. Elie Wiesel uses repetition to clearly state and emphasize what he has endured and shall never falter or be forgotten but shall always linger within the confines of his forever scarred conscience. Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of Ingles 2 Smoke beneath a silent blue sky. Never shall I forget those flames which consumed m y faith forever. Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never. † (Pg. 32) This quote displays not only the horrifying acts that were committed but the effects it had on the author’s conscience. Also, notice that Eliezer states that his God was murdered. â€Å"For the first time, I felt revolt rise up in me. Why should I bless His name? The Eternal, Lord of the Universe, the All-Powerful and Terrible, was silent. †(Pg. 31) But in the final line Eliezer acknowledges him as God. Despite saying his God was murdered, it is clear that Eliezer is actually struggling with his faith and his God. Just as he is never able to forget the horror of that night, he is never able to reject completely disdain his religion. Elie Wiesel uses imagery to depict explicitly what happened within the concentration camps. The imagery used in Night also gave the readers a sense of what Eliezer endured and the many horrors he encountered during his time spent within the camps. â€Å"Babies were thrown into the air and the machine gunners used them as targets† (Pg. 4)

‘In what ways is “Pride and Prejudice” a Cinderella story?’ Essay

Cinderella stories, of one type or another, have remained enduringly popular for hundreds of years. There are Cinderella tales originating from every culture and every time period up to the present day. They reflect the ‘rags to riches’ fantasies of storytellers from all around the world. But what constitutes a Cinderella story? Even though they exist in a vast variety of forms, most have a very similar basic plot. Firstly, there is always a heroine, whose fortunes are to be the focal point of the tale. She is naturally innocent, kind, gentle and beautiful, and always has hardships to bear. For example, in the French version, upon which the Disney animated film is based, Cinderella lives with her weak-willed father and her ‘evil’ stepmother and stepsisters who treat her appallingly; she is forced to act as a servant to them and is dressed in rags. Very often in these stories, there are a number of magical animals that help Cinderella in some way, and along with Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother, enable her to go to the ball, which invariably she has been prevented from attending by her cruel family. At the ball, Cinderella and Prince Charming meet and fall in love instantly, but Cinderella forgets her Godmother’s deadline, and has to rush off suddenly, unintentionally leaving behind only one clue as to her true identity for the love-struck hero. After one final setback, usually resulting from Cinderella’s interfering and vain stepsiblings, the Prince and his love are re-united and go back to the Palace to be married immediately. Cinderella forgives her family, and they join the happy couple at court and all live ‘happily ever after.’ This is the most well known of the â€Å"Cinderella† plots, but as I have said, other versions exist such as â€Å"Katie Woodencloak† and â€Å"Cindermaid†. â€Å"Pride and Prejudice†, Jane Austen’s classic novel, was first published in January 1813. It was designed to appeal to the fashionable novel-reading public of the day, and it was an instant success for its author, and has remained consistently so. With the pretty and likable Elizabeth Bennet marrying the rich and handsome Mr Darcy at the end of the book, at first glance, â€Å"Pride and Prejudice† seems like a typical Cinderella tale. In this essay, I will be investigating the similarities and differences it has to the Cinderella story I have outlined above. For me, Elizabeth is the first obvious ‘Cinderella’ in â€Å"Pride and Prejudice†. She is one of five Bennet sisters, intelligent, witty and impetuous with an independent streak in her, as we find out when she insists that she walk to Netherfield to visit her ill sister. Elizabeth, like Cinderella, has a family who can make life very difficult for her at times. Her father is loving, but like Cinderella’s father, is weak-willed; â€Å"Her father, contented with laughing at them, would never exert himself to restrain the wild giddiness of his youngest daughters.† (Chapter 37.) This trait in her father’s disposition allows Lydia to elope with Mr Wickham from Brighton. Elizabeth’s mother and sisters also inhibit her, not by being malicious or unkind, as with Cinderella, but by their rudeness and hysterical behaviour; â€Å"†¦and in the unhappy defects of her family a subject of yet heavier chagrin. They were hopeless to remedy.† (Chapter 37.) â€Å"Her mother would talk of her views in the same intelligible tone. Elizabeth blushed and blushed again with shame and vexation.† (Chapter 18.) These unattractive qualities in her relatives, as well as her family’s lower social status, prove to have an unfavourable effect on Mr Darcy’s feelings towards her, even though he admits he loves her. Mr Darcy believes Lizzy’s connections to be ‘inferior’; â€Å"He spoke well, but there were feelings besides those of the heart to be detailed†¦His sense of her inferiority†¦of the family obstacles which judgement had always opposed to inclination were dwelt on with warmth.† (Chapter 34.) Although Elizabeth does not suffer the deprivation that Cinderella does (dresses are no problem for Lizzy as they are for Cinderella), and in fact lives comfortably, the Bennets live under the threat that when Mr Bennet dies, they will lose their home Longbourn, because there is no male heir to the estate. So Cinderella’s ‘poverty’ situation could, theoretically affect Elizabeth at some point in the future. Therefore, it is very important for the five Bennet daughters to marry well, to ensure the family’s future security and status. This fact differentiates Cinderella from Elizabeth, as she is fiercely discouraged from going to the ball by her by her jealous stepsisters, where as Elizabeth (and her sisters) are actively encouraged to look for husbands with good fortunes by going to dances. Cinderella spontaneously falls in love with Prince Charming – she had only desperately wanted to go to the ball, and nothing more. But Elizabeth must be convinced of the true goodness of Mr Darcy’s personality before she will overcome her prejudices and dislike of him. Elizabeth’s opinion of Mr Darcy is changed by her hearing his housekeeper at Pemberley speak of how good and kind he really is, and also when Mr Darcy sends a letter to her explaining the misunderstandings about Mr Wickham and the Jane-Bingley affair. It is only after realising her actual feelings for him, and being attracted by his large estate, that Lizzy is prepared to love and marry Mr Darcy. Cinderella is a servant in her household, and although Elizabeth is certainly not a servant, she does aid and support her difficult family, along with her sister Jane, through use of her intelligence and sensibility. Of course, the main reason Elizabeth can be compared to Cinderella is that she is the disadvantaged heroine who marries her Prince and is taken off to his palace in a fairy tale ending; â€Å"‘Good gracious! Lord bless me! Only think! Dear me! Mr Darcy! Who would have thought it! And is it really true? Oh! My sweetest Lizzy! How rich and how great you will be!'† (Chapter 59.) Elizabeth’s family, like Cinderella’s family, also benefit from this happy ending – the Bennets often visit Lizzy at her new home, and Mr Darcy’s wealth means that they never need worry about losing their home or status again. Mrs Bennet is especially thrilled by the match. Another Bennet sister can be successfully compared with Cinderella – Jane. She is the eldest daughter, and like Cinderella, is very kind, but also little naà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ve; â€Å"What a stroke this was for poor Jane! Who could willingly have gone through the world without believing that so much wickedness existed in the whole race of mankind†¦Most earnestly did she labour to prove the probability of error, and seek to clear one, without involving the other.† (Chapter 40.) She also marries a ‘Prince Charming’ with whom she is truly in love, Mr Bingley, who has a ‘palace’ and holds a ball there early in the novel. One thing that makes Jane even more similar to Cinderella in my opinion is that she falls in love with Mr Bingley straight away, even though his meddlesome sisters, Miss Bingley and Mrs Hurst, as well as Mr Darcy, try to stop affections developing between them. This reminds me of the way Cinderella was prevented from trying on the glass slipper by her stepsisters. Unlike Mr Darcy, Mr Bingley has no qualms about Jane’s lower standing in society, and immediately allows himself to fall in love with her, like Prince Charming does with Cinderella at the ball. Similarly, it is at the Netherfield ball, held by Mr Bingley, where Jane and he first display a fondness for each other. Although Jane is like Cinderella in all these ways, she cannot be directly linked with her, as she is not the leading character in â€Å"Pride and Prejudice,† like Elizabeth. Mr Darcy and Mr Bingley are the two men who are most comparable to the Prince in Cinderella. They are both rich men with large estates and good breeding who marry ‘below themselves.’ Mr Darcy is a proud and arrogant man, who we find out later in the book, actually has a compassionate and generous personality. At first, Mr Darcy does not feel it is appropriate for him to marry into a lower class, but he cannot contain his love for Elizabeth, and this love eventually conquers his pride as I have detailed above. This is unlike Prince Charming because in â€Å"Cinderella†, the Prince does not mind when he finds out that his unidentified ‘Princess’ is really a poor servant girl – Cinderella’s status doesn’t matter to him at all. Mr Bingley, on the other hand, is like Prince Charming in that he doesn’t care about Jane’s background, and loves her anyway. Mr Bingley’s character is summed up by this quote; â€Å"‘He is just what a young man ought to be,’ said she, ‘sensible, good-humoured, lively; and I never saw such happy manners! – so much ease, with such perfect good breeding!’ ‘He is also handsome,’ replied Elizabeth, ‘which is what a young man ought likewise to be, if he possibly can. His character is thereby complete.'† (Chapter 4.) For Mr Bingley and Mr Darcy, as with Prince Charming, it is love at first sight with Jane and Elizabeth at the Meryton ball, even if Mr Darcy dare not admit his feelings for some time. When Mr Darcy does propose to Elizabeth, she turns him down, but he remains persistent in trying to assure Lizzy of his good nature, and in the same way as the Prince tracks down Cinderella, Mr Darcy proposes for a second time and Lizzy accepts. It was the letter that Mr Darcy gave to Elizabeth at the Collins’ that revealed his true character to her and this enabled her to accept and love him. In the same way, Cinderella’s glass slipper allows the Prince to find her. It could be concluded that these objects provide the key to identifying the suitors in their true light and make it possible for the characters to eventually marry. I think that there are several people in â€Å"Pride and Prejudice† who could be considered either ‘stepsisters’ or a ‘stepmother’ to Lizzy or Jane. Evidently their own mother and sisters have some qualities similar to those in â€Å"Cinderella.† Mrs Bennet, though inadvertently, hinders any marriage between her daughters and ‘respectable’ men through her inappropriate and embarrassing manner – she is chaotic and thoughtless and gives her family a bad reputation. Jane and Lizzy’s sisters, particularly Lydia and Kitty, are also shallow, selfish and silly young women, only interested in chasing after soldiers and visiting Meryton; â€Å"The two youngest of the family, Catherine and Lydia, were particularly frequent in these attentions; their minds were more vacant than their sisters†¦They could talk of nothing but officers.† (Chapter 7.) â€Å"Catherine, weak-spirited, irritable†¦and Lydia, self-willed and careless.† (Chapter 37.) Lydia’s disastrous elopement with Mr Wickham endangers the anticipated marriage between Jane and Mr Bingley because it disgraces the family. Through this, Lydia is unintentionally like Cinderella’s stepsisters, as she causes a last-minute hitch, which could ruin her sister’s hopes of happiness. In Cinderella, this hitch is the stepsisters preventing Cinderella from trying on the glass slipper by hiding her from the Prince ‘below stairs’. Miss Bingley and Mrs Hurst, Charles Bingley’s sisters, are also like the ‘evil stepsisters’, only more so, in my estimation, than Mrs Bennet and her younger daughters, because they deliberately try to stop the marriages between the Bennet sisters, their brother and his friend taking place. It is revealed that Miss Bingley would like Mr Darcy for herself, and that she is jealous of Lizzy. They also try to persuade Mr Bingley that Jane does not love him in the hope he will forget about her when he is in London. Miss Bingley sends a letter to Jane, which convinces her that Mr Bingley does not care at all for her, which is not true. This, along with Miss Bingley and Mrs Hurst’s officious airs, make them ‘stepsisters’ not only to the Misses Bennet but also to their brother. Lady Catherine de Bourgh, the cold and obnoxious aunt of Darcy, is also a ‘stepmother’ to Elizabeth because she severely disapproves of the marriage between her and her nephew, Mr Darcy, and therefore tries her hardest to thwart their plans. She believes that Lizzy is of a lower social class and not ‘good enough’ for her nephew. Also, she wants to see Mr Darcy marry her daughter, the sickly Anne de Bourgh; â€Å"‘Let me be rightly understood. This match, to which you have the assumption to aspire, can never take place. No, never. Mr Darcy is engaged to my daughter’†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢True, you are a gentleman’s daughter. But who was your mother? Who are your uncles and aunts? Do not imagine me ignorant of their condition.'† (Chapter 56.) Even so, Lady Catherine does not successfully stop Elizabeth and Mr Darcy from marrying, and neither do Lizzy’s family or Miss Bingley, just as the stepsisters fail to stop Cinderella from marrying her Prince in the end. It is not explicitly apparent that there are any ‘Fairy Godmothers’ in â€Å"Pride and Prejudice,† but I think that Mrs Gardiner, Elizabeth’s aunt, can be regarded as aiding Lizzy throughout the novel. As well as the Gardiner’s help to the Bennets through their troubles with Lydia, Mr and Mrs Gardiner make it possible for Elizabeth to go to her ‘palace’ (Pemberley) for the first time, by taking her with them to Derbyshire. (The Fairy godmother in â€Å"Cinderella† also enables Cinderella to go to the palace.); â€Å"With the Gardiners, they were always on the most intimate terms. Darcy, as well as Elizabeth, really loved them; and they were both ever sensible of the warmest gratitude towards the persons who, by bringing her into Derbyshire, had been the means of uniting them.† (Chapter 61.) Perhaps Jane in her continuing support of Lizzy and the Bennet family could also be seen as a ‘Fairy Godmother’ to them all. Another similarity between â€Å"Pride and Prejudice† and â€Å"Cinderella† is that the heroines in both stories go to at least one ball where they meet their future husbands. In â€Å"Pride and Prejudice†, there are two balls – the Meryton Ball and the Netherfield Ball, but in contrast with â€Å"Cinderella†, the future spouses do not immediately get on as well as Cinderella and Prince Charming do! – At the Meryton Ball Lizzy overhears Mr Darcy snubbing her whilst talking to Mr Bingley; â€Å"‘Which do you mean?’ and turning around, he looked for a moment at Elizabeth, till catching her eye, he withdrew his own and coldly said, ‘She is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me.'† Both stories highlight the importance of ‘the ball’ as a major social event; very often it was the only opportunity for people to meet and socialise. At her ball, Cinderella has a curfew to comply with – she must be home by midnight or else her magical clothes and coach will turn back into rags and a pumpkin. There is no literal deadline in â€Å"Pride and Prejudice†, but time is running out for the women in the novel, as they must marry well, while they are still potentially ‘desirable’ wives, if they want to be secure and assured of a future free from want. This fear is shown in the story by the plight of Charlotte Lucas, who marries the repellent Mr Collins because she knows it will probably be her last opportunity to gain a husband and therefore a house of her own; â€Å"Mr Collins was neither sensible nor agreeable; his society was irksome†¦But still he would be her husband†¦and at the age of twenty-seven, without having ever been handsome, she felt all the good luck of it.† (Chapter 22.) An important component of the â€Å"Cinderella† fairy tale is magic, and magical animals, and as I have found neither one of these in â€Å"Pride and Prejudice†, it is almost certainly one of the biggest differences between the two stories. This shows us that Austen’s novel is not a fable but that the events in the book could have actually occurred in early 19th century society. From examining the text of â€Å"Pride and Prejudice† and several â€Å"Cinderella† tales, I have found many similarities, and some differences between the two narratives. I conclude that although Jane Austen did not intentionally design her novel to be like a fairy tale, there is a definite resemblance to â€Å"Cinderella†. The plot and subplots of the novel are clearly more complex than in â€Å"Cinderella†, but most of the individuals have counterparts in the other story. As I said at the beginning of this essay, the main heroine, whether you consider her to be Elizabeth or Jane, ‘gets her guy’. In both stories, the wedded couple and their families are more happy and secure than at the start of the tale – they all ‘live happily ever after’, with Lizzy moving to Pemberley, just as Cinderella moves to the palace. Some people may regard the ending of â€Å"Pride and Prejudice† as the most unrealistic and ‘fairy story’ part of the book. In reality life was very hard, even for the rich, at this time. For example, Elizabeth, like many young women at that time, may have died in childbirth a year later, or perhaps Mr Bingley may have been badly injured a month after the novel finishes in a hunting accident. In my view, â€Å"Pride and Prejudice† is simply a daydream; a world into which the reader can escape to avoid the unpleasantries which no doubt occurred in the Georgian period, but which Jane Austen chose to ignore. By doing this, Austen created one of the best-loved and most interesting â€Å"Cinderella† stories to date.