Analysis of characters in Millers Tale

Miller’s Tale is a short but humorous narrative written in the 14th century in Britain. It belongs to a type of genres known as fabliau that were popular in France before spreading to various parts of Europe. In this type of genre, there is a great sense of realism than romance. Various characters are portrayed in a realism manner that shows an absence of magical aspects of the story.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Analysis of characters in ‘Miller’s Tale’ specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More A Comparison of characters in this narrative shows evidence of the author’s ability to use people in reflecting the society. For instance, Emily and Alison are young ladies with the roles of describing the impact of ‘feminine love interest’ in the society (Morey, 2005). Emily is initially seen from a distance and is portrayed in ghostly or vague terms. On the other hand, Alison is depicted as a natural individual with human feelings and thoughts. She has cheerful lustiness, unlike Emily who has distinct lack of sexual enthusiasm. For instance, when praying to Diana, the Goddess of Chastity, Emily says that she wants to remain a virgin throughout her life rather than getting married. Despite this, Emily is first seen as the object of Arcite’s and Palamon’s male desires. She seems to be out of context of the human nature at the time, unlike Alison who is willing to love and partner with Nicholas in a romantic manner (Finlayson, 2002). In addition, the two women differ in their lifestyles. For instance, while Emily is simple, Alison is pretty and dresses in a tantalizing manner. Her clothes are embroidered on both inner and outer parts. In this context, Alison’s character is portrayed in a better and more elaborative manner than Emily’s character. This is an indication that the society of the time had high regards for women with norma l human feelings and nature, especially those who were ready to marry and start families. Nicholas is a poor student of astronomy and lives with Alison and her elderly husband, John. He enters into a romantic relationship with Alison (Morey, 2005). He craves to have sex with Alison. To have sex with her, Nicholas dupes John to sit in a bathtub on the roof of his house as a way of avoiding a natural astrological phenomenon â€Å"larger than Noah’s Floods†. While the elderly man agrees to sit on the roof, Alison and Nicholas get the chance to have sex (Finlayson, 2002). However, Absalom visits them. Unlike the humorous and wise Nicholas, Absalom is relatively naive and foolish. He is a parish clerk but like Nicholas, he is attracted to Alison. Nicholas, despite being poor, is able to use his knowledge and intelligence to get his way. In fact, he is able to convince John, despite being older than him, to stay out of the house while he haves sex with his wife. He uses wits to get Alison, despite the fact that he does not even have a house (Finlayson, 2002).Advertising Looking for essay on british literature? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More This is in contrast to the character of Absalom. Despite having a job, he cannot convince Alison to partner with him in a romantic manner. He cannot use his knowledge to dupe the elderly man. In addition, his lifestyle is different from that of Nicholas in many ways. For instance, he curls his hair and wears leather shoes that are decorated to look like the ‘glass windows of the cathedral’. Unlike him, Nicholas seems to be a simple yet romantic young man. References Finlayson, J. (2002). The Knight’s Tale: The Dialogue of Romance, Epic, and Philosophy. The Chaucer Review, 27(2), 123-131. Morey, J. H. (2005). The ‘Cultour’ in the ‘Miller’s Tale’: Alison as Iseult. University Park, PA: Penn State University P ress. This essay on Analysis of characters in ‘Miller’s Tale’ was written and submitted by user Sariyah Cantu to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

The History of the Guillotine

The History of the Guillotine During the 1700s, executions in France were public events where entire towns gathered to watch. A common execution method for a poor criminal was quartering, where the prisoners limbs were tied to four oxen, then the animals were driven in four different directions ripping the person apart. Upper-class criminals could buy their way into a less painful death by hanging or beheading. The guillotine is an instrument for inflicting capital punishment by decapitation that came into common use in France after 1792 (during the French Revolution). In 1789, a French physician first suggested that all criminals should be executed by a â€Å"machine that beheads painlessly. Heritage Images / Getty Images Doctor Joseph Ignace Guillotin Doctor Joseph Ignace Guillotin was born in Saintes, France in 1738 and elected to the French National Assembly in 1789. He belonged to a small political reform movement that wanted to banish the death penalty completely. Guillotin argued for a painless and private capital punishment method equal for all the classes, as an interim step towards completely banning the death penalty. Beheading devices had already been used in Germany, Italy, Scotland, and Persia for aristocratic criminals. However, never had such a device been adopted on a large institutional scale. The French named the guillotine after Doctor Guillotin. The extra e at the end of the word was added by an unknown English poet who found guillotine easier to rhyme with. Doctor Guillotin together with German engineer and harpsichord maker Tobias Schmidt, built the prototype for an ideal guillotine machine. Schmidt suggested using a diagonal blade instead of a round blade. Leon Berger Noted improvements to the guillotine machine were made in 1870 by the assistant executioner and carpenter Leon Berger. Berger added a spring system, which stopped the mouton at the bottom of the groves. He added a lock/blocking device at the lunette and a new release mechanism for the blade. All guillotines built after 1870 were made according to Leon Bergers construction. The French Revolution began in 1789, the year of the famous storming of the Bastille. On July 14 of the same year, King Louis XVI of France was driven from the French throne and sent into exile. The new civilian assembly rewrote the penal code to say, Every person condemned to the death penalty shall have his head severed. All classes of people were now executed equally. The first guillotining took place on April 25, 1792, when Nicolas Jacques Pelletie was guillotined at Place de Grà ¨ve on the Right Bank. Ironically, Louis XVI had his own head chopped off on January 21, 1793. Thousands of people were publicly guillotined during the French Revolution. The Last Guillotine Execution On September 10, 1977, the last execution by guillotine took place in Marseilles, France, when the murderer Hamida Djandoubi was beheaded. Guillotine Facts Total weight of a guillotine is about 1278 lbsThe guillotine metal blade weighs about 88.2 lbsThe height of guillotine posts average about 14 feetThe falling blade has a rate of speed of about 21 feet/secondJust the actual beheading takes 2/100 of a secondThe time for the guillotine blade to fall down to where it stops takes 70th of a second Prunier's Experiment In a scientific effort to determine if any consciousness remained following decapitation by the guillotine, three French doctors attended the execution of Monsieur Theotime Prunier in 1879, having obtained his prior consent to be the subject of their experimentation. Immediately after the blade fell on the condemned man, the trio retrieved his head and attempted to elicit some sign of intelligent response by shouting in his face, sticking in pins, applying ammonia under his nose, silver nitrate, and candle flames to his eyeballs. In response, they could record only that M Pruniers face bore a look of astonishment.

The Importance of Feminism within Criminology Essay

The Importance of Feminism within Criminology - Essay Example Similarly, feminist criminologists denounce unitary categorization of women oblivious of the influence of race, class, and sexual inequality (Britton 2000, p.63). Advocacy has been instrumental in the betterment of lives of women inmates such as expansion of medical services, job training, and educational prospects. The underrepresentation of women as criminal offenders is apparent. In most cases, the sex ratios of criminal offenders as released by social control authorities are biased. Consequently, women are underrepresented as victims of crime. Most of research undertaken on this topic disproportionately indicates that men are mostly victimized than women in all categories of violent crimes, not including rape and sexual assault. This is where feminist criminology has made much of its mark. Its literature on this arena has mainly highlighted offences of which women are most likely to be victims. Feminism has borne fruits as mainstream criminology literature now features feminist e mpirical work and theories, with some sections discussing rape and intimate violence. Britton (2000, p.70) argues that the field of criminology is masculinised where scholars mainly concentrate on activities of men owing to statistics that show men’s predisposition to criminal activities compared to women. Theoretical and Methodological Perspectives in Feminist Criminology Over the last thirty years, feminist criminologists have challenged theories, concepts, methodologies, and assumptions advanced by criminologists in the study of crime and justice system. Research on this topic indicates immense disparities in crime ratios between sex and race. However, a concise theory explaining this phenomenon is yet in place. Some of the pioneering work is Carol Gilligan’s theory of moral development that considers women’s ethic of care to reduce their probability of offending. Other theoretical arguments advanced include emancipation theory, which holds that, womenâ€℠¢s lower rates of involvement in criminal activities stems from their confinement to domestic roles. The theory explains that this is occasioned by discrimination that caps their aspirations and opportunities. With social and political emancipation, women’s increased involvement in criminal activities will be inevitable (Makarios 2007, p. 107). Empirically, these theories have received minimal support because even though the rate of women’s involvement in violent crimes has increased; they remain relatively low compared to those of men. The increase can be attributed to increased economic marginalization of women as well as a change in how social control authorities view women (Makarios 2007, p.108). Many quantitative studies have been undertaken in this area most of which adopt equity approach. This is popular among liberal feminists where gender is conceptualized as an independent variable. Liberal feminists hold that women are denied access to equal political, finan cial, and career access purely on the basis of sex. The theorists claim that sociological factors, rather than physiological, best explain women’s criminality. Radical feminists have taken issue with these approaches by arguing that the victimization of women has been normalized and should not be equated to that of men. Radical feminists criticize the claims made by liberal feminists as naive. Radical feminists relate social relations, inequality, and crime to male power and privilege (Proctor 2006, p.28). In addition, they argue

Universal Design for Learning Resources Research Paper

Universal Design for Learning Resources - Research Paper Example   Moreover, they assist students in mapping out concepts visually. They are visual aids for instruction and learning. The graphic organizers aid students to actively engage in their learning process. They help students find out new information and make links that they did not know or think of previously. On the other hand, graphic organizers permit students to visually organize ideas, concepts, thoughts, feelings, and data. Selecting the suitable graphic organizer relies on the kind of elements that require organizing and analyzing. After completing the organization process, comprehending multifaceted decision making, ideas and solving problem becomes less difficult. Graphic organizers can be obtained through online shopping at books store. An individual needs to have a great selection of the available graphic organizers at the bookstore to secure them. An example of graphic organizers includes K-W-L chart that is divided into three columns namely K, W and L. The K-W-L chart is uti lized to list what the students previously recognize, what they desire to be acquainted with and what they learned at the culmination of the unit. It activates the students' previous knowledge and makes them think on the subject and what they would like to know. It permits students to coordinate the information they are learning and make them involved and absorbed in the unit. Further, it helps students organize their opinions and learning and assists teachers to give instruction during the unit.   

Nationalism And Sectionalism Essay Example for Free

Nationalism And Sectionalism Essay The Era of Good Feeling: The Effects and Consequences of Nationalism and Sectionalism In 1815, shortly before the start of James Monroe’s presidency and after the War of 1812, a historical period known as the â€Å"Era of Good Feeling† commenced in America. However, though the name of this age alone insinuated a time of unity and prosperity within the nation, sectionalism became an unequivocal dilemma that seeped through the government’s attempts in promoting nationalism, and ultimately divided the country. The Era of Good Feeling was a time where only one political party reigned, sense of unity prevailed, and national pride was evident within the citizens. This post ­war nationalism fueled the country to work towards a common goal, and even encouraged creation of traditions that would be passed down generations. The McCulloch v. Maryland case in 1819 exhibits government’s attempt in putting up a unified front to further promote nationalism. In this case, the Congress’ power is questioned when the ruling prevented states from outlawing or taxing the national bank, as Maryland tried to do. The document states, â€Å"The power of the general government, it has been said, are delegated by the states, who alone are truly sovereign† (Document 4). However, the outcome of the case only came to show that the federal government had more power compared to the state government, and thus portrayed a stronger, unified system. In Document 3, people are portrayed to be celebrating Independence Day on the fourth of July within the same year of the case. This depicts the effect that national pride had, bringing together multiple races, genders, social classes, and age groups to celebrate the country’s independence. Furthermore, this era also brought forth a fundamental period in Am erica known as the Industrial Revolution. This introduced market economy to the population and transitioned America to manufacturing processes that brought economic benefits to the north. Market economy not only changed the way people worked, but also the way they lived, as it divided labor, based work in factories, and opened new markets like the American Fur Company. Due to the prior Embargo Act, merchants also invested in national local manufacturing, and thus allowed for the rapid development of urban districts and increase in population. It brought wealth to the North’s market ­based economy but contradicted with the South’s focus on an agricultural economy that depended on slaves. One of the most significant developments within the country was introduced shortly after the War of 1812, by politician Henry Clay, as the American System. The plan promoted a system in which the South was seen to be the producer of raw goods, North for the manufacturing, while the West as the breadbasket of the country. It consisted of three parts: the development of canals, road systems and railroads, creation of a protective tariff, and the reinstating of the Bank of U.S.. The North prospered from the creation of the tariff as it helped develop the manufacturing economy. The West, on the other hand, benefitted from the creation of road and canal system, a plan supported by John C. Calhoun, in order to prevent disunion within the rapidly growing country, (Document 2). These developments in transportation allowed for easier distribution of goods, thus benefitting them as well. However, the protective tariff prevented the South’s economy from growing, thus leading to an evident economic gap between the North and the South, as the former’s economy started to boom due to the increase in manufacturing.

Essay on Gregor as Christ in Kafkas Metamorphosis -- Metamorphosis es

Gregor as Christ in Kafka's Metamorphosis In his "Metamorphosis", Kafka utilizes an allegorical technique to compare Gregor's sacrifices to those of Jesus in the Bible. Ultimately, both Gregor and Jesus sacrifice their lives so that they can help their loved ones, despite betrayal.   Kafka uses this biblical allegory to illustrate Gregor's Christ-like actions. In the Bible, God, sacrifices his only son, a respectable, revered "heavenly" figure, allowing Jesus to live amongst sinful people. In human form, Jesus treats the common people's illnesses and performs miracles to help them; above all, he cares for them and loves them.   Jesus is selfless, endlessly devoting himself to helping and serving others, and ensuring that they will have a better life by showing them "the way" to God.   Jesus sacrifices his life in heaven to come to Earth and help his people. Just as Jesus makes personal sacrifices to help his people, Gregor similarly sacrifices his dreams and happiness to provide a good life for his family.   Gregor's life revolves around his job as a travelling salesman.   He is committed to his work, although he dislikes his job, "what a gruelling job I've picked.   If I didn't hold back for my parents' sake, I would have quit long ago" (4).   Gregor's life lacks comfort and joy; he is constantly travelling, and is unable to form quality relationships.   However, he sacrifices his dreams for future happiness so that he can provide for his family.   As the sole 'breadwinner' of his family, Gregor keeps only a few dollars from his paycheque each month, using the rest to pay family debts and sending the money home to his parents.   His family is completely dependent on him for financial security, and Gregor's generosity preven... ...trayed by his family, he is imprisoned in his room; however, he "thought back on his family with deep emotion and love".   His affection for his family results in his conviction that he must disappear, so that he can bring them happiness and peace.   Gregor sacrifices his life and dies during the night to save his family from hardship.   He loves them unconditionally, like Jesus loves his people, and does not criticise them for betraying and mistreating him. Gregor's final sacrifice of his life is the strongest comparison of his Christ-like attributes. In Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" Gregor's sacrifices are shown to be Christ-like by the horrible treatment he receives from others, his betrayal by his family, and his selfless reactions and eventual death. Works Cited: Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis. Trans. and ed. Stanley Corngold. New York: Bantam, 1972.

Exploring the Concepts of Karl Marx and Mao Tse-Tung Essay

Karl Marx believed that in an industrialized society, the working class, known as the proletariat would revolt and take over the ruling class, and would in effect, create a classless society. Karl Marx believed this could only happen in an industrialized society. Once it became apparent that the working class would not rise above, Lenin intervened and confirmed Marxism obsolete in Russia. Since the late 1920’s the Chinese Communist Party has altered Marxism in China. It became a peasant party with an anti-Marxist petty-bourgeois viewpoint and through all the fluctuations of the left and right turns of world Stalinism, it kept a utopian and reactionary perspective; in Marxist terminology, reactionary refers to people whose ideas might appear to be socialist, but, in essence, contain elements of feudalism, capitalism, nationalism, fascism or other characteristics of the ruling class. It kept a nationally based and classless socialism, or â€Å"peasant socialism,† as worde d by Trotsky. To call Mao Tse-Tung’s communist or Maoist, philosophy socialism is an understatement. Though encompassing many Marxist values, China has done a more effective job of forcing the Maoist agenda through more ruthless violence by utilizing the multitude of peasants residing within its borders as a powerful force, unlike Marxism which calls for a series of revolution by means of class struggle and uprising in the proletariat. Though the Maoist ideology had subsisted in China for some years after his time, today it is an important economic force, but is government-run, leaving it unstable without government regulation as the economy is dominated by large state-owned enterprises, but private enterprises also play a major role in the economy. State-owned enterprises are a major source of profit and power for members of the Communist Party of China and their families and are largely favored by the government. Karl Marx wove economics and philosophy together to construct a grand theory of human history and social change. His concept of alienation, for example, first expressed in his Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, plays a key role in his criticism of capitalism. Marx believed that people, by nature, are free, creative beings who have the potential to totally transform the world. But he observed that the modern, technologically developed world is apparently beyond our full control. Marx condemned the free market, for instance, as being â€Å"anarchic,† or ungoverned. He maintained that the way the market economy is coordinated—through the spontaneous purchase and sale of private property dictated by the laws of supply and demand—blocks our ability to take control of our individual and collective destinies. Marx condemned capitalism as a system that alienates the masses. His reasoning was like this: although workers produce things for the market, market forces, not workers, control things. People are required to work for capitalists who have full control over the means of production and maintain power in the workplace. Work, he said, becomes degrading, monotonous, and suitable for machines rather than for free, creative people. In the end, people themselves become objects—robot-like mechanisms that have lost touch with human nature, that make decisions based on cold profit-and-loss considerations, with little concern for human worth and need. Marx concluded that capitalism blocks our capacity to create our own humane society. Marx’s notion of alienation rests on a crucial but shaky assumption. It assumes that people can successfully abolish an advanced, market-based society and replace it with a democratic, comprehensively planned society. Marx claimed that we are alienated not only because many of us toil in tedious, perhaps even degrading, jobs, or because by competing in the marketplace we tend to place profitability above human need. The issue is not about toil versus happiness. We are alienated, he maintained, because we have not yet designed a society that is fully planned and controlled, a society without competition profits and losses, money, private property, and so on—a society that, Marx predicted, must inevitably appear as the world advances through history. Here is the greatest problem with Marx’s theory of alienation: even with the latest developments in computer technology, we cannot create a comprehensively planned system that puts an end to scarcity and uncertainty. But for Marxists to speak of alienation under capitalism, they must assume that a successfully planned world is possible. That is, Marx believed that under capitalism we are â€Å"alienated† or â€Å"separated† from our potential to creatively plan and control our collective fate, but if comprehensive socialist planning fails to work in practice it is an impossibility. In consequence of China’s sizable rural population, the greatest point of conflict between the two lines of thought is Mao’s inclusion of the peasantry in the proletariat differing greatly with the Marxist-Leninist view that the beginning of socialist revolution should come from the urban working class. The Maoist faith in revolutionary enthusiasm and the positive value of the peasants’ lack of sophistication as opposed to technological or intellectual elites fueled the Great Leap Forward of the 1950s and the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and ’70s. The disastrous consequences of both upheavals led Mao’s successors to abandon Maoism as counterproductive to economic growth and social order. Maoism, since then, has been embraced by insurgent guerrilla groups worldwide. The Communist Party of the Philippines has adopted the ideas and concepts of Maoism which promote the use of revolution to obtain their goals. Professor Jose Maria Sison, the Chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines states, â€Å"Mao is indubitably correct in identifying the revisionism of degenerates in power in socialist society as the most lethal to socialism, and in offering the solution that succeeded in China for ten years before it was defeated in 1976. The disintegration of the Soviet Union and the full restoration of capitalism in revisionist-ruled countries in the period of 1989-91 have vindicated Mao ´s position on the crucial importance and necessity of the struggle against revisionism and the theory of continuing revolution under pro letarian dictatorship.† The Philippines today practices modern democracy. This shows the sharp difference of ideology within countries. It is shown by Sison’s diction that he is passionate about Communism to the degree that he strongly adheres to Maoist theory by promoting revolution in the proletariat. In 2008, the New People’s Army in the Philippines managed to make 200 tactical offenses and captured 200 high powered rifles. Ka Oris claimed that the group has managed to return to the level of activity of when it was at its peak in the 1980s. The NPA, the armed wing of the CPP, remains the â€Å"biggest threat† to national security according to National Defense Secretary Gilbert C. Teodoro Jr. This shows how Maoism only subsists with sheer violence. They seek to implement their agenda by compromising national security and putting many lives in danger. In order to form a fully Maoist society one needs to realize that the only means of achieving this is by deteriorating the conditions wi thin a county. â€Å"The history of the NPA in Mindanao dates back to 1971 when a handful of inexperienced but determined communists established two cells — one in Iligan and the other in Davao. The years that followed saw it exploit widespread poverty among both indigenous peoples and poor peasants in the countryside, as well as among many Christian settlers.† As one can see, poverty was a result of the attempts made by the NPA to form a communist/Maoist nation; therefore, the effects of revolution in the name of Maoism only worsens the well-being of the people as violence is utilized to oppress the people. Maoism is characterized by an extreme eclecticism and by subjectivism in theory and voluntarism in politics. Many traditional views of ancient Chinese political and philosophical thought have helped nourish Maoist ideology. From the anarchists Mao Tse-tung borrowed such principles as the absolutization of violence (â€Å"Power grows out of the barrel of a gun† and â€Å"To rebel is justified†) and reliance on nonproletarian, declassed elements and politically immature layers of young people to â€Å"organize† revolutions without regard to whether there is a revolutionary situation. According to Maoist declarations, similar revolutions, which in fact are a form of total purging and suppression of the real and potential enemies of Maoism, should be repeated periodically. If the inherent violence that Maoism encapsulates should be repeated, it would lead to the suffering of many people, which makes it unstable to the degree that the government forces outnumber the Maoists: a force that keeps them at bay. The Maoists cannot obtain their goal without the use of hostility, making it immoral and unstable. â€Å"Since 1978 hundreds of millions have been lifted out of poverty [in China] – yet hundreds of millions of rural population as well as millions of migrant workers remain unattended: According to China’s official statistics, the poverty rate fell from 53% in 1981to 2.5% in 2005.† However, in 2009, as many as 150 million Chinese were living on less than $1.25 a day. The infant mortality rate fell by 39.5% between 1990 and 2005, and maternal mortality by 41.1%. Access to telephones during the period rose more than 94-fold, to 57.1% as did in many developing countries such as Peru or Nigeria. This shows inconsistency with data to instill communist propaganda. They only show what they want to. They never display the harsh violence committed in order to execute their agenda, which is also in the roots of Marxist theory. In consequence of Mao’s recognition of th e peasantry as a powerful source of revolution, his political endeavors were largely aimed at rural China and less on urban industrialization. There is a strong emphasis in Maoism placed on the capability of conscious human action to overcome a lack of material resources. This is in reference to what Mao saw as great feats of endurance, such as the Long March and the resistance against Japan during the Sino-Japanese War. According to Mao, the success of such campaigns rested upon the commitment of man, without the aid of technology or material involvement. Complementary to such experiences, Mao naturally developed a theory that highlighted success as a product of the mind, not matter. As such, material goods were not constituent of, or significantly important to Maoism. â€Å"It should be pointed out that in the present conditions, agriculture occupies first place in our economic construction.† Mao was mainly concerned with agricultural production as a means of survival, and saw no political gain from mass industrialization. In fact Mao believed that industrialization weakened the proletarian movement, by creating fu rther means for factory owners and management teams to exploit workers. However the Marxist-Leninist approach to socialist reform which contrasted against Mao’s agrarian views, relied heavily upon the encouragement of advanced industrialization in order to strengthen the sense of proletarian repression. In this sense there was a strong point of conflict over industrial and agricultural production values between Mao and the Russians, which was in direct consequence of the peasants over workers dispute. A fundamental facet of classical Marxist ideology is economic determinism; a concept whereby social change is driven by the economy. However Mao placed a much larger emphasis on the shaping of humankind, and the capacity to change human nature through sheer will power. â€Å"Mao’s real conflict, of course, was not with Russia nor with revisionism, but with human nature.† He believed that the ordinarily extended process of change could be hastened with appropriate stimulation; a positive political frame of commitment and action. While Marx also believed in the evolution of human nature, in contrast to Mao he regarded it to be a process beyond the control of man. Marx developed the theory of material determinism, which suggested that the economy is essential to social change and the development of human nature, a relationship almost ignored by Mao. Features of society such as classes, politics and ideologies were seen by Marx to be outgrowths of economic activity, whereas Mao regarded changes to such features as a result of human will. â€Å"[Mao’s] process of remolding human beings†¦[is] almost in defiance of orthodox Marxist historical and material determinism.† However what is generally agreed upon by Marx and Mao, despite the way in which it is done, is that this remolding of humankind could take many revolutions, which led to the development of the ‘continuous revolution’ theory, a concept whereby the proletarian’s struggle against the bourgeoisie is everlasting. Basically, the goals of Mao, Lenin and Marx were alike in terms of achieving a classless socialist society; there were distinct contrasting elements within the paths chosen to achieve these aspirations. Mao believed in the revolutionary and violent power of the abundant peasantry class, whereas the Marxist-Leninist approach to socialist revolution was to lead from the urban working classes. Resulting from this major disagreement came differing views on industrialization and urbanization, Mao tending to pay closer attention to agricultural development which was a large factor in China, and the Russians to urban development. There was also ignorance on Mao’s behalf of the nature of economics, a subject of which Marx was an expert which is most likely the reason why there is little on economics found on Maoism. Marx recognized the economy as a major driving force in social development, whereas Mao regarded human nature as something that could be changed by will. However while Mao may not have attempted to achieve socialism as Marx intended, a great difference between Russia and China during the twentieth century made such a turn away from classical Marxism to some extent. One could claim that Marxism has never truly been achieved in any setting, and with both China and Russia now leaning more towards capitalism, it leads one to question whether given the nature of humankind, such change is even possible; however, it can be concluded that both doctrines encapsulate instability and hostility, creating an oppressive environment.