What is Modern English??

Language is a dynamic ‘cognitive’ object and sociological phenomenon. Language change is natural and uncontrollable. Languages mainly change when they come in contact with other languages (read language contact and bilingualism for more details). New words may also be introduced in the language for effective communication.

Like any other language, English too has changed a lot over time. The language that we call English today is very different from what was spoken a few centuries ago. Historically speaking, English language can be classified as follows:

1. Old English (450 AD to 1100 AD)

2. Middle English (1100 AD to 1500)

3. Modern English (from 1500 AD…)

Modern English arose from Middle English somewhere around the end of the 15th century. One of the notable developments during this time period was the use of the printing press. Also, this was the time when Shakespeare wrote many verse plays in English. This is the reason why the age of Modern English is also popularly named as the age of Shakespeare or the age of Elizabeth. Modern English was different from Middle and Old English on many linguistic levels, chiefly lexically (loan words from Spanish, French, Portuguese, etc.), morphological (changes in the inflectional endings of some words), phonological (the "great vowel shift"), etc.

After that, British Colonialism also gave rise to significant changes in the language. Note that language change did not stop here. English continues to change even in contemporary times. One can see plenty of examples for that on social media.

At the beginning of act 3, scene 2, Juliet wants time to move quickly. Why is she so impatient for the night to come?

Juliet is impatient for night to come because Romeo, her new husband, cannot come to her until night.  During the day, it seems, there is too much of a chance that he will be seen and they will be found out.  So, on one level, she is simply anxious to be with him because she loves him. 

Juliet is also very much looking forward to consummating her marriage with Romeo; in other words, she is anticipating having sex with him.  She says, in part, "O, I have bought the mansion of a love / But not possessed it, and, though I am sold, / Not yet enjoyed" (3.2.28-30).  She is eager to learn to submit to her husband, to become fully his, and to learn how to be a wife in the carnal sense.  This isn't just about lust, though.  She sort of sweetly wants to lose her virginity in a way that is proper, for her, still modest and still innocent. 

What is a common trait found in Wordsworth's "The Solitary Reaper" and Keats' "Ode to a Nightingale"?

In William Wordsworth's "The Solitary Reaper" and John Keats' "Ode to a Nightingale," both poets experience a song with profound transformative qualities. Though many comparisons could be drawn between these two poems, one of the most obvious similarities between the two is that both the song of the reaper and the song of the nightingale have the power to whisk the poets away to exotic places, thus helping them escape their immediate locations.

For example, in "The Solitary Reaper" the reaper's song helps Wordsworth envision "travelers in some shady haunt, / Among Arabian sands" (11-12). Likewise, in "Ode to a Nightingale," Keats imagines that the nightingale's song "oft-times hath / Charm'd magic casements, opening on the foam / Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn" (68-70). As such, it's apparent that both poems are exploring a song that has the power to inspire the imagination and take the listener away from his immediate experience by transporting him to fantastic and exotic locations. In that case, both Keats and Wordsworth are writing about the possible abilities of the imagination, although Wordsworth uses a singing field worker as his muse, while Keats uses a nightingale. 

Why were women far more likely than men to be considered afflicted by demons and to be accused of witchcraft?

As we can, I think, rule out the possibility that women were actually possessed by demons, we should consider how the ideology of gender in the early modern period led to accusations of witchcraft and demonic possession. 

First, there was the issue of folk medicine. Although there were university-trained doctors in the late middle ages and early modern period, they were few in number and their services only affordable by the very wealthy. Most ordinary people would have had access only to "empirics" or practitioners of folk medicine. These practitioners included midwives who as well as their primary duty of helping women in childbirth might be the only medical experts in a village. Another category of folk medical practitioners were herbalists or "wise women". While these practitioners were not acquainted with astrological theories of medicine or the writings of Galen common in the universities, their practical knowledge of herbal cures was probably as or more effective than the common medical practices of the period. Often they were practitioners of folk religion as well. Because they were outside the established male hierarchies of church and university medicine, they were sometimes perceived as a threat to the established social order and condemned as witches.

Similarly, accusations of demonic possession were often used as modes of suppressing powerful women (e.g. Joan of Arc) and discouraging women from rebelling against gender oppression. 

How does Henry describe his months in the camp in The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane?

Henry Fleming, a young soldier in the Union army during the Civil War, describes his first months in the army as a "monotonous life in camp."

During these months waiting for an assignment, Henry has begun to perceive himself as merely a part of "a vast blue demonstration." Each day the soldiers are drilled and drilled and reviewed; then, they are again drilled, drilled, and reviewed in what becomes tedious repetition. Added to this, random soldiers return to camp, shouting some news that they have supposedly learned. One day, a tall soldier comes running into camp, waving his shirt as though it were a banner. He shouts,

"We're goin' t'move t'morrah--sure....We're goin' 'way up river, cut across, an' come around in behint 'em."

One of the soldiers claims, "It's a lie! that's all it is--a thunderin' lie!" He adds that he does not believe that the troop will ever move. Later on in the day, this information does prove to be false, and the troop remains in the same location. 

While the men wait for orders, Henry tries to measure himself against the others, wondering if they also have doubts about their own courage. Then, one day Henry surprisingly finds himself moving along with the troops. While the other soldiers seem relieved and happy, he is still despondent. A soldier named Wilson exclaims about the upcoming fight, "We'll lick 'em good!"

That evening, as the soldiers bed down, Henry nostalgically thinks of home and the farm; he misses the brindle cow and her mates that he had to milk, even though he sometimes kicked the milking stools in exasperation with the uncooperative bovines. Lying in a strange place, he now feels that he is not meant to be a soldier. As Henry muses, Wilson approaches, sits, and lights his pipe.

"You're getting blue, my boy. You're looking thundering peek-ed. What the dickens is wrong with you?"

"Oh, nothing!"

"We've got 'em now. At last, by the eternal thunders, we'll lick 'em good!" Wilson reiterates, but he admits that the rebels have been winning against them.

The regiment continues to march for another three days, but more hurriedly. Henry returns wearily to his theory of a "blue demonstration." One morning he is awakened by a kick in the leg. "He was about to be measured."

In Beka Lamb by Zee Edgell, why is Nurse Palacio considered the town's favorite nurse, and what scenario portrays this?

Nurse Palacio is considered the town's favorite nurse because of her compassion and kindness to patients and their families. In Chapter 20, we learn that Nurse Palacio, a trained midwife, does her best for Toycie even as she miscarries.

In the end, despite the efforts of the doctor, Toycie loses her baby. Despite this heartbreaking scenario, Nurse Palacio retains her gracious nature even as she addresses Toycie's Aunt Eila. Her "sweet, quiet, consoling way" is a great comfort as she breaks the devastating news to Toycie's aunt. Nurse Palacio reassures Miss Eila that Toycie is fine after the two-hour operation.

When Miss Eila complains that no one brought news of Toycie for a long time, Nurse Palacio apologizes. She placates Miss Eila with a mention that the trainee nurse who was sent to apprise Miss Eila of Toycie's condition must have been detained. It was a very busy night at the hospital; things were more hectic than usual because the hospital was understaffed. Throughout the conversation, Nurse Palacio maintains her kind and soothing manner to Toycie's family and friends. In the aftermath of the miscarriage, she manages to encourage and comfort the family even as she tends to the patient herself. Her professional demeanor and compassionate nature makes Nurse Palacio the town's favorite nurse.

How have the writer's environment and her society influenced aspects of To Kill a Mockingbird?

A native of Alabama, Harper Lee sets To Kill a Mockingbird in the time and place with which she is familiar. She also models her characters after real people with whom she was acquainted.

Born in 1926, Harper Lee sets the novel in the 1930s, the Depression era in which she lived as a child. This was also the time of the infamous Scottsboro Trials in Alabama, an interracial rape case, on which the trial of Tom Robinson seems to be loosely based. Also, biographies of Lee state that there was an event near her hometown in 1936 when she was ten years old that affected her greatly:

Before A.C. Lee became a title lawyer, he once defended two black men accused of murdering a white storekeeper. Both clients, a father and son, were hanged.

Maycomb, Alabama, is the fictional name of Lee's hometown of Monroeville, Alabama. There is a courthouse in this town, where Lee's father handled cases as an attorney. Like Monroeville, Maycomb is in southern Alabama where Jim Crow laws were in effect in the 1930s. 

• Characterization

There is no question that Dill Baker is modeled after Lee's childhood friend Truman Capote, who was from Mississippi and felt he was too weak for the boys while Lee was too tough for the girls. Like Scout with Dill, Lee often defended Truman.

Atticus Finch is modeled after Lee's father, who served in state government and was an attorney with more liberal ideas than the majority of citizens in Monroeville. He was the greatest parental force in Lee's life because her mother suffered from mental illness and stayed in the home.

Boo Radley also is based upon a real man. Truman Capote depicted him in his novel Other Voices, Other Rooms. About this man, Capote stated that in his novel, 

I had that same man living in the house that used to leave things in the trees, and then I took that out. He was a real man, and he lived just down the road from us.