Online lesson 12: Logic and Decision making

Answer to Question

The common theme among the scrolls is instruction, all the scrolls seem to instruct the reader of what to do and reason why they should. This theme of instruction relates to how each of the suitors choose the casket as the instructions tells the person why he is not fit to have Portia and what he shall do. Morocco chose the gold casket because he thought that what all men wanted was Portia which was based on looks. Thus the scroll says that many men choose their wives based on appearance and instructed him to go away due to the lack of wisdom. Arragon chose the the silver casket because he thought that only someone who feels he deserves it will have Portia. Thus the scroll calls him a fool for thinking that he deserves Portia and instructs him go away to find another wife as he pleases. Bassanio chose the lead casket as he felt that it was humble, believing that it would not give him anything good. Thus the scroll says he does not not judge by looks and instructs him to be happy with Portia, accept her and kiss her.

Narrative

I remember once when it was a difficult decision between going over to my friends house to play soccer or staying at home to finish up the pile of homework and assignments I had. It was one of the weekends, that I had a huge pile of homework and assignments that had to be done as soon as possible, it was extremely unlucky that my friend had invited my to go over to his house to play soccer and other games. I certainly did not know what to choose. The fact that I have not visited my friend in a really long time and I wanted to catch up with him made me want to go. As well as the temptation of the fun of playing soccer and other amusing games. On the other hand, the stress of the need to finish all that work over the weekend troubled me. I told myself that if I wanted to go to have fun in the day with my friends, I undoubtedly needed to burn the midnight oil so that I could ensure I finished every piece of work. My parents even strongly felt that I should stay at home to complete what was assigned. But my mind kept thinking of the wonderful time I would have if I had gone to my friends house. I weighed the options and finally decided that it was the best option to stay at home to finish up the assignments. I thought about it quite a bit before coming to this conclusion, I knew that if I had chose the option of enjoying myself first and suffering by staying up late later to finish the work, would result in being tired the next day and not being able to concentrate on the things that had to be done. Thus although it was difficult decision to make, I felt that it was the decision that would have benefited me the most.