Cross-Cultural Management Skills in a Business Environment Research Paper

Cross-Cultural Management Skills in a Business Environment - Research Paper Example Culture changes or evolves over time, defined and altered by interactions amongst those who make up human society Culture is not monolithic because the human agents or actors who are imbued with intelligence and freedom give culture its dynamism through interaction and co-operation, giving rise to sub-cultures that add to societal diversity (Charon 2004, pp. 158-160). Culture is, therefore, a feature of a human society shaped by the behaviour of everyone in that society who learn and share that culture with future generations, affecting behaviour and outlook on life and determining how they think, feel, and act. Culture can be analysed using several perspectives and frameworks since it is visible to observers. Schein (2004, pp. 25-27) argued, in the context of business organisations, that these cultural manifestations range from the very tangible and over that one can see and feel: artefacts like organisational structures and processes, products and symbols of rituals, or architectur e and art, to the deeply embedded, unconscious, basic assumptions such as beliefs, perceptions, thoughts and feelings that form its essence. In between are espoused beliefs, values, norms, and rules of behaviour that members of the society use to depict the culture to themselves and to others. To understand the culture of any group and/or to change it, one has to get at its underlying assumptions and understand how such basic assumptions came to be. The best way to change a culture is to change the basic assumptions, but this is difficult, time-consuming, and highly anxiety-provoking.

The BIMS Management Essay Example for Free

The BIMS Management Essay Team b is providing an overview of the company’s history. Ballard Integrated Managed Services, Inc. (BIMS) is a nationwide company that provides housekeeping and foodservices to not only businesses but also large corporations. BIMS is competitive and the clientele list includes Fortune 100 businesses, numerous midsized firms, many major universities, over a dozen medical centers, and three larger airports. BIMS employs 452 employees, who include full- and part-time workers along with upper management. Even though the annual turnover rate is 55% to 60%, lately the rate has risen over 64% in four months time. Management has not been able to determine the root of the employee discontent, increased sick time, and poor work habits. The lower performance has caused clients to complain. Data Collection Instrument: The data collection tool to let workers express their views about their experiences at BIMS is an employee survey instrument. The survey collects information on attitudes, opinions, and levels of satisfaction from the 449 employees because the upper management is excluded. To figure out the root of the high turnover and the lowered morale, a ten-question survey was conducted. Our consultant firm will just be focusing on for right now on the high turnover. The survey includes questions on demographics that identifies the division the employee is assigned to, how long the employee has been employed, gender, and if the employee is management or not. Some questions include the company’s communications, the quality of training, and the level of compensation. Types of Data Collected The types of data being collected are quantitative only because the data deals with numbers, categories, and the information is measurable. Ballard Integrated Managed Services is surveying all 449 employees to gather information as to why the high turnover has gone too high in such a short period of time in the past four months, we believe that there are several reasoning’s for this turnover but we are going to focus on three out of the many that are there. The three we will focus on will be the quality of training, communication, and level of compensation. Over time, these three reasons could be the cause of the increased turnover and poor performance of  the workers based a few issues we are going to tap into. The questions of communication, communication and the level of compensation are all measurable data based on answers from employees. Level of measurements/ variables Team b is going to identify the level of measurement for each variable that we have chosen including quality of training, level of compensation, and internal company communication. Quality of training includes the four steps of training evaluation: Reaction is how someone feels about training experience Learning is the measurement for increasing knowledge before and after Behavior is the extent of applied learning (implementation) Results the effect of the businesses environment The level of compensation has five step plan that works for employees and employers: Set proper business goals Determine target compensation level Establish a base Add performance incentives Final considerations Internal company communication has an impact on three important areas: Decision making Interdepartmental coordination Team information Data coded BIMS staff used numeric codes to describe the nominal, ordinal, and interval data. The data is prearranged and measured to estimate the processes that were executed. Appendix A describes the routine in which BIMS staff coded the worker survey data numerically. Descriptive statistics were used to current a profile of the data, containing averages, mean, median, and mode, to describe the mid of collection scores or ratings. With the use of ordinal measurements, BIMS staff can use mode, the most mutual value, or median, the middle ranking, to define the central inclination. The study attained within the workers survey used descriptive statistics to expose the results (Lind, Marchal Wathen, 2011). Coding is the process of combining data for  themes, ideas, and categories. It is easier to search and make comparisons. Data Scrub To present the BIMS management with exact outcomes; it is required that a data scrub be achieved to remove of input errors in the sample data. A known error within the data are for those who failed to provide a reply to a survey question—an internal decision was made to enter a zero for any question left blank. There are several of these specific errors present in the sample data—5 zeros are present in the demographic questions and 17 zeros are present question one through 10. Furthermore, there is additional identified error within the data, the result of a keystroke error, which resulted in invalid value of ‘6’ present in inquiries one through 10. The suitable survey answer for inquiries one through 10 should imitate a value of 1,2,3,4,5 with ‘1’ demonstrating ‘Very Negative’ and ‘5’ representing ‘Very Positive’—there are six incidences of this mistake (University of Phoenix, 2011, BIMS, Inc. Part I). Final Analysis The BIMS survey was presented on a voluntary basis to all 449 employees in an effort to capture a consensus of employee perception on work conditions, shifts, training, compensation, fair treatment, company communications, and job security. In addition, there were a small amount of demographics incorporated for filtering. The intention of the survey team was to present their leadership with a reliable statistical analysis that exposes the key components within the raw data that would resolve their concerns over the high turnover. The descriptive and frequency techniques used during the statistical computation will be further manipulated to identify correlation within the data set at a later date. Overall, the survey method was not as effective and yielded below average result with just 78 responses out of the 449 employee population—17.3% overall response rate (University of Phoenix, 2011, BIMS, Inc. Part I). References: Lind, D. A., Marchal, W. G., Wathen, S. A. (2011). Basic statistics for business and economics (7th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. McClave, J. T., Benson, P. G., Sincich, T. (2011). Statistics for business and economics (11th ed.).Boston, MA: Pearson-Prentice Hall www.onlinestatisticsbook.com www.financialgroup.com

Edna,Hester, and Huck :: essays research papers

Edna, Hester, and Huck offer many ways that they look at society. These ways differ in how they approach their perspectives, reach their perspective, and what they conclude from their perspective. Moreover, there are a great number of similarities between the outlooks of the three characters upon the world in that they all learn or conclude their outlook from the circumstances that they are faced with, they all change their ways and somewhat rebel against their societies culture as a result of the new outlook, and furthermore they don’t try and change their society and make an impact.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Hester Prynne is a character that approached her new outlook as something she had to do for herself. She faced the Puritan society because she was placed in the public eye and she had to. Which resulted in her reaching perspective that the love and passion she had for Dimmesdale is not a crime and this can be seen through her choosing not to leave Boston and her also not taking the scarlet A off of her dress. Edna’s perspective was one in which she longed to change but didn’t know how, and Robert and Arobin helped her to figure out. Edna is a character that changes her outlook based on her thinking what everybody else’s outlook was. She wasn’t really sure herself what she wanted, she was very emotional and fickle. Edna’s perspective of the world that she was not really needed lead to the conclusion that she did not need to exist. Huck is young, naà ¯ve, and heavily influenced by if not everything, most things around him. He take s a look at how others see things, and how others act in certain situations to gain his newly independent outlook, expressed when he tears up the letter. He also allows his emotions for Jim gather up when he is forming his perspective of the world. The different time periods also have an affect on why and how these perspectives are different in that the times changed along with societies culture.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  All the characters face their situations in boldness and believe that there is need for a change. They are alienated because each of the outlooks rebel against societal views and would be horrible if the society knew what they thought. Hester never told who Pearl’s father was because she felt it was his sin and he had to confess.

Demand & Forecasting

DEMAND & FORCASTING Founded as a single store in 1960, Domino’s Pizza today stands as the recognized world leader in pizza delivery. From the beginning, we have been dedicated to the best of service, quality products and delivery excellence. They currently have over 9000 stores worldwide, all dedicated to providing great-tasting pizza delivered directly to your door or available for carryout. They have pioneered the pizza delivery business, and sell more than 400 million pizzas worldwide every year.Domino’s Pizza is recognized as a Megabrand by Advertising Age magazine, and has been named â€Å"Chain of the Year† by Pizza Today, the leading publication of the pizza industry, three times (Dominos). Metuchen is a very small town in Middlesex County, NJ. It is located right in the middle of Edison, NJ. It is only 2. 76 square miles with a population of over 13000. The median income is around $90000. There is approximately 5300 household consisting of 2. 56 people. A nd 30% of the population is under 18 years old (US Census). This can be interpreted as there are mostly families with kids in this community.Currently, there are no fast food pizza stores or any other fast food restaurants in the town. Edison does have many restaurants including two Dominos, one in South Edison and one in North Edison. However, neither of them delivers to Metuchen. The only direct competitor in the area is Pizza Hut. Metuchenites often get to know their local merchants and get personalized service they find missing at large chain stores in the nearby shopping malls Metuchen). Based on the Metuchen demographic information, I chose the following variables: households, income, and price of complimentary goods.I believe households to be more relevant than population based on the fact that the town consists of families with one or more children. A household will consume one or more pies per visit. And people with children are more likely to buy fast food. I chose to use income because income along with the fluctuation of price is a major factor for the demand of pizza. Also we used the variable for the price of the complimentary good Soda. People almost always buy soda or some other drink with their pizza. Although, there are some family owned competitors, I did not include them in this analysis because they are a ifferent type of pizza store. Dominos specializes in fast food delivery. And many of the family owned does not. VARIABLES Year| Qd| price/pie| soda/ liter| population| households| Income| 2010| 125000| 5| 1| 13,574| 5,249| 88,241| 2011| 127000| 5. 49| 1. 25| 13,648| 5,376| 91365| 2012| 129000| 5. 99| 1. 5| 13795| 5491| 94,410| Elasticity refers to the magnitude and the direction quantity demanded changes in response to a percentage change in the variable. Based on the information collected, we determined that all of the variables are inelastic. The price elasticity is 0. 163 and the price elasticity of soda is 0. 64. This means that the c hange in price will result in a lesser percentage change in quantity. Basically this shows that the fluctuation in price will not affect the demand too much. This is also true for the income. The income elasticity is 0. 452. This shows that if income increases, the demand for pizza will increase at a lower rate also. When price goes up, the Qd will go down based on the disposable income of the families. The income is high enough to withstand the price increase. This is also true for the number of households. Household elasticity is 0. 661. ELASTICITY rice/pie| soda/ liter| population| households| Income| 0. 163| 0. 064| 2. 935| 0. 661| 0. 452| 0. 173| 0. 079| 1. 462| 0. 736| 0. 473| Inelastic| Inelastic| Elastic| Inelastic| Inelastic| Smoothing techniques assumes that a repetitive underlying pattern can be found in the historical values of the variable being forecasted. The moving average is calculated by taking an average of past observations. The more observations included, the gr eater the smoothing effect. It gives the same weight to all the observations. The exponential model allows you to determine the weight of the observation between 0 and 1.Below we used four different smoothing techniques to forecasts the demand for pizza for years 2013-2015. The four models show the demand to be between 127500 and 128500. DEMAND FORECAST Year| Actual Demand| 5 year Moving Average| 3 year Moving Average| Exponential Smoothing w=0. 9| Exponential Smoothing w=0. 3| 2007| 126000|   |   | 126000| 126000| 2008| 129000|   |   | 126000| 126000| 2009| 131000|   |   | 128700| 126900| 2010| 125000|   | 128667| 130770| 128130| 2011| 127000|   | 128333| 125577| 127191| 2012| 129000| 127600| 127667| 126858| 127134| 2013| 128300| 128200| 127000| 128786| 127694| 014| 128100| 128060| 128100| 128349| 127876| 2015|   | 127480| 128467| 128125| 127943| The root mean square error is used to evaluate the accuracy of the forecasting model. The lower RMSE means the estimate is more accurate. RMSE RMSE|   | 811| 1933| 2790| 2377| Based on the RMSE for each of the estimates, I would estimate the 3 year moving average to be the best estimate. Although the 5 year moving average has a lower RMSE, I don’t think it is an accurate estimate because there are not enough years to get an accurate estimate. Based on the information collected, we could open a Dominos in the community and expect to do well.The forecast for demand of pizza seems to fluctuate between 127500 and 128500. Although the forecasts seems pretty stable, it doesn’t look like there will be too much growth unless the number of households and income have a larger increase that previously. The inelasticity of variables shows me that as price goes up, there will be a smaller decrease in quantity demanded. However, the income and the number of households are also inelastic. As incomes and households grow, so will the quantity demanded by a smaller increase. The price elasticity is sm aller than the income and household elasticity.So overall the quantity demanded should increase. WORKS CITED United States Census Bureau, US department of commerce, retrieved October 22, 2012 from http://quickfacts. census. gov/qfd/states/34/3445690. html Income Tax List, retrieved October 27, 2012 from http://www. incometaxlist. com/new-jersey-income-tax-by-zip-code-33. htm Domino’s Pizza, retrieved October 27, 2012 from http://phx. corporate-ir. net/phoenix. zhtml? c=135383&p=irol-homeprofile Borough of Metuchen, retrieved October 23, 2012 from http://www. metuchennj. org/brochure1999. pdf

Ramayana Divine Loophole

Shaquille Burnett World Lit. 6th period Rama is the main character and superhero of this story. The main character is a hero, who is often possessed of supernatural abilities or qualities. Rama displays his supernatural abilities by being able to pick up a strong edged bow. Also later in the story he has the ability to fly and having the power to neutralize an arrow and fly a chariot. The hero is charged with a quest.Rama has to leave, because sita has two wishes and one of them is exiling him to the forest for 14 years. His wife is kidnapped and wants revenge on ravanna. The hero is tested, often to prove the worthiness of himself and his quest. By facing ravanna on his journey is challenging his worthiness and it tested him on his quest to revenge. The presence of numerous mythical beings, magical and helpful animals, and human helpers and companions, monkeys were part of the magical quest helping Rama to defeat ravanna.The hero’s travels to take him to a supernatural world, often one that normal human beings are barred from entering a forest where there are magical and numerous mythical beings. Rama and his family are happy after years of being in the forest and from being there they destroyed the evil creatures. The cycle must reach a low point where the hero nearly gives up his quest or appears defeated. Rama almost loses; he did not want to beat his enemy by faint. Ravana persuades sita to marry him, Rama and his army undertakes ravana and his army in a fierce battle and reunites with sita.

Free Essays on The History Of Magic Squares

Very little is known about the origin of magic squares. Next to nothing is known about the movement of the idea of a magic square before about 1300 AD. Three cultures are known to have created magic squares, the Chinese, the Indian, and the Arabic. In each culture they were viewed as having supernatural properties. The first magic square in history was created in China by an unknown mathematician, sometime before the first century AD. â€Å"Called the Lo Shu square, it is a magic square of 3 that was said to have appeared on the back of a turtle that came up out of the river. Lo Shu supposedly means "river map," and the story of the appearance of the turtle had to do with a sacrifice to the river god† (http://freespace.virgin.net/mark.farrar1/msqhst01.htm). In 80 AD Ta Tai Li Chi gives the first clear reference to a magic square. In 570 AD, Shuzun gives an actual description of a magic square of 3. Not until 1275 do we hear of the Chinese making squares of order larger than 3. We find the first magic square of 4 in the first century in India by a mathematician named Nagarajuna. â€Å"India is the birthplace of much superior mathematics, and was advanced in many areas of combinatorics at an early date.† (http://freespace.virgin.net/mark.farrar1/msqhst01.htm). The next known date in the Indian development is an 11th or 12th century Jaina inscription that includes a magic square of 4. This particular magic square of 4 has unusual properties not found in other magic squares before that time. The whole class of squares having these properties is called "Jaina squares". â€Å"The first magic squares of 5 and 6 appear in an encyclopedia in Baghdad about 983 AD by Ikhw'n al-Saf' Ras'il, (http://freespace.virgin.net/mark.farrar1/msfmsq01.htm) though several earlier Arab mathematicians also wrote about magic squares. How it came to pass that the Arabs acquired knowledge of magic squares is unknown. It is not known if they invent... Free Essays on The History Of Magic Squares Free Essays on The History Of Magic Squares Very little is known about the origin of magic squares. Next to nothing is known about the movement of the idea of a magic square before about 1300 AD. Three cultures are known to have created magic squares, the Chinese, the Indian, and the Arabic. In each culture they were viewed as having supernatural properties. The first magic square in history was created in China by an unknown mathematician, sometime before the first century AD. â€Å"Called the Lo Shu square, it is a magic square of 3 that was said to have appeared on the back of a turtle that came up out of the river. Lo Shu supposedly means "river map," and the story of the appearance of the turtle had to do with a sacrifice to the river god† (http://freespace.virgin.net/mark.farrar1/msqhst01.htm). In 80 AD Ta Tai Li Chi gives the first clear reference to a magic square. In 570 AD, Shuzun gives an actual description of a magic square of 3. Not until 1275 do we hear of the Chinese making squares of order larger than 3. We find the first magic square of 4 in the first century in India by a mathematician named Nagarajuna. â€Å"India is the birthplace of much superior mathematics, and was advanced in many areas of combinatorics at an early date.† (http://freespace.virgin.net/mark.farrar1/msqhst01.htm). The next known date in the Indian development is an 11th or 12th century Jaina inscription that includes a magic square of 4. This particular magic square of 4 has unusual properties not found in other magic squares before that time. The whole class of squares having these properties is called "Jaina squares". â€Å"The first magic squares of 5 and 6 appear in an encyclopedia in Baghdad about 983 AD by Ikhw'n al-Saf' Ras'il, (http://freespace.virgin.net/mark.farrar1/msfmsq01.htm) though several earlier Arab mathematicians also wrote about magic squares. How it came to pass that the Arabs acquired knowledge of magic squares is unknown. It is not known if they invent...

Learner Characteristics Essays

Learner Characteristics Essays Learner Characteristics Paper Learner Characteristics Paper Learner characteristics often influence learner readiness to learn. There are many learner characteristics of employees working in a critical care work setting. Learner characteristics are often multi faceted and include personal, environmental and situational characteristics that may impact ones ability to succeed in a learning environment. It is important that teaching strategies consider adult learner characteristics that may influence the learners ability in the critical care setting specifically as this environment presents unique challenges to learners. Understanding of developmental stages is also vital to the learning process among critical care workers. This paper will discuss learner characteristics and learner readiness to learn in the critical care environment Overview of Learner Characteristics Central to adequate learning and teaching is an adequate understanding of the way some students learn and the characteristics associated with successful learners. Undoubtedly learners display various styles or characteristics of learning in the clinical care setting. It is vital that instructors consider an approach to learning that accommodates the characteristics of the learner and the goals of the teacher in the clinical care setting in order to inspire the greatest success among students and the classroom alike (Anderson, Boud Sampson, 1996). Common learner characteristics exuded by students in the clinical care setting include a tendency toward considering teachers as experts and authorities on all subject matter and the tendency to look forward to learning in a clinical setting or environment (Huttly, Sweet Taylor, 24). Learner characteristics common among clinical care students include the tendency toward preferring self-directed instructed methods and the tendency toward development of reflection and autonomy in the learner (Huttly, Sweet Taylor, 2003). Burns (2002) suggests that understanding learner characteristics can help teachers employ more cognitive and humanist approaches to teaching (p. 142). Further the author asserts that it is important that teachers consider individual behaviors and the influence learning styles have on the individuals potential to succeed, discover, understand and problem solve in the classroom. This approach is referred to as the cognitive approach to learning, and encourages educators to help facilitate individuals learning potentials by promoting self direction and valuing personal experience in the classroom in an environment that is supportive of teacher interaction (Burns, 142). Learner characteristics or attributes may include positive self-esteem or self-concepts that help students, particularly adult students, remain positively motivated in the classroom (Burns, 207). In this type of environment students provide their own validation for learning and view learning as an internal phenomena where they retain a certain degree of autonomy and locus of control (Burns, 207). This compared with the environment where students are more reliant on the teacher for direction and authority. This model, where the teacher acts as a lecturer and directs student interactions is far more common in the health care setting, but not necessarily valuable or supportive of learning particularly in the clinical care environment because it does not support the team model of learning, growth and development (Burns, 2002). Development of self-reliant behaviors is important for stimulating positive self-concept among adult learners and encouraging ample communication among adult learners (Burns, 2002). It is important therefore that the degree of autonomy and self-direction students experience is considered as a learning characteristic in a clinical health care environment. Learner characteristics common to individuals in a clinical care setting and adult environment include the ability to actively participate in learning, develop critical methods for interpreting reality and developing recognition of ones ability to change their reality and environment (Burns, 2002). Learner characteristics also include the tendency to look for opportunities to develop ones potential and discover new avenues for expressing ones abilities in the learning environment (Burns, 2002). While many learner characteristics are generalized including these, it is important to remember that individual learning styles are also very prevalent and important in the educational setting, particularly in an adult learning environment. Adults prefer working in a learning environment that provides an empowering learning situation. Empowered learners generally translate into competent and empowered clinical and critical care learners, helping others including other staff members, employees and patients develop their own sense of identity and empowerment through adaptive learning (Burns, 2002). An adults readiness to learn is often contingent on the amount of previous practice and learning or the amount of stored knowledge they have regarding given concepts or phase sequences (Burns, 260). An adults readiness to learn is also based on their ability and interest for assimilating new information into their current context. Typically readiness to learn is also contingent on the learners intrinsic motivation which is more likely to produce permanent learning because learning becomes more natural or instinctive to the learner (Burns, 260). Further it is important that in the adult learning environment and in critical care settings learners are provided with positive reinforcement for their efforts at learning, which theorists suggest is more effective than ignoring behavior or criticizing and punishing negative behavior (Burns, 2002). Readiness to learn may also be influenced by various factors including stress, time pressure, the context in which learning occurs, the level of interpersonal relationships the learner has with teachers and even fatigue or health pressures (Burns, 2002). Considering such conditions teaching strategies must target individual learning styles and contexts, working to help improve self-esteem among students and help facilitate more positive experiences within the learning environment (Burns, 2002). Developmental stage is also vital to the learning process for adult learners and learners in critical care work settings. Developmental stage approaches suggest that adult learners exude certain learning characteristics that are similar or analogous to their life experiences (Cross, 1981). Using this model one must consider the learners personal attributes or characteristics as well as situational characteristics that may impair or facilitate learning (Cross, 1981). These characteristics may include a persons physical or life developmental stages and personal characteristics. Biological characteristics including ones age may impact ones ability for example to learn effectively in the classroom; likewise developmental stages involving situational characteristics may include ones ability to work varying schedules in various environments (Cross, 1981). The medical employee working in a critical care environment will face many situational characteristics one must consider when developing a learning program targeted to this population in particular. These may include increased stressors and the need for programs that adapt to the experience level of varying workers in this diverse and often fast paced environment. In this case it may be beneficial for an educational program to focus on the learners personal and experiential characteristics to develop an appropriate learning model. Bibliography : Anderson, G. , Boud, D. Sampson, J. (1996). Learning Contract: A practical guide. London: Kogan Page. Burns, R. (2002). The adult learner at work: The challenges of lifelong education in the new millennium. Crows Nest: Allen Unwin. Cross, K. P. (1981). Adults as Learners. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Huttly, S. , Sweet, J. Taylor, I. (2003). Effective learning teaching in medical, dental and veterinary education. Sterling: Kogan Page.

Differences Between Après vs. Derrière and Avant vs. Devant

Differences Between Aprà ¨s vs. Derrià ¨re and Avant vs. Devant Aprà ¨s and Avant convey a notion of time or space. Aprà ¨s refers to doing something after while Avant refers to doing something before. Je le retrouve aprà ¨s/avant le dà ©jeunerIll meet up with him after/before lunch Aprà ¨s/avant le bois, il y a un cheminAfter/before the wood, there is a path Derriere and Devant convey a notion of precise space. Derrier refers to being behind something, or someone and Devant refers to being in front of something or someone. La petite fille est cachà ©e derrià ¨re larbreThe young girl is hidden behind the tree Pour la photo, comme tu es plus petite, va devant Camille.For the picture, since you are smaller, go in front of Camille.   Derrià ¨re le bois, il y a un cheminBehind the wood, there is a path Aprà ¨s and Derrià ¨re Are Not Interchangeable So, what is the difference between the two sentences aprà ¨s le bois, il y a un chemin and derrià ¨re le bois, il y a un chemin? They both give a piece of space-related information, but one is more precise, just like in English. Same exact logic applies to avant versus devant. Aprà ¨s Que Indicative / Avant Que Subjunctive A common mistake is Aprà ¨s que plus a subjunctive. Its a very common mistake, even among French people, because honestly, the indicative sounds terrible there. Avant que is followed by the subjunctive  because we dont yet know if the action is going to become a reality. With Aprà ¨s que, the action has taken place already: there is no doubt left, hence no need for the subjunctive. Aprà ¨s que subjunctive sounds so bad to a French ear that we will do our best to use a noun instead of a verb after. You can use the same trick with avant que et avoid using a subjunctive. Je dois commencer aprà ¨s quil part. (or aprà ¨s son dà ©part)I must start after he leaves (or after his departure). Je dois commencer avant quil parte (or avant son dà ©part).I must start before he leaves (or before his departure) By the way, even if we use le derrià ¨re in French (although this is extremely polite, just like saying the behind in English), French people use the preposition derrià ¨re without thinking about it at all. Just like in English you use behind without thinking about that part of the anatomy.

What characterised the Anglo-American Special Relationship during the Essay

What characterised the Anglo-American Special Relationship during the Cold War - Essay Example ps were cemented by the establishment of close ties between subsequent leaders of these countries as they sought to work together in national goals of influencing global economic and political systems. The cold war era is one of the period were the United States and Britain cooperated in a number of areas as both nations sought to secure their interests against resilient Soviet Union. The Anglo-American cooperation during cold was set had the objective of establishing close coordination in areas such economic performance, sharing of technological innovations and enhancing security through cooperation in defence and military movements in strategic areas. The strategies for achieving these goals were pegged at achievement of mutual benefit although there were instances where the two friendly nations were unable to share a common perspective on an issue as seen in the British attempt to ouster Nasser from Egypt presidency, which the United States did not support.1 However, the Anglo-American special relationship worked for the benefit of the countries especially when facing a perceived common threat. Therefore, given the mutual perception of Russia held by both Britain and the United States, it was only practical that the relationship would establish more areas that they agreed than where the countries did have a consensus on the best approach to handle a given domestic or international situation. Many nations that emerged from the Second World War as well as countries that had gained their independence in the past few decades faced considerable danger of falling under the influence of Soviet Union especially since they did not have strong institutional and political structures to assert their own identity. However, the reaction from these countries towards the Soviet Union could not be compared to the level of cooperation put in place by the United States and Britain as the two countries developed a coalition to face any potential threat from the Soviet Union in

Art Criticism Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Art Criticism Paper - Essay Example It stimulates different parts of our brains to act in a particular way and it gives us a way to be creative and express ourselves.Basically, art plays a very significant role in our daily lives. It is a form of communication that uses the aid of symbols and pictures that depict various meanings in our social lives. A critical analysis of the first picture, (brothers of fire) depicts that there is an element of unity and love in various images shown. However, it must be noted that different meanings of symbols are culture specific. They mean different things depending on the cultural values of any given society. In the picture given, the images of clasping hands which are symbolic to different cultures are the most captivating and they depict different meanings. In most cases shaking of hands is a sign of greeting each other and is symbolic of love and affection. There is an element of unity and brotherhood whenever different people greet each other. People often greet each other in many different ways using their hands and it may vary from one society to the other. Greeting each other with a sign of bringing to contact clenched fists is typical of Rastafarians and is often associated with the notion of â€Å"one love† and â€Å"peace† which characterises their religion. There are however, different interpretations that are often associated with this gesture depending on the cultural background that often determine moral values of a particular group. Normally, in the world of Christianity, clasping both hands in the upward direction is a sign of offering a prayer to the lord while in some sections of the society it is a sign of paying tribute to someone. It is a sign of showing respect and honour. On the other hand, a sign showing only one finger and thumb pointing in the front direction is often associated with paying homage to someone and

(Obama and US healthcare system) political issue in terms of risk Essay

(Obama and US healthcare system) political issue in terms of risk taking and leadership - Essay Example Evidently, there are two main aspects of international relations that affect law and order in the modern world. These are balance of power and political dominance (hegemony). International relations and hegemony are often considered two parallel things i.e. they are irreconcilable. This is because of the fact that dominating states are always reluctant to embrace and utilize forms of order or abide by the rules of international law. Some dominant states perceive these rules as overly constraining. On the other hand, the internal law systems seem to be far from balance of power on the premise that it may grant formal recognition to superior countries thus subjecting them to political realm. Critically, there is need of power to ensure that social norms and rules are observed by both powerful and less powerful states. In such situations, international law is redundant since it cannot effectively constrain powerful countries. As such, there is need for a balance of power for internation al law to exist. As suggested by Krisch (2005), international relations and law are spheres of equality. International relations study utilizes a number of theories to explain relations amongst nations. This essay attempts to reveal whether a balance of power or hegemony can help maintain order in the contemporary society, and the implications of each

Post War Australian Art Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Post War Australian Art - Essay Example Imants  Tillers' greatest motivation is the production of pieces of artwork that show concerns regarding locality and place while also making evocations of the Australian landscape. Between 1974 and 1975, Imants produced Conversations with the bride. The piece of art typifies the installation media category. The installation provides a notable dialogue between Imants’ painting and Marcel Duchamp’s well-known painting entitled The bride stripped bare by her bachelors, even. Duchamp’s painting is also referred to as The large glass. Imants’ Conversations with the bride is a compilation of at least 112 miniature photographs and paintings (Hart & Tillers 2006, p. 9). These photos and paintings are set on multiple aluminum tripods with every image in the compilation being appropriated from The large glass by Duchamp.In addition, Conversations with the bride also appropriates images of Hans Heysen’s watercolor Summer of 1909, which had a characteristic Australian landscape, consisting particularly of gum and eucalyptus trees. This calls to mind the magnificent forces of nature that is similar to the 19th century Romantic landscapes. The large glass and Summer were painted approximately the same time, and as a consequence, Imants perceives them as equally representative of Australian cultural values (Stephen 2003, p. 16). These art pieces were sympathetic to Imants’ views at the time, especially with regard to Imants’ feelings regarding the element of the fourth dimension, which is also evident in Duchamp’s artwork. Imants researches a lot of sources, collecting necessary documentation vital for the compilation of the images inherent in the Conversations with the bride compilation. Conversations with the bride represent the painter’s post-modern strategy, which encompasses approaches such as intertextuality. Here, Imants’ artistic work elucidates the link between the artwork, the viewer and the ar tist. This relationship is exemplified through the use of layering whereby contemporary and historical references from both literature and art are comingled.  

The Ethical and Regulatory Issues of the Business-To-Consumer Site Case Study

The Ethical and Regulatory Issues of the Business-To-Consumer Site - Case Study Example There are some important factors that you must make all of your IT team aware of prior to the startup of the business-to-consumer site. These issues are legal, ethical and regulatory in nature. Awareness of these issues is imperative for all IT workers and significant to the content of the site. Due to the significance of these issues and the need to maintain your reputation in good standing. I have prepared a meeting to explain and discuss the following issues with the entire IT Team including Senior Manages.The points to be addressed at the meeting are; †¢Ethical issues in marketing, B2B + ethics, marketing standards for advertising ethics B2C site compared to a B2B site. †¢Ethics and B2B, legal, & ethical issues. E-business Ethical Issues & Concerns. †¢What are Internet ethics and B2B marketing and advertising ethics in B2B and B2C? B2B legal, ethics, regulatory ethical and legal issues with websites B2C & B2B. The Internet is a growing and continually evolving creature that will live on in perpetuity. As such, it would be wise to ponder the e-business legal and Internet marketing ethical issues of b2b b2c. Whatever is written and published online will be there forever. Imagine the billions upon billions of text information pages that are and will be stored for a long time. There is even a site where you can go Way Back to check out archives of other websites and view pages that were created at the beginning of their infancy. Additionally, video, films, movies, and audio in various applications formats are also viewable. Please make all members of your team aware of the meeting and the issues that will be addressed: Meeting: Monday, August 3rd 9:30v AM Location: Conference Room F 3rd Floor It is important all IT employees attend.

Post War Australian Art Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Post War Australian Art - Essay Example Imants  Tillers' greatest motivation is the production of pieces of artwork that show concerns regarding locality and place while also making evocations of the Australian landscape. Between 1974 and 1975, Imants produced Conversations with the bride. The piece of art typifies the installation media category. The installation provides a notable dialogue between Imants’ painting and Marcel Duchamp’s well-known painting entitled The bride stripped bare by her bachelors, even. Duchamp’s painting is also referred to as The large glass. Imants’ Conversations with the bride is a compilation of at least 112 miniature photographs and paintings (Hart & Tillers 2006, p. 9). These photos and paintings are set on multiple aluminum tripods with every image in the compilation being appropriated from The large glass by Duchamp.In addition, Conversations with the bride also appropriates images of Hans Heysen’s watercolor Summer of 1909, which had a characteristic Australian landscape, consisting particularly of gum and eucalyptus trees. This calls to mind the magnificent forces of nature that is similar to the 19th century Romantic landscapes. The large glass and Summer were painted approximately the same time, and as a consequence, Imants perceives them as equally representative of Australian cultural values (Stephen 2003, p. 16). These art pieces were sympathetic to Imants’ views at the time, especially with regard to Imants’ feelings regarding the element of the fourth dimension, which is also evident in Duchamp’s artwork. Imants researches a lot of sources, collecting necessary documentation vital for the compilation of the images inherent in the Conversations with the bride compilation. Conversations with the bride represent the painter’s post-modern strategy, which encompasses approaches such as intertextuality. Here, Imants’ artistic work elucidates the link between the artwork, the viewer and the ar tist. This relationship is exemplified through the use of layering whereby contemporary and historical references from both literature and art are comingled.  

Legal Aspects of E-commerce Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

Legal Aspects of E-commerce - Essay Example Responsibility and privacy are issues that touch on the law, though they are perhaps best characterized as aspects of common sense conduct. The political response to ecommerce, particularly its expression in regulatory and taxation policies, is a further source of potential uncertainty for the ecommerce player. The ease of finding and copying information on the web leads many users think that the copyright is unsustainable in the wired world, though this has been a false impression. Works published on the web enjoy the same rights as other forms of publication. The world intellectual property organization (WIPO) copyright treaty and performances and Phonograms Treaty of 1996 extended the Berne convention on the copyright to include digital applications. Arguably, copyright is easier to defend online, as it is simple for a comply to run a regular search on its own content to see if it appears in unexpected place. Intellectual property unique to the ecommerce arena include domain names and business process patents On the firmer ground of patent law, ecommerce has created something of a stir. Patents are being granted for a range of business process that are, in the opinion of many, generic ecommerce techniques. However, Jay Walker, founder of Priceline.com, who pursues intellectual property break through his walker Digital Company, believes the novel modes of commercial practice in ecommerce channels can amount to legitimate innovations. "Walker Digital is about reengineering the DNA of the future of business" Walker declares. "What we hope is that a group of thoughtful people can together reinvent whole sectors of the global economy. And not only can we reinvent them, we can own those inventions." 1 Of course, reengineering is itself the bane of all attempts to protect intellectual property. Ecommerce patents currently remain unchallenged, but the generic nature of many of them may enable competitors to formulate alternatives that achieve similar ends without infringements. In any case; interest in filing business process patents certainly forces companies to spend on patent lawyers rather than on software and service development. This may help the image of a startup, however, the ability to prove early and continuos commercial use of technology is likely to be important Meanwhile the cost of defending a claim of intellectual property infringement will often be more than the cost of paying royalties to the claimant. Smaller companies have long complained that larger companies restrict their movements with walls of patents." As always, the cost of litigation is a form of social tax on business. Responsibility and Privacy. The abstract quality of the web and its apparent autonomous existence as a medium of communication and business often cause uncertainty about personal and corporate ownership of the acts committed through it. Responsibility for content and transactions is not always as clear as in the traditional commercial world, where formal and informal codes of conduct have consolidated over many generations of use. Reliance on electronic communications mediated by network and machines whose functions are mysterious to the majority of users raises suspicion about privacy and its accidental or malicious betrayal. In one sense, the internet is the ultimate bureaucracy- a faceless solicitor,

The Cultures of Colonial North America Essay Example for Free

The Cultures of Colonial North America Essay The Enlightment and the Great Awakening were both huge impacts on the colonial regions of North America. During the Enlightment, the thinkers were arguing that the universe was governed by natural laws that people could understand and apply to their own advantage. The writers were emphasizing rationality, harmony, and order. Sons were being sent to college during this time and many people were reading and writing. However the Enlightment did cause a decline in religious devotion. The Great Awakening was a response to the Enlightment because it challenged the rationalist approach to religion by having ministers preach more emotionally than rationally, by having people find relief in religious enthusiasm, and by having like-minded men be trained for the ministry. Before the Great Awakening, people were listening to ministers who were preaching rationally and not emotionally. The poor young people began to grow disaffected as they were forced to postpone marriages because of scarcity and expense of the land needed to farm a household. They refused to attend church meetings and would instead gather together at night for frolics, increasing their discontent. In the 1730s, Reverend Jonathan Edwards began a movement to challenge the rationalist approach on religion. He made the young people his target. He believed that their hearts needed to be touched in a way that appealed to their emotions. He preached and church membership began to grow with people wondering what they could do to be saved. People then began to listen to ministers preaching emotionally, rather than to ministers preaching rationally. People began to feel relief in religious enthusiasm. The people were going through economic and social stresses at this time, being unable to find land and unsure whether to marry, and to participate in the promise of a growing economy. This widespread colonial revival of religion became known as the Great Awakening. It is seen as the American version of the Protestant Reformation. Religious leaders established this with calls for piety and purity. During the Great Awakening, ministers began to be taught to preach emotionally. William Tennent established a school in Pennsylvania to train like-minded men for the ministry. His Log College evolved in the College of New Jersey. William Tennent toured with George Whitefield to deliver the famous sermon The Dangers of an Unconverted Ministry. This sermon told Protestants to examine the religious convictions of their own ministries. Conflict did break out, and in some regions the church hierarchy divided into separate organizations. The Enlightment and the Great Awakening go hand-in-hand in impacting the colonies of North America. The Enlightment was a time when there was a decline in religious devotion, but the Great Awakening was a colonial revival in the spread of religion. The Great Awakening was a response to the Enlightment because it challenged the rationalist approach to religion by having ministers preach more emotionally than rationally, by having people find relief in religious enthusiasm, and by having like-minded men be trained tor the ministry. The Great Awakening helped many economically and socially stressed people find relief in religion.

The Perceptions Of Sexual Health Services Young People Essay

The Perceptions Of Sexual Health Services Young People Essay Objective: To investigate young peoples perceptions of sexual health services that they demand and sex education provided children. Design: Questionnaires based on open-ended questions. Setting: 30 young people (aged 19-21 years) surveyed at Anglia Ruskin University. Method: I interviewed young people using the questionnaires. Results: 80% young people think that Confidentiality and Friendly atmosphere and staffs easy to talk to are the important factors, when they ask someone sexual questions. On the other hand, they dont think that general advice about sexual health and other health matters is important factors. Also, they think that children should be taught different sexual health educations, such as How to say no to sex, Contraception, and Sexuality, Religious and Morality, at around 13 years old at school. Conclusion: I identified that young peoples demands towards sexual health services are comfortable atmosphere and reliable staffs, not sexual health knowledge and counsellors advice itself. Also, I felt that young peoples versions of the proper ages that children should learn each sex education are almost the same as that of general Japanese through this study. [Definition] The  World Health Organisation (WHO)  define sexual health as Sexual health is a state of physical, emotional, mental and social well-being in relation to sexuality; it is not merely the absence of disease, dysfunction or infirmity. Sexual health requires a positive and respectful approach to sexuality and sexual relationships, as well as the possibility of having pleasurable and safe sexual experiences, free of coercion, discrimination and violence. For sexual health to be attained and maintained, the sexual rights of all persons must be respected, protected and fulfilled. (1) According to AVERT which is an international AIDS charity define sex education as Sex education, which is sometimes called sexuality education or sex and relationships education, is the process of acquiring information and forming attitudes and beliefs about  sex, sexual identity, relationships and intimacy. Sex education is also about developing young peoples skills so that they make informed choices about their behaviour, and feel confident and competent about acting on these choices. It is widely accepted that young people have a right to sex education. This is because it is a means by which they are helped to protect themselves against abuse, exploitation, unintended pregnancies,  sexually transmitted diseases  and  HIV  and  AIDS. It is also argued that providing sex education helps to meet young peoples rights to information about matters that affect them, their right to have their needs met and to help them enjoy their sexuality and the relationships that they form. (2) [Introduction] Nowadays, the attentions on sexual health services and sex education towards young people have been increasing, because there are facts that the concept of sexually transmitted diseases, such as AIDS, Chlamydia, and Syphilis, has become more familiar to young people, and the number of unwanted pregnancies is increasing. Governments and organisations try to deal with the problems through providing places where people can learn sex education, or establishing special institutions providing sexual health services. In fact, there is The Sydney Sexual Health Centre in Sydney, Australia. They state on their site, The Sydney Sexual Health Centre provides a confidential and comprehensive service that helps put you in control of your sexual health. We do this by providing screening, vaccination and management of sexually transmissible infections (STIs) including HIV, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, womens and mens sexual health care, education, individual and couple counselling, and needle and syringe program. The service is free and a Medicare card is not required. (3) They supply people with knowledge, advice, and testing for different sexually transmitted diseases for free. As a matter of course, there are many similar institutions in the UK, and such sexual health services are provided by National Health Service in each area. According to AVERT, the purpose of sex education is the following. Sex education aims to reduce the risks of potentially negative outcomes from sexual behaviour, such as unwanted or unplanned pregnancies and infection with sexually transmitted diseases including HIV. It also aims to contribute to young peoples positive experience of their sexuality by enhancing the quality of their relationships and their ability to make informed decisions over their lifetime. Sex education that works, by which we mean that it is effective, is sex education that contributes to both these aims thus helping young people to be safe and enjoy their sexuality. (2) I think that the supplies of sexual health services and sex education to young people are important for their health and future, so I decided to investigate whether they were taught about sex education at their school or not, and what images young people in Cambridge have regarding it. [Method] I created questionnaires which are consisted of open-ended questions, and those questionnaires are based on questionnaires designed by C Reeves, R Whitaker, R K Parsonage, C A Robinson, K Swale, L Bayley in their research paper, Sexual health services and education: Young peoples experiences and preferences. (4) I asked respondents to comment on services they expect counsellors or facilities providing sexual health services, and the right ages that children should be taught sexual relationship education at school. I interviewed 30 young people at Anglia Ruskin University. I tabulated the data, and I assessed the differences between groups. [Results] Young peoples demands towards sexual health services I asked young people, If you went for information/advice regarding contraception/health matters, how important would each of the following be to you? For your information, you can choose as many as you feel appropriate. Table 1 showed the results. According to the table 1, 80% young people answered that Confidentiality and Friendly atmosphere and staff easy to talk to are the significant aspects. Surprisingly, they replied that counsellors character and comradely atmosphere are more important than their advice or knowledge. As the third best answer, Tests for HIV and other sexual infections were an important factor for young people. 63% respondents agreed Emergency contraception is also a weighty factor. Those two aspects were concrete and visible rather than abstract and sensuous such as top two factors. Following that, Not telling your parents without your permission was the fifth best factor. This might mean that young people are afraid of their parents views of their sexual lives. Unplanned pregnancy counselling, and Pregnancy testing, were important factors, with 53% and 50% respectively. These results might show that young peoples contraceptive use is low when they have sexual relationships wi th their partner. Also, they look that they understand a risk of having a sexual relationship without a contraceptive item, such as a condom. Next, Young people answered that Being able to go without an appointment and General advice on sexual health are less important that above sections, with 33% and 30% each. Last, Advice on other health matters was the least important element for them. As I told above, to sum up, young people put importance on sexual health professionals character and the mood. On the other hand, they dont care about advice or knowledge from sexual health professionals. [Table 1] The proper ages of being taught each sex education Table 2 shows that the proper ages that children should be taught different sex education topics from the views of young people. According to the table 2, young people think that children should be taught the following sex education at around 13 years old. Interestingly, each age of Homosexuality and lesbianism, Sexuality, religions and moral values, HIV/AIDS and other STDs, Rape, Abortion, and Sexual abuse was slightly higher than other items. All of these items are related to individual belief regarding sexual relationships, or solemn problems, such as sexually transmitted diseases, and sexual violence. On the other hand, the ages of children being taught Contraception, How to discuss contraceptive use, and How to say no to sex were marginally lower than above one. Also, young people answered that children should be educated Role of emotions in sexual relationships sooner than others. According to the table 2, these 4 topics under 13 years old are more basic and central topics than the one over 14 years old. To sum up, young people believe that children should be taught sex education around 13 years old, but they also feel that there are proper stages of being taught each sexual education topic. [Table 2] [Conclusion] I found out that young peoples perceptions of sexual health services and sex education through this study. Firstly, I discovered that the strongest demand of sexual health services of young people is the mood and personality of counsellors providing sexual health services, not their knowledge and their advice itself. I think that the reason is young people can get information on sexual problems itself through the Internet, TV, and books. Therefore, I feel that they need the environment and people that provide them with the sense of safety and a feeling of trust in the counsellors. Similarly, their concern about sexually transmitted diseases was a high score, so this might mean that sexually transmitted diseases spread young people. According to the Health Protection Agencys report in the UK between 1999 and 2008 (5), the number of Syphilis rose dramatically from 223 to 2524. In the same way, there was a striking increase in the number of Chlamydia from 56991 to 123018. Also, the patients caused by herpes considerably increased from 17509 to 28957. Total number of patients went up by appro ximately 150000 only 10 years. In 1999, similarly, just over 3000 people were diagnosed with HIV in the UK. However, there were 7298 new diagnoses of HIV in 2008, so the increase was more than twice. On the other hand, young people dont need advices of sexual health and general health so much. As I stated above, I think that the reason why they dont put importance on these aspects is that they can get similar advice or much better information which are related to their problems through different ways, such as the Internet, magazines, and TV. Hence, they demand friendly atmosphere and conversable staffs on sexual health services. When I was 11, 12 years old, I studied sex education at my elementary school. So, I found that the ages that young people in Cambridge were taught sex education at school is almost the same as that of general Japanese people experienced at school. According to the table 2, young people think that children should be taught primary and fundamental sex education, such as Role of emotions in sexual relationships, Contraception, How to say no to sex, faster than others. I think that it is hard for children who are around 12 years old to understand completely the meaning of taking sex education, because most children dont have an interest in sexual activities at the age. However, sex education would be important for them in a few years later, so they should be taught basic sex education at the early stage. After that, they should learn more ethical and serious sex education, such as Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Abortion, and Rape. In my opinion, at the same time, I feel that governments and organisations should establish institutions providing sexual health services and sex education for some children who want to study and need it. In a consequence, childrens understanding about sex education would improve, so unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases would decline from a long-time point of view. I found out that young peoples demands towards sexual health services and the staffs, and their notion of the ages when children should be taught sex education at school through this study. However, I didnt explore the differences between gender, generation, and countries on this time. As future prospects, I feel that I should increase the number of respondents, and ask their gender, religion, gender, and nationality, and analyse the data. As a consequence, I could get more interesting and broad information regarding the perceptions of young peoples sexual health services and sex education.

Shipping and the Great Barrier Reef Essay -- Trade Nature Conservation

Shipping and the Great Barrier Reef Australia’s Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is an unparalleled marine ecosystem that holds rank as one of the world’s most valuable natural wonders. The abundance of sea life offers both intrinsic and physical benefits, but unfortunately this extraordinary habitat is now threatened from several different angles. One of the greatest threats to the GBR is the presence of popular shipping routes which surround and penetrate the reef. These ships naturally pollute the GBR, but the severest danger lies in the possibility of wrecks spilling oil or other hazardous cargos. History offers many examples of shipwrecks with outcomes that could have been devastating although there has not yet been a major disaster. These events have helped to inspire various regulations aiming to curb the risk of any major incident. Nevertheless, there still remains more room for protective measures in order to insure the safety of such an irreplaceable treasure. The Great Barrier Reef The GBR formed about 9,000 years ago during the last interglacial period. As with other coral reefs, it is based upon the structure of billions of coral polyps, and the GBR is the longest coral reef system ever to exist. It is consequently the largest structure created by living creatures and so massive that it can be viewed from outer space (Guynup p.22). The GBR includes 2,900 separate reefs and hundreds various islands and cays. The GBR stretches over 2,000 kilometers up the coast of Queensland. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (GBRMP), established in 1975, includes nearly 350,000 square kilometers, which is over half the area covered by all of the protected areas in mainland Australia (Chadwick and Storrie p.1, CRC p.1).... ...w.gbrmpa.gov.au/ Guynup, Sharon. 2000. â€Å"Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.† Science World, 57(1): 22-23. Johns, Gary. 2002. â€Å"The Four Corners of the Reef: Investigative Journalism or Environmental Activism.† Institute of Public Affairs, 54(2): 10-11. Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia, Protection of the Great Barrier Reef: Report of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Environment and Conservation, November 1985. Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra: 1985. Queensland Transport – News: â€Å"Maritime Safety Legislation Passed by Parliament,† 31 July 2002. Queensland Transport & the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, â€Å"Oil Spill Risk Assessment for the Coastal Waters of Queensland and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park†: August 2000. Wright, Judith, The Coral Battleground. Thomas Nelson, Melbourne: 1977.

Eymp 5

2. 1 Explain the ways in which adults can effectively support and extend the speech, language and communication development of children during the early years. Adults can effectively support the speech, language and communication development of the child by the parent talking fluently and clearly so the child can hear the patterns of the language they are learning. The adult can also help the child’s understanding of communication by miming the actions they are saying, this help the child put together the actions and words to understand what he adult is saying.An adult can extend the child’s development by introducing new words, and getting the child to use more intellectual words such as ‘dog’ instead of ‘doggy’. Babies communicate by crying for their needs such as for a nappy change or a bottle. Adults can support the child’s development by talking to babies in short phases and high pitched voices and emphasis on key words, this is cal led parentese.Another way that adults communicate with children is by eye contact, if the child has sigh issues then the babies response would be by listening intently and becoming still, as for a baby that is well sighted would ‘dance’ and smile. Adults can extend the child’s communication development by repeating a word to the baby to get them used to the word, and then showing the child the meaning, by also miming and using body language. 2. Explain the relevant positive effects of adult support for the children and their causes. The positive effects of adult support for the children involve improvements in speech, language and communication skills, social interaction, behaviour and emotional development / self confidence. Praising and encouragement are very important when supporting the child’s speech, language and communication development as they need a lot of praising or rewards when the child is speaking correctly.By the adults giving the child rew ards and praising them supports the child as they know they are doing good, and will continue to excel and improve their development, as well as the child gains self – confidence and self – esteem when they are being praised which allows the child to experience new things and experiences, this would help the child’s communication as they would have the confidence to speak up and ask questions. There are a few methods that are used to praise children, one is verbal, such as praising the child by giving them positive comments about what they are doing and how they do things like ‘Brilliant Tony!You played really well’ As this has two positive comments would make the child feel good, and would then go and play well again and this would improve their social interaction as well as their motional development. Another positive method that the adult could use is symbols, such as smiley faces and well done stickers when the child has done something well such as reading, this would have a positive effect on the child development as they feel confident as they can read well or playing well, which could lead to the child trying to learn and do more things as they feel good about themselves.

Lais of Marie de France Essay

Love and Marie de France According to American mythologist, Joseph Campbell, â€Å"The greatest love was during the Medieval Ages, when noble hearts produced a romantic love that transcended lust† (Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth with Bill Moyers [2001]). The Lais of Marie de France are primarily concerned with this idea of love–specifically, courtly love–between a man and a woman. Courtly love, a union modeled after the feudal relationship between a knight and his liege lord, became a popular convention in the 12th century (â€Å"Backgrounds to Romance: ‘Courtly Love’†). Instead of proving loyalty to a lord, the man would have to prove his love to a woman. Marie de France, however, focuses not just on the idea of love, but also on the differing kinds of love that existed in medieval society. She recognizes love as a force that cannot be avoided and that can be executed correctly or incorrectly; not all love is equal. Marie begins her collection of lais with the story of Guigemar, a noble knight who is cursed with the task of finding true love to heal a physical injury. This lay introduces two types of love: selfish and selfless. Selfish love is not courtly love. It lacks devotion and true loyalty. It lacks suffering and self-denial. Marie de France portrays this kind of love in the old husband of the woman whom Guigemar loves. The man locks his wife away in an enclosure guarded by a castrated man. By doing this, the husband shows a mean, limited devotion to his wife; perhaps even worse, he limits her ability to experience true love. This kind of love does not last; in fact, the husband is cuckolded when his wife has a year-long affair with Guigemar. He is made a fool, the dupe of love. Guigemar, however, in contrast to the old husband, practices selfless love. He is kind and noble, and, although he suffers from his physical wound, the pain of love is keener: â€Å" Love had now pierced him to the quick†¦for the lady had wounded him so deeply†¦Ã¢â‚¬ (De France, Marie. The Lais of Marie de France. Trans. Glyn S. Burgess and Keith Busby [L ondon: Penguin Group, 1986.Print] p.48).† This type of love most closely resembles courtly love. Guigemar endures severe anguish to please his beloved, and his undying love inspires  him to prove himself to her. This lay provides a good example of what Marie de France considers wrong and right in love. We see another selfish love in the story of Bisclavret, a man with a werewolf alter ego who is betrayed by his adulterous wife. Ironically, although her husband is physically a beast, the real beast, as portrayed by Marie de France, is the wife, who not only betrays him, but also marries another man. She is selfishly concerned with her physical desires, something Marie de France considers ignoble and far worse than the jealousy displayed in the story of Guigemar. The selfish love in this story is inspired by sexual desire, a desire that Marie de France sees as a threat to selfless love. Selfish love is again shown in the lay of â€Å"Les Deux Amanz,† in which a young man has to carry his beloved to the top of a mountain without falling in order to prove his worthiness to her father. This seems to be an act of love, but, in fact, when the woman begs her lover to take a potion that will help him reach the top, he reveals another, vainer, motivation: â€Å"These people would shout at us and deafen me their noise†¦Ã¢â‚¬ (Burgess and Busby 84). In other words, his desire to reach the mountaintop is motivated at least in part by a need to prove himself to others, and less by the desire to faithfully perform a trial for his beloved. The noble purity of courtly love is not present. Characters demonstrating pure, selfless—even self-denying–devotion are portrayed throughout the lais as examples of true love. In the story of â€Å"Eliduc,† a brave, loyal knight is forced to find a new lord in another land and temporarily leave his wife, Guildeleuc. Although Eliduc meets a new love (Guilliadun), he remains faithful to his wife, demonstrating loyalty, suffering, and therefore a more pure kind of love. He finally marries Guilliadun, but only after Guildeleuc decides to give herself up to God and leave Eliduc. By letting Eliduc marry his true love, Guildeleuc also shows love in its most giving form, but in this case it is a truly spiritual love. This story thus displays two types of selfless love represented by each of his wives: love of God and the love between a man and a woman. Significantly, at the end of the lay, â€Å"He placed his beloved lady with his former wife, by whom she was received honorably as a sister, . . . â€Å" (Burgess and Busby 126). This suggests that pure love can take both a spiritual and worldly form. Central to the Lais of Marie de France, then, is courtly love. While her lais are idealistic in their portrayal of loyalty  and romantic chivalry, historically, marriages among the nobility were dispassionate and practical (Joseph Campbell). Troubadours began to introduce stories of interpersonal relationships and the possibility of romantic love. Although this kind of love directly contradicted the views of the church, it inspired people to take matters of love and relationships into their own hands (Joseph Campbell). This is what Marie de France wants to inspire–the universal knowledge of love and how imperative an aspect it remains in society. The idea is important enough to her to make her text more accessible to society. She begins her prologue by stating: â€Å"When a truly beneficial thing is heard by many people, it then enjoys its first blossom, but if it is widely praised its flowers are in full bloom†(Burgess and Busby 41). She wishes to share her insights about love to everyone, not simply to write inaccessible stories available only to philosophers or the learned. Works Cited â€Å"Backgrounds to Romance: ‘Courtly Love’† Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth with Bill Moyers [2001]. De France, Marie. The Lais of Marie De France. Trans. Glyn S. Burgess and Keith Busby. London: Penguin Group, 1986. Print.

Laurence Olivier Essay

The original classification of Shakespeare’s plays – ‘Comedies’, ‘Tragedies’, ‘Histories’ and ‘Roman plays‘ – don’t adequately describe all of Shakespeare’s plays, and scholars have come up with more names to do so. The most widely used categories are ‘Romance Plays’, ‘Problem Plays’, and Shakespeare’s ‘Tragicomedy Plays’. The plays in those categories have much in common, but there are enough differences to prevent some of them to fall into all three. The Winter’s Tale, for example is a play that does have the features of all three, however. A tragicomedy is a play that is neither a comedy nor a tragedy, although it has the features of both. Tragedies are usually focused almost exclusively on the central character, the tragic hero (although Shakespeare’s tragedies can sometimes be a double tragedy, with two tragic heroes, like Romeo and Juliet). The audience has insights into his mind and goes deeply in, as he does in Macbeth or Hamlet. Comic plays, on the other hand, remove that focus and the concerns are diversified so that the action is made up of the stories of several characters, particularly pairs of lovers. The shadows in human emotions are usually minor in the comedies: they are such things as misunderstandings, playful deceptions and so on. Plays that fall between the two stools of tragedy and comedy are sometimes referred to as ‘Problem Plays. ’ so the whole area of classification is a very difficult one. It shouldn’t be necessary to classify them but scholars need a language in which to talk about the plays. The Merchant of Venice can be seen as a tragicomedy. It has a comic structure but one of the central characters, Shylock, looks very much like a tragic character. The play has a comedy ending with the lovers pairing off but we are left with taste in the mouth of the ordeal of Shylock, destroyed by a combination of his own faults and the persecution of the lovers who enjoy that happy ending. The feeling at the end of the play is neither joy nor misery. The play has a decidedly comic structure but there is also a powerful tragic story. It can therefore be called a tragicomedy. Shakespeare’ tragicomedies usually have improbable and complex plots; characters of high social class; contrasts between villainy and virtue; love of different kinds at their centre; a hero who is saved at the last minute after a touch-and- go experience; surprises and treachery. The Winter’s Tale and Cymbeline are two plays that fit that tragicomical pattern. Shakespeare’s plays generally accepted as tragicomedy plays are: * Cymbeline * The Winter’s Tale Shakespeare’s Tragedy plays One of the main features of Renaissance art is that it was inspired by classical art and philosophy. This is evident in the work of such artists as Michelangelo who, caught up in the spirit of Humanism that was sweeping across Europe, focused on the human form. Focusing on the human form during Mediaeval times would have been impossible as it would have been a distraction from the necessary focus on God. The essence of Humanistic art was that human beings were created in God’s image so it was possible for Michelangelo even to portray God – as a beautiful and physically powerful man with realistic human features, presented as perfection – in fact, the human form at its most beautiful. Artists became anatomists, going as far as buying human bodies for dissection. The result was a new realism in the representation of human beings in art. Shakespeare is, in a way, the Michelangelo of literature. That he could, in one play, Othello, written four hundred years ago, represent what we can recognise as a modern psychopath and a modern alcoholic, in Iago and Cassio respectively, is incredible. Iago is a fully realised physochological character just as the David is a fully realized man physically. Greek drama was an important model for Renaissance drama after the flat, unrealistic morality plays of the mediaval centuries. The Greek philosopher, Aristotle, defined tragedy and asserted that it was the noblest and most serious, dignified and important form of drama. Many of the plays of the Renaissance resembled those Greek tragedies. In several of Shakespeare’s plays there is a central protagonist who undergoes a harrowing experience as he is brought down from his lofty height, ending up dead. There is also a special feeling created in an observer of those Shakespearedramas, similar to the feeling described by Aristotle as the effect of tragedy on an observer. Critics thus thought of those Shakespeare plays as tragedies and that notion has remained with us to  this day, although many of those interested inShakespeare are now thinking differently about the plays. There are still teachers, though, who teach the ‘tragedies’ as though they were Aristotelian tragedies and miss a great deal of what those plays are doing. In his Poetics Aristotle outlines tragedy as follows: The protagonist is someone of high estate; a prince or a king. He is like us – perhaps a bit different in his level of nobility so that we can both identify with him and admire him as a man as well as respect him for his high estate. The protagonist has a ‘tragic flaw’ in his character which makes him contribute to his own destruction. This can take the form of an obsession. The flaw is often part of his greatness but it also causes his downfall. The flaw causes the protagonist to make mistakes and misjudgments. That in turn begins to alienate him from his supporters so that he becomes isolated. He begins to fall from his high level. He struggles to regain his position but fails and he comes crashing down. He eventually recognises his mistakes, but too late. An important aspect is the suffering he undergoes, which the audience observes and identifies with. We experience ‘pity’ and ‘terror’ as we watch what seems to us an avoidable suffering. At thend the air is cleared by the restoration of the order that existed before the events of the story and we experience what Aristotle calls ‘catharsis’ – a feeling of relief and closure. Using the term ‘tragedy’ about Shakespeare’s plays invites attempts to fit them to the Aristotelian pattern but none of them fits. Othello seems to conform to the pattern but when one thinks about it, Othello, superficially resembling a tragic hero, doesn’t even seem to be the main character in the play. It can be seen as a modern psychological drama about a psychopath who manipulates everyone around him just for fun – just because he has nothing better to do – and destroying other human beings gives him pleasure or is necessary because they get in his way. Othello may seem to have a fatal flaw – too trusting, gullible – but so do all the other characters, because Iago has deceived them all with his psychopathic charm and a deliberate effort of making himself appear trustworthy. Every misjudgment Othello makes is the hard work of Iago. Easily manipulated? Jealous? Does he have all those ‘tragic flaws’ as well? The feeling at the end is not quite Aristotle either. Perhaps it is more of a disgust for Iago than pity for Othello, who comes across as more stupid than tragic. And to make things more complicated, our feeling of pity is directed more to Desdamona. And yet some teachers miss the meaning of this play by their insistence on teaching it as an Aristotelian tragedy. Antony and Cleopatra is sometimes called a ‘double tragedy’. While Othello appears to fit the Aristotelian pattern because of the huge charisma of Othello at the beginning of the play Antony and Cleopatra cannot fit it in any shape or form. In tragedy the focus is on the mind and inner struggle of the protagonist. The emotional information comes to the audience from that source. In comedy the information comes from a variety of sources and the comic effect is produced by a display of many different points of view, coming at the audience from different angles. That is exactly what happens in Antony and Cleopatra , so we have something very different from a Greek tragedy. What we have is a miracle – a tragic feeling coming out of a comic structure. So what is Shakespearean tragedy? Perhaps there is no such thing. And yet we can identify a tragic feeling and even a cathartic effect in some of the plays. We must be very careful not to insist on fitting them to any pattern because that wouldn’t help us understand the plays. We must look elsewhere for our understanding of them. Moreover, all of Shakespeare’s plays have elements of both tragedy and comedy, sometimes very finely balanced, creating effects that Aristotle could never have dreamt of. List of Shakespeare’s Tragedy Plays * Antony and Cleopatra * King Lear * Macbeth * Othello * Romeo & Juliet * Titus Andronicus. Shakespeare’s Comedy Plays Early Greek comedy was in sharp contrast to the dignity and seriousness of tragedy. Aristophanes, the towering giant of comedy, used every kind of humour from the slapstick through sexual jokes to satire and literary parody. Unlike tragedy, the plots didn’t originate in traditional myth and legend, but were the product of the writer’s creative imagination. The main theme was political and social satire. Over the centuries comedy moved away from those themes to focus on family matters, notably a concentration on relationships and the complications of love. Such a universal theme was bound to survive and, indeed, it has travelled well, from Greece through Roman civilization and, with the Renaissance preoccupation with things classical, into Renaissance Europe, to England and the Elizabethans, and into the modern world of the twentieth and twenty first centuries, where we see Greek comedy alive and well in films and television. Shakespeare’s comedies (or rather the plays of Shakespeare that are usually categorised as comedies), just as in the case with he tragedies, do not fit into any slot. They are generally identifiable as the comedies of Shakespeare in that they are full of fun, irony and dazzling wordplay. They also abound in disguises and mistaken identities with very convoluted plots that are difficult to follow (try relating the plot of A Midsummer Night’s Dream to someone! ), with very contrived endings. Any attempt at describing these plays as a group can’t go beyond that superficial outline. The highly contrived endings are the clue to what these plays, all very different, are about. Take The Merchant of Venice for example – it has the love and relationship element. As usual there are two couples. One of the women is disguised as a man through most of the text – typical of Shakespearian comedy – but the other is in a very unpleasant situation – a young Jewess seduced away from her father by a shallow, rather dull young Christian. The play ends with the lovers all together, as usual, celebrating their love and the way things have turned out well for their group. That resolution has come about by completely destroying a man’s life. The Jew, Shylock is a man who has made a mistake and been forced to pay dearly for it by losing everything he values, including his religious freedom. It is almost like two plays – a comic structure with a personal tragedy imbedded in it. The ‘comedy’ is a frame to heighten the effect of the tragic elements. The Christians are selfish and shallow and cruel beyond imagination and with no conscience whatsoever. This is the use of the comic form to create something very deep and dark. Twelfth Night is similar – the humiliation of a man the in-group doesn’t like. As in The Merchant of Venice, his suffering is simply shrugged off in the highly contrived comic ending. Not one of these plays, no matter how full of life and love and laughter and joy, it may be, is without a darkness at its heart. Much Ado About Nothing , like Antony and Cleopatra (a ‘tragedy’ with a comic structure) is a miracle of creative writing. Shakespeare seamlessly joins an ancient mythological love story and a modern invented one, weaving them together into a very funny drama in which light and dark chase each other around like clouds and sunshine on a windy day, and the play threatens to fall into an abyss at any moment and emerges from that danger in a highly contrived ending once again. Like the ‘tragedies’ these plays defy categorisation. They all draw our attention to a range of human experience with all its sadness, joy, poignancy, tragedy, comedy, darkness, lightness, and its depths. Shakespeare’s Comedy Plays * All’s Well That Ends Well * The Comedy of Errors * As you Like It * Cymbeline * Love’s Labours Lost * Measure for Measure * The Merry Wives of Windsor * The Merchant of Venice * Twelfth Night * Two Gentlemen of Verona Shakespeare’s History Plays Just as Shakespeare’s ‘comedies’ have some dark themes and tragic situations while the ‘tragedies’ have some high comic moments, the Shakespeare’s ‘history’ plays contain comedy, tragedy and everything in between. All Shakespeare’s plays are dramas written for the entertainment of the public and Shakeseare’s intention in writing them was just that – to entertain. It wasn’t Shakespeare, but Shakespearian scholars, who categorised his plays into those areas of tragedy, comedy and history – as well as ‘problem‘ and ‘Roman‘. Unfortunately, our appreciation of the plays is often affected by our tendency to look at them in that limited way. Most of the plays have an historical element – the Roman plays, for example, are historical but scholars don’t refer to those Roman plays (Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus etc.) ashistory plays. The plays that we normally mean when we refer to the ‘history’ plays are the ten plays that cover English history from the twelfth to the sixteenthcenturies, and the 1399-1485 period in particular. Each play is named after, and focuses on, the reigning monarch of the period. In chronological order of setting, these are King John, Richard II, Henry IV Parts Iand II, Henry V, Henry VI Parts I, II and III, Richard III and Henry VIII, although Shakespeare didn’t write them in that order. The plays dramatise five generations of’ Medieval power struggles. For the most part they depict the Hundred Years War with France, from Henry V to Joan of Arc, and the Wars of the Roses, between York and Lancaster. We should never forget that they are works of imagination, based very loosely on historical figures. Shakespeare was a keen reader of history and was always looking for the dramatic impact of historical characters and events as he read. Today we tend to think of those historical figures in the way Shakespeare presented them. For example, we think of Richard III as an evil man, a kind of psychopath with a deformed body and a grudge against humanity. Historians can do whatever they like to set the record straight but Shakespeare’s Richard seems stuck in our culture as the real Richard III. Henry V, nee Prince Hal, is, in our minds, the perfect model of kingship after an education gained by indulgence in a misspent youth, and a perfect human being, but that is only because that’s the way Shakespeare chose to present him in the furtherance of the themes he wanted to develop and the dramatic story he wanted to tell. In fact, the popular perception of mediaval history as seen through the rulers of the period is pure Shakespeare. We have given ourselves entirely to Shakespeare’s vision. What would Bolingbroke (Henry IV) mean to us today? We would know nothing of him but because of Shakespeare’s plays he is an important, memorable and significant historical figure. The history plays are enormously appealing. Not only do they give insight into the political processes of Mediaval and Renaissance politics but they also offer a glimpse of life from the top to the very bottom of society – the royal court, the nobility, tavern life, brothels, beggars, everything. The greatest English actual and fictional hero, Henry V and the most notorious fictional bounder, Falstaff, are seen in several scenes together. Not only that, but those scenes are among the most entertaining, profound and memorable in the whole of English literature. That’s some achievement. Finally, although adding this at the end of the article and leaving it in the air, several questions are begged: what we see in the plays is not mediaval society at all, but Elizabethan and Jacobean society. Because although Shakespeare was writing ‘history’, using historical figures and events, what he was really doing was writing about the politics, entertainments and social situations of his own time. A major feature of Shakespeare’s appeal to his own generation was recognition, somethingShakespeare exploited relentlessly. List of Shakespeare’s History Plays, Henry IV Part 2,Henry V,Henry VI Part 1,Henry VI Part 2,Henry VI Part 3,Henry VIII,King John,Richard II,Richard III. 2) Tragedy; Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, Othello. King Lear Play: Overview & Resources The King Lear play is set in the BCE period, somewhere in England, usually thought of as being what is Leicestershire today. The action in the first two acts shifts among the castles of Lear, Gloucester, and those of Lear’s two daughters, Goneril and Regan. The rest of the action takes place in the frozen countryside, mainly on a blasted heath with violent weather, symbolising the state of Lear’s mind. Date written: 1603-1606 Genre classification: King Lear is regarded as a Tragedy Main characters in King Lear: King Lear is the king of pre-Christian Britain. He has three daughters – Goneril, Regan andCordelia. The Earl of Gloucester is a senior duke in Lear’s kingdom. He has two sons, Edmund, an illegitimate son and Edgar, a legitimate son. The Earl of Kent is a fiercely loyal nobleman, sticking by Lear in spite of Lear’s atrocious treatment of him. The Fool is the court jester, developed well beyond the jesters that appear in Shakespeare’s and other writers’ earlier plays. King Lear themes: This is a play about family – a thorough exploration of family relationships, particularly filial ingratitude, where the cruelty and disregard for their father by Goneril and Regan are contrasted with those of the love and loyalty of Cordelia in spite of the ruthless treatment she has experienced at her father’s hands. There is also a deep exploration oflegitimate versus illegitimate offspring. Good versus evil is presented through the evil of the two older sisters against the saintliness of the youngest. Other themes are those of old age and authority. and attitudes to those; pain, justice, and the ever present theme in Shakespeare’s plays: appearance and reality. King Lear Plot Summary The Earl of Gloucester introduces his illegitimate son, Edmund, to the Earl of Kent at court. Lear, King of Britain, enters. Now that he is old Lear has decided to abdicate, retire, and divide his kingdom between his three daughters. Each will receive a portion of the kingdom according to how much they love him. Goneril, Duchess ofAlbany, the oldest, and Regan, Duchess of Cornwall, the second, both speak eloquently and receive their portion but Cordelia, the youngest, can say nothing. Her declaration that she loves him according to a daughter’s duty to a father enrages him and she is disowned. One of Cordelia’s suitors, the Duke of Burgundy, rejects her once she is dowerless but the King of France understands her declaration and takes her as his wife, while the Earl of Kent is banished for taking Cordelia’s part against the King. The kingdom is shared between Goneril and Regan. Lear tells them that he intends to live alternately with each of them. Meanwhile, Edmund is determined to be recognised as a rightful son of Gloucester and persuades his father that his legitimate brother, Edgar, is plotting against Gloucester’s life, using a deceitful device. Edmund warns Edgar that his life is in danger. Edgar flees and disguises himself as a beggar. Goneril becomes increasingly exasperated by the behaviour of Lear’s hundred followers, who are disturbing life at Albany’s castle. Kent has returned in disguise and gains a place as a servant to Lear, supporting the King against Goneril’s ambitious servant, Oswald. Lear eventually curses Goneril and leaves to move in with Regan. Edmund acts as a messenger between the sisters and is courted by each in turn. He persuades Cornwall that Gloucester is an enemy because, through loyalty to his King, Gloucester assists Lear and his devoted companion, the Fool, when they are turned away by Regan and told to return to Goneril’s household. Despairing of his daughters and regretting his rejection of Cordelia, Lear goes out into the wilderness during a fierce storm. He goes mad. Gloucester takes them into a hut for shelter and seeks the aid of Kent to get them away to the coast, where Cordelia has landed with a French army to fight for her father against her sisters and their husbands. Edgar, pretending to be mad, has also taken refuge in the shelter and the Fool, the mad king and the beggar are companions until Edgar finds his father wandering and in pain. Gloucester has been blinded by Regan and Cornwall for his traitorous act in helping Lear. Cornwall has been killed by a servant after blinding Gloucester but Regan continues to rule with Edmund’s help. Not recognised by his father, Edgar leads him to the coast and helps him, during the journey, to come to an acceptance of his life. Gloucester meets the mad Lear on Dover beach, near Cordelia’s camp and, with Kent’s aid, Lear is rescued and re-united with Cordelia. Gloucester, although reconciled with Edgar, dies alone. The French forces are defeated by Albany’s army led by Edmund, and Lear and Cordelia are captured. Goneril has poisoned Regan in jealous rivalry for Edmund’s attention but Edgar, disguised now as a loyal knight, challenges Edmund to a duel and wounds him mortally. Seeing no way out, Goneril kills herself. The dying Edmund confesses his crimes, but it is too late to save Cordelia from the hangman. Lear’s heart breaks as he carries the body of his beloved daughter in his arms, and Albany and Edgar are left to re-organise the kingdom. Hamlet Play: Overview & Resources for Shakespeare’s Hamlet Shakespeare sets his Hamlet play in the cold, dark isolation of Elsinor a bleak, snow-covered region of Denmark. It’s the royal court of the King of Denmark. The atmosphere is established on the cold, windy battlements of the castle. Most of the action takes place in theinterior rooms and corridors of the castle and one scene is set in a nearby cemetery. Date written: 1601 Genre classification: Hamlet is regarded as one of Shakespeare’s tragedies. Main characters in Hamlet: Hamlet, the son of the recently murdered King is the heir to the throne. Hehas had the crown stolen from him by his father’s villainous brother, Claudius whom thelate king’s widow, Gertrude – Hamlet’s mother – has married. Hamlet’s father’s ghost tellshim on the battlements that Claudius murdered him. Hamlet is continuously spied on by Polonius, the garrulous Lord Chamberlain of Denmark. His eavesdropping results in his being accidentally killed by Hamlet. Ophelia is Polonius’ daughter. Led on to a possible relationship by Hamlet, then rejected, she commits suicide by drowning. Her brother, Laertesseeks revenge by plotting with Claudius to kill Hamlet. Other characters are Hamlet’s friend, Horatio, in whom he confides, Rosencranz and Guidenstern, Hamlet’s fellow university students, who spy on Hamlet for Claudius, a troupe of strolling actors and a pair of gravediggers. See a full list of characters in Hamlet. Hamlet Themes: The play falls into the genre of the Revenge Tragedy, which was very popular in the Jacobean era with its taste for violence and intrigue. Revenge is the most obvious, and one of the main, themes of the play. Although explorations of the idea of appearance and reality are present in all Shakespeare’s plays, it’s more fully developed in Hamlet, with all it’s plotting, intrigues, deceit and hypocrisy. Other themes are the question of what a human being is; death and mortality and suicide. In common with several other Shakespeare plays, there is a clear Christian parallel. Hamlet Plot Summary Prince Hamlet’s student friend, Horatio, goes to the battlements of Denmark’s Elsinore castle late at night to meet the guards. They tell him about a ghost they have seen that resembles the late king, Hamlet. It reappears and they decide to tell the prince. Hamlet’s uncle, Claudius, having become king, has now married Hamlet’s widowed mother, Gertrude. In the court, after envoys are sent to Norway, the prince is dissuaded from returning to university. Hamlet still mourns his father’s death and hearing of the ghost from Horatio he determines to see it for himself. Laertes, son of the courtier, Polonius, departs for France, warning his sister, Ophelia, against thinking too much of Hamlet’s attentions. The ghost appears to Hamlet and tells him that he was murdered by Claudius. The prince swears vengeance and his friends are sworn to secrecy as Hamlet decides to feign madness while he tests the truth of the ghost’s allegations. He rejects Ophelia, as Claudius and Polonius spy on him seeking to find a reason for his sudden strange behaviour. Guildenstern and Rosencrantz, former student friends of Hamlet, are summoned by Claudius and their arrival coincides with that of a group of travelling actors. The prince knows these players well and they rehearse together before arranging to present Hamlet’s choice of play before the king and queen, which will include scenes close to the circumstances of the old king’s death. At the performance Hamlet watches closely as Claudius is provoked into interrupting the play and storming out, resolving to send the prince away to England. Hamlet is summoned by his distressed mother and, on  the way he spares Claudius whom he sees kneeling, attempting to pray. To kill him while he is praying would send his soul to heaven rather than to the hell he deserves. Polonius hides in Gertrude’s room to listen to the conversation, but Hamlet detects movement as he upbraids his mother. He stabs the concealing tapestry and so kills the old man. The ghost reappears, warning his son not to delay revenge, nor to upset his mother. As the army of Norway’s King Fortinbras crosses Denmark to attack Poland, Hamlet is sent to England, ostensibly as an ambassador, but he discovers Claudius’s plan to have him killed. Outwitting this plot Hamlet returns alone, sending Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to their deaths in his stead. During Hamlet’s absence Ophelia goes mad as a result of her father’s death and she is drowned. Hamlet returns and meets Horatio in the graveyard. With the arrival of Ophelia’s funeral Hamlet confronts Laertes who, after attempting a revolt against Claudius, has taken his father’s place at the court. A duel is arranged between Hamlet and Laertes at which Claudius has plotted for Hamlet to die either on a poisoned rapier, or from poisoned wine. The plans go wrong and both Laertes and Hamlet are wounded, while Gertrude unwittingly drinks from the poisoned cup. Hamlet, in his death throes, kills Claudius, and Horatio is left to explain the truth to the new king, Fortinbras, who returns, victorious, from the Polish wars. Macbeth Play: Overview & Resources The main source for Shakespeare’s Macbeth play was Holinshed’s Chronicles. Holinshed in turn took the account from a Scottish history, Scotorum Historiae, written in 1527 by Hector Boece. Shakespeare, flattering James 1, referred to the king’s own books, Discovery of Witchcraft and Daemonologie, written in 1599. Some of the main ideas of Macbeth are Nature, Manhood and Light versus Dark. In Macbeth, the murder of a king by one of his subjects is seen as unnatural and the images ofthe play reflect this theme, with disruptions of nature, like storms – and events such as where the horses turn on their grooms and bite them. In Macbeth Shakespeareexplores what it is to be a man. Lady Macbeth accuses Macbeth of being unmanly because of his hesitation in killing Duncan, but Macbeth says that it’s unmanly for a man to kill his king. Shakespeare plays with that paradox. Duncan is a good king and a good man, and he is surrounded by images of light. Macbethand Lady Macbeth turn their surroundings into a picture of hell, blanketed in darkness. Those images of light and dark interact throughout the play. Traditionally, there is a curse on Macbeth. Actors and productioncrews perpetuate the superstition by avoiding using the play’s title, Macbeth, which is considered bad luck. It has to be referred to as â€Å"The Scottish Play†. Date written: 1605 Read the full Macbeth text Genre classification: Macbeth is regarded as a tragedy. Macbeth Characters: The hero, Macbeth, the Thane of Glamys and later Thane of Cawdor, murders the king, Duncan, and is elected as king in his place. Lady Macbeth, his wife, is his co-conspirator in the murder. Duncan’s sons, Malcolm and Donalblain, themselves in danger, flee. Banquo, Macbeth’s friend, is also murdered by Macbeth. Macduff, the Thane of Fife, suspects Macbeth and his whole family is massacred. Macduff is the man who finally kills Macbeth. There are three witches, who plant the idea of murdering Duncan in Macbeth’s mind, and they lead him on to his destruction. Their queen is Hecate. Other characters are the Scottlish noblemen, Lennox and Ross, and the English general, Siward and his son, Young Siward. See a full list of Macbeth characters. Themes in Macbeth: The main themes in Macbeth are ambition and guilt. Macbeth’s ‘overweening ambition leads him to kill Duncan and from then on until the end of the play he suffers unendurable guilt. Another theme is that of appearance and reality. Of all Shakespeare’s characters, Macbeth has the most difficulty in distinguishing between what is real and what is not. Macbeth Plot Summary King Duncan’s generals, Macbeth and Banquo, encounter three strange women on a bleak Scottish moorland on their way home from quelling a rebellion. The women prophesy that Macbeth will be given the title of Thane of Cawdor and then become King of Scotland, while Banquo’s heirs shall be kings. The generals want to hear more but the weird sisters disappear. Duncan creates Macbeth Thane of Cawdor in thanks for his success in the recent battles and then proposes to make a brief visit to Macbeth’s castle. Lady Macbeth receives news from her husband of the prophecy and his new title and she vows to help him become king by any means she can. Macbeth’s return is followed almost at once by Duncan’s arrival. The Macbeths plot together and later that night, while all are sleeping and after his wife has given the guards drugged wine, Macbeth kills the King and his guards. Lady Macbeth leaves the bloody daggers beside the dead king. Macduff arrives and when the murder is discovered Duncan’s sons, Malcolm and Donalbain flee, fearing for their lives, but they are nevertheless blamed for the murder. Macbeth is elected King of Scotland, but is plagued by feelings of guilt and insecurity. He arranges for Banquo and his son, Fleance to be killed, but the boy escapes the murderers. At a celebratory banquet Macbeth sees the ghost of Banquo and disconcerts the courtiers with his strange manner. Lady Macbeth tries to calm him but is rejected. Macbeth seeks out the witches and learns from them that he will be safe until Birnam Wood comes to his castle, Dunsinane. They tell him that he need fear no-one born of woman, but also that the Scottish succession will come from Banquo’s son. Macbeth embarks on a reign of terror and many, including Macduff’s family are murdered, while Macduff himself has gone to join Malcolm at the court of the English king, Edward. Malcolm and Macduff decide to lead an army against Macbeth. Macbeth feels safe in his remote castle at Dunsinane until he is told that Birnam Wood is moving towards him. The situation is that Malcolm’s army is carrying branches from the forest as camouflage for their assault on the castle. Meanwhile Lady Macbeth, paralysed with guilt, walks in her sleep and gives away her secrets to a listening doctor. She kills herself as the final battle commences. Macduff challenges Macbeth who, on learning his adversary is the child of a Ceasarian birth, realises he is doomed. Macduff triumphs and brings the head of the traitor to Malcolm who declares peace and is crowned king. Othello Play: Overview & Resources The Othello play begins in Venice where there is a wealthy, well ordered, well behaved community, controlled by strong laws and established conventions.