Strategic management, British Airways Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Strategic management, British Airways - Essay Example External market costs, such as supply chain, are also impacting profit negatively at BA. This report takes an in-depth view of the market environment in which British Airways must operate as well as a strategic analysis about how the company has positioned itself for strategic success. British Airways operates in a very difficult environment currently, with profit continuously declining both in consumer travel and in the cargo division of the business. It is currently the economic downturn being felt globally which is contributing to these profit declines. Done (2009) offers that the recession has given the business more than two years of losses, with loss expectations until at least March 2010. Much of this decline, according to the author, is due to difficult financial market trading conditions which significantly impacts the budget capability at BA. In fact, this economic recession has caused British Airways to lose a total of 17.7 percent of its passenger traffic profit just in April of 2009 (Done). Additionally, BA is also losing money due to the slip of value in the British pound. Done (2009) offers that its total operating loss was 150 million pounds, which will serve as the firm’s first operating loss in over five years. These losses have given the company a very poor credit rating which impacts the firm’s ability to procure enough working capital to make strategic changes which can have positive long-term impact, such as new construction at various international airport terminals. There is also a great deal of competition in British Airways’ passenger traffic division of the business, including Lufthansa, Ryanair, Air France, Martinair and Iberia (plus many more European airlines). Competition is one external force which appears to be consistently trying to outperform BA by offering different consumer options on board, such as

Case study2 Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Study2 - Case Study Example he teacher needs to keep active for as long as possible in order to prolong her life, and this is only easy when the teacher is allowed to engage teaching which has been her job for long. It means that the teacher really has no option than to just continue teaching even though it has been realized that her output in class with her students is declining by the day. This is also a serious matter given that the students also should not get low marks or underperform at the expense of retaining an under-performing teacher. However, as a good principal, there is the need to balance the needs such that both the students and the teacher will not have to lose. The teacher can be allowed to teach for a few hours the students be given a replacement to help them pay for the lost time. If the teacher is left to continue teaching, at least this will help her family to be able to find some ease in dealing with her health issue. As a Principal, it would be wise to find more information about such a case from the doctors who specialize in such health issues before making any decision. This will help the principal to find out more about the disease in order to make an informed decision that will be of ethical value to the teacher and not go against the interest of the students. In case the principal does not want to consult the doctor or a victim of the situation, they can still get the information related to such issues from the internet, newspapers and magazines. Through this way, the principal can know how the victims of such cases are supposed to be treated and taken care of. Instead of allowing the teacher to teach full time, there are alternatives that can be applied. She can teach for fewer hours, leaving the rest of the time for the other teacher to help the students. Alternatively, the teacher can be allowed to work in other departments such as disciplinary or counseling. This will be done after being in touch with the employers or the supervisors who will assess and

Doctor Faustus And The Lutheran Aesthetic Religion Essay

Doctor Faustus And The Lutheran Aesthetic Religion Essay (187) In Renaissance Tragedy there is always generally a concluding death-scene, the blooding ending a certainty to happen. The 16th century was a time of growing scepticism about the Christian afterlife and an urgent need for present self-realization. Finding a brave death would satisfy a lasting fame and tragedy offering comfort to a secular world. (188) Doctor Faustus is one of the tragedies of the time with such secular tendencies, the doctor rejecting the Heaven connects it to Luthers renewal of the mystery in afterlife, making death the more inscrutable in its cycles of despair and faith which is inherent in Christian experience. There is a set of formal technique stressing such affinity between the two with the plays ambivalence towards Calvinistic predestination and Faustus recurrent mood-swings as a Lutheran response to inaccessibility of death. Lutherans scepticism regards the possibility of containing philosophical speculation on afterlife in stable pieces of doctrine which for Faustus and Luther ends up in a restless ecstasy of mind. (189) The Calvinist background makes Faustus choice compelled in fear of Gods punishment and yet being unable to repent and the inevitable otherness of the deity and the predestination of human action. Faustus has studied in Wittenberg where both Luther and Calvin taught and his tragic force stems from the destruction of an individual will by the arbitrary power of the Calvinist God. (190) Presently the general view takes Faustus motivation in a balance perspective of both voluntarist and determinist readings. The actual restlessness within the play dangles between the extremes. Faustus is a sceptic; his mind proceeds by the dialectic of doubt and desire to fill the void in his understanding through new dogmatic position while he establishes a balance between competing doctrines. His dissatisfaction with stasis is hardly adequate for his agonized unrepenance in Gods face of wrath. (191) II. The opening scene shows Faustus struggling to know what it cannot. All kinds of knowledge are tossed aside as woefully unsatisfying when he rejects such systems of knowledge. He is acting on a decision he has long considered. His mood abruptly shifts on theology and its central teaching: We must die an everlasting death followed by a sudden feeling of discouragement. The inevitability of death is not banished with confidence and thats why he turns to magic. At first its only his interest in black arts which is to resolve his death anxiety allowing him to behave with cynical abandon. Yet the continuing obsession with death manifests in his talks with Mephistopheles the debates leaving him unwilling to accept the replies he is given. He tacitly admits the existence of Hell insisting to find a fixed location and final determination however to no avail. He finds Hell both present and removed, present in the existence of devils and absent in him not yet dead. (192) Faustus can apprehend but not comprehend what hes confronted with, so he resolves it using his intellectual denial. He is continually encounters Hell by devils and becomes hopeless in such endless revolution, so he decides to be rid of the awareness of hell even though escaping the thought is impossible. He breaks the cycle starting to think about a wife, an earthly object. His scepticism manifests itself in the restless struggle which is rooted in his uncertainty about the supernatural that cannot be comprehended through his earthly vantage. Its a perspective ever beyond his own and also to some extent within Christian theology from Augustine to Calvin and when the basic elements of the afterlife is beyond ones grasp, repentance becomes almost impossible. (193) III. Such was Luthers teaching: confrontation with mortality as a fundamental source of religious experience and his anxieties about death were the basis for his entire theology. According to Heidelberg we by nature love our will more than the will of God. We even hate him and Luther supposes that our nature pushes us to avoid the otherness of death, yet our relation to God demands that we embrace it. We can never be freed from what we are. We are always left wrestling with our imagination. Luthers scepticism about coherence of human perspective is confusing and his belief in God seems dubious. (194) Generally the basis for the ideas of inwardness, plainness, and self-sufficiency are associated with Protestant thought. (195) Eucharist to him is real bread and real wine, where Christs flesh and blood are present while the formers remain still present. He insisted on the real presence of the Godhead as the meeting of two different perspectives: the object of faith, and faith in itself. The first is outside the heart, presented to our eyes, in the blood and wine; and the second in internal not externalized. (196) Luthers theology perceives an epistemological than an ontological difference between the earthly and the divine arguing that the single substance of the Eucharist is at once Christ and bread. The communion is therefore uncertain and destabilising and Luthers ecstasy cannot last permanently for the claim of an unencountered future. To him too much faith is the sign of sinful pride, a comfort which terrifies conscience and the despairing rejection of the divine will struggling with renewed efforts at faith. (197) Eucharist produces a state of incomplete satisfaction as an endless struggle to resolve a feeling of double vision, a mode of representation generating a specific psychological condition. In Luther, it is said that even in our destruction God is present with us, and in our death Christ our King liveth. (198) Luther speaking about death comes to life and comments on the horror of being trampled by death, the cycle of hope and despair Faustus is caught in. His views were not accepted by the Calvinist and the Anglican Church, yet his views on death were circulating in England. (199) Marlowe spent 3 years studying Protestant theology at Cambridge, and Faustus struggled with this uncertainty. His supernatural perspectives generate an awareness of a denied satisfaction attempting to deny the existence of this greater perspective. His final soliloquy is in the same dialectic pattern longing for the perpetual day and meanwhile his soul to be dissolved in elements, desiring to make the afterlife and extension of his earthly perspective and also escaping it entirely. There are baffling reasons for Faustus to keep to his pact. He asks for a description of hell while the answer he receives is dissatisfying. So he shifts the subject to having a wife substituting his questions with a feminized spirit. Mephistopheles explanation of astrology is freshmens supposition and the book of spells seem incomplete to him and he takes a tour to Rome instead of Hell. (200) Faustus denied satisfactions for his earthly boundaries are offered to him through Lutheran readings. Anyhow he knows that everlasting death awaits him and is confronted with the unchangeability of death and thus starts his pattern of avoidance the fact. The pact promises escape from this helpless awareness offering mortality by forging his damnation. Faustus abolishes the perspective existing beyond his own turning godly power to his own or rendering God irrelevant by determining his exact condition of death. In misery loves company Faustus pays more attention to company than misery feeling tormented by his condition. (201) Misery is nothing new to him, but he seeks company and the fellowship with the devil bridges the gap in awareness with which he is burdened. But he sees that the view beyond his is not different than his own vantage-point for devils condition is available to those humans who are in hell. No matter what the perspective the result would be an escape from the feeling of being caught on one side of the double perspective. Faustus is ironically caught in his own perspective for what the devil shows him is the re-exposition of his own view and there is no frame to validate the demons responses. So he keeps twisted back and forth between doubt and certainty with sudden cry of terror without being afraid of dying. (202) He has incessant change of voice referring to himself in first person and his meditations are dialogic dramatized in actual shifts of voice between confidence and doubt. V. Sense of doubleness finally takes Faustus to the extreme of avoidance distracting his mind from revolutions to magical tricks played on the Pope, a pompous knight, and a horse-dealer. These pranks show the adolescent turns in the doctor. (203) His serious and satiric behaviours are both other attempts at avoidance. Unable to get satisfied intellectually he is reduced to practicing magic and mindless games to escape the revolutions of his thoughts. He feels trapped in the double perspective and thus tries to leave it off asking for a wife. Hell is characterized to him as a place for permanent dispute while he is aware of the limits of his understanding and thats why he turns back to earthly diversions to find peace in earthly companionship which is doomed all the same. (204) Bell, Book, and Candle as a parody of Catholicism is also one of Faustus own condition of being caught in endless loop of his thoughts. His interactions with the devils re-enacts the pattern of avoidance that Luther call the fundamental condition of mortality. The pact is an emblem of human state either coming from studies of divinity or concourse with devils. We are left with the knowledge that there exist a knowledge beyond our own, and the more we struggle to establish a satisfactory relation, the more avoid the inevitable limits of our human condition. Thats why Faustus never abandons his pact: to rid himself of it would be meaningless unless freed from humanity. VI. Faustus needs to see past his humanness to find peace of mind always in the beyond. (205) Marlowe fuses two distinct methods of representation, psychological depictions of hell and human suffering, and painted devils making threats of physical torture. Renaissance concern for subtleties of human experiences juxtaposed with medieval emphasis on the stratified order of values. This is an intentional parody which is less sophisticated than Faustus agonized description of his mental strife. At the end of Act II, Lucifer tries to quiet Faustus metaphysical doubts providing Seven Deadly Sins. Faustus finds something satisfying in this allegory of hell more than the psychological description of hell. (206) Luther was traditionally an opponent of allegory believing that the true meaning of the scripture was lying in its literal sense, and his rejection was help both by the Catholic Church and Reform Protestants. The question regards the betterment of one particular allegory to another. Luther lashed out the Catholic church for ignoring the grammatical sense of the Eucharist. (207) Luther insisted upon the literal sense. For him there was never real distinction between the word of God and its earthly sign, they are simply two different ways of looking at the same thing. There is no way of moving from sign to signified and the dual function of the sign is to bring the observer into the real presence of God while at the same time manifesting the infinite gulf of perception that exists between God and mankind. Faustus need to escape unknowing is answered by hell depicted as the collection of earthly forms, knowing that afterlife can be understood in earthly terms and momentarily relieving him from the doubleness. But according to Luther such moments of forced resolution are not truly satisfying. Although Faustus turns to allegory, he remains aware that it doesnt actually bridge the gap. In the allegorical pageant, the certainty quickly turns to doubt, an inscrutability not dislodging his desire to know. The clarity of understanding is quickly rejected as bei ng naive and Faustus struggle leads him to an isolating despair, the cycle of faith and doubt, alternating between allegorical clarity and psychological complexity never to resolve. We are not even sure in the end the doctor will be back with another performance. VII. Dryden suggested that death can sometimes be the stuff of comedy, yet remaining a source of tragic experience all the same. (209) In Faustus there is a sense of doubt and anxiety on death as an incomprehensible phenomenon that logic is not able to soothe. Faustus struggles endlessly against his unknowing, the struggle which indicates nothing but the incompleteness that makes human existence tragic. Theology of Marlowes The Jew of Malta (214) After Faustus, this play is the most ironic one of his works. Jewishness is seen as a moral condition, and Jewish choice was the rejection of Christ, rejecting the treasure in Heaven for the one on the earth. Jesus tells the Jews you are of your father the Devil introducing them as the Antichrist. (215) Yet, the modern anti-Semitism of today cannot be applied to the times of Elizabeth and the image of the Jew at the time was more of a theological necessity than a living person based on his historical image in the Old Testament. According to Medieval law, sexual relations between a Christian and a Jew were met with the penalty of death by fire. The reason is taken as the denial of Christianity rather than racial issues. Shakespeares Shylock and Marlowes Barabas were more of a Medieval image as a word of general abuse bequeathed to the renaissance. Elizabethan England was a country bare of racial Jews and the whole frame rejected racial thinking. (216) The Anglican service was praying for all Jews, Turks, Infidels, and Heretics. According to Hunter, the Jew who falls into the cauldron is the very one in the first Act with no reduction of the authors sympathetic identification with plenty of ironic counter-currents. The structure of the concepts in the play are theological not racial, and the name as a type was fixed unless he ceased to be a Jew. In the beginning Barabas congratulates himself on his Jewish prosperity and Abrams happiness. Yet this is not so in Christianity and Abraham and other old patriarchs of the Old Testament cannot belong to the Jewish one and Jewish invocation of them is merely subversive and alien. There have been numerous treatises trying to remove the Old Testament from the Jews. (217) According to Luther the Jews application of Abrahams blessings are only carnal injuring the Scripture. They may be the children after the flesh, but Christians are the children of the promise, as Isaac was, of grace and faith. Barabas later on does such self-congratulation when he leads Don Lodowick to his doom. (218) It was believed that the promise was the very thing the Gentiles were given. So Barabas self-congratulation seems as the same original choice and his orthodoxy in saying the blessings promised to the Jews is no less that Faustus joy in the paradise of the Seven Deadly Sins. An ironic contrast is made between the figure of Barabas and Job Marlowe citing from the Geneva version of the actual book of Job. (219) The reference to him is central to the whole conception of Barabas. He is an Anti-Job characterized by his choice of revenge and impatience. This way he is also an Antichrist for Job was the greatest of the types of Christ found in the Old Testament, his descent into poverty mirroring Christs into flesh. Barabas career is a parody to Jobs, both beginning in prosperity and then losing their possessions both accused of justifying their deeds, both restoring their prosperity. Their frame of mind is different though. Barabas self-justification is from monstrous egotism and Jobs is out of awareness that God is unanswerably just. Yet the latters voice acquire in the mouth of a revenger the pattern of all patience. The effort of Christian appropriation of Job was to distinguish between the action of a man whose vision of the world was coloured by the awareness of the Redeemer living and the superficially similar action of the man whose vision was limited to this world. (220) Jewish observances are justifications of the mere flesh for their Religion represented earthly wealth, dignity, and prosperity as highly valuable. Barabas is a Jewish Job and the loss of his wealth is a physical disaster, not a spiritual trial. The parody of Jobs spiritual Odyssey and Barabas view to treasure are different from what is recommended in Christianity. Barabas cannot serve both God and riches and the actions the Job denies are those in which Barabas rejoices as an Anti-Job. (221) Judas in Herberts represents such Jewish choice preferring thirty pieces of silver to serving his Lord delighting in avarice. The Jewish usurer was a known contemporary figure in Marlowes days even if absent from England and his wealth represented a kind of spiritual hunger for the infinite. The line of infinite riches in a little room contains in itself the material by which we distance and judge Barabas passion for treasure. In Miss Helen Gardners line also there is the notion of Immensity cloistered in thy dear wombe. (222) There is similarity between the two; Marlowes line draws the persistent image of Christ in the Virgins womb and (223) Such wordings are repeatedly mentioned yet in different words from one text to another. In one same tradition the image expresses the paradox of infinitude in little space stretching before and after Marlowe. In another one Christs power is represented as infinite richness. The Virgins womb is litel space and yet also infinitely rich in monetary sense. The comparison of Christ to jewels, gold, and silver are obviously shown in varied texts. (224) There is a natural transition of Wisdom to the Virgin where she is infinitely rich by possessing Christ, her womb functioning as a purse, mint, or an alms-box. The money is coined in the image of God, being defaced in the womb of the Virgin, the vessel enjoying humility. (225) Thus the double paradox of Marlowes line is already present in a religious tradition, Christianity being opposed to the flesh. The treasure/Christ is there for the use of others and again the contrast between the sterile treasure hoarded by man and the liberal treasure disbursed by God is shown: to ransome great kings from captivity (64-67). But the only king Barabas ransoms is himself while his house is captured and converted into a nunnery, Abigail entering it as a novice to dig up the treasure hidden. The contrasting values are played off: the fruits of the spirit and those of commerce, one against the other. The pun on benefit in the Aside (574-76) is interpreted as benefit to mean: as muchas Hope is hid (577). (226) When Barabs teases the Governors son to his death he talks of the nuns and friars as still doing it reape some fruit; in fulnesse of perfection (833-48). The variety of innuendos suggest the lechery of the nuns and friars with the fruit of bastardy playing on the idea of profit, spiritual, and financial. The austere life of Abigail leads to profit, by repaying the debt to God for her sinful past. Behind is the theory of monastic deprivation to appease Gods wrath by giving vicarious satisfaction. The nunnery in Barabas house is still a place of profit and Marlowes play on thesaurus is justified by the monetary and financial imagery of the churchs power. (227) The vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience which the nuns have taken are works of supererogation (duty done more than expected) and the profit they produce is part of Marlowes treasure though not the kind Barabas is interested in. The doctrine of a surplusage of merits is what lies behind the practice of selling Indulgences specifically talked about in thirty-nine articles as abhorrent to the Anglican Church, one of the most noxious (poisonous) of Roman belief. The final twist of the ironic point is in Barabas instruction to his daughter (585-98). (228) The resurrection is not a spiritual one; the profit is judged after the flesh. In (663-69) there is no wooden enactment of predetermined attitude, but a continuous fluctuation of sympathy backwards and forwards round the figure of Barabas while his religious status is never in doubt who fatally mistakes the nature of value functioning as the medieval emissaries of Hell, taking us with him in his scorn of the other characters in the play. The Jew is admired in a way different from Faustus. He is place among Christians with the profession of policy, nuns of dubious chastity, and friars with timid carnality; the Christianity itself is not attacked and neither is Jewishness approved. In Marlowes time Malta was being menaced by Turkish attacks, and such struggle was not between nations, but between faiths, God and the devil. Such prayers were commonly said in England in 1565. (229) Marlowe was referring to cut and dried moral issues by choosing Malta as the setting of his play. The Knights of Malta were no ordinary soldiers, but monastic ones vowed to poverty, chastity, and obedience. He chose his men to raise expectations of rectitude while his view of man was that of a fallen condition. The Christians are shown in a variety of cynical variations and inversions and the idealistic rhetoric of honour and piety is only a window-dressing with the reality of greed that the wind that bloweth all the world besides, / Desire of gold (1422). The international relations are based on money or illusion and Malta buys its peace from the Turks while the occation of the Turks coming to the island is to sell Grecians, Turks, and Africk Moores. The only tangible sign of honour in Del Boscos words is: Ile write unto his Majesty for ayd, (745) which is never materialized and finally scoffed at by Calymath. (230)Everyone has its price and Barabas presumes that it is a trade to purchase townes / By treachery, sellem by deceit (2330). The difference between a monarch and a thief is only a matter of degrees. Such a world is devoted to greed and Barabas in his self-interest is perfectly adapted to his environment while still standing aside others. Their conflict is a tiresome interruption in the real life of profit-making so that they would spare me, my daughter, and my wealth (189-92). At a personal he is in conflict with Christians and thus makes a common cause with Ithamore as an individual Turk: both villaines, / Both circumcised, we both hate Christians (978-80). His hatred to Christians is merely a reduplication of the Turkish hostility. In Act V it is more profitable to sell the Turks than the Christians for the latter is currently living the Authority (2139-41). The Turks and Christians both are inconsistent in their self-interest; but Barabas allows neither race, blood, faith, nor grandeur stand in his consistent monomania. (231) He is free from idealism or dependence upon others and the degree of admiration and sympathy shown in borne to better chance, / And framd of finer mold then common men (452) is a counterpoint over religious condemnation. The fate of Malta is a mere transaction but does not obliterate the importance of the orthodox view, that self-interest is self-destroying, and Barabas lines are a rhetorical progression of ever-narrowing range (189-192). The lines show a preference for private security in a Jewish alien. But there is not a whole progression where the daughter first is assimilated to gold and later is destroyed. Abigail is fraught with ironic overtones. In the Helen speech of Faustus the image of Semele as here Agamemnon was responsible for the sacrifice of Iphigeneia. (232) Barabas looks to the future in terms of gold (the barren breed of metal) (701-4) and the purchase of Ithamore in the slave-market is set against the sale of diamond Abigail to Lodowick (899) with cross-reference to real finance (983-1011). Abigail is both seen as gold and human investment and is drawn from circulation when necessary substituted by Ithamore. (1312-1344). (233) The trinity of me, my daughter, and my wealth is reduced to me and my wealth. Ithamore is also a tool and the descent from Abigail to Ithamore is through the ever-diminishing circles of personal freedom into depths of pettier criminality where the cut-purse and courtesan natural inhabitants. Such structure of decline takes place in Faustus, too. Both heroes begin with splendid assertions of individual will and in Act II and IV are carried to low-life clowning and frustrations. Yet Faustus ends splendidly while the Jews fate is not redeemed by a denouement and his psychological conditions are not discussed. Barabas temporarily defeats his enemies by pretending to die. Yet the Antichrist is not easily excluded. He returns through the towns sewers as a coup de theatre (a sudden event), a reminder of medieval pageants inheriting moral as well as physical structures, with the Heaven high up and the Hell underneath in the pit or the cauldron. (234) On such occasions as those of Barabas the cauldron could represent the traditional image of hell which was derived from the final chapters of Job where Behemoth and Leviathan both were pictured in details as hell-mouth of fearful monsters., a boiling cauldron was imagined in the open jaws of the monster. (235) Sometimes the cauldron represents hell itself, and sometimes it is a part of the setting. Definitely in Barabas end there are inevitable moral concerns with the final victory of Christians in Malta. Yet, Marlowe avoids the collateral Second Coming of Christ and the survival of the Christians has no moral justification. In fact Marlowe has damned the Jew as a means of tormenting and exposing those who pride themselves on their Christianity. The arguments of the Governor are like those of Peter the Venerable urging the Jews to be forced to contribute to the cost of the Second Crusade. (236) At the time all wars against the Turkish infidels were seen as Crusades and the situation of Malta was the extension of the one that Peter Venerable was writing about. Marlowe implies that Barabas is against the Christ, yet his trial is conducted by figures that approximate to Pilate and Chief Priest (331). Profession in the play means religious faith. (237) Barabas makes the Christian point that righteousness is not a tribal or racial possession, but an individual covenant (346-350). Therefore he has the right to live and prosper in this world and in terms of the Old Testament he seems to be justified. His extension of legal status in Malta to a religiously legality under the terms of the Jewish law, yet, does not fit in, with his claim to a personal covenant. (238) The righteousness in Barabas speech is a distinct and antithetical concept to that of the New Testament and a Christian audience is expected to reject Barabas defence. In (351-355) profession means Jewish faith and for the Jew to claim individual covenant is a contradiction in terms. Barabas as the figure of Job attempts at futile self-justification and as an Anti-Job figure resorts to Machiavellian cunning (507). The last two line of the Governor (356) show that more than doctrinal correctness is involved. (239) Marlowe in saying all they that love not Tobacco and Boie were fooles? And to what? Such a statement is effective because of its power to upset our preconception, but it does not lead to anywhere. Marlowe identified himself with the rebels: Tamburlaine, Barabas, Faustus, and Edward II, but that such identification blinded him to the immutable laws of God, society is improbable. His Cambridge background and social contacts suggest his contact with Calvinism and the strongest emotional effects in the writings of the reformers usually come from their sense of Gods infinite transcendence, and mans infinite debasement (Tamburlaine, 2893-2911). The speaker is passionately involvement with the idea of Gods purity and transcendence and the betrayal of that purity in human nature. (240) He knew what it was like to worship transcendence, the power, and beauty beyond human comprehension. He was a God-haunted atheist being simultaneously fascinated and horrified by the self-sufficiency of the fallen world. We come to prefer the Jewish profession of Barabas to the hypocrisy of the Christians with Marlowe belabouring the Christians. The world of Marlowe is completely a fallen one and so is the world of Calvin. The Spirit and the Letter: Marlowes Tamburlaine and Elizabethan Religious Radicalism (125) Having conquered Babylon and outside the ruins of the city Tamburlaine asks about the Islamic holy books: Now CasaneThey shal be burnt (2 Tam. 5.1.173-76). He realized the futility of respecting anything but his own divinity. He taunts Mahomet in (2 Tam. 5.1.180-81) and identifies himself as the scourge of another higher God. (126) To him Spirit is bound by nothing unlike Mahomet whose sum of religion rests in the Koran (2 Tam. 5.1.191). He disdains religion codified in books and the letter of the law means nothing for he possesses a divine spirit throwing off his shepherds weeds to reveal the armour beneath persuading everyone he is not of flesh and blood subject to laws. Marlowe comments on issues of gnosis and inner enlightenment and the conflict between the spirit and the letter. Here the Koran is substituted for the Christian Scriptures and he is addressing Christian theology in transferring the defiant gesture to the distant world of Islam. In Tamburlaine the possession of a spiritual gnosis leads to a disregard for all laws where others are governed bodily by it. At the time the issues of election and predestination were hotly debated and there were an increasing number of people seeking unmediated contact with God from religious authorities or doctrinal codes. Marlowes plays are a part of a larger cultural exploration of the significance of individual religious inspiration and the consequences of such inspiration for the body politic. (127) Marlowes plays indicate a sceptical attitude towards Gnostic transcendence. He offers a critical portrait of spiritual confidence gone mad and facilitates us with the perception of tensions in English Reformation thought. II. There is a Gnostic subtext in Marlowes plays as well as the presentation of anti-materialism. (128) As the opponents of the Gnostics, the early Church Fathers intended their work as a cautious displaying of heresy focusing their attention excessive, outlandish belief and practices. Gnosticism is a negative religio-philosophical movement escaping from the tragic farce of material existence, loathing the body and material register as a central feature like many ancient philosophies. But in Neoplatonic circles, the theory of divine emanations proclaimed earthly things to bear the reflection of the divine. In Gnostic thought the material world is not even the creation of the true God; rather its the work of an inferior god, himself the result of an error in the divine realm. (129) The one, unknowable God causes distinct divine beings to appear, each representing one of his attribute. The materials of creation stem from a tragic sense of loss, abandonment, and perplexity. For the Gnostics the creation of the world is a tragedy. Nothing valuable inheres in the qualities and characters of materiality. To exist on earth signifies the depth of ones removal from the perfection and tranquillity of the divine. The Gnostics can overcome the overwhelming alienation of life on earth through the attainment of gnosis, the recognition of ones true origin the essence of gnosis is knowing that the ones true self is divine and body and the world are impediments to ones transcendental ascent. (130) Gnostic thinkers believe that only a few individuals possess the pieces of divinity. People are divided into three categories: pneumatics (spirituals), psychics, and hylics, ones status being pr

Free College Essays - The Role Model in Huckleberry Finn :: Adventures Huckleberry Huck Finn Essays

Huckleberry Finn: His Role Model Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is written from the view point of the boy Huckleberry Finn. He tells about the adventures he is having on the Mississippi River with a runaway slave, whose name is Jim. It becomes apparent early in the book that there are a couple of people who play major roles in Huck's life. One is Jim and the other is Tom Sawyer, the person Huck wishes he could be like. Tom Sawyer is a leader to Huck from the very beginning of the book, when Huck is living with the Widow Douglas. She is raising Huck because his father is a drunk and is not in the area. Huck is doing fine living with the Widow Douglas for awhile, but he soon tires of her way of life. Huck does not like having to stay clean all the time and having to wear neat clothes. He also doesn't appreciate her attempting to civilize him, so he puts on his old rags and leaves. Tom Sawyer is the one who is able to convince Huck to come back to the widow and "be respectable" (p. 1). Huck wants to be a part of Tom's gang, so he agrees to go back. It takes a certain type of person to make Huck willing to go home because it is a lifestyle he really doesn't like. Tom has that kind of control over Huck's decisions. Another reason that Huck looks up to Tom as a role model is that Huck feels Tom is more intelligent than himself. Huck is amazed by how brilliant Tom is. "What a head for just a boy to have! If I had Tom Sawyer's head I wouldn't trade it off to be a duke, nor mate of a steamboat, nor clown in a circus, nor nothing I can think of" (p. 236). It isn't simply that Tom is smarter. It is that Tom often makes Huck feel he isn't as smart. One example is when the two boys are trying to free Jim. Huck doesn't understand why they have to do things the hard way. That is when Tom says, "Oh, shucks, Huck Finn, if I was as ignorant as you I'd keep still" (p. 243). Tom also says, "Why, hain't you ever read any books at all?" (p. 242). It is true that Tom has more schooling than Huck, and this also plays a role into Huck's belief that Tom is smarter.

My Work

GCSE English Language Unit 3: Controlled Assessment Spoken Language Study Name:__________________ Teacher:_________________ Spoken Language Study 10% of final English Language grade Controlled Assessment January 9 hours of lessons; 3 hours of controlled assessment writing Assessment Objectives: 1. Understand variations in spoken language, explaining why language changes in relation to contexts 2. Evaluate the impact of spoken language choices in their own and others’ use Lesson 1: Spoken v Written Lesson 2: Contextual Factors and Social AttitudesKey Words related to Speech Match the word to the correct definition. 1. Standard EnglishA The way you speak, depending on context and audience 2. Received PronunciationB Form of grammar and vocabulary accepted as the national norm 3. AccentC The grammar and vocabulary of a particular region. 4. DialectD The way someone pronounces individual words in a geographical region 5 Repertoire E A person’s individual style of speaking 6. IdiolectF The accent of Standard English, often seen as the proper way of speaking. 7.Sociolect G The way you speak, depending on your particular social group 8. Contextual Factors H Factors that influence the way you speak, eg gender, etc |1 |2 |3 |4 |5 |6 |7 |8 | | | | | | | | | | Homework: Idiolect Study Read Michael Rosen’s account of his idiolect.Write your own account of influences on the way you talk. Write a paragraph on each of the following: 1. How would you describe the way you speak? 2. What do you think the way you speak tells other people think about you? 3. Explain how you change your speech in different situations(e. g. talking to teacher, talking to family, asking questions in a shop, etc. ) 4. Have you ever been embarrassed or ashamed about the way you speak? Why? Why not? Extension: Try to use key words in your response Lesson 3: Non-Fluency Features and TranscriptsRead this transcript and complete your allocated feature in the following table |Non-Fluency Feature |Example |Effect/Reason this occurs | |repetition (of the same word) | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |back-tracking (repeating the same idea in| | | |different words) | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |fillers (sort of, y’know, em) | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |longer pauses | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |minor sentences (incomplete sentences) | | | | | | | | | | | |contractions | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |slang | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Commenting on Effect or Reason for a Non-Fluency Feature occurring: – Thinking about an appropriate word or way to phrase something – Recalling a distant memory – Nervousness – Reflecting on feelings at that point – Any others? Commenting on how Contextual Factors affect Speech: |Place/setting |Where does the conversation/speech take place? | |Is it a formal or informal environment? | | |How might the speech be different if the setting changed? | |Age |How old are the participants? | | |Is there a difference in age? | | |How might the language choice be different if the ages changed? | |Audience |Who is the speech aimed at? | | |Is this a formal or informal audience? | | |How might the language choices be different if the audience changed? | |Gender |Is it a single gender or mixed gender conversation? | |How might the language choices be different if the genders changed? | |Formality |Is it formal or informal? | | |Is it spontaneous or scripted speech? | | |How might the language be different if the formality changed? | |Purpose |Why is this person speaking? | | |How might the language change if the purpose changes? | |Previous events |What happened before this speech? | | |How does it influence what the speaker includes? | | |How might it be different if we didn’t know what happened before? |Technology |Is the speak er using technology ? | | |Is there technology present, eg video, camera, microphone? | | |Does the speaker speak differently because of the presence of technology? | Lesson 4: Non-Fluency Features and Context PEE Paragraphs on Contextual Factors: 1. Does it clearly state what the contextual factor is? 2. Does it include examples from the transcript to support this? 3. Does it contain an explanation of how the examples show deliberate choice of language? Lesson 5: Conversational Features [pic] Use the glossary below to help you answer the questions about the transcript. 1.Find an adjacency pair in the transcript. Copy it into your book and explain what kind of adjacency pair it is. 2. Find an example of a participant attempting a topic change. Can you explain what they are trying to do? 3. Find an overlap in the conversation. Explain whether you think it is a cooperative or an uncooperative overlap. 4. Find an example of a participant making a false start. Try to explain why the spe aker re-starts his utterance. Glossary Adjacency pair – two speech turns made by different speakers one following the other. In an adjacency pair, the first part requires a particular kind of second part (e. g. question/answer, summons/response, invitation/response).Back-channelling – sounds and words listeners make to encourage the speaker and show they are listening; they range in the amount of interest they suggest: â€Å"Hmm, yes, absolutely†, â€Å"I see†, â€Å"Excellent†. False start – when a speaker begins an utterance and then re-starts. Filler – sounds which fill up pauses in speech, such as ‘er’, ‘um’ etc. perhaps to create thinking time and prevent interruption. Interruption – when an utterance interferes with the flow of the conversation. It might suggest aspects of power. Overlap – a kind of interruption. But overlap can be co-operative and helpful, or uncooperative and an attempt to â€Å"take the floor†, i. e. to take a turn. Para-linguistic features – non-vocal facial and body movements use when talking, i. e. body language.Prosody / prosodic features – the sound features of talk, such as intonation, rhythm, pitch, speed. Repair – the moves people make to correct what they think is a mistake (one they’ve made themselves or that the other person makes) Stylised speech – speech is natural; dialogue used in radio or TV plays is stylised speech. Topic change – refers to points in a conversation where one of the participants clearly changes the subject, usually for a reason, and so alters the direction of the conversation. Turn-taking system – the system that governs conversation. Silences or continuous overlaps interfere with the turn-taking system. Turn-taking is about speakers co-operating to carry the conversation forward.Utterance – the words that are spoken. Extension: Write an analysis of the conversation, answering the question: How cooperative are the participants in the transcript? Lesson 6: Conversational PEE Language in the Workplace: The Orthodontist’s Surgery |1 |Orthodontist: |I want you to pop these on for me (1) that's it (2) and (1) you have got a problem in | | | |the lower is it a problem in the lower left | | |Patient: |yeah | | |Orthodontist: |so (inaudible) up the chair (2. ) [laughter] it's got a mind of its own this chair | |5 | |ugh | | |Patient: |it's got a mind of its own this chair it just seems to do what it wants right so | | |Orthodontist: |(inaudible) (15) [ongoing activity and no talk] can I have a lace-back please (9) did | | | |your teeth hurt quite a lot after | |10 | |ugh ugh em pardon | | |Patient: |did your teeth ache a lot after your visit here last time | | |Orthodontist: |yeah | | |Patient: |yeah (3. 0) they have started to settle Ok now yeah | | |Orthodontist: |yeah I can feel the teeth moving around | |15 |Patient: |yeah t hey're definitely moving (32) [ongoing activity] wha what's happened is that um | | |Orthodontist: |you're still chewing where your tooth used to be ok and now you're straight into? | | | |(inaudible) flexible wire so this is quite a common problem um I've just put an extra | | | |support wire in it hasn't upset your treatment progress or anything like that so it's | | | |more of an irritation for you (1. um that should be you sorted out (4) and I'm | |20 | |thinking in anticipation of that happening on the other side we'll do the same thing | | | |could we have another lace-back [technician passes lace-back] | | | |agh | | | |is that one sore | | | |yeah | |25 |Patient: |sorry | | |Orthodontist: |no don't worry | | |Patient: |(2) still got some achy teeth | | |Orthodontist: |mm | | |Patient: |right | |30 |Orthodontist: |is that something that | | |Patient: |oh yeah | | |Orthodontist: |that happens in the beginning they shift around | | |Parent: |it actually works er like that all the way through treatment that you can have weeks | | |Orthodontist: |and weeks of not of not having any discomfort at all | |35 |Parent: |Mmm | | |Orthodontist: |then all of a sudden one tooth will um will give you grief for a few days 2) [patient| | | |in pain] I'll try and be as gentle as I can (14) [ongoing activity] Ok then | | |Parent: |yeah | | |Orthodontist: |ooh [sound of compressed air escaping] excuse me | |40 | |sorry [short laugh] | | | |um a couple of silver (inaudible) (22) [ongoing activity] | | |Patient: | | | |Orthodontist: | | | |Technician: | | |45 |Orthodontist: | |Lesson 7: Developing Ideas Analysing Spoken Language: Key Area Question Frame Social attitudes to different spoken language What attitudes do people have about this workplace/occupation? How may they expect to be treated (as an audience, in some cases)? What kind of language may they expect to hear (or use)? How context influences choice of spoken language What are the contextual factors here? How d o the situation(s) or contextual factors affect the speakers' word choices or fluency? Key features found in speech and/or dialogue What level of formality is conveyed by the speaker(s)? Why? What features of non-fluency are present? If none, why is this?What features of idiolect, sociolect, dialect or accent are present? Is it a cooperative or uncooperative conversation? Do you think the conversation is a typical or abnormal example of a conversation in this type of workplace? Why/Why not? How does each person speak in the conversation? Analyse the turn-taking. Why do the participants speak like this in this situation? Homework: TV Chef Research Watch some videos on TV chefs on the internet and write down the names of the chefs you viewed clips of, in the table. Then complete the table. Make sure to make a note of names of the video clips you refer to, for later reference. Some specific chefs to look out for: Delia Smith |Rick Stein |Angela Hartnett | |Jamie Oliver |Keith Floyd |R ichard Corrigan | |Nigella Lawson |James Martin |Paul Rankin | |Antony Worral-Thompson |Marco Pierre-White |Gino d'Acampo | |Gordon Ramsay |Sanjeev Kapoor |John Burton-Race | |Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall |Heston Blumenthal |Marcus Wareing | Homework Extension: Are there as many TV chefs in the US and other countries as there are in the UK? Are they similar or different to the UK chefs? Lesson 8: Planning 1 Issues to consider: †¢ Age, gender, social class †¢ Body language †¢ Relationship to camera †¢ Address to viewer †¢ Formal or informal? †¢ Specialist or non-specialist? †¢ Kinds of words †¢ Purpose & audience †¢ Setting †¢ Context †¢ Ingredients & equipment †¢ Speed of action & editing Chef 3: | | | | | |Chef 2: | | | | | |Chef 1: | | | | | |Question |SOCIAL ATTITUDES: |CONTEXTUAL FACTORS: |SPEECH: |DIALOGUE: | | |How do the public |How typical is this |Write down some features of the way he/she |Write down some features of the way he/she talks | | |view this chef? |talk of the way TV |talks . Focus on non-fluency features. Are |in conversation. Focus on conversational | | |Why? |chefs talk? What |these deliberate? |features. | | | |factors affect the way | | | | | |they talk? | | | | | | | | | ———————– SAMPLE PEE PARAGRAPH

The Team Leader Assembly Department

This evaluation will focus on the job of team leader assembler for the can manufacturing firm. The major components, tasks and responsibilities required for this position include: good manual dexterity, the ability to assemble components, the ability to stand for extended periods of time, ability to operate various plant equipment including conveyers and counting machines, good manual dexterity, attention to detail, ability to engage in repetitive motions. Independent judgment is required to inspect components and visual acuity is necessary to ensure that only the best quality products are passed through the assembly line. The team leader of the assembly unit is also responsible for coordinating communication and working relations with all team members. The team leader is also responsible for ensuring the safety of all members of the team, for tracking time cards, for ensuring that all team members are cross-trained in job functions and to ensure that productivity goals are met in a timely fashion. Basic job description includes assembling and performing all steps vital to product production in accordance with specifications for product design. This position can cultivate a sense of intrinsic motivation by allowing the team leader a certain level of autonomy while supervising the work functions of other responsibilities. Team leaders are also responsible for scheduling employees, addressing minor disputes among employees and for the quality of work produced by their team. For many the ability to lead and represent a unit of employees is in an of itself enough to encourage intrinsic motivation, depending on what factors motivate the individual team leader. The team leader position also offers more financial incentives than other positions, which contributes to motivating the employee in this role. Company wide rewards offered all employees include a comprehensive profit sharing plan that allows all employees to enjoy the rewards the company reaps when the company is doing well. This type of award however, many not prove as motivating for a team leader, as profit sharing awards generally appeal to higher ups in the company who have more capital to invest and are often afforded more profit sharing opportunities within the company (Greider, Logue & Yates, 2001). Management for example, often enjoys many of the benefits associated with profit sharing in the company. Real employee ownership may come in other forms including allowing employees to participate in important decision-making processes within the organization (Greider, Logue & Yates, 2001; Schneier & Shaw, 1995). Praise recognition does exist within the company, and is currently part of the performance review system. The current performance review system is provided employees once per annum to provide employees a critique of their performance during the year. The team leader clearly would receive much praise and encouragement for meeting the goals and expectations outlined by his or her supervisor and for ensuring that his or her team succeeds during the year. The performance appraisal system currently reflects the accomplishments and achievements of the individual team leader, rather than reflect on the accomplishments of the team unit however. This may provide some level of motivation for the team leader, but ultimately does not provide as comprehensive a review as might a group performance review that reflects on the achievements of the team. Such a review might provide the team leader with more insight into how their actions affect the success and ability of the team, and the team's contributions to the company as a whole. It might also serve to improve communication more among team members. Goals are used in the company for this position in many ways. The team leader meets with his or her supervisor during the annual performance review, at which time goals are set for the year. These may include for example, ensuring that all parts and products are assembled in a timely fashion, ensuring that all team members come to work on time and that absenteeism is limited, and ensuring that group communication is amply facilitated within the organization. The team leader also meets with team members once per month to discuss their team goals. This may include ensuring that all products assembled meet stringent quality guidelines or ensuring that zero defects are realized within the scope of products assembled by the team. Generally goals are used in the company as a motivator and as an educational tool, allowing each member of the organization to realize what the company's aims and objectives are for the year, and helping individual employees realize what their place is in relation to the company's goals and objectives. The goal system is relatively effective for this position, though it may benefit with some targeted changes. The job redesign for the position of team leader will entail a strategic job redesign and assessment that includes contributions from employees. Job redesign can serve as a useful tool for increasing a job's motivating potential â€Å"depending on the job categorizations† that result from job redesign (Kulik, 1989). For these job categorizations to be truly motivating and encourage greater intrinsic employee motivation they must encourage participation and feedback from the employee whose job is being redesigned. Much research including that presented by social information processing theorists suggests that employees' evaluation of their jobs motivating potential is influenced by multiple factors including clues provided by their social environment (Kulik, 1989). This suggests that an environment that supports a job as worthwhile and beneficial is more likely to encourage employees to remain motivated an interested. Thus a job redesign should consider factors that lead to social evaluation of the job, such as job title. In this case the designation â€Å"team leader† suggests that the job incumbent has some level of authority, lending itself to a certain amount of respect and authority, and likely serving to increase employees intrinsic motivation. Other motivating factors are based solely on job content. Hence it may be important to evaluate the job's content and determine whether additional responsibilities would add to motivation or decrease employee motivation. Thus the content and responsibilities of the team leader must also be assessed as part of this redesign. Schippmann (1999) suggests redesign that focuses on the concept of â€Å"strategic job modeling† a job redesign process that focuses more on people working in jobs and encourages employers to collect information about the people working in their jobs to help guide efforts â€Å"to select, build or modify the components of a human resources system to achieve an organizationally relevant outcome† (3). This theory suggests that more accurate information to help guide decisions regarding job redesign may be gathered when individuals working within a position are consulted about the job redesign process. Cronshaw (1999) along similar lings suggests that it is important to consult with employees as much as it is management to ensure that job redesign occurs in a functional manner and works to enhance employee motivation. One important component of job redesign in the manufacturing environment includes providing a performance measurement and rewards system that supports the use of teams (Schneier & Shaw, 1995). The current performance review system adopted by the company still works too diligently to review the individual performance of the team leader rather than address the collaborative efforts of the team. There is much to be said however of measuring the performance of teams (Frohman, 1995). For the position of team leader, the following recommendations are necessary to help promote intrinsic motivation and boost the productivity of the team leader and his or her underlings: (1) the performance review process for team leader must be modified to reflect the contributions not only of the team leader but also of the team (2) the job should include cross training for the team leader with assemblers but also supervisors and managers within the assembly department to promote greater knowledge sharing and understanding of how other job roles influence the assembly line (3) the team leader should be provided an opportunity to participate in a rewards based program that promotes bonuses for achieving goals established at the annual performance review (4) the team leader should be provided the opportunity to engage team members more fully and participate more in their performance review processes and (5) the team leaders job should be benchmarked with other team leader or supervisory positions within other companies to ensure that the job content matches similar job descriptions, titles and pay within other industries. Let's examine each of these components more thoroughly. First, it is vital in a team-oriented situation that the performance review process reflects not only the achievements and accomplishments of the person assessed, but also the rest of the team. This will encourage the team leader to actively engage team members and participate more fully in communication efforts, knowledge sharing and strategic planning at the team level. It also encourages the team leader to be more accountable for the actions of the team as a whole. If the team for example, performs poorly during the year despite good attendance and performance on the team leaders part, it is still important that the team's performance is reflected in the performance appraisal process so recommendations for improvement may be made. Second, team leaders should be provided the opportunity to learn more about the inner operations and workings of the company as a whole. The best way to facilitate this process is through cross training, allowing the team leader a birds eye view of what other supervisors and front line employees do in the organization, how their work affects the assembly line, and remind the team leader of the importance of interpersonal communication and knowledge sharing among all levels of the organization. The team leader should also be provided more rewards incentives for work well done. While a profit sharing program is beneficial to higher ups as discussed earlier, it provides little intrinsic motivation many times for front line employees (Frohman, 1995; Greider, Logue & Yates, 2001). A more appropriate rewards or incentives program may focus on providing the team leader with annual performance based bonuses. This can be achieved by establishing a set of goals or expectations that provide opportunities for bonuses when the team leader meets or exceeds expectations. Bonuses do not have to come in the way of financial compensation to be effective either (Cronshaw & Fine, 1999). The company may opt for example, to provide bonuses that include extra vacation days or paid time off to team leaders for meeting or exceeding their goal expectations. Presently the team leader provides a brief summary or dialogue as part of the review process for team members. The team leader may realize more motivation and have more desire to participate in performance reviews if afforded the opportunity to actually sit in on performance appraisals or reviews with team members. This will allow team members more feedback from their lead and help them realize the authority and status as well as the common interests the team leader has with them. Lastly, it is vital the job content of team leader matches that of other jobs in similar industries. At minimum annually the company should reevaluate the job content so that it accurately reflects similar jobs in the industry. On the same token it is important that the company elicit feedback from the incumbent so they can provide more detail regarding the job's functions and responsibilities, and so that the job can be modified to reflect actual responsibilities more fully (Cronshaw & Fine, 1999). This type of analysis will allow greater participation from the team leader in the redesign process and will therefore serve to increase motivation and enthusiasm for the job (Kulic, 1989; Frohman, 1995; Schippmann, 1999). This helps promote employee ownership in job functions and encourages more intrinsic motivation because the employee recognizes that they are an active participant in the job redesign process. It also helps stimulate interest in the job redesign process and ensures that the company is redesigning the job in a way that meets the employees as well as the company's needs, wants, goals and expectations.