“The Wife of Bath’s Tale” by Geoffrey Chaucer and “The Flea” by John Donne Essay Example for Free

â€Å"The Wife of Bath’s Tale† by Geoffrey Chaucer and â€Å"The Flea† by John Donne Essay In this paper I will compare the approach to marriage in the works â€Å"The Wife of Bath’s Tale† by Geoffrey Chaucer and â€Å"The Flea† by John Donne; in both cases it is a means to an end: in the first the old woman wants to get â€Å"the thing that most of all Women desire† and in the second the lover seeks â€Å"How little which his lover (thou) deniest him (me)† and uses an allusion to marriage to achieve this. In â€Å"The Wife of Bath’s Tale† the old woman seems to ask the knight a naà ¯ve request; there is no hint that what she will ask of him is to marry her: â€Å"Swear me true that whatsoever I ask of you, you’ll do it if it lies whithin you might†¦Ã¢â‚¬ . After the knight returns to the queen, and the answer the old woman gave the knight is the one the queen looked for, the old woman’s intent becomes clear: â€Å"Before the court I ask you, then, sir knight, To take me, as you wife.† The knight in shock tries to refuse, but as he has sworn â€Å"upon his (my) honor† he has no way out of the deal he closed; therefore, they get married. As married couples are due in the night of the wedding, the couple goes to bed to consummate the marriage. Here is when we learn what the old woman’s plan was. As they lay in bed they old woman is waiting for the knight to act as a newlywed husband, but she then realizes that the knight’s intentions were not the ones she hoped for: â€Å"You are so loathsome and so old as well†¦ †¦It is no wonder that I toss and turn.† The wife tells her husband that he has two choices, and he is welcome to choose what he best prefers, for she will do as he bids and never complain. The knight thinks carefully, and weighs his options, and then realizes that this choice should not be his: â€Å"My love and lady, my dear wife. In your wise government I put my life†¦ †¦I am content, whatever pleases you.† Now the old woman’s motive is clear, and she got â€Å"the thing that most of all Women desire† â€Å"to have sovereignty†¦ †¦above their husbands, and to have their way in love†; the choice is hers to do as she pleases, and what she wants is to please him, so she gives her husband everything he could have wanted. The decision she makes can be confusing since she denies herself the power she wanted after getting the choice, but the main point is that even so she was able to choose. In â€Å"The Flea† the man is not looking for marriage, he seeks only to consummate it. The allusion to marriage is used to undermine the importance of the act that comes after the wedding: the bedding. The poem starts with the comparison between both lovers being bitten by a flea, and the lover thinks that the act of being bitten by a flea is less than the consumption of marriage: â€Å"Yet this enjoys before it woo, And pampered swells with one blood made of two, And this, alas, is more than we would do.† The fact that they were bitten by the same flea means that they are as good as married. The lover tries to convince his mistress that what he wants is not sinful as she thinks since they are already married by the bite of the flea, so they may as well do what married couples do: â€Å"The flea is you and I, and this Our marriage bed and marriage temple is.† The woman is not convinced by his words, and tries to kill the flea, but her lover tries to convince her that this flea is them, and their love and marriage, and if she kills the flea, not only the flea will die: â€Å"†Three sins in killing three.† After the flea is killed by his lover, he finds a way to turn around the situation for his benefit, and tells her that the fact that flea is dead only shows that nothing is as important as it seems; therefore, why should not them lay together? She will lose as much as the flea lost which apparently she thinks it is not a lot: â€Å"’Tis true; then learn how false fears be: Just so much honor, when thou yield’st to me, will waste†¦Ã¢â‚¬  In this works the use of marriage although used for alternate purposes is given different meaning. In â€Å"The Wife of Bath’s Tale†, the old woman wants â€Å"the thing that most of all Women desire†, and is willing to do anything to get it; in â€Å"The Flea† the lover wants to lay with his mistress, and will say anything to convince her, even that they are â€Å"married† after being bitten by a flea. The use of the marriage in both stories is done differently since the old woman lures the knight into marrying her, so that she can get what she want, and the lover tries to convince his mistress they are already married in a sense, so that he will able to bed her. One may well say nevertheless that in both cases marriage is a means of leverage, a tool to be best used as the authors see fit, in order to allow their characters achieve their aims; whatever those aims might be. In these sense marriage gets a similar treatment in both stories.

Effects of Emotion in Eyewitness Recall and Recognition

Effects of Emotion in Eyewitness Recall and Recognition Aaron Glogowski Houston, K. A., et al. (2013). The Emotional Eyewitness: The Effects  of Emotion on Specific Aspects of Eyewitness Recall and Recognition Performance. Emotion, 13  (1), 118-128. doi: 10.1037/a0029220 In the world of criminal science, there are several factors that can interfere with the accuracy of eyewitness reports. This article, by Kate Houston and her team, delves into the effects of emotion on eyewitness encounters. The main argument that they are looking at focuses on negative emotion enhancing central memory while impairing the peripheral memory, where central memories are the main details that occurred, likely relating specifically to the action of the crime, and peripheral memories are the smaller details that were happening around the crime. Houston notes that in spite of all of the writings on eyewitness memory, very few studies attempt to show a correlation between it and memory. She goes on to hypothesize that negative correlations will indeed enhance the central memory of the event, further exploring details like the crime itself. In her observations of other studies however, she does note that high stress scenarios tended to cause subjects to forget details about the perpetrator of the situation, at least in the case of a previous study on soldier’s interrogations. In order to test their hypotheses, Houston and her team set up two different experiments designed to test recall memory performance, as well as the participant’s ability to identify the perpetrator of the crime, both associated with negative emotional response. In their first experiment, the team hypothesized that a negative emotional response would allow the participants to more easily describe details about the perpetrator. They gathered a participation group of 101 students from the University of Aberdeen (30 males; 71 females) to engage in the study. They divided the group into two subgroups. The group of 51 was shown a video that was meant to induce an emotional response, and the group of 50 was shown a video intended to illicit a neutral response from the participants. Both videos used the same actors and scenarios up to the point in which the story deviates to the emotional induction. Once the participants had watched their respective videos, they were asked to answer a brief survey about how the video made them feel. They were given several different emotions, as well as a neutral â€Å"I feel nothing† option, and were asked to rank all of these emotions on a scale of 0-3 (0 being not at all, and 3 being very much). After they rated what they were feeling, the results were collected and the participants were given a 20 minute wait period in which they had to fill out a questionnaire on likes and dislikes, though this questionnaire was truly only present to provide a distraction for the next part of the experiment. The participants were then asked to write down as many details about the video that they could remember. In the results of the experiment, Houston’s team discovered that the emotion-inducing video tended to cause much higher responses to negative emotions than the neutral video did. They also noticed that the group viewing the emotional video recalled the events of the emotional moment in much more clarity and complete detail than the neutral video control group, however, they could not recall details about the perpetrator as well. Their data also shows that there is not a significant correlation between the negative emotional responses and the amount of information given about the perpetrator and the critical moment. This data concludes that those experiencing negative emotions tended to focus their attention directly on the perpetrator, however, there was no significant difference in their ability to describe the perpetrator when compared to the results from the neutral video control group. While the idea that focus is altered in a critical moment coincided with the evidence, t he data could not identify any significant difference in memory and recall. The second experiment was designed to test whether or not negative emotions and stress impair the individual’s ability to identify a perpetrator when they are presented with a series of options (in this case, a photo line-up). Houston’s team used two separate photo line-ups for the experiment: one in which the perpetrator’s photo was present, and another where the perpetrator’s photo had been replaced by one that looked very similar to them. The team made sure to select alternates for the replacement photo based on resemblance to the perpetrator according to a method recommended by the Police and Criminal Evidence Act used to identify criminals in the United Kingdom. They split up a group of 233 participants into relatively even subgroups at the beginning of the study. They began the study in the same way as the first experiment: two separate videos were shown, one emotional, one neutral, then the participants were asked about their emotional responses to the videos, and given time after the emotional response portion. Once the period after the emotional response survey had passed, the participants completed a recall survey about the videos, then they divided the groups again into two separate subgroups. One subgroup was shown the picture line-up containing the perpetrator’s image, while the other was shown the line-up with the face double’s image. The results of the second experiment confirmed the team’s previous theories that the video was successful in eliciting an emotional response, and that emotional responses were similar to the previous experiment, based on their initial observations. The second set of findings turned out to be in accordance with the initial hypothesis of the second experiment. Participants who watched the emotional video were much more likely than those who watched the neutral video to incorrectly identify an innocent target as the perpetrator. Around 25% of the time, participants in the group in which the perpetrator’s photo was included would claim that the perpetrator’s picture was not among those in the line-up. Those who saw the neutral video were much more likely to identify the real perpetrator (40.4% as opposed to 27.1% from the emotional video group). In the group in which the perpetrator’s photo was absent however, there appeared to be no significant correlation between emotional response and the answers given. The recall results for this experiment were very similar to the recall results for the first experiment. In collecting their results from the second experiment, Houston’s team arrived at several conclusions based on the data that had been collected. Their data further supported the idea that people exposed to negative emotional experiences focused more on the perpetrator, but less on the rest of the situation, but they no longer had any sense of improved environmental detail. They both however showed the same level of accuracy in describing the target. The photo line-up tests show very different results however, showing that those exposed to negative emotional experiences would more likely identify the wrong target when the target’s picture appears along with others similar in appearance and features to them. When the target was not shown however, the emotional video groups tended to have similar results to those in the neutral video group. In the team’s conclusion to their article, they discussed the probable reasoning behind the discrepancies in their experimental results. They note that the environmental results differ between the experiments, showing that it may be unreliable. The data as a whole shows that negative emotional responses may have different results on eyewitness testimony, depending on the situation.

Strategies for Loan Repayment Rates

Strategies for Loan Repayment Rates INTRODUCTION AND MOTIVATION Lack of access to the formal credit facility through formal banking and financial institutions has been one of the major hurdles faced by the poor people of the developing countries. There are two main reasons widely discussed. Firstly, the commercial banks and institutions think that the loan demanded by the poor people are in very small amount and it is not economical for the banks to grant these loans. Secondly, these poor people often failed to provide any collateral, this makes their loan requirements risky, and conventional banks and institutions avoid entertaining these types of loans (Secondi, 2008). The solution to these problems was provided by microfinance programs. The primary objective of microfinance programs around the world is to reduce the poverty by providing small loans to the neglected poor people without the condition of collateral. Microfinance has gained a considerable appreciation over the past three decades due to its mechanism of providing the credit access to the neglected poor people. In pursuit of the fight against poverty, small loans were provided by the microfinance institutions (MFIs) to the poor people so that they may utilize them to establish small businesses or expand their existing business and achieve self sufficiency. However, there has been considerable differences in the rate of interest charged on these loans by the various MFIs, repayment rates and level of self sufficiency achieved by the borrowers around the different regions of the developing countries (Ahlin et al 2011). MFIs normally use group lending methodology to expand the credit access to the poors. This methodology helps the microfinance clients to keep a check on the proper utilization of the loan amount and also allowing only those individuals to be the part of the group who possess a good moral and financial reputation in their society. Eventually, much of the lenders responsibility of the supervision is shifted on to the group members. This helps the group members to effectively control the problems arising from incomplete information on the financial health of the individuals intending to join the group (Armendariz and Morduch, 2005). It has been viewed that the group loan given under joint liability lending contracts play an effective role in enforcing the contract conditions of loan repayments through peer monitoring by the group members. Under the joint/ group liability contracts, each group member is responsible for the repayment of the loan in case of any member reports default. Ther efore, each group member act as guarantor for the others. It had been argued by various researchers that in a joint liability contracts the group members are well informed about their fellow group members compared to the MFIs or banks. Therefore, this peer monitoring by the group members is much more effective and a cheaper than the MFI’s (or bank’s) monitoring (Varian, 1990: Stiglitz, 1990 and Banerjee et al 1994). There are a number of studies[1] suggesting that the group liability programs work better in addressing the problem incomplete information faced by the lenders and banks, as much of the responsibility has been shifted to the group members, resultantly lowering the cost faced by the MFIs. Some studies such as Tassel, 199 and Ghatak, 1999 argued that the in group liability loans, the self selection of the group members helps in reducing the problem of incomplete information and can generate higher repayment rates. There are various laboratory experimental studies tried to investigate the group liability loans and effects of peer monitoring on repayment rates. Such as, Cason et al (2009) in their study found that even the monitoring was a costly activity and subjects were required to pay the cost of monitoring, but still the group partners preferred to monitor each other. They also observed that when the cost of monitoring paid by the group members was less than the cost paid by the len der, the group liability programs performed better than the individual liability programs. They also pointed out that in the absence of difference in monitoring cost (among group monitoring cost and lender’s cost), the repayment behavior of the subjects remained almost similar in both group and individual lending cases. In another study conducted by Kono (2006) in Vietman, reported that even in the presence of monitoring and imposition of penalties to the defaulters, the default rates were higher in group liability cases compared to the individual liability cases. There are few studies explaining the importance of social ties between the group members towards effective monitoring and loan repayment rates. There are a number of ways the social ties can be effective, one of the most important factors is the full information about the group members. This complete information makes it is much easier for the group members to monitor their fellow partners, and if required they can enforce the contract terms (Besley and Coate, 1995, Abbink et al 2006). However, we were interested in investigating the effect of peer monitoring and choice of microfinance contracts on the loan repayments. The peer monitoring has been discussed extensively in the literature, however, the evidence on the choice of microfinance contracts (i.e. The choice among the interest and non-interest based microfinance contracts) is non existent. We do observe studies addressing the choice among the individual and group lending contracts by the microfinance lenders (Gine and Karlan, 2008, Bhole and Ogden, 2010, Madajewicz, 2011). We conducted laboratory experiments with the students of the University of Sydney, Australia during October, 2013. In our study, there were four treatments and the subjects were offered the loan under the group liability scheme. A pair of two subjects constituted a group and there were 74 groups in total (148 subjects). In the first treatment, subjects can choose to monitor their partner’s repayment actions, then they were required to choose a contract from the given two contracts (PLS and IB). After choosing the contracts, they were recording their repayment actions. In the second treatment, subjects were allowed to go for monitoring, but they were not allowed to choose the contracts rather the experimenter had allocated the both PLS and IB contracts randomly and evenly. With the third treatment, there was no monitoring choice available to the subjects, but they were allowed to choose from the PLS and IB contracts. In the fourth and last treatment, subjects were neither allowed to monitor, nor allowed to choose from the PLS and IB contracts, the contacts were allocated by the experimenter in a randomly and evenly way. There were five rounds for each treatment and after every round the subjects were swapped randomly and it was ensured that the same subject should not be the matched with the other more than once. The subjects were able to identify their group partner through their roll numbers, but they cannot see and talk to him. There was a monitoring fee[2] for all those subjects who were opting to monitor their group partner. Yet, while monitoring they can impose penalty on to their defaulted partner. The decision of monitoring or otherwise was a common knowledge for both the group partners. This experimental study was conducted to address the following research questions. Whether peer monitoring and peer pressure (imposition of penalty) affect the repayment rates positively? Are there any choice preferences for PLS and IB contracts? How choice of the contracts affects the repayment rates? Are there any gender specific differences in repayment rates? Whether the degree of religiosity affects the repayment behavior of the subjects? In summary, our results indicated that the monitoring had a significantly positive effect on the loan repayment rates in both with and without choice of contract cases. There were significantly higher proportion of subjects, choosing the PLS contact against the IB contract. Although, there was a high preference for PLS contracts, but at the same time we did not notice any change in repayment rates for both PLS and IB contracts. Moreover, we noticed lower repayment rates in no monitoring with no selection of contract treatment. We did not observe any gender related differences. Also the results revealed that the degree of religiosity was not affecting the repayment behavior of the subject. For the empirical analysis of this experimental work, we used the percentages to analyze the repayment rates. Paired t-test and McNemar’s test were also applied to examine the differences in behavioral responses of subjects across treatments. Finally, we applied panel logit regression methodo logy to check the significance of monitoring choices against the no monitoring cases and PLS contract against the IB contract in the presence of demographic and other control variables. The rest of the chapter continues as follows. Section 2 gives a literature overview. Section 3 describes the experimental contracts, design and execution. Results are discussed in Section 4 and in Section 5, we analyze the results and concluded the study. RELATED LITERATURE Microfinance gained popularity and appreciation over the past three decades for its mechanism of offering small loan to those poor people who were generally excluded from the provision of formal credit facilities. The microfinance use its innovative lending methodology in the presence of incomplete information of the clients and non availability of physical collateral. Generally, lending techniques adopted by the MFIs were individual or group lending. The group lending can be used as screening tools whereas, the joint liability could work as the monitoring device within the group. Nevertheless, the group lending and joint liability programs of micrfinance are considered as efficient instruments in the expansion of credit facility to the poor (Morduch, 1999: Armendariz and Morduch, 2005). Under the group lending strategy, all the members of the group were provided with the micro loans in their individual capacity. All the group members were then made jointly responsible for the repayment of the each other’s loan in case of default, also future they were denied from any loan facility by the MFIs (Morduch, 1999 : Ghatak and Guinnane, 1999). It had been argued that the success of the group lending strategy has been the outcome of various reasons. Firstly, the screening of the clients by the group members, this helps in selecting the credible and trustworthy persons in the group. Secondly, the group members keep a proper check on the utilization of the loan and also they keep on observing the efforts of each of their partners have exerted in order to make his investment project successful. Lastly, each group member faces a peer pressure from his partner which forces them to comply with the repayment conditions of the loan, along with peer pressure the group members have to face social pressure from their society they were living which enforces the contract conditions of loan repayment. In this way it became possible for the lenders to shift their burden on to the borrowers and the problems occurred due to incomplete information can be handled at the borrowers end (Microcredit Summit Compaign, 2005). In the existing literature, there are a number of works explaining the positive impacts of microfinance programs for the small line and investment activities. It has also been pointed out that the implications of microfinance programs kept on varying from borrower to borrower and repayment behavior was not same across the borrowers (Cr ´epon et al. (2011); Banerjee et al. (2010)). On the other hand, there are studies focusing on the merits and demerits of group/joint-liability loans and stressed that the joint liability loans were successful in increasing the repayment rates (Banerjee et al. (1994); Van Tassel (1999); Wydick (2001)). Entirely the same, it had also been mooted by a number of researchers that the espousal of a group or joint liability loans may lead to increase the risk loving behavior among the borrowers. They may put in a much riskier projects because the repayment responsibilities had been portioned out among the group member. The building of this attitude potenti ally invites the free-riders (Gine et al. (2010); Fischer (2010); Barboni et al. (2012)). There have been a number of factors addressed in the literature which could involve the repayment behavior of the individuals positively. Such as monitoring either by the lender or by the group members, peer pressure and peer sanctioning, social affiliations among the group members, opportunity for future loans, group size and lower tier of interest rates (Floro and Yotopoulos, 1991, Wydick, 1996, Wydick, 1999). Gin and Karlan (2010) conducted randomized field experiments in the Philippines over a point of three years found that group liability affected the development and advancement of the microfinance program exerting extreme social pressure on the group members, resulting in discouraging the good willing clients to adopt. They likewise did not notice any difference in repayment rates for both individual liability and group liability cases. Ghattak and Guinnane (1999) has given a comprehensive analysis on the effect of screening, monitoring and enforcement in group lending. They also observed that the lender’s cost of group screening, monitoring and enforcement can be reduced if they follow the group liability strategy. It has also been argued that in a group or joint liability cases where the default or failure to repay the loan will affect all the group members, including the defaulting member (as everyone in the group has to pay back the loan) and the whole group will stand disqualified for the future borrowing will encourage the group members to monitor each other. In this way, the group lending has the potential to increase the repayment rates. However, it has been viewed that even in the group lending case the monitoring and enforcement through imposition of penalties are costly, but at the same time effective in reducing the lender’s risk, due to shifting of responsibility on to the group members (S tiglitz, 1990: Varian, 1990). The researchers have consistently argued that the controls or restrictions like peer monitoring by the group members, restriction on further loan payment to the defaulter, social pressure from community through close knit social ties and effective monitoring by the MFIs on the individual as well as group borrowers could potentially increase the chances of loan repayment (Abbink et al., 2006a; Gine and Karlan, 2010; Cassar et al., 2007; Karlan, 2007). In a recent study by Al-Azzam et al., (2012), inferred that peer pressure on the fellow counterpart within a group could result in a higher rate of payment. [1] For example, Armendariz , 1999 and Rai and Sjostrom, 2004. [2] See Section 3.2 for details.

Sir Gawain and Green Knight Essays: Allegory :: Sir Gawain Green Knight Essays

Allegory in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight  Ã‚   Discuss the allegorical significance of the following words of the Green Knight,   You are so fully confessed, your failings made known,/ And bear the plain penance of the point of my blade,/ I hold you polished as a pearl, as pure and as bright/ As you had lived free of fault since first you were born  . These words are uttered by the Green Knight almost immediately after he delivered the third blow on Gawain  s neck (l 2391-2394). They should be understood as referring to events which began with Gawain  s arrival at the Lord  s castle. The words   confessed   and   penance   appearing in the Green Knight  s utterance may lead one to connect them not only with events of the narrative, but also with the Christian idea of sin. According to Christian ideology all human beings are sinners, though- owing to God  s grace and kindness- sins may be forgiven. But before this happens there is need for confession and penance. Absolution is the final stage which may be reached only by those who pass the former ones. When Sir Gawain is looked at closely, the events of the story correspond to the sequence: temptation -sin - confession - penance - absolution. The sin committed by Gawain was not being loyal to the lord by concealing the green girdle. This weakness of character resulted from the love of life - the girdle was to protect anyone who wore it. What happens at the Green Chapel are the later parts of the cycle: confession - penance - absolution. The penance is the fight with the Green Knight during which Gawain receives a cut on the neck and absolution (granted by the Green Knight) is attained through blood, which makes it even more meaningful. On the other hand, a nick on the neck is not an extremely painful experience (although the way in which it was attained was definitely very stressful) and shows that Gawain  s sin was only a minor one. He did not sin against chastity as he did not give in to the lady  s wishes. But still, in this interpretation Gawain  s character turned out to be faulty. There is a different possibility of interpretation - one which broadens the allegory even more. It may be said that Gawain  s primary fault was sinning against courtesy. If courtesy was in reality what he had been tested on, Gawain did not stand a chance of passing this test.

Human Creativity and Spirit :: History Essays

Human Creativity and Spirit ABSTRACT: Values provide evidence of spirit in human life. Spirit is a creative mental force for realizing values, a force which shows signs of a superindividual growth and decline, a life of its own. This paper documents the historic rise and decline of several waves of human creativity. I also consider possible factors that would account for the rise and fall: the presence of new material, social encouragement and/or patronage, temperamental egotism on the part of creators, the attraction of pioneering talent, or a collective or superindividual spirit. Evidence for the life and character of spirit is furnished by the historical rise and fall of waves of human creativity. Examples of such waves are classical music, the Italian Renaissance, the German Renaissance, Greek philosophy, Christianity, modern science. The concept of spirit is meaningful. Our experience of value requires it. What are the sources of value? What gives them their authority? Reason, social conditioning, biological drives based on natural selection have all been proposed as sources. There is a great deal of truth in these proposals. However, reflection convinces us that none of these sources is alone sufficient, and even the three working together are not enough to account for all the values that motivate us. We shall support this conviction by argument in due course. Spirit is a hypothesis, as yet in early stages of definition, which provides a ground for otherwise unaccountable value phenomena. What is spirit? Negatively defined, spirit is a susceptibility to values that motivate us through our minds but need no rational foundation, outstrip and overpower socialization, and have no findable relation to species survival. Positively defined, spirit is a creative mental force for realizing values, a force which lives in us as individuals and which shows signs of a super-individual growth and decline, a life of its own. In this paper I search for the nature of spirit and its values in a wide-optic synthesis of waves of creation. As this synoptic view must range over many specialties, it is bound to raise doubts and objections in the minds of specialists. One cannot be a specialist in all the fields I shall discuss; as the same time, someone must take an overall view. Nothing is more obvious than that unrelieved specialization leads to loss of coordination and direction; the community of scholars is replaced by a collection of quarrelsome property owners. I ask specialists to take my communication as something to focus and correct, and I hope it will serve them as a stimulus to panoptic thinking.

Othello by Shakespeare Essay

This is the beauty of great works of art in any of its forms; humanity does not change. Throughout time, we still and always will appreciate the things that stir our emotions: love, honour, betrayal, courage, sorrow, death. Are you familiar with Shakespeare’s gripping tale of â€Å"Othello†? If so, here is your opportunity to become re-acquainted with this masterpiece while enjoying exceptional acting, adept cinematography and the absorbing tragic tale true to its origin. If you are unfamiliar with the tale, prepare yourself for many mind-blowing twists and turns at the hands and lips of the master evil conniver, Iago. The Plot†¦ Very Simplified: Othello, a respected Army General, secretly marries Desdemona, much to the envy of his friend, Iago. Iago, motivated by jealousy and complete lack of compassion toward others, has â€Å"hatred & jealousy† to motivate his every move†¦ and evil-doings at the mercy of a brilliant manipulator and ruthless rogue means tremendous trouble and sorrow for all. But I get ahead of myself. To begin, Iago awakens Desdemona’s Father with the news of the clandestine joining: â€Å"A dark ram is topping your white ewe†¦. â€Å"Ah! Shakespeare! Desdemona is a lovely and gentle young woman with more than her share of admirers ~ not only Othello, whom she dearly loves, but Iago, who covets her. Others prove to be the tools that Iago manipulates to bring an end to the newlywed’s happiness. With ploys too intricate and devious for most minds to conceive, and certainly too involved for me to detail here, Iago begins his clever and destructive scheme to undermine the couple’s union. As Iago says, â€Å"There are many events in the womb of time†¦ which will be delivered†. Iago manipulates people and events to cast suspicion on Desdemona and make it appear as though she may be having an affair. He uses her own loving spirit and good nature against her: â€Å"I shall turn her goodness into pitch and out of her own goodness make the net that shall unmesh them all†, confesses Iago to the viewing audience! By inference and the planting of false evidence, Iago successfully raises suspicion of a love triangle to Othello. Othello is successfully becoming undone by seeds of suspicion. The plot thickens. And it weaves and bobs and twists and turns and takes us on a delicious yet unsettling serpentine chase through treachery and trickery. This is Shakespeare, after all – a master storyteller! But †¦. what about the production? Is a modern filming of Shakespeare for everyone’s taste? Clearly, no. The Language True to the Bard’s original, â€Å"Othello’s† dialogue comes from the pages of Shakespeare’s work. And it is difficult†¦ at first. The heightened speech of the day is not we are accustom to: there are no short cuts taken – characters express themselves at great length and with great eloquence and wit. And one cannot deny the beauty of the language – delicate even when being bold; polite, even when being brusque. But don’t be prematurely put off by this. Bear with it a short time and it pays off. If you make it past the first five minutes, you may eventually become comfortable, as the rhythm starts to become internalized and soon begins to sound quite accessible. Despite the initial difficulties in comprehension, I became rapt in the plot and the intense concentration required proved to my benefit , as I became completely involved in the drama. The Acting To compliment the language, the acting proves impeccable and indispensable! The characters lend vibrant facial expressions that betray their motives and emotions. In fact, one can say that in any modern version of Shakespeare, average audiences must rely heavily on other cues – like facial expressions and actions, to bring greater understanding to the rapidly moving dialogue and storyline. This version is a great success! I have never been more impressed with Laurence Fishburne’s acting than in this film. In this challenging production, he demonstrated his considerable skill. But Kenneth Branagh , as Iago, was the real scene stealer! Few can do â€Å"ruthless† like Branagh! And, though the role seemed to require less energy and scope, Irene Jacob was convincingly the sweet and gentle Desdemona. The love between Othello and Desdemona is demonstrated so clearly, so unmistakably, that as a viewer, I was angered by Iago’s attempts to destroy it. A good film makes you care! This is a good film! I cared about Desdemona; I was abhorred at Othello’s stupidity for believing the trap set by Iago. It was horrible to watch the jubilant happiness of the new lovers become undone. The perception of the heartbreak to come was intense. I detested Iago for his ruthlessness and hatefulness! All the emotions audiences felt so long ago – they still exist today. What Else? There a couple of scenes that were unusual – when Iago speaks to the camera – to the audience-and I suppose this might have been originally a soliloquy. But they seem very out of place. All of a sudden I was jolted out of my â€Å"suspension of disbelief† and cosiness of the play, by the intrusion of a personal message from one of the actors! On the other hand, Iago, though a cruel character, is a treat to watch as he spins his webs of deception then glances knowingly at the camera. This is one of Branagh’s most inspired roles! Although it has been many years since I read â€Å"Othello†, the film seems to remain true to its original while benefiting from new technology and artistic perceptions. It is a commendation to William Shakespeare (though he doesn’t need it from me) as well as the Director and actors who moved the production from â€Å"theatre in the round† to â€Å"Castle Rock Productions†. Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Miscellaneous section.

Operations Research Smu-de Mba Sem 2

Spring 2013 Master of Business Administration- MBA Semester 1 MB0048 –Operations Research- 4 Credits (Book ID: B1631) Assignment Set – 1 (60 Marks) Note: Assignment Set -1 must be written within 6-8 pages. Answer all questions. Q1. Explain the scope of Operations Research. What are the features of Operations Research? 10 marks (300 – 350 words each) Q2. Six Operators are to be assigned to five jobs with the cost of assignment in Rs. given in the matrix below. Determine the optimal assignment.Which operator will have no assignment? Operators Jobs 1 2 3 4 5 1 6 2 5 2 6 2 2 5 8 7 7 3 7 8 6 9 8 4 6 2 3 4 5 5 9 3 8 9 7 6 4 7 4 6 8 10 marks Q3. a. Explain the Monte Carlo Simulation. b. A Company produces 150 cars. But the production rate varies with the distribution. Production Rate 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 Probability 0. 05 0. 10 0. 15 0. 20 0. 30 0. 15 0. 05 At present the track will hold 150 cars. Using the following random numbers etermine the average number of cars waiting for shipment in the company and average number of empty space in the truck. Random Numbers 82, 54, 50, 96, 85, 34, 30, 02, 64, 47. 5 +5 = 10 marks (200 – 250 words each) Q4. Explain the Characteristics and Constituents of a Queuing System. 10 marks (300 – 350 words each) Spring 2013 Q5. a. What do you mean by dominance? State the dominance rules for rows and columns. b. Find the saddle point of the following game and state the optimum strategies for layers A and B A B 1 2 3 4 5 1 9 3 1 8 0 2 6 5 4 6 7 3 2 4 4 3 8 4 5 6 2 2 1 5 +5 = 10 marks (200 – 250 words each) Q6. a What are the differences between PERT and CPM? b. A project has eleven activities whose duration is given in the following table: Activity 0-1 1-2 1-3 2-4 2-5 3-4 3-6 4-7 5-7 6-7 7-8 Duration (days) 2 8 10 6 3 3 7 5 2 8 3 i. Draw the network ii. Identify the critical activities and critical path. 5 +5 = 10 marks (200 – 250 words each)