Online Business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Online Business - Essay Example The Headquarters and call centre is based in Leeds, West Yorkshire. Their huge buying power of over '150 million a year enables them to purchase stock at discounted prices. This allows them to provide the customer with a huge choice of top brand Electrical Appliances at truly unbeatable prices. Prompt delivery is the priority of EmpireDirect.co.uk. The fast, efficient delivery service comes direct to your home. Their bulk stocks means that most orders are processed and delivered normally within 2-3 working days from payment anywhere within the UK mainland. UK mainland delivery starts from just '1.49 per order, some of the items include free delivery at our hugely discounted rates. All products carry the full MANUFACTURERS GUARANTEE. What's more, at EmpireDirect.co.uk also offer a NATIONWIDE IN-HOME SERVICE on all non-portable appliances should the need arise. Optional extended guarantees and installation services are available at discounted rates. EmpireDirect.co.uk has now been in o peration for over 25 years. You can take comfort in the fact the company has many years of experience in the supply and service of electrical goods throughout the UK, and is financially secure. EmpireDirect.co.uk has been listed No. ... 006 Europe's 500, an annual listing endorsed by 3i, Microsoft, Boston Consulting Group and PricewaterhouseCoopers and published by Europe's Entrepreneurs for Growth. Hitwise is pleased to announce that EmpireDirect.co.uk has qualified for a Hitwise Top 10 Award December 2007. Empire operates a quality system approved by BSI. EmpireDirect.co.uk is a key member of RETRA - the Radio, Electrical & Television Retailers Association, which lays down strict guidelines on performance in all areas. EmpireDirect.co.uk scooped the best e-trading award for the UK in the prestigious government backed ecommerce awards. EmpireDirect.co.uk successfully won the Top 100 Worldwide Website awards 2004. EmpireDirect.co.uk supports the IMRG "Internet Shopping is Safe" Campaign and they are on the Safe Shopping List. This campaign is backed by Industry and Government and aims to re-assure the customer of the safety of shopping online. EmpireDirect.co.uk supports the IMRG "Internet Delivery is Safe" Campaign too. This campaign is also backed by Industry and Government and aims to re-assure the customer of the safety of getting your order delivered. 100% Secure Shopping. All personal information is stored using 128 bit encryption. They utilise the industry-standard Sockets Layer (SSL) technology to encrypt all the personal information including credit or debit card numbers, names and addresses. They offer optional secure payment options with Google Checkout and Paypal Task B Terms and Services 1. Titles - General, Customer Sales, Delivery, Installation, Collections, Cancellation and Returns, Refunds, Guaranties and Warranties, Faults, Data Protection, Others, Christmas Delivery , and Extra membership Terms and Conditions 2. Reference to statutory rights - Reference is made to our National

Trifles deals with gender perception a sensitive reading of the drama Essay

Trifles deals with gender perception a sensitive reading of the drama involves understanding how the men view the women, how t - Essay Example "Trifles" deals with gender perception; a sensitive reading of the drama involves understanding how the men view the women, how the women view the men, and how the women ultimately triumph over the men. Men are presented as an egoistic species that reserve the back roles for the women right from the beginning of the play. Throughout the development of the play, women seem to be placed in the dark and they consequently withdraw themselves to trivial details that men count as unimportant in the case. â€Å"She didn't pay much attention,† are examples of words men use in the play to refer to women (vcu.edu, 6th conversation by Hale). At one point in the play, women are depicted as a species that concentrates on trifles at an instance when men plainly mock them for linking a quilt to murder case evidence. "Trifles" deals with gender perception; a sensitive reading of the drama involves understanding how the men view the women. Other trivial details that the women fall on in their assistance to unravel the murder are equally rejected by the chauvinistic men in the play. In aromatic turn of events, the very rejections termed trivial become the main pieces of reliable evidence.

Discuss Stevensons portrayal of the nature of good and evil and the dual nature of mans personality Essay Example for Free

Discuss Stevensons portrayal of the nature of good and evil and the dual nature of mans personality Essay Question- Discuss Stevensons portrayal of the nature of good and evil and the dual nature of mans personality. What does this show us about Stevensons view of Victorian Britain? Born into the middle-class, prosperous district of new Edinburgh in Scotland, 1850, the young Robert Louis Stevensons life was a existence of opposites and contradictions. Just a few miles from his homeland lay the slums of old Edinburgh- a destitute sprawl of old urban living, disease and vice widespread and all to common. The young Master Stevenson was forbidden from this area, instead confined to his bedroom with his fanatic religious nanny- largely in part to his poor health and fragile immune system. His nanny, Alison Cunningham, was a devout Calvinist, a religion with a mixture of both Christian and Folk religion ideals. Calvinism teaches that every human being is born into sin, and thus must take it upon themselves to seek God, going against their natural inclination. This rule, entitled Total Depravity, was taught to the young Stevenson by his nanny, therefore leading the young seven year old to question his every step, paving the way for horrific nightmares of Hell and the fury of the Devil. As Stevenson grew up he found himself swept up in the cultural revolution that was Bohemianism. A now teenage Stevenson found himself attending raucous parties and living a second hand existence in near poverty, as what was expected from any bohemian person. He also found himself increasingly attached to the bottle and, on more then one occasion, visited prostitutes- an act that was seen as greatly immoral in the Victorian era and an action that would certainly have shocked his nanny. This deliberate act of rebellion shocked his parents and they temporarily disowned him and, although, Stevenson kept his attitudes and dislike of religion, the fall-out with his parents made him question the gulf in lifestyle that he and his parents had and the arguments also led him to question just what was right, and what was evil. Whilst travelling Stevenson met a certain Fanny Osborne, a women both older then him and already married. They had a short lived affair before Osborne absconded, leaving her husband for the young Stevenson and the couple soon wed. Second marriages were considered a taboo topic in the Victorian era, and Stevenson once again found himself branded as evil and ignorant, further stimulating Stevensons mind on right and wrong. Stevensons first wrote The strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in 1885 and the book was released a year later. Rumour has it that Stevenson wrote the book whilst heavily drugged; the author had a considerable liking of Cocaine, a mind-altering drug. The drug would have momentarily changed his perceptions and view on the world, and this is perhaps reflected in the book, further strengthening the divide that was beginning to shape his book. The book was fairly popular yet drew heavy criticism from some scholars who read the book as an allegory of inappropriate sexual desires. At the time Stevenson re-buffed the ideas, through fear of the popularity of his book diminishing, but he later admitted that the book could be read as an allegory of the troubles of Victorian society. There are many themes that run deep through Stevensons novella, all centred around the line that divides good and evil. This topic of morality particularly fascinated the Victorian audience, largely thanks to the strength of the British Empire. The common Londoners heard tales of strange, far-away lands and peculiar, ritual-abiding tribes man and started to question their own rituals and actions. Stevensons book tapped into this market, asking whether what was considered good and evil was good and evil everywhere, or whether different people had different opinions on the difficult and dividing topic. Stevensons story begins with The story of the door, an opening chapter which tells the friendship of Mr Utterson and Mr Enfield, two respectable men who refuse to indulge in the spread of gossip. However they eventually begin to discuss the indecent trampling of a small girl, committed by a mysterious, twisted man, later named as Hyde. The fact that Hyde is introduced before Jekyll keeps the character of Mr Hyde fresh in the mind, and the irregular pattern (time-frame) of the book leads to the resulting conclusion being even more startling, especially for the Victorian audience who wouldnt have expected anything similar to the actual ending. The chapter is also rich in subtle foreshadowing of opposition and restraint. He was austere with himself; drank gin when he was alone, to mortify a taste for vintages;, is a perfect example of Stevensons subtle touch. The fact that Utterson drank Gin when alone, a drink regarded at the time as a poor-mans drink, a drink that was crude and often associated with criminals and vice, to quench his thirst, nay, desire for rich wine represents Jekylls attitude towards Hyde: Jekyll deliberately starves himself of the drug he slowly becomes addicted to, the drug that turns himself into Hyde despite despising Hyde with every bone in his body. Yet Jekyll still feels a craving for the drug and has to substitute himself with other activitys, despite his attempts at distraction resulting in vain. The setting and atmosphere of Enfields recollection of the night when he first met Hyde also reflects the duality of man, a crucial aspect in Stevensons book. A black winter morningthere was literally nothing but lamps being a prime example of this. This abnormal lighting situation would produce shadows- the shadows representing the underclass of London society, the people that would hug street walls late at night, trying desperately not to be seen as they went about their shady business. The natural image of the black winter morning also juxtaposes the artificial light of the lamps, depicting the fact that, in the Victorian era, the citizens were always trying to triumph over nature, attempting to create social standards that even Mother Nature abided to. The stark contrast between dark and light is almost ignored in this quote, as the blackness of the night and the brightness of the lamps merge seamlessly into one another, thus representing Enfields confusion. This confusion is epitomised by the quote: I got into the state of mind when a man listens and listens and belongs to long for the sight of a policeman,. Enfield states his nervousness and longing for a policeman, a rather unusual trait as the Metropolitan Police Force was still in its infancy and battling many an unfavourable opinion. Also the character was earlier described as a rather dull man, the man about town, an experienced figure who had seen just about every city occurrence. Yet here Stevenson describes him as worried and nervous, determined to find a member of the establishment that was so untrusted around town. As well as this Stevenson implies that he character can sense something is wrong; he has potentially sourced the overbearing threat of Mr Hyde. This demonstrates the main antagonists intimidating nature before we are even introduced to him. This fear of the unknown could be related to Stevensons upbringing, surrounded by religion and threat of the Devil. In Christianity, and Calvinism, the Devil is both feared and yet paradoxically respected. His fundamentalist Nanny would have taught him of the threat of the Devil and also of the reason why the Devil was cast into Heaven (most prominently for failing to understand that he was created by God (that he had a dual nature)). This links in with Hydes nature and internal struggle- he can never fully become Jekyll because he was created BY Jekyll. The quote: like a forest in a fire is a good example of Stevensons views on current society and the changing world that was revolving around him. The simile is used to emphasise the differences between the old, poor row of houses and the new, upper class street- no doubt a product of the industrial revolution that was currently sweeping the country. Forests contain nothing but wood, and the single most dangerous thing one could encounter in a forest is fire, where the spitting flames spread from tree to tree. The simile could be linked to the Victorian industrial revolution: Stevenson views it as a hungry flame, sweeping away all of natures beauty and all of what the world used to comprise of, for now metal and steel is starting to replace the natural woods used to build shelter, and trees were being cut down to feed machines, which spat out new inventions and ideas. The quote has a negative edge relating to the industrial revolution, which fits in with Stevensons lifestyle and ethics. For he was a romanticist, a bohemian- interested in the preservation of nature, which they believed directly fed and influenced literature, poetry and art. The quote symbolises the divide that the industrial revolution was creating, and also questions whether the industrial revolution is good or bad, similarly to how the main theme of the book questions whether humans truly are good or evil. The second chapter, entitled The Search for Mr. Hyde continues with some important quotations regarding the duality of man, It was his custom of a Sunday, when this meal was over, to sit close by the fire, a volume of some dry divinity, being one of these. The dry divinity means a religious book or text, and the reading of these kinds of texts was considered a honourable and dutiful act in the Victorian era. However Utterson describes the text as dry- he finds it boring, dull. Thus the quote informs us that Utterson sticks to conventional Victorian traditionalism, yet aches with boredom in doing so. He yearns to be doing something else, somewhere else but feels compelled to follow his upstanding Sunday custom. This is typical of Victorian society and a crucial element of understanding the duality of man. For the Victorians tried to quench mans natural instinct and mould him into a figure they determined respectable. Yet in pushing, in repressing people so far man rebelled, and began to question the life he lived under, leading to all of the Victorian vices, sex, alcohol and homosexuality becoming acceptable. Indeed, if it wasnt for the Victorians oppression of the minority and the poor we probably wouldnt be living in such a free society. The usage of pathetic fallacy is a common and important tool in Stevensons novella. The fog increases in depth and prominence whenever Hyde is near , and the fog clears towards the end of the story when the mystery is close to being unravelled. the first fog of the season, a great chocolate coloured pall lowered over the heavens is a quote from the chapter: The Carew Murder Case and the use of pathetic fallacy has connotations of impending danger as well as connotations of the industrial revolution. The chocolate coloured essence of the fog has implications of the industrial revolution poisoning the fog, changing its colour and also the times when the fog appears. The fog is stated as being the first of the season, yet the timeline would mean the fog was unnaturally early, implying the industrial revolution is harming and manipulating Mother Nature. The fog could be interpreted as nothing more then smog, a poisonous relation of the cleaner and more natural fog. The relationship between the unnatural smog, produced by the industrial revolution and the natural fog could also be linked to the relationship between Jekyll and Hyde; Hyde is a less natural side effect of Jekylls curiosity, Hyde is the poisonous, dangerous aspect of Jekyll. Jekyll could be interpreted as the influence of nature on Victorian society, an old-fashioned traditionalist being poisoned by new ideas and new beliefs. The murder of Sir Danvers Carew is an important part of the book, and Stevensons description adds to the sense of confusion and fear that is created. We are fed the murder from the viewpoint of a maid who was romantically given just before the crime was committed. he was trampling his victim under footunder which the bones were audibly shattered and the body jumped upon the roadway is an extract from the murder description. The description is vivid, Stevenson notes how the maid heard the bones shatter, surely an awful, sickening sound. The murder is incredibly violent, representing Hydes anger boiling to the surface- alas; the exact reason for the murder is never truly revealed, leading us to think that Hyde needs violence to satisfy himself when he is allowed to roam free. The phrase the body jumped upon the roadway is also an interesting use of language, possibly representing the violence of the act; the body has been hit and abused so hard it is physically moving away from Hyde, his blows have pushed it away. The phrase adds to the sense of strength Hyde possesses, making him an even more formidable character. with indescribable amazement read the name of Gabriel John Utterson We first learn the full name of Utterson in The Last Night, after Jekyll puts his name on his will. His name could be interpreted as some as incredibly significant to the story. There are many religious connotations in Stevensons novella, and Uttersons first name could be another of these connotations. In the religion of Christianity, Gabriel is the arch-angel of God, and Gods chief messenger. He passes on messages from God to various biblical figures, giving him the title of Gods medium. His role in Christianity is similar to Gabriel John Uttersons in the Strange Case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde, he retells messages between Lanyon and Jekyll, and also uncovers the truth by reading messages intended as replies to another. Uttersons first name also reveal his good side- he is a constant friend to Dr. Jekyll throughout the novella. Nearly every member of the reading Victorian audience would be familiar with the arch-angel Gabriel, and many readers would have made the link between the two messengers. Stevenson could also of used Uttersons name as a way of stating that not everyone caught up in evil, is evil. Utterson is confronted with pure, undiluted evil a number of times in the story but he never once loses his sense of moral decency or moral fibre. The final chapter in Stevenson story contains the most information regarding the duality of man. The final chapter is in chronological order- right from Jekylls childhood to his death. The chapter also informs us of how Jekyll grew up harbouring an evil side. Hence it came about that I concealed my pleasures being an example of his youthful, dual personality. A youthful Jekyll realises that, once one enters manhood and the adult world one must learn to conceal any hope or joyfulness for fear of be let down by society or taken advantage of. So we learn that, even from childhood, Jekyll is living a lie and hiding his split personality from the world. I was in no sense a hypocrite; both sides of me were in dead earnest is an example of a slightly older Jekylls newly stifled personality. He has forced down his natural, animal-like instincts and replaced them with an acceptable, Victorian type attitude. He has learnt to ignore his impulse and instead confer to Victorian era conformity. He has become emotionally repressed and, whilst he is coping at the minute there will always be a threat of his emotions bubbling over in a Jack the Ripper type emergence. My Devil had been long caged, it came out roaringInstantly the spirit of Hell awoke in me and raged is an example of such an outburst. We know from the story that a drug causes Jekylls evil side to emerge but the warning Stevenson writes of is that anybody can be unleashed, any human has the potential to be a crazed mass-murderer, or an evil psychopath if pushed (or oppressed) hard enough. This would of hit a chord with the reading audience who were still recovering from the Jack the Ripper attacks, which left many Londoners wondering just what kind of person could commit such crimes. The answer? Anybody- for the Victorian style of living had the potential to depress, oppress and ultimately, end lives Overall, I believe Stevenson wrote The Strange Case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde as a warning to the Victorian reader. He wanted the audience to realise that everyone, regardless of social stature, finance or credibility, had the potential to be evil. Yet, in his novella, Stevenson almost determines that there is no real definition of good and evil. The human body is a complex machine and, like a snowflake, the human body changes with each individual. Humans realise and readily accept that every human has different fingerprints yet seems to find it harder to link this fact with the human brain. For ultimately, every single human is different thus the guidelines of good and evil change with every single person. And, ultimately, who are we to question who is good and who is evil? There are thousands of different religions, what if they are all wrong and the one, true religion (if there is one) actually determines evil as good, and good as evil. We are just mere mortals, and the human brain is the most complex thing on the planet. Before we even begin to scrape the surface of this complex machine, we must first begin to understand the secrets of the universe, and life. Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction. So said Albert Einstein, one of the greatest thinkers of the twentieth century. I believe that this quote sums up Stevensons approach to the dividing line between good and evil. For where other people of the age, fresh from the horrors of the Ripper murders, strived to find a logical answer to the line between good and evil, Stevenson instead moved in the opposite direction. Rather then attempt to answer the question, he questioned the question, asking whether there was an answer to a question that people were still questioning. After all, how can one answer a question that is not even based on fact, or truth, but instead on prediction? Stevensons opinion on religion is prevalent throughout the story. The story has a number of biblical links, no doubt harking back to the days he spent locked in his room with Alison Cunningham, whilst being fed awful stories of Hell and the Devil. There are a number of religious links, one of these being: This inexplicable incident, this reversal of my previous experience, seemed, like the Babylonian finger on the wall, to be spelling out the letters of my judgment. This quote mirrors the experience of Prince Belshazzar, a Babylonian prince featured in the book of Daniel. The prince, whilst dining one night, sees a mysterious, disembodied hand floating behind him. As he turned to face it, the hand begun writing in a mysterious code, on the wall. A translator later interpreted the coded writing as: Thou art weighed In the balance and art found wanting. Later that night Belshazzar is murdered in peculiar circumstances, hence the popular saying; the writing on the wall. Jekyll can see his impending doom, due to his evil exploits as Hyde but his good side is still portrayed by Stevenson, the use of religion is used for this. In the book, I believe Stevenson uses religion as a writing technique; when Stevenson wants to signify the emotive nature of people , he uses religious links and connotations. Hyde is forever associated with Hell and the Devil, whilst Jekyll and Utterson is associated with Gabriel, and the light side of religion. Religion is used to measure and signify, to compare and contrast. Religion also represents a divide in beliefs and personality. The end of the Victorian era was the first time, since the beginning of Christianity, that people were beginning to question and doubt religion. Jekyll and Hyde was penned during this time and concerns itself with the duality of man. Stevenson simply used the biggest cultural divide of the day: religion, and weaved it into his book, making the theme of duality more relevant to the reading Victorian audience. Overall, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde questions and challenges what would have been conventional beliefs in the Victorian era. It makes the reader question his own sense of right and wrong, and challenges religion and science- the two cultures that were so opposed to each other in the Victorian ere. It incorporates the depression that surrounded the Victorian dynasty, the industrial revolution, the Jack the Ripper murders and the strict conformity of living the Victorians imposed. But it also includes the first green shoots of hope that began to surface around the late 1800s- Charles Darwins The Theory of Evolution is integrated through Jekylls science and the fact that Jekyll, despite through the persona of Hyde, engaged in activities such as sex and alcoholism sent the message that man can experiment, as long as it didnt threaten or harm anyone else. The book was aware of the duality and diversity of its audience and revelled in this. Stevensons book was a revolution in itself. For it changed the conventional type of living and made people question the rules they lived under. And any book that can influence people on this scale is a rare, and beautiful, thing. The mark of a good action is that it appears inevitable in retrospect.

The Dada And Punk Movements

The Dada And Punk Movements In this essay I will be looking at two design movements from very different decades and discussing the relationship between them. The two movements which I will be analysing are the Dada and Punk movements, which have roughly 60 years between them. Firstly I will look at both movements separately and then begin to analyse how they have such a strong link through different areas in design. I will be using examples to support the key points I am going to make and visually analysing these examples in great detail. A broad range of research will also help to widen the range of examples of the design work from these periods and help me to discuss in depth the relationship between them. The Dada Movement began in 1915 just after the start of the First World War and peaked between 1916 and 1922. The movement concentrated on rebelling against the unnecessary carnage caused by the war. The Dadaists responses were to shock people in various ways with their provocative behaviour through theatre, public speeches and art. I will be comparing this movement with the Punk movement which began in 1975 and peaked for almost a decade. This movement began as a result of a number of events which happened in the seventies such as an economic disaster and the youth cultures problems with the government. There was an increase in teenage pregnancy, a rising divorce rate and mass unemployment which then caused people to rebel against traditional values. Even though both these movements began as a rebellion against society and their work started off as anti art and anti fashion a larger culture combined together to create quite the opposite. Both movements used out of the ordinary tacti cs to get attention from the public in many ways. During the Dada movement artists began to use unusual techniques which hadnt been used in this way before such as, collage, photomontage and ready-mades. Dada art went against the stereotypical and the Dadaists wanted to make a statement that they believed art could be made from anything and everything. These new techniques developed due to the fact that the Dadaists had little money during the war, therefore little resources to produce art. This meant they had to use the very few resources that were available to them. Many decades after, Punk used the same techniques, using anything they could find to produce a new type of art and fashion, using things such as recycled rubbish, cardboard and cut up newspaper articles to express their freedom. Art from both these movement was seen as anti art and asks the question What is art? Raoul Hausmann was a key figure during the Dada movement. He is an example of many artists who began to use the photomontage technique during this time. In Dada Siegt (Dada Victorious) from 1920 we can see Hausmann is trying to show his anger over the happenings during the war. In this piece Hausmann has taken many images from newspapers, magazine and other books from that time. This method of design would have angered the authorities whose images were being cut up and reassembled to be used against them. Art is not an end in itself but it is an opportunity for the true perception and criticism of the times we live in Ball (1918). Artists were trying to show; by using real photographs and newspaper headlines how the authorities were involved with the unnecessary war. At the very top of the work we can see a world map, which has Dada printed largely across it. This is trying to show that the world would be improved if everyone disagreed with the happenings and the disaster caused by t he war. Only the top half of the world is shown as this is where the Dada culture was present. Next to this, Dada Siegt is written which means Dada Victorious. In the photograph of the city street Dada labels can be seen on the houses and on the other side 391 which is the name of a Dada journal. Another part of this piece which caught my attention was the man at the bottom of the piece. He appears to be saying Fieneren Naturkrafte which translates to finer forces of nature. This again shows that the artist believed the forces of war were unnecessary. This collage is an example of how headlines and images from the media can be rearranged and put into a very different context. In this case the headlines have been used against the authorities. During the punk movement many of the posters were very similar to those that were designed during the Dada movement. They took the collage and photomontage techniques and used them again shock the public and go against the traditional view of art. It again questioned What is art? Punks didnt want to create new things they decided to recycle, manipulate and use what was already available to them. Dada artists used this same attitude during the war when very little resources were available to them. Punks used torn out letters and imagery recycled from newspapers, typewriter text and their own handwriting. Photocopying was one of the main techniques during the movement as it created an intense brutal effect which would not have been considered traditionally attractive. Like the Dada artists Punk artists used techniques which werent consider as traditional art. Hollis (2001) states Dada had been against Art; Punk was anti-Design. Both movements began as a rebellion to what was considered normal but they turned it into own style of art and design. Fig 2. Sniffin Glue Cover Issue 8 1976 by Mark Perry Sniffin Glue was a punk magazine designed by Mark Perry in 1976 and a collage style design was used on its front covers. Fig 2 is a cover from the 8th issue which like the Fig 1 discussed previously contains image and type found in newspapers and magazines. The image of the Queen has been defaced which is a famous piece of punk art work by Jamie Reid. Combined with the image of the Queen are images of band members from the Sex Pistols who empowered the Punk scene. The caption at the bottom of the image reads No Future, a slogan seen a lot on posters throughout the movement. It was a rallying cry against a bleak and meaningless life in conformist merry ol England, Vallen (2001). The use of a photocopier is apparent in this image which was a big part of the Punk movements distinctive attitude and style. Sniffin Glue went with the DIY ethic that also appeared in Dada art work. The magazine was put together using found materials, photocopied images, hand written and drawn graphics. Perry (2002) spoke about designing the magazine covers in 1976, The whole of that first issue was what I could do at that time with what I had in my bedroom. I had a childrens typewriter plus a felt-tip pen. This design included aspects which were not considered attractive but punk changed what was once considered ugly. Another way in which Punk and Dada are linked is through their use of ready-mades or assisted ready-mades. Marcel Duchamp was an artist during the time of the Dada movement and a piece which he created was L.H.O.O.Q from 1919, which Duchamp referred to as an assisted ready-made. L.H.O.O.Q was a cheap postcard of the famous painting Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci, which Duchamp then drew a moustache and beard onto and added the caption L.H.O.O.Q. When this is pronounced in French it forms the sentence Elle a chaud au cul which is translated to She has a hot ass. This piece could be seen as an attack to the original iconic painting of Mona Lisa and traditional art in general. By adding to this painting Duchamp has encouraged the viewer to consider a new perspective on classic art work. During the Punk movement artist Jamie Reid designed a piece of work which also used the assisted ready-made style. Reid designed many images for the punk band the Sex Pistols and became very well known f or his ransom note style designs. His single most iconic image of the punk era OHagen (n.d) was a piece named God Save The Queen. God Save The Queen is very similar to the Marcel Duchamps Dada image L.H.O.O.Q as they both use iconic imagery and alter it as a way to shock the public. There were two different designs, ransom (fig 4) and swastika (fig 5) which were both equally as controversial. Both pieces include an image of Queen Elizabeth II which is a copy of the original photograph for her silver jubilee celebrations, taken by Cecil Beaton in 1977. Just as Duchamp defaced the image of Mona Lisa, Reid has altered the Queens image in a way that may be considered disrespectful. Fig 4 shows the bands name and the singles title placed over the Queenss eyes and mouth in the style of a cut and paste ransom note. Fig 5 shows the Queen with a safety pin through her lips and swastikas over her eyes. The Sex Pistols and Jamie Reid used these images to shock the public just like the artists during the Dada movement. Harrison (2001) stated It was also probably the first and perhaps the last time something was put on the front cover which collectively shocked a nation. These shock tactics were used in both movements to get their opinions across to the rest of the nation. Punk and Dada also have a strong relationship between their uses of type in many pieces of work. During the Dada movement artists started to use pieces of lettering they could find from anything lying around, such as, newspapers, journals, magazines and poems. In 1919 Raoul Hausmann and Johannes Baader designed the journal Der Dada. The unique type style which the Dada artists began to use is shown on the front cover of this journal. Instead of using one font to show information on the front cover of the journal Hausmann has mixed various fonts. This style created its own version of typography which gave individual letters, words and sentences a new sense of freedom that it never possessed previously. This example from the first edition of Der Dada in 1919 contains both large and small letters which are joined in new combination along with various small symbols. Words placed vertically, horizontally and diagonally give a new life to simple letter forms and show a new sense of freedom to the reader. During the punk movement artists also started to use similar ways of working. They used whatever equipment was readily available and inexpensive such as, typewriters, stencils, found type and images and their own hand writing. Using photocopiers was also a big part of the type elements in the punk movement. Like Dada artists, Punks rejected the traditional typographic rules and used their own freedom of expression. Jamie Reid designed this poster for the Sex Pistols Anarchy in the UK tour in 1976. It contains cut and paste type which relate to the use of typography during the Dada movement. It is clear that a photocopier has been used to create the statement black letters which are written using cuttings from newspapers. This style was particularly symbolic in the 1970s as again it was a rebellion against the norm. This example shows the style of typography which was neither fluid nor free flowing. Reid combines various sizes of fonts to advertise the tour which shows the freedom of the Punk movement. We can clearly see that Reid was influenced by the collages of the Dadaists and his use of mixing found type can be related to the Fig 6 discussed previously by Dada artist Hausmann. Both the Dada and Punk artists used this unique way of working to get attention from the public and to shock society. According to Cantlon (n.d) The work of Jamie Reid was clearly influenced by the image and type coll ages of the Dadaists. These influences on Reids typography, with its deliberately erratic and eclectic mixing of fonts, sizes and styles, can be seen in many Dadaist artworks. Throughout this essay I have looked at a range of ways in which there is such a strong relationship between the Dada and Punk movements. As there were problems in society during the time of these movements there was a strong rebellion against traditional values. This caused the unique way in which both movements decided to use shock tactics to get their views across to the public and authorities. Both movements were about being independent and free but even against their best attempts to remain this way a larger culture combined with them to create a movement which started to become the norm. Dada and Punk werent about creating beautiful pieces of art or using traditional methods, they were about cut and paste and using materials which were not necessarily used to create the typical masterpieces. They were countercultures created from a rejection of dominant values and behaviour of society.

Essay on The Theme of Rappaccini’s Daughter -- Rappaccinis Daughter E

â€Å"Rappaccini’s Daughter† – The Theme  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚        Ã‚  Ã‚   In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s tale, â€Å"Rappaccini’s Daughter,† the dominanat theme is the evil within mankind. This essay intends to explore, exemplify and develop this topic.    Hyatt Waggoner in â€Å"Nathaniel Hawthorne† states:    Alienation is perhaps the theme he handles with greatest power. â€Å"Insulation,† he sometimes called it – which suggests not only isolation but imperviousness. It is the opposite of that â€Å"osmosis of being† that Warren has written of, that ability to respond and relate to others and the world. . . . it puts one outside the ‘magic circle’ or the ‘magnetic chain’ of humanity, where there is neither love nor reality (54).    Waggoner’s theme of alienation does play a part in â€Å"Rappaccini’s Daughter† in reference to the doctor and Beatrice, and Giovanni after he has been rendered poisonous by prolonged contact with Beatrice. But alienation is not, in the opinion of this reader, the dominant theme in the tale. The overriding theme would be the evil residing within human beings, regardless of how attractive they appear outwardly. â€Å"Everything he has to say is related, finally, to ‘that inward sphere’† (McPherson 68-69).    Giovanni’s love for the beautiful daughter blinds him to various indications of her poisonous nature, to the evil nature of her father and to the intent of her father to involve Giovanni as a subject in his sinister experiment. At the climax his blindness is removed and he sees, with Beatrice’s help, the truth of the situation; he sees the evil within man.    The tale takes place in Padua, Italy, where a Naples student named Giovanni Guascanti has relocated in order to attend the medical school there. His modes... ...es Press, 1968.    Hawthorne, Nathaniel. â€Å"Rappaccini’s Daughter.† ElectronicText Center. University of Virginia Library. http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/browse-mixed-new?id="HawRapp"&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public    Kazin, Alfred. Introduction. Selected Short Stories of Nathaniel Hawthorne. New York: Fawcett Premier, 1966.    McPherson, Hugo. â€Å"Hawthorne’s Use of Mythology.† In Readings on Nathaniel Hawthorne, edited by Clarice Swisher. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1996.    Waggoner, Hyatt. â€Å"Nathaniel Hawthorne.† In Six American Novelists of the Nineteenth Century, edited by Richard Foster. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1968.    Williams, Stanley T. â€Å"Hawthorne’s Puritan Mind.† In Readings on Nathaniel Hawthorne, edited by Clarice Swisher. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1996.

Comparing The Chorus of Sophocles Antigone and Americas News Channels :: Comparison Compare Contrast Essays

Comparing The Chorus of Sophocles' Antigone and America's News Channels The Greek Chorus is very similar to America's news channels because it brings the people the news in a way that they can understand it. The play Antigone by Sophocles is a tragic drama structured around the argument between a king and two sisters about the burial of their brother. Antigone can be compared to the conflict surrounding granting illegal immigrants amnesty. The Chorus is a group of people who provide background information, interpret the information, and relate it to human nature. The Chorus in Antigone tells the pros and cons of both sides of the story and adds important information needed to fully understand the conflict. The Greek Chorus serves the same functions as American news channels in the twenty-first century. Both a news channel and a Chorus provide background information during the telling of a story. After Antigone and Ismene converse about the burial of their brother, the chorus steps in setting the mood and providing background information. "Now the long blade of the sun, lying level east to west, touches with glory Thebes of Seven Gates. Open, Unlidded" (Sophocles 314). This shows that at that point in the play, it is morning and the sun has risen. It sets the tone and describes the setting for the next scene. On a news channel, background information is also provided. "Over eleven million illegal immigrants are already living in America" (Buchanan). This tells the viewer how serious the topic is by using such large numbers and giving facts. This statement will also-strike a nerve with many people because it is saying that 11 million people have committed the same crime their country. As you can see, there is a great similarity between the Greek and American way of providing b ackground information. American news channels and Greek Choruses both interpret information for viewers, so they can better understand different points of view. It is believed by the Greeks that Creon has a divine right to do whatever he wants. "If that is your will, Creon son of Menoikeus, You have the right to enforce it: we are yours" (Sophocles 316). Creon can do what he wants because the people will have to support his ideas because he is the great and powerful king with a divine right to rule.

How did the nature of work change during the 20th century? Essay

The industrial revolution transformed the nature of work. It involved a breakthrough in the use of inanimate energy and power, massive investment in industries such as iron, coal, and textiles and a transport revolution. Industrialization changed the dimension of work. In pre-industrial society â€Å"those who are employed experience a distinction between their employers time and their â€Å"own† time. And the employer must use the time of his labour, and see it is not wasted, time is now currency: it is not passed but spent. Writing in the 19th century, Marx predicted that the intermediate strata would be depressed into the proletariat. However during the latter 20th century, a number of sociologist’s had suggested that the opposite was happening. They claimed that a process of embourgeoisement was occurring whereby increasing numbers of manual worker’s were entering the middle class. During the 1950’s there was a general increase in prosperity in advanced industrial societies and, in particular, amongst a growing number of manual worker’s whose earning’s fell within the white-collar range. These highly paid affluent workers’s were seen to be increasingly typical of manual worker’s. This development, coupled with study’s, which suggested that poverty was rapidly disappearing, led to the belief that the shape of stratification system was being transformed. From the triangle or pyramid shape of the 19th century (with a large and relatively impoverished working class at the bottom and a small wealthy group at the top), it was argued that the stratification system was changing to a diamond or pentagon shape with an increasing proportion of the population falling into the middle range. In this middle mass society, the mass of the population was middle rather than working class. The U.S work activity has changed radically For example. In the 1950’s, about 20% of the workforce was professional, 20% skilled and 60% unskilled. By the 1970 the comparable figures were about 20% for professional, less than 20% for unskilled and over 60% for skilled. This reflects a change both in the skills required for new and emerging jobs and the rising skill demands for existing jobs. The theory used to explain this presumed development was a version of economic determinism. It was argued that the demands of modern technology an advanced industrial economy determined the shape of the stratification system. E.g. American sociologist Clark Kerr claimed that advanced industrialism request’s an increasingly highly educated, trained and skilled workforce which in turn leads to a higher pay and status occupations. In particular skilled technicians are rapidly replacing unskilled machine minders. Jessie Bernard argued that working-class affluence is related to the needs of an industrial economy for a mass market. In order to expand, industry requires a large market for its products. Mass consumption has been made possible because large sectors of modern industry have relatively low labour costs and high productivity. Bernard claimed that there is a rapidly growing middle market, which reflects the increased purchasing power of affluent manual worker’s. Home ownership and consumer and consumer durables such as washing machine’s, refrigerators, televisions and motorcars are no longer the preserve of white-collar workers. With reference to the class system, Bernard say’s † The proletariat has not absorbed the middle class but rather the other way round, in the sense that the class structure here described reflects modern technology. It vindicates the Marxist thesis that social organisation is â€Å"determined† by technological forces. (Goldthorpe and Lockwood 1969, p.9.) Change in the nature of work has also been driven by the changes in organization structures and the design of management often referenced as the shift from â€Å"fordism† to â€Å"post-fordism†. â€Å"Fordism† is named after Henry Ford, the American car manufacturer who pioneered mass production, which involved fairly rigid, highly structured and hierarchical forms of management. Michael J. Piore is amongst those who believe that capitalist countries have entered a â€Å"post-fordism† era. He claims that much work is now organised according to the principals of flexible specialization, management now involves more team-based work settings, with more governance, greater decentralization and less hierarchical or â€Å"top-down† management. As a result of this shift in organization and management, job design has changed form being narrow, repetitive, simplified, standardized in the old system to being broad, doing many task’s and having multiple responsibilities in the new system. Employees are now required to be multi/cross skilled, whereas specialized skills were required in the old system. These shifts are not likely to slow or lesson in the immediate future and the current economy suggests that these are the more rapid growing industries and job growth in these types of industries will outpace the rate of growth in other industries where the skills demands may be less. Worker’s in companies which are changing along these lines need to be more broadly trained as their work becomes increasingly varied. Because of their long training and the importance of their skills to their companies, they enjoy more job security, and management makes greater attempts to enlist their cooperation. Some firms have adopted another Japanese technique, quality circles. In quality circles groups of workers and managers meet together periodically to discuss how the production or performance of the company can be improved. Other initiatives may include worker’s representatives sitting on company boards, and profit-sharing scheme’s, which enable worker’s to benefit from any success the company enjoys. Flexible specialization then, increases the skills needed by the workforce, and unlike industries where scientific management techniques are used; workers may cooperate with management in organizing the labour process. By, implication, job satisfaction increases and industrial conflict decreases. The theory of flexible specialization also implies a move away from the concentration of capital in giant corporations and an increase in the number of small businesses. The British economist John Atkinson has developed similar views in his theory of the flexible firm. Atkinson believes that a variety of factors have encouraged managers to make their firms more flexible. Economic recession in the 1970’s and 1980’s, and the consequent reduction in trades union power, technological changes and a reduction in the working week, has all made flexibility more desirable and easier to achieve. According to Atkinson flexibility takes two main forms. One of which is functional flexibility, this refers to the ability of managers to redeploy workers between different tasks. Functional flexibility requires the employment of multi-skilled employees who are capable of working in different areas within a firm. Such flexible workers form the core of a company’s workforce. They are employed full-time and have considerable job security. The core is usually made up of â€Å"managers, designers, technical sales staff, quality control staff, technicians and craftsmen†. The second form of flexibility is numerical flexibility, which is provided by peripheral groups. Numerical flexibility refers to the ability of firms to reduce or increase the size of their labour force. The first peripheral group have full-time jobs but enjoy less job security than core workers. These workers might be â€Å"clerical, supervisory, component assembly and testing†, and they are easier to recruit than core workers because their skills are common to employment in many different firms. The second peripheral group of workers are even more flexible. They are not full-time permanent employees. They may work part-time, on short-term contracts, under temporary contracts or under government-training schemes. Atkinson believes that flexible firms are making increasing use of external sources of labour. More work is subcontracted and the self-employed and agency temporaries are used. A change in the attitudes towards work has also changed as a result of industrialization. The historian Thompson argues that large-scale, machine powered industry necessitated the introduction of new working patterns and with them new attitudes. According to Thompson pre-industrial work was regulated by task orientation; the new necessities of the job determined when and how hard people worked. However in post-industrialization the patterns of work are based round time rather than tasks. Thompson says â€Å"time is now currency; it is not passed but spent†. Workers who were used to a considerable amount of control over their work patterns experienced the new working day in the factory, with its emphasis on punctuality, as oppressive. They resented having to work to the clock. The early factory owners had considerable problems trying to persuade people to take jobs in factories. When they had recruited workers they often regarded their reluctant employees as work-shy and lazy. They therefore sought to change their attitudes and get them to accept new working patterns. According to David Lee and Howard Newby: â€Å"workers brought up under the assumptions of â€Å"task orientation†, were subject to massive indoctrination on the folly of â€Å"wasting† time by their employers, a moral critique of idleness which stemmed from the puritan work ethic†. One of the major changes in the nature of work is that the modern concept of the â€Å"housewife† was created in the 20th century. In earlier times, although there were clearly differentiated gender roles, there was little doubt that men and women were both involved in production. No one would have described the wife in a household of European peasants, or American pioneers, as primarily a consumer. In mid-nineteenth century America, households still carried out a vast range of productive activities; growing and preparing food, sewing and mending cloths, and reusing fabric scraps in quilts, rugs, and homemade upholstery, making and repairing furniture, tools, and other household goods, even making candles and sop from household wastes. The expansion of consumer goods industries toward the end of the 19th century began to change all this, providing affordable mass-produced substitutes for many things that had formerly been made at home. This industrial change allowed, and perhaps required, the rise of a consumer society. In the new regime, the work of the housewife shifted away from material production, toward consumption of marketed goods combined with carrying for, or â€Å"nurturing†, other family members. The change was a contradictory one, at once liberating women form exhausting toil, and commercialising daily life to an ever-expanding extent. Over the past century the way in which we go about getting work done has changed dramatically and this has created and facilitated fundamentally different social arrangements in the workplace. Indeed the application of new technologies has created new workplaces and challenged our thinking about where certain kinds of work can and should be done. Technological advances have resulted in the sharp divisions between professionals, skilled workers and unskilled workers being altered dramatically in the latter stages of this century. Whereas a century ago there were far more unskilled workers than skilled ones, in today’s world this has completely reversed and there are know far more skilled workers than unskilled. Bibliography (1) The sociology of work; Keith Grint (2) The personal consequences of work in the new capitalism: Richard Sennett (3) The future of work: Charles Handy (4) Briton in Europe: Tony Spybey (5) Www.islandpress.org/ecocompass/changingnatow/changing