The Merchant Of Venice - Jews :: Free Merchant of Venice Essays

William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice contains many examples that insult Jews because they were the minority in London in Shakespeare’s time. Although many parts of the play could be interpreted as offensive in modern times, Elizabethan audiences found them comical. The majority of London’s population at the time was anti-Semitic because there were very few Jews living there. Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice supports anti-Semitism actions and thoughts and therefore proves that Shakespeare was an anti-Semite. In the second act, Launcelot is debating with himself whether or not he should seek a new employer. Launcelot’s problem is that he works for Shylock, who is Jewish. Launcelot persuades himself that, â€Å"Certainly the Jew [Shylock] is the very devil incarnation†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (2.2.24) Eventually, Launcelot convinces himself that he would much rather run away than be ruled by a Jew. Launcelot presents this argument to his father: â€Å"I am a Jew if I serve the Jew any longer.† (2.2.104) Before Launcelot accepts a new job with Bassanio as his master, he is reminded that Bassanio is much poorer than Shylock. His reply to Bassanio was, â€Å"You have the grace of / God, sir, and he [Shylock] hath enough.† (2.2.139-40) Lorenzo insults Shylock behind his back when he tells Jessica (Shylock’s daughter) that if Shylock ever makes it to heaven, it is only because Jessica converted to Christianity. Lorenzo said, â€Å"If e’er the Jew her father come to heaven, / It will be for his gentle daughter’s sake†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (2.4.36-7) When Lorenzo says this, he is implying that Shylock’s faith and his Jewish heritage is not strong enough to get him into heaven. Lorenzo says that if Shylock is saved, it is by his Jessica’s sake, because she has chosen Christianity over Judaism. This statement implies that Lorenzo believes that Christianity is the religion that is powerful enough to admit one into heaven; therefore Lorenzo is biased against anyone that is not a Christian, such as Shylock the Jew. Later in the play Jessica is insulted by Launcelot. Launcelot believes that parents’ sins are passed down to their children. He also believes that being Jewish is a sin. Launcelot frankly tells Jessica his opinion of her: â€Å"For truly I think you are damned.† (3.5.5) He explains that she is damned by both her father and mother because she was born Jewish. Launcelot tells Jessica that her only hope is that, â€Å"Your father got / you not--that you are not the Jew’s daughter.

Developmental Process in City Life

The stimulus we were provided with was that of ‘city life'. At the beginning of the process we did not have a set group however Conor, Ellen, Sinead and I decided to stay in the group we were in as we all felt that we were able to work together well. To explore the different aspects of city life, we all came up with various ideas which incorporated this stimulus provided for us. The ideas which each of us came up with were a fantasy situation, school life, the London underground, London Snow days of 2009 and everybody's late. The first idea we tried was the ‘London underground'. We found that this was a theme which worked practically however we did not know how to expand on the idea so therefore decided to leave the idea and explore another. The second idea we tried out was the fantasy idea as we thought that due to the fact we had to include non-naturalistic aspects to our production, that this would be the easiest of the ideas to try this out with. To start with we listed various fairy tales, books, movies and television programmes and their links with different city life aspects at the time of their development. We settled on an ‘Alice in Wonderland' theme after I told the group about a situation one of my cousins in which he was walking down the road once and didn't see an open manhole in front of him and ended up falling down it and breaking his leg. We decided to try this situation out along with the ‘Alice in wonderland' theme in which a person falls down a manhole into another world and they'd go through a similar situation as Alice in which they encountered various representations of people or objects in their current life. The idea we came up with we all felt that the storyline would've worked and could've made an effective piece. However when it came to trying to piece it together we found that it was difficult to do so with the lack of people in our group and the limitations of theatre which we were faced with. In the end we found this idea may have been good for a short film but in the world of A Level theatre wouldn't be possible to make. The next idea we tried was ‘London Snow days of 2009'. Rather than focusing about people in the snow we focused on how the snow affected their everyday activities and the help or problems it caused for them. The first idea we tried for this one was based upon a hierarchy system, the type of people and where they would fallen within this system. The characters we came up with were; a person head of an office firm, a soldier returning from the war in the east, a wife of the solider and then a prostitute. Each one of us spoke about which characterisation would be a form of change for each actor and then saw which each of us could do with these characters set to us. Each of us were uncomfortable with the characters at first and to over come this we done a circle of focus in order to get us relaxed and able to settle into the characters. We found that this idea was the most effective and one which we would be able to build upon so therefore settled on this idea. For our research we focused on locating various newspaper articles of people who were trapped by the snow in different parts of the country. One particular article we located was one of a business man who had been trapped in his office building for three days before anyone was able to help dig him out of the snow up in Scotland where the snow at the time was a lot worse than that of the snow fall in London. We decided to apply this situation to the office firm worker and then acted this scene out to see how it would work within our production. We found that the situation of the worker being trapped within the complex did not work however we came up with another idea of everyone being in the same setting and the snow fall around them being really heavy and therefore the characters would be trapped together in the same room. We also did some research into the soldiers who were returning from Iraq, Afghanistan and the impact which the wars within each location had on them. To get an idea of what the soldiers would've gone through we looked at a charity called ‘Help for Heroes' which contained various information about the after effects of war for the soldiers whether it be that of physical injuries or mental change upon them. This research for Conor, who wanted to play the character, helped him a lot when it came to characterisation along with learning how much of a life change the war could be for various soldiers and their families. The next part of research we done was based around prostitution and the situations which derive from the profession. To gain an understanding of prostitution we looked at the different types there were in the country. We found the most common forms of prostitution within the United Kingdom were street prostitutes (related to the working classes) and escorts (related to the middle- upper classes). The form we focused on for the character was the street prostitution which, although this form is illegal within the United Kingdom, it is the form which the majority of STI and STD cases within the profession seem to circulate within. We found out from our research that HIV/AIDS can be said to be found within the street prostitution community within various women due to a few women within this profession not using protection whilst having sex with their clients. We decided to apply our findings to the character to see how the storyline for this particular character would go and how we could work with the situation. Before we placed the play together we thought about the different genres we could use either through out the play or whether a single genre for each scene would work. After testing out and placing the scenes together, we found that having a different genre for each scene worked. We had one scene based around a comedic situation, then the other three drama based and I think due to the fact they could be said to be detached from one another made this run work more effectively at the time. However, although the scenes fitted into together well, we found that the play was not easy to work with especially when it came to the winter when various people ended up contracting various illnesses. Due to the slow pacing and lack of progress due to everyone not really being happy with the production, we decided to change the production entirely to a format we were all happy with. We went back to our notes and looked at the various ideas which we had made at the time and decided to go back to the London Underground situation and then incorporated this with the idea of the 7/7 London bombings. To begin our production, Ellen and I looked into various news articles about the London Bombings and the enquiries of the London Bombings that are currently happening within the news. We found accounts of various people's survivor stories mainly from the bombing at King's Cross underground. The majority of accounts we found tended to be from those who were not in the carriage. However I found a piece by journalist Peter Zimonjic who was in the London bombings. In this article he wrote about what he saw, felt and heard in every detail and using this article we tried to see what we could explore using his descriptions. One particular part of his article that stood out to us was that of a man he encountered who was lying on the floor that seemed to be hurt from the waist down and he turned out to be paralysed from the waist down after the bomb. This person we thought would be a character we could use for someone within the production piece as an effective character. After discussing the possible outcomes we found that compared to the other proposed storylines we decided that Conor's storyline would have been the most effective out of them all and therefore settled on this character for Conor, which was due to be about a man called Rick White who was an athlete runner going off to meet his girlfriend for an anniversary dinner however he ended up having to do extra training due to being forced by his coach at the last minute. In having the account at hand to use and also the description of the moments made by the man, Conor was able to apply this to his character and he also done research into a gentleman who was an athlete who although he was not involved within the London bombing, his muscles seized up on him and therefore leaving him paralysed and unable to compete in any other sports from that moment onwards. This helped him in connecting the emotional aspect of being unable to provide a family and also his career being ruined, this he was able to apply to his monologue and was able to effectively connect to the audience. Another character we found through the articles was a female person who later became known at the 7/7 blogger on a website called blogspot. Her description of the bomb and the impact which it had upon her relationship with her fianci afterwards was a moment in which we also incorporated. There is a key moment in which she describes her desperation to be back with him and also the last moments she had with him. We explored this and the possible ways in which we could use this part of her article. We applied this situation to my character. Personally I found that this was extremely helpful in building my character as I was able to connect emotionally and effectively show this portrayal in my performance. The performance space which we were provided with to begin with was small and cramped which made it hard to get an idea of how to position everyone within the production and the distances between each person when piecing a scene together. We also had to share this space with two other groups which arose more difficulties with get the timing of various scenes and transitions timed with one another. This also made it difficult for us to vocally develop as we were in a small space in which we did not need to project our voice however when we came to being in the drama studio again, we could see the impact upon which being in a small environment compared to the large drama studio had upon our performances. When we began our production our pacing and attendance levels were really high especially when compared to the other groups however when it came to December time, various people within our group started contracting illnesses which were spreading throughout the college and Sinead in our group who has sickle cell disease ended up having more attacks than she due to the winter weather triggering the attacks. Whilst we had various people off ill during the time of October-December we found it was difficult trying to run different scenes with the absence of different people as they had a key part within the scene whether it was for transition reasons or being an object within a scene. For example in a scene we called ‘The Melissa Harvey' scene the absence of either Sinead or Ellen acting as a phone within the scene affected the non-naturalism within the scene greatly as whilst one person was saying ‘Ms Harvey calling' the other person was saying ‘calling reception', just encase we had absences on the day of the performance we decided to change our play and format to a way where we could still run it with the absence of people. Although we had just over a month, we worked quickly and used extra time after college hours to get the scenes placed together and the transitions to run smoothly. Overall with changing the storyline and the format of our production we were more comfortable with our London bombing storyline. For our production we kept to a simple layout of five chairs on stage and a wheelchair in order to give more focus on the performances and we also found it an easier layout to handle with just the four of us within the group. We also decided upon each person wearing black top along with either jeans or leggings of a dark colour which also added to a simplistic theme on stage. The influence behind our staging could be said to have derived from our exploration of Steven Berkoff's Metamorphosis in which we used very limited staging props and also tried to focus on our facial and body expressions, such as the moment we were doing scene 10 especially in the tube scene when we were doing the ‘something's not right' segment in which we also incorporated influences from Frantic Assembly who are a theatre company that combine the essence of movement, design, music and text together within a production. This segment of the scene had a musical essence in which we made our text, ‘something's not right', sound as if it were the train tracks of the tube. We all agreed that we wanted to aim our play at an audience who knew about the 7/7 bombings when it happened and also those who were affected y it. So this caused our audience to an age group of 14 years old and over, as from our research of those who were affected at the times of the bombing whether they were involved within it or who's parents would've been caught in the bombing attacks appeared to be around the age of 10-12 years old and are able to emotionally attach to the situation whereas those who were younger don't seem to have a clear memory of the bombing. For our production we knew we wanted to use a soundtrack, lighting and forms of special effects which could relate back to our production. In order to get an idea of what forms of sounds we wanted to incorporate together we all looked at various films and productions we were able to look at through the use of youtube. One film in particular we found helped with giving us an idea of the types of sounds we could use was the 9/11 film. We listened to the forms of sounds which they bound together especially at the moment of impact between the buildings and the plans. Conor and I decided to work on the sounds together as well as the music tracks whilst Ellen and Sinead worked on the lighting effects and also the cues for either the lighting or the sounds along with working out the seconds between each scene and special effect. Conor and I used a library of sounds which Conor had already from his media studies work, we settled upon placing a bombing noise, shattering glass and also a screeching of train tracks together and we felt that this along with our performances helped to create the tube atmosphere at the time of the crash. We gave both Sinead and Ellen the sounds to listen to so we could get their feedback upon the combinations. We also found a song called ‘London Bombs' by Eskimo Joe which we felt went the emotion of our production. For the lighting it was decided to keep it simple and high key for the majority of the performances until certain moments mainly so the audience could still see the performances along with past practicals when we've witnessed how difficult it is for the performers to effectively perform within darker lighting.

Dangers of Childhood Immunizations Essay

Evidence Supporting Thesis â€Å"In order to understand the ‘safety’ of vaccines, you have to know several things, including how a baby’s immune system works from birth onwards, and what vaccines do biochemically in the body. That work has never been done.† Found in the book Just a Little Prick by Hilary Butler No one medical treatment will work the same way on every person it is used on, so why would we expect for generalized vaccines to work the same way in every child? It is merely impossible to know how your child’s immune system will respond to vaccines, but there are consequences set in place for parents like myself who do not believe in giving annual vaccines. For example: if your child’s vaccines are not up to date, then your child is not allowed to go to school, be involved in team sports, and a host of other activities. Main Points Studies have not been done to show how each individual vaccine affects the body in both positive and negative ways. Alternative measures should be available for those parents who are against vaccinating their children. More studies need to be conducted to see what role, if any, vaccinations play in the behavioral aspect of a child’s development. Studies have not been done to show how each individual vaccine affects the body in both positive and negative ways. What are the positive effects that vaccines have on a child’s body? Vaccines can help to prevent some of the serious complications that occur as a result of serious diseases. Vaccines help to ensure that if a child comes in contact with a disease, they will only develop a mild case of the disease versus a child never having the vaccine who develops a natural immunity to the disease which will in turn cause the non-vaccinated child to have very severe complications. Varicella Infection leads to Pneumonia if no vaccine has been given. Polio Infection leads to permanent paralysis if no vaccine has been given. Mumps Infection could lead to deafness and infertility in young boys if no vaccine has been given. Hib infection can lead to permanent brain damage if no vaccine has been given. Vaccinations help to build immunity to diseases that may be foreign strains of normal diseases. * *   What are the negative effects that vaccines have on a child’s body? Because there have not been any studies on the exact biochemical effect that vaccines have on a child’s body, there is not much supporting evidence to why vaccines are negative. However, there are some studies that suggest that vaccines may be closely tied to various behavior problems such as adhd, add, and the ever controversial autism. It has been proven that vaccines cause mild side effects such as swelling, fever, flu-like symptoms, and in more severe cases: seizures. Alternative measures should be available to parents who are opposed to vaccinating their children. The bottom line School age children are required to have up-to-date vaccinations before being allowed to attend school. There aren’t any alternative options for parents who do not believe in vaccinating their children Children are not allowed to attend school. Children are not allowed to participate in group activities such as team sports, and clubs. Are we really harming our children by vaccinating them? Studies have not been done to show how each individual vaccine affects the body in both positive and negative ways. Alternative measures should be available for those parents who are against vaccinating their children. * 3.More studies need to be conducted to see what role, if any, vaccinations play in the behavioral aspect of a child’s development.

Advantages And Disadvantages Of Working In A Group Psychology Essay

Advantages And Disadvantages Of Working In A Group Psychology Essay According to Ian Brooks, â€Å"Organisation behaviour (OB) is the study of human behaviour in organisational contexts with a focus on individuals and group processes and actions†. â€Å"Hence it involves an exploration of organisation and managerial processes in the dynamic context of the organisation and is primarily concerned with the human implication of such activity† (Brooks, 2009). Overview Groups Group has always been a characteristic of human behaviour According to Aronson’s (2007) people is ‘Social Animal’, and often need interaction with others to function effectively as individuals. Definition of Group ‘Two or more people who are perceived by themselves or other as a social entity.’ (Arnold et al, 2005) The Advantages and Disadvantages of Working in a Group for the Individual When people are working in group have to be anticipated each other opinion and individual working alone cannot perform the more efficiently than what gr oup do. So there is some reward as well as weakness for individual working in group. A number of time questions have been raised whether group problem solving is superior, inferior to individual problem solving. (Hoffman, 1965 and Kelley Maier, 1930). Many problems will face by individual in order to achieving a goal. Thus he become handicapped in his approach and also fails to discover a further approach that may work out problem but in group is opposite to this. For examples the group member do not have the same approach that individual thinks but they will contribute by knocking their ruts in thinking in order to solve the problem. Participation in Problem Solving Increases Acceptance Group problem solving authorize participation and influence, it follows that more individuals acknowledge solutions when a group solves the problem than when one person solves it. When one individual solves a problem he still has the task of convincing others. Therefore, when groups solve such prob lems, a greater number of persons accept and feel responsible for making the solution work. Better Comprehension of the Decision Decision made in group is directly utilized by the group member were as when individual make a decision he has to consult with decision maker to the decision-executors. Disadvantages Social Pressure Social pressure is a major force making for agreement good member will accept tends to silence disagreement and favours consensus. Minority opinions in leaderless groups have little influence on the solution reached, even when these opinions are the correct ones (Maier & Solem, 1952). Reaching agreement in a group often is confused with finding the right answer, and it is for this reason that the dimensions of a decision’s acceptance and its objective quality must be distinguished (Maier, 1963).

Describing the Warfront Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Describing the Warfront - Essay Example Describing the Warfront The passage comes from the work of Walter Benjamin, One-Way Street, and Other Writings. It considers the narratives of a soldier in the war front. The narrator shows awareness of the concerns shared by the troops while on the fighting front. This includes the concern on death and fatal enemy assaults. It pointed out that narrator lives in fear over his life due to the depth of the risks. The narrator shows the ease upon which loss of life is achieved in his station. This stimulates concern in his entire session. At some point, he finds himself dreaming about the losses he might suffer upon his death. This is captured by use of a reflection of his childhood friend, whom he has not shared information for a long time. Understanding the depth from where the author gets his inspiration allow for the meeting of the interests aspired by his work. Such an interest is achieved through reflection of tone, wording and language used in the work. The caption allows for the reflection of the lives of the victims through their own words and flow of thoughts. A tone of anguish, fear and pain remain well relished in the entire caption. The author is portrays the entire concerns that remain attributed to the respective reflection through the aid of these virtues. This narrative holds the themes embraced by Walter Benjamin in his work. The narration is on a sad theme that involves reflection on fear and death in a single piece. The whole novel, One-Way Street, and Other Writings, has similar themes of sadness.

Creating Conditions for Learning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Creating Conditions for Learning - Essay Example I discuss my views on these areas by using personal experiences to assess whether they are integral to maintaining the lesson’s momentum, which in turn translates into academic achievement. I believe that learning can only occur when all parties (students and instructors) are able to create an interactive conducive environment. Earlier on, I learned that instructors bear the responsibility of creating such an environment. For example, simply preparing a lesson plan by the book, does not guarantee to learn, as more than one factor might dissuade students from learning. Disruptive behaviors from students rank high on the list of learning detractors. Therefore, instructors must always be wary of students prone to behavioral problems, in order to mitigate them before such behaviors hinder the learning process. At the core of the different problem-solving approaches I use, is the intent to equip the students with behavioral skills, which will assist them in mitigating disruptive be haviors. In my opinion, helping students avoid disruptive behaviors is not merely enough to maintain lesson momentum. More often than not, I have come to the realization that instructors are to blame for losing the lesson’s momentum. The text clearly states that instructional activities comprise of both strategies and formats. The former refers to the different ways of grouping students whereas the latter refers to the different methods used by instructors to engage their students (6.04). Therefore, instructors with personal inadequacies, which hinder them from executing either of the instructional activities risk affecting students’ engagement and in turn their academic achievement. I agree that instructors might stand to benefit from comparing themselves against the areas listed in the module’s text if they hope to improve their instructional strategies.

Measuring Economic Health Memo Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Measuring Economic Health Memo - Research Paper Example In general, markets go through boom-bust cycles about every twenty years (Mead, 1992). Knowing how GDP is doing now helps to predict if were in a boom or a bust, which is important to the business cycle. However, GDPs value as an economic indicator, and therefore a predictor of the business cycle, is coming under attack now. Roubini, for example, points out that, â€Å"The best advice I can give you is to realize that there is an unavoidable amount of uncertainty in the economy. This is even more true of firms and their financial statements. So what do we do? My choice is to get out of this game altogether, but not everyone has this option---a firm, for example, has to forge ahead the best it can. The first thing you should know is that theres a lot of uncertainty out there, and no amount of commercial forecasting is going to change that†. Roubini is saying that GDP isnt ever for certain: It can be determined one year then the same year can be revised a whole percentage point later! Its hard to predict things like wars or terrorist attacks. In fact, GDP is very easy to â€Å"game† (Ritholtz, 2010). â€Å"[Y]ou simply under-report inflation, and GDP appears to be better than it is†. Since inflation depends on counting the value of a good last year, and doing so across many goods to make sure that its not just one or two goods that grew in price for other reasons, theres a lot of subjectivity and uncertainty in making it. GDP is also not as helpful as it could be because it positively counts negative externalities (Ritholtz, 2010). That means that pollution, which is a bad thing, is counted as a good thing because it makes people spend money to go to the doctor or buy new houses to move. â€Å"If you buy a car, the GDP goes up. If you cut a tree, the GDP goes up. But if you preserve the tree, the GDP does not grow. Now you have to decide whether you need the tree or the GDP† (Sharma,