Essay on WOMENEssay Writing Service

Essay on WOMENEssay Writing Service Essay on WOMEN Essay on WOMENOnce there were distinctive differences between men and women, their roles in the society and models of behavior. Much has changed since those times. Today, gender roles have shifted essentially influencing societies and civilization on the whole. Women in the Western culture are now no more content with the role of a homemaker; they go out to make their own careers and share the same rights as men. It goes without saying that freedom is more a virtue than a burden; still there are a number of questions arising. Fighting for their rights, the most active women have given birth to a stream of movements and ideologies united under the title of feminism. Today, there is a continuous discourse on the behalf of both opponents and proponents of feminism, but the main thing is to understand the very roots and reasons of the phenomenon. Therefore, this study is intended to find out the objective state of the problem and conclude whether women do win by acquiring the equal stat us with men. For that end, the existing literature covering different perspectives will be analyzed. In particular, the study will focus on protofeminist movements in Europe of the 19the century; passing the Representation of the People Act in 1918; demonstrations on women’s suffrage; women’s efforts during the First World War and the Second World War; the first wave, the second wave and the third wave feminism on the whole. The research is expected to prove that although social reconstruction of sex and gender is not always beneficial neither for women nor for men, the struggle for equal opportunities has become a historically determined stage of social development.The collection of archive video is presented to show how women struggled for emancipation through 1890-1930. This primary source is extremely valuable for a foundational research because it pictures the way women lived at the end of the nineteenth century, and in what way women were expected to be feminine. It is also demonstrated how their lives have been reshaped by the end of 1920s. For example, women with dangerous occupations are shown. This film helps to realize what the thoughts and feelings of women were like at the beginning of emancipation movement.The interview with one of the most thought-provoking and uncompromising feminist theoreticians of the twenty-first century gives an image of the new feminist religion and helps to understand what values and views are spread among feminists today. This primary source deals with sex equality issues, provides legal definitions of sexual harassment, and profoundly criticizes pornography industry as an explicit practice of sex inequality. The information provided by Catherine MacKinnon can be used as an evidence of the realized need for broader horizons for women.The author tries to investigate the relationship between feminist theory and capitalist ideology. A source addressing philosophical perspective is beneficial for a multifacete d research because it provides a useful base to operate with such terms as identity, patriarchy, globalization, and essentialism, often met in the feminist literature. What is more, the book is well-structured, so that it shows how the first, second, and third waves of feminism spanned.The study focuses on the current state of feminism and explains how the so-called third wave began. Although the main attention is paid to the end of the twentieth century and current moment, there is also a deep sight into the genesis of feminity. Generational account of feminism, at the same time, makes it clear for a reader why there are disputes and controversies within the movement.The book deals with an interesting aspect, the relationship between feminist movement and popular culture. It is obvious that today feminism has already penetrated into the mainstream, so the authors try to find out what factors made it possible and what the possible consequences are. The source seems to be even more u seful because it provides alternative view through the analysis of such popular texts as Sex and the City, hip hop culture, Bridget Jones and so on.The source adds much understanding of womanist theory. The author focuses on women’s culture. The source is useful because it places the aspect of womanhood into the context of global problems, including the Civil Rights Movement and nuclear weapons. What is more, it makes the feelings of women clearer, which is important for an objective view.The authors have chosen the relationships between feminism and domesticity as their main subject. The lens they look through is popular culture, mostly reality shows produced in the United States. As popular culture has a serious impact on youth, the study helps to realize the power of feminist ideology today.Judith Worell examines the main contributions made by feminists to the discipline of psychology. Equality and social justice are promoted for all in the different aspects of feminist ps ychology. For example, there is a proposition to develop innovative approaches to therapeutic practice for women. Thus, the information can be used to see the difference between common scholarship and the reflected areas.

Speculation That Edward De Vere Was the Real Shakespeare

Speculation That Edward De Vere Was the Real Shakespeare Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, was a contemporary of Shakespeare and a patron of the arts. A poet and dramatist in his own right, Edward de Vere has since become the strongest candidate in the Shakespeare authorship debate. Edward de Vere: A Biography De Vere was born in 1550 (14 years before Shakespeare  in Stratford-upon-Avon) and  inherited the title of 17th Earl of Oxford before his teenage years. Despite receiving a privileged education at Queen’s College and Saint John’s College, De Vere found himself in financial dire straights by the early 1580s – which led to Queen Elizabeth granting him an annuity of  £1,000. It is suggested that De Vere  spent the later part of his life producing literary works but disguised his authorship to uphold his reputation in court. Many believe that these manuscripts have since become credited to William Shakespeare. De Vere died in 1604 in Middlesex, 12 years before Shakespeare’s death in Stratford-upon-Avon. Edward de Vere: The Real Shakespeare? Could De Vere really be the author of Shakespeare’s plays? The theory was first proposed by J. Thomas Looney in 1920. Since then the theory has gained momentum and has received support from some high-profile figures including Orson Wells and Sigmund Freud. Although all the evidence is circumstantial, it is none-the-less compelling. The key points in the case for De Vere are as follows: â€Å"Thy countenance shakes spears† is how De Vere was once described in royal court. Could this have been a codified reference to De Vere’s literary activities? In print, Shakespeare’s name appeared as â€Å"Shake-speare.†Many of the plays parallel events from De Vere’s life. In particular, supporters consider Hamlet to be a deeply biographical character.De Vere had the right education and social standing to write in detail about the classics, law, foreign countries, and language. William Shakespeare, a country bumpkin from Stratford-upon-Avon, would simply have been unequipped to write about such things.Some of De Vere’s early poetry appeared in print under his own name. However, this stopped soon after texts were printed under Shakespeare’s name. So,  its been suggested that De Vere took on his pseudonym when Shakespeare’s earliest works were first published: The Rape of Lucrece (1593) and Venus and Adonis (1594). Both poe ms were dedicated to Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, who was considering marrying De Vere’s daughter. De Vere was well traveled and spent most of 1575 in Italy. 14 of Shakespeare’s plays have Italian settings.Shakespeare was heavily influenced by Arthur Golding’s translation of Ovids Metamorphoses. There is some evidence to suggest Golding lived in the same household as De Vere at this time. Despite this compelling circumstantial evidence, there is no concrete proof that Edward de Vere was the real author of Shakespeare’s plays. Indeed, it is conventionally accepted that 14 of Shakespeare’s plays were written after 1604 – the year of De Vere’s death. The debate goes on.

SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCE AND PUBLIC POLICY-CASE STUDIES IN POLICY PowerPoint Presentation

SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCE AND PUBLIC POLICY-CASE STUDIES IN POLICY DECISION - PowerPoint Presentation Example The approach of selection using the strict legislative system will most certainly be merit. Therefore, the students who fail to attain pre-determined levels of competency in primary school will be forced to endure more years in intermediate schools until they attain the compulsory age where the legislation gives them the freedom to leave school. However, such a system might discourage some students who might be competent in other areas than education or for slow learners. Furthermore, the psychological impacts of compelling certain students to intermediate levels rather than allowing them to join secondary schools could be devastating to such students. The general realization is that such a system does not give students fair chances to attain their potential by condemning them to legislations, which are mainly aimed at locking students out of secondary schools rather providing them with opportunities. The circular 10/65 perhaps provides a feasible alternative because it gives students options of either taking approaches that will ensure that they remain in school until just after the compulsory age, or they proceed to further their studies after secondary school. The circular 10/65 has two tier systems. These two tier systems ensure that after primary schools that allow students to either proceed to secondary schools or stay in intermediate schools for two years after which they will be free to decide whether they want to proceed or not. Circular 10/65 strongly advocates against a system that will deliberately discriminate against students with the potential to join secondary schools and become productive. The 10/65 circular also creates provision for students willing to stay in school even after attaining the age of 16 even if such students do not qualify to proceed through the conventional system. The circular proposes that middle level colleges be established that will cater f or the

Advanced Financial Accounting; Corporate Social Responsibility Essay

Advanced Financial Accounting; Corporate Social Responsibility - Essay Example The policy of CSR operates is self regulated and built in a mechanism in which a business ensures and monitors its compliance with the spirit of ethical standards, the law as well as international norms. When employed, CRS aims at embracing responsibility for the actions of the business and encourage desired impacts through its operations on the consumers, environment, stakeholders, communities and employees (Kvaal and Nobes, 2010, p. 180). CRS aids the business’s mission and guides it to stand for the will of its consumers. Sustainability development embraces business ethics through applying ethics that examine moral and ethical principles that are common in any business environment. CRS ensures a sustainable development approach to the business’s economic development, responsible environmental management and social progress (Luez and Verrecchia, 2000, p. 100). This follows the fact that CSR helps the organizations to have continued commitment to contribute to the deve lopment of the economy at the same time behaving ethically to improve the life quality of the employees as well as the local society and community at large. Businesses over the years have been promoted through CSR strategies now that the public, consumers and the investors expect them to be responsible and sustainable (Milllon, 1993, p. 1). In selected cases, CSR may result in a number of environmental, social and economic pressures and has been regarded as a strategy to divert the attention of interested parties from the environmental impacts and negative social impacts. The above situation has led to scholars to argue that businesses tend to tame the sustainability concept to imply that it is more than just an environmental and social engagement that businesses can be able to easily accommodate (Neville, 2012, p. 37) Businesses focus their strategies on identifying and employing CSR forms that lead to win-win situations for the wider stakeholders and business. They consider CSR as an extensions of the existing management toolkit meant to enhance shareholders wealth through offering business new opportunities and this is can be achieved through sustainable development like coming up with financial value, improving their management system, encouraging innovation, transparency to stakeholders, continuous improvement, risk awareness and enhancing reputation (Sheeba, 2011, p. 95.  ). Apart from considering CSR as a trade off or managerial distraction against profits, case proponents promote the idea of having the corporations taking charge of their social environment making it part of their main business activity. Including social considerations in the decisions of the business and employing a leadership role in social matters can also be looked at as means of promoting a light-handed strategy to regulations (Shim & Siegel, 2008, p. 81). CSR can end up reducing the future regulation prospects and be regarded as an alternative to business regulations. In such a context, CRS is hence mainly placed in the traditional framework of creating value for the owners of the business through putting more interest in the possibility of a win-win situation. Managing, understanding and responding to the expectations of shareholders can be looked at as self-interests that have been enlightened (Siegel & Shim, 2008, p. 29) Most businesses justify their approaches and strategies by referring only the positive correlations between profits, the activities of CSR and shareholders returns (Freidman, 2002, p. 63). This however should not be the case as any approach assumed by a business in relation to CSR depends on how ethical investment is defined and that

Relationship between top management and human resource management

Relationship between top management and human resource management Human Resource is used to describe individuals in the workforce of an organization, even if it is also applied in labor economics, for instance, industries and even entire nations. Human resources is also the name of the function in a body with overall responsibility for implementing strategies and policies on people management Human resource management involves the development of a perfect blend between tradition and administrative functions well-being of all employees in an organization. Retention of employees is directly proportional to how employees are treated, in exchange for their know-how and experience. The reason top manager care little about human resource department Top managers care little about human resource compared to production, marketing, finance, and engineering. There are some reasons. Marketing department is the process by which companies create customer interest in goods or services. It generates the strategy behind the sales techniques, business communication and business developments. It is an integrated process by which organizations build strong customer relationships and create value for their customers and themselves. Marketing is used to identify the customer, to satisfy the customer, and to keep the customer. With the customer at the center of its activities, it can be concluded that marketing management is a key component of business management. The adoption of marketing strategies requires companies to shift their focus from production to the perceived needs and desires of their customers how to stay profitable. However human resource is not relative customer. It is relation between manager and workforce or worker, which clearly shows that human resource, has got to care much of the companys employees as well as its employees attitude towards the customers, which means that the employees have to be well trained. The finance department of a business takes responsibility for organizing the financial and accounting affairs including the preparation and presentation of appropriate accounts, and the provision of financial information for managers. The main areas covered by the financial department include book keeping procedure, creating a balance sheet and profit and loss account, providing management information, management of wages and raising of finance. The foundation of every production department is to create goods or services. Basically, production included the physical assembly of goods, however, production can also include data-based goods such as websites, analysis services and order processing services. The main function of the production department is to produce a product or service that creates profit and revenue for the company. Every production and operations department must function as self-evaluating entity that monitors the quality, quantity, and cost of goods produced. Forecasting, scheduling, purchasing, design, maintenance, people management, flow analysis, reporting, assembly and testing are the common task functions in a production and operation department. Production and operations departments typically function as a fulfillment entity that ensures the timely delivery of the output from production to customers. Critical path analysis, stock control analysis, utilization analysis, capacity analysis, just-in-time a nalysis of inputs, quality metrics analysis and break-even analysis are included in standard analysis functions in a production department. Most probably it is because human resource is harder to manage since it involves managing people in the company. Other departments like marketing, finance, production and engineering are aimed to increase the profit whereas for human resource, it is to manage the employees, to hire, to train or even to fire. Main difficulties would be things like turnover or quitting without informing and etc, since when such things occur, it is not something that manager can solve in a day. For example, when the employees just quit without informing earlier, it is not that simple to get another employees to replace. Even if employees are found to replace, it takes time to train them. Therefore, human resource is more troublesome to manage compared other department, thats why top managers care little about human resource. And also, human resource department, in order to achieve the organizational objectives of the organization for talent acquisition, development cooperation, while maintaining their a bility to establish a system to unleash it as a process can be, which means that it is less productive compared to other departments. Solution to change top manager perception in human resource department There are some ways to change top managers perception in the human resource department Human resource department can help the production department recruitment the labors Human resource department is not a significant revenue generating department but it can help the production department with the recruitment of labors, especially the technicians. When it comes to hiring workers, they should consider about workers abilities and skills that they are capable of. Human resource department can help company save cost Human resource department does not control and manage the cash flow of the firm, but human resource department can help company to save cost. Human resource department helps the company to reduce the cost. For example, through lay off unnecessary people in the company or reduce the number of employees, providing multi-tasks for the employees, reducing reward such as annual leave and bonus of year, save cost in stationary by sharing with colleagues, save training cost of employees by providing job training. If the costs are saved in such a way in Human resource department, the company will have more money liquid to run the business. Payroll can manage by technology Payroll can be managed by technology however; the experience cannot be substituted by technology. Normally human resource is a challenging department in the company, with the facts that the department carries the responsibilities for interview, promotion to employee, labor law knowledge, and psychological knowledge to take care the employees problem such as what employees need and want, which has to be coached by the human resource department. If one of the employees in the company is not satisfy with the company, employee will eventually resign and this will affect the turnover, especially the marketing employees. The employees working under marketing are more likely to be pressured compared to employees working under other departments. It is because if there is a decrease in the company sales, they might face layoff from the company, and this is why technology cannot substitute in the human resource line. Human resource department is not a payroll department only The top human resource department is not a payroll department; many special jobs which can only be handled by human resource department cannot be substituted by other departments. Training, interviewing, recruiting the right person and so on and so forth is very important. It is because if human resource department recruit the wrong person and place him or her in the wrong position can make be an issue in the company. And if human resource department cannot train the employees well, they wouldnt be able to feel or really not able to improve any longer in the company. Planning a mentoring program One of the best ways to overcome human resources issues is to launch a mentoring program for diversity. This could entail involving different departmental managers in a mentoring program to coach and provide feedback to employees who are different from themselves. For the program to run successfully, it is wise to provide practical training for these managers or seek help from consultants and experts in this field. Usually, such a program will encourage members of the organization to make their views known and to learn to resolve conflicts because of their diversity. More importantly, the purpose of a Diversity Mentoring Program seeks to encourage members to go beyond their own cultural frame of reference to recognize and fully exploit the productivity potential inherent in a diverse population. Human resources managers can conveniently employee relations between ministries and the scope has for the lower-rung of communication with employees at different levels. The field is a derivative of system theory and organizational psychology. Human resources have won a number of interpretations related in time, she continues to defend the need to ensure the well-being of employees. Every organization now has an exclusive human resources department to interact with representatives of all factors of production. The department is responsible for the development and application of current research on advanced strategic while engaging end and staff training. Question 2 1.0 Introduction In this assignment we went to get the application form from other company, and we have using the Focus Point Holding Berhad to explain about their job discretion and some of the information which they have in their application form. Furthermore we have used the application form to analyze all the application form data and their company job description. After we analyzed all the reliable data obtained from Focus Point Holding Berhads application form and we have think of better way to improve the job description for their company, at the same time we have used other competitor companys job description for comparison. We used it to compare with Focus Point Holding Berhad and adopt the strength of other companies to overcome the problem of insufficient information in the job description of Focus Point. Besides we also used internet sources to gain more ideas on how to improve the job description of Focus Point Holding Berhad. Moreover, from the application form that we get, it enable us to know what are the basic elements that application form should have and easily detect the defects and the weaknesses of the form. We have improved and overcome all these weaknesses for the application form obtain from Focus Point Holding Berhad. At the end after we analyzed the application form we knew that there are reasons for the company to list down the element such as previous job references, salary needs, family background and etc. 2.0 Body of Contents 2.1 Types of Information The job application form of Focus Point Holding Berhad contained position applied for, personal particulars, family particulars, education background, employment history, reference and others. 2.2 The Mistakes and the Ways of Improve 2.2.1 Personal Particulars In this section, there are two elements that needed to improve. There is no emergency call available in the form. Focus Point has left out this important section. Every company should demands the extra call which able to directly contact with their family members or relatives. This is to prevent when the company encounter the employee accident occurrence or emergency situation and then doesnt know do a contact with who. As for the health status showed at the form is difficult to measure, because they might not understand about the meaning of poor, average and good of the health status. Therefore, Focus Point should put in specific choices or just put a column over there to let them fill up what disease that they have. 2.2.2 Education Background For this section, there is containing one of the columns like Name of School/ College/ University, but never mentioned that the applicant should write down the result of the applicant as well because it can save the time for Focus Point to check out the result of the applicant and also they have to add one more subtitle, which is Other Education, because some of the applicants might have some training on the other place. Other than that, in the column of Specialization, Focus Point did not indicate what it is because there is already has a column called Course Taking and it able to show what the applicants specialized on. Furthermore, the column of the Years, the applicant might not know that is the first year that they began their study life or the year of graduation. 2.2.3 Employment History In the column of Total Salary, those applicants might do not know whether the salary is based on day, week or month because different job has different way to pays salary. Thus they have to indicate clearly. In additional, the space Reason of Leaving is too small, there is not enough for those applicants. Therefore, they should expand it. 2.2.4 Reference For this section, Focus Point provided only two columns and state that the applicant has to provide at least two references. If the applicant wants to provide three references, then there is no space for them. Hence, Focus Point should state the sentence provide two references instead of at least two, or else they should give one more blank. 2.2.5 Others In the question of asking applicant does he or her needs hostel? Focus Point should put the location of the hostel as well. 2.2.6 Extra Requirements Just because of Focus Point has provided part time job, then they be supposed to add the info of Days and Hours Available, in order to arrange well for the employees. Furthermore, they should ask a question, which is Why you want to apply this job? in order to further understand what the applicants think, thus this is one of the ways able to get closer with employee. 2.3 Job Description of Focus Point Holding Berhad This is the job description of the Focus Point Holding Berhad and the position is Branch Manager. Branch Manager Responsibilities: To lead the team to achieve the sales target To be responsible and run the outlet business operations To do daily and monthly planning and management work To monitor and liaise with the supplier or HQ(headquarters) in ordering stocks To handle and solve complaints from the customer Requirement: Minimum SPM/STPM qualification and above Excellent selling skills, customer oriented, dynamic and proactive Good Communication Skills in English and Bahasa Malaysia. Chinese dialects is an added advantage Minimum 5 years of experience in retail management, preferably in optical business or optical retail chain stores Computer literate Applicants should be Malaysian citizens 2.4 The Insufficient of the Focus Point Holding Berhads Job Description The explanation of the particular which provided by Focus Point Holding Berhad actually is not sufficient, therefore they should have a further advance. 2.4.1 Responsibilities For the section of responsibilities, Focus Point has lacking of some points. As a branch manager, he or she is supposed to have need of do the interview, selection and then recruitment. Other than that, branch manager also must provide the training and development for their employees in order to maintain the reputation of Focus Point and also able to respond the market quickly. Besides that, branch manager must concern about the safety of their employees because no safety guaranty, the loyalty of employees will reduced. Not only the employees, the shop security also required to paid close attention in order to avoid external factors such as robbery, disturbance created by people and so forth, these would cause properties loss. In addition, branch manager needs has capability on allocating resources as well. This is because to assign the right employee to the right position and controlling the capital flowing are important in order to ensure the business operations run smoothly. Furth ermore, branch manager must possess great communicate skill with employees and customers because these able to prevent high turnover rate and low loyalty of customers and also can for the long term achievement. 2.4.2 Requirements For the requirements section, Focus Point stated that they need minimum SPM/STPM qualification, but as a branch manager, he or she should has minimum requirement of Bachelors Degree because though the experiences able to cover it but they might lack of some extra knowledge. Experience can be gained but knowledge is difficult to build if without learning. Other than that, Focus Point only stated that the branch manager have to good in communication skills with three languages, but actually good in writing skill is important as well, this is because they would required to writing out the accurately report to the headquarters (HQ) in order to let HQ to do further decisions or changes. Besides that, they didnt mention about own transport that the branch manager supposes to has it, because it would cause inconvenience for the meeting with HQ, sudden case occurred in supplier and need to go over there by own to check it out, if without own transport. 3.0 Conclusion In the Focus Point Holding Berhad, the job description and job application form of the company have some weaknesses; therefore we were looking for some new ways to improving it. We have come out with some solutions to improve some of the weaknesses in the job application form and job description as well. At first we analyzed the job description before we think about the solution to overcome the weaknesses. Other than that, we also used internet resources to search for other companies job description for comparison and we have generated some data to improve for the Focus Point Holding Berhad.

History of British Literature

Late Medieval Period 14th Century British Literature 14th and 15th were period of transition from feudalism to pre-industrial era. A time of political, social and ideological conflicts; England was in war with France (the hundred year war 1337-1453 Edward’s claim to the French throne and attempt to bring England, Gascony and Flanders under unified political control). The defeats in France lead to deepening the internal crisis. The decline in agriculture together with the rise in the population resulted in frequent famines and helped the spread during the 14th c. of the â€Å"Black Death†. 381 – The Peasants’ Revolt. Culture: by 15th century England had become a nation with the sense of separate identity and indigenous culture 1362- English became the official language in court and was also used in schools. 14thc. witnessed the first original literary works written in English. Middle English literature English literature of the medieval period, c. 1100 to c . 1500. Background The Norman conquest of England in 1066 traditionally signifies the beginning of 200 years of the domination of French in English letters. French cultural dominance, moreover, was general in Europe at this time.French language and culture replaced English in polite court society and had lasting effects on English culture. But the native tradition survived, although little 13th-century, and even less 12th-century, vernacular literature is extant, since most of it was transmitted orally. Anglo-Saxon fragmented into several dialects and gradually evolved into Middle English, which, despite an admixture of French, is unquestionably English. By the mid-14th cent. , Middle English had become the literary as well as the spoken language of England. The Early PeriodSeveral poems in early Middle English are extant. The  Orrmulum  (c. 1200), a verse translation of parts of the Gospels, is of linguistic and prosodic rather than literary interest. Of approximately the same date,  The  Owl and the Nightingale  (see separate article) is the first example in English of the  debat,  a popular continental form; in the poem, the owl, strictly monastic and didactic, and the nightingale, a free and amorous secular spirit, charmingly debate the virtues of their respective ways of life. The Thirteenth Century Middle English prose of the 13th cent. ontinued in the tradition of Anglo-Saxon prose? homiletic, didactic, and directed toward ordinary people rather than polite society. The â€Å"Katherine Group† (c. 1200), comprising three saints' lives, is typical. The  Ancren Riwle(c. 1200) is a manual for prospective anchoresses; it was very popular, and it greatly influenced the prose of the 13th and 14th cent. The fact that there was no French prose tradition was very important to the preservation of the English prose tradition. In the 13th cent. the  romance, an important continental narrative verse form, was introduced in England.It drew fro m three rich sources of character and adventure: the legends of Charlemagne, the legends of ancient Greece and Rome, and the British legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Layamon's  Brut, a late 13th-century metrical romance (a translation from the French), marks the first appearance of Arthurian matter in English (see  Arthurian legend). Original English romances based upon indigenous material include  King Horn  and  Havelok the Dane, both 13th-century works that retain elements of the Anglo-Saxon heroic tradition.However, French romances, notably the Arthurian romances of  Chretien de Troyes, were far more influential than their English counterparts. In England French romances popularized ideas of adventure and heroism quite contrary to those of Anglo-Saxon heroic literature and were representative of wholly different values and tastes. Ideals of  courtly love, together with its elaborate manners and rituals, replaced those of the heroic code; a dventure and feats of courage were pursued for the sake of the knight's lady rather than for the sake of the hero's honor or the glory of his tribal king.Continental verse forms based on metrics and rhyme replaced the Anglo-Saxon alliterative line in Middle English poetry (with the important exception of the 14th-century alliterative revival). Many French literary forms also became popular, among them the  fabliau; the exemplum, or moral tale; the animal fable; and the dream vision. The continental allegorical tradition, which derived from classical literature, is exemplified by the  Roman de la Rose, which had a strong impact on English literature. Medieval works of literature often center on a popular rhetorical figure, such as the  ubi sunt,  which remarks on the inevitability? nd sadness? of change, loss, and death; and the  cursor mundi,  which harps on the vanity of human grandeur. A 15,000-line 13th-century English poem, the  Cursor Mundi,  retells human histo ry (i. e. , the medieval version? biblical plus classical story) from the point of view its title implies. A number of 13th-century secular and religious Middle English lyrics are extant, including the exuberant  Sumer Is Icumen In, but like Middle English literature in general, the  lyric  reached its fullest flower during the second half of the 14th cent. Lyrics continued popular in the 15th cent. from which time the  ballad  also dates. The Fourteenth Century The poetry of the alliterative revival (see  alliteration), the unexplained reemergence of the Anglo-Saxon verse form in the 14th cent. , includes some of the best poetry in Middle English. The Christian allegory  The  Pearl  (see separate article) is a poem of great intricacy and sensibility that is meaningful on several symbolic levels. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,  by the same anonymous author, is also of high literary sophistication, and its intelligence, vividness, and symbolic interest render it possibly the finest Arthurian poem in English.Other important alliterative poems are the moral allegory  Piers Plowman,  attributed to William  Langland, and the alliterative  Morte Arthur,  which, like nearly all English poetry until the mid-14th cent. , was anonymous. The works of Geoffrey  Chaucer  mark the brilliant culmination of Middle English literature. Chaucer's  The Canterbury Tales  are stories told each other by pilgrims? who comprise a very colorful cross section of 14th-century English society? on their way to the shrine at Canterbury. The tales are cast into many different verse forms and genres and collectively explore virtually every significant medieval theme.Chaucer's wise and humane work also illuminates the full scope of medieval thought. Overshadowed by Chaucer but of some note are the works of John  Gower. The Fifteenth Century: The 15th cent. is not distinguished in English letters, due in part to the social dislocation caused by the prol onged Wars of the Roses. Of the many 15th-century imitators of Chaucer the best-known are John  Lydgate  and Thomas  Hoccleve. Other poets of the time include Stephen  Hawes  and Alexander  Barclay  and the Scots poets William  Dunbar, Robert  Henryson, and Gawin  Douglas.The poetry of John  Skelton, which is mostly satiric, combines medieval and Renaissance elements. William  Caxton  introduced printing to England in 1475 and in 1485 printed Sir Thomas  Malory's  Morte d'Arthur. This prose work, written in the twilight of  chivalry, casts the Arthurian tales into coherent form and views them with an awareness that they represent a vanishing way of life. The  miracle play, a long cycle of short plays based upon biblical episodes, was popular throughout the Middle Ages in England. The  morality play, an allegorical drama centering on the struggle for man's soul, originated in the 15th cent.The finest of the genre is  Everyman. English Society in the 14th Century Summary:    The Canterbury Tales is set in fourteenth-century London, one of the medieval period's great centers of commerce and culture. In England at this time, society was still very strictly ordered, with the King and nobles having all power in things political and the Catholic Church having all authority in spiritual matters. English Society in the 14th Century The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer, is recognized as the first book of poetry written in the English language.This is because poetry was often written in Italian or Latin not English, even writers from England wrote in the other languages because English was considered low class and vulgar, but after Chaucer's writings were published they became a recognized and legitimate work. The Canterbury Tales gives modern readers a good judgment of language in the 14th century as it also gives a rich, elaborated tapestry of medieval social life, combining elements of all classes, from nobles to wo rkers, from priests and nuns to drunkards and thieves.The view of the Canterbury Tales being held up as a precise reflection of English society in the 14th century is significantly correct, because they were very attached to the church and beliefs and the way they all act in the Tales shows how they really were a society of the Church. â€Å"The Canterbury Tales is set in fourteenth-century London, one of the medieval period's great centers of commerce and culture. In England at this time, society was still very strictly ordered, with the King and nobles having all power in things political and the Catholic Church having all authority in spiritual matters.However, trade and commerce with other nations had expanded dramatically in this century, giving rise to a new and highly vocal middle class comprised of merchants, traders, shopkeepers, and skilled craftsmen. † The story starts with a general prologue that provides a panoramic view of society England begins the period with wars, unrest, and almost chaos; it concludes with a settled dynasty, a reformed religion, and a people united and progressive. England in 1300 was well on the way to rapid expansion. It was rapidly increasing in intellectual and mathematical sophistication.Technically, thanks to water power and the mechanical discoveries that flowed from it, England was in the midst of what many historians call the Medieval Industrial Revolution. One reason there seems to be such a break between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance was that there was in fact a break. The 14th Century was a time of turmoil, diminished expectations, loss of confidence in institutions, and feelings of helplessness at forces beyond human contro. lThe 14th century in Europe was a time of great unrest. This as primarily caused by the outbreak of bubonic plague better known as the Black Death. Another cause were the peasant revolts, and the schism within the Catholic Church. The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer , is recognized as the first book of poetry written in the English language. This is because poetry was often written in Italian or Latin not English, even writers from England wrote in the other languages because English was considered low class and vulgar, but after Chaucer's writings were published they became a recognized and legitimate work.The Canterbury Tales gives modern readers a good judgment of language in the 14th century as it also gives a rich, elaborated tapestry of medieval social life, combining elements of all classes,from nobles to workers, from priests and nuns to drunkards and thieves. The view of the Canterbury Tales being held up as a precise reflection of English society in the 14th century is significantly correct, because they were very attached to the church and beliefs and the way they all act in the Tales shows how they really were a society of the Church.Alliterative verse: 8th – 14th century AD The story of English literature begins with the Ger manic tradition of the Anglo-Saxon settlers. Beowulfstands at its head. This epic poem of the 8th century is in  Anglo-Saxon, now more usually described as Old English. It is incomprehensible to a reader familiar only with modern English. Even so, there is a continuous linguistic development between the two. The most significant turning point, from about 1100, is the development of Middle English – differing from Old English in the addition of a French vocabulary after the  Norman conquest.French and Germanic influences subsequently compete for the mainstream role in English literature. The French poetic tradition inclines to lines of a regular metrical length, usually linked by rhyme into couplets or stanzas. German poetry depends more on rhythm and stress, with repeated consonants (alliteration) to bind the phrases. Elegant or subtle rhymes have a courtly flavour. The hammer blows of alliteration are a type of verbal athleticism more likely to draw applause in a hall fu ll of warriors.Both traditions achieve a magnificent flowering in England in the late 14th century, towards the end of the Middle English period. Piers Plowmanand  Sir Gawainare masterpieces which look back to Old English. By contrastChaucer, a poet of the court, ushers in a new era of English literature. Piers Plowman and Sir Gawain: 14th century AD Of these two great English alliterative poems, the second is entirely anonymous and the first virtually so. The narrator of  Piers Plowmancalls himself Will; occasional references in the text suggest that his name may be Langland.Nothing else, apart from this poem, is known of him. Piers Plowman exists in three versions, the longest amounting to more than 7000 lines. It is considered probable that all three are by the same author. If so he spends some twenty years, from about 1367, adjusting and refining his epic creation. Piers the ploughman is one of a group of characters searching for Christian truth in the complex setting of a d ream. Though mainly a spiritual quest, the work also has a political element. It contains sharply observed details of a corrupt and materialistic age (Wycliffe  is among Langland's English contemporaries).Where  Piers Plowman  is tough and gritty,  Sir Gawain and the Green Knight(dating from the same period) is more polished in its manner and more courtly in its content. The characters derive partly fromArthurian legend. A mysterious green knight arrives one Christmas at the court of King Arthur. He invites any knight to strike him with an axe and to receive the blow back a year later. Gawain accepts the challenge. He cuts off the head of the green knight, who rides away with it. The rest of the poem concerns Gawain, a year later, at the green knight's castle. In a tale of love (for the green knight's wife) and subsequent eceit, Gawain emerges with little honour. The green knight spares his life but sends him home to Arthur's court wearing the wife's girdle as a badge of sha me. Geoffrey Chaucer at court: AD 1367-1400 In 1367 one of four new ‘yeomen of the chamber' in the household of Edward III is Geoffrey Chaucer, then aged about twenty-seven. The young man's wife, Philippa, is already a lady-in-waiting to the queen. A few years later Chaucer becomes one of the king's esquires, with duties which include entertaining the court with stories and music. There can rarely have been a more inspired appointment.Chaucer's poems are designed to be read aloud, in the first instance by himself. Their range, from high romance to bawdy comedy, is well calculated to hold the listeners spellbound. Courtly circles in England are his first audience. Chaucer's public career is one of almost unbroken success in two consecutive reigns. He undertakes diplomatic missions abroad on behalf of the king; he is given administrative posts, such as controlling the customs, which bring lodgings and handsome stipends. Even occasional disasters (such as being robbed twice in fo ur days in 1390 and losing ? 0 of Richard II's money) do him no lasting harm. A measure of Chaucer's skill as a courtier is that during the 1390s, when he is in the employment ofRichard II, he also receives gifts at Christmas from Richard's rival, Bolingbroke. When Bolingbroke unseats Richard II in 1399, taking his place on the throne as  Henry IV, Chaucer combines diplomacy and wit to secure his position. Having lost his royal appointments, he reminds the new king of his predicament in a poem entitled ‘The Complaint of Chaucer to his Empty Purse'. The last line of each verse begs the purse to ‘be heavy again, or else must I die'.Henry IV hears the message. The court poet is given a new annuity. Henry is certainly aware that he is keeping in his royal circle a poet of great distinction. Chaucer's reputation is such that, when he dies in the following year, he is granted the very unusual honour – for a commoner – of being buried in Westminster abbey. Troil us and Criseyde: AD 1385 Chaucer's first masterpiece is his subtle account of the wooing of Criseyde by Troilus, with the active encouragement of Criseyde's uncle Pandarus. The tender joys of their love affair are followed by Criseyde's betrayal and Troilus's death in battle.Chaucer adapts to his own purposes the more conventionally dramatic account of this legendary affair written some fifty years earlier byBoccaccio(probably read by Chaucer when on a mission to Florence in 1373). His own very long poem (8239 lines) is written in the early 1380s and is complete by 1385. Chaucer's tone is delicate, subtle, oblique – though this does not prevent him from introducing and gently satirising many vivid details of life at court, as he guides the reader through the long psychological intrigue by which Pandarus eventually delivers Troilus into Criseyde's bed.The charm and detail of the poem, giving an intimate glimpse of a courtly world, is akin to the delightful miniatures which ill ustrate books of hours of this period in the style known asInternational Gothic. Yet this delicacy is only one side of Chaucer's abundant talent – as he soon proves in  The Canterbury Tales. The Canterbury Tales: AD 1387-1400 Collections of tales are a favourite literary convention of the 14th century. Boccaccio'sDecameron  is the best-known example before Chaucer's time, but Chaucer inThe Canterbury Tales  outshines his predecessors.He does so in the range and vitality of the stories in his collection, from the courtly tone of ‘The Knight's Tale' to the rough and often obscene humour of those known technically as  fabliaux. He does so also in the detail and humour of the framework holding the stories together. His account of the pilgrims as they ride from London to Canterbury, with their constant bickering and rivalry, amounts to a comic masterpiece in its own right. The pilgrims, thirty of them including Chaucer himself, gather one spring day at the Tabard in Southwark.The host of the inn, Harry Bailly, is a real contemporary of Chaucer's (his name features in historical records). He will act as their guide on the route to Canterbury and he proposes that they pass the time on their journey by telling stories. Each pilgrim is to tell two on the way out and two on the way back. Whoever is judged to have told the best tale will have a free supper at the Tabard on their return. Of this ambitious total of 120 stories, Chaucer completes only 24 by the time of his death. Even so the collection amounts to some 17,000 lines – mainly of rhyming verse, but with some passages of prose.The pilgrims represent all sections of society from gentry to humble craftsmen (the only absentees are the labouring poor, unable to afford a pilgrimage of this kind). There are respectable people from the various classes – such as the knight, the parson and the yeoman – but the emphasis falls mainly on characters who are pretentious, scurrilous, m endacious, avaricious or lecherous. The pilgrims are vividly described, one by one, in Chaucer'sPrologue. The relationships between them evolve in the linking passages between the tales, as Harry Bailly arranges who shall speak next.The pilgrims for the most part tell tales closely related to their station in life or to their personal character. Sometimes the anecdotes even reflect mutual animosities. The miller gives a scurrilously comic account of a carpenter being cuckolded. Everyone laughs heartily except the reeve, who began his career as a carpenter. The reeve gets his own back with an equally outrageous tale of the seduction of a miller's wife and daughter. But the pilgrim who has most delighted six centuries of readers is the five-times-married Wife of Bath, taking a lusty pleasure in her own appetites and richly scorning the ideals of celibacy.

Medieval Warfare And The Middle Ages - 1142 Words

During the Middle Ages, particularly 1200 – 1500 CE, medieval warfare was prominent within society. Medieval warfare is the warfare of the Middle Ages. In Europe, technological, cultural, and social developments had forced a dramatic transformation in the character of warfare from antiquity, changing military tactics and the role of cavalry and artillery. Warfare was an essential part of the Medieval European society, as they would often go on raids and siege castles to diminish their enemies’ forces and become more powerful themselves. However, while warfare was prominent, religion was as well and it played a huge role in the daily lives of the medieval European population. Christianity in particular was very effective in controlling the populations through the use of the bible and European leaders would also say that a religious figure demanded their allegiance. The rulers of Europe would often use religion in a psychological manner, controlling the people through t heir immense faith. The leaders within Medieval Europe used religion as a superficial entity in order to attain their true goal which is the accruement of land, wealth, and ultimately, power, demonstrating that religion was not the primary motivator of medieval warfare. Religion was a very important aspect of daily life within Medieval Europe that led people’s lives and affected almost every aspect of the way people lived in the Middle Ages. The Church taught that there was only one true religion,Show MoreRelatedWarfare of Elizabethan Times677 Words   |  3 PagesWarfare of Elizabethan Times In the Medieval times a sword was a knight’s most important weapons. The fact was found on this website: http://medievalweaponsrds.weebly.com/fun-facts.html. 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