The House of Bernarda Alba Essay -- Drama

The House of Bernarda Alba The National theatre Choose one production that you have seen and which you particularly enjoyed and discuss the aspects which made it so successful? The House of Bernarda Alba is a tragedy by Lorca which was set in Spain in the early 1930’s during the Spanish civil war and is about five daughters whose life’s resolve around their mother Bernarda Alba. The girls are repressed by there mother which could be why he wrote this play, to express his feelings and show through the characters how he felt during life as he was repressed for being gay â€Å"better never to lay eyes on a man, never to have seen one’. I enjoyed ‘The House of Bernarda Alba’ as many aspects of the play were successful. There was a large, complicated realistic set like Stanislavski would use with period costumes and props which allowed the audience to see it visually which helped believability in the play as it contributed to the realistic acting. It helped you feel like you were in Spain, as a hot climate was suggested through the set; it was exotic, light and Spanish looking. The props gave a sense of the period the play was set for example the radio, the bell, the wash basin and the sewing machines were all authentic. The set was in Bernarda Alba’s house which was a grand mansion with a gilt, lofty ceiling. I think the towering interior clearly represented the distorted mind of Bernarda Alba. The house was a very open, free place for the girls to roam around in. It had a courtyard in the centre, light green walls making it seem larger and many plants, showing the outside was brought inside. I felt this was a success as the set showed how Bernarda Alba didn’t want the girls to leave the house as there were closed shutters down to the floor; this showed the girls were isolated from the outside world. The set designer has evidently striven to create a physical space which represented psychological unease There were four stone pillars which I feel could have represented four of the daughters and the last daughter was represented by the drain shaped as a cross on the courtyard, which showed she died. I also felt that the pillars were successful as they might signify the house is like a prison for the girls, and they are the bars. There were two stained glass windows one which was broken which gave a sense that once the... ... came across as controlling by her strict tone of voice. It was successful the way the director showed the girls as fearful of the mother. Every time someone would stroll in the room they would jump as they thought it was their mother and if their mother did come in they would sit down immediately and sit in silence sewing. If their mother asked them a question you would hear a fearful tremble in their voice as they replied showing they lived in fear of their mother. Another way in which the actors of the girls were effective is the way they reacted to men. The only men the girls would ever see apart from their father, was the man who delivers the fabric. So in the play when Pepe came to the door all the girls would get excited and start jumpy around screaming as they ran out the door. I feel this play was generally a very successful piece of realistic drama because of the set, costumes, lighting and the acting. It had a detailed set and several strong actors which helped bring the play to life as well as real rain at the end to create a dramatic effect. Long silences were used in the play to produce tension and it used comedy and tragedy to engage the audience.

Human Resource Management and East Midlands Ambulance Essay

1. Executive summary The purpose of this report is to investigate the human resource management (HRM) problems that the East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS) is experiencing. One of the issues EMAS is experiencing is paramedics possess a lack of motivation and commitment to the job consequently causing a rise in absence. This is caused by the new budgets cuts enforced on the NHS and is impacting on the paramedic’s working life such as, cancellation of allocated break times. Another problem they are facing is the human resource department has been downsized therefor there is one HR manager and adviser covering 3 counties. This is causing work relations between HR and line managers to break down due to not enough HR staff to support every individual station. It is recommended that HR should allocate time to each station to support managers and employees and directors come to an agreement to give employees their breaks. There is additional web information to support the concepts chosen to analyse the problem. These are www.telegraph.co.uk/article/absenteeism and www.thefreelibaray.com/psycologicalcontacts. 2. Problem identification and analysis The new budget cuts to the National Health Service (NHS) are causing many  changes throughout the organisation; one sector of the organisation being highly effected is the Ambulance service. Throughout the East Midlands Ambulance Service many cost efficient changes are taking place, however they still have to meet the same standards of performance to meet their annual targets so that they will receive the same budget for the service next year if the targets are not met the budget each year will decrease. Major changes to EMAS include: * No allocated break times and lunch times. The directors say paramedics are to have their breaks and lunch aboard the ambulance between jobs ‘’when they get a minute’’ however due to the increase in emergency calls, reports revealed that some paramedics were not having lunch at all throughout a 12 hour shift. This is a breach of not only their written employment contract but their psychological contract as well. * Human resources has been downsized, there were HR managers and advisers for every county over the east midlands. The new change saw one HR manager and one HR adviser covering 3 counties and researched showed that employees felt like they had no one to turn to for advise as there HR department was far too busy for individual employee needs. This is making it very difficult for the HR department to focus on what is demotivating the employees causing absenteeism. Even though there have been many other changes to EMAS these are the priority because the result of these changes has had an immense impact on absence and sick leave, as employees are not satisfied with the new conditions to their job description. The new changes to EMAS are causing a vast chain reaction throughout the organisation mainly because most of the changes are hugely breaching employee’s psychological contract. The terms they were expecting to have when they were first employed by EMAS has now been removed for example if a paramedic were to smoke there breaks they used to get off the ambulance for refreshments etc. have now been removed they are expected to remain on board the ambulance. Such a breach would have a massive impact on their commitment to the job as they would feel that the employer has been disloyal to them and not having care for the job would lead them to take unnecessary time off. The HR department cutbacks have had a big impact to not only employees but their line mangers to. HR are finding it difficult to attain any spare time to meet with the managers to discuss recent  problems/procedures therefore all the contact is being made thought documents and letters leaving the managers confused about dealing with their team. The managers are being put under a great deal of stress as their employee expectations have been disregarded. Managers expect to have the HR department at hand for advice on employee problems and procedure. Not having this is not the job expectation they had when they first started. 3. Recommendations Solutions to these problems are very complex and the most obvious solutions are obstructed by the budget cuts. Yes the HR department need more advisers covering each county but unfortunately that cannot occur, instead propose a new system as to where the HR department travels to each station, maybe 1 district a day, to assist the line managers and provide them with up to date policies and procedures. They could also enlist employee time to discuss and problems they are facing and offer advice. This could help to build the relationships that are currently being strained. Also arranging for back to work interviews and help schemes for absentees could help to make them feel more empowered and feel the organisation really needs them back to work giving the employee a sense of purpose. As for the impractical break times for paramedics, give them a designated time to eat their lunch and have their breaks in a suitable environment, whilst one team is having a break have another standing in but make sure that whether on a break or not they must always make themselves available should they be needed. A breach in written/psychological contracts like this is unacceptable for the organisation to enforce upon the employees. The research carried out by Steers and Rhodes (1978) on absenteeism is what this organisation should follow because the employee’s ability to do the job is becoming complicated by a breach in job expectation, not resting on break creating role stress etc. therefor rescinding the employee’s motivation to work. Studying this research could open up compromises for the managers and their employees. Information The web page studied to back up the concept of absenteeism is www.telegraph.co.uk/article/absenteesim on the 26/11/2012 showed that the main cause for absenteeism was work related stress. This web page has been  selected to back up the concept of absenteeism because work related stress can be through unsatisfied job expectation and losing commitment to the role maybe through breaking of a psychological contract. This information was also backed up by the web page www.ukessays.co.uk 26/11/2012 which proves the information is a reliable source. The second concept chosen in this report is psychological contracts and web page chosen is www.thefreelibrary.com/psycologicalcontracts 26/11/2012. This page studied what would be a breach of a psychological contract. This information came from an article written by Pittensburg State University and has been back up by other sources mentioned in the article therefore is a reliable source. References Pittensburg State University. (2010). Psychological contracts. www.thefreelibrary.com/psychologicalcontracts. Last accessed 26 Nov 2012. Preston, D (2012). Book 2 An introduction to human resource management in business. p9-22. Steers, R. M. and Rhodes, S. R. (1978) ‘Major influences on employee attendance: a process model’ Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 63, No4, pp. 391-407 The Telegraph. (2011). Absenteeism. www.telegraph.co.uk/absenteeism. Last accessed 26 Nov 2012. UK essays. (2003). concepts of absenteeism. www.ukessays.co.uk. Last accessed 26 Nov 2012.

The Iliad And The Odyssey - 1060 Words

Homer once said, â€Å"Hateful to me as the gates of Hades is that man who hides one thing in his heart and speaks another.† (The Iliad pg.405) The quote is relevant to the stories Homer created during the period of the Trojan War. Homer orally performed two of his best works The Iliad and The Odyssey. Homer’s stories are old and probably translated differently than their original telling. Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey still show the basic human emotions and are an inspiration to other authors, poets, and oral presenters. Homer was forgotten, but now Homer’s existence is almost legend. According to Cynthia Shelmerdine, August Wolf Friedrich, a German scholar, debated that more than one person wrote The Iliad and The Odyssey. Wolf believed that The Iliad and The Odyssey were written by more than one author.Friedrich said that there was no proof that the Greeks knew how to write when Homer was alive. Wolf also believed that the long poems such as The Iliad and The Odyssey could not have been written without knowledge of writing tablets or any other mechanism. The unitarians, people who opposed Friedrich’s theories and his critics, believed the works, The Iliad, and The Odyssey were composed of one genius or two poets. At the end of the argument, it was at a standstill, but the controversy is still up for debate. Today the argument is known as â€Å"The Homeric Question† (Shelmerdine 304). Homer s writings were brutal and too mature for the younger readers. [For example, WhenShow MoreRelatedThe Iliad and the Odyssey1510 Words   |  7 Pages The Iliad and the Odyssey are two classic stories told by Homer. Within these two stories the roles of the gods are very important to the story line and how they affect the characters throughout. In the Iliad, more gods are involved with the characters whereas in the Odyssey there are only two major gods that affect two major characters. The roles of the gods in the Iliad are through two different stances of immortal versus immortal and mortal versus immortal. The roles of the gods in the OdysseyRead MoreThe Iliad And The Odyssey1317 Words   |  6 PagesThroughout The Iliad and The Odyssey, both Achilles and Odysseus go through intense acts of heroism, internal and external hardships, and fluctuations in confidence. During the epic, The Odyssey, the main character, Odysseus, has to endure many hardships which show. He has to sho w tremendous amounts of heroism and confidence just to keep his crew and himself alive. He has to rival and face many gods that despise him along with many humans. This theme can also be reflected from Homer’s The Iliad, where theRead MoreThe Iliad And The Odyssey1297 Words   |  6 Pages2. The Iliad and the Odyssey were written by a poet or poets known as Homer. They were stories written about heroes in Mycenaeans times. Homer focused on one important event to base the stories after, the Trojan War. The story was about Paris Prince of Troy, taking Helen of Sparta from her husband. A war started to get Helen back to her husband because her husbands honor was hurt. The story told in the Odyssey is one of the king of Ithaca trying to return to his wife and son after being gone forRead MoreThe Iliad And The Odyssey977 Words   |  4 Pagesplot or storyline, or the theme of the myth. Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey are two prime examples of this. Within both epics, th e gods constantly intervene in the lives and situations of the characters, molding them to the desired outcome. Without the influence of the gods in either of the epics, however, the ending might have been very different. There was a great deal more divine intervention in The Iliad in comparison to The Odyssey, however, as there were more godly characters in that textRead MoreThe Odyssey And The Iliad1060 Words   |  5 PagesHomer was one of the first great authors in Western culture. He was known for creating the two Greek epics The Odyssey and The Iliad, which. The Odyssey tells of the ten-year journey by Odysseus to Ithica from Troy to be reunited with his beloved wife. The Odyssey was written in a with illustrative language. The Iliad was written in a. It depicted the end of the Trojan War and the siege of Troy. This event occurred centuries before Homer was assumed to have been born. Although both epics were writtenRead MoreThe Iliad And The Odyssey1599 Words   |  7 PagesIn The Iliad and The Odyssey, Homer has different portrayals of the roles that women play in each epic. These d ifferences are so striking that some readers have even argued that there is a possibility that a woman could have created The Odyssey, modeled after Homer’s Iliad. In The Iliad we see women represented as war prizes and slaves, vulnerabilities to men, and in positions of limited power. In The Odyssey however, we see women capturing men and keeping them as prizes, rising from a status ofRead MoreThe Iliad And The Odyssey1657 Words   |  7 Pagesduring the Greek Dark Ages was Homer, who I believe was the most influential writer of his time, and a writer who had truly made an impact on the evolution of Greek Culture following the Dark Ages. Two of Homer’s most famous poems were the Iliad and the Odyssey, which were Ancient Greek epic poems which covered a couple of weeks during the Trojan War. Although there were plenty of influential authors inspired by the Trojan war, Homer was by far the most influential; Nevertheless, This paper arguesRead MoreIliad and Odyssey1825 Words   |  8 Pagesand cinema of a certain era. The epic poems, The Iliad and Odyssey, give scholars and historians an idea how the Ancient Greek lived their everyday lives. By reading the two novels, the reader is able to experience the three thousand years old society of Homer. The various similarities between our society and the societies depicted in the Iliad and the Odyssey are surprising profuse. To name a few: the superfluous violence in Iliad and Odyssey, the characterization of Odysseus, the obscureRead MoreThe Iliad And The Odyssey1730 Words   |  7 Pagesonce said â€Å"In youth and beauty, wisdom is but rare!† a very relatable quote to the story of the Iliad. But who exactly is Homer? For starters, Homer was a poet who lived from 800 B.C.E and died in 701 B.C.E. He was from Greece, and to be specific he had lived somewhere along the coast of Asia Minor according to biography.com. Also, he is most famous for his epic poems which were The Iliad and The Od yssey. Now as for whether he truly existed or not is still quite a mystery. Some scholars â€Å"believe himRead MoreThe Iliad And The Odyssey1498 Words   |  6 PagesAn Influential Poem The Iliad is a poem that provides important stories with insight into early human society. It was an ancient story written centuries ago about two civilizations that battled against each other. â€Å"The Iliad tells the story of the clash of two great civilizations, and the effects of war on both the winners and losers† (Homer 222). In addition to its influence on Greek poetry, the Iliad is a great Homeric epic that has long helped shape critical schools of thought. It is not