Continuing Professional Development

Continuing Professional Development Healthcare professionals use of the term continuing professional development has evolved over the past decades from the narrower terms of continuing dental education (CDE); continuing medical education (CME), and continuing education (CE). Although these terms are still used interchangeably, the broader CPD, acknowledges the inclusion of topics that extend beyond the traditional scope of health care subjects such as managerial, personal and social skills, and recognises the multidisciplinary context of practice and the wide range of competences required to provide high quality patient care. It is the process by which healthcare professionals update themselves through the continuous acquisition of new knowledge, skills and attitudes that enable them to remain competent, current and able to meet the needs of their patients (Peck, McCall, McLaren and Rotem, 2000) and, their statutory obligations via their regulatory body (Mathewson and Rudkin, 2008). The underlying philosophy of CPD is to encourage lifelong learning (Griscti and Jacono, 2006). It is essentially lifelong learning in practice (Peck et al, 2000) that, post qualification and registration, now forms a continuum of cradle-to-grave quality assurance throughout a professionals working life (Mathewson and Rudkin, 2008). The aim of this literature research is to support the authors dissertation which is an investigation into the possible impact and effectiveness of mandatory CPD on the professional competence of dental care professionals (DCPS), specifically, dental hygienists. The author is a qualified dental hygienist of 27 years and is included in the cohort of PCDs who complete their first five year cycle of CPD in July 2013. A literature search found very few studies relating to dental hygienists and CPD therefore a vast majority of information has been abstracted from literature pertaining to dentists and aligned healthcare professionals such as, doctors who also undertake mandatory CPD. This assignment will refer to the applicable, generic outcomes from the literature unless the results are specific to a healthcare group CPDà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦a career long process required [by dentists] to maintain, update and broaden [their] attitudes, knowledge and skills in a way that will bring the greatest benefit to [their] patients European Commission 1996 cited in Tseveenjav, 2003; Bailey, 2012. As a professional healthcare worker, CPD is important in that the quality of practice is dependent on the possession and proper use of high level skills, which, if not maintained may have a serious impact or consequence for the patient (Collin, Van der Heijden and Lewis, 2012). Therefore, it is regarded as an ethical obligation and professional responsibility that practitioners engage in CPD (Murtomaa, 1984 cited in Tseveenjav, 2003) as it is an important value of professionalism (Donen, 1998). Following a literature review, Hilton (2004) identifies six domains incorporated within (medical) professionalism, three of which are the personal or intrinsic attributes. These are: ethical practice; reflection and self-awareness; responsibility and accountability for ones actions including a commitment to excellence, lifelong learning and critical reasoning. Cosgrove (cited in Hilton, 2004) describes professionalism as a state not trait which must be maintained once acquired. The General Den tal Council (GDC) concur and add that CPD, as part of professionalism, also promotes confidence in the practitioner and dental team (GDC Preparing for practice:6). This is, however, applicable to all professionals who have a moral and social responsibility to remain competent and current in their subject specialism whether this is through legal compulsion or not. Mandatory participation in CPD As a response to environmental pressures (Johnson, 2008) such as advances in technology which have led to the erosion of traditional (medical) boundaries (Pendleton, 1995); health sector reforms with a focus on prevention (Johnson, 2008); and partly as a result of paradigm shifts in societal expectations demanding increased accountability (Tulinius and Holge-Hazleton, 2010; Mathewson and Rudkin, 2008; Tseveenjav, M, and Muttomaa, 2003) mandatory CPD was introduced as a quality assurance system to reassure the public that dental professionals are fit to practice and meet the standards required to stay registered with the GDCà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦without which they cannot practice (Mathewson and Rudkin, 2008). In July 2008 the GDC, the dental regulatory body, introduced compulsory registration and mandatory continued professional development for all DCPs. The GDC specified that, within a five year cycle, each DCP should provide evidence of compliance with the mandate and complete a legal minimum of 150 hours of CPD; 50 hours of which must be verifiable by certification and include the core subjects of medical emergencies, disinfection and contamination, and radiography (GDC Continuing Professional Development for dental care professionals, 2012). The rationale, specific to healthcare professionals is that effective regulation maximises positive health outcomes (Johnson, 2008). The purpose of professional regulation and mandatory CPD is twofold: firstly to ensure the patients health, welfare and safety and, secondly to protect the public from harm (Johnson, 2008). Many authors argue against mandatory CPD. Carpinto (1991, cited in Joyce and Cowman, 2007) felt that mandatory continuing education is at odds with the values and beliefs on which lifelong learning is based, cynically noting that it is targeted at those who least need it those who are already competent! Donen (1998) observed that only attendance, not learning can be mandated and that CME needs will differ for individuals depending on what stage they have reached in their careers. Mandatory CE was considered ineffective and outdated in so much as the system only requires proof of CPD attendance but is not required to demonstrate application to practice or competence and that it does not improve the quality of practice (Bilawka and Craig,2003:2). Additionally, mandatory CPD may, potentially devalue learning by affecting an individuals approach (Friedman and Phillips, 2004 cited in Sturrock and Lennie, 2009). The anaesthetists surveyed by Heath and Joness (1998) agree, commenting that it is often thought of as bums on seats and ticking the box. Despite the evidence, regulatory bodies continue to use mandatory CPD as a means of quality assurance. Prior to the introduction of mandatory CPD in the UK, Oosterbeek (cited in Belfield, Morris, Bullock and Frame 2001) offered an explanation in favour of mandatory CPD, which although not stated, may prove to be the overriding factor as to the enforcement of the mandatory model: there is some evidence that current provision of CPD may exacerbate disparities in service standards: the highly skilled appear to volunteer for more CPD. Therefore Compulsory or prescribed CPD may compress these differentials and hence have a positive equity effect in ensuring uniform patient care. Furthermore, Hibbs (1989, cited in Sturrock and Lennie, 2009) suggest that, in the nursing profession, a small minority would not update their professional knowledge, either informally or formally, if CPD was not a mandatory requirement. Evidence suggests this minority exists across the professions (Firmstone et al, 2004, Schostak et al, 2010). It cannot, however, be assumed that non participation equates to practi tioners not being competent or motivated (Griscti and Jacono, 2006). Another dimension may, perhaps, be found in competency and litigation. The GDC prescribes three core subjects: medical emergencies; radiography, and disinfection and contamination. Shanley et al (cited in Barnes et al 2012) claim that most dental mistakes are made in these areas of competency. The author could find no further references or evidence in the GDC literature but from personal experience finds this an understandable and reasonable claim, and that a wider literature search will reveal more. Furthermore, in addition to specialist, update courses, these areas are included in the list of most requested CPD topics at meetings (Barnes et al, 2012), suggesting that practitioners are aware that current practices in these areas are constantly changing and of their impact and consequences for all concerned. Therefore, it is understandable that the GDC reinforces these topics within the CPD cycle. Although, Cervero (2000) noted with caution that the trend across the professions in Am erica, was the increasing use of CE as the foundation for re-licensure when regulating professional practice; with all state medical boards requiring annual accreditation of continuing education for recertification. The GDC will soon introduce this system, called Revalidation, for dentists and is currently in consultation over its introduction for DCPs. Scientific knowledge in dentistry is currently doubling every 5 years Florida Academy of General Dentistry cited in Mattheos et al 2010 Some studies show that after ten years, there is a steady decline in the current, applicable knowledge of a practitioner (van Leeuwen etal, 1995; Day et al, 1988; Ramsay et al, 1991 cited in Donen, 1998). Several authors noted that practitioners tend to take CPD in topics of personal interest rather than areas of deficiency or what might be deemed essential (Heath and Jones, 1998; Sibley et al cited in Norman, Shannon, and Marrin, 2004; Sturrock and Lennie, 2009; Barnes et al, 2012). In a rapidly changing healthcare environment, this emphasises the importance of healthcare workers remaining current as relevant knowledge and skills have a shelf life. Eagle (cited in Heath and Jones, 1998) defines the educational process as one which results in an alteration in behaviour that is persistent, predetermined and that has been gained through the learners acquisition of new psychomotor skills, knowledge or attitudes. Whilst Davis (cited in Cantillon and Jones, 1999) defines CME as any and al l the ways by which [doctors] learn after formal completion of their training. Continuing Professional Development Intervention Effectiveness Several studies explored the various methods of obtaining CPD and their effectiveness in changing clinical practice, post event. Most were database and literature reviews, others used both qualitative and quantitative research data. All work is peer reviewed with the majority referencing and drawing from the authoritative work of Davis et al 1995, Changing Physician Performance A Systematic Review of the Effect of Continuing Medical Education Strategies. Much of their work confirms and complements Davis et als main findings that many CME interventions may alter physician performance and also, but to a lesser degree, healthcare outcomes. Concluding that these alterations are most often small, less often moderate and rarely large, adding, that CME interventions should be understood in the context of the delivery methods, nature and quality of the interaction and consideration be given to the complex, individual variables such as needs assessment and barriers to change (Davis et al 19 95). CPD activities range from the increasing use of the internet; journals and study clubs; lunch and learn events sponsored by commercial companies to regional and national conferences. Research, however, has shown that attendance at these events is usually due to personal interest rather than identification or a needs analysis of a weakness in a particular area, and that some professionals may not even perceive any deficit in their knowledge or practice (Hopcraft et al, 2010). The majority of papers reviewed are critical of the didactic, single event lecture. British consultant anaesthetists, surveyed by questionnaire, found that overall single event interventions such as didactic lectures were the least effective at eliciting change (Heath and Jones, 1998). Lectures were often criticised for their passive dissemination of information (Bilawka and Craig, 2003) with lecturers trying to impart too much information; not leaving enough time for questions and some attendees felt that they had not learnt anything new (Heath and Jones, 1998). Davis et al (1999) stated that didactic modality has little or no role to play. Contrary to Heath and Jones findings, Harrison and Hogg (2003) conducted a qualitative study which evaluated the reasons why doctors attend traditional CME programmes. They carried out in-depth interviews, before and after a course, and found resistance to the statement that traditional CME (lecture) does not change doctors behaviour, disagreeing , stating, they always learnt something new and were able to give concrete examples of their claims. The value of lectures may be that the information is broadly presented, thus enabling individuals to sift the information for that pearl of wisdom relevant to their practice (Harrison and Hogg, 2003). This may explain the on-going popularity of the traditional lecture in that individuals attend because it does enable some form of up-date; specialists or experts in their field of interest appears to be a draw, and possibly reassurance that their own practice is within current guidelines and thinking (Wiskott et al, 2000). Another dimension to the lecture is the informal interaction with colleagues, where collegial learning takes place as experiences are compared. There is also a perceived relative cost benefit (Brown, Belfield and Field, 2002). Workshops and hands-on courses, learning through participation, have shown to be catalysts for change amongst dentists although they have a greater associated cost they achieve a longer term impact on practice (Mercer et al cited in Bullock et al, 1999), which is sustainable (Mattheos et al, 2010). Interactive interventions such as journal clubs and small focused group discussions produced a greater effect than a single intervention (Mansouri and Lockyer, 2007). If used alone many CPD interventions have minor or negligible effect but when combined with other methods such as peer review, audit and feedback multifaceted interventions, may have a cumulative and significant effect (Oxman et al, 1995). there are no magic bullets for improving the quality of healthcare, but there are a wide range of interventions available that, if used appropriately, could lead to important improvements in professional practice and patient outcomes. Oxman et al, 1995 The majority of studies concentrated on formal, planned structured programme, there was little evidence of research into the effectiveness of informal CPD and its application to practice, presumably due to difficulties in assessing impact and relying on self-reporting. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦responsibility for the effectiveness of CPD lies with the learner Eraut, 2001 The effectiveness of CPD has been described, ideally, as the practitioner gaining improvements in practice through knowledge and skill and this improvement translates in to better health outcomes for patients respectively. Although Belfield, et al (2001) state that it is very difficult to conduct controlled studies to demonstrate improvements in practice, or patient outcomes after educational activities and most benefits and changes to practice are self-reported with no independent verification (Eaton et al, 2011). The literature review shows that effective CPD has many so many potential aspects to be studied, but the majority of studies reviewed focused on the effectiveness of formal modes of CPD, confirming Davies et als (1995) findings and mostly drawing the same conclusions. These conclusions, however, will be scrutinised further as tighter restrictions on CPD come into force through the introduction of Revalidation which will only accept validated certification. This would seem to discard the value or impact of informal learning which seems at odds with the much referenced Davies et al (1995) definition of CME as any and all the ways by which [doctors] learn after formal completion of their training. The systematic reviews have not drawn any firm conclusions on which intervention is the most effective stating that there is no single strategy effective in all settings (Donen 1998) due to the very many variables that impact of on the effectiveness of CPD. These areas be will be explored furt her in the authors research project. The last study relating specifically to Dental Hygienists was by Ross et al in 2005, who conducted a study of Scottish dental hygienists, briefly touching on CPD. As yet there have been no studies into the effects of mandatory CPD and dental hygienists. The literature thus far has helped to formulate the research question: What impact does mandatory Continuing Professional Development have an on the effectiveness of dental hygienists professional competency? References Barnes, E. Bullock, A.D. Bailey, S.E.R. Cowpe, J.G. Karahajarju-Suvanto. (2012). A review of continuing professional development for dentists in Europe, European Journal of Dental Education 16 (2012) 166-178. Belfield, C.R. Morris, Z.S. Bullock, A.D. Frame, J.W. (2001). The benefits and costs of continuing professional development (CDP) for general dental practice: a discussion, European Journal of Dental Education 2001, 5: 47-52. Bilawka, E. Craig, B.J. (2003). Quality Assurance in Health Care: past, present and future (Part 1), International Journal of Dental Hygiene 1, 2003; 159-168. Bradshaw, A. (1998). Defining competency in nursing (part 2) an analytical review, Journal of Clinical Nursing 1998; 7: 103-111. Brown, C.A. Belfield, C.R. Field, S.R. (2002). Cost effectiveness of continuing professional development in health care: a critical review of the evidence, BMJ Volume 324, 16 March 2002, 652-655. Carpinto (1991) cited in Joyce, P. Cowman, S. (2007). Continuing professional development: Investment or expectation?, Journal of Nursing Management, 2007, 15, 626-633. Cervero, R. (2000). Trends and issues in Continuing Professional Education, New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, No. 86, Summer 2000, 3-12. Collin, K. Van der Heijden, B. Lewis P. (2012). Continuing professional development, International Journal of Training and Development, 16:3, 155-163. Cosgrove cited in Hilton, S. (2004). Medical Professionalism: how can we encourage it in our students?, The Clinical Teacher, December 2004, Volume 1, No. 2, 69-73. Davis, D. Thomson, M.A. Andrew, D. Oxman, M.D. Haynes, M.D. (1995). Changing Physician Performance: A Systematic Review of the Effect of Continuing Medical Education Strategies,. JAMA, September 6, 1995 Vol 274, No 9. Davis, D. OBrien, M.A.T. Freemantle, N. Wolf, F.M. Mazmanian, P. Taylor-Vaisey, A. (1999). Impact of Formal Continuing Medical Education Do Conferences, Workshops, Rounds, and other Traditional Continuing Education Activities Change Physician Behaviour or Health Care Outcomes?, JAMA, September 1, 1999, Vol. 282, No. 9, 867-874. Davis cited in Cantillon, P. Jones, R. (1999). Does continuing medical education in general practice make a difference?, British Medical Journal, Volume 318, 8 May 1999, 1276-1279. Donen, N. (1998). No to mandatory continuing medical education, Yes to mandatory practice auditing and professional educational development, JAMC, 21 AVR. 1998; 158 (8). Eagle cited in Heath, K.J. Jones, J.G. (1998). Experiences and attitudes of consultant and non-training grade anaesthetists to continuing medical education (CME), Anaesthesia, 1998, 53, pp. 641-467. Epstein, R.M. Hundert, E.M. (2002). Defining and Assessing Professional Competence, JAMA, January 9, 2002, Volume 287, No. 2. Eraut, M. (2001). Do continuing professional development models promote one-dimensional learning?, Medical Education, 2001; 35: 8-11. European Commission (1996) cited in Tseveenjav, B. M, M. Murtomaa, V. Muromaa, H. (2003). Attendance at and self-perceived need for continuing education among Mongolian dentists, European Journal of Dental Education 2003; 7: 130-135. Fernadez, N. Dory, V. Ste-Marie, L-G. Chaput, M. Charlin, B. Boucher, A. (2012). Varying conceptions of competence: an analysis of how health sciences educators define competence, Medical Education 2012; 46: 357-365. Firmstone, V.R. Bullock, A.D. Fielding, A. Frame, J.W. Gibson, C. Hall, J. (2004). The impact of course attendance on the practice of dentists, British Dental Journal, Volume 196 No. 12, June 26 2002. Florida Academy of General Dentistry cited in Mattheos, N. Schoonheim-Klein, M. Walmsley, A. D. Chapple, I. L.C. Innovative educational methods and technologies applicable to continuing professional development in periodontology, European Journal of Education 14 (Suppl 1) (2010) 43-52. GDC. (2012). Continuing professional development for dental care professionals. Available at: http://www.gdc-uk.org/Newsandpublications/Publications/Publications/CPD%20for%20dental%20care%20professionals.pdf Accessed on: 12 Oct 12. GDC. Preparing for practice Dental team learning outcomes for registration. Available at: http://www.gdc-uk.org/Newsandpublications/Publications/Publications/GDC%20Learning%20Outcomes.pdf Accessed on: 12 Oct 12. Griscti, O. Jacono, J. (2006). Effectiveness of continuing education programmes in nursing: literature review, Integrative Literature Reviews and Meta-Analyses, Journal Compilation. Blackwell Publishing Ltd. pp. 449-455. Harrison, C. Hogg, W. (2003). Why do doctors attend traditional CME events if they dont change what they do in their surgeries? Evaluation of doctors reasons for attending a traditional CME programme. Medical Education 2003; 37: 884-888. Heath, K.J. Jones, J.G. (1998). Experiences and attitudes of consultant and non-training grade anaesthetists to continuing medical education (CME), Anaesthesia, 1998, 53, pp. 641-467. Hibbs (1989) cited in Sturrock, J.B.E. Lennie, S.C. (2009). Compulsory continuing professional development: a questionnaire-based survey of the UK dietetic profession, Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, 22, pp. 12-20. Hilton, S. (2004). Medical Professionalism: how can we encourage it in our students?, The Clinical Teacher, December 2004, Volume 1, No. 2, 69-73. Hopcraft, M.S. Manton, D.J. Chong, P.L. Ko, G. Ong, P.Y.S. Sribalachandran, S. Wang, C-J. (2010). Participation in Continuing Professional Development by dental practiioners in Victoria, Australia in 2007, European journal of Dental Education 14 (2010) 227-234. Johnson,P.M. (2008). Dental hygiene regulation: a global perspective, International Journal of Dental Hygiene 6 2008; 221-228. Mansouri, M. Lockyer, J. (2007). A Meta-Analysis of Continuing Medical Education Effectiveness, Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Professions, 27(1): 6-15. Mathewson, H. Rudkin, D. (2008). The GDC lifting the lid. Part 3: education, CPD and revalidation, British Dental Journal, Volume 205, No. 1, July 12 2008, 41-44. Mattheos, N. Schoonheim-Klein, M. Walmsley, A. D. Chapple, I. L.C. Innovative educational methods and technologies applicable to continuing professional development in periodontology, European Journal of Education 14 (Suppl 1) (2010) 43-52. Mercer et al cited in Bullock, A.D. Belfield, C.R. Butterfield, S. Ribbins, P.M. Frame, J.W. (1999). Continuing education courses in dentistry: assessing impact, Medical Education 1999; 33: 484-488. Murtomaa (1984) cited in Tseveenjav, B. M, M. Murtomaa, V. Muromaa, H. (2003). Attendance at and self-perceived need for continuing education among Mongolian dentists, European Journal of Dental Education 2003; 7: 130-135. Oosterbeek cited in Belfield, C.R. Morris, Z.S. Bullock, A.D. Frame, J.W. (2001). The benefits and costs of continuing professional development (CDP) for general dental practice: a discussion, European Journal of Dental Education 2001, 5: 47-52. Oxman, A.D. Thomson, M.A. Davis. D. Haynes, B. (1995). No magic bullets: A systematic review of 102 trials of interventions to improve professional practice, Canadian Medical Association Journal. November 15, 1995; 153 (10), 1423-1431. Peck, C. McCall, M. McLaren, B. Rotem, T. (2000). Continuing medical education and continuing professional development: international comparisons, BMJ 2000; 320, 12 February 2000, 432-435. Pendleton, D. (1995). Professional development in general practice: problems, puzzles and paradigms, British Journal of General Practice, July 1995, 377-381. Phillips (2004) cited in Sturrock, J.B.E. Lennie, S.C. (2009). Compulsory continuing professional development: a questionnaire-based survey of the UK dietetic profession, Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, 22, pp. 12-20. Ramsay et al (1991) cited in Donen, N. (1998). No to mandatory continuing medical education, Yes to mandatory practice auditing and professional educational development, JAMC, 21 AVR. 1998; 158 (8). Robertson,K. (2005). Reflection in professional practice and education, Austrailian Family Physician Vol.34, No. 9, September 2005, 781-783. Shanley et al cited in Barnes, E. Bullock, A.D. Bailey, S.E.R. Cowpe, J.G. Karahajarju-Suvanto. (2012). A review of continuing professional development for dentists in Europe, European Journal of Dental Education 16 (2012) 166-178. Sibley et al cited in Norman, G.R. Shannon, S.I. Marrin, M.L. (2004). The need for needs assessment in continuing medical education, BMJ, Volume 328, 28 April 2004, 999-1001. Sturrock, J.B.E. Lennie, S.C. (2009). Compulsory continuing professional development: a questionnaire-based survey of the UK dietetic profession, Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, 22, pp. 12-20. Tseveenjav, B. M, M. Murtomaa, V. Muromaa, H. (2003). Attendance at and self-perceived need for continuing education among Mongolian dentists, European Journal of Dental Education 2003; 7: 130-135. Tulinius, C. Holge-Hazleton, B. (2010). Continuing professional development for general practitioners: supporting the development of professionalism, Medical Education 2010; 44: 412-420. Wilson, N.H.F. Jones, M.L. Pine, C. Saunders, W.P. Seymour, R.A. (2008). Meeting Report Looking forward: educating tomorrows dental team, European Journal of Dental Education, 12 (2008) 176-199. Wiskott, A. H.W. Borgis, Serge. Somoness, M. (2000). A continuing education programme for general practitioners, European Journal of Dental Education 2000 4: 57-64.

Jetliner by Naoshi Koriyama Essay -- essays research papers

â€Å"Jetliner† Now he takes his mark At the farthest end of the runway Looking straight ahead, eager, intense With his sharp eyes shining He takes a deep, deep breath With his powerful lungs Expanding his massive chest His burning heart beating like thunders Then†¦ after a few†¦ tense moments†¦ of pondering He roars at his utmost And slowly beings to job Kicking the dark earth hard And now he begins to run Kicking the dark earth harder Then he dashes, dashes like mad, like mad Howling, shouting, screaming, and roaring Then with a most violent kick He shakes off the earth’s pull Softly lifting himself into the air Soaring higher and higher and higher still Piercing the sea of clouds Up into the chandelier of stars -Naoshi Koriyama   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In this poem, Naoshi Koriyama portrays a large and powerful Jetliner as a simple runner or long jumper. It has been disputed if Naoshi is really speaking of a long jumper, and not a runner, in this analysis I hope to prove that Naoshi is really speaking of a long jumper starting his run and lunging himself into the air. I will also break down each individual stanza and present its Imagery and compare the Jetliner to the Long jumper. Now he takes his mark At the farthest end of the runway Looking straight ahead, eager, intense With his sharp eyes shining In this stanza he shows the runner’s thoughts and intense few moments before he begins to run. The runner waits impatiently, looking at his mark a few meters away, wa...

The Recipe for Nature Essay -- Daniel Dennett Algorithm Essays

The Recipe for Nature Missing Works Cited Nature is a fluid coalescence of complex magnificence resulting from an algorithmic mastery of simplicity. It is no doubt an awe-inspiring entity that invokes both great curiosity and bafflement in those who attempt to account for its existence and splendor. It is often seen as overly reductionistic, if not  ¡Ã‚ §dangerous ¡Ã‚ ¨, to try to condense the (mindless?) brilliance of nature through any sort of mechanistic or logical means. And here we are faced with what Daniel Dennett calls Darwin ¡Ã‚ ¦s dangerous idea:  ¡Ã‚ §that all the fruits of evolution can be explained as the products of an algorithmic process ¡Ã‚ ¨ (Dennett, 1995 p.60). It is no surprise that this idea might present a problem for the Homo-sapien ego, as it jeopardizes our egocentric concept of  ¡Ã‚ §natural ¡Ã‚ ¨ superiority, as well as fails to satisfy our almost insatiable need to directly account for the expansiveness of the world around us. That is, for many of us it is somehow pessimistic, if not fatalistic, to be satisfied with the idea that we are products of nothing more than a mindless mechanical process (what a dangerous idea this is!) (Dennett, 1995 p.60). The question then inevitably arises: Is Darwin ¡Ã‚ ¦s theory of natural selection really  ¡Ã‚ §powerful enough ¡Ã‚ ¨ to can account for all of the world ¡Ã‚ ¦s design work (i.e., the time, energy and development needed to produce a complex outcome)? (Dennett, 1995) The answer is yes, but only after nature has been unraveled in terms of an algorithmic design and only after the many misunderstandings of Darwin ¡Ã‚ ¦s fundamental ideas have been rectified. If we are to discuss nature and natural selection in terms of being an algorithmic process, we must first define what is meant by an algorithm. An... ...Principle of Accumulation of Design ¡Ã‚ ¨ refers to the fact that the complexity of design work found in nature can be accounted for, not by a definite design process preformed by a designer, but by  ¡Ã‚ §a different sort of process that distributed that work over huge amounts of time, by thriftily conserving the design work that had been accomplished at each stage, so that it didn ¡Ã‚ ¦t have to be done over again ¡Ã‚ ¨ (Dennett, 68). This idea of distributed design work is certainly in line with nature ¡Ã‚ ¦s slow advancement in terms of complexity and  ¡Ã‚ §order of organisms ¡Ã‚ ¨ (Dennett, 69). Furthermore, the Principle of Accumulation of Design does not apply to work done as a result of a single unifying algorithmic process, but to the work done by a  ¡Ã‚ §large class of related algorithms ¡Ã‚ ¨, the conglomeration of which is responsible for the complexity found in nature today (Dennett, 51).

Hum 176 Week 9

PART ONE As a local television Director, my main focus is on the local news and the issues that affect the community in which I live. I would choose to make the closing of the parks for three days my lead story and leave the celebrity death to the bigger networks. My first priority is to report news that affects the citizens of the community that I serve, even with the prospect of bigger ratings; I would feel an obligation to my audience to report issues that are more closely related to them.I would have an intense investigation on the money issues that has caused the city council to start looking at ways to save money. I would send a reporter to talk to each council person to obtain any information into the current expenditures that the city has invoked. There would be a run of the initial story set up on our local news website, which would include a blog box to obtain audience’s feedback and comments. Prior to the city council meeting, I would have run a couple of the storie s that the investigating reporters had found and announced the time and place of the city council’s meeting.This way those that are interested in attending will be well informed and those that did not know will know have the ability to participate. One reporter and crew would be assigned to give onsite coverage of the meeting, which could report breaking news on the vote and how it might affect the community. One reporter will man the website giving updated information on the voting and answering any questions that may arise from bloggers. Once the vote has been tallied, we connect with the on-scene reporter with the results.Now, the reporter on-scene will also be responsible for the follow-up story. Getting information from the city council persons on why they voted the way they did, what comments do the elected officials have in response to how they voted and why, and are there alternative ways to save money other than closing the parks? Some key questions that need to be a sked are: how will this affect the community, are there more budgets cuts coming to save money, and what are the long term effects that the community might need to be aware of?These questions play an important role for the audience and how their lives will be affected for the months to come. Giving resident’s the ability to post their comments, good or bad, on the website is also extremely important, the feedback can be used to gauge the community’s reaction to what was reported and it can serve as a forum for people’s voices being heard by the city council. The follow –up is just as important as how it all began, following other stories that are related to the park’s closing and money saving ideas by the city council need to be investigated.Any important shut downs or closures must have priority over no community based issues. We must focus on the goal of serving our community and understand that, yes, there are ratings to be made airing the popul ar stories, but if one issue slips by our attention the community will turn on our station. PART TWO For years our society has transformed from one era to another. These changes were made because of our cultures demand of better products; it also was changed with the creation of advance technology.Inventions such as the radio, television, electricity, transportation, and computers have shaped our culture into what it is today. When culture changes, so do the things our cultures like such as movies, television programs, and games. These changes are seen as an evolution for the better. Our culture has played a major role in movies and television shows along the years. War of the Worlds, which was originally broadcasted on radio in 1938; showed a time when the reports of UFO’s and aliens were on everyone’s mind.Orson Welles created it as an entertainment broadcast, which caused a panic across the country. Later, it was made into a movie and depicted the events that happen ed when people thought that the broadcast was true. Movies such as Men in Black, Signs, Predator and Aliens have played on the Orson Welles saga and shows our culture’s interest in life on other planets, which still persists today. Era movies such as Platoon, Apocalypse Now, Thin Red Line, and We Were Soldiers Once show our cultural involvement in many wars and conflicts.Television shows followed the same type of evolution. Hogan’s Heroes, X-Files, Brady Bunch, The Walton’s, and the multiple reality shows that air today all reflect the things that people have going on in their lives and how they can relate to the programs they watch. You take shows from 20 years ago and compare them to the shows today; you will find a vast difference in language, violence, sexually explicit content and gore. This is due to the change in our culture which has directed the television shows and movies to evolve to where they are today.Gaming has really evolved of the last ten years , originally created as entertainment for children, it has actually captivated all ages. Starting with simple graphics and controls, as our culture evolved, so too did the demand for better graphics, controls and more games. The first games systems I can remember was Atari and know we have Xbox, PS3 and Wii to name the top few. Going from table tennis to interactive games which can be controlled by a person’s body shows how our culture’s advancements have played a role in the gaming industry.Due to the War in Iraq, games such as Modern Warfare and Call of Duty have emerged to be some of the top games released as of late. Along with the encouragement of a healthy society Wii Fit and the Xbox Kinect have hit the spot in giving all ages the ability to play and exercise at the same time. The Wii gaming system is even being used in medical treatment to help people learn to walk again. Many people would say that games have become more violent and gruesome, thus having a nega tive effect on the youth of today. They blame gaming systems for encouraging laziness and obesity.On the other side, studies have shown that gaming systems have enhanced children’s hand-eye coordination, critical thinking skills and problem solving skills. Our culture creates a demand on better quality and new technology. Movies, television and the gaming industry will be ever changing in the hopes of creating something that our culture wants. Since the people behind producing and creating these media platforms are from our culture, it is safe to say that our culture and these media platforms will forever be linked and intertwined for years to come.

Compare and Contrast “Romeo and Juliet” and “Gnomeo and Juliet” Essay

The book ‘Romeo and Juliet’ by William Shakespeare is about two opposing families with much hatred for each other. It shares many similarities, as well as many differences to the movie ‘Gnomeo and Juliet’ directed by Kelly Asbury. In both the film and the play, both families have extreme hatred for each other. For that reason, Romeo/Gnomeo and Juliet find a way to secretly show love for each other. Also in both the film and the play, Romeo/Gnomeo and Juliet fall in love at first sight. After just a day of knowing each other, Romeo and Juliet are surely in love and decide to secretly get married. Another similarity that they have, is Romeo/Gnomeo and Tybalt hate each other very much. In both the movie and the play, Romeo/Gnomeo and Juliet secretly sneak off to see each other. This is the only way they could be with each other without getting caught. In the end, they both have families that resolve their hatred for each other that has followed them for so long. The book and movie as well, have many differences. In ‘Romeo and Juliet’ Romeo is killed with the poison that he drank. Therefore, Juliet also kills herself because she cannot live without the love of her life, Romeo. Tybalt ends up killing Mercutio. Romeo is fierce that his friend Mercutio is dead, so Tybalt and Romeo fight and Romeo kills Tybalt. Romeo also kills Paris. At the end of the story, Lady Montague also dies because of grief over the banishment of her son. However, in the film ‘Gnomeo and Juliet’ nobody dies, which is probably one of the biggest differences in ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and ‘Gnomeo and Juliet.’ In Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet marry after just one day of knowing each other. Of course they do this secretly because they do not want the Capulets, nor the Montagues to know that Romeo and Juliet love each other. In difference, Gnomeo and Juliet wait until the family feud is resolved rather than to go behind their parent’s backs and marry secretly. In the book ‘Romeo and Juliet’ after Tybalt is killed, he remains dead. However, in the movie ‘Gnomeo and Juliet’ Tybalt is revived. The movie ‘Gnomeo and Juliet’ does not have Lady Capulet, or Sir Montague, the original ‘Romeo and Juliet’ book does. Lady Capulet dies after her son drinks the poison, because she could not bear his death. The time periods in both are very different also. ‘Romeo and Juliet’ was written long ago. ‘Gnomeo and Juliet’ is an Animate movie in which took place in different backyards that did not get along and had much hatred for each other.

Analysis Of “Lidl” Essay

Introduction Lidl is a German discount supermarket, operating a chain of over 9000 stores across Europe. In Germany Lidl has an upmarket image attracting the middle class. However, Bulgarian consumers perceive Lidl to be down market retailer attracting low income families. History of the company Schwarz Beteiligungs GmbH is the holding company of the Handelshof and Kaufland store chains and Lidl Stiftung & Co KG, a wholly-owned subsidiary which owns supermarket Lidl. The company was founded in Germany in the 1930‘s by the Schwarz family as a wholesale foods company under tha name Schwarz Assorted Wholesale Foods. The business was then destroyed in 1944. After ten years the business was rebuild and the first Lidl store opened in 1973. By 1977 the Lidl chain comprised 33 discount stores. Today Lidl operates approximately 9000 stores across 20 Europeans countries. In Bulgaria, Lidl opened the first store in 2010 and now services 64 stores across the country. The latest history of the company Lidl was clouded by the observation scandal in 2008. The company was accused of observing their employees. This scandal damaged their image. Lidl has appologized for the incident and has assured that they would promote immediate moves to prevent such incidents to happen again in the f uture. Retail market in Bulgaria Retailers in Bulgaria currently hold a market share of 35% and it is likely to reach 50% in 2014.At the same time, according to the Bulgarian Retailer‘s Association, the market has shrunk with one billion Euro for the last few  years due to the declining consumption. While in 2008 the market was estimated at 12 billion leva, in 2010 it was estimated at 10.7 billion leva and 10.5 billion leva in 2011 (source: ICAP consultancy). Competitors: Top three retailers in 2013 are Metro Cash&Carry, Kaufland and Billa. The largest chain continues to be Metro. However, in 2013 it showed 12% lower sales although it has very good profitability of 9.5%. Kaufland makes every effort to take over the leading position although their profitability is behind the leader with 2.36%. It made more sale due to the new outlets. Billa ranks third (profitability of 2.48%). Its profits decreased substantially. The second group of chains is those which are relatively new on the market. Slovenian Mercator (Roda Market) has 4 outlets (two in Stara Zagora) and plans a new one in Sofia. The retailer operates at a loss and does not plan to make a profit although the strategy is to become at least the 5th largest retailer in Bulgaria. Penny Market entered the country together with Lidl and they became true competitors. In 2010, the chain is on 12th position with 100 million leva (51.1 million Euro) sales. German HIT also registered a decline in sales. Maxima (T-Market) works at a loss due to opening of new stores, and plans to open 15-20 new outlets. A third group consists of smaller local chains. In most cases, they were acquired by larger retailers. Kaleia became a part of T-Market, and Verde was sold to a new owner in 2011. Increasingly, independent stores rebrand under the brands of larger retailers. Lidl currently differentiate themselves in the market by offering quality products at a low price. However, the main reason why Lidl is not among top three retail companies in Bulgaria is that the company is perceived by the Bulgarians as being low quality and low price. Existing brands and strategy of Lidl Lidl stocks very few market leading brands and mainly stocks their own unfamiliar captive brands, which encompasses food and non-food products. Many ranges focus on the ethnic origin of products. Its Italian brand Combino covers everything from dry pasta to pasta sauces; El Tequito signals Mexican food. Lidl offers also a fair trade brand, Free Globe, which provide  Lidl consumers with an ethical alternative. Captive brands are in line with Lidl‘s operating strategy as a discount retailer. Own label, captive brands are cheaper than branded label products as Lidl controls the costs and production thereby ensuring higher profit margins. Competitive Advantage Consumers like private labels due to their price/quality ratio which is almost always good. Lidl tries to cover the full range of consumer products under their private label lines in order to attract as large number of consumers as possible. Private labels also bring benefits to local food manufacturers which are the usual suppliers. Lidl offers small local manufacturers the chance to sell their private label products abroad as well as in the country. Overall, however, these advantages remain underestimated by food producers. Most are still trying to maintain own brands but admit that the price difference for the same product under the own brand and under the private label is almost double, and the cost of keeping own brands grows so significantly that it becomes unaffordable for smaller companies. Ultimately, Lidl is more competitive, ensures a higher image, achieves a greater turnover, makes cost savings, achieves higher revenue and profits and creates customer loyalty through thei r private labels. Social Responsibility In the matter of the important topic Corporate Social Responsibility, Lidl started a project called â€Å"ECO2LOGISCH†. This project is about building stores that are energy-efficient and sustainable. This is a new store generation. For example the new stores will be 100% heated using the waste heat from the refrigerated sections. Lidl plans that from 2010 on all Lidl-stores should be build â€Å"ECO2LOGISCH†. With this project Lidl is the first food retailer which sets sustainable building services engineering as a standard. Another important social activity is the Green bus line â€Å"Vitosha†. This line is financed by LIDL Bulgaria and transports citizens and guests from the National stadium â€Å"Vasil Levski† to Zlatnite mostove in Vitosha for free. The bus is in harmony with nature and everybody experiences positive emotions. Organisational strategy Lidl’s no frills approach to retailing enables them to eliminate all extra  costs such as carrier bags and customer services. It avoids expensive flooring, furnishing and uses basic fixtures such as pallets and simple shelving. Lidl do this in order to keep their operating costs as low as possible which allows them to maintain low product prices and offer their customers value for money. It also has a narrow product assortment, offering one or two items in each category. Therefore, the company is able to buy large amounts of stock achieving economies of scale, enabling Lidl to offer quality products at a low competitive price. PEST analysis Political factor: This factor determines on what degree the government intervenes in the economy. This can affect supermarkets such as Lidl in a number of ways. For instance, the minimum wage in Bulgaria is 340 leva. Not only does it affect Lidl, but also it affects the low-skilled workers. The reason is that the company would prefer to employ fewer workers because of the minimum wage. Taxation in Bulgaria also affects the company. The higher the income tax, the less disposable income consumers have. Therefore, Lidl makes less sales. Generally, the government plays a big role in the economy. Economic factors: The economic factors that influence Lidl include interest rates and cost of living. The interest rates affect the company‘s cost of capital, which determines whether it can grow or not. Lidl is stimulated to invest in Bulgaria by a favorable fiscal policy, flat corporate tax of ten per cent (lowest level in the European Union) and low operational costs. Nevertheless, the country is still ranked as the lowest income member of the EU. As revealed by Eurostat data, the GDP per capita in Bulgaria expressed in Purchasing Power Standards stands at 40% of the EU-27 average based on latest GDP data. That is one of the reasons for the declining consumption in the country. Social factors: It is very important for Lidl that consumers spend more money in their stores. However, according to Industry Watch, private savings have increased with 30% during the last few years as a result of the economic crisis, which has threatened the financial security of many citizens. Households prefer saving in this difficult time and they cut largely on their consumption. Families are more conservative. Another problem is the demographic crisis in Bulgaria. The population has been increasingly declining for the last twenty-four years. Political: Government policies Current legislation Tax policy Employment legislation Economical: Interest rates Fiscal policy Cost of living Social: Education Consumer attitudes and opinions Private savings Major events Technological: Innovation Communications New technology SWOT analysis Sthrengths: Weight: 1. Has private labels and a good range of other branded products too. 2. Strong online presence and online selling. 3. Placement, they build in deprived areas where cheap food is required. They sell reasonable food that appeal to all incomes. 4. Open on Sundays and holidays. 5. Has over 9,000 stores across Europe 0,35 0,26 0,22 0,12 0,05 Total: 1 Weaknesses: Weght: 1.Still relatively small as compared to other brands 2. Hasn’t been able to impact globally as there are a few other chain stores 3. Observation scandal 0,67 0,22 0,11 Total: 1 Opportunities: Weight: 1.To gain a further strong hold in European markets 2. Expanding into growing economies like Africa, Asia etc 0,6 0,4 Threats: Weight: 1. International expansion of other brand would increase competition 2. Price war with other retail chains brands 0,5 0,5 Five forces model Buyer power There is one important change in the consumer’s behaviour to which the retailers have to respond to. Nowadays the importance of health gets bigger and bigger. The convenience food becomes less important and consumers are more interested in fresh and healthy food. Another important fact is the price. Because there is a wide range of large retailers in Bulgaria, the consumer faces no switching costs and thereby the retailers have to have an attractive price scheme. All in all the buyer power is moderate. Supplier power The big Bulgarian retailers often have a large range of suppliers. With this  strategy the retailers ensure stability. They avoid possible delays in deliveries and price fluctuations. In addition to that some large retailers have started to sell own brand products. These two facts weaken the supplier power in the Bulgarian food retail industry. Generally, the supplier power is moderate. New entrants It is not easy for new entrants to enter the market because of the aggressive marketing and pricing schemes of the large retailers in the industry. Nevertheless there are low entry and exit costs in the food retail industry and the changes in consumer’s behaviour gives new entrants a possible niche to enter the market successfully. Besides the low growths rate makes the industry not that attractive to new entrants. In conclusion the threat of new entrants is moderate. Substitutes The only real substitute to the food retail is the food service represented by fast foods restaurants, sit-down restaurants and delivery services. But for consumers the food service is more a complement than a substitute. A more direct substitute are individuals and families who cultivate their own food. This is no longer used nowadays but in the long term it is possible because of the changes in the consumer’s behaviour and the threat of economically and politically instability. The threat of substitutes is therefore weak. Rivalry A high competition in the food retail industry exists. The main reasons for this are not the existing switching costs for the consumers. The similarity in the basic products of the large retailers pushes them into a competitive pricing scheme. This leads the price wars. These are encouraged by the consumers who are now comparing more and more. They have a look on special offers and the lowest price. The Bulgarian food retail industry has a lot of competitors. Therefore, rivalry is strong in this industry. Conclusion The financial crisis has a negative impact on shopping in Bulgaria. Therefore, Lidl needs to be able to compete on more than just price in order to retain more affluent consumers in the future. Thus, the company‘s personality should be distinct from its competitor‘s offerings. Lidl‘s brand personality reflects an outdated and cheap product range, which is negatively perceived by some consumers. In Bulgaria, Lidl‘s products lack symbolic meaning and have few strong associations with the company. In order to gain more market share, Lidl should be presented as honest and trustworthy, offering quality and fresh products at competitive price. Resources: www.icap.bg http://www.capital.bg/klasacii/kapital_top_100/2013/07/16/2103477_k100_riteil_edna_malko_po-dobra_godina/ Retail market report (from 2012, prepared by Mila Boshnakova)

Christopher Marlowe Essay

Christopher Marlowe Introduction: Drama presents fiction or fact in a form that could be acted before an audience. It is imitation by action and speech. A play has a plot, characters, atmosphere and conflict. Unlike a novel, which in read in private, a play is intended to be performed in public. Christopher Marlowe was a greatest of pre Shakespearian dramatists, poet and translator. Marlowe’s plays are known for the use of blank verse, He was known as the Father of English Tragedy Origin and development of British Drama: The Romans introduced drama to England, during the medieval period. A number of auditoriums were constructed for the performance of the art form, when it came to the country. Mummers’ plays, associated with the Morris dance, became a popular form of street theatre during the period. The performances were based on the old stories of Saint George, Robin Hood and Dragon. The artists moved from town to town, to perform these folk tales. They were given money and hospitality, in return for their performance. The mystery and morality plays, performed during medieval period – at religious festivals, carried the Christian theme. The English Renaissance, a cultural and artistic movement in England country that lasted from 16th to early-17th century, paved the way for the dominance of drama in the country. Queen Elizabeth I ruled during the period, when great poetry and drama were produced. The renowned playwrights of this time included William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, B en Jonson and John Webster. The dramatists wrote plays based on themes like history, comedy and tragedy. While most of the playwrights specialized in only one of the themes, Shakespeare emerged as an artist who produced plays based on all the three themes. Pre Shakespearian Drama: The University Wits, nearly all of whom were associated with Oxford and Cambridge, did much to found the Elizabethan school of drama. They were all more or less aquainted with each other, and most of them led irregular and stormy lives. Their plays had several features in common. There was a fondness of heroic themes, such as the lives of great figures like Mohammed and Tamburlaine.Heroic themes needed heroic treatment: great fullness and variety; splendid descriptions, long swelling speeches, the handling of violent incidents and emotions. These qualities, excellent when held in restraint, only too often led to loudness and disorder. The style also was ‘heroic’. The chief aim was to achieve strong and sounding lines, magnificient epithets, and powerful declamation. This again led to abuse and to mere bombast, mouthing, and in the worst cases to nonsense. In the best examples, such as in Marlowe, the result is quite impressive. In this connection it is to be noted that the best medium for such expression was blank verse, which was sufficiently elastic to bear the strong pressure of these expansive methods. The themes were usually tragic in nature, for the dramatists were as a rule too much in earnest to give heed to what was considered to be the lower species of comedy. The general lack of real humour in the early drama is one of its most prominent features. Humour, when it is brought in at all, is coarse and immature. Christopher Marlowe (1564 – 1593): Marlowe’s Early Life: Christopher Marlowe, English dramatist, the father of English tragedy, and instaurator of dramatic blank verse, the eldest son of a shoemaker at Canterbury, was born in that city on the 6th of February 1564. He was christened at St George’s Church, Canterbury, on the 26th of February, 1563/4, some two months before Shakespeare’s baptism at Stratford-on-Avon. His father, John Marlowe, is said to have been the grandson of John Morley or Marlowe, a substantial tanner of Canterbury. The father, who survived by a dozen years or so his illustrious son, married on the 22nd of May 1561 Catherine, daughter of Christopher Arthur, at one time rector of St Peter’s, Canterbury, who had been ejected by Queen Mary as a married minister. The dramatist received the rudiments of his education at the King’s School, Canterbury, which he entered at Michaelmas 1578, and where he had as his fellow-pupils Richard Boyle, afterwards known as the great Earl of Cork, and Will Lyly, t he brother of [John Lyly] the dramatist. Stephen Gosson entered the same school a little before, and William Harvey, the famous physician, a little after Marlowe. He went to Cambridge as one of Archbishop Parker’s scholars from the King’s School, and matriculated at Benet (Corpus Christi) College, on the 17th of March 1571, taking his B.A. degree in 1584, and that of M.A. three or four years later. Marlowe’s Contribution to British Drama: In a playwriting career that spanned little more than six years, Marlowe’s achievements were diverse and splendid. Perhaps before leaving Cambridge he had already written Tamburlaine the Great (in two parts, both performed by the end of 1587; published 1590). Almost certainly during his later Cambridge years, Marlowe had translated Ovid’s Amores (The Loves) and the first book of Lucan’s Pharsalia from the Latin. About this time he also wrote the play Dido, Queen of Carthage (published in 1594 as the joint work of Marlowe and Thomas Nashe). With the production of Tamburlaine he received recognition and acclaim, and playwriting became his major concern in the few years that lay ahead. Both parts of Tamburlaine were published anonymously in 1590, and the publisher omitted certain passages that he found incongruous with the play’s serious concern with history; even so, the extant Tamburlaine text can be regarded as substantially Marlowe’s. No other of his plays or poems or translations was published during his life. His unfinished but splendid poem Hero and Leander—which is almost certainly the finest nondramatic Elizabethan poem apart from those produced by Edmund Spenser—appeared in 1598. There is argument among scholars concerning the order in which the plays subsequent to Tamburlaine were written. It is not uncommonly held that Faustus quickly followed Tamburlaine and that then Marlowe turned to a more neutral, more â€Å"social† kind of writing in Edward II and The Massacre at Paris. His last play may have been The Jew of Malta, in which he signally broke new ground. It is known that Tamburlaine, Faustus, and The Jew of Malta were performed by the Admiral’s Men, a company whose outstanding actor was Edward Alleyn, who most certainly played Tamburlaine, Faustus, and Barabas the Jew. Plays of Christopher Marlowe: Marlowe’s plays, all tragedies, were written within five years (1587-92). He had no bent for comedy, and the comic parts found in some of his plays are always inferior and may be by other writers. As a dramatist Marlowe had serious limitations, though it is possible to trace a growing sense of the theatre through his plays. Dido, Queen of Carthage (1586): Dido, Queen of Carthage is a short play written by the English playwright Christopher Marlowe, with possible contributions by Thomas Nashe. The story of the play focuses on the classical figure of Dido, the Queen of Carthage. It tells an intense dramatic tale of Dido and her fanatical love for Aeneas (induced by Cupid), Aeneas’ betrayal of her and her eventual suicide on his departure for Italy. Jupiter is fondling Ganymede, who says that Jupiter’s wife Juno has been mistreating him because of her jealousy. Venus enters, and complains that Jupiter is neglecting her son Aeneas, who has left Troy with survivors of the defeated city. He was on his way to Italy, but is now lost in a storm. Jupiter tells her not to worry; he will quiet the storm. Venus travels to Libya, where she disguises herself as a mortal and meets Aeneas, who has arrived, lost, on the coast. He and a few followers have become separated from their comrades. He recognises her, but she denies her identity. She helps him meet up with Illioneus, Sergestus and Cloanthes, other surv iving Trojans who have already received generous hospitality from the local ruler Dido, Queen of Carthage. Dido meets Aeneas and promises to supply his ships. She asks him to give her the true story of the fall of Troy, which he does in detail, describing the death of Priam, the loss of his own wife and his escape with his son Ascanius and other survivors. Dido’s suitor, Iarbas, presses her to agree to marry him. She seems to favour him, but Venus has other plans. She disguises Cupid as Aeneas’s son Ascanius, so that he can get close to Dido and touch her with his arrow. He does so; Dido immediately falls in love with Aeneas and rejects Iarbas out of hand, to his horror and confusion. Dido’s sister Anna, who is in love with Iarbas, encourages Dido to pursue Aeneas. She and Aeneas meet at a cave, where Dido declares her love. They enter the cave to make love. Iarbas swears he will get revenge. Venus and Juno appear, arguing over Aeneas. Venus believes that Juno wants to harm her son, but Juno denies it, saying she has important plans for him. Aeneas’s followers say they must leave Libya, to fulfil their destiny in Italy. Aeneas seems to agree, and prepares to depart. Dido sends Anna to find out what is happening. She brings Aeneas back, who denies he intended to leave. Dido forgives him, but as a precaution r emoves all the sails and tackle from his ships. She also places Ascanius in the custody of the Nurse, believing that Aeneas will not leave without him. However, â€Å"Ascanius† is really the disguised Cupid. Dido says that Aeneas will be king of Carthage and anyone who objects will be executed. Aeneas agrees and plans to build a new city to rival Troy and strike back at the Greeks. Mercury appears with the real Ascanius and informs Aeneas that his destiny is in Italy and that he must leave on the orders of Jupiter. Aeneas reluctantly accepts the divine command. Iarbas sees the opportunity to be rid of his rival and agrees to supply Aeneas with the missing tackle. Aeneas tells Dido he must leave. She pleads with him to ignore Jupiter’s command, but he refuses to do so. He departs, leaving Dido in despair. The Nurse says that â€Å"Ascanius† has disappeared. Dido orders her to be imprisoned. She tells Iarbas and Anna that she intends to make a funeral pyre on which she will burn everything that reminds her of Aeneas. After cursing Aeneas’ progeny, she throws herself into the fire. Iarbas, horrified, kills himself too. Anna, seeing Iarbas dead, kills herself. Tamburlaine the Great (1587–1588): Tamburlaine the Great is a play in two parts by Christopher Marlowe. It is loosely based on the life of the Central Asian emperor, Timur â€Å"the lame†. Written in 1587 or 1588, the play is a milestone in Elizabethan public drama; it marks a turning away from the clumsy language and loose plotting of the earlier Tudor dramatists, and a new interest in fresh and vivid language, memorable action, and intellectual complexity. Along with Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy, it may be considered the first popular success of London’s public stage. Marlowe, generally considered the greatest of the University Wits, influenced playwrights well into the Jacobean period, and echoes of Tamburlaine’s bombast and ambition can be found in English plays all the way to the Puritan closing of the theatres in 1642. While Tamburlaineis considered inferior to the great tragedies of the late-Elizabethan and early-Jacobean period, its significance in creating a stock of themes and , especially, in demonstrating the potential of blank verse in drama, are still acknowledged. Part 1 The play opens in Persepolis. The Persian emperor, Mycetes, dispatches troops to dispose of Tamburlaine, a Scythian shepherd and at that point a nomadic bandit. In the same scene, Mycetes’ brother Cosroe plots to overthrow Mycetes and assume the throne. The scene shifts to Scythia, where Tamburlaine is shown wooing, capturing, and winning Zenocrate, the daughter of the Egyptian king. Confronted by Mycetes’ soldiers, he persuades first the soldiers and then Cosroe to join him in a fight against Mycetes. Although he promises Cosroe the Persian throne, Tamburlaine reneges on this promise and, after defeating Mycetes, takes personal control of the Persian Empire. Suddenly a powerful figure, Tamburlaine decides to pursue further conquests. A campaign against Turkey yields him the Turkish king Bajazeth and his wife Zabina as captives; he keeps them in a cage and at one point uses Bajazeth as a footstool. After conquering Africa and naming himself emperor of that continent, Tamburlaine sets his eyes on Damascus; this target places the Egyptian Sultan, his father-in-law, directly in his path. Zenocrate pleads with her husband to spare her father. He complies, instead making the Sultan a tributary king. The play ends with the wedding of Zenocrate and Tamburlaine, and the crowning of the former as Empress of Persia. Part 2 Tamburlaine grooms his sons to be conquerors in his wake as he continues to conquer his neighbouring kingdoms. His oldest son, Calyphas, preferring to stay by his mother’s side and not risk death, incurs Tamburlaine’s wrath. Meanwhile, the son of Bajazeth, Callapine, escapes from Tamburlaine’s jail and gathers a group of tributary kings to his side, planning to avenge his father. Callapine and Tamburlaine meet in battle, where Tamburlaine is victorious. But finding Calyphas remained in his tent during the battle, Tamburlaine kills him in anger. Tamburlaine then forces the defeated kings to pull his chariot to his next battlefield, declaring, Upon reaching Babylon, which holds out against him, Tamburlaine displays further acts of extravagant savagery. When the Governor of the city attempts to save his life in return for revealing the city treasury, Tamburlaine has him hung from the city walls and orders his men to shoot him to death. He orders the inhabitants â₠¬â€ men, women, and children — bound and thrown into a nearby lake. Lastly, Tamburlaine scornfully burns a copy of the Qur’an and claims to be greater than God. In the final act, he is struck ill but manages to defeat one more foe before he dies. He bids his remaining sons to conquer the remainder of the earth as he departs life. The play is often linked to Renaissance humanism which idealises the potential of human beings. Tamburlaine’s aspiration to immense power raises profound religious questions as he arrogates for himself a role as the â€Å"scourge of God† (an epithet originally applied to Attila the Hun). Some readers have linked this stance with the fact that Marlowe was accused of atheism. Others have been more concerned with a supposed anti-Muslim thread of the play, highlighted in a scene in which the main character burns the Qur’an. Jeff Dailey notes in his article â€Å"Christian Underscoring in Tamburlaine the Great, Part II† that Marlowe’s work is a direct successor to the traditional medieval morality plays,[3]and that, whether or not he is an atheist, he has inherited religious elements of content and allegorical methods of presentation. The Jew of Malta (1589): The Jew of Malta is a play by Christopher Marlowe, probably written in 1589 or 1590. Its plot is an original story of religious conflict, intrigue, and revenge, set against a backdrop of the struggle for supremacy between Spain and the Ottoman Empire in the Mediterranean that takes place on the island of Malta. The Jew of Malta is considered to have been a major influence on William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. The play opens with a Prologue narrated by Machevill, a caricature of the author Machiavelli. This character explains that he is presenting the â€Å"tragedy of a Jew† who has become rich by following Machiavelli’s teachings. Act I opens with a Jewish merchant, called Barabas, waiting for news about the return of his ships from the east. He discovers that they have safely docked in Malta, before three Jews arrive to inform him that they must go to the senate-house to meet the governor. Once there, Barabas discovers that along with every other Jew on the island he must forfeit half of his estate to help the government pay tribute to the Turks. When the Barabas protests at this unfair treatment, the governor Ferneze confiscates all of Barabas’s wealth and decides to turn Barabas’s house into a convent. Barabas vows revenge but first attempts to recover some of the treasures he has hidden in his mansion. His daughter, Abigail, pretends to convert to Christianity in order to enter the convent. She smuggles out her father’s gold at night. Ferneze meets with Del Bosco, the Spanish Vice-Admiral, who wishes to sell Turkish slaves in the market place. Del Bosco convinces Ferneze to break his alliance with the Turks in return for Spanish protection. While viewing the slaves, Barabas meets up with Ferneze’s, Lodowick. This man has heard of Abigail’s great beauty from his friend (and Abigail’s lover) Mathias. Barabas realizes that he can use Lodowick to exact revenge on Ferneze, and so he dupes the young man into thinking Abigail will marry him. While doing this, the merchant buys a slave called Ithamore who hates Christians as much as his new master does. Mathias sees Barabas talking to Lodowick and demands to know whether they are discussing Abigail. Barabas lies to Mathias, and so Barabas deludes both young men into thinking that Abigail has been promised to them. At home, Barabas orders his reluctant daughter to get betrothed to Lodowick. At the end of the second Act, the two young men vow revenge on each other for attempting to woo Abigail behind one another’s backs. Barabas seizes on this opportunity and gets Ithamore to deliver a forged letter to Mathias, supposedly from Lodowick, challenging him to a duel. Act II I introduces the prostitute Bellamira and her pimp Pilia-Borza, who decide that they will steal some of Barabas’s gold since business has been slack. Ithamore enters and instantly falls in love with Bellamira. Mathias and Lodowick kill each other in the duel orchestrated by Barabas and are found by Ferneze and Katherine, Mathias’s mother. The bereaved parents vow revenge on the perpetrator of their sons’ murders. Abigail finds Ithamore laughing, and Ithamore tells her of Barabas’s role in the young men’s deaths. Grief-stricken, Abigail persuades a Dominican friar Jacomo to let her enter the convent, even though she lied once before about converting. When Barabas finds out what Abigail has done, he is enraged, and he decides to poison some rice and send it to the nuns. He instructs Ithamore to deliver the food. In the next scene, Ferneze meets a Turkish emissary, and Ferneze explains that he will not pay the required tribute. The Turk leaves, stating that his leader Calymath will attack the island. Jacomo and another friar Bernardine despair at the deaths of all the nuns, who have been poisoned by Barabas. Abigail enters, close to death, and confesses her fatherà ¢â‚¬â„¢s role in Mathias’s and Lodowick’s deaths to Jacomo. She knows that the priest cannot make this knowledge public because it was revealed to him in confession. Act IV shows Barabas and Ithamore delighting in the nuns’ deaths. Bernardine and Jacomo enter with the intention of confronting Barabas. Barabas realizes that Abigail has confessed his crimes to Jacomo. In order to distract the two priests from their task, Barabas pretends that he wants to convert to Christianity and give all his money to whichever monastery he joins. Jacomo and Bernardine start fighting in order to get the Jew to join their own religious houses. Barabas hatches a plan and tricks Bernardine into coming home with him. Ithamore then strangles Bernardine, and Barabas frames Jacomo for the crime. The action switches to Bellamira and her pimp, who find Ithamore and persuade him to bribe Barabas. The slave confesses his master’s crimes to Bellamira, who decides to report them to the governor after Barabas has given her his money. Barabas is maddened by the slave’s treachery and turns up at Bellamira’s home disguised as a French lute player. Barabas then poisons all three conspirators with the use of a poisoned flower. The action moves quickly in the final act. Bellamira and Pilia-Borza confess Barabas’s crimes to Ferneze, and the murderer is sent for along with Ithamore. Shortly after, Bellamira, Pilia-Borza and Ithamore die. Barabas fakes h is own death and escapes to find Calymath. Barabas tells the Turkish leader how best to storm the town. Following this event and the capture of Malta by the Turkish forces, Barabas is made governor, and Calymath prepares to leave. However, fearing for his own life and the security of his office, Barabas sends for Ferneze. Barabas tells him that he will free Malta from Turkish rule and kill Calymath in exchange for a large amount of money. Ferneze agrees and Barabas invites Calymath to a feast at his home. However, when Calymath arrives, Ferneze prevents Barabas from killing him. Ferneze and Calymath watch as Barabas dies in a cauldron that Barabas had prepared for Calymath. Ferneze tells the Turkish leader that he will be a prisoner in Malta until the Ottoman Emperor agrees to free the island. Doctor Faustus (1589-1593): Marlowe’s â€Å"The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus† stands as one of the most influential and frequently-referenced pieces of literature in history. The play is the story of Dr. Faustus, a man who considers study in the fields of logic, medicine, law, and divinity and instead chooses to forsake them all to practice black magic. He enters into a deal with Mephastophilis, a servant of the devil, in which Faustus gains the services of the demon but has to give up his soul after 24 years. The play deals with several important themes. The corrupting influence of power, sin and redemption, and the divided nature of man are interwoven throughout the piece. Absolute power corrupts Faustus thoroughly. In the beginning we are introduced to a man at the top of his game. He’s mastered several important disciplines and is seeking a further, more rewarding, challenge so he turns to black magic. Faustus dreams of the many amazing things he’ll accomplish with his new powers. He muses on sending spirits to India to fetch him gold, ponders having them â€Å"Ransack the ocean for orient pearl,† and contemplates how he will use his spirits to gain knowledge of â€Å"the secrets of all foreign kings.† His ambitions even extend to the throne of Germany. When finally granted the power he so desires, Faustus proceeds to do very little with it. He starts out auspiciously enough with an adventure in a chariot pulled by dragons so that he may unlock the mysteries of astronomy. Faustus seeks to test the accuracy of maps of the coasts and kingdoms of the world as well and eventually ends up in Rome. Soon after, however , he basically lets his amazing power go to waste. He spends his time impressing various noblemen, playing petty tricks on people, and conjuring up specters of Alexander the Great and Helen of Troy. The underlying statement Marlowe is making is one of the basic tenets of modern psychology. People simply don’t appreciate things they didn’t have to work to gain. In the beginning, Faustus is a great man, full of ambition and at the top of his field. While he ‘earns’ his new-found power in a sense by forfeiting his soul, he has done no actual work to acquire it. Throughout the course of the play we see the formerly-ambitious Faustus reduced to a petty conjurer and celebrity because of the corrupting influence of his power. Instead of choosing to act on his lofty ambitions or, heaven forbid, use his power for unselfish reasons; he simply wastes his days amusing himself with practical jokes and beautiful women. Marlowe also comments on the nature of sin and redemption. Faustus essentially commits the ultimate sin by signing a pact with the devil. He chooses of his own free will to give up his eternal soul in exchange for an earthly reward. According to Christian mythology, one can be forgiven of any sin, one has only to repent and ask God’s forgiveness. Despite the severity of his sin, Faustus is given several opportunities to repent his sin and be saved, and is encouraged to do so both by the good angel who appears several times and by the old man in scene 12. Each time he chooses to remain loyal to Hell. He seems to consider repenting at the very end, but Mephastophilis threatens to tear his body apart, so he chooses instead to send Mephastophilis to torture the old man whose words he finds himself unable to heed. Even though an easy answer to the problem of losing his soul exists, and he is several times reminded of it, in the end his own weakness prevents him from making the choice to repent and damns him for all eternity. The divided nature of man is literally personified in the play by the good and evil angels that appear to Faustus periodically. These characters represent opposing sides of Faustus’ own psyche, as well as representing emissaries of heaven and hell. Faustus is continually undecided whether he should continue his bargain or repent and seek salvation. He is clearly afraid for his eternal soul but is unable to relinquish the amazing power his bargain has afforded him. Marlowe may have intended the two angels as literal beings, but it’s obvious he also intended them as an allegorical representation of Faustus’ own internal struggle. Themes are an integral part of the play, but Marlowe’s work has truly stood the test of time. What is it about Doctor Faustus’ story that has made it resonant to countless generations of readers since it was written? The good doctor is a character with whom readers can sympathize. This is not to necessarily say that he is a ‘sympathetic’ character, but simply that he’s a man who faces temptation and a tough choice. Human beings face tough choices every day, and like Faustus we are forced to weigh the consequences of yielding to those temptations. Every human being faces temptation almost every day of their lives. These temptations range from the miniscule, such as being tempted to eat a slice of bread in spite of your pledge to adhere strictly to the Atkins diet, to the extreme, such as your best friend’s drunken girlfriend coming on to you. The story of Faustus rings true with readers even today because of this. It speaks to every reader because there are no people who have lived without temptation. We all have our â€Å"good angel† and â€Å"bad angel,† the voices inside our heads that spell out consequences of choices we’re faced with. In most cases, people who give into temptation are aware of the consequence s of that choice. The fact that Faustus’ temptation is a far greater one than any of us is likely to face and has far greater consequences than any of us will ever be up against just makes it even more resonant. Everyone has given in to a strong temptation at some point in their lives and it makes us feel good to see someone doing the same despite the enormous consequences that follow for Faustus. Despite the fact that Faustus has committed the ultimate sin by choosing of his own free will to give up his immortal soul for an earthly reward, the possibility of salvation exists for him until the very end. We as people want to believe that the possibility of salvation and forgiveness exists for us no matter how heinous the deeds we have committed are. Marlowe’s play speaks to this desire within us, telling us that, like Faustus, the possibility of repentance and forgiveness exists for us no matter how badly we screw up. It’s a very comforting thought, especially to those living with guilt over some past transgression. Another reason that the story in â€Å"Doctor Faustus† is as relevant today as it was when Marlowe wrote it is Faustus himself. Some may see him as a tragic hero, and it’s very possible to consider him in this light, but it’s also not much of a stretch to call him a villain. Men like Faustus exist even today, people who are willing to do whatever it tak es to get what they want regardless of the consequences to themselves or to others. Ken Lay in the recent Enron scandal comes to mind as an example of this. Mr. Lay was perfectly willing to practically destroy the lives of thousands of people by taking their hard-earned money and squandering it on yachts and other expensive trifles. He, in effect, sold his soul. Faustus’ selfish deeds remind us that people like him exist in real life. When Faustus is corrupted by his power and basically squanders it we are both angry at his inability to find a way to do good with his powers and pleased that he is getting what he deserves. Society likes it when people who commit evil deeds have it blow up in their face. We want to see justice served, whether it be Faustus’ eternity in hell or Mr. Lay’s recently-handed-down prison sentence, it feels good to know that evil people are punished. â€Å"Doctor Faustus† has truly stood the test of time as a great piece of classical literature. Countless indications of its influence exist even today, ranging from the film â€Å"The Devil’s Advocate† to the good and evil angels that appear on the shoulders in Warner Brothers cartoons. Marlowe’s use of complex themes and subtle commentary on the nature of man coupled with the underlying messages that speak to the human p syche have established â€Å"Doctor Faustus† as a pinnacle of the writer’s craft and a treatise on the human condition. Edward the Second (1592): Edward II is a Renaissance or Early Modern period play written by Christopher Marlowe. It is one of the earliest English history plays. The full title of the first publication is The Troublesome Reign and Lamentable Death of Edward the Second, King of England, with the Tragical Fall of Proud Mortimer. Christopher Marlowe’s Edward II is typically applauded as an aesthetic achievement, a history play that brings form and meaning to the incoherent material of its chronicle source by retelling the king’s slightly dull, twenty-year reign as the fierce and deadly struggle of a few willful personalities. Within the development of Elizabethan drama,Edward II is granted a crucial role in bringing to the English â€Å"chronicle play†Ã¢â‚¬â€œincluding Shakespeare’s Henry VI plays and Richard III–the unity and purpose of the mature â€Å"history† play, epitomized by Shakespeare’s later, more aesthetically sophisticated tetralogy. In this narrative of literary development, the episodic chronicle play fails to show the dispar ate events of the past contributing to a single action — fails, like the chronicle, to comprehend the past — while the history play successfully makes sense of those events. Considered in context of the Marlovian oeuvre, Edward II again demonstrates the triumph of art and order over inchoate historical material: it is Marlowe’s â€Å"most perfect achievement in dramatic structure† and the â€Å"most finished and satisfactory of Marlowe’s plays, evidently carefully written, with the refractory chronicle material skillfully handled.† These readings of Edward II, however, have relied upon too superficial an understanding of the chronicle tradition, and they have kept the play’s formal success separate from the Elizabethan debates about historiography within which both play and source participated. The social and political stakes of Marlowe’s historiographical practice emerge when we reread Edward II against a conception of the chronicle not as mere â€Å"material† but as a coherent and influential projection of national identity and historical process. Such a comparative reading shows us not merely that Marlo we’s play is more aesthetically satisfying, but also that it significantly redefines the nation and the forces of historical change. In particular, Marlowe delineates and focuses on a private realm, which he sets up in opposition to the public as a volatile source of decisions affecting the state. In addition, reading Marlowe’s play with a new understanding of the chronicle foregrounds the metadiscursive elements in Edward II that, referring back to the source accounts, help to illuminate Marlowe’s sense of his own artistic refashioning. The chronicle form, as Marlowe’s principal source and one with considerable cultural authority, challenged him to set up his drama as a more â€Å"true† history and to defend his very different understanding of both political process and history writing. The assessments of Edward II that began this article define the play against the chronicle, which is in turn characterized as â€Å"material,† an apparently amorphous grouping of value-free facts for the artist to choose or reject. For the modern reader, accustomed to finding meaning in tales of causality, the disparate events recorded by the chroniclers — events only related to each other by their shared chronological structure — seem to lack meaning and purpose. But we can no longer read these important histories so carelessly. In her recent analysis of Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicle, Annabel Patterson has shown that the chronicle’s form and content actually worked to address the concerns and convey the values of the citizen and artisan Londoners who were its principal readers and producers. Maintaining that the Chronicle reveals not its authors’ â€Å"incompetence† but their â€Å"different set of historiographical principles,† Patterson argues that the Chronicle’s perplexing inclusivity — the quality that brought John Donne’s scathing dismissal of chronicle content as â€Å"triviall houshold trash†Ã¢â‚¬â€œin effect creates a national history that will encompass not just king and court but also citizens and even the artisanal and laboring classes. Patterson also traces, in passages throughout the Chronicle, the authors’ recurrent, approving attention to rights theory, to the â€Å"ancient constitution,† and to the value of Parliame nt in limiting the monarch’s power. She persuasively demonstrates that they make a strong case for certain liberties of the individual and the laws that protect them. The Massacre at Paris (1593): The Massacre at Paris is an Elizabethan play by the English dramatist Christopher Marlowe. It concerns the Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, which took place in Paris in 1572, and the part played by the Duc de Guise in those events. The Lord Strange’s Men acted a play titled The Tragedy of the Guise, thought to be Marlowe’s play, on 26 January 1593. The Admiral’s Menperformed The Guise or The Massacre ten times between 21 June and 27 September 1594. The Diary of Philip Henslowe marks the play as â€Å"ne,† though scholars disagree as to whether this indicates a â€Å"new† play or a performance at the Newington Butts theatre. The Diary also indicates that Henslowe planned a revival of the play in 1602, possibly in a revised version.[1] A possible revision may have something to do with the surprising number of Shakespearean borrowings and paraphrases in the text.[2] The only surviving text is an undated quarto that is too short to represent the complete original play and in all probability it is a memorial reconstruction by the actors who performed the work.[3] It preserves a lot of the violence and stabbing jokes but deletes most of whatever social value the play may have had, except for one long soliloquy near the beginning. One clue to the original substance of the play is a page which survives in manuscript. It is known as the â€Å"Collier leaf,† after the Shakespearean scholar John Payne Collier, who is known to have been a notorious forger, although modern scholars think that this particular leaf is probably authentic. Despite including a speech where one of the characters mutters obscene jokes to himself before shooting someone, it supplies a much longer and more interesting version of a blank verse speech than appears in the quarto. This suggests that the more thoughtful parts of the play were precisely the ones that tended to be cut. This was his unfinished work. Christopher Marlowe – Father of English Tragedy: The first great thing done by Marlowe was to break away from the medieval conception of tragedy, as in medieval drama, tragedy was a thing of the princes only. It dealt with the rise and fall of kings or royal personalities. But it was left to Marlowe to evolve and create the real tragic hero. Almost all the heroes of Marlowe—Tamburlaine, Faustus or Jew of Malta—are of humble parentage, but they are endowed with great heroic qualities and they are really great men. His tragedy is, in fact, the tragedy of one man-the rise, fall and death of the hero. All other characters of a Marlovian drama pale into insignificance beside the towering personality and the glory and grandeur of the tragic hero. Even various incidents of the drama revolve round the hero. The spiritual or moral conflict takes place in the heart of man and this is of much greater-significance and much more poignant than the former. And a great tragedy most powerfully reveals the emotional conflict or moral a gony of the mighty hero. Like the heroes of ancient tragedy, Marlowe’s heroes are not helpless puppets in the hands of blind fate. The tragic flaw was in their character and the tragic action also issued out of their characters. This was really Marlowe’s greatest contribution to English tragedy. Marlowe’s Themes and Style: Though Marlowe did not care for the unity of plot, his characterization was powerful and he developed the element of soul struggle in plays like Dr. Faustus. His hero Faustus, dissatisfied with the poor results of human science sells his soul to the devil so that for 24 years he may satisfy every desire. Marlowe was fascinated by king Tamburlaine who rose from a shepherd to became a master of Asia. In the Jew of Malta Marlowe shows the Jew Barabas enjoying his riches. He takes revenge on his Christian enemies. At last Barabas fell into the pit he had dug for others. In Edward II the murder of king is one of the most poignant scenes in the drama of Renaissance. Each of the plays has behind it the driving force of this vision, which gives it an artistic and poetic unity. It is, indeed, as a poet that Marlowe excels. Though not the first to use blank verse in English drama, he was the first to exploit its possibilities and make it supreme. His verse is notable for its possibilities and makes it supreme. His verse is notable for its burning energy, its splendour of diction, its sensuous richness, its variety of pace, and its responsiveness to the demands of varying emotions. Full of bold primary colours, his poetry is crammed with imagery from the classics, from astronomy and from geography, an imagery barbaric in its wealth and splendour. Its resonance and power led Ben Jonson to coin the phrase â€Å"Marlowe’s mighty line. â€Å"but its might has often obscured its technical precision and its admirable lucidity and finish. Creator of English Blank verse in Drama: Black verse is unrhymed iambic pentameter. It was first introduced by the Earl of Surrey in the 16th century. Later it was used by Marlowe and Shakespeare in their famous plays. Christopher Marlowe was the first English author to make full use of the potential of blank verse, and also established it as the dominant verse form for English drama in the age of Elizabeth I and James I. Marlowe and then Shakespeare developed its potential greatly in the late 16th century. Marlowe was the first to exploit the potential of blank verse for powerful and involved speech. Marlowe was the real creator of the most versatile of English measures. Sackville, Norton and Surrey experimented with this metre more than twenty years before Marlowe. They failed because they worked on wrong principles and the results which they produced were of an intolerable tedious monotony. Marlowe’s achievement in developing blank verse can be illustrated by the study of â€Å"Doctor Faustus†. In the chorus passage for example, the verse seems more consistently regular in its beat. The less questionable judgment is, that Marlowe exercised a strong influence over later drama, though not himself as great a dramatist as Kyd; that he introduced several new tones into blank verse, and commenced the dissociative process which drew it farther and farther away from the rhythms of rhymed verse. Marlowe’s Poems: †¢Translation of Book One of Lucan’s Pharsalia †¢Translation of Ovid’s Elegies (1580) †¢The Passionate Shepherd to His Love (pre-1593) †¢Hero and Leander (1593, unfinished; completed by George Chapman, 1598) Christopher Marlowe, a poet known mostly for his plays rather than his verse, translated two major works of classical Latin poetry — Amores by Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) and the first book of Lucan’s (Marcus Annaeus Lucanus) Pharsalia. These are long Latin poems written in the first centuries before and after the Common Era. Though the poems were at least 1400 years old when Marlowe translated them, he put them into the Elizabethan English of his day with considerable verve and poetic vividness (and with the occasional error in translation.) Ovid’s poem is a three-book collection of â€Å"elegies† (Latin elegia,) which in Ovid’s day were the equivalent of personal lyric poetry. It concerns a stylized and sometimes humorous and cynical romance between a rich Roman man and his married, foolish lover Corinna. Much of Ovid’s poetry is formulaic, based on earlier poetic forms. These forms (such as stylized addresses to the mistress, a funeral elegy, apostrophes and the like) make up a large portion of Amores, and the narrative is secondary. Ovid, however, was able to imbue his characters with convincing realism, which Marlowe translated admirably. Hero and Leander, the only long original work of poetry of Marlowe’s to have survived (and possibly the only one he ever wrote, apart from his plays,) was written during a plague year when theatres in London were closed. Marlowe was thus unable to write for the stage, and set his pen again to classical subjects. Hero and Leander concerns the Greek mythical lovers of those names, separated by the Hellespont. It is thought that Marlowe took the story from the mythical Byzantine poet Musaeus, though the myth was known long before that time. â€Å"The Passionate Shepherd To His Love†, is a pastoral love poem, written in tetrameter. It is a justly famous piece, often quoted, and Ralegh (a contemporary poet) made a famous â€Å"Answer† to it. It is about a shepherd who longs to make a woman (or a nymph) his wife, and tries to lure her into the countryside with promises of rich gifts. This 24-line sweet-toned plea paints an idealized picture of rural life, with images of the finery the lover will make for his beloved from the fruits of the land. It is an homage to an old Greek form of poetry, and one of Marlowe’s mast erworks. The translation of Lucan’s First Book is a virtuoso piece by Marlowe, recounting the beginning of a long epic by the Roman poet Lucan. In it, Julius Caesar has returned from conquering Gaul, and debates on crossing the Rubicon and conquering his own city of Rome. It is a piece full of classical allusions, but is also a meditation on the folly of civil war. Marlowe may well have intended to translate all of Lucan’s ten extant books, but it is assumed that this effort was stopped by his early death. Marlowe wrote a Latin epitaph, which he translated into English, for Roger Manwood, an official and judge. It is a poem in the finest old Latin style, but with Elizabethan sensibilities. It, along with Hero and Leander and Lucan’s First Book are among Marlowe’s last works. Major Themes of his Poems: Illicit love The whole of Amores is concerned with an adulterous love affair. The lovers attempt to conceal their trysts and deceive Corinna’s husband at every turn; nor are the lovers faithful or truthful to one another. The embarkation of this affair seems to have caused the two lovers no moral misgivings. Never do Corinna and her lover wrestle with their consciences, or voice concern about Corinna’s deceived husband. The complete absence of sexual and social conventional morality is a bit surprising in a poem more than two thousand years old. These elegia were part of a Roman poetic convention; the love poetry of illicit relationships was a poetic trope that was much explored by Ovid and other writers of his day. That Marlowe chose to translate it, however, speaks somewhat of his taste in iconoclastic themes. Hero and Leander, too, a poem devised by Marlowe from the framework of an early myth, is concerned with a doomed love affair. The separation and desperation of the lovers (on a different scale of personal integrity, but still with the same sort of angst) in Hero and Leander is dwelt on the same way as Ovid expresses his striving and frustration for Corinna in Amores. Love denied is a powerful dramatic subject, and Marlowe liked to address it in his longer poems. Classical poetry translations Marlowe chose a short but nevertheless difficult poem to translate in Ovid’s Amores. Classical translations were in vogue at the time (the appearance of Henry Howard, Lord Surrey’s partial translation of Virgil’s Aeneid some years before this had made a mark in literary circles) and a task that a young poet would likely set himself to. The translation is not an easy one; classical Latin was a very mature language and many times more compact than Elizabethan English. The meanings of words in Latin were sometimes multi-layered and used in ways that Elizabethan scholars of Latin, such as Marlowe, were not always able to grasp. In addition, the putting of one style of verse (Ovid’s alternating hexameter/pentameter unrhymed lines) into another (blank verse English rhyming couplets) is a difficult task at best, and one that would have honed Marlowe’s skills in English verse as well as Latin translation. Apprenticeship of Marlowe The translations of Ovid and Lucan were made when Marlowe was very young. He was still an undergraduate student at Cambridge when he began them. The Latin translations, though at times extremely witty and apt, do contain significant errors. Marlowe, though doubtless a classical scholar, was not a complete master of Ovid’s extremely refined Latin, and Marlowe’s treatment of Lucan’s sometimes more awkward language is compounded by errors. The Amores were particularly admired in the medieval and Renaissance Europe, and the people who read them sometimes missed the cynical and playful side of Ovid’s poetry. Marlowe seems to have fewer of these illusions (for example, he often translates Ovid’s puella, â€Å"girl†, as â€Å"wench†, which had similar connotations in Marlowe’s day as it does now,) but Marlowe nevertheless was unaware of some of the Roman poetic conventions and the more polished double- and triple-meanings that the poet of the Augustan age employed in his verses. The translations of Ovid and Lucan, though ambitious and certainly telling of potential talent, were still, to some extent, schoolboy exercises. There is no doubt, however, that the studying of these ancient writers and the conversion of their Latin into English verse helped greatly to develop the ability of the future writer of Tamburlaine and The Jew of Malta. Cynical view of romantic love The entire relationship between the lover and Corinna in Amores is a sophisticated, realistic, somewhat jaded, and definitely cynical one. Corinna is married, and there is no talk of her divorcing her husband (though divorce was legal and practiced in the Rome of Ovid’s day.) It is plain that at least part of Corinna’s attraction to the lover is his wealth, and Corinna, though praised for her physical charms, is continuously scolded and made to look foolish. Neither lover is shown to be in the least bit heroic or even admirable — though the feeling of passion is there, with attendant sentiments. It is clear that Ovid is chronicling a sordid adulterous affair. The lovers deceive each other and those around them. There is nothing redeeming about the relationship, and love certainly does not â€Å"conquer all.† Physical gratification, and perhaps the thrill obtained from conquest and deception, seem to be the only ends and purpose of the relationship. Hero an d Leander pursue, though not nearly as cynical, a similarly doomed and pointless love affair. They are so innocent as to not be able to consummate their love immediately, and, though the poem is unfinished, their deaths are predicted in the opening lines of the poem. Much of Renaissance romance tended toward the tragic, so it is not surprising that Marlowe chose subjects with unhappy rather than conventionally happy endings. Fate Especially in Hero and Leander, but in much of Marlowe’s oeuvre, the notion of fate is a common theme. References to the mythical Fates (or Destinies — the three Greco-Roman goddesses who decided the character and length of each human being’s life) occur often, and it is used as rhetorical device to convince that something is â€Å"meant to be†. This may or may not have been Marlowe’s own particular view of life. Since his religious views tended toward the heretical, if not outright atheism, it may be that he believed more fully in free will than the old classical idea of a fated existence. The Catholic church, too, while acknowledging free will, insisted that God’s will be the dominant one. Since much of Marlowe’s poetry is wry and tongue-in-cheek, the mentions of Fate may well be largely ironic. Folly of humanity Especially in Lucan’s First Book, but also in Amores and Hero and Leander Marlowe takes pains to point out the folly of humanity. He chooses translations and tells stories in which the faults in the main characters are obvious and usually avoidable. The poet usually tells us at the outset what the problems of the main actors are, and the tragic ending is often foretold. This kind of lack of narrative suspense was common in Classical literature, and also in the drama of the Elizabethan stage. High classical culture Marlowe translated and composed in Latin, and his reverence for the ancient world was obvious both in his choice of literature to translate, and his original work. Marlowe didn’t choose mediocre or obscure Latin poetry, but the works of Ovid and Lucan. These writers were the pinnacle of their culture, and their Latin was dense, erudite, and difficult to translate. In addition, some of the situations and stories of these authors were very far removed from types of stories told in Renaissance England. Marlowe kept the essential truths in these classical works, but he adapted them just enough to make them more accessible to his readers. Marlowe and Shakespeare: Two great names: William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe Educationally they were a great contrast. Shakespeare had had little schooling, quitting school when he was fifteen years old. Marlowe, by comparison, had two degrees including a master’s from Corpus Christi College at Cambridge University. Shakespeare had had no opportunity to learn foreign languages though Marlowe was fluent in many. Marlowe had translated Ovid’s â€Å"Amores† while in college and later had done the first translation of Cervantes’s massive classic Don Quixote from Spanish to English. Many of the plays attributed to Shakespeare have reference to foreign cities and foreign languages. In a similar manner, Shakespeare had had no opportunity to learn protocol of military life, legal matters or court manners, things in which Marlowe was proficient — things that were frequently a part of many of the Shakespearean plays. Marlowe had traveled to many countries. According to records, Shakespeare had never left England. Marlowe’s influence on Shakespeare: According to the Greek composition of tragedy, the hero should be a Man of Moment – one whose destiny is closely tied with that of our own. Marlowe makes a glaring deviation from the path trodden by the Greeks. His heroes are men with whom we have a close kinship. Tamburlaine is a Scythian Shepherd, Barabas a Mediterranean money-lender, and Faustus an ordinary German Doctor. While Shakespeare follows the Greek convention in most of his major tragedies, we notice the conspicuous exception in Othello who though he speaks of himself as â€Å"hailing etc.† is after all a moor of Venice. The Greeks insisted on the observance of the unities as an essential concomitance of tragedy. Marlowe boldly violates the rule with impunity. Tamburlaine’s conquest takes well-nigh 24 years. The action of Faustus dating from his signing of the bond to Lucifer. The duration of the exploits of the Jew, too, exceeds the limit set by the ancient. The scene, too, shifts from one country to another in Tamburlaine. Faustus travels around the globe. Shakespeare, taking the clue from Marlowe, proved conclusively that dramatic verisimilitude can never be disturbed by the violations of the unities of time and place. Quite contrary to the established Greek convention Marlowe mingled the comic and tragic elements in Faustus, even though in Tamburlaine and The Jew of Malta we do not see it freely employed. Though many of the Wagner scenes are supposed to be interpolations by other hands, particularly Chapman, Marlowe cannot disown the authorship of these scenes completely. He had before him the primary aim of providing comic relief to the overtaxed minds of the auditors. But as we know, from our reaction to the Porter scene, the grave diggers scene, the appearance of the clown – and the rustic – these scenes by emphasizing the scene of contrast, only accentuate our tension. Further, with true dramatists’ insight into human life, Marlowe wants to point out that life consists in laughter and tears. To think of man’s life being burdened by unrelieved tragedy is starkly unimaginable and unreal. It was Marlowe who first presented on the English State The Titanic Struggle which rages in a man’s soul. The tempest in a soul is the very essence of Shakespearean tragedy. The struggle between the forces of good and evil in Tamburlaine, Faustus, and The Jew of Maltastands boldly in comparison with similar effects in Hamlet, King Lear, Othello and Macbeth. Marlowe, however, did not regard heroism as synonymous with virtue. His heroes are by no means patterns of human excellence overtaken by tragic frailty as in the case of Hamlet, Othello and King Lear. They can be relegated to the category of â€Å"hero-villains† – a type popularized in Elizabethan England. But these figures move before us as grand specimens of humanity overtaken by passion for reason. Tamburlaine takes to a caree r of conquests; Faustus turns to necromancy and so defies Mammon. In Shakespeare we have the classic instance of Macbeth who is the direct descendent of Dr. Faustus and Tamburlaine, while Shylock is the dramatic foster-child of Barabas. Marlowe is an astute craftsman in the effective use of suspense – a consciousness that the fate of the hero is sealed right at the outset. When Faustus signs the bond with the devil, he is actually flirting with fate even as Macbeth does when he interviews the witches. Until the play moves to its ultimate catastrophe suspense grips us – a feature common to Shakespeare and Marlowe. Again, Marlowe’s ability to compose death scenes is almost unparalleled in modern drama. In the deaths of Faustus and Edward II Marlowe’s dramatic power reaches its highest point. Death synonymous with tragic catastrophe was revealed to the future dramatists as something more than physical horror at the end of existence. Death became the loss of active and glorious living, the negation of individual power, the expiring struggle of the drama of life, its last defiance and its most irresistible appeal to pity and horror. The death scenes in hamlet and Othello derive directly from Marlowe’s inspiration. Marlowe, however, refrained from exhibiting physical horror upon the stage. The deaths of Faustus, Barabas and Tambur laine are either implied or narrated, but not enacted. The gruesome murder of Desdemona and of Antony are related to us; but the greater genius of Shakespeare for tragic poignancy did introduce scenes of physical horror at times, as in the slapping of Desdemona by Othello, the blinding of Gloucester in Lear and the stabbing of Macduff’s children in Macbeth. Edward II is an exception: In the words of Havelock Ellis â€Å"In nothing has Marlowe shown himself so much a child of the true Renaissance as in this to touch the images of physical horror. Marlowe’s treatment of the supernatural is unique and considerably influenced Shakespeare. He gives human touches to his supernatural beings which catch our eyes. Mephistopheles is capable of human feelings. His appeal to Faustus literally to adjure the devil has a tinge of pathos about them. Marlowe, at this moment, reminds us of Ariel attempting to stir the steely heart of Prospero. Even in his portrayal of the witches in Macbeth and the fairies in A Midsummer Night’s Dream Shakespeare is highly indebted to Marlowe. The device employed by Marlowe to represent the tempest of the emotions in the hero’s heart is unique and dramatically very effective . The good and the evil angels appearing as two characters to reflect the inner conflict was a bold invention on the part of the dramatist. Shakespeare frequently resorts to soliloquy in his tragedies. We hear also the incorporeal voice bidding Macbeth â€Å"sleep no more.† The dagger with its handle drawn towards Macbeth, the ghost of Banquo, and the ghost of Ceasar appearing to Brutus with the words: â€Å"I’m thy evil spirit† – all these are actually an objective mirror of the heart, but are incapable of giving a kaleidoscopic picture. By far the greatest contribution by Marlowe to the development of tragedy is the way he employs the medium of Blank verse. Blank verse is the only instrument capable of representing subtle shades of thought and feeling. Much of Shakespeare’s greatness is dependent on the poetry in his plays. Marlowe was the pioneer of blank verse in drama, Shakespeare was its complete master especially in the use of its various ramifications. We notice certain deficiencies in Marlowe’s tragic design, fortunately absent in Shakespeare. Marlowe concentrated his en tire attention on the development of a single character and so was almost indifferent to the rest. In Shakespeare every character has a positive individuality. We remember the passive Horatio as well as the turncoat Enobarbus. Marlowe was also ignorant of the feminine heart. Zenocrate is merely a shadow. Helen appears as a vision. On the contrary, Shakespeare’s acquaintance with the working’s of a woman’s mind is so profound that Ruskin, Arnold and Mrs. Jameson even contend that Shakespeare was primarily concerned with his heroines. Out of the physical activity and intellectual inquisitiveness of the Renaissance, there grew up a body of literature which was remarkable for its power and force. Marlowe was, perhaps, the truest representative of this literary and dramatic efflorescence. He embodied in his four plays, man’s inordinate love of physical power, his greed for intellectual wealth and his passion for material wealth and also his love of human passion. He devised a suitable medium to project his fiery soul and that was his well-known Blank verse. If Shakespeare had not Marlowe’s shoulders to stand upon he would not have been recognized as one of the greatest dramatist in the world. Shakespeare honoured his master both by imitation and direct quotation. Reputation among Contemporary Writers: Swinburne, a critic of the Elizabethan theatre had said that â€Å"Marlowe is a Father of English Tragedy and the creator of English blank verse and therefore also the teacher and guide of Shakespeare† Whatever the particular focus of modern critics, biographers and novelists, for his contemporaries in the literary world, Marlowe was above all an admired and influential artist. Within weeks of his death, George Peele remembered him as â€Å"Marley, the Muses’ darling†; Michael Drayton noted that he â€Å"Had in him those brave translunary things / That the first poets had†, and Ben Jonson wrote of â€Å"Marlowe’s mighty line†. Thomas Nashe wrote warmly of his friend, â€Å"poor deceased Kit Marlowe†. So too did the publisher Edward Blount, in the dedication of Hero and Leander to Sir Thomas Walsingham. Among the few contemporary dramatists to say anything negative about Marlowe was the anonymous author of the Cambridge University play The Return From Parnassus (1598) who wrote, â€Å"Pity it is that wit so ill should dwell, / Wit lent from heaven, but vices sent from hell.† The most famous tribute to Marlowe was paid by Shakespeare in As You Like It, where he not only quotes a line from Hero and Leander (â€Å"Dead Shepherd, now I find thy saw of might, ‘Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?'†) but also gives to the clown Touchstone the words â€Å"When a man’s verses cannot be understood, nor a man’s good wit seconded with the forward child, understanding, it strikes a man more dead than a great reckoning in a little room.† This appears to be a reference to Marlowe’s murder which involved a fight over the â€Å"reckoning†, the bill, as well as to a line in Marlowe’s Jew of Malta – â€Å"Infinite riches in a little room†. Shakespeare was heavily influenced by Marlowe in his work, as can be seen in the re-using of Marlovian themes in Antony and Cleopatra, The Merchant of Venice, Richard II, and Macbeth (Dido, Jew of Malta, Edward II and Dr Faustus respectively). In Hamlet, after meeting with the travelling actors, Hamlet requests the Player perform a speech about the Trojan War, which at 2.2.429–32 has an echo of Marlowe’s Dido, Queen of Carthage. In Love’s Labour’s Lost Shakespeare brings on a character â€Å"Marcade† (three syllables) in conscious acknowledgement of Marlowe’s character â€Å"Mercury†, also attending the King of Navarre, in Massacre at Paris. The significance, to those of Shakespeare’s audience who had read Hero and Leander, was Marlowe’s identification of himself with the god Mercury. Conclusion: The interest of Marlowe’s tragedies lies not in the death of Heroes but in their soul struggle against forces which in the end proves too great for them. He raised the subject matter of Drama to a higher level and changed the concept of tragedies by introducing heroes from the common people. His heroes are meant of exceptional qualities and passion. They transcend ordinary human aspiration until they meet their tragic end. Usually in his plays there will be no antagonist, the protagonists themselves, their inner evil thoughts will be the antagonist. There is also number of morals to teach in his plays. Marlowe may died in the age of 29, but his plays are living forever.