Wednesday, October 30, 2019

The Movies 2010 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Movies 2010 - Essay Example Some influences have arisen from the movie such as the need for technological advancement, development of computers, and the need to explore the unknown world. The characters in the film have also helped pass a given message thereby persuading the audience.The actions in the film greatly helped in telling the story and passing the intended idea and themes to the audience. The use of music and soundtracks was another approach that was used to pass the intended message to the audience. Different songs about development explained the need for change and others were adequate and representative of violence. These played a huge role in making the film entertaining and easy to understand.  Some influences have arisen from the movie such as the need for technological advancement, development of computers, and the need to explore the unknown world. The characters in the film have also helped pass a given message thereby persuading the audience.The actions in the film greatly helped in telli ng the story and passing the intended idea and themes to the audience. The use of music and soundtracks was another approach that was used to pass the intended message to the audience. Different songs about development explained the need for change and others were adequate and representative of violence. These played a huge role in making the film entertaining and easy to understand.   In this second mission, the agenda was to set foot in an attempt of revealing what could have happened to Discovery, and why the craft did not return. The film begins with a flashback on what happened to the computer Hal 900 hence killing four of the astronauts aboard the craft. The fifth astronaut by the name Bowman David is shown to have lost to a large monolith planet, an alien body orbiting around the earth. So as to accomplish this new mission, the Superpowers of the world, the Russians, and Americans join hands and be in the position of understanding the fate of the first craft, Discovery. It is during the mission when the scientists from both countries discovered that the fault of the Discovery was due to an order was given to the computer so that it can conceal vital information to the crew.  

Monday, October 28, 2019

Technology and Decision Making Essay Example for Free

Technology and Decision Making Essay The quality of patient care, communication between health care staff, and the safety of patients has greatly improved since the onset of technology. Through the improvement of information technology, the ability to collect data and manage the decisions based on the data collected has enhanced in the clinical setting as well as in the business portion. Health care informatics incorporates theories from informational science, computer science, and cognitive science (Englebardt Nelson, 2002). This information helps to gather and process it in order to make an informed decision. Important information could be missed if the data is ignored. Some of the most recent technology which includes the internet and cell phones has made it possible to access information quickly in order to make the best decision for the patient in order to provide good quality care. Technology changes every day and it is important to keep up with these changes that will help support clinical decisions made by the caregivers. This paper on informatics will show the systems and information theories, the DIK model, and the role of the expert system in nursing care and medicine. System and information theories System. â€Å"A system is a set of related interacting parts enclosed in a boundary† (Englebardt Nelson, 2002, p.5). There are many types of systems which include but are not limited to: computer systems, school systems, health care systems, and people. Systems can be living or nonliving, open or closed. Closed systems do not act with the environment whereas open system have the ability to act with the environment. Open systems can be used to understand technology and those individuals associated with its use. This type of system takes input from the environment, processes it, and then returns it back to the environment as output, which serves as feedback. This theory can better help the individual understand the way people work with systems in the health care industry and allow for a visualization of the whole picture. A common term using in computer science is GIGO, â€Å"garbage in, garbage out†. This applies in the sense that a system is only as good as its user. If the user is inputting garbage, or poor quality data, the computer is likely to output the same. A system requires an accurate source in order for accurate material to be produced as a result. Open systems have three types of characteristics which include: purpose, functions, and structure (Englebardt Nelson, 2002). The purpose is the reason for the existence of the system or the program and is most often stated in the organization’s mission statement. This is true for health care organizations, churches, and schools. For example, the mission statement of the local public health department to promote health, prevent illness, and control communicable disease by providing quality services, health education, and environmental services for the community. Computer systems are often classified by their purpose and may have more than one purpose. By selecting a purpose that all individuals agree upon within the organization, a system can be chosen. It is important to take the time to identify the purpose with all those who will be using the system. Functions identify the methods in which the system will achieve its purpose. â€Å"Functions are activities that a system carries out to achieve its purpose† (Englebardt Nelson, 2002, p.6). When a computer system is chosen a list of functional specification must be put in writing to identify each function and how it will be performed. Systems are structured to allow the functions to be carried out. Some examples of structured systems include the nursing department. The nurse in charge will assign patients to the staff nurses with the purpose to provide care. The charge nurse will ensure that the team is functioning with the ability to provide the care the patient needs and deserves. Two different models can be used to visualize the structure of a system: hierarchical and web. In the hierarchical model, each computer is a part of the local area network (LAN) which in turn is part of a wide area network (WAN) that is connected to the mainframe computer system. The mainframe is the leader of the system or lead part. The web model functions much like that of a spider-web. It has the capability to pass information to many departments that may use it for different purposes. For example,  laboratory results may be sent to the pharmacy to calculate a medication dosage and patient vitals may be sent to another department for review and use. â€Å"A system includes structural elements from both the web and hierarchical model† (Englebardt Nelson, 2002, p.7). Everything living or nonliving are in a constant state of change. Six concepts are helpful in understanding the change process: 1)dynamic homeostasis, 2)entropy, 3)negentropy, 4) specialization, 5)reverberation, and 6)equifinality. Dynamic homeostasis consists of maintaining an equal balance within the system. At times, increased stress can throw off the balance and cause challenges to the organization. A health care informatics specialist’s job is to decrease the stress and restore the balance within the organization. Entropy can be best described as the tendency of the system to break down into parts. This can be the loss of some data when transmitted from one department to another. All systems, living or nonliving, reach a point where they are no longer repairable. When this point is reached, a system must be replaced. Negentropy is the opposite of entropy and is best described as the system’s ability to multiply and become more complex. As the size of the health car e industry grows, so do the health care information systems. Information technology. â€Å"Information technology has the potential to greatly streamline healthcare and greatly reduce the chance of human error. However, there is a growing literature indicating that if systems are not designed adequately they may actually increase the possibility of error in the complex interaction between clinician and machine in healthcare† (Borycki, E., Kushniruk, A., Brender, J., 2010, p. 714). The term information has more than one meaning and the term information theory refers to multiple theories. The two common theoretical theories of information theories are: Shannon and Weaver’s information-communication model and Blum’s model (Englebardt Nelson, 2002, p. 10). The information theory was presented as a formal theory in 1948 with a publication by Claude Shannon titled â€Å"A Mathematical Theory of Communication†. In this theory, the sender is the originator of the message and then the encoder converts the message into a code. A code can be a number, symbol, letters, or words. The decoder then converts the message to a format that can be recognized by the receiver. Shannon was a telephone engineer and explained this theory in a way that the decoder was the  telephone converting sound waves into a message the receiver could understand. â€Å"Warren Weaver, from the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research, provided the interpretation for understanding the semantic meaning of a message† (Englebardt Nelson, 2002, p. 12). He used Shannon’s works to explain the interpretational aspects of communication as each individual perceives things different from the next. Different types of circumstances may occur causing a message to be interpreted wrong. For example, if a physician is using medical terminology that the patient cannot understand there is definitely a communication problem. If the patient cannot hear what is being said because the ear is not transmitting sound, then there is a different type of communication problem. The message must convey meaning and produce the intended result. Bruce L. Blum defined three types of health care computing applications called Blum’s Model. He grouped these applications in data, information, or knowledge. Data are those things such as height, weight, age, and name. Information is defined as data that has been processed. Knowledge is the relationship between data and information. Using these concepts, it is possible to identify different levels of computing and automated systems. Data, Information, and Knowledge (DIK) model Healthcare informatics can be explained using a model consisting of three parts: data, information, and knowledge (Georgiou, 2002). The three parts are demonstrated using a hierarchy pyramid. Data is the platform in the model, representing the foundation. Data is represented as facts and observations, but without supporting context, the data is irrelevant. Until the information is validated or manipulated the data is not significant, once it is manipulated, the data can provide value to the user. Information is the product of data once the data has been manipulated. The result of data and information is evidence-based knowledge. Evidence based knowledge can be used to support evidence based medicine. Some individuals feel that too much focus has been put on data, limiting the ability to practice medicine as a science. Instead, the use of data suggests that medicine is being practiced based on statistics instead of science. Yet, the same critics will use the same hierarchy of data, information and knowledge to treat a patient that develops a fever after hip surgery. The fever alone does not provide significant information but combined with information of a  recent surgery, a physician will test further for signs of infection. The end result is the knowledge of why the patient is feverish. Viewing informatics in the form of the decision-information-knowledge (DIK) model allows individuals to see the process as a whole. The data must be accurately representing what is occurring or the information will not be accurate. The statement, â€Å"dirty in, dirty out,† can be applied to the platform of the model. It is essential that clean data be entered into the system, allowing clean data and information to be produced. The product, knowledge, can then be substantiated through the evidence produced. Just as evidence is used to make clinical decisions, the DIK model is used, in conjunction with the scie ntific information, to build evidence based medicine. Health informatics involves spreading and distributing information as just one piece of the process of producing knowledge which is multifaceted (Georgiou, 2002). The role of expert system in nursing care and medicine Nurses and other health care professionals make decisions on a daily basis that affect patients’ care and treatment. Nurses and health care professionals are not expert in all areas of nursing care and medicine. Health care workers specialized in certain area or field of medicine or nursing are not always readily available to everyone. Expert systems have been developed to assist medical and health care providers with decisions about care and treatment of patient. An expert system is a knowledge-based computer program designed to â€Å"enhance the human ability to analyze, problem solve, treat, diagnose, and estimate prognosis of health-related conditions† (Englebardt Nelson, 2002, p. 114). â€Å"Nursing expert systems can improve the overall quality of care when designed for the appropriate end-user group and based on a knowledge base reflecting nursing expertise† (Courtney, Alexander, and Demiris, 2008, P. 697). Examples of expert systems include MYCIN, a system that advise physicians about antimicrobial selection for patients with meningitis or bacteremia and INTERNIST-1, a system that assist with diagnosing complex problems in general internal medicine (Shortliffe, 1986). Health care workers may not always have the knowledge base to diagnose and treat every condition or situation encountered. Expert systems are used to close the gap in knowledge providing effective, efficient, and  accurate care. The concept of expert system is driven by the desire to improve patient care, reduce cost, and disseminate expert knowledge. Expert systems are used just as x-rays and lab values are obtained to improve the human understanding of a patient’s condition. The human memory has limitations. Expert systems can be the answer to eliminating a large number of preventable medical mistakes. This system can alert health care workers about drug interactions and allergies, and provide preferable form o f treatment. Expert systems can assist in diagnostic suggestions, testing prompts, therapeutic protocols, and practice guidelines. The utilization of expert systems has an impact on the quality of care, economy, and medical education of staff. Expert systems, when used effectively can improve patient outcomes and decrease health care costs. Fewer mistakes lead to lower financial expenditures and increased profits. Improved quality of care result in improved patient satisfaction that leads to increased reimbursement from Medicare and Medicaid. Expert systems can also decrease the variation in medical practice emphasizing standardized and evidence-based practice of care. Along with expert systems, decision aids and decision support systems are used to improve patient care. The use of decision aids and decision support systems Clinical decision aids help to identify solutions to clinical situations. Decision aids can be either paper-form or electronic. The electronic decision aids can be accessed via recorded media or the Internet. Decision aids are utilized to facilitate shared decisions between the patient and interdisciplinary team taking care of them. They help the patient to think about the multiple decisions they must make in the course of their treatment regimen. An example is the Ottawa Patient Decision Aid. This decision aid helps to determine whether or not patients should seek antibiotics for bronchitis. Another example is a decision aid about whether or not someone should place his or her family in a long-term care facility for Alzheimer’s disease (Englebardt Nelson, 2002). A decision support system (DSS) is an interactive, flexible, and adaptable computer-based information system (CBIS), which was made to support decision-making as it relates to the solution of an individual problem. â€Å"A clinical decision support system (CDSS) is an automated decision support system (DSS) that  mimics human decision making and can facilitate the clinical diagnostic process, promote the use of best practices, assist with the development and adherence of guidelines, facilitate processes for improvement of care, and prevent errors† (Englebardt and Nelson, 2002, p. 116). Decision support systems utilize data and provide easy user interface that permit for the decision maker’s own insights. Four components of decision support systems are user interface, model library, model manager, and report writer. User interface makes communication between the executive and decision support system. Model library includes statistical, graphical, financial, and â€Å"what if† models. Model manager accesses available models. Report Writer generates written output (Englebardt Nelson, 2002). Four types of CDSS used in patient care decision-making are systems that use alerts to respond to clinical data, systems respond to decisions to alter care by critiquing decisions, systems suggest interventions at the request of care providers, and systems conduct retrospective quality assurance reviews. Examples of nursing-specific decision support systems are nursing diagnosis systems such as the Computer Aided Nursing Diagnosis and Intervention (CANDI) system, care planning systems such as the Urological Nursing Information System, symptom management systems such as the Cancer Pain Decision Support system, and nursing education systems such as the Creighton Online Multiple Modular Expert System (Courtney, Alexander, and Demiris, 2008). The uses of technology for patient and client management As Information Technology continues to have more presence in health care, patients, physicians, and staff are benefiting from on-demand access to information anyplace, anytime it is needed. Advances in technology provide healthcare organizations the ability to improve the quality of patient care. An ultimate goal of using technology is to improve the quality of care patients receive (Become a Meaningful User of Health IT, 2010). Technology can be found patient homes, clinics, extended care facilities, and hospitals, to name just a few. As the number of chronic diseases continues to increase technologies like telemedicine and video-conferencing can improve the quality of life of patients with chronic conditions, and reduce costs caused by these illnesses (Finkelstein Friedman, 2000). Improving quality, access, and client management is done by enhancing the  exchange of information between providers, institutions, and payers, allowing patients to receive uninterrupted continuity of care. For the people living in rural areas, the restrictions placed on services and specialists can be improved using technology (Smith, Bensink, Armfield, Stillman, Caffery, 2005). Telecommunications in the healthcare environment can provide patients and providers an opportunity to meet and even exceed expectations clients and the community have. A physician accessing a patients’ record from his home can provide treatment and develop a plan of care without sitting in his clinic to access the patients’ chart. Caregivers are no longer at the mercy of ongoing education provided at a variety of locations and cost. Learning management systems available via the Internet allow staff to review material and participate in competency testing. Tools are available through the advances in technology, which allow training by developing simulations of patients used for assessment training in virtual environments, assessing cognitive skills of providers (McGowan, 2008). As technologies in healthcare continue to improve, caregivers and patients will continue to experience changes in many areas.  Communication, teaching, and documenting will be affected, which change the way clinicians provide care and the way clients will receive it. Analysis of the effect of technology on health care and health status Prior to computers and digital equipment seen in today’s healthcare facilities, most of what was done for patients was done manually. Manual processes could be time consuming and the opportunity for human error, which could affect the quality of care a patient received, was real. In a recent report from the Institute of medical care, it was stated that humans are inherently imperfect, and error is frequent in medical car (Patton, 2001). Technologies affecting patient care and a person’s health status include improvements to imaging systems, documentation solutions, and scheduling systems. Modern medicine relies on technological systems coming together: the operating room, clinical laboratory, radiology department, and radiation oncology facility each incorporate interrelated networks of technologies (Patton, 2001). Surgeries that once required large incisions can be done through microscopic incisions resulting in shorter hospital stays. Early diagnosis and improved treatment plans have been inevitably affected by technology. Although technology allows healthcare to improve access to patient information allowing easier access that is current and up-to-date there are also disadvantages to this kind of access. Consumers and caregivers have large volumes of information, which can be accessed, not all of the information accessed will be understood or accurate. Society must be aware that not all sites will be able to monitor and ensure information being accessed is credible; it is inevitable some of the information provided and retrieved will be inaccurate. Worse yet information which are by law confidential, may also be accessed without the consent of the patient. In addition to the ability to monitor healthcare information, technology may also make it challenging for physicians to practice under complete autonomy. With the increase in the complexity of technology, physicians must agree on how components relate to one another, also known as standards (Patton, 2001). As a result, some physicians can be seen resisting the adoption of new processes, but with ongoing development of user-friendly systems, resistance can be overcome. References Become a Meaningful User of Health IT. (2010). HHN: Hospitals Health Networks, 84(12), 47. Borycki, E., Kushniruk, A., Brender, J. (2010). Theories, models and frameworks for diagnosing technology-induced error. Studies In Health Technology And Informatics, 160(Pt 1), 714-718. Finkelstein, J. J., Friedman, R. H. (2000). Potential Role of Telecommunication Technologies in the Management of Chronic Health Conditions. Disease Management Health Outcomes, 8(2), 57-63. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. Courtney, K. L., Alexander, G. L., Demiris, G. (2008). Information technology from novice to expert: implementation implications. Journal of Nursing Management, 16(6), 692-699. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2834.2007.00829.x Englebardt, S. P. Nelson, R. (2002).Health care informatics. An interdisciplinary approach. St. Louis, MO: Mosby Elsevier. Georgiou, A. (2002). Data information and knowledge: the health informatics model and its role in evidence-based medicine. Journal Of Evaluation In Clinical Practice, 8(2), 127-130. McGowan, J. J. (2008). The Pervasiveness of Telemedicine: Adoption With or Without a Research Base. JGIM: Journal of General Internal Medicine, 23(4), 505-507. doi:10.1007/s11606-008-0534-z Patton, G. (2001). The two-edged sword: how technology shapes medical practice. Physician Executive, 27(2), 42-49. Shortliffe, E. H. (1986). Medical Expert Systems- Knowledge Tool for Physicians. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1307157/?page=2 Smith, A., Bensink, M., Armfield, N., Stillman, J., Caffery, L. (2005, October-December). Telemedicine and rural health care applications. Journal of Postgraduate Medicine, 51(4), 286.

Saturday, October 26, 2019

The Physics of Basketball Essay examples -- Athletics Sports Essays

The Physics of Basketball The NBA playoffs are making the headlines all over. Every news channel, sports channel, and newspaper has a story about the big games. Everyone is making bets as to who will be the big champions. Will it be the defending champions, Los Angeles Lakers, or will it possibly be one of the underdogs. This is the most intensive time of year for basketball fans as they watch the teams battle out the game. Up and down the court, the turnovers, rebounds, fast breaks, and most of all the baskets make the games exciting. But have you ever wondered how these things happen? What enables the basketball to bounce, how does Kobe Bryant fly through the air, and why does the ball rotate backwards as it leaves a shooter’s hand and approaches the basket? These are all interesting questions and believe it or not they can all be answered with a discussion on physics. Whenever you watch a basketball game you are watching the â€Å"application of physics. It is very much at work in the game of basketball† (Hawkins). One of the key pieces of equipment in the game is the basketball itself. The ability of the ball to bounce is entirely explained by physics. The law of conservation of energy says that the total energy of an isolated system does not change (Kirkpatrick, 131). When the ball comes in contact with the floor an elastic collision occurs in which the kinetic energy of the system is conserved. Two things determine the elasticity: the air pressure in the ball and the surface it is colliding with. The more pressure in the ball, the better the bounce and the greater elasticity. The energy will be stored in the compressed air inside the ball creating a greater bounce. â€Å"Air stores and returns energy more efficiently than ... ... air, just remember that it takes the same amount of time for him to reach the basket as it does for him to fall. You may also want to notice how the ball spins as well as how it bounces. As you are watching the playoffs this year keep in mind that the application of physics is very much at work in the game of basketball. Bibliography Hawkins, Bethany. Physics of Basketball. â€Å"Intro to Basketball and Physics.† http://www.kent.wednet.edu/staff/trobins/physicspages/PhysOf1998. 25 March 2003. Kirkpatrick, Larry D., Wheeler, Gerald F. Physics A World View. Fourth edition, Harcourt College Publishers. Orlando, Florida. 2001. Willis, Bill. The Physics of Basketball. http://www.geocities.com/thesciencefiles/physicsof/basketball.html. 13 March 2003. Brancazio, Peter J. Physics of Sports. â€Å"Physics of Basketball. Department of Physics. Brooklyn, New York. 1981.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Comparing Cousin Kate and The Seduction Essay -- Christina Rossetti Ei

Comparing Cousin Kate and The Seduction In this coursework I will be comparing the two poems ‘Cousin Kate’ by Christina Rossetti and ‘The Seduction’ by Eileen McAuley. The two poems have many similarities but there are also some differences between them. To begin I will give an introduction to both the poems. Cousin Kate is about a cottage maiden that is tricked into having an affair with a rich Lord. She is then betrayed by the Lord who decides to dump her. He then marries her Cousin Kate who is much more beautiful than her and who has not yet lost her virginity. The Lord completely forgets about the maid after abandoning her and leaves her all alone. The maiden later realises that she is pregnant with a baby boy who is the son of the lord. The poem ends with the cottage maiden being an outcast because she has got pregnant before getting married but also with her feeling triumphant because here son will one day be the heir to the Lord’s lands. The Seduction is about a 16 year old girl who has a one night stand with a boy whom she meets at a party. The boy is into bad habits like drinking and taking drugs. He offers the girls some drinks and once she is very drunk he takes her to the docks near a river where he sleeps with her. After that night the girl never sees the boy again and realises 3 months later that she is pregnant. Her life is completely destroyed by her pregnancy. She has no more friends and nobody will ever speak to her again. She feels very bitter as to how her life has been ruined due to one mistake and how she has become an outcast. She ends the poem extremely disillusioned with life and how it has treated her. There are many differences between the two poems. The two poems took ... ...drinks and fallen into the boys trap. I prefer the poem Cousin Kate because in this poem the maiden has some hope for her future in the end because her son will be the heir to the lord’s estates. She has something to look forward too. She can also feel triumphant because her Cousin Kate will not have nay children. The ending of the seduction though is much bleaker with the girl having no hope for her future and even feeling like committing suicide. I think the attitude to teenage pregnancy was almost the same in both these poems even though they were set in different times. Even today the attitude to teenage pregnancy is very bad and girls who get pregnant in their teen years are treated as outcasts by society which is very wrong. Even if a girl does get pregnant society has to accept the fact that she has made a mistake and give her another chance.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Egypt vs. Fertile Crescent Essay

During the early dynastic period, the early River Civilizations had just come to be. Egypt and The Fertile Crescent were 2 of the civilizations. Different civilizations were developing different things as well as living two different ways of life. In social and intellectual ways, these two civilizations handled themselves in very similar as well as many different ways to function the way they did and remain stable while they could. Egypt and the Fertile Crescent shared certain things within the social and political part of their civilizations. They both needed a lot of work to be done. Anywhere from building pyramids, to parts of a city, someone had to do it, but who? To solve this dilemma, the Fertile Crescent used slaves, and Egypt had laborers. Having slaves or laborers made is accomplishable for job positions to be filled within a city, or made it easier and quicker to finish projects ordered by the Pharaoh. In an intellectual view, both developed a form of writing. The Fertile Crescent invented the cuneiform, which is also the first form of writing, to pass down history. As well as Egypt, they had hieroglyphics, which served the same purpose, In other words, they needed a way to keep records from generation to generation. To do this, they used what they had to develop a form of writing to accomplish this. As for differences between to two civilizations, they were very many social and political ones. The Fertile Crescent had a small amount of social classes. They had a priest, merchants, and slaves. Those are the basic classes. The significance of having a less amount of classes is simplicity. Also, because the Monarchy already holds most of the power, it has no need for someone else to have any. Egypt had a lot more compared to them. Pharaohs, Land owners, Army commander, merchants, Farmers, and Laborers. While having more social classes than The Fertile Crescent, it might seem to make it harder on them for they have more going on, and more people doing more things, but it made it easier on the Pharaoh. Yes, he still had say so in what went on, but there were still different people in charge of different things. As for any intellectual differences, Egypt was able to develop a calendar. By doing this, they were able to tell when any floods were coming and it was no surprise. Not only did this calendar only help with flooding problems, but they could also mark any important date of when anything happened during their time. On the other hand, the Fertile Crescent was always hit by surprise by floods from the river. They never developed a calendar, so for them, they had no clue when a flood was coming and it became a panic when it did.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Two by Jim Cartwright Essay Example

Two by Jim Cartwright Essay Example Two by Jim Cartwright Paper Two by Jim Cartwright Paper Essay Topic: Literature In our devised piece this term we used the play â€Å" Two † written by Jim Cartwright as our stimulus. The play is set in a Northern ‘working’ town in a pub and all the action and events take place on one night. It’s about a bickering landlord and landlady and their eccentric customers whom they serve at the bar. It gives an insight into the different kinds of people present in a pub at different times and a very brief look into their lives. The play is made up of lots of vignettes each focusing in on different characters. The two key characters are the landlord and landlady however these two people play all of the characters and have to change between roles with minimum fuss. The play also has a hidden meaning, which we do not find out about until the end, which in this case then makes some of the arguing clear, as we can understand the reasons behind it all. There is an element of humour and laughter used to cover up a darker and sadder under current in the play. In this case it’s about the couples child dieing in a car accident at the young age of seven. We took some elements of ‘Two ’ and incorporated some of the themes, ideas and elements into our own devised pieces. Our play consisted of a lot of duologues and monologues just as ‘Two ’ had done and we also chose two pivotal characters. Instead of having a landlord and a landlady we had two shop assistants who spoke to all of the customers and kept the play upbeat and moving. ‘Two ’ had a specific location where all of the action took place so we decided to incorporate this and we had all of our action and plot line take place in the clothing part of a department store. We kept it quite everything quite simplistic as in Jim Cartwright’s play although we had a variety of lively, bubbly characters each of which was very different from each other. The other idea we took from ‘Two’ was to have a hidden story or event, which the audience didn’t find out about until the end. We put in about the manager having lost his sister and wanting to hold on to all of the memories and not let another child go which explains the children’s underwear and the managers nervousness when a lost child comes in. Our plot revolved around the two shop assistants who ran the store and interacted with all of the customers. We also had the manager and the manager’s wife as well as mimed and imagined people out in public, in the shop and on the bus. The only props we used were chairs, a table, two umbrellas, some notebooks and a mesh curtain, which we used in the changing room scene. We chose to keep it quite simple so the audience had to believe in what was going on and focus on the acting rather than the material props just as was done in ‘Two. ’ The hidden idea was that the manager seemed to have paedophilic tendencies but all of this was covered up as we made him into a really funny, friendly and all round â€Å"Mr nice guy† type character. He is very attached to his laptop and spends a lot of time away from his family and at work. The two shop assistants are lively and bubbly characters who discuss boys, clothes and underwear. They see all of the different shoppers come in and out. They start off in the morning unpacking underwear and putting it on display and having a bit of a joke with their boss about the different sizes. We also see a woman looking for a cat suit come in and have a bit of a discussion about the different colours and how she really likes them. The wife then comes in to speak to her husband and when he refused to come out for lunch with her she has a monologue about how she feels unloved. Each monologue ends with something about being trapped whether its in a job, relationship or time. At the end it all comes together and makes sense. We then move on to a woman coming in with her daughter and trying to fit her into a really small sized top. They end up talking about the daughter’s dad and how he was so controlling before she end up getting stuck in the top. The assistants leave to get some scissors but while they are gone the manager goes in and grabs the girl. There is a tabloid and then the girl goes into the centre of the stage and all of the other characters gather around her. They begin walking round in a circle pushing the girl onto the floor whilst saying â€Å" trapped† over and over again getting louder each time until everyone shouts â€Å" Trapped  Ã¢â‚¬  and puts a hand over the girls head. The position is held for about five seconds and then the play ends. In ‘Two’ we identified that there were feelings of abuse, hate, anger, guilt, memory and sadness. We tried to use these feelings in our own piece. We put the anger and hate into the daughter hating her dad and her mum hating her talking about it. The guilt and the memory went into the manager and his memories of his sister’s last breaths before she died and the abuse was particularly prominent at the end when the manager grabbed the girl. The themes of hidden memories being brought up again was obvious with finding the small children’s underwear marking the beginning of out of control feelings, which just escalate until the very end of the play. Having read ‘Two’ as a play I think it is very cleverly written and constructed. When you read the notes at the beginning of the script it describes it as being a play about the different characters that come into a pub one evening. Immediately you begin to think how that could possibly be interesting or made into a play so after reading it you realise how cunning Jim Cartwright is and how clever to make something so simple so interesting, effective and evocative. The contrast in characters keeps the audience interested in what’s going on and also provides something to think about. The way two characters can play so many roles is something I have never really seen before and is fascinating. Jim Cartwright has used mime very effectively so the audience’s experience of the play is a very different one to what they would get fm other for fictional plays. I thought the ideas for our devised piece were really good overall but we needed to develop the characters more and maybe make parts of it have more emphasis and a bit clearer, for example I think the managers monologue about his sister needed to be clearer and maybe the wife’s monologue should have emphasised her worries and his strange behaviour more. I think the end performance went quite well and the audience seemed to enjoy it. We all tried really hard not to laugh at any of it even when the audience laughed which we managed to do so we were all please with that. We did use lighting and I think that worked well because it highlighted important bits of the play and also whom the focus was on as well as the mood. So at the end when we were doing the last ‘trapped’ scene we had the lights down quite low to give it more effect and make it a bit eerie and scary. I think we used some of the key elements from ‘Two’ and incorporated them into our piece well and subtly and we had a good plot line with a surprise at the end.

Monday, October 21, 2019

Free Essays on Hedda Gabler

In Henrik Ibsen’s play Hedda Gabler, the main character, Hedda Tesman represents a manipulative and powerful young woman seeking to control the lives of those around her. Although Hedda lives in the Victorian era where the women are to live in the shadow of the men, she defines herself negatively. Hedda destroys the things which she cannot accept. The critic John Northam defends Hedda’s character when he states in Ibsen: A Critical Study, â€Å"Hedda is caught in the contradiction of being simultaneously a person whose deepest urges are towards a poetry of living- defined at least approximately by her recurrent use of key terms- but whose social position has educated her to accept [. . .] the restraints demanded by society. The basic conflict is between the self and society (180). Though Hedda lives in a society that suppresses restraints on the women, it gives her no right to be an unworthy, detestable, repulsive, despicable human being. In Act I, it demonstrates a pathological quality of Hedda’s personality early on. Hedda cruelly insults Aunt Julia by complaining that the servant left her bonnet lying in the chair, â€Å"Look there! She has left her old bonnet lying about on a chair† (9). Hedda is never satisfied with anything and she always feels a need to stir up some sort of commotion. By complaining about the bonnet left on the chair, Hedda tries to undermine Aunt Julia’s sense of worth. Again in Act I, Hedda shows more of her negative side when she demonstrates characteristics of manipulation and control. When Hedda and Thea are conversing in the parlor, Hedda insist that they use the familiar form of you when speaking to each other, â€Å"No, not at all! I can remember quite distinctly. So now we are going to renew our old friendship. There now! You must say du to me and call me Hedda† (15). As old schoolmates, Hedda and Thea were merely acquaintances. She wants to renew their friendship with pu... Free Essays on Hedda Gabler Free Essays on Hedda Gabler In Henrik Ibsen’s play Hedda Gabler, the main character, Hedda Tesman represents a manipulative and powerful young woman seeking to control the lives of those around her. Although Hedda lives in the Victorian era where the women are to live in the shadow of the men, she defines herself negatively. Hedda destroys the things which she cannot accept. The critic John Northam defends Hedda’s character when he states in Ibsen: A Critical Study, â€Å"Hedda is caught in the contradiction of being simultaneously a person whose deepest urges are towards a poetry of living- defined at least approximately by her recurrent use of key terms- but whose social position has educated her to accept [. . .] the restraints demanded by society. The basic conflict is between the self and society (180). Though Hedda lives in a society that suppresses restraints on the women, it gives her no right to be an unworthy, detestable, repulsive, despicable human being. In Act I, it demonstrates a pathological quality of Hedda’s personality early on. Hedda cruelly insults Aunt Julia by complaining that the servant left her bonnet lying in the chair, â€Å"Look there! She has left her old bonnet lying about on a chair† (9). Hedda is never satisfied with anything and she always feels a need to stir up some sort of commotion. By complaining about the bonnet left on the chair, Hedda tries to undermine Aunt Julia’s sense of worth. Again in Act I, Hedda shows more of her negative side when she demonstrates characteristics of manipulation and control. When Hedda and Thea are conversing in the parlor, Hedda insist that they use the familiar form of you when speaking to each other, â€Å"No, not at all! I can remember quite distinctly. So now we are going to renew our old friendship. There now! You must say du to me and call me Hedda† (15). As old schoolmates, Hedda and Thea were merely acquaintances. She wants to renew their friendship with pu... Free Essays on Hedda Gabler Henrik Ibsen wrote Hedda Gabler in 1890. It takes place in the Tesman’s house in Norway. The main characters are Hedda, the well-bred aristocratic daughter of the famous General Gabler, George Tesman, Hedda’s newlywed husband and an intelligent scholar, Juliana Tesman, George’s aunt who supports and raised him, Mrs. Thea Elvsted, a childhood friend of Hedda’s, Judge Brack, a worldly and cynical man who likes to meddle in people’s affairs, and Eilert Loevborg, Tesman’s biggest academic competitor and a former suitor of Heddas. The play starts off as Hedda and George are just getting back from their six-month honeymoon. George has gone through great lengths to purchase the house that he thinks Hedda so badly desires. He is not a rich man and Hedda is accustomed to living a wealthy lifestyle. Hedda does not love George, but he is ignorant to that fact. She has only married him because she thought he had more money than he really does. Hedda thinks it will be a marriage of convenience. She is bored with his dull personality and despises his family and the fact that she is tied there. Throughout the play it is hinted that Hedda is pregnant. She confides to Judge Brack that ‘she has made her bed and now she must lie in it.’ Hedda is deeply stirred by the return of her former suitor, Eilert Loevborg. He was once a drunk and a public outcast, but now is an aspiring writer and scholar. Eilert has a close relationship with Mrs. Elvsted. Together they have written a brilliant manuscript, which is portrayed as ‘their child’. Their relationship makes Hedda extremely jealous. One night all the men go out drinking and Eilert ends up losing the manuscript on his way home. He is so ashamed he cannot remember what happened to it that he lies to Mrs. Elvsted and tells her he destroyed it. George found the manuscript and brought it home with intentions to give it back to Eilert after he sobers up. In the meanti...