Religious Studies Cumulative Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Religious Studies Cumulative Paper - Essay Example For example in all religions it is good to speak truth while it’s bad to cheat, steal, lie or kill fellow human beings. After 9/11 divide between religions has increased manifolds due to pursuing of terrorism by few fundamentalists. It is very important to understand what is meant by religious tolerance, what are its limits, how terrorism and terrorists should be separated by the large Muslim community and so many other related issues. It is also important to have a look at main religions of the world and see their views about violence and tolerance. It is imperative to note that what a religion preaches may not be followed by its follower. In this case whether a religion should be blamed or its followers. All religions trace back their roots to a creator or God. This fact should be a source of harmony or difference between various religions. Historically which religion has remained most peaceful and why?. All these questions need answers however it is not clear whether these answers will settle old questions or create new ones. Outline. The paper will be covered in the following outline:- 1. What is Religious Tolerance and what are its limits. 2. Why Religious Tolerance is important. 3. Is there really a clash of civilizations going on? 4. What are the major religions of the world and what do they say about Religious Tolerance. 5. Is Religious fundamentalism a good thing or bad? 6. Should a religion be separated from its followers or not. 7. Scientific, biological, spiritual, ethical, moral and social dimensions of religion. 8. Is Religious tolerance linked to Government actions? 9. Should an individual handover his religious freedom to a church or any other ruling institution 10. Social and political issues in religious tolerance. 11. Difference in opinion about religious tolerance amongst various thinkers. 12. Final outcome of the discussion. Discussion on Outline There are 19 major religions of the world with Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduis m being bigger ones according to population of followers. Hinduism is not a religion in classic sense since there is no single founder, center of origin or single scripture. Rather Hinduism is a combination of beliefs and traditions practiced over thousands of years. Tolerance is one of the core values in Hinduism expressed through centuries of co-existence with other religions in the sub-continent. Teachings of this religion propagate that all beings in whole universe are one family or â€Å"vasudhaiva kutumbkam†. This family includes smallest creatures, animals and mankind, all created by God. Amongst all creatures, mankind has the ability to think and rule the earth, therefore bears greater responsibility to exercise tolerance. Man must show tolerance to fellow beings irrespective of religion or caste. Hinduism preaches that tolerance is essence of human life and all other religions or paths leading to God are true and legitimate. It is wrong to consider oneself on true pa th while others at a wrong one. Due to belief of tolerance Hinduism in India co existed for centuries with Buddhism, Islam, Sikhism, Jainism and many other religions at the same time. In Indian history very less Hindu rulers invaded foreign lands in the name of religion. As said by Gandhi the famous Hindu leader â€Å"The chief value of Hinduism lies in holding the actual belief that all life (not only human beings, but all sentient beings) is one, i.e. all life coming from the universal source, call it Allah,

You are the Consultant Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

You are the Consultant - Research Paper Example I therefore, in response to your questions, offer strategies that you can apply to increase job satisfaction, improve motivation, and increase performance, cultural issues that must be considered when dealing with a multicultural workforce, and possible mistakes to avoid when dealing with the type of workforce. I also explain ethical issues that the company might face and successful approaches to communicating to employees the importance of building and maintaining a sustainable global business. Strategies to increasing job satisfaction, improving motivation, and increasing performance across departments Job satisfaction is fundamental to successful human resource management. Its significance is even more important in a globalized environment because of the involved diversity. Deployment, the ability to obtain the desired skills for specific tasks in an organization’s diversified locations, is one of the applicable strategies to attaining employee satisfaction. It facilitates employee satisfaction by ensuring that employees work in environments that they are comfortable with and that they undertake tasks with which they are familiar, factors that identify interest in employees’ tasks and potentials that eliminate strains and boredom in the course of duty and instead increase satisfaction (Roberts, Kossek and Ozeki, 1998). Developing a level of understanding with employees in the globalized environment is another successful strategy to improving their job utility. Spending time with the employees, offering your time to listen to them, and reacting appropriately to their needs are instrumental in developing their sense of worth to you as their manager and to the organization. This further develops a strong bond between the employees and the organization and increases their satisfaction in working towards, and meeting, the organization’s objectives. Empowering the employees through enhancing their â€Å"knowledge, skill, and ability† to meet the organization’s objectives is another strategy to increasing their satisfaction by making their work easier through improved efficiency (Friedman, 2007, p. 160). Developing the employees’ potentials through seminars and mentorship roles also improves their efficiency and therefore interest in their jobs to enhance utility in their tasks (Friedman, 2007). Motivating employees in the global environment can similarly be achieved through psychological approaches that focus on each employee’s need. Cultural sensitivity will therefore play an important role in determining employees’ motivational factors in the diversified set up because successful motivational factors to American employees may not apply to Spanish employees. It will therefore be necessary to, besides understanding possible factors that can improve employees’ motivation, be able to understand and respond to employees cultural needs and attitudes (Osula, 2009). The developed cultu ral sensitivity, together with cultural awareness will further help in understanding the extent to which employees can be motivated by different factors because employees from different cultural set ups and different regions respond differently to environmental factors. Compensation and other rewards for example induce different levels of motivation across nations and cultural values are instrumental to understanding their relative effectiveness (Bloom, Milkovich and Mitra, 2003). You can also improve employees’ motivation by developing their potentials are in the organization. Training facilitates emplo

Was the American civil inevitable Essay Example for Free

Was the American civil inevitable Essay Among all the historical events that have taken place in the history of the United States, the civil is ranked as the most important. From the day when the first gun shot was fired at Fort Sumter in 1861, the civil war changed the history of the United States forever. A lot of books have been written on this important topic with different authors giving different opinions (Guelzo, 2012). Based on this, there has never been consensus among Americans on whether the civil war was inevitable or not. Although there had been years of tension between the northern and southern states, the war erupted after a number of southern states made public their desire to break away from the union. The breakaway states formed what was known as the Confederacy while those that remained loyal in the union were known as the union. The first reason why the American civil war was inevitable was slavery. For a long time, the main economic activity in the southern states was agriculture. The demand for increased cotton production came in1793 after when Eli Whitney discovered the first mechanical gin. Although there were slaves in the united even before the eruption of the civil war, the number of slaves in the country grew by large proportions after the gin was discovered. On their part, the northern states were not agricultural and very few of them had slaves. These states were opposed to slavery and were pushing for abolition (Wagner et al, 2002). This ideological difference on the topic of slavery among the northern and southern states made the civil inevitable. The southern states were not ready to abolish slavery because that would have a huge impact on their economy. In addition, they felt that the northern states were infringing on their right to economic growth. None of the two states was ready to soften o n their as far as the issue of slavery was concerned and this made the civil war inevitable. The second factor that made the American civil war inevitable was the increased sectionalism among different states. As noted earlier, there were major ideological differences between the northern and southern states on a number of issues. Although sectionalism had existed in the country for a long time, it reached dangerous heights between 1800 and 1860. The northern states that were more industrialized than the southern ones became more economically powerful and built better cities. This made the southern states whose economy was agriculture based envious (Wagner et al, 2002). However, the fortunes of the southern states changed after the discovery of gin which created more demand for cotton. As abolition gained widespread attention, the southern states were living in constant fear of revolts by the slaves. In support of their stand, the southerners argued that they were preserving the culture passed down to them from the founding fathers of the country many of whom owned slaves. T hese differences caused a major rift in the largest denominations in the country namely Baptist, Presbyterian and Methodists. In addition, it resulted in a mass movement of whites from the south to the north making the south adopt a hard-line political position. The third factor that made the American civil war inevitable was the increasing protectionism between the northern and southern states. As noted earlier, there were huge economic differences between the northern and southern states. Whereas agriculture was the main economic activity in the southern states, the economy of the northern states was based on industries. Despite the increasing campaign against slavery in the northern states, the southern states were not ready to abolish. This was because the slaves offered cheap labor therefore eliminating any need to incur costs on mechanization. In addition, the southerners did not see any need for industrialization and were comfortable with buying manufactured products from other parts of the country instead of building industries (Guelzo, 2012). Although the economy of the northern states was doing well, their industries were faced increased completion from the full fledged European industries. More importantly, this made it hard for t hem to compete for cotton with Europeans who were offering very high prices for cotton from the south. Based on this, the northern states were in favor of trade tariffs and protectionism while the southerners were opposed to it. On their part, the southerners were in favor of free trade. These differences created negative competition between the two sides culminating in the civil war (Fuller, 2008). The years preceding the civil witnessed a territorial expansion of the country through acquisition of new lands. Many of the new territories entered the union as slave states and the southerners wanted to acquire more slaves to work on these new lands. On their part, the northerners wanted to stop any further acquisition of slave territories (Stampp, 1990). This resulted in bitter disputes between the two sides making the civil war inevitable. In conclusion, there were major ideological differences between the northern and southern states prior to the outbreak of the war. These differences were difficult to resolve amicably due to the hard-line stances adopted by both sides. The major central issue that caused the tensions between the northern and southern states was slavery. The northerners were opposed to slavery while the southerners believed it part of cultural inheritance. References Bestor, Arthur (1964). The American Civil War as a Constitutional Crisis. American Historical Review Edward Pessen (1980). How Different from Each Other Were the Antebellum North and South .The American Historical Review, Vol. 85, No. 5. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1853242 Fuller, Howard J (2008). Clad in Iron – The American Civil War and the Challenge of British Naval Power. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press Guelzo, Allen C. (2012). Fateful Lightning: A New History of the Civil War and Reconstruction. Covers Holt, Michael F. (2004). The fate of their country: politicians, slavery extension, and the coming of the Civil War Hill and Wang, New York. Krannawitter, Thomas L. (2008). Vindicating Lincoln: Defending the Politics of Our Greatest President. Rowman Littlefield, London. Miller, William L. (2009). Abraham Lincoln: The Duty of a Statesman Vintage Books. Quarstein, John V. (1999). The Battle of the Ironclads. Arcadia Publishing Stampp, Kenneth M. (1990). America in 1857: a nation on the brink. Oxford University Press, New York. Wagner, Margaret E. Gary W. Gallagher, and Paul Finkelman (2002). The Library of Congress Civil War Desk Reference . Source document

Ethical and Security Issues of Organization

Ethical and Security Issues of Organization CASE STUDY 3 The chief executive officers responsibility regarding the security and ethical issues should be no different from any other part of the business or executive , and also they should be involved not only because they continuously deal with financial, operational, and business risk decisions. They also need to know more information to make fact based decision that will expose the organization to regulatory compliance issues, risk to the business reputation, or decrease the efficiency and effectiveness of the organizations capability to produce because when launching a new product or service, if there is not a clear understanding of the security risks the organization could end up closing its doors due to the lack of controls. Many chief executive officers today should be aware of the security risks of their organizations which create financial and public relations nightmares related to the loss of information. They should continue to take their time to understand the ethical and securit y issues of the organization, and ensure that appropriate responsibility is designated for reducing risk. Organizational culture is defined as a system of knowledge, of standards for perceiving, believing, evaluating and acting that serves to relate human communities to their environmental settings. The reason why a chief executive officers action affects an organizational culture is because one of their primary responsibilities is being a strategic leader who creates and maintains the organizational characteristics that reward and encourage collective effort. In addition, for example the former chief executive officer of Microsoft Bill Gates had a lasting impact on organizational culture through the transformation of his initial beliefs and values into basic underlying assumptions. His initial beliefs and values where proven successful over a period of time which became embedded in the organizational culture, and will continuously be taught to current and new members as the correct way to think and believe in certain situations. What leaders pay attention to, measure and control. Someth ing as simple as what is emphasized or measured, over time, can have an effect on an organizations culture. One example of this is an emphasis on form over substance. If leaders pay more attention to form, an organizational culture can develop where people start to believe that the substance of a recommendation is less important than the way it is presented. Non technical industries if at all they need to worry, they need to worry about not having the necessary technology for example, when you look back at other major business technologies, from rail transport to electricity, you see that when they switch from being potential sources of advantage to mere costs of doing business, the key for successful management shifts from aggressive innovation and investment to careful cost and risk management. And I think thats true with technology as well. Even if you cant gain an advantage from information technology, you can certainly put yourself at a disadvantage by spending too much on it or by otherwise mismanaging it. As I said, I think the essence of successful management is being able to draw distinctions, and if no one can distinguish technology from information from talent, then youve got a big managerial problem. I think that even some of the business uses of technology are becoming, in effect, commoditized. The nature of technology means that when you commoditize the technology, in most cases youre also commoditizing the business process that runs on it, and even the information that runs through it. Information technology decision-makers face daunting challenges to provide and maintain inter-networked systems that ensure organizational mission success despite sophisticated computer network attacks. Exacerbating this situation, the extremely dynamic threat environment for Internet-based systems requires regular re-evaluation of organizational operations and systems in light of changes in attacker activity or, simply, an improved understanding of threats. Unfortunately, current technology provides little help in determining how attacks affect the survival of what is important to an organization and maintaining a survivability strategy as the threat environment evolves. This project develops methods and tools that help model and analyze an organizations threat dynamics and that improve the organizations security, survivability, and resiliency in light of those dynamics. We define threat dynamics as the study of the impact of an organizations threat environment on the ability of the organization to achieve its mission objectives. Evidence from a comprehensive study of insider threats indicates that executives, at times, make decisions that are intended to enhance organizational performance and productivity. Lastly, The CTO, CPO, OR CSO all possess the ability to think effectively in abstract terms, the ability to deal with ambiguity, and strong leadership and team building skills since long term success requires accomplishing far more than one person can do alone. By measuring the effectiveness using the same metrics that are used to measure the business. The tools that are used to drive the business success must be technical ones. They should also include technical expertise, technology leadership, and use of information technology for strategic gain. For example, as failure cases come in just like the one a customer finds, requires that they have a unit test in place for that particular issue so that you can start building a field failure regression test suite. Rules should be set up for new enhancements that incorporate unit testing. Picking both the enhancement and the developer to do it in the same manner would produce a productive code review. This way everyone can learn. Once the pilot is done and the first code review complete with unit tests is complete, then everyone should be required to do it to make sure they are adopting some discipline and unit testing. They need to manage policies and procedures on how individual businesses handle and protect its client data which encompasses a wide variety of information, such as personal e-mail addresses, account balances, credit scores, purchasing history and Social Security numbers. Participate as a key team member in responding to and managing incidents resulting in the loss or potential compromise of personal data by the organization or its service providers. They should assist in assessing privacy-related risks throughout the organization and promotes strategies to mitigate these risks through the development and implementation of infrastructure, standards for the collection, use, and sharing of personal information, vendor requirements, training, and other appropriate mechanisms. References http://managementhelp.org/org_thry/culture/culture.htm Title: Legal Issues, Ethical Issues, Privacy, and Security URL: http://webliminal.com/Lrn-web09.html Jeffrey Rothfeder. 1992. Privacy for Sale: How Computerization Has Made Everyones Private Life an Open Secret. New York: Simon and Schuster. http://www.privacyrights.org/ar/ChronDataBreaches.htm. Questions: Explain why understanding technology, especially in the areas of security and ethics, is important for CEO. How do a CEOs actions affect the organizational culture? Identify why executives in non technological industries need to worry about the technology and its potential business ramifications. Describe why continuously learning about technology allows an executive to better analyze threats and opportunities. Identify 3 things that CTO,CPO, or CSO could do to prevent the above issues which stolen privacy proprietary information, sexual harassment, stolen trade secrets.

Montgomery, Copley and Associates’ Leadership Model (Case 10.3) Essay

Betty Ford entered the role of First Lady in 1978 and quickly built a reputation based on openness and honesty. Her public persona was supported in large part by a transparent approach to her individual beliefs and personal circumstances. During her time in the White House, Mrs. Ford actively lobbied for the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment and worked to raise breast cancer awareness after being diagnosed with the disease within the first month of taking on her new role. A year after President Ford exited the White House, Mrs. Ford began a public battle against a 14 year addiction to painkillers which were used to ease the pain from arthritis as well as a pinched nerve and chronic neck spasms. While in a rehabilitation program at the Long Beach Naval Hospital, Mrs. Ford openly acknowledged and confronted a secondary addiction to alcohol. In 1982, Mrs. Ford opened the Betty Ford Center in an effort to assist addicts much like her self and their families in the recovery process. F urther activism related to addiction recovery earned Mrs. Ford the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Medal of Honor. This paper will discuss Mrs. Ford’s leadership position in the public eye and will provide an analysis of her chosen leadership style in relation to Montgomery, Copley and Associates’ Leadership Model. The paper will then identify a personal leadership experience in which I utilized elements of the Leadership Model to reach a positive outcome in a major life decision. Leadership Model Montgomery, Copley and Associates’ Leadership Model (see appendix) represents a leadership style that is centered on leading with heart. In this regard, at the core of the decision making process are the ethical principles, moral philos... ... on internal and external inspirations such as those depicted in Montgomery, Copley and Associates’ Leadership Model, they are able to make a difference in staff and the organization alike. Moreover, much like Mrs. Ford, they are able to develop a leadership approach which resonates with followers and contributes to their success. Works Cited Bandsuch, M., Pate, L., & Thies, J. (2008). Building stakeholder trust in business: An examination of principle-centered leadership and organizational transparency in corporate governance. Business and Society Review, 113(1), 99-127. Higgs, M., & Rowland, D. (2010). Emperors with clothes on: The role of self-awareness in developing effective change leadership. Journal of Change Management, 10(4), 369-385. Northouse, P. G. (2010). Leadership theory and practice (5th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.

Macbeth :: essays research papers

Macbeth is a popular play written by William Shakespeare, which is a tragedy. In order for Macbeth to be crowned king, King Duncan would have to die. There are two main characters in the play that want the power from Duncan and are too anxious to wait. Those two characters are Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, Lady Macbeth was the one who came up with the ideas and schemes to kill King Duncan. Whenever Macbeth would be unsuccessful through the process of killing Duncan, she would back him up. Although Macbeth wanted to get out of murdering Duncan he couldn’t. To make Macbeth kill Duncan Lady Macbeth had to constantly manipulated Macbeth. Duncan is Macbeth’s cousin so it would be harder for Macbeth to stab him to death while he’s sleeping.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When Macbeth sent Lady Macbeth a letter saying that Duncan was going to stay with them for the night and then leave the next morning, she was already starting to plan out his murder. Through the process of killing Duncan, there would always be something that Macbeth would not do right, and so Lady Macbeth would have to do it over. In (2.2 62-64) Lady Macbeth says, â€Å"why did you bring these daggers from this place? They must lie there, go carry then and smear the sleepy grooms with blood.† Then again in (2.2 65- 67) Macbeth reacted â€Å"I’ll go no more, I am afraid to think what I have done look on’t again I dare not.† When Macbeth killed Duncan, he forgot to leave the daggers by the drunken chamberlains, he was already regretting killing Duncan. When he returned to the castle, Lady Macbeth was surprised to see him holding the bloody daggers. Afterward when Macbeth refused to bring the two bloody daggers back; Lady Macbeth took them out of his hands and went to the chamber where Duncan laid dead. When Lady Macbeth came back into the castle she says, (2.2 80-86) â€Å"My hands are of your color, but I shame to wear a heart so white. I hear a knocking at the south entry retire we to our chambers. A little water clears us of this deed: how simple is it then.† When she returned from the chamber saying that her hands or the same color as. I’m covered in the same blood as yours are. Someone is coming let us get to our chamber and pretend like we were

Humor in Midsummer Night’s Dream Essay

Historical records from the late sixteenth century are marked by the severe outcomes of the plague, which spread throughout most of Europe. The increased death rate and famine suppressed cultural development and thus very few works of art or literature were produced. During these devastating years, the young poet William Shakespeare refused to travel to the provinces, away from London, where the plague had reached enormous extents. On the contrary, in 1593 and 1594 he composed the poems Venus and Adonis and Lucrece which were both met by great interest and excitement. These positive responses encouraged Shakespeare and with even stronger efforts he wrote the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the beginning of 1595, when the plague was brought under control. This work not only marks the end of famine and suffering in London during the late sixteenth century, but also signifies that the Master is now â€Å"confident in his art, at ease with it, as a man in his dressing-gown†. Categorized as a festive comedy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a considerable advance in Shakespeare’s work. The most remarkable evidence for this advance is the skilful usage of different variations of humor in one play. Another distinctive aspect of the work is the incorporation of another play within the borders of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Analysis of different characteristics of the work should inevitably focus on the story of the craftsmen performing â€Å"Pyramus and Thisbe†, since this part is a representative of Shakespearean comedy and all of its patterns. Therefore, it also portrays the impressionable usage of humor, or more specifically, of literary devices and social characteristics, not only in A Midsummer Night’s Dream but also throughout all Shakespearean comedies. The poet’s works can be roughly categorized in four categories: tragedies, comedies, histories, and romance. All of them are having separate characteristics, tone and style, involving different literary devices and mechanisms. Comedies are usually stories with happy ending, lighthearted patterns and often involving a marriage. They all have a distinct usage of humor, which can be defined as innovative and typically Shakespearean. The plays usually present the struggle of young lovers who have to get over many obstacles in pursue of their feelings and often involve mistaken identities,  separation and unification, heightened tensions within a family, and multiple plots. One very significant trait of the poet’s comedies is that they do not involve any satire, which makes them more lighthearted and easy to process. The common setting of the plots tends to be nature, more specifically the â€Å"green world†. This is one of Shakespeare’s preferred cites since it creates a more casual atmosphere, where jokes and puns easily find their way to the public, unbound by the social norms present the city. Another significance of the setting is the current time period, which constitutes the pattern of the society, its expectations and rules, and its literacy. The poet carefully takes advantage of the prejudices and the ideologies of the public and hence makes his comedies very contemporary, discussing topics that are relevant to the time period. Shakespearean comedies imply the participation of the audience and therefore they are dependent on people’s way of viewing life and way of expression. A play performed during the period of its setting would be far more funny and entertaining than the same play performed nowadays because of the evolved human way of thinking. Nonetheless, Shakespearean comedies contain certain literal devices creating humor, which function in the same way now, as four centuries ago. The story of the amateur and awkward actors in A Midsummer Night’s Dream contains a great deal of those devices, which make it independent upon the public, still involving it in its plot. One of those devices is the use of prose throughout the play within Shakespeare’s work. The poet removes the whole rhyme pattern in order to emphasize the puns and jokes in the course of the plot. When the actors are talking in a plain manner the humor is more easily transferred to the public, since they do not have to perceive the rhyming. Furthermore, the prose contributes to the image of the craftsmen. Their illiteracy and simple-mindedness can be identified easily through their way of expression. The artisans speak in a simple manner, corresponding to their social class standing. Although they are striving to use a more sophisticated language, they mix up grammar and spelling in a very comic way: â€Å"Have you the lion’s part written? Pray you, if it be, give it me; for I am slow of study†. The usage of prose in the play also creates plain humor, which does not need to be interpreted in any way. This is simple poetic device that creates comedy, which is equally funny now and four centuries ago. Sentences as â€Å"I will undertake it† bring about the same reaction of the public regardless of the time period. This mechanism may be the most frequently used one in the part with the artisans, but probably the most efficient device is the word play, created through the misspellings and wrong pronunciations of the craftsmen. Shakespeare takes advantage of the sound similarities between words with completely different meanings and adds the alternatives to the mechanicals’ speech. In their efforts to sound more sophisticated, the artisans mix up words as â€Å"obscenely†(Shakespeare, 68), â€Å"parlous† (Shakespeare 87), â€Å"disfigure† (Shakespeare 88), â€Å"savours, odours† (Shakespeare 89), â€Å"translated† (Shakespeare 91), â€Å"presently† and so forth. Those confusions create different connotations and meanings, thus entertaining the audience. For example, Bottom misuses obscenely, meaning seemly, or more precisely, â€Å"fitly†; instead of â€Å"parlous† Snout should have said â€Å"perilous†, and Bottom completely mixes â€Å"odours, savours, odorous†. All these mistakes build a very efficient humor mechanism that Shakespeare uses in most of his comedies. Another effective literary device that Shakespeare had mastered is the mix of short and long sentences, presenting the interrupted lines of thought of the artisans, their inability to express themselves and their lack of education. It also contributes to the authentic tone of their natural conversation: â€Å"A calendar, a calendar! Look in the almanac – find out moonshine, find out moonshine† (Shakespeare 69). Bottom’s excitement disables him to form complete and meaningful sentences; he wants to express himself as fast as he can, regardless of the way of expression. The frequent usage of â€Å"and†, instead of â€Å"if†, in the beginning of the sentences, shows that the artisans’ thoughts and ideas are flowing during the course of their speech: â€Å"Thus hath he lost sixpence a day during his life: he could not have ‘scaped sixpence a day. And the Duke had not given him sixpence a day for playing Pyramus, I’ll be hanged† (Shakespeare 122). The obvious repetition here also signifies the awkwardness and narrow-mindedness of the mechanicals. Their personalities are also involved in the creation of the remarkable comedy. Except for their illiteracy, simple and narrow mindedness and their awkwardness, the artisans have more traits that build their image of comic characters. Nick Bottom, for example, is a overconfident weaver, who is the central figure in the plot of the story. He has an incredible belief in his abilities and skills and pretends to  dominate over the other mechanicals. Bottom does not accept the fact that he is illiterate and therefore his confused words make him sound ridiculous. He loves to exaggerate and over-dramatize, praising his own self-esteem. The weaver does not realize that the others are not taking him seriously and is not aware of his foolishness. His image may seem absurd and worthy of pity, but it also gains the public’s attention and sympathy. In this way the audience is in the same time laughing at his words and perceiving them as something honest and simple. Bottom is always ready to undertake anything that would make him important. From the play it can be derived that he developed a complex of inferiority, which, nonetheless, does not seem dispiriting but comic. When Peter Quince is giving out the roles for â€Å"Pyramus and Thisbe† Bottom is repeatedly showing his will to act for everyone. After every single role is announced, he is awkwardly trying to portray himself as the most appropriate actor for it: â€Å"That will ask some tears in the true performing of it. If I do it, let the audience look to their eyes: I will move storms, I will condole, in some measure. †( Shakespeare 65). There is an interesting comic reference here to one of the main themes of the play, the use of one’s eyes in love. This is evidence that the story of the amateur actors is representative of the whole play and the humor used is relevant to the main course of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Finally, Bottom is assigned the role of Pyramus, who is â€Å"a lover that kills himself, most gallant, for love†. There is an obvious contradiction between the images of the mechanical and Pyramus, which adds funny absurdity to the comedy. â€Å"Gallant† is probably the least appropriate description of the tall and clumsy craftsman. Bottom’s confidence often diminishes the role of Peter Quince, another character that entertains the public through his speech and attitude toward the future performance. He is an ordinary carpenter who is not experienced in anything else than his craft. He tries to be the leader of the group that is attempting to put together the play â€Å"Pyramus and Thisbe†. Even though his directions are respected, they usually meet the disapproval of the other artisans. Peter Quince takes advantage of the short-mindedness of his fellows and comes up with irrational justifications of his decisions, which, nonetheless, seem true to the craftsmen: â€Å"That’s all one: you shall play it in a mask, and you may speak as small as you will. † (66 Shakespeare); â€Å"You can play no part but Pyramus; for Pyramus is a sweet-faced man, a proper man as one shall se in a summer’s day, a most lovely, gentlemanlike man† (68 Shakespeare). This is how Peter Quince succeeds in convincing Bottom that he is perfect for the role of Pyramus – using his high self- esteem and need to be granted recognition. Peter Quince further contributes to the comedy by selecting Francis Flute, a bellows-mender, for the role of Thisbe. Even before the actual performance, the audience imagines how the ordinary craftsman is speaking in a â€Å"small† voice, wearing a mask which is supposed to hide his beard. Flute’s determination to overcome his sense of masculinity, which is ridiculed in the play, is a remarkable sacrifice for the success of the performance. His extreme readiness fascinates the public and presents the seriousness of the artisans. Also from this scene it can be derived that the craftsmen are putting all their efforts into the performance. Robin Starveling, first chosen to play Thisbe’s mother, readily accepts his role, which would make him more than an ordinary tailor. Later on in the play, he is assigned the role of the moonshine, which does not discourage him. The same comic enthusiasm is also shared by Tom Snout, the thinker who is chosen to play Pyramus’s father but later on receives the role of the wall separating Pyramus and Thisbe. Together with Snug, the joiner chosen to play a lion, they both feel they have significant parts in the performance, and every one of them is concerned about his role. For instance, Snug is worried that his roaring may frighten the ladies in the audience. He is determined that his acting will convince the public that he is a real lion and the other craftsmen agree with him. Their funny concerns are followed by even more comic solutions – there will be a Prologue who will reveal the true personalities of the craftsmen before the performance, and Snug will show a part of his face to comfort the ladies in the audience. In this way the suspense of the whole performance will be ruined, but the artisans are afraid that their acting skills may be too sophisticated. The craftsmen’s low level of education, short and narrow mindedness and awkward speech play a great role in the development of the comedy. They are all ordinary characters, from the low working class who have one and the same goal – to achieve something remarkable and worthy of respect. Despite their comic lack of sophistication, they succeed in entertaining the audience in another, more original and funny way. The play of â€Å"Pyramus and Thisbe† is a tragedy but their performance can be more precisely defined as a tragic comedy. The actual performance is played during the celebrations of Theseus’s marriage and even though it is inappropriate for such occasion, it turns out to be successful. In the beginning the audience is confused by the strange and amateur acting, but finally the craftsmen appear to be the culmination of the whole festival. The performance is welcomed by a â€Å"flourish of trumpets†, which are very inappropriate for the following fiasco. There is a distinct comic contrast between the flourish of the trumpets, usually meant to signify a glamorous work, and the impressions following the play. Peter Quince, taken the role of the Prologue, confidently steps onto the scene and starts reading from the scroll, unintentionally changing its meaning by mistaking its punctuation: â€Å"That you should think, we come not to offend, but with good will. To show our simple skill, that is the true beginning of our end. † Although this seems funny to the reader, the audience in the play is first confused by the illiteracy of the Prologue: This fellow doth not stand upon points† (Shakespeare 129), meaning that he is not â€Å"punctilious†. At first, Theseus is embarrassed by the awkward performance of Quince and wonders if there is a reason for his mistakes. Without being worried about his weak performance, the determined craftsman continues his important speech, full of comic sentences, as â€Å"he bravely breached his boiling bloody breast†. The true meaning of â€Å"breached† is actually stabbed but Shakespeare uses this word to create a comic alliteration. After the Prologue has reassured the audience, the reader encounters another comic effect of the play – the characteristics of the Wall, played by Snout. It is intentionally described as alive and moving: â€Å"Wall parts its fingers† (Shakespeare 130). The Wall is personified which makes the whole performance even more ridiculous and funny. As the other craftsmen, Snug also wants to be noticed in the performance and thus overacts, making his role more than absurd. Robin Starveling and Snug, acting as the moonshine and the lion, also take their parts more seriously than they should have and contribute to the comic tragedy that the play â€Å"Pyramus and Thisbe† eventually becomes. The audience, although confused by the whole performance, is entertained and the efforts of the craftsmen are justified. They reached their goal of producing something for which they will be acknowledge and respected, even though their intentions were not fulfilled. The story of the artisans performing the play â€Å"Pyramus and Thisbe† contains plenty of humor devices and comic scenes, which make it representative of Shakespearean comedies in many ways. First of all the small play represents the struggle of young lovers to overcome the difficulties set by the circumstances in pursue of their feelings, which is a typical theme for a tragedy, but after the performance it is also associated with humor and comedy. Furthermore, the amateur actors represent the illiteracy of the low class. Shakespeare recognizes the importance of this widespread for the particular time period problem, but in the same time he portrays the comic part of it and praises the artisans’ strive to achieve something meaningful. By his usage of humor he is not criticizing the artisans; he rather justifies their difficulties with grammar and expression in general. The play â€Å"Pyramus and Thisbe† is not a lyrical digression from the main topic of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It presents another outcome of the situation with the lovers, more undesirable and lacking a happy end. Shakespeare produces a play within the play to further entertain the audience and show the comedic character of his work. Another interpretation of the story of â€Å"Pyramus and Thisbe† may be the initial intention of Shakespeare to write a tragedy, not a comedy. By the time he writes A Midsummer Nights Dream, he has mastered to an extent the tragic genre, and feels more comfortable producing such pieces of literature. The occasion though, a marriage celebration, requires from him to create a rather entertaining work. Maybe through the incorporation of the small play, Shakespeare implies that his original idea was to create another tragedy. He does not allow the audience to feel the tragic nature of â€Å"Pyramus and Thisbe† by using a great deal of humor in it. Even though Shakespeare produces A Midsummer Night’s Dream in a period of time when people are not concerned about art and literature, but about their survival, the play has great success ever since then. The conventional humor used to portray the lovers’ struggles seems untouched by time and the evolving human way of thinking. Four centuries after it was written, the work still fascinates with its characteristics and mechanisms. Comedies are generally a very hard genre because what is funny today may not be funny at all tomorrow. Despite that fact, Shakespeare’s genius manages to create a universal humor, using comical devices that are still interesting and entertaining. By those devices he creates a parallel world where time is a relative term and where humor and laughter are the driving forces – world where people are entertained in spite of the social norms and rules. Bibliography Biscay, Matt. â€Å"A Midsummer Night’s Dream: A Comedy. † Skyminds. net. 2006. Skyminds. net. 08 Nov 2006 . Mahony, Simon. â€Å"Simon Mahony Academic Stuff. † Pyramus and Thisbe in Shakespeare and Ovid. 2002. King’s College London. 5 Nov 2006 . McFarland, Thomas. Shakespeare’s Pastoral Comedy. North Carolina, USA: The University of North Carolina Press, 1972. Parrot, Thomas. Shakespearean Comedy. New York, USA: Russel & Russel, 1962. Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer Night’s Dream. 2003. Editor: Brian Gibbons. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Teague, Francis. Acting Funny: Comic Thoery and Practice in Shakespeare’s Plays. London: Associated University Presses, 1994.