Evaluate and develop an argument for or against the following Essay

Evaluate and develop an argument for or against the following statement the people process is more important than either the strategy or operations processes - Essay Example It is therefore just right to expect that nowadays, when we talk of systems and strategies, it should define a good, reliable, and flexible process. But it should be understood that we can say that most systems are just ideal when it comes to design but not in the implementation. Who makes the design work for a company Who makes the non-living ideas move for the company Isn't the answer human processes Perhaps the reason is because no matter how we try to improve the system or the strategy design, it will forever fail to recognize the maker of the design. When we talk of human processes, what comes into our mind Human processes in simple terms refer to that process in one company or group that does not take for granted the significant factors like the individuals as the main mover in a company. This process involves human's knowledge, skills and intellectual ability to be the fuel of the running company. And if the operations process is considered as the forefront of a business, human processes can be considered as the root and trunk of an organization where the lifeblood of the company flows and grows (Peoplecube 2007). Now what is being argued in this paper is the advantage of human processes over the strategy and or operations processes. ... Humans at that time took control of technology in the form of design engineers. Companies considered human factor as an indispensable thing to be considered because that was the area that can either make or break a product's use. Through the design for example, a product can either benefit or pose a threat to the user. When an engineer designer makes a wrong move in his masterpiece, that product can annihilate group of individuals in just a snap of one's fingers. That was also the time when usability testing became part of certain processes. Usability testing enables the first hand users to test what is working and what is not to a certain product. This whole idea of human factor causing a glitch to the company's process maybe blamed for giving birth to the concept of processes becoming more significant than the processor. This can then lead us to thinking that perhaps, that's also the same reason why software was invented by scientists, perhaps to avoid the human factor defects (Use rnomics 2005-2007). But then again, since we are talking about human processes as a thing of significance than that of operations processes, it is good for us to look at proper managing of human's knowledge and abilities to better see the benefits it could bring to an organization if it is trying to optimize its personnel's capabilities. Knowledge of the people is the house of new ideas and the bank of solutions to the different problems being encountered by the company. This is the reason why modern companies invest in trainings for their employees while others back or support their workers in finishing graduate degrees especially if the

Case study-outbreak of MRSA Essay Example for Free

Case study-outbreak of MRSA Essay 4P: explain possible priorities and responses when dealing with two particular incidents or emergencies in a health and social care setting. 3M: explain why it is important to maintain respect and dignity when responding to incidents and emergencies. 2D: Justify the need to review policies and procedures following critical incidents. Neonatal: Neonatal means new-born it’s a specialised unit for premature babies who have not fully developed yet because they are born way too early. The article is a case study based on a neonatal unit in a hospital in Lancashire. The neonatal unit have been shut down due to an MRSA outbreak which affected six babies from which five only had only bacteria on the surface of the skin whereas one baby had an MRSA bloodstream infection. I will investigate how they dealt with the situation with regards to priorities and responses and also well maintain respect and dignity of those included. It is an critical incident because as it affected the six babies there are more people who have been affected because they were either workers, visitors or patients as all of them are on risk off carrying the bacteria all of them have to come back in to get screened and checked. The neonatal unit was shut down and they spoke to parents of the babies to keep them up to date the hospital will not accept any new babies or patients onto the unit who are supposed to give birth or are in labour until doctors and nurses are 100% satisfied that there is no risk and the unit is clear of MRSA. They dealt with it very well as the health of the babies and the patients was their priority however they could have dealt with it a bit faster and warn people earlier because the impact they had on staff was that they think that it’s their fault of carrying poor hygiene and there are chances of losing their job. As mothers were already very depressed because their babies were premature they felt worse and more stressed when they got to know about the risk of having MRSA. Microbiology laboratories across the UK were asked to be vigilant and have been requested to send any suspicious samples of PVL for further analysis. It is very important to maintain respect and dignity when dealing with the incident as it is a neonatal unit patients and staff already know that it’s a specialised unit and therefore special and extra care is needed so that means everybody has to be ready for whatever comes up. It is also necessary to have policies and procedures because then it makes easier and quicker to do things right at the first time and there is less frustration and stress helping the staff by doing everything peacefully and accurate. MRSA: The full name for MRSA is methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aurous. This bacterium is resistant to medicines called methicillin-type antibiotics, which means that it isnt killed by these antibiotics and can be very difficult to treat. Its sometimes called a superbug. It is normal for healthy people to have staph on their skin. Many of us do. Most of the time, it does not cause an infection or any symptoms. This is called â€Å"colonization† or â€Å"being colonized.† Someone who is colonized with MRSA can spread MRSA to other people. A sign of a staph skin infection is a red, swollen, and painful area on the skin. Pus or other fluids may drain from this area. It may look like a boil. These symptoms are more likely to occur if the skin has been cut or rubbed because this gives the MRSA germ a way to â€Å"get in.† Symptoms are also more likely in areas where there is more body hair due to hair follicles. MRSA infections in patients in health care facilities tend to be severe. These staph infections may be in the bloodstream, heart, lungs, or other organs, urine, or in the area of a recent surgery. Some symptoms of these severe infections are: Chest pain Cough or shortness of breath, Fatigue, Fever and chills, General ill feeling, Headache, Rash and Wounds that do not heal.

Measuring The Impact Of Given Hrm Strategy Commerce Essay

Measuring The Impact Of Given Hrm Strategy Commerce Essay Human resource is seen as one of the most critical differentiators contributes to the organizations competitive advantages. All the other assets, such as products, markets, cash, buildings and equipment are passive require human application to generate value (Caliskan, 2010). It is the manpower that plays the key factor to sustaining the productivity for the organizations. How people being managed effectively and the behaviours of theirs can tell an organizations performance. In other words, the organizational performance can be explained by productivity, efficiency, effectiveness and competitiveness made by the employees. INTRODUCTION This essay will discuss why work ethic principles and values are part of the human resources strategy, how training and further education can enhance employees behaviours therefore to offer more to the organizations performance, and how human resources impacts on corporate performance. THE FACTORS INVOLVED IN MEASURING THE IMPACT OF GIVEN HRM STRATEGY Every organization is powered by its people. And the organizational effectiveness is viewed by the quality of services deliver to their customers who develop the organizations reputation. HR strategies play to role to help to organizations to delivery excellent services. Successful organizations see HR strategy formulation and execution as a continuous and dynamic process. In fact, effective HR strategies are essential to ensure productivity and maximum success for organizations. Effectiveness is one way of measuring the impact of HRM strategy implantation. The true success of the human resources management could not be just measured by the organizations financial targets. We should not treat strategies isolated, they need to be bundled. Therefore, to measure the effectiveness of strategic contribution of human resource management should focus on the overall contribution to the success of the organization, in terms of added value, competitive advantage and the impact on business performance (The Association of Business Executives , 2008). And typically, ways in which this contribution has been made will include: Develop a positive and healthy working environment Enhance positive motivations and commitment Increase employee skills and extended the skills base Provide employees with extended responsibilities so they can make full use of their skills and abilities Provide career opportunities and define competence requirements Provide career development and job security to employees Instituting processes of performance management and continuous development Use reward management system to convey messages about what the organization believes to be important. Share information and management transparent. Provide employees with invoice. Treat employees as partners instead of team players. (The Association of Business Executives , 2008) THE AVAILABLE TOOLS USED FOR MEASURING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF HRM STRATEGY Organizations need to have a complete system for the followings: Identify what process should achieve (i.e. its objectives), then measure what is actually being achieved, compare what is actually being achieved against what should have been achieved, then provide required corrective actions if necessary, last implement new actions. By doing all these can measure weather the HRM strategy being effective or not. The popular concept for measuring the effectiveness of human resources strategy these days are: Balance scorecard and Benchmarking. Balance scorecard is comprehensive management tools to measure and share the organizations progress towards its achievement of the strategic goals. More specifically, the balance scorecard is a strategic planning management system that consists of people, strategy, process and technology to align the organization to share a version of achieving its success and getting the people working on the right tracks. Added value, it is people who develop visions, define and set goals, develop strategic plans and implement them (The Association of Business Executives , 2008).This right organization structure is to develop employees being motivate and managed effectively, gain their commitment therefore to deploy them effectively, productively. For example, traditional measures of performance such as value of sales per salesperson, With this strategic management scorecard system, the organizations operational performance such as financial status, customer results, operational efficiency and capacity building can be measured and valued. The balance scorecard is also a communication system through the whole organization to provide better aligning strategic objectives with resources. It sets goals and drives all the employees to adopt and adjust their attitudes and behaviours/actions to achieve them. The balance scorecard helps people within the organization to come to a better understanding regards the interrelationships between different organizational functions. Therefore the top management can avoid the functional barriers and improve decision-making and problem solving. Ultimately enhance the organizations performance. Last but not least, the balanced scorecard helps the organization focus on the future not simply the past or present. Another popular tool of measuring organizations performance is Benchmarking. In fact benchmarking has long been recognized in industry as an effective means of improving business performance. Benchmarking is frequently cited as the second most popular global technique (after business planning) for performance improvement (Bencharmarking, 2006). The shortest definitions of benchmarking is Finding and implanting best practice (Camp, 1995). It means searching for industry best practice that lead to superior performance. Benchmarking is the process of comparing ones business process and/or best practices from other industries. Organizations benchmark themselves in quality, time and cost etc. against their real peers therefore to improve their performance. Benchmarking process diagram (Bencharmarking, 2006) There are two types of benchmarking: Informal and Formal benchmarking. Here I would only talk about formal benchmarking, which consists: Performance and best practice benchmarking. Performance benchmarking involves comparison of the organizations financial status (such as expenditure, cost of labour, adherence to budget, cash flow, revenue collected etc.) and non-financial measures (such as staff turnover, budget processing time, complaints etc.). Through benchmarking, the organization can recognize whether is being a leader or it is far behind in the market. For example, by comparing the income with the organization itself to the industry, the organization can know whether it is making too small profits or there is still more rooms to grab more profits. These processes involve identifying, capturing, analysing and comparing, the organization gains knowledge to know its status well enough which leads to better business strategies and responding human resources practices. The CONNECTION BETWEEN HRM STRATEGY AND ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE Human resource is considered the most important factors to gain and sustain competitive advantages for organizations. In order to achieve this, the human resource management practices need to be aligned within themselves (internal fit). The human resource management also need to be aligned with the organizations strategy (strategic fit) (Lamboij, Sanders, Koster and Zwiers, 2006). Human resources strategy should always match the business strategy. It should be flexible, compatible, adoptive, integrated, and effective to the organizational changes. The goals of HR strategy process are strictly concerned with the managing people effectively which can assist in the achievement of organizational objectives. The best fit human resource strategies that help the organizations to gain and sustain competitive advantages should be: Invest in people to increase capability and align skills to the organizational needs through on-the job and off-the job training and further educations. Providing training and development, job security and satisfaction are key human resource techniques essential for high performance. Acknowledge the organizations identifies and the knowledge/attitudes that require to meet the organizational goals and satisfy the customers. Define and promote the behaviours and positive attitudes required for organizational success and encouraged, valued and rewarded them. The better employees know what to expect from them, the more they behave cooperatively towards their co-workers and their supervisors. HRM provides professional conduct guides that apply to from hourly employees up to top management to determine business related acts or behaviours are right or wrong. Appoint right employees with the right skills/abilities to do the right jobs to let them feel fulfilled and challenged. Gain employees commitment and loyalty to the achieve organizations missions and goals. ETHICAL CODES OF CONDUCT/BEHAVIOUR IN HRM STRATEGY There are a number of reasons why developing a workplace code of ethics is crucial. Workplace ethics is the moral conducts of behaviours developed by a place of business to determine what is expected of employees in a particular settings. Managers play the key role to take responsibility for determining and enforcing the acceptable and expected standards within their organizations. Workplace ethics set the rules of conduct for everyone at a particular business environment. It helps everyone to know what is encouraged/expected or inappropriate at work. If everyone is clear on what kind of behaviours are expected and what is unacceptable, employees are able to be point out when there are some actions are out of the lines. Workplace ethics also ensures that employees are treated equally and they always have rights to speak for themselves. Workplace ethics helps to enhance reputation by gaining consumers to think that the organizations are somehow better than their competitors. More impo rtantly, the ethical standards/values are shared and known within the organizations by the entire staff, the environment will be conductive to values-driven behaviours, such as values that can guide decision making and discussion and information sharing; values can help to enhance a sense of commitment to the organizations and therefore, are an important part of high commitment management. Values can improve the all the relationships within and outside the organizations. For example, within the organization, between the organization and its workforce, values and ethics codes identify the attitudes towards equal opportunities and diversity; Between management and employees, value and code ethics guide the managers to maintain a professional relationships with employees, and to identify the importance of trust, respect and equality; Between employees, values and ethics codes identify what sort of behaviours are expected among employees. Outside the organization, values and ethics and make an organization stand out among other competitors to its customers and consumers (The Association of Business Executives , 2008). Indeed an organization that has good value and ethics code can impress its customers with their attitudes, the responsibilities they have towards the social responsibility and the views of the environment, etc. THE ETHICAL IMPLICATIONS OF STRATEGIC HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT Human resource managers are in a key position to ensure that ethics codes management is applied through the whole organization. Communications and training programmes are essential. And managers need to make decisions ethically to determine business-related acts or behaviours are right or wrong. Business ethics can provide businesses with moral guidelines in conducting their affairs. Managers often face ethical dilemmas in the workplace but they may not aware of it. On reason is the manager is not trained in ethics so it is difficult to know when an ethical issue exists (Mintz, 2011). The first step in making ethical decisions is to be sensitive to identify the unethical signposts in question. Determine whether your decision harms one or more parties while benefiting others. Managers need to be aware that ethical decision making causes the consequences of the actions on others the stakeholders in the specific situation. The next step is to identify alternative choices and actions to evaluate them in the ethical way. Be sure to follow the laws, regulations, practices and company policy including the code of conducts. From an ethical perspective certain guidelines apply such as dont violate anyones rights; be fair-mined in deciding how best to resolve the dilemma, always follow basic virtues including honesty, integrity, reliability and being responsible and accountable for ones actions (Mintz, 2011). After evaluating the alternatives from the ethical perspective, managers need to know for certain how the potential decision might affect the stakeholders. It should create trusting or even legal problems/reputation damage among employees and top management. The last step in ethical decision-making is the most difficult one. It takes a lot to carry out an ethical decision with ethical action. It could be the case that the ethical decision and ethical action would actually do harm to the company reputatio n or other employees image among the organization. For example, if sales A found out that sales B, one of the top sales in the company, misleading customers a bit regarding the product (not a serious mistake) in order to get more sales. In this case, should sales A reports to the top management straight away or just pretend nothing happen? If reports to the top management, they may likely not do anything. Or they would think sales A is just getting jealous with sales B, which will lead them to think that sales A is not the type of guy that they want to keep for long term. Or the top management invest in the detail and find out the truth and they have to fire sales B, which the consequence will be the company lost a top sale and some big customers therefore it effects the organizations reputation and selling targets. One of the the rational way to deal with this unethical issue will be whistle-blowing. Sales A could make an anonymous complain or letter to report this unethical behavi our explain the behaviour or issue in detail as well as how the issue should be resolved. Nowadays organizations have employees from different culture background. One thing managers need to ensure that they do not discriminate unfairly in their decisions or actions towards employees, either before or during the employment. Organization should provide equal opportunities to everyone within the organization. Managing cultural diversity is never easy. Recognising the behaviours of discrimination is the first step towards establishing equal treatment working environment. All in all, the responsibilities of good managers in making ethical decisions are: Be sensitive with the ethical issues in working environment Be clear with the responding consequence followed by the ethical decisions/actions Identify company policy, code of ethics conducts and carry out the ethical actions TRAINING METHOD IN WORK PLACE Training in an organization can be divided to two broad types. They are on-the-job trainings and off-the job trainings. With on-the-job trainings, employees receive trainings while they are at work. In this way, employees are conducting and learning when they are working. On-the-job training gives employees motivation to start the job. Some reports indicate that people learn more efficiently if they learn hands on rather than just listening to the instructors. Example: New engineers could work with experienced engineers. They could ask questions about the machines and the tools they are operating on, the problems they may come across the usual solutions to them etc. Instructors need to make the plan for what should be taught, and how much time spend on it, and after the trainings employees will informed about their progress. The main methods of on-the-job/off-the-job training included: Demonstration / Instruction Showing on site to the trainers specifically how to get the job done. Coaching a more detailed and intensive method of training that involves a close working relationship between the experienced trainers and the trainees. Coaching gives trainees the chance to ask questions and receive honest answers. Lectures Lectures usually take place in a classroom-format. Giving lectures supply huge amount of information to a lot of people in a short amount of time. But lectures could get boring and trainees lose interest in it. Group discussion Group discussion is most likely to take place in a classroom where a group of people discuss issues. Group discussion can allow employees to ask questions and provide ideas for the management. Comparing to lecture, it gets more involvement from the employees, and managers can heave the voice from the employees. Role playing Role playing allows employees to act out issues that could occur in the work place. Role playing can be effective in connecting theory and practice. There are many methods of trainings. The key is to find the best training method to suit the actual situation. Assess each training method implemented in the organization and get feedbacks from trainees. Then decide to adopt the most effective method to specify the training programme (Silva, 2011) FURTHER TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT These days for every business their goal is to stay competitive in the market. And highly skilled, motived and committed staff is the key factor to achieve that goal. Further-training widens employees skills and acknowledge, and therefore enable their personal advancement to contribute more to the organizations performance. Providing career development helps to motive employees and gain their commitment. In details, firstly, training and development helps in maximizing the human resource which further helps the organization to achieve organization goals as well as their personal goals. Secondly, training and development helps to provide opportunities to broaden employees knowledge, increase their skills, improve their personality even. Thirdly, training and development helps in increasing the productivity of the employees that helps the organization further to achieve its long-term success. Fourthly, training and development helps building the positive attitudes, good team spirits, and friendly working environment among the organization. It also helps improving the quality of work and work-life. Last but not least, training and development helps in the organization development. For example, the organization gets more effective decision making and problem solving with dedicated and skilled staff. Training and development helps in developing leadership skills, employee motivation, loya lty, positive attitudes, good perceptions between managers and employees. CONCLUSION Human resource is the most valuable resource to gain and maintain competitive advantage for organizations. From above we know that HRM impacts greatly on organizational performance. There are available tools such as balanced scorecards and benchmarking to measure the effectiveness of HRM. In workplace, unethical issues are inevitable and ethical codes of principles are necessary for every company. Mangers need to make ethical decisions and act on them ethically. Training and further education improves employees skills and abilities therefore enhance the organizations performance greatly.

Mind, Soul, Language in Wittgenstein Essay examples -- Philosophy Phil

Mind, Soul, Language in Wittgenstein ABSTRACT: I show that the latter Wittgenstein's treatment of language and the mind results in a conception of the human subject that goes against the exclusive emphasis on the cognitive that characterizes our modern conception of knowledge and the self. For Wittgenstein, our identification with the cognitive ego is tantamount to a blindness to our own nature — blindness that is entrenched in our present culture. The task of philosophy is thus transformed into a form of cultural therapy that seeks to awaken in us a sensitivity to different modes of awareness than the merely intellectual. Its substance of reflection becomes not only the field of conscious rational thought, but the tension in our nature between reason and vital feeling, that is, between culture and life. It is well known that Wittgenstein is responsible for two great moments in the philosophy of this century; the first initially and incorrectly identified with logical positivism, and the second even now considered as paradigm of Analytic philosophy. Insofar as identifications, both interpretations seem to me to show an imperfect and only partial understanding of Wittgenstein's philosophical motivations, but I do not intend to discuss that point on this opportunity. What is important to our present purposes is that what separates his two great works is his discovery of a kind of intellectual blindness produced by the almost exclusive predominance of one single conception of knowledge or rationality in our culture. The first signs of this philosophical shift are found in Wittgenstein's observations not specifically about language but rather about ritual practices, as they were considered in The Golden Bough. In his opini... ...of devotion their incessant, inevitable and essential tension. Notes (1) "Remarks on The Golden Bough", (OF), p. 58. (2) OF, p. 73; Cf. Lectures and Conversations on Aesthetics, II,  § 39-40, pp. 84-5. (3) OF, p. 78. (4) OF, p. 83. (5) All these attempts announce what Wittgenstein will call our "form of life". (6) Cf. Philosophical Investigations II, iv. (7) This example is derived form Stanley Cavell's discussions in: "Aesthetic Problems of Modern Philosophy" in: Must We Mean What We Say?, Cambridge University Press, 1969. (8) Remarks on the Philosophy of Psychology, v.1,  § 313 (9) Cf. Marcia Cavell: The Psychoanalytic Mind: From Freud to Philosophy, Harvad University Press, Cambridge, 1993, p. 102. (10) Cà ©sar Vallejo, in El arte y la revolucià ³n, Lima, Mosca Azul Editores, 1973, p. 70 (11) Cf. Philosophical Investigations, II, xii

Fault In Romeo and Juliet Essay

In William Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet, one of the main characters, Juliet, commits suicide near the end of the play. Friar Lawrence is directly responsible for the death of Juliet in all ways. He makes not only one, but three mistakes that all lead to Juliet’s death. He gave a poison to Juliet, he trusted someone else with a letter of great significance to deliver to Romeo, and he fled when Juliet was in the most danger at the tomb. Had he not have made these three major terrible mistakes, Juliet might not have killed herself. Friar Lawrence made a major mistake that he could have avoided himself. He trusted Juliet, an unstable teenage girl, with a fake-death poison. This rash decision was a very poor choice on the friar’s behalf. Here, the friar shows his irresponsibility by saying, â€Å"If†¦ thou hast the strength of will to slay thyself†¦ take thou this vial†¦ no warmth, no breath shall testify thou livest;† (4.1.72, 93, 98) Fr iar Lawrence’s idea for Juliet is very risky and he should have known better than to try it. Because of what happens, everyone thinks Juliet is dead and shortly thereafter, she is buried alive. This quote shows the true meaning of responsibility, because when he says this, her life rests in his hands. Capulet is even foiled by the plan, because when he says her faking her death, he said, â€Å"Death lies on her like an untimely frost.† (4.5.28) The fake death has fooled Capulet, Juliet’s father, and the rest of the family. Had Friar Lawrence not have given Juliet the poison, she would have never been put in the position that she was in, which eventually leads to her death. Trusting Friar John to send the letter, and not even telling him that the letter was urgent, was Friar Lawrence’s next big mistake. The mistake of him sending someone else to do it was inexcusable; a matter as important as faking death should be dealt with personally. Had Friar Lawrence have personally delivered the letter, the plan might have gone smoothly. Friar John shows his incompetence in the fifth act when he says â€Å"I could not send it – here it is again -† (5.2.14). Showing Friar Lawrence’s poor decision making again, this quote perfectly shows how Friar Lawrence is responsible for Juliet’s death by choosing to send the letter instead of delivering it. At that, he should not have trusted someone as mediocre as Friar John. â€Å"The letter was not nice but full of charge, of dear import, and the neglecting it may do much danger.† (5.2.18-20) Friar Lawrence trusted a complete buffoon at the most crucial of times and the price was paid for the actions of both friars. Consequently, Juliet dies because Friar Lawrence did not think through that something might arise and a situation this urgent must be dealt with personally. Friar Lawrence could have easily avoided the situation. Cowardice, plain and simple, was also another reason why Friar Lawrence was responsible for Juliet’s death. He runs away when Juliet needs him the most, and in leaving her alone, she kills herself. In the tomb scene, Friar Lawrence attempt’s to help Juliet before running away. â€Å"(Friar Lawrence): Stay not to question, for the Watch is coming. Come go, good Juliet, I dare no longer stay. (Juliet): Go get thee hence, for I will not away.† Friar Lawrence puts himself before Juliet, and worries about getting caught by the watch. He leaves Juliet when she needs him most. Friar Lawrence shows here that he really does not care about Juliet, and that he is very self-centered. He leaves her to kill herself, even though it is entirely his fault that she is even in that situation. Had the friar not have left the tomb, then Juliet might not have had the opportunity to kill herself, as you can see she does in the following quote. â€Å"Yea, noise? Then I’ll be brief. O happy dagger, [taking Romeo’s dagger.] this is thy sheath; [stabs herself.]† (5.3.169) Juliet says these final words before killing herself. We see here what results directly from Friar Lawrence leaving the scene when he should have stayed. Had he stayed, he could have at least attempted to wrench the dagger from her hand, or comforted her until she let go of the knife. Instead of staying to help he chose to run away from the watchmen for his own safety, and because of this final, terrible choice, Juliet ends up dead. Friar Lawrence makes many bad choices throughout the play; choices that are inexcusable. When he made such terrible choices, he inevitably doomed Juliet to her death. His irresponsible choices, trusting Juliet with poison, giving the letter to Friar John, and running away at the tomb, were awful choices. He consistently shows that he is an awful decision maker, and he is entirely responsible for Juliet’s death. One could even say he is more responsible for the death than Juliet herself.

A comparison of Death in Venice and Baron In the Trees essays

A comparison of Death in Venice and Baron In the Trees essays A comparison of Death in Venice by Thomas Mann and Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino Solitary individuals often exploit different views on our world, sometimes accompanied by a disharmonious way of living, as we can see in these two books. The concept of a distant view on life, is applied in both works, be it Gustav von Aschenbachs artistic dilemma in Death in Venice or Cosimos escape from rules and regulations by leaving the natural life on the ground, to live beneath the sky yet above the earth, in Baron in the Trees. What is it then, that drives them? Is it the pursuit of perfection, of utmost beauty? The wish to live independently, free from the humdrum routine of an earthbound existence? Or perhaps they are merely engaging in a quest for romance? Both of the lead characters are different from the rest; both are hermits in their own separate ways, and their views on our world are accordingly diverse. Death in Venice, written by Thomas Mann in 1912, is a symbol-laden story of aestheticism and decadence. Gustav von Aschenbach is an ascetic German author with a sense for discipline and formal perfection in literature, and writes thereafter. Upon travelling to Venice for vacation purposes, he encounters a young boy, named Tadzio. Obviously, this boy is a splendid example of Grecian, almost godlike beauty and innocence. Fascinated by this pulchritudinous being, Aschenbach is willingly engulfed in a whirlpool of decadence, sacrificing his once proud and dignified self in favour of an ever-increasing state of obsession for this boy and degradation of his former person. This infatuation eventually takes his life, when a lethal cholera invades Venice. He has the opportunity to leave, but cannot bring himself to leave what has now become an object of desire. Henceforth, his life ends in the embracement of madness. This novel undoubtedly deals with the role of the artist in society, and houses numerous images...