Waste Essays - Prophets, Tiresias, The Waste Land, Oedipus

Waste Land By Eliot In T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land there are several allusions. The most profound allusion in the poem is relayed through the character of Tiresias. Tiresias is a blind prophet who shows up in several different literary works. In The Waste Land Tiresias is an allusion to Christ. This allusion is best illustrated in section 3 of The Waste Land "The Fire Sermon". The first description involving Tiresias occurs in "The Fire Sermon", "I Tiresias though blind, throbbing between two lives, / Old man with wrinkled female breasts I can see (ll 218-219)." The first impression the reader is given of Tiresias is of a blind man who is old and wrinkled, but able to see things. Tiresias sees many things throughout the poem. According to J.G. Keogh in, O City, O City: Oedipus in The Waste Land, "Tiresias can imagine how things look from what he hears: the clatter of breakfast things, the thudding of tins, the sounds of the typist's young admirer as he gropes his way downstairs in the dark (pg.194)." Tiresias is able to use his other senses to see what is going on around him. He becomes an observer of everything around him. Tiresias is used in the poem as the observer of the typist and her young lover. He sees all of the hurt going on between the characters. Tiresias states that, "And I Tiresias have foresuffered all / Enacted on this same divan or bed (ll.243-244)." Tiresias seems most Christ like at this moment in the poem. According to Steven Helmling in The Grin of Tiresias: humor in the Waste Land, "Tiresias participates in the suffering he sees, like Christ; and he has foresuffered all like Christ (pg.148)." Tiresias sees and feels all that the typist and her lover are going through. God is a common figure throughout the poem The Waste Land. Tiresias is most God like in his emotions towards the lovers. According to Sukhbir Singh in Eliot's The Waste Land, "The Christian doctrine of suffering and sacrifice for others is rooted in the message that the savior delivered to his disciples before the crucifixion (pg.47)." Tiresias shows his suffering for the typist and her lover when he states that he has, "foresuffered all." Tiresias states that, "I who have sat by Thebes below the wall And walked among the lowest of the dead Bestows one final patronizing kiss, And gropes his way, finding the stairs unlit (ll. 245-248)." Tiresias admits that he has seen the suffering of the lovers and he feels great compassion for them but he must leave them to fend for themselves. He only sees the future. He is not able to make them do the right thing he is only able to show them their errors. Thus the reason that he patronizingly kisses them because he can only show them their mistakes. Throughout the poem The Waste Land there are several different allusions. The most complex allusion is that of Christ shown through the character of Tiresias. During the poem Tiresias exhibits many God like qualities. In conclusion Tiresias is used in The Waste Land as a allusion to God by not being able to visibly see the world around him but by emotionally looking at all the things around him.

HSSF Sample Essay

HSSF Sample EssayIf you are considering writing an HSSF sample essay, there are several steps that you will need to follow. You will need to make sure that you choose the right essay from a variety of choices that are available.When looking at a variety of samples, you will want to look for examples of what is written in the same style of writing that you are looking for with an HSSF sample essay. You want to make sure that the essay that you have chosen is going to be easy to read and that it contains no mistakes that may slow down the overall time that it takes to write the essay.The next step that you need to consider when choosing a sample essay for writing is the length of the essay. You want to take a look at how long it is going to take you to finish writing it and then make sure that it fits into your schedule. You also want to make sure that it is short enough that you can finish it in one sitting so that you do not run out of time to complete it.Next you will want to choose an essay that you know will go over a topic that you can easily write about and that will also contain the information that you need to write about. You will want to find an essay that is specific and that you are familiar with so that you can easily explain what you are going to talk about in a few sentences. Do not assume that just because you are familiar with the topic that you are going to write an essay that is going to interest you.Before you begin to write your HSSF sample essay, you will want to review the way that the wordings are going to be used on the paper and what they are going to mean. You will want to check the definition of the word and compare it to what it actually means and see if there is something missing.You will want to look at all of the paragraphs of the essay to see if there is anything that could stand out to you. This includes checking to see if there is a part of the essay that is missing and if the paragraphs read well. You will want to find out how many sentences there are in each paragraph so that you can see how long each paragraph is.Once you have done this review of the paragraphs of the sample essay that you have chosen and then compare it to others that you have seen. You will want to make sure that the sentence is easy to read and that it contains a large amount of information without sacrificing clarity. You may also want to consider making use of a dictionary to help you with your definitions.HSSF allows you to write a number of different essays. There are many different styles that you can choose from and you will want to make sure that you choose the style that you feel is going to work best for you. You will also want to ensure that the style that you choose is going to be easy to read and easy to understand.

Air Force Training Program Essays

Air Force Training Program Essays Air Force Training Program Essay Air Force Training Program Essay An Air Force introductory course in electronics uses a personalized system of instruction whereby each student views a videotaped lecture and then is given a programmed instruction text. The students work with the text until they have completed the training and passed the test. The pace at which the students complete the course varies and the faster students wait until the others complete before the entire group proceeds further. An alternative system, whereby students viewed the same video-taped lecture and then guided by computer-assisted instruction in place of the programmed text, was proposed. It is the goal of the institute to analyze and compare the efficiencies of both the methods and then to determine the most efficient method of training. Statistical analysis was performed to determine the method that had better pace and consistency of completion. From the analysis, it was concluded that the computer-assisted method enabled more students to complete the course together than before but not sooner on an average. Additional data and a more effective method of testing is required in order to predict more accurately the efficient method that can be used as the training program in the future. CASE BACKGROUND An Air Force training institute had conducted a study in order to evaluate efficiency of their proposed computer-assisted training method for the introductory course in electronics. To compare the proposed and the current methods of instruction, an entering class of 122 students was assigned randomly to one of the two groups of 61 students each using either of the methods. The completion time in hours was taken for each student in the study. The objective is to find the difference in the population means of the two training methods; to identify the most effective method of instruction and to make a final decision on the training program to be used in the future. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS As an alternative to the current training method, a new computer-assisted method was proposed. To evaluate the effectiveness of this method, a class of 122 students was assigned randomly to one of the training methods therefore forming two groups of 61 each. The course completion time taken (in hours) by the students, of both the groups were collected. Descriptive summaries for the completion times of both the methods were obtained using MS Excel tool and the measures of central tendency and variability were hence found so that the data could be understood better. This study involves two populations: a population of students using the current training method and a population of students using the proposed computer-assisted training method. In terms of time required to complete the training program, the population means are as follows:  µ1 = the mean course completion time for students using the current training method  µ2 = the mean course completion time for students using the proposed computer-assisted training method The institute hopes to show that the computer-assisted training method will provide a shorter mean course completion time and that the entire group proceeds together with other aspects for the training. Thus, evidence to conclude that  µ2 is less than  µ1; in this case, the difference between the two population means,  µ1  µ2, will be greater than zero. The research hypothesis  µ1  µ2 gt;0 is stated as the alternative hypothesis. Thus, the hypothesis test becomes H0: The computer-assisted training method does not provide smaller population mean course completion time than the current method i. e. ,  µ1  µ2 ? 0 H1: The computer-assisted training method provides smaller population mean course completion time than the current method i. e. ,  µ1  µ2 gt; 0 The level of significance is taken as 5%. The test statistic‘t’ was performed for this case using the paired t-test analysis tool in MS Excel, with hypothesized mean difference as zero and assuming equal variances. The calculated value and critical value, with ? =0. 05, of the test statistic were found and the rejection rule for the right-sided test (reject H0 if zcal gt; z? ) was used to decide about the validity of the null hypothesis. RESULTS AND FINDINGS The measures of central tendency and variability of the completion time taken by the students who used the two methods were determined. The sample means of course completion time for the current and computer-assisted training method were found to be 75. 066 hours and 75. 426 hours respectively. The sample mean completion time for the proposed method was found to be 21. mins more than that for the current method, which shows that the students on an average have slightly taken more time than earlier. The sample standard deviations for the same were determined as 3. 945 and 2. 506, and the co-efficients of variance were 5. 3% and 3. 3%. The pace of completion is seen to be more consistent and less varying for the entire group using the compute r-assisted method. Also, the maximum time taken for this group is lesser than that taken for the current method. According to the rejection rule for the right-sided test, reject H0 if zcal gt; z?. From the hypothesis testing, it was found that the critical value of the test statistic was 1. 658 and the calculated value was -0. 603. Therefore the decision taken is: Do not reject H0, as there is no enough evidence the computer-assisted training method provides smaller population mean course completion time. As the null hypothesis cannot be rejected there is a possibility for the two population means to be equal. CONCLUSION The alternative system of computer–assisted instruction was proposed in order to improve the pace of the course completion by all the students of the program. Using the current programmed instruction text method, the fast students had to wait until the slow students completed the introductory course before the entire group proceeds together with other aspects of training. This gap in the course completion is expected to be rectified by the new computer-assisted method and also to improve the pace of the learning. The hypothesis testing has shown that there is not enough evidence that the computer-assisted training method provides smaller population mean course completion time i. . for the all the students in the program. Therefore, the new method can be helpful for the whole set of students to complete the course more or less together but may not quicken the completion process. More data is required in order to prove that the new method is more efficient in terms of quicker and more consistent pace of completion. The new method may be more effective with the students getting used to the system and hence the test must be performed again aft er a certain time gap for another course perhaps. Another considerable fact is that the two samples are independent, and so the performance level and the learning speed of the students in the two groups are different. This may have an effect on the pace of course completion and hence, it can be suggested that the test be done with the same set of students for both the methods. The introductory course test may be conducted in two phases: the first using the text method and the second with the computer-assisted method, so that the syllabus is different for each test. Additionally, the data of the performance levels and the learning speed of the students may be included and a multiple regression analysis be done in order to determine their influence on the course completion time taken by the students, therefore enabling to analyze the efficiency of the two methods. In this manner, matched samples of same students can be used to identify the most efficient method of training more accurately. REFERENCES: Ken Black. Business Statistics: Contemporary Decision Making, 3rd ed. Thomson Learning, 2001. Anderson, Sweeny and Williams. Statistics for Business and Economics, 9e. Cengage Learning, 2010.

The Rise of China on the Current World Order Essay

The Rise of China on the Current World Order - Essay Example The Rise of China on the Current World Order The fact that a majority of major economic powers hold strong preference for the current world order should not be surprising because of the lessons learnt from the disturbances in the 20th century that shook international politics, causing a rise of new institutional arrangements. As such, even before the end of World War II, there were efforts aimed at creating world constitutional order. America and other industrialised countries have entered into an age where they experience profound transformation since the international economy emerged in the period around the 17th and 18th centuries. The rise of the Asian economy, specifically China, has greatly influenced international affairs. In fact, Lampton (2008) notes that China’s re-emergence as a key world economic and political actor has received much recognition globally. The size of China’s market and its integration into the world economy has been a source of many opportunities and uncertainties at equal measures. There have been concerns regarding its currency, global trade and appetite for energy (Bergsten, Freeman, Lardy & Mitchell, 2008). Furthermore, concerns have been raised with regards to China’s policies on finance, resource management, food security and commodity prices as affecting millions of people outside its boundaries. In fact, Xing compares it to America’s â€Å"erstwhile role† making it an â€Å"indispensable country† (2010, n.p.). Therefore, the rise of China would definitely have a negative impact on the current world order.

Successful Conflict Resolution for Divorced Couples Essay

Successful Conflict Resolution for Divorced Couples - Essay Example At other times, people appear to have rushed into a marriage without properly understanding each other and knowing all the aspects of their spouse's personality. In such a scenario, marriage turns out to be a shock when one comes across the true nature of one's life partner. There is no dearth of cases when the couples tend to have different relational expectations and thus end up having a divorce. However, once a divorce is finalized, the problem does not end here only. The post divorce scenario gives ways to a plethora of conflicts and issues between the couples. The divorce process in itself tends to be a very stressful and trying situation for the involved couples. The entire procedures involves settling and deciding upon a whole range of vital issues like splitting the finances and assets, deciding as to whether the couple intends to go fore a divorce by mutual consent or intends to contest, and above all parenting and kids. Unless both the parties tend to cooperate and resolve their disputes with ample patience and caution, the divorce procedure and the post divorce situation could end up getting real nasty and miserable (Sherman, 2000). Under such circumstances, apt and effective interpersonal communication could play a pivotal role in a successful conflict resolution between the divorced couples. Interpersonal Interpersonal communication stands to be the interactive process that takes place between the two people and this interaction may tend to be face-to-face or may perhaps be mediated by a third party. Apt and conducive interpersonal communications not only plays a central role in most of the successful marriages, but it could also go a long way in settling disputes between the aggrieved couples in a post divorce scenario. Still, the irony is that in most of the divorces, shoddy interpersonal communication tends to be one of the, if not the sole responsible factor. Therefore, how can one expect the divorced couples to negotiate amicably in a post divorce scenarioDivorce can be really less painful if the divorced couples tend to be cognizant of some fundamentals of interpersonal communication. The basic thing to be understood by the divorced spouses is that they simply cannot escape the requisite interpersonal communication, even if they are divorced (King, 2000). Hence, a willingness to communicate tactfully with one's ex could go a long way in settling the post divorce issues, reasonably and amicably. The second thing that the divorced couples must accept is that interpersonal communication is always complex, especially in a divorce scenario (King, 2000). In addition, interpersonal communication always happens to be irreversible (King, 2000). One simply cannot rescind a message, once it is conveyed. Therefore, communication between divorced couples requires patience and a capacity to listen to each other. Above all, interpersonal communications always takes place in a context and never happens in

Love Triangles and Betrayal in Carmen Essay Example for Free

Love Triangles and Betrayal in Carmen Essay The creation of operas from pre-existing literary texts is a complex process implicating the original author, the librettists, the opera directors, the publishers, and the composer. In the process of transformation, the involved parties consider prevailing cultural values as well as their own artistic ideals. These considerations weigh all the more heavily on the process when the literary text involves complex romantic relationships. Georges Bizet’s Carmen (1875), Giuseppe Verdi’s Otello (1887), and Claude Debussy’s Pelleas et Melisande (1902) provide examples of this transformation process. In all three of these works, love triangles figure prominently. These love triangles, though they share some superficial similarities, are extraordinarily different in terms of their composition and the ultimate fate of the characters. Carmen When the directors of the Opera-Comique, a venue with repertoire typically geared towards an extremely conservative, family-oriented, bourgeois audience (McClary, 1992, p. 15-16), commissioned Bizet to write an opera in 1872, Bizet suggested Prosper Merimee’s novel Carmen as a possible subject (Macdonald, 2010). The directors of the Opera-Comique were divided in their support of this work as a subject for an opera. De Leuven, in particular, was against this choice, citing the scandalous nature of the story and the conservative nature of the venue’s target audience as reasons behind his disapproval: â€Å"Carmen! The Carmen of Merimee? Wasn’t she murdered by her lover? At the Opera-Comique, the theatre of families, of wedding parties? You would put the public to flight. No, no, impossible. † (as cited in Jenkins, 2003). Indeed, it appears that the on-stage death was of particular consternation for the director: â€Å"Death on the stage of the Opera-Comique! Such a thing has never been seen! Never! † (as cited in Nowinski, 1970, p. 895). The choice of Carmen ultimately played a role in de Leuven’s resignation from his post in 1874 (McClary, 1992, p. 23). The source text for Carmen is a novella by Prosper Merimee. The author originally published this work in 1845 in the Revue des deux mondes, a non-fiction journal. The author had previously published travelogues in the same journal, and this work contained no indication that it was a work of fiction (Boynton, 2003). Instead, the work reads as a â€Å"true† story of Merimee’s voyage to Spain in 1830. In the midst of his travels, the author-narrator encounters Don Jose, the man who, after succumbing to Carmen’s seductive powers, kills her in a jealous rage following her confession of a love affair with Lucas. The librettists for Carmen, Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halevy, at the time that they were commissioned to write this work for the Opera-Comique had already successfully worked together as a team on a number of works (including Offenbach’s La Belle Helene and La Vie parisienne) for the Parisian boulevard theatres (McClary, 1992, p. 18). In their previous librettos, the team had split the work: Meilhac wrote the prose dialogue, and Halevy supplied the verse (McClary, 1992, p. 18). In operatic settings, the prose would typically be left as spoken dialogue (for the Opera-Comique) or set as recitative. In transforming Merimee’s novella into a libretto, Meilhac and Halevy made numerous changes. Unfortunately, there is a lack of primary source evidence detailing the minutiae of the collaborative process which would shed further light upon the reasons behind these changes (Jenkins, 2003). These changes include minimizing Carmen’s criminal activities, adding the character of Micaela, and eliminating Merimee’s framing device. The removal of Merimee’s framing device (accomplished by not including a narrator) and the introduction of Don Jose before his downfall make Carmen, and not Don Jose, the focus of the story (Jenkins, 2003). Indeed, the Carmen of the libretto, with her voice not being interrupted by the narrator’s commentary, speaks directly to the audience (McClary, 1992, p. 21). Carmen was composed as a four-act opera comique, originally with spoken dialogue (as opposed to recitative). The dialogue was transformed into recitative by Guiraud for a production in Vienna, and it was performed this way for many years before producers reverted to Bizet’s original spoken text (Macdonald, 2010). Further changes to Merimee’s original resulted from Guiraud’s involvement. Meilhac’s original dialogues at times quoted directly from Merimee’s Carmen, and these instances of direct quotation were largely eliminated in Guiraud’s version (McClary, 1992, p. 45). With the addition of Micaela, the librettists created a moralizing character, the polar opposite of Carmen, with whom the Opera-Comique audiences could readily identify (McClary, 1992, p. 21). The addition of Micaela complicates the love triangle. In Merimee’s original, the love triangle included the characters of Carmen, Don Jose, and Lucas. In the operatic version, both Don Jose and Escamillo are in love with Carmen, and both Carmen and Micaela are in love with Don Jose. The librettists also substantially changed Carmen’s character. Though they downplayed Carmen’s involvement in criminal activities (she is no longer the leader of the smugglers as Merimee portrayed her) arguably in order to make her more sympathetic, they focus almost exclusively on her sexuality (to the exclusion of her healing powers and intelligence as presented in the original) (McClary, 1992, p. 22). Bizet’s music underlines the differences in characters and underlines the complex nature of the interlocking love triangles in the opera. Micaela is presented as a sweet, pure, innocent woman. Her entrance is conventional, and her music is marked by neither intense chromaticism nor indications of exoticism (McClary, 1997, p. 120). Carmen’s entrance, in contrast, disrupts the formal procedures Bizet set up from the beginning of the opera, and her music is largely chromatic and marked with features typically associated with the exotic (McClary, 1997, p. 120). Her music, like her body and personality, is irresistible to any man she sets her sights on. Don Jose’s music is different from that of both of his female admirers. His melodic lines are long, irregularly phrased, and lacking in regular cadences (McClary, 1997, p. 124). Additionally, he, unlike Escamillo, lacks a signature melodic line (McClary, 1997, p. 127). McClary points to the incompatibility of Carmen’s and Don Jose’s musical styles as evidence of the ultimate failure of their relationship. In contrast, Carmen’s brief duet with Escamillo in act four seems sincere because their musical styles are compatible (McClary, 1997, p. 125). Ultimately, Don Jose kills Carmen in a fit of jealousy over her relationship with Escamillo, and Micaela is deprived of her true love as he gives himself up to the police following his murder of Carmen. Otello Though the two Shakespeare aficionados Giuseppe Verdi and Arrigo Boito met as early as 1862, it was not until 1879 that the events leading to the composition of Otello were set in motion (Aycock, 1972, p. 594). The four-act Otello received its premiere on February 5, 1887 in Milan. In transforming the play into opera libretto, Boito eliminated six of the fourteen characters and cut the entire first act (Aycock, 1972, p. 595). Boito also cut Othello’s statement of self-defence following his murder of Desdemona from the end of the play (Aycock, 1972, p. 596). This last cut serves to keep the opera’s focus on the tragic love story. This love story principally revolves around the actions of Othello, Desdemona, and Iago. When the opera opens, Desdemona and Othello are newly married. However, Roderigo (Iago’s friend) still loves Desdemona. Iago, upset with Cassio who has been promoted over him, fabricates proof of Desdemona’s infidelity with Cassio in order to play on Othello’s jealous nature. The proof of this infidelity, in both the play and the opera, is a handkerchief. Othello murders Desdemona, and when he learns that his belief in his wife’s infidelity was mistaken, he kills himself. In this story, both Roderigo and Othello are in love with Desdemona. Given Roderigo’s minimal role in the opera, however, Iago takes his place in the dramatic situation of the love triangle. It is his betrayal and deception that leads to the demise of the two main characters. The end of the first act contains a conventional love duet between Othello and Desdemona. As Aycock (1972, p. 595) remarks, the love between these two principal characters is mature and predicated on confidence in each other’s fidelity. The climax of this love duet, on the words â€Å"un bacio†¦Otello! un bacio,† features a new melody in the orchestra. This melody reappears only in the last act, most notably when Othello commits suicide (Lawton, 1978, p. 211). The character of Iago in the opera is much more the creation of Verdi and Boito than of Shakespeare. Iago’s Credo, where he proclaims his devotion to a cruel God and admits that he is unquestionably evil, was entirely the invention of Boito (Aycock, 1972, p. 600). For Verdi, the emphasis on this character allowed him to confirm to Italian operatic tradition, which called for a baritone villain role (Aycock, 1972, p. 601). Pelleas et Melisande Maurice Maeterlinck’s play Pelleas et Melisande received its Parisian premiere at the Theatre des Bouffes-Parisiens on May 17, 1893, and Claude Debussy was in attendance (Grayson, 1985, p. 35, 37). By the fall of the same year, he had already begun composing what would later become Act IV scene 4 (Grayson, 1985, p. 37). In the case of this operatic transformation, there was no librettist acting as a middle-man. Instead, Debussy constructed the libretto himself, from Maeterlinck’s original text. The composer remained true to the original play, changing nary a word. He did, however, cut some scenes, and these cuts were made with the Maeterlinck’s authorization. In November 1893, the composer travelled to Ghent to meet with the author, and the two men discussed several possible cuts. Debussy reported to Ernest Chausson that Maeterlinck had given him â€Å"complete authorization to make cuts and even indicated some which were very important, even very useful† (as cited in Grayson, 1985, p. 37). From Maeterlinck’s original play, there were only four scenes that Debussy did not set: Act I scene 1, Act II scene 4, Act III scene 1, and Act V scene 1 (Grayson, 1985, p. 38). These scenes appear to have been cut because they are unrelated to the central narrative, leading to the demise of both Pelleas and Melisande. While Debussy used Maeterlinck’s original text, he did, in some instances, cut some of the text to make the libretto more concise. Act III scene 3, for example, was cut so heavily so that only one third of the original text remained (Grayson, 1985, p. 40). Two further cuts came in 1902. During Pelleas et Melisande’s first season at the Opera-Comique, Debussy was forced to cut one scene from the performances: Act IV scene 3 (Grayson, 1985, p. 39). This almost purely symbolic scene features Yniold (Golaud’s son from a previous marriage). At the end of the scene, Yniold, wishing to share his experiences with Melisande, unwittingly reveals to Golaud that she is not in her room (Grayson, 2003, p. 76) – in essence, he signals her disloyalty to her husband. The scene was reinserted in its second season. Also, at the dress rehearsal, the Director of Fine Arts, censored the work, calling for the suppression of Act III scene 4, a scene where Yniold is forced, by his violent father, to spy on the suspected lovers (Grayson, 2003, p. 80). Pelleas et Melisande begins with Golaud discovering Melisande by a fountain in a forest. She seems to be lost and confused, and she follows Golaud on his wanderings. The two get married in secret and return to the castle of Golaud’s father. There, Melisande meets Golaud’s brother Pelleas, and these two fall in love. In one scene, Golaud happens upon Pelleas caressing Melisande’s hair streaming out from a tower window, and he realizes that his brother has betrayed him. Golaud, blind with jealousy, kills his brother in Act III. At the end of the opera, Melisande also dies, but not before giving birth to a daughter. The plot, then, revolves around the love triangle of Melisande, Golaud, and Pelleas. The unquestioning inclusion of on-stage deaths demonstrates how much the Opera-Comique had changed since the 1875 premiere of Carmen. From the time of Debussy’s first draft of Act IV scene 4 in the fall of 1893, it took almost a decade for the opera to reach the stage of the Opera-Comique. Debussy worked intensely on the opera in 1895 and completed a short score of the opera in August of that year (Grayson, 2003, p. 78). Though he had a completed opera, he had major difficulties finding a suitable venue for the performance of the work. Albert Carre, the director of the Opera-Comique, accepted Pelleas â€Å"in principal† in 1898, but he did not give Debussy written confirmation of the deal until 1901 (Grayson, 2003, p. 79). Though Debussy was ambivalent about Wagnerian leitmotive techniques, he does employ leitmotivs in Pelleas. While most of these leitmotivs are connected to ideas, each major character has his or her own leitmotiv (Nichols and Smith, 1989, p. 81). Melisande’s motive, for example, is comparatively lyrical, wandering, and typically played by oboes or flutes while Golaud’s motive consists of two notes in alteration with a more pronounced rhythmic emphasis. These motives are typically associated with different harmonic fields. Melisande’s melody is pentatonic but is typically harmonized with a half diminished seventh chord (Nichold and Smith, 1989, p. 91). Golaud’s motive, because of its sparse melodic line consisting of only two notes, is more harmonically flexible. Debussy uses it in a variety of harmonic contexts including whole-tone, dorian, and minor. Comparison of Works These three works present a widely diverse picture of operatic life in late nineteenth century France and Italy. In terms of source texts, there is a novella (Carmen), a play in verse (Otello), and a play in prose (Pelleas et Melisande). In two of the cases (Carmen and Otello), neither the composer nor the librettist knew the author of the original literary work. In the case of Pelleas, the composer had direct contact with the original author and constructed the libretto himself. These three operas were then composed in different forms: an opera comique in versions with both spoken dialogue and sung recitative (Carmen), a hybrid of continuous action with set pieces (Otello), and a largely through-composed work with one aria (Pelleas). In each instance, the transformation process reveals that it was not only the librettist and composer who were involved in the opera’s ultimate form: opera directors, publishers, and censors also had some hand in the final product. One shared trait amongst these three works was the need for the librettist to cut considerable amounts of literary material from the original text. This phenomenon is understandable given that it takes a considerably longer period of time to sing a text rather than say it. In choosing sections of texts to cut, the librettists were faced with the challenge of leaving enough of the narrative design so that it would remain comprehensible to the audience. The composer could then use musical devices to fill in some of the gaps that this missing text created. For example, Bizet could use different musical styles to highlight differences in race and class (McClary, 1997). Similarly, Debussy could use different harmonic languages (whole tone, pentatonic, modal) to indicate subtly differences in the quality of light (Nichols and Smith, 1989). A second shared trait is that two of the composers appear to have made decisions based on operatic convention in their composition of the opera. Bizet’s concession to operatic convention takes the form of the introduction of the character of Micaela, a character absent from Merimee’s original but whose presence, as mentioned above, was deemed necessary to make the work suitable for the conservative Opera-Comique audience. Verdi’s concessions are evident in the finale to Act 3, where he asked Boito to alter the libretto to make room for a traditional grand concertato finale (Parker, 2010) as well as in the changes to Iago’s character mentioned above. A third shared trait is that these three works focus on love triangles, with an act of betrayal or jealousy leading to the deaths of one or more of the principal characters. In Carmen, the primary love triangle revolves around Carmen, Don Jose, and Escamillo. In the end, Carmen dies. In Otello, the love triangle of Othello, Desdemona, and Roderigo has a tragic ending with the death of both Othello and Desdemona. Similarly, the Pelleas-Melisande-Golaud triangle results in the death of two of the characters: Pelleas and Melisande. In each case, the composer highlights one of the romantic relationships as being more viable or more sincere than the others. Bizet, as noted, employs different musical styles for each of the characters, with only Escamillo’s language being compatible with Carmen’s. Verdi wrote a traditional love duet for Othello and Desdemona, the sincerity of which is highlighted with its aforementioned reappearance in the final act. Debussy employs a technique similar to that of Bizet: he has Pelleas and Melisande sing together in octaves in Act IV scene 4). The similarities between the presentations of the love triangles stops with this characteristic, for the relationship dynamics within the central triangles are quite different in these works. In Carmen, the title character is both the primary female love interest and the character responsible for the betrayal. She betrays Don Jose’s love for her, however ill-founded it may be, by confessing her love for Escamillo. In contrast to the other operatic heroines studied here, Carmen is a femme-fatale. In Verdi’s Otello, the love between Othello and Desdemona is sincere, and neither one carries on an affair with someone else. The primary reason behind their deaths is Iago’s treachery. However, Othello does, in a sense, betray Desdemona by believing Iago’s lies. His acknowledgment of this betrayal can be seen in his committing suicide. In Debussy’s Pelleas, the guilty party is less clearly identified. Melisande, though she betrays her marriage by falling in love with Pelleas, is not depicted as a femme fatale. Instead, she is presented as an innocent, idealized woman (Smith, 1981, p. 105). Pelleas betrays his brother by having an affair with his wife. Though Debussy, as mentioned above, sympathizes with their love and highlights the love Pelleas and Melisande have for each other by having them sing together in octaves. It appears that these characters are not to be held accountable for their actions because their love was inevitable, foretold in advance by fate. ? References Aycock, R. E. (1972). Shakespeare, Boito, and Verdi. The Musical Quarterly, 58 (4), 588-604. Boynton, S. (2003) Prosper Merimee’s novella Carmen. New York City Opera Project: Carmen. Retrieved from http://www. columbia. edu/itc/music/NYCO/carmen/merimee. html Grayson, D. (1985). The Libretto of Debussy’s Pelleas et Melisande. Music and Letters, 66 (1), 35-50. Grayson, D. (2003). Debussy on stage. In The Cambridge Companion to Debussy. Ed. Simon Trezise. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 61-83. Jenkins, C. (2003). Carmen: The Librettists. New York City Opera Project: Carmen. Retrieved from http://www. columbia. edu/itc/music/NYCO/carmen/librettists. html Lawton, D. (1978). On the ‘Bacio’ theme in Otello. 19th-Century Music, 1 (3), 211-220. Macdonald, H. (2010). Carmen (ii). Grove Online. Retrieved from http://www. oxfordmusiconline. com/subscriber/article/grove/music/O008315? q=carmensearch=quickpos=22_start=1#firsthit McClary, S. (1992). Georges Bizet, Carmen. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. McClary, S. (1997). Structures of identity and difference in Bizet’s Carmen. In The Work of Opera: Genre, Nationhood, and Sexual Difference. Ed. Richard Dellamora and Daniel Fischlin. New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 115-130. Nichols, R. Smith, R. L. (1989). Claude Debussy, Pelleas et Melisande. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Nowinski, J. (1970). Sense and sound in George Bizet’s Carmen. The French Review, 43 (6), 891-900. Parker, R. (2010). Otello (ii). Grove Music Online. Retrieved from http://www. oxfordmusiconline. com/subscriber/article/grove/music/O003882. Smith, R. L. (1981).

Love Triangles and Betrayal in Carmen Essay Example for Free

Love Triangles and Betrayal in Carmen Essay The creation of operas from pre-existing literary texts is a complex process implicating the original author, the librettists, the opera directors, the publishers, and the composer. In the process of transformation, the involved parties consider prevailing cultural values as well as their own artistic ideals. These considerations weigh all the more heavily on the process when the literary text involves complex romantic relationships. Georges Bizet’s Carmen (1875), Giuseppe Verdi’s Otello (1887), and Claude Debussy’s Pelleas et Melisande (1902) provide examples of this transformation process. In all three of these works, love triangles figure prominently. These love triangles, though they share some superficial similarities, are extraordinarily different in terms of their composition and the ultimate fate of the characters. Carmen When the directors of the Opera-Comique, a venue with repertoire typically geared towards an extremely conservative, family-oriented, bourgeois audience (McClary, 1992, p. 15-16), commissioned Bizet to write an opera in 1872, Bizet suggested Prosper Merimee’s novel Carmen as a possible subject (Macdonald, 2010). The directors of the Opera-Comique were divided in their support of this work as a subject for an opera. De Leuven, in particular, was against this choice, citing the scandalous nature of the story and the conservative nature of the venue’s target audience as reasons behind his disapproval: â€Å"Carmen! The Carmen of Merimee? Wasn’t she murdered by her lover? At the Opera-Comique, the theatre of families, of wedding parties? You would put the public to flight. No, no, impossible. † (as cited in Jenkins, 2003). Indeed, it appears that the on-stage death was of particular consternation for the director: â€Å"Death on the stage of the Opera-Comique! Such a thing has never been seen! Never! † (as cited in Nowinski, 1970, p. 895). The choice of Carmen ultimately played a role in de Leuven’s resignation from his post in 1874 (McClary, 1992, p. 23). The source text for Carmen is a novella by Prosper Merimee. The author originally published this work in 1845 in the Revue des deux mondes, a non-fiction journal. The author had previously published travelogues in the same journal, and this work contained no indication that it was a work of fiction (Boynton, 2003). Instead, the work reads as a â€Å"true† story of Merimee’s voyage to Spain in 1830. In the midst of his travels, the author-narrator encounters Don Jose, the man who, after succumbing to Carmen’s seductive powers, kills her in a jealous rage following her confession of a love affair with Lucas. The librettists for Carmen, Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halevy, at the time that they were commissioned to write this work for the Opera-Comique had already successfully worked together as a team on a number of works (including Offenbach’s La Belle Helene and La Vie parisienne) for the Parisian boulevard theatres (McClary, 1992, p. 18). In their previous librettos, the team had split the work: Meilhac wrote the prose dialogue, and Halevy supplied the verse (McClary, 1992, p. 18). In operatic settings, the prose would typically be left as spoken dialogue (for the Opera-Comique) or set as recitative. In transforming Merimee’s novella into a libretto, Meilhac and Halevy made numerous changes. Unfortunately, there is a lack of primary source evidence detailing the minutiae of the collaborative process which would shed further light upon the reasons behind these changes (Jenkins, 2003). These changes include minimizing Carmen’s criminal activities, adding the character of Micaela, and eliminating Merimee’s framing device. The removal of Merimee’s framing device (accomplished by not including a narrator) and the introduction of Don Jose before his downfall make Carmen, and not Don Jose, the focus of the story (Jenkins, 2003). Indeed, the Carmen of the libretto, with her voice not being interrupted by the narrator’s commentary, speaks directly to the audience (McClary, 1992, p. 21). Carmen was composed as a four-act opera comique, originally with spoken dialogue (as opposed to recitative). The dialogue was transformed into recitative by Guiraud for a production in Vienna, and it was performed this way for many years before producers reverted to Bizet’s original spoken text (Macdonald, 2010). Further changes to Merimee’s original resulted from Guiraud’s involvement. Meilhac’s original dialogues at times quoted directly from Merimee’s Carmen, and these instances of direct quotation were largely eliminated in Guiraud’s version (McClary, 1992, p. 45). With the addition of Micaela, the librettists created a moralizing character, the polar opposite of Carmen, with whom the Opera-Comique audiences could readily identify (McClary, 1992, p. 21). The addition of Micaela complicates the love triangle. In Merimee’s original, the love triangle included the characters of Carmen, Don Jose, and Lucas. In the operatic version, both Don Jose and Escamillo are in love with Carmen, and both Carmen and Micaela are in love with Don Jose. The librettists also substantially changed Carmen’s character. Though they downplayed Carmen’s involvement in criminal activities (she is no longer the leader of the smugglers as Merimee portrayed her) arguably in order to make her more sympathetic, they focus almost exclusively on her sexuality (to the exclusion of her healing powers and intelligence as presented in the original) (McClary, 1992, p. 22). Bizet’s music underlines the differences in characters and underlines the complex nature of the interlocking love triangles in the opera. Micaela is presented as a sweet, pure, innocent woman. Her entrance is conventional, and her music is marked by neither intense chromaticism nor indications of exoticism (McClary, 1997, p. 120). Carmen’s entrance, in contrast, disrupts the formal procedures Bizet set up from the beginning of the opera, and her music is largely chromatic and marked with features typically associated with the exotic (McClary, 1997, p. 120). Her music, like her body and personality, is irresistible to any man she sets her sights on. Don Jose’s music is different from that of both of his female admirers. His melodic lines are long, irregularly phrased, and lacking in regular cadences (McClary, 1997, p. 124). Additionally, he, unlike Escamillo, lacks a signature melodic line (McClary, 1997, p. 127). McClary points to the incompatibility of Carmen’s and Don Jose’s musical styles as evidence of the ultimate failure of their relationship. In contrast, Carmen’s brief duet with Escamillo in act four seems sincere because their musical styles are compatible (McClary, 1997, p. 125). Ultimately, Don Jose kills Carmen in a fit of jealousy over her relationship with Escamillo, and Micaela is deprived of her true love as he gives himself up to the police following his murder of Carmen. Otello Though the two Shakespeare aficionados Giuseppe Verdi and Arrigo Boito met as early as 1862, it was not until 1879 that the events leading to the composition of Otello were set in motion (Aycock, 1972, p. 594). The four-act Otello received its premiere on February 5, 1887 in Milan. In transforming the play into opera libretto, Boito eliminated six of the fourteen characters and cut the entire first act (Aycock, 1972, p. 595). Boito also cut Othello’s statement of self-defence following his murder of Desdemona from the end of the play (Aycock, 1972, p. 596). This last cut serves to keep the opera’s focus on the tragic love story. This love story principally revolves around the actions of Othello, Desdemona, and Iago. When the opera opens, Desdemona and Othello are newly married. However, Roderigo (Iago’s friend) still loves Desdemona. Iago, upset with Cassio who has been promoted over him, fabricates proof of Desdemona’s infidelity with Cassio in order to play on Othello’s jealous nature. The proof of this infidelity, in both the play and the opera, is a handkerchief. Othello murders Desdemona, and when he learns that his belief in his wife’s infidelity was mistaken, he kills himself. In this story, both Roderigo and Othello are in love with Desdemona. Given Roderigo’s minimal role in the opera, however, Iago takes his place in the dramatic situation of the love triangle. It is his betrayal and deception that leads to the demise of the two main characters. The end of the first act contains a conventional love duet between Othello and Desdemona. As Aycock (1972, p. 595) remarks, the love between these two principal characters is mature and predicated on confidence in each other’s fidelity. The climax of this love duet, on the words â€Å"un bacio†¦Otello! un bacio,† features a new melody in the orchestra. This melody reappears only in the last act, most notably when Othello commits suicide (Lawton, 1978, p. 211). The character of Iago in the opera is much more the creation of Verdi and Boito than of Shakespeare. Iago’s Credo, where he proclaims his devotion to a cruel God and admits that he is unquestionably evil, was entirely the invention of Boito (Aycock, 1972, p. 600). For Verdi, the emphasis on this character allowed him to confirm to Italian operatic tradition, which called for a baritone villain role (Aycock, 1972, p. 601). Pelleas et Melisande Maurice Maeterlinck’s play Pelleas et Melisande received its Parisian premiere at the Theatre des Bouffes-Parisiens on May 17, 1893, and Claude Debussy was in attendance (Grayson, 1985, p. 35, 37). By the fall of the same year, he had already begun composing what would later become Act IV scene 4 (Grayson, 1985, p. 37). In the case of this operatic transformation, there was no librettist acting as a middle-man. Instead, Debussy constructed the libretto himself, from Maeterlinck’s original text. The composer remained true to the original play, changing nary a word. He did, however, cut some scenes, and these cuts were made with the Maeterlinck’s authorization. In November 1893, the composer travelled to Ghent to meet with the author, and the two men discussed several possible cuts. Debussy reported to Ernest Chausson that Maeterlinck had given him â€Å"complete authorization to make cuts and even indicated some which were very important, even very useful† (as cited in Grayson, 1985, p. 37). From Maeterlinck’s original play, there were only four scenes that Debussy did not set: Act I scene 1, Act II scene 4, Act III scene 1, and Act V scene 1 (Grayson, 1985, p. 38). These scenes appear to have been cut because they are unrelated to the central narrative, leading to the demise of both Pelleas and Melisande. While Debussy used Maeterlinck’s original text, he did, in some instances, cut some of the text to make the libretto more concise. Act III scene 3, for example, was cut so heavily so that only one third of the original text remained (Grayson, 1985, p. 40). Two further cuts came in 1902. During Pelleas et Melisande’s first season at the Opera-Comique, Debussy was forced to cut one scene from the performances: Act IV scene 3 (Grayson, 1985, p. 39). This almost purely symbolic scene features Yniold (Golaud’s son from a previous marriage). At the end of the scene, Yniold, wishing to share his experiences with Melisande, unwittingly reveals to Golaud that she is not in her room (Grayson, 2003, p. 76) – in essence, he signals her disloyalty to her husband. The scene was reinserted in its second season. Also, at the dress rehearsal, the Director of Fine Arts, censored the work, calling for the suppression of Act III scene 4, a scene where Yniold is forced, by his violent father, to spy on the suspected lovers (Grayson, 2003, p. 80). Pelleas et Melisande begins with Golaud discovering Melisande by a fountain in a forest. She seems to be lost and confused, and she follows Golaud on his wanderings. The two get married in secret and return to the castle of Golaud’s father. There, Melisande meets Golaud’s brother Pelleas, and these two fall in love. In one scene, Golaud happens upon Pelleas caressing Melisande’s hair streaming out from a tower window, and he realizes that his brother has betrayed him. Golaud, blind with jealousy, kills his brother in Act III. At the end of the opera, Melisande also dies, but not before giving birth to a daughter. The plot, then, revolves around the love triangle of Melisande, Golaud, and Pelleas. The unquestioning inclusion of on-stage deaths demonstrates how much the Opera-Comique had changed since the 1875 premiere of Carmen. From the time of Debussy’s first draft of Act IV scene 4 in the fall of 1893, it took almost a decade for the opera to reach the stage of the Opera-Comique. Debussy worked intensely on the opera in 1895 and completed a short score of the opera in August of that year (Grayson, 2003, p. 78). Though he had a completed opera, he had major difficulties finding a suitable venue for the performance of the work. Albert Carre, the director of the Opera-Comique, accepted Pelleas â€Å"in principal† in 1898, but he did not give Debussy written confirmation of the deal until 1901 (Grayson, 2003, p. 79). Though Debussy was ambivalent about Wagnerian leitmotive techniques, he does employ leitmotivs in Pelleas. While most of these leitmotivs are connected to ideas, each major character has his or her own leitmotiv (Nichols and Smith, 1989, p. 81). Melisande’s motive, for example, is comparatively lyrical, wandering, and typically played by oboes or flutes while Golaud’s motive consists of two notes in alteration with a more pronounced rhythmic emphasis. These motives are typically associated with different harmonic fields. Melisande’s melody is pentatonic but is typically harmonized with a half diminished seventh chord (Nichold and Smith, 1989, p. 91). Golaud’s motive, because of its sparse melodic line consisting of only two notes, is more harmonically flexible. Debussy uses it in a variety of harmonic contexts including whole-tone, dorian, and minor. Comparison of Works These three works present a widely diverse picture of operatic life in late nineteenth century France and Italy. In terms of source texts, there is a novella (Carmen), a play in verse (Otello), and a play in prose (Pelleas et Melisande). In two of the cases (Carmen and Otello), neither the composer nor the librettist knew the author of the original literary work. In the case of Pelleas, the composer had direct contact with the original author and constructed the libretto himself. These three operas were then composed in different forms: an opera comique in versions with both spoken dialogue and sung recitative (Carmen), a hybrid of continuous action with set pieces (Otello), and a largely through-composed work with one aria (Pelleas). In each instance, the transformation process reveals that it was not only the librettist and composer who were involved in the opera’s ultimate form: opera directors, publishers, and censors also had some hand in the final product. One shared trait amongst these three works was the need for the librettist to cut considerable amounts of literary material from the original text. This phenomenon is understandable given that it takes a considerably longer period of time to sing a text rather than say it. In choosing sections of texts to cut, the librettists were faced with the challenge of leaving enough of the narrative design so that it would remain comprehensible to the audience. The composer could then use musical devices to fill in some of the gaps that this missing text created. For example, Bizet could use different musical styles to highlight differences in race and class (McClary, 1997). Similarly, Debussy could use different harmonic languages (whole tone, pentatonic, modal) to indicate subtly differences in the quality of light (Nichols and Smith, 1989). A second shared trait is that two of the composers appear to have made decisions based on operatic convention in their composition of the opera. Bizet’s concession to operatic convention takes the form of the introduction of the character of Micaela, a character absent from Merimee’s original but whose presence, as mentioned above, was deemed necessary to make the work suitable for the conservative Opera-Comique audience. Verdi’s concessions are evident in the finale to Act 3, where he asked Boito to alter the libretto to make room for a traditional grand concertato finale (Parker, 2010) as well as in the changes to Iago’s character mentioned above. A third shared trait is that these three works focus on love triangles, with an act of betrayal or jealousy leading to the deaths of one or more of the principal characters. In Carmen, the primary love triangle revolves around Carmen, Don Jose, and Escamillo. In the end, Carmen dies. In Otello, the love triangle of Othello, Desdemona, and Roderigo has a tragic ending with the death of both Othello and Desdemona. Similarly, the Pelleas-Melisande-Golaud triangle results in the death of two of the characters: Pelleas and Melisande. In each case, the composer highlights one of the romantic relationships as being more viable or more sincere than the others. Bizet, as noted, employs different musical styles for each of the characters, with only Escamillo’s language being compatible with Carmen’s. Verdi wrote a traditional love duet for Othello and Desdemona, the sincerity of which is highlighted with its aforementioned reappearance in the final act. Debussy employs a technique similar to that of Bizet: he has Pelleas and Melisande sing together in octaves in Act IV scene 4). The similarities between the presentations of the love triangles stops with this characteristic, for the relationship dynamics within the central triangles are quite different in these works. In Carmen, the title character is both the primary female love interest and the character responsible for the betrayal. She betrays Don Jose’s love for her, however ill-founded it may be, by confessing her love for Escamillo. In contrast to the other operatic heroines studied here, Carmen is a femme-fatale. In Verdi’s Otello, the love between Othello and Desdemona is sincere, and neither one carries on an affair with someone else. The primary reason behind their deaths is Iago’s treachery. However, Othello does, in a sense, betray Desdemona by believing Iago’s lies. His acknowledgment of this betrayal can be seen in his committing suicide. In Debussy’s Pelleas, the guilty party is less clearly identified. Melisande, though she betrays her marriage by falling in love with Pelleas, is not depicted as a femme fatale. Instead, she is presented as an innocent, idealized woman (Smith, 1981, p. 105). Pelleas betrays his brother by having an affair with his wife. Though Debussy, as mentioned above, sympathizes with their love and highlights the love Pelleas and Melisande have for each other by having them sing together in octaves. It appears that these characters are not to be held accountable for their actions because their love was inevitable, foretold in advance by fate. ? References Aycock, R. E. (1972). Shakespeare, Boito, and Verdi. The Musical Quarterly, 58 (4), 588-604. Boynton, S. (2003) Prosper Merimee’s novella Carmen. New York City Opera Project: Carmen. Retrieved from http://www. columbia. edu/itc/music/NYCO/carmen/merimee. html Grayson, D. (1985). The Libretto of Debussy’s Pelleas et Melisande. Music and Letters, 66 (1), 35-50. Grayson, D. (2003). Debussy on stage. In The Cambridge Companion to Debussy. Ed. Simon Trezise. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 61-83. Jenkins, C. (2003). Carmen: The Librettists. New York City Opera Project: Carmen. Retrieved from http://www. columbia. edu/itc/music/NYCO/carmen/librettists. html Lawton, D. (1978). On the ‘Bacio’ theme in Otello. 19th-Century Music, 1 (3), 211-220. Macdonald, H. (2010). Carmen (ii). Grove Online. Retrieved from http://www. oxfordmusiconline. com/subscriber/article/grove/music/O008315? q=carmensearch=quickpos=22_start=1#firsthit McClary, S. (1992). Georges Bizet, Carmen. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. McClary, S. (1997). Structures of identity and difference in Bizet’s Carmen. In The Work of Opera: Genre, Nationhood, and Sexual Difference. Ed. Richard Dellamora and Daniel Fischlin. New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 115-130. Nichols, R. Smith, R. L. (1989). Claude Debussy, Pelleas et Melisande. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Nowinski, J. (1970). Sense and sound in George Bizet’s Carmen. The French Review, 43 (6), 891-900. Parker, R. (2010). Otello (ii). Grove Music Online. Retrieved from http://www. oxfordmusiconline. com/subscriber/article/grove/music/O003882. Smith, R. L. (1981).