Friendship in William Shakespeare's Timon of Athens Research Paper

Friendship in William Shakespeare's Timon of Athens - Research Paper Example The presentation of male friendship in the play has attained serious critical attention and the readers are able to recognize that Timon’s investment in his male friends and his loss of friends symbolized by his vanished gold are central to the ideas of friendship in the Renaissance. It is fundamental to maintain that gold in the play is the essential instrument of ‘friendship’ and it takes the place of the phallus, which is not only the phallus as absence, castration, or fear of feminine, and maternal power. As Karen Newman maintains, â€Å"Timon of Athens’s world of male/male love and passionate friendship speaks through Plutarch and the ‘wild’ figure of Alcibiages, whose relation with Timon and his phallic, golden gifts adumbrates another view of Jacobean gift giving.† (Newman, 387) This paper undertakes a reflective exploration of the conventions of friendship in William Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens in relation to the ideas o f friendship in the Renaissance in order to demonstrate how the conventions of friendship in the play are connected with Renaissance ideas of friendship.One of the major concerns of the studies in Renaissance literature has been to investigate the link between the conventions of friendship in the literary works and ideas of friendship in Renaissance. William Shakespeare is a dramatist who has dealt extensively with the conventions of friendship all through his literary career, by means of his sonnets, long poems, comedies, tragedies, romances, and histories. Significantly, the theme of friendship has been a central concern of the playwright and his famous works personify the theme of friendship through the friendship of Hamlet and Horatio in Hamlet, Rosalind and Celia in As You Like It, and Hal and Falstaff in the Henry IV plays. Therefore, it is an indisputable fact that Shakespeare’s plays deal with the theme of friendship and it is substantiated by his iconographic represe ntation of false friendship in his late tragedy The Life of Timon of Athens. One of the most essential aspects of the concept of friendship as presented in this play is that Shakespeare presents it in contrast to the existing ideas of friendship in the Renaissance. As Graham Hammill observes, â€Å"While humanist models of male friendship emphasize the equality of friendships and the permanence of the bonds between them, early modern English drama stages friendship as exactly the opposite.† (Hammill, 924) Therefore, it is fundamental to comprehend that Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens provides a contrasting idea of friendship to the prevalent conventions of friendship during the Renaissance. One of the distinguishing features of the representation of friendship in Shakespearean plays, especially Timon of Athens, is the fact that they reflect the general method in Renaissance literature to represent friendship (frequently between males) in opposition to love and heterosexu al union in marriage. Timon of Athens is a play which deals exclusively with the theme of

Crafting and Executing Strategy Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Crafting and Executing Strategy - Research Paper Example In other words, strategic planning is a tool that defines the routes that businesses will take in the effort to get from the current position to where owners want it to go. In fact, it is argued that strategic planning is a procedure that fulfils the mission and vision of a company (Andersen, 2004). In order to be effective, strategic plan considers the internal and external environment surrounding the business. In this regard, it is true to argue that as a company grows and intends to achieve its strategic goals, the need for strategic planning becomes greater (Goodstein, Nolan & Pfeiffer, 1993). However, strategic planning does not just become effective without considering some factors. It is necessary for all stakeholders in the organization to clearly understand the direction and mission of the organization. Nevertheless, the mission and direction of the business should go hand in hand with market changes, which call for a business to strategically prepare for different market se gments. In regard to Fed-EX Corp as a key player in the logistics industry, strategic planning would lead to more cost reduction as well as maintaining best prices (Long, 2004). It can also be argued that strategic planning in logistics business can act as a roadmap for economic and operational success. Additionally, strategic planning would act as a facilitator of efficient, flow of goods and information from company’s premise to consumption points (Moradi, 2012). This has an advantage of conforming to customers’ needs and satisfaction. Mission statement â€Å"Fed-EX Corp offers top quality logistic solutions to our customers based on expertise. Customers prefer our services based on quality and reliability† A company can not operate without a mission statement and expect to go far. A mission statement is vital in ensuring the success of a business. It not only set targets for businesses to attain its financial goals, but also enables businesses to build their corporate brand as they win the loyalty of customers through the provision of quality products and services (Goodstein, Nolan & Pfeiffer, 1993). For example, Fed-EX Corp mission statement would act as a corporate vision drive, motivate, unify and excite business into superior performance (Long, 2004). In order to offer top quality solutions to its customers, Fed-EX Corp would be motivated to work extra hard and work in unity in order to keep the fire burning. In fact, a mission statement provides a lighthouse that a company can look at whenever it looses track of itself. This is true because when a company looses sight, a mission statement can be referred to provide an insight of the company’s core competencies. In logistics business, Rushton, (2010) argued that a mission statement can facilitate greater returns on investment. Additionally, a measure of return on equity is argued to be more than double in companies that have written mission statement. Although it is hard to i ndicate the part of mission statement that brings success to a company, a combination of parts of a the mission statement can help a company prosper in different ways. For example, the statement should clearly establish the line of business the company is engaged in. This helps the company focus its efforts towards succeeding in that line of business. Vision statement â€Å"To build greater global logistic solutions through quality, integrity and profitability†