Business document comparisons Essay Example for Free

Business document comparisons Essay Document name Public council letter Thank you letter for participating in a marathon for a charity Purpose of the document To inform a member of the community to put a halt to the constant barking of their dog between certain times of the night To congratulate a member who took part in the run of a marathon for charity and thank him/her for His/her efforts in participation. Also inform the participant of his/her position in the competition. Target audience Specified house owner ages 18+ Specified participant in competition. Writing style and tone. Formal language but written so that the matter is taking seriously with no use of passive language i. e. please can you stop that dog barking, but dont worry if you cant do it straight away because this takes a sense of seriousness away from the letter. A congratulating and formal passage of writing. Specified to respect the recipient and his/her efforts. Presentation style This document is not set out to attract or catch the eyes of people; it is purely to present the recipient with the purpose/problem. So a variety of colours and shades are not used as there is no reason to. This document is based as a certificate with a letter. As it was produced to congratulate someones achievement. it has lots of colours and images on the topic of sport. Layout Logo. Address of recipient and councils address. Text (the main point/purpose of the document). Signature from person who wrote the letter. Logo. Address of recipient and councils address. Text (the main point/purpose of the document). Signature from person who wrote the letter. Accuracy, clarity and consistency The letter was made for its purpose; the letter goes straight to the point and does need anything else. The writing is specific and formal, with no spelling mistakes. It is also sticking to specifics and with formal language. It is more recipient friendly, what I mean by this is that the language is congratulatory towards the person and is of less urgency, in the way that something has been done wrong and needs to be acted on. What I would improve I dont think there is any improvement needed on this invoice, it has said what it has needed to and given the appropriate details for the recipient This is a good letter but I think there is an area of improvement for the presentation style. Dean smith 11k Letter comparison Dean smith 11k Letter comparison.

Demand And Supply Of Houses And Apartments Economics Essay

Demand And Supply Of Houses And Apartments Economics Essay By considering the factors that affect the demand and supply of houses and apartments explain what has led to the changes in the prices of houses and apartments in the UK over the last three years. What would affect the sizes of different elasticities of demand for houses? Introduction The past couple of years have seen dramatic fluctuations in the demand and supply of houses. It has been observed that movement in house prices is a balance of the quantity demanded and supplied. In this essay, we first look into the factors that affected the prices of houses in UK in the past three years. Then, we will discuss factors that affect the sizes of elasticities of demand of houses. Factors affecting demand of houses The table below shows the various factors that affect demand of houses. Table 1: Factors affecting demand of houses. S. no. Factor Trend Reason Change in the demand curve 1. Affordability As affordability of houses increases, demand for houses increases and vice versa. Because when the price of houses goes down more people can afford to buy houses. Movement along the demand curve. FIG. 1 2. Disposable Income As the disposable income of the people increase the demand for houses increases and vice versa. People tend to buy houses when they have sufficient disposable income with them so that their weekly budget is not affected significantly. Shift in the demand curve. FIG. 2 3. Economic Trends If the economy is booming, then there is a net increase in demand for houses. Similarly, in case of a recession, the demand for houses decreases. A booming economy means a good overall health of the economy which translates into greater demand of all goods. Shift in the demand curve. FIG. 2 4. Supply of substitutes If the supply of substitutes such as rented accommodation decreases, then there is a net increase in demand for houses and vice versa. If the supply of rented accommodation is less, then there is an increase in the price of rented apartments. Therefore, in the long run people find that it is cheaper to buy houses than to live in a rented accommodation. Hence, then they will tend to purchase a house. Thereby, increasing the net demand for houses. Shift in the demand curve. FIG. 2 5. Availability of mortgage finance If the mortgage finance is easily available then this results in a net increase in demand and vice versa. This is because it is easier for people to arrange for money to finance their houses. Shift in the demand curve. FIG. 2 6. Interest rates If the interest rates are high, then there is a net decrease in demand and vice versa. This is because at higher interests rates people will have to shell out more money to repay their loan. As people have a fixed monthly income, a higher interest rate would mean that the loan instalment would form a higher portion of their monthly income. Thereby, decreasing the demand for houses. Shift in the demand curve. FIG. 2 7. Consumer confidence As consumer confidence in the housing market increases, the demand for houses increases and vice versa. If prices of houses are expected to rises then consumers think it is profitable to enter the market. However, if the prices fall or remain static then consumers find no urgency to enter the market. Shift in the demand curve. FIG. 2 8. Demographic factors As increase in immigration, number of divorces, life expectancy, results in an increase in demand for houses. An increase in immigration, number of divorces, life expectancy will result in more people needing independent houses. Shift in the demand curve. FIG. 2 9. Inherited wealth An increase in number of people inheriting a huge wealth would result in an increase in demand of houses. Because these people have more money to spend on luxury products, such as houses. Shift in the demand curve. FIG. 2 10. Tax benefits If people receive greater tax benefits by buying houses, then this would result in a net increase in demand for houses. This is because people prefer to use their hard earned money on themselves rather than paying it to the government. Shift in the demand curve. FIG. 2 Source: Nationwide, Besanko et. al 2007 FIG. 2: Shifting of the demand curve. D D Price P1 Q2 Q1 D D Quantity FIG. 1: Movement along the demand curve. Price P1 P2 Q2 Q1 D D Quantity Factors affecting the supply of houses The table below shows the various factors that affect the supply of houses. Table 2: Factors affecting supply of houses S no. Factors Trend Reason Change in supply curve 1. Price If the price of houses increases then there is an increase in supply of houses and vice versa. Because sellers can then sell houses at higher rates thus making more profit. Movement along the supply curve. 2. Cost of building a house If the cost of building a house increases then there is a net decrease in supply of houses and vice versa. As this would mean a larger initial investment for the builder. Shift in the supply curve. 3. Government regulations If government regulations are inclined towards building/selling of houses then there is a net increase in supply of houses and vice versa. This would mean lower costs from the perspective of a builder/seller, which would result in more building/selling of houses. Shift in the supply curve. Source: Nationwide, Besanko et. al 2007 FIG. 1: Movement along the Supply curve. Price P1 P2 Q2 Q1 S S Quantity FIG. 2: Showing shifting of the supply curve. S S Price P1 Q2 Q1 S S Quantity Factors that have led to changes in the prices of house in UK over the last 3 years Source: Nationwide FIG. 5: Average house rates in UK from 2008 to 2010 During the first half of 2008 there was a 5.1% drop in house prices. With the financial crisis and a looming economic recession this price fall was expected. This was evident from the clear change in the consumers housing market sentiments, with people being more reluctant to buy houses. It should be noted that there is a direct relationship between the demand of houses and the confidence consumers have in the market (See table 1). In addition, factors such as high mortgage rates, tighter lending criteria, and higher interest rates affected the house prices in early 2008. The fall in demand from the buyers was also due to the rise in unemployment and associated job insecurity. Further, the problems in the credit market led to tighter lending conditions which made it difficult to obtain loans at higher loan-to-value ratios. However, these strict rules were predicted to lead to a more stable housing market. FIG. 6: Consumer House Price Expectations and House Purchase Approvals An anomaly in this trend was the slight increase in the prices in June and July 2008. This was probably because the suppliers had responded to price decline by reducing the supply of property. The reduced supply combined with an increased demand from potential buyers, who had been priced out previously, translated into a slight price rise of houses. In addition, the slight increase in prices was because of latent demand for houses. Earlier, due to the banking crisis there was reluctance among buyers to purchase houses. However, once the buyers saw that the government was taking corrective actions to stabilize the banking system, they re-entered the market along with the added assistance of low interest rates. (Nationwide, 2008) However, this was a mere aberration and between August 2008 and March 2009 the house prices fell by 10.1% due to the overall lack of consumer confidence in the economic and market conditions. In addition, there was an additional supply of houses from homeowners, whose financial positions were impacted by higher unemployment and lower income levels. FIG. 7: UK GDP and House Price Growth between 1985 and 2007 With UK slipping into recession, even drastic cuts in interest rates didnt help in increasing the demand for houses. The reduced access to credit resulting from the financial crises catalysed the fall in prices. Then, a combination of initial fall in prices, widespread news of financial turbulence, and slowdown in the real economy prompted consumers to expect further price falls. As consumers expectations turned negative, the incentive to enter the market reduced and this led to a sharp price fall. (Nationwide 2008, 2009) Then in June 2009, the low interest rates and extension of stamp duty holidays were welcomed by borrowers as they reduced the costs of already high priced housing market. Further, notwithstanding the economic downturn, there was a notable shift in house price expectation from negative to positive. These two factors resulted in increasing the demand for houses and thus increasing the price of houses. (Guardian 2009, Nationwide 2009) The second half of 2009 was marked by rebound in house prices. This was contributed by the better than expected performance of the labour market. Even though workers were forced from full-time to part-time work resulting in a reduction in income, the impact was less severe than if they had lost their jobs completely. In addition, reduction in mortgage rates meant that fewer borrowers had fallen into arrears than expected. This led to lesser number of second-hand properties being on sale and thus stabilizing the housing markets. (Nationwide 2009) The first half of 2010 also saw a 4.1% rise in prices of houses. An important factor of price rise during this period was the low level of stock for sale as many homeowners and buy-to-let landlords preferred to wait for prices to rise. And this approach was supported by the very low levels of interest rates. As a result, many potential sellers could easily afford to wait for prices to recover further before they decided to sell. Between July and October, there was a fall in the prices of houses. The impact of increasing capital gains tax from 18% to 28% was seen in the housing market, with many second homeowners choosing to sell them in response to the tax increase. Further, the spending cuts by the new government had clearly put a pressure on the disposable incomes of households. As a result there was a decrease in the prices of houses during this period. (Nationwide 2010) Factors that affect the sizes of different elasticities of demand for houses The responsiveness of the quantity of houses demanded to the change in prices, income, price of other goods, etc. is measured by the corresponding elasticities, i.e., Price elasticity of demand of houses, Income elasticity of demand of houses, or Cross prices elasticity of demand of houses. Factors that affect the sizes of different elasticities are as follows: Availability of substitutes: It is observed that more the number of substitutes, more elastic the demand will be. If the availability of rented accommodations is high, then a slight price rise will result in a large change in demand for houses because people will prefer to live in a rented apartment than to buy a house. Therefore, making the demand for houses elastic. On the other hand, if availability of rented accommodations is low, then even a large change in price would not affect the demand because everyone needs a place to live. Therefore, the demand for houses will be inelastic. Importance of the good in the consumers budget: Expenditure on housing, according to R.K. Wilkinson (1973), is an outcome of three sets of influences on the consumer, i.e., their needs, their aspirations, and their ability to realize their needs and aspirations. The latter is measured by the consumers income and the two former qualify the way in which income and changes in income affects housing expenditure. If there is a need for a house and consumers have the ability to realize that need, then the demand of houses would be inelastic. In contrast, if there is no real need and an aspiration to buy a (bigger) house combined with no real income to realize that aspiration, then the demand for houses will be highly elastic. Time: It was observed by Hanushek and Quigley (1980) that the demand for houses is elastic in the short-run. However, in the long-run the demand tended to be inelastic. This was because higher prices dissuade buyers to buy houses in the short-run. However, in the long-run he may realize that the price of houses will rise and thus he finds it better to buy a house. Conclusion In this essay we determined the factors that affected the prices of houses in UK during the last three years and the various factors that affect the elasticities of demand of houses. Based on the above discussion, I think consumer expectation of house prices is one of the most important drivers of prices in the short-run. As for the long-run, the drivers of house prices are the economic conditions, the fiscal policies, and supply of houses.

The Globalization Of Youth Culture Cultural Studies Essay

The Globalization Of Youth Culture Cultural Studies Essay In their article The Glocalization of Youth Culture: The Global Youth Segment as Structures of Common Difference, Kjeldgaard and Askegaard provide an analysis of global youth cultural consumption based on an empirical study. In our modern life, global teens play an important part in the global culture, and the teenage culture on a global scale reflects a youthful lifestyle and affects the constitution of global culture (Kjeldgaard and Askegaard, 2006). Hence, Kjeldgaard and Askegaards research has a special significance for us to know more about the global youth cultural consumption. From the article the fact can be also found that the young value changes and leads the future trend and fashion. Through the analysis of the global youth segment which may have common difference, readers can have a clear understanding of youth culture. In the article The Production and Consumption of Japanese Culture in The Global Culture Market, the author demonstrates an explicit process of the production and consumption of culture, and presents the fact that Japanese culture crosses national borders and has profoundly influenced the global culture. In the process of economic globalization, local culture crosses boundary and penetrates into other nations. This process can be called cultural globalization (Golstein-Gidoni, 2005). In this article, culture is presented in front of different people as a product, which is an approach for readers to understand the process of culture transfer in globalization. The author focuses on Japanese culture as a global cultural production to explain the global culture market. Meanwhile, both of the two articles demonstrate the fact that in globalization, culture has significant impact on peoples contemporary way of life. The essay will comment the two articles from the following four aspects: th e first one is about material culture and consumerism shaping peoples contemporary way of life; the second one is on cultural and social representations reproduction; the third one mainly analyzes the production and construction of identities through consumer society and global cultural industry; the last one discusses the social ramification of culture industry by addressing the relationship between the consumer and the marketplace. 2, Critical Review Material culture and consumption have a close relationship in the modern world. Due to the special relationship, they affect and shape the modern lifestyle. In the first article, the author shows readers different cultures of young people by comparing the differences of young consumers in Denmark and Greenland. Yong people establish their own culture, and they pursue fashion and have their own values. Young culture affects the lifestyle of young people. Young people advocate fast-paced life and pursue their own lifestyles, because they are deeply affected by the young culture (Abrams, 1959). Although young cultures in the world have some differences, they also have some common grounds that have an impact on young people and shape the lifestyle of young people. In the second article, readers can know more about the Japanese cultures influence on the contemporary way of life. Consumer culture is a culture of life after all. The Japanese lifestyle is different from other countries by th e affect of Japanese culture. Every country has their own culture, which can distinguish them from the other people. Duo to the differences of culture, people may have different lifestyles. Different social representations create different culture of their own, and different culture can also form different social representations. Young people form their own culture. à £Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ Coolà £Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¾ is popular with young people, and they regard the cool as a fashion. Nowadays, à £Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ Coolà £Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¾ culture has become the popular culture between young people. Culture shapes gender, tribal, and ethnic identities as a form of consumption. On the one hand, they have their own music tastes, clothing styles, and media habits, which distinguish them from the other people. On the other hand, young have become a social category, which has been closely related to the development of modernization. Young culture represents the young people, and young people develop the young culture. Japanese culture crosses national borders, which leave a deep impression on the people of other countries (Featherstone, 1990). Because Japanese form a unique culture of their own country , Japanese culture can differ from culture of other countries. Gravity and enthusiasm are often read in the Japanese culture, and they have become the special symbols of Japanese. Consumer society and global cultural industry affect the identities of different people. People share the different culture and they have different consumption in their daily life. Consumer society supplies a positive and fast-paced environment for the young people, and young people have become a social category by the effect of consumer society and global cultural industry (Thomas, 1997). The model of young people gain cultural significance in the early of this century, and the young consumers are lack of responsibilities. As a result, the teenage identity become inevitable a symbol of leisure and hedonic consumption. In the context of cultural globalization, Japan has generated its own Japanese culture, which makes Japanese people different from people of other countries. Japanese culture has given Japanese people special identities that belong to their own. Since post-World War II, young people have been seen as a huge market segment and the new mass popular culture, so more and more social ramifications of culture industry are created by the market segmentation. Marketing industry begins to tap into young by the driving of this cultural viewpoint. As a result, some new sunrise industries enter the market and carry out the strategy of market segmentation. Culture industry can generate all kinds of social ramifications, and young culture is no exception. Japanese culture develops into a special culture industry by the strategy of exporting and importing (Theodore, 1989). In the long process of development, representations of Japanese culture are becoming more and more, such as Japanese art, martial arts, ink painting, tea ceremony, and some of them have become new industries by addressing the relationship between the consumer and the marketplace. 3, conclusion From the two articles some key themes can be found that on the one hand, material culture and consumerism shape contemporary way of life, and culture has a lot to do with the lifestyle of people. On the other hand, material culture such as young culture and Japanese culture can also produce different industries, which are all in the context of cultural globalization. Culture distinguishes people from other people. In the process of cultural globalization, people should resist the invasion of unhealthy culture and study excellent culture, in order to achieve their own development.

The Real World Of Technology B Essay -- essays research papers fc

In her book, The Real World of Technology (1999), Ursula M. Franklin argues that technology has a disruptive effect on humanity. If left-unchecked technology will eventually destroy society as we know it. Franklin illustrates her point by focusing on the effects technology has had on society and cultures in the past. She uses examples from China before the Common Era to the Roman Empire, with a majority of examples coming form the last one hundred and fifty years. Such as the Industrial Revolution and the invention of electronic mail. Franklin contends that for society's sake, people must question everything before accepting new technologies into their world. In the book, Franklin's argument urges people to come together and participate in public reviews and discuss or question technological practices that lead to a world that is designed for technology and not for society. The Real World Of Technology attempts to show how society is affected by every new invention that comes onto th e market and supposedly makes life more easy going and hassle free while making work more productive and profitable. The lectures argue that 'technology has built the house in which we live'; (Franklin, p.1) and that this house is continually changing and being renovated. There is very little human activity outside of the house, and all in habitants are affected by the 'design of the house, by the division of its space, by the location of its doors and walls.'; (p.1). Franklin claims that; rarely does society step outside of the house to live, when compared with generations past. The goal for leaving the house is not to enter the natural environment, because in Franklin's terms 'environment essentially means what is around us… that constructed, manufactured, built environment that is the day-in-day-out [sic] setting of much of the contemporary world of technology.'; (p.89). Nature today is seen as a construct instead of as a 'force or entity with its own dynamics.'; (p.85). Th e book claims that society vies nature the same way as society views infrastructure as 'something that is there to accommodate us, to facilitate or be part of our lives, subject to our planning.'; (p.85). Franklin writes in-depth about infrastructure and especially technological infrastructure. She claims that since the Industrial Revolution, corporations as well as governments using public funds... ... to realize that the influx of technology and society's greater dependence of it may just be another step of evolution. Just as humans grew out of the ape and the hammer out of the twig, so to may the children and their tools of tomorrow grow to become something greater than even we can imagine. The Real World of Technology presents a lot of relevant issues with today's world. The points made about the environment illuminate a serious problem and the use of Franklin's redemptive technologies are what is needed if there will be any correcting of the damage done. While The Real World of Technology provides useful insights into technology's past and the role it has had on shaping our current way of being. The glimpses into the future are less useful. Franklin can not help but have a biased view of the world to come because she only has the world that she has lived in to use as a comparison and model. The society of the future however, cannot and should not be used to make comparison s, for it will be a society like no other-one that the people of today could not even imagine. Works Cited Franklin, Ursula M. The Real World of Technology. Toronto: House of Anansi Press Limited, 1999 ed.

The Three Musketeers :: essays research papers

D’Artagnan goes to France to become a Musketeer. But on his way he gets into a fight with a tall ,dark haired nobleman with a scar on his right cheek. He sees the man talking to a woman named Milady de Winter. D’Artagnan finally finds the captain of the musketeers Monsieur de Treville. D’Artagnan sees the man that defeated him and runs after him. But on his way he runs over wounded Athos and he also runs into Porthos. He ran through the street but could not find the man. Athos gets mad and challenges D’Artagnan to a duel. But when they were about to fight five Cardinal Guards attack them, and D’Artagnan is rewarded for his bravery. One day his landlord comes to him with a favor and he excepts it because he has not paid his bill for three months rent. Constance Bonacieux was kidnapped. While he is telling his friends the whole story he hears his landlord yelling because he was being arrested. But they do not save him for if they get arrested then they will not be able to rescue him. At night he heard someone crying. He looked through the hole on the floor of his apartment, and saw the guards tying up a young woman. He brakes the door and scares the guards away. She thanks him and they fall in love .He then guides her safely to the palace where she is a maid for the Queen of France. But a man comes beside her and D’Artagnan is about to fight him but she stops them and tells D’Artagnan that it is only the Duke of Buckingham and that he has come to meet the Queen. The Queen tells him to leave because he might be in danger .He asks her to give him something to remember her by ,so she gives him a ribbon with twelve diamonds on it. She didn’t know but on of her maids were spying on her, the maid immediately reported it to Richelieu. Richelieu told the King to schedule a ball in ten days in the Queens’ honor. He told Milady de Winter to steal two of the diamonds from the ribbon to show the King that his Queen gave it to another man. Constance asks D’Artagnan to tell the Duke about the ribbon, and the Queens’ danger. The Duke gets someone to make a pair that looks just the same so he can get the Queen out of great danger.

HMS Bounty Essay -- essays research papers

HMS Bounty The HMS Bounty set sail in 1789. Captain William Bligh and his many crewmembers ran the ship. There was an upset between the crew and the Captain. Even though the men violated the â€Å"Articles of War† it was justifiable that they should not be punished.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Crew of Captain Bligh, under penalty of law and the Captain, had no right to commit mutiny and remove the Captain from the ship. The â€Å"Articles of War† clearly state that if any crewmember conceals any traitorous practice or design shall suffer death or any other punishment as a court martial shall think fit. That is exactly what Captain Bligh’s crew took upon themselves. The crew had no reason to blame him for the rations of water because he was doing it to keep the breadfruit alive which was the whole reason for the mission. Indubitably the crews actions were unlawful. The Captain of the HMS Bounty was William Bligh. He was very strict in his actions and in his punishment. He followed the â€Å"Articles of War† like the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church followed the Bible. When they were in port the Captain was very courteous and polite to everyone on the ship. He treated everyone equally and didn’t abuse his rank. That soon changed as the ship set out for the open seas and Tahiti.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The crew started to challenge the Captain and he punished each person that defied him. Many of his actions were unjustifiable and should in turn be pu...

William Shakespeare’s Hamlet Essay

The tone of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is set by the theme of madness and deception. The death of Hamlet’s father and the appearance of his ghost to his son sets into motion a series of events that end in leads to the near total destruction of the Danish court. No one proves to be safe from the pervasive nature of their own guilt, real or imagine, as the character’s fall victim to Hamlet’s madness and the king’s deception. Revenge and fear, in particular, play central roles in the eventual conclusions of the play, as it provides a vehicle for the concepts of madness and deceit, as well as the bloody and darkening shadow that falls upon Denmark itself. Even before he sees his father’s ghost among the castle walls, the seeds of suspicion and disgust have already grown to fruition within Hamlet’s mind. All that is needed to touch off this dark depression into full-blown action is a spark. This spark comes in the form of the deceased king, who gives voice to his son’s suspicions. It’s interesting, given the full blown form that Hamlet’s madness later takes, to consider that the conversation between father and ghost may have been a delusion. Though it’s hard to write off the apparition itself as false, since it is the guards who first see the ghost walking silently, the conversation between father and son is private and serves to provide justification for Hamlet’s later actions. In this way, it’s possible that this conversation was simply the beginning point for Hamlet’s growing insanity. From this first act, the other events fall in quick succession as though predicted. Death becomes a central almost fated result of the lethal mixture of Hamlet’s growing insanity and the guilt of the king There is a fine line between Hamlet’s realities and his delusions, as shown in the truth of his uncle’s deceit. It’s important that the tragedy of Hamlet begins and ends with death, providing a full-circle to the King’s murder of his brother and Hamlet’s own revenue and death. This is due in part to the larger significance of death both as an ending and a beginning. The tragedy of Hamlet itself begins and ends with death while the dead themselves provide witnesses. It’s important to note that even as the death should be released by the chain of events, they are not allowed to truly rest. From Hamlet’s father the king, to Ophelia’s drowned memory, they are allowed little reprieve. Instead their deaths act as cataclysms for more tragedy and death. It is Ophelia and Polonius’s deaths that cause Laertes to meet his death at the end of Hamlet’s poison-tipped blade. Connected to the idea of revenge, the dead are fuel to the fire and darkness that seep into the minds and actions of all involved. Given the heavy presence of death, it is no wonder that the images of darkness and the adjective â€Å"black† is repeated throughout the book. It seems to be almost an eternal night in Hamlet’s Denmark. There is no comfort. There is no hope, only sadness and death. Revenge, madness, and pride are connected in Hamlet through their common dark designs and darker endings. The need for revenge, which is bred from Hamlet’s encounter with his father’s ghost and eventually drives his madness, is not justice. This revenge is part duty, part self-preservation. Hamlet is lost in his new role in his family, with his mother’s marriage to his uncle and the usurpation of the crown from Hamlet’s own head. In taking action against his uncle, Hamlet is defending the honor of his family and attempting to reclaim his own self which has been lost (I. iv. ll. 21). With the new developments, Denmark itself has become a prison (II. ii. ll. 241), and he is a prisoner to the awareness of his position and the growing need to exact revenge. It is important to make the distinction between the two, revenge and justice. Hamlet is seeking to right the wrong of his father’s death, at first through revelation but then when this fails through violence. There is not the sense that Hamlet expects to escape his own death in the process of exacting revenge but at the same time there is the maddened sense of invincibility about him. He hopes to regain part of himself in destroying his uncle, however, he is already lost to his own fear and insanity. The concept of blood is important throughout the play, both in literal form in showing the brutality of Hamlet’s actions, and as representative of family. The physical presnece of blood is seen throughout the play in the deaths of even those who do end in bloodshed, like Ophelia;. The final scene in Act V is the bloodiest, with the deaths of Laertes and Hamlet, the wounding of the King, and the poisoning of the Queen. That final scene is also a good example of the power of blood, in the family sense, as Hamlet finally gains resolution in the deception of his uncle and his mother’s marriage and Laertes himself is able to avenge his sister and father. However, the concept of family goes much farther back in the play, to the very beginning with the first appearance of the dead king, still linked to his son and the tragedy of his blood, who himself is heard by Hamlet to call for revenge. For Hamlet, the concept of blood is perhaps the most sensitive and the core root to his own madness. A chief source of hurt pride for Hamlet is the marriage of his widowed mother to his uncle. In Hamlet’s eyes, not only has the new king usurped the role of his dead (murdered) brother but he has also taken over his brother’s position in the Queen’s bed. This is not a difficult idea to understand; Hamlet obviously feels a strong loyalty to his father and to the idea of his own succession. However, Hamlet’s constant condemnation of the King and Queen’s marriage being â€Å"incestuous† shows more about Hamlet than his mother, who is constantly condemned by her son for the marriage. The king is Hamlet’s paternal uncle and therefore, unrelated to the Queen except through the marriage of his deceased brother, Hamlet’s uncle. Therefore there is no real incest going on between the newly married couple but rather a joining of past and present. Instead Hamlet is showing an intolerance to change, that when divorced of his uncle’s treachery, is not quite as damning. However, true to the form of the play, the marriage has been built upon the dark deeds of the King. Their marriage is a deceptive continuity, the Queen herself innocent to the dark deeds of the King. She is not wholly innocent, as she ignorantly believes in the innocence of the new King. While she obviously loves her son, in sensing and fearing Hamlet’s growing restlessness and insanity, she does in a manner turn away from him. Seeing only death in her son’s countenance, it is understandable that she would ally herself with the calm presence of the new king. However, there is something of a resolution between mother and son. When the queen drinks the poison, the King has prepared for Hamlet, she joins the ranks of the innocent dead. Like Ophelia, the Queen becomes a kind of martyr to the ulterior motives of royal ascendency and the revenge of her only son. Though the King may have had larger ideas of their marriage, the Queen’s tragedy seems to be a belief in hope. In remarrying she is hoping to continue her life and in Hamlet she sees hope for her love and affection, even as he rejects her. Without the morality of justice, Hamlet’s revenge fails to provide any resolution. While death is certainly an end and a recurrent theme throughout the play, the persistence and skewed senses of madness prevent the carnage of the Danish court from representing an absolute ending. Instead, there simply seems to be no one else to truly die, no one else to suffer within this narrative of tragedy. Hamlet’s madness had acted in a way to bring about the complete destruction of all he’d ever held dear, it spent not only the resolve of it’s master but everything which it touched. The court of Denmark is withered but no longer a prison to Hamlet as he can depart in death as he was never able to in life. Though Hamlet finds his revenge and his end, he does not find true peace. Fueled by his own depression and anxiety, the injured pride of a fallen son, Hamlet instead creates a cycle of violence and fear which in the end even he falls prey to.