Angels Demons Chapter 130-133

130 The camerlegno began to feel the fog of wonder and adrenaline dissipating. As the Swiss Guard helped him down the Royal Staircase toward the Sistine Chapel, the camerlegno heard singing in St. Peter's Square and he knew that mountains had been moved. Grazie Dio. He had prayed for strength, and God had given it to him. At moments when he had doubted, God had spoken. Yours is a Holy mission, God had said. I will give you strength. Even with God's strength, the camerlegno had felt fear, questioning the righteousness of his path. If not you, God had challenged, then Who? If not now, then When? If not this way, then How? Jesus, God reminded him, had saved them all†¦ saved them from their own apathy. With two deeds, Jesus had opened their eyes. Horror and Hope. The crucifixion and the resurrection. He had changed the world. But that was millennia ago. Time had eroded the miracle. People had forgotten. They had turned to false idols – techno-deities and miracles of the mind. What about miracles of the heart! The camerlegno had often prayed to God to show him how to make the people believe again. But God had been silent. It was not until the camerlegno's moment of deepest darkness that God had come to him. Oh, the horror of that night! The camerlegno could still remember lying on the floor in tattered nightclothes, clawing at his own flesh, trying to purge his soul of the pain brought on by a vile truth he had just learned. It cannot be! he had screamed. And yet he knew it was. The deception tore at him like the fires of hell. The bishop who had taken him in, the man who had been like a father to him, the clergyman whom the camerlegno had stood beside while he rose to the papacy†¦ was a fraud. A common sinner. Lying to the world about a deed so traitorous at its core that the camerlegno doubted even God could forgive it. â€Å"Your vow!† the camerlegno had screamed at the Pope. â€Å"You broke your vow to God! You, of all men!† The Pope had tried to explain himself, but the camerlegno could not listen. He had run out, staggering blindly through the hallways, vomiting, tearing at his own skin, until he found himself bloody and alone, lying on the cold earthen floor before St. Peter's tomb. Mother Mary, what do I do? It was in that moment of pain and betrayal, as the camerlegno lay devastated in the Necropolis, praying for God to take him from this faithless world, that God had come. The voice in his head resounded like peals of thunder. â€Å"Did you vow to serve your God?† â€Å"Yes!† the camerlegno cried out. â€Å"Would you die for your God?† â€Å"Yes! Take me now!† â€Å"Would you die for your church?† â€Å"Yes! Please deliver me!† â€Å"But would you die for†¦ mankind?† It was in the silence that followed that the camerlegno felt himself falling into the abyss. He tumbled farther, faster, out of control. And yet he knew the answer. He had always known. â€Å"Yes!† he shouted into the madness. â€Å"I would die for man! Like your son, I would die for them!† Hours later, the camerlegno still lay shivering on his floor. He saw his mother's face. God has plans for you, she was saying. The camerlegno plunged deeper into madness. It was then God had spoken again. This time with silence. But the camerlegno understood. Restore their faith. If not me†¦ then who? If not now†¦ then when? As the guards unbolted the door of the Sistine Chapel, Camerlegno Carlo Ventresca felt the power moving in his veins†¦ exactly as it had when he was a boy. God had chosen him. Long ago. His will be done. The camerlegno felt reborn. The Swiss Guard had bandaged his chest, bathed him, and dressed him in a fresh white linen robe. They had also given him an injection of morphine for the burn. The camerlegno wished they had not given him painkillers. Jesus endured his pain for three days on the cross! He could already feel the drug uprooting his senses†¦ a dizzying undertow. As he walked into the chapel, he was not at all surprised to see the cardinals staring at him in wonder. They are in awe of God, he reminded himself. Not of me, but how God works THROUGH me. As he moved up the center aisle, he saw bewilderment in every face. And yet, with each new face he passed, he sensed something else in their eyes. What was it? The camerlegno had tried to imagine how they would receive him tonight. Joyfully? Reverently? He tried to read their eyes and saw neither emotion. It was then the camerlegno looked at the altar and saw Robert Langdon. 131 Camerlegno Carlo Ventresca stood in the aisle of the Sistine Chapel. The cardinals were all standing near the front of the church, turned, staring at him. Robert Langdon was on the altar beside a television that was on endless loop, playing a scene the camerlegno recognized but could not imagine how it had come to be. Vittoria Vetra stood beside him, her face drawn. The camerlegno closed his eyes for a moment, hoping the morphine was making him hallucinate and that when he opened them the scene might be different. But it was not. They knew. Oddly, he felt no fear. Show me the way, Father. Give me the words that I can make them see Your vision. But the camerlegno heard no reply. Father, We have come too far together to fail now. Silence. They do not understand what We have done. The camerlegno did not know whose voice he heard in his own mind, but the message was stark. And the truth shall set you free†¦ And so it was that Camerlegno Carlo Ventresca held his head high as he walked toward the front of the Sistine Chapel. As he moved toward the cardinals, not even the diffused light of the candles could soften the eyes boring into him. Explain yourself, the faces said. Make sense of this madness. Tell us our fears are wrong! Truth, the camerlegno told himself. Only truth. There were too many secrets in these walls†¦ one so dark it had driven him to madness. But from the madness had come the light. â€Å"If you could give your own soul to save millions,† the camerlegno said, as he moved down the aisle, â€Å"would you?† The faces in the chapel simply stared. No one moved. No one spoke. Beyond the walls, the joyous strains of song could be heard in the square. The camerlegno walked toward them. â€Å"Which is the greater sin? Killing one's enemy? Or standing idle while your true love is strangled?† They are singing in St. Peter's Square! The camerlegno stopped for a moment and gazed up at the ceiling of the Sistine. Michelangelo's God was staring down from the darkened vault†¦ and He seemed pleased. â€Å"I could no longer stand by,† the camerlegno said. Still, as he drew nearer, he saw no flicker of understanding in anyone's eyes. Didn't they see the radiant simplicity of his deeds? Didn't they see the utter necessity! It had been so pure. The Illuminati. Science and Satan as one. Resurrect the ancient fear. Then crush it. Horror and Hope. Make them believe again. Tonight, the power of the Illuminati had been unleashed anew†¦ and with glorious consequence. The apathy had evaporated. The fear had shot out across the world like a bolt of lightning, uniting the people. And then God's majesty had vanquished the darkness. I could not stand idly by! The inspiration had been God's own – appearing like a beacon in the camerlegno's night of agony. Oh, this faithless world! Someone must deliver them. You. If not you, who? You have been saved for a reason. Show them the old demons. Remind them of their fear. Apathy is death. Without darkness, there is no light. Without evil, there is no good. Make them choose. Dark or light. Where is the fear? Where are the heroes? If not now, when? The camerlegno walked up the center aisle directly toward the crowd of standing cardinals. He felt like Moses as the sea of red sashes and caps parted before him, allowing him to pass. On the altar, Robert Langdon switched off the television, took Vittoria's hand, and relinquished the altar. The fact that Robert Langdon had survived, the camerlegno knew, could only have been God's will. God had saved Robert Langdon. The camerlegno wondered why. The voice that broke the silence was the voice of the only woman in the Sistine Chapel. â€Å"You killed my father?† she said, stepping forward. When the camerlegno turned to Vittoria Vetra, the look on her face was one he could not quite understand – pain yes, but anger? Certainly she must understand. Her father's genius was deadly. He had to be stopped. For the good of Mankind. â€Å"He was doing God's work,† Vittoria said. â€Å"God's work is not done in a lab. It is done in the heart.† â€Å"My father's heart was pure! And his research proved – â€Å" â€Å"His research proved yet again that man's mind is progressing faster than his soul!† The camerlegno's voice was sharper than he had expected. He lowered his voice. â€Å"If a man as spiritual as your father could create a weapon like the one we saw tonight, imagine what an ordinary man will do with his technology.† â€Å"A man like you?† The camerlegno took a deep breath. Did she not see? Man's morality was not advancing as fast as man's science. Mankind was not spiritually evolved enough for the powers he possessed. We have never created a weapon we have not used! And yet he knew that antimatter was nothing – another weapon in man's already burgeoning arsenal. Man could already destroy. Man learned to kill long ago. And his mother's blood rained down. Leonardo Vetra's genius was dangerous for another reason. â€Å"For centuries,† the camerlegno said, â€Å"the church has stood by while science picked away at religion bit by bit. Debunking miracles. Training the mind to overcome the heart. Condemning religion as the opiate of the masses. They denounce God as a hallucination – a delusional crutch for those too weak to accept that life is meaningless. I could not stand by while science presumed to harness the power of God himself! Proof, you say? Yes, proof of science's ignorance! What is wrong with the admission that something exists beyond our understanding? The day science substantiates God in a lab is the day people stop needing faith!† â€Å"You mean the day they stop needing the church,† Vittoria challenged, moving toward him. â€Å"Doubt is your last shred of control. It is doubt that brings souls to you. Our need to know that life has meaning. Man's insecurity and need for an enlightened soul assuring him everything is part of a master plan. But the church is not the only enlightened soul on the planet! We all seek God in different ways. What are you afraid of? That God will show himself somewhere other than inside these walls? That people will find him in their own lives and leave your antiquated rituals behind? Religions evolve! The mind finds answers, the heart grapples with new truths. My father was on your quest! A parallel path! Why couldn't you see that? God is not some omnipotent authority looking down from above, threatening to throw us into a pit of fire if we disobey. God is the energy that flows through the synapses of our nervous system and the chambers of our hearts! God is in all things!â €  â€Å"Except science,† the camerlegno fired back, his eyes showing only pity. â€Å"Science, by definition, is soulless. Divorced from the heart. Intellectual miracles like antimatter arrive in this world with no ethical instructions attached. This in itself is perilous! But when science heralds its Godless pursuits as the enlightened path? Promising answers to questions whose beauty is that they have no answers?† He shook his head. â€Å"No.† There was a moment of silence. The camerlegno felt suddenly tired as he returned Vittoria's unbending stare. This was not how it was supposed to be. Is this God's final test? It was Mortati who broke the spell. â€Å"The preferiti,† he said in a horrified whisper. â€Å"Baggia and the others. Please tell me you did not†¦Ã¢â‚¬  The camerlegno turned to him, surprised by the pain in his voice. Certainly Mortati could understand. Headlines carried science's miracles every day. How long had it been for religion? Centuries? Religion needed a miracle! Something to awaken a sleeping world. Bring them back to the path of righteousness. Restore faith. The preferiti were not leaders anyway, they were transformers – liberals prepared to embrace the new world and abandon the old ways! This was the only way. A new leader. Young. Powerful. Vibrant. Miraculous. The preferiti served the church far more effectively in death than they ever could alive. Horror and Hope. Offer four souls to save millions. The world would remember them forever as martyrs. The church would raise glorious tribute to their names. How many thousands have died for the glory of God? They are only four. â€Å"The preferiti,† Mortati repeated. â€Å"I shared their pain,† the camerlegno defended, motioning to his chest. â€Å"And I too would die for God, but my work is only just begun. They are singing in St. Peter's Square!† The camerlegno saw the horror in Mortati's eyes and again felt confused. Was it the morphine? Mortati was looking at him as if the camerlegno himself had killed these men with his bare hands. I would do even that for God, the camerlegno thought, and yet he had not. The deeds had been carried out by the Hassassin – a heathen soul tricked into thinking he was doing the work of the Illuminati. I am Janus, the camerlegno had told him. I will prove my power. And he had. The Hassassin's hatred had made him God's pawn. â€Å"Listen to the singing,† the camerlegno said, smiling, his own heart rejoicing. â€Å"Nothing unites hearts like the presence of evil. Burn a church and the community rises up, holding hands, singing hymns of defiance as they rebuild. Look how they flock tonight. Fear has brought them home. Forge modern demons for modern man. Apathy is dead. Show them the face of evil – Satanists lurking among us – running our governments, our banks, our schools, threatening to obliterate the very House of God with their misguided science. Depravity runs deep. Man must be vigilant. Seek the goodness. Become the goodness!† In the silence, the camerlegno hoped they now understood. The Illuminati had not resurfaced. The Illuminati were long deceased. Only their myth was alive. The camerlegno had resurrected the Illuminati as a reminder. Those who knew the Illuminati history relived their evil. Those who did not, had learned of it and were amazed how blind they had been. The ancient demons had been resurrected to awaken an indifferent world. â€Å"But†¦ the brands?† Mortati's voice was stiff with outrage. The camerlegno did not answer. Mortati had no way of knowing, but the brands had been confiscated by the Vatican over a century ago. They had been locked away, forgotten and dust covered, in the Papal Vault – the Pope's private reliquary, deep within his Borgia apartments. The Papal Vault contained those items the church deemed too dangerous for anyone's eyes except the Pope's. Why did they hide that which inspired fear? Fear brought people to God! The vault's key was passed down from Pope to Pope. Camerlegno Carlo Ventresca had purloined the key and ventured inside; the myth of what the vault contained was bewitching – the original manuscript for the fourteen unpublished books of the Bible known as the Apocrypha, the third prophecy of Fatima, the first two having come true and the third so terrifying the church would never reveal it. In addition to these, the camerlegno had found the Illuminati Collection – all the secrets the church had uncovered after banishing the group from Rome†¦ their contemptible Path of Illumination†¦ the cunning deceit of the Vatican's head artist, Bernini†¦ Europe's top scientists mocking religion as they secretly assembled in the Vatican's own Castle St. Angelo. The collection included a pentagon box containing iron brands, one of them the mythical Illuminati Diamond. This was a part of Vatican history the ancients thought best forgotten. The camerlegno, however, had dis agreed. â€Å"But the antimatter†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Vittoria demanded. â€Å"You risked destroying the Vatican!† â€Å"There is no risk when God is at your side,† the camerlegno said. â€Å"This cause was His.† â€Å"You're insane!† she seethed. â€Å"Millions were saved.† â€Å"People were killed!† â€Å"Souls were saved.† â€Å"Tell that to my father and Max Kohler!† â€Å"CERN's arrogance needed to be revealed. A droplet of liquid that can vaporize a half mile? And you call me mad?† The camerlegno felt a rage rising in him. Did they think his was a simple charge? â€Å"Those who believe undergo great tests for God! God asked Abraham to sacrifice his child! God commanded Jesus to endure crucifixion! And so we hang the symbol of the crucifix before our eyes – bloody, painful, agonizing – to remind us of evil's power! To keep our hearts vigilant! The scars on Jesus' body are a living reminder of the powers of darkness! My scars are a living reminder! Evil lives, but the power of God will overcome!† His shouts echoed off the back wall of the Sistine Chapel and then a profound silence fell. Time seemed to stop. Michelangelo's Last Judgment rose ominously behind him†¦ Jesus casting sinners into hell. Tears brimmed in Mortati's eyes. â€Å"What have you done, Carlo?† Mortati asked in a whisper. He closed his eyes, and a tear rolled. â€Å"His Holiness?† A collective sigh of pain went up, as if everyone in the room had forgotten until that very moment. The Pope. Poisoned. â€Å"A vile liar,† the camerlegno said. Mortati looked shattered. â€Å"What do you mean? He was honest! He†¦ loved you.† â€Å"And I him.† Oh, how I loved him! But the deceit! The broken vows to God! The camerlegno knew they did not understand right now, but they would. When he told them, they would see! His Holiness was the most nefarious deceiver the church had ever seen. The camerlegno still remembered that terrible night. He had returned from his trip to CERN with news of Vetra's Genesis and of antimatter's horrific power. The camerlegno was certain the Pope would see the perils, but the Holy Father saw only hope in Vetra's breakthrough. He even suggested the Vatican fund Vetra's work as a gesture of goodwill toward spiritually based scientific research. Madness! The church investing in research that threatened to make the church obsolete? Work that spawned weapons of mass destruction? The bomb that had killed his mother†¦ â€Å"But†¦ you can't!† the camerlegno had exclaimed. â€Å"I owe a deep debt to science,† the Pope had replied. â€Å"Something I have hidden my entire life. Science gave me a gift when I was a young man. A gift I have never forgotten.† â€Å"I don't understand. What does science have to offer a man of God?† â€Å"It is complicated,† the Pope had said. â€Å"I will need time to make you understand. But first, there is a simple fact about me that you must know. I have kept it hidden all these years. I believe it is time I told you.† Then the Pope had told him the astonishing truth. 132 The camerlegno lay curled in a ball on the dirt floor in front of St. Peter's tomb. The Necropolis was cold, but it helped clot the blood flowing from the wounds he had torn at his own flesh. His Holiness would not find him here. Nobody would find him here†¦ â€Å"It is complicated,† the Pope's voice echoed in his mind. â€Å"I will need time to make you understand†¦Ã¢â‚¬  But the camerlegno knew no amount of time could make him understand. Liar! I believed in you! GOD believed in you! With a single sentence, the Pope had brought the camerlegno's world crashing down around him. Everything the camerlegno had ever believed about his mentor was shattered before his eyes. The truth drilled into the camerlegno's heart with such force that he staggered backward out of the Pope's office and vomited in the hallway. â€Å"Wait!† the Pope had cried, chasing after him. â€Å"Please let me explain!† But the camerlegno ran off. How could His Holiness expect him to endure any more? Oh, the wretched depravity of it! What if someone else found out? Imagine the desecration to the church! Did the Pope's holy vows mean nothing? The madness came quickly, screaming in his ears, until he awoke before St. Peter's tomb. It was then that God came to him with an awesome fierceness. Yours is a Vengeful God! Together, they made their plans. Together they would protect the church. Together they would restore faith to this faithless world. Evil was everywhere. And yet the world had become immune! Together they would unveil the darkness for the world to see†¦ and God would overcome! Horror and Hope. Then the world would believe! God's first test had been less horrible than the camerlegno imagined. Sneaking into the Papal bed chambers†¦ filling his syringe†¦ covering the deceiver's mouth as his body spasmed into death. In the moonlight, the camerlegno could see in the Pope's wild eyes there was something he wanted to say. But it was too late. The Pope had said enough. 133 â€Å"The Pope fathered a child.† Inside the Sistine Chapel, the camerlegno stood unwavering as he spoke. Five solitary words of astonishing disclosure. The entire assembly seemed to recoil in unison. The cardinals' accusing miens evaporated into aghast stares, as if every soul in the room were praying the camerlegno was wrong. The Pope fathered a child. Langdon felt the shock wave hit him too. Vittoria's hand, tight in his, jolted, while Langdon's mind, already numb with unanswered questions, wrestled to find a center of gravity. The camerlegno's utterance seemed like it would hang forever in the air above them. Even in the camerlegno's frenzied eyes, Langdon could see pure conviction. Langdon wanted to disengage, tell himself he was lost in some grotesque nightmare, soon to wake up in a world that made sense. â€Å"This must be a lie!† one of the cardinals yelled. â€Å"I will not believe it!† another protested. â€Å"His Holiness was as devout a man as ever lived!† It was Mortati who spoke next, his voice thin with devastation. â€Å"My friends. What the camerlegno says is true.† Every cardinal in the chapel spun as though Mortati had just shouted an obscenity. â€Å"The Pope indeed fathered a child.† The cardinals blanched with dread. The camerlegno looked stunned. â€Å"You knew? But†¦ how could you possibly know this?† Mortati sighed. â€Å"When His Holiness was elected†¦ I was the Devil's Advocate.† There was a communal gasp. Langdon understood. This meant the information was probably true. The infamous â€Å"Devil's Advocate† was the authority when it came to scandalous information inside the Vatican. Skeletons in a Pope's closet were dangerous, and prior to elections, secret inquiries into a candidate's background were carried out by a lone cardinal who served as the â€Å"Devil's Advocate† – that individual responsible for unearthing reasons why the eligible cardinals should not become Pope. The Devil's Advocate was appointed in advance by the reigning Pope in preparation for his own death. The Devil's Advocate was never supposed to reveal his identity. Ever. â€Å"I was the Devil's Advocate,† Mortati repeated. â€Å"That is how I found out.† Mouths dropped. Apparently tonight was a night when all the rules were going out the window. The camerlegno felt his heart filling with rage. â€Å"And you†¦ told no one?† â€Å"I confronted His Holiness,† Mortati said. â€Å"And he confessed. He explained the entire story and asked only that I let my heart guide my decision as to whether or not to reveal his secret.† â€Å"And your heart told you to bury the information?† â€Å"He was the runaway favorite for the papacy. People loved him. The scandal would have hurt the church deeply.† â€Å"But he fathered a child! He broke his sacred vow of celibacy!† The camerlegno was screaming now. He could hear his mother's voice. A promise to God is the most important promise of all. Never break a promise to God. â€Å"The Pope broke his vow!† Mortati looked delirious with angst. â€Å"Carlo, his love†¦ was chaste. He had broken no vow. He didn't explain it to you?† â€Å"Explain what?† The camerlegno remembered running out of the Pope's office while the Pope was calling to him. Let me explain! Slowly, sadly, Mortati let the tale unfold. Many years ago, the Pope, when he was still just a priest, had fallen in love with a young nun. Both of them had taken vows of celibacy and never even considered breaking their covenant with God. Still, as they fell deeper in love, although they could resist the temptations of the flesh, they both found themselves longing for something they never expected – to participate in God's ultimate miracle of creation – a child. Their child. The yearning, especially in her, became overwhelming. Still, God came first. A year later, when the frustration had reached almost unbearable proportions, she came to him in a whirl of excitement. She had just read an article about a new miracle of science – a process by which two people, without ever having sexual relations, could have a child. She sensed this was a sign from God. The priest could see the happiness in her eyes and agreed. A year later she had a child through the miracle of artificial insemination†¦ â€Å"This cannot†¦ be true,† the camerlegno said, panicked, hoping it was the morphine washing over his senses. Certainly he was hearing things. Mortati now had tears in his eyes. â€Å"Carlo, this is why His Holiness has always had an affection for the sciences. He felt he owed a debt to science. Science let him experience the joys of fatherhood without breaking his vow of celibacy. His Holiness told me he had no regrets except one – that his advancing stature in the church prohibited him from being with the woman he loved and seeing his infant grow up.† Camerlegno Carlo Ventresca felt the madness setting in again. He wanted to claw at his flesh. How could I have known? â€Å"The Pope committed no sin, Carlo. He was chaste.† â€Å"But†¦Ã¢â‚¬  The camerlegno searched his anguished mind for any kind of rationale. â€Å"Think of the jeopardy†¦ of his deeds.† His voice felt weak. â€Å"What if this whore of his came forward? Or, heaven forbid, his child? Imagine the shame the church would endure.† Mortati's voice was tremulous. â€Å"The child has already come forward.† Everything stopped. â€Å"Carlo†¦?† Mortati crumbled. â€Å"His Holiness's child†¦ is you.† At that moment, the camerlegno could feel the fire of faith dim in his heart. He stood trembling on the altar, framed by Michelangelo's towering Last Judgment. He knew he had just glimpsed hell itself. He opened his mouth to speak, but his lips wavered, soundless. â€Å"Don't you see?† Mortati choked. â€Å"That is why His Holiness came to you in the hospital in Palermo when you were a boy. That is why he took you in and raised you. The nun he loved was Maria†¦ your mother. She left the nunnery to raise you, but she never abandoned her strict devotion to God. When the Pope heard she had died in an explosion and that you, his son, had miraculously survived†¦ he swore to God he would never leave you alone again. Carlo, your parents were both virgins. They kept their vows to God. And still they found a way to bring you into the world. You were their miraculous child.† The camerlegno covered his ears, trying to block out the words. He stood paralyzed on the altar. Then, with his world yanked from beneath him, he fell violently to his knees and let out a wail of anguish. Seconds. Minutes. Hours. Time seemed to have lost all meaning inside the four walls of the chapel. Vittoria felt herself slowly breaking free of the paralysis that seemed to have gripped them all. She let go of Langdon's hand and began moving through the crowd of cardinals. The chapel door seemed miles away, and she felt like she was moving underwater†¦ slow motion. As she maneuvered through the robes, her motion seemed to pull others from their trance. Some of the cardinals began to pray. Others wept. Some turned to watch her go, their blank expressions turning slowly to a foreboding cognition as she moved toward the door. She had almost reached the back of the crowd when a hand caught her arm. The touch was frail but resolute. She turned, face to face with a wizened cardinal. His visage was clouded by fear. â€Å"No,† the man whispered. â€Å"You cannot.† Vittoria stared, incredulous. Another cardinal was at her side now. â€Å"We must think before we act.† And another. â€Å"The pain this could cause†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Vittoria was surrounded. She looked at them all, stunned. â€Å"But these deeds here today, tonight†¦ certainly the world should know the truth.† â€Å"My heart agrees,† the wizened cardinal said, still holding her arm, â€Å"and yet it is a path from which there is no return. We must consider the shattered hopes. The cynicism. How could the people ever trust again?† Suddenly, more cardinals seemed to be blocking her way. There was a wall of black robes before her. â€Å"Listen to the people in the square,† one said. â€Å"What will this do to their hearts? We must exercise prudence.† â€Å"We need time to think and pray,† another said. â€Å"We must act with foresight. The repercussions of this†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"He killed my father!† Vittoria said. â€Å"He killed his own father!† â€Å"I'm certain he will pay for his sins,† the cardinal holding her arm said sadly. Vittoria was certain too, and she intended to ensure he paid. She tried to push toward the door again, but the cardinals huddled closer, their faces frightened. â€Å"What are you going to do?† she exclaimed. â€Å"Kill me?† The old men blanched, and Vittoria immediately regretted her words. She could see these men were gentle souls. They had seen enough violence tonight. They meant no threat. They were simply trapped. Scared. Trying to get their bearings. â€Å"I want†¦Ã¢â‚¬  the wizened cardinal said, â€Å"†¦ to do what is right.† â€Å"Then you will let her out,† a deep voice declared behind her. The words were calm but absolute. Robert Langdon arrived at her side, and she felt his hand take hers. â€Å"Ms. Vetra and I are leaving this chapel. Right now.† Faltering, hesitant, the cardinals began to step aside. â€Å"Wait!† It was Mortati. He moved toward them now, down the center aisle, leaving the camerlegno alone and defeated on the altar. Mortati looked older all of a sudden, wearied beyond his years. His motion was burdened with shame. He arrived, putting a hand on Langdon's shoulder and one on Vittoria's as well. Vittoria felt sincerity in his touch. The man's eyes were more tearful now. â€Å"Of course you are free to go,† Mortati said. â€Å"Of course.† The man paused, his grief almost tangible. â€Å"I ask only this†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He stared down at his feet a long moment then back up at Vittoria and Langdon. â€Å"Let me do it. I will go into the square right now and find a way. I will tell them. I don't know how†¦ but I will find a way. The church's confession should come from within. Our failures should be our own to expose.† Mortati turned sadly back toward the altar. â€Å"Carlo, you have brought this church to a disastrous juncture.† He paused, looking around. The altar was bare. There was a rustle of cloth down the side aisle, and the door clicked shut. The camerlegno was gone.

Part a Critical Analysis of Project Management Plan

Part A Critical Analysis of Project Management Plan Executive Summary Table of Contents 1 Introduction This report will present the critical analysis about humanities financial services review project management plan. The purpose of the report is to apply the different theories and ideas regarding the project management plan. The main purpose of the critical analysis is to critique as well as evaluate somebody’s work based on the opinion, idea and perspective of someone. It is an academic report that contains a description of the project plan (part B) as well as its content.This report will also express the opinion of the author with regards to the different part of the project management plan that has chosen. It will analyze the whole project plan by breaking down the project into parts and then studying and evaluating each and every part using the support and help of different references from different books, journals and other related studies. This report will also show the importance of a project plan and who will be benefited from its use and implementation. The structure of the report will follow the structure of the chosen project plan.It will individually analyze the different part or aspect of the project plan based on the project management body of knowledge. The main focus of the report is to give analysis about the different important aspect of the project management plan such as the time or schedule, money or cost, human resource or work breakdown structure as well as different risk that can be encountered by the project during the implementation of the plan. 2 Project Background 2. 1 Information about the Work 2. 1. 1 Title: Humanities Financial Services Review Project Management Plan . 1. 2 Author: Craig Medley 2. 1. 3 Publication Information: Project Id HUM-PR-P1, v. 04 Draft, August 30, 2007, from http://edo. humanities. curtin. edu. au/pdf/Project_Managem ent_Plan_2007. pdf 2. 2 Project Description The chosen document focuses on the pla n for the management of the humanities financial services review project. It was written in order to show or review the different areas or aspects of the newly implemented new transactional systems in November 2007, with an upgrade to the finance one to the Concur and BPI in Humanities only.It can help to know the different processes and flow of data and information of its accounting and purchasing transactions across each and every division (Medley 2007, p. 4). The Faculty of the Humanities of the Curtin University of the Technology offers different courses in Media, Communications, Built Environment, Art and Design, Education, Languages, Human Services as well as Social Sciences. All f the said courses are only few of the courses that the said department of the Curtin University is offering (Faculty of Humanities 2008).The project plan focuses on the implementation of the finance and accounting system of the department that focuses on the needs of the users of the system like invo icing, ordering, approving, reconciling, access to the system, structure of the outputs, skills and request and access for the different outputs (Medley 2007, p. 4). The project management plan will help the current system to improve its operations and increase the security that will eventually help to meet the demands and needs of the different stakeholders or users. Structure and contents of the Project Plan 3. 1 Project Management Plan and Its Purpose 3. 1. 1 What is Project Plan? Project management plan or simply project plan is a document that corresponds to the overall purposes or objectives, responsibilities, resource requirements and agenda for the project (Baker & Baker 2003, p. 29). It is considered as more than a playbook that determine what are the different works or task that are need to done and accomplish (Phillips 2004, p. 32). It is a fluid document that controls the following elements: Provide structure – project plan is developed in order to present a struc ture or composition in order to get the project to its completion. It must be methodical and systematical but brief and short, compilation of different documents that serves as a point of references in the course of the project implementation (Phillips 2004, p. 32). ? Provide Documentation – documented project plan is needed in order for the project to be a successful one. This is due to the fact that it must present historical references and the different reasons behind the decisions that have been made (Phillips 2004, p. 32). Provide Baselines – a project plan includes a number of baselines. As the project shift towards the finishing point, the management together with the stakeholders and the project managers can use the project plan in order to see what was predicted for the costs, schedules, qualities and scopes – and compare it to the present condition (Phillips 2004, p. 32). Project plan is the output or result of the planning phase that confines the diff erent information that has been observed and fulfilled with the team and lays out the different activities and processes about how the project will be carried out.It also represents the projected reality (Martin & Tate 2001, p. 155). 3. 1. 2 Purposes and Importance of the Project Plan The major function of the project plan is to provide a step-by-step insight into what it takes in order to satisfy the requirements or the needs of the system (Frame 2002, p. 97). An inclusive and fittingly comprehensive project plan is essential to a successful completion of any project. It can help to direct the project itself.Without the aid or help of a project plan, it will hard and even impossible to lead a group to carry out their different responsibilities in order achieves their common goal (Baker & Baker 2003, p. 29). It is a directing document of the project management that serves up as a storage area for all of the supplementary plans. It is a guiding document for the project and it’ s intrinsically needs to replicate all of the information that is critical or crucial to the project manager, project team, customer as well as management sponsor. It offers broad direction as to the cost, schedule and requirements baselines.In its thorough and comprehensive form, it provides much more exact and precise guidance on the nature of the components of the different supporting plans (Pritchard 2004, p. 100). 3. 2 Stakeholder of the Humanities Financial Services Review Project Management Plan The main audience or target of the humanities of the financial services review project management are the higher officials who are involved in the overall process and management of the different financial and accounting activities in the humanities department of the   Curtin University of the Technology.The plan will focus on the review of the different areas of the current system of the humanities of the Curtin University of the Technology such as the different internal process flo ws such as invoicing, ordering, approving as well as reconciling; the number of the people or the user that can access the systems of the Concur and the Finance One; the structure of the invoicing as well as procurement function as well as the different responsibilities and functions of each and every users; the different skills of every users; the different uses and what they are used for such as the request for the Curtin tax invoice and its different uses and the different types of transactions that are involved with the credit card or purchase request (Medley 2007, p. 4).All of the said information together with other result of the review will be helpful for the management in order for them to improve the current system of the Humanities department that will ensure competitive advantage for their part because it can make the life of their stakeholders a lot easier. It can also help them to excel in their different operations as well as to ensure or add their financial security. 3. 3 Structure of   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   the Humanities Financial Services Review Project Management Plan 3. 4 Different Sections of the Humanities Financial Services Review Project Management Plan 4 Conclusions 5 Recommendations Part B Humanities Financial Services Review Project Management Plan 1 Introduction 1. 1 About this Document This document provides a plan for the management of the Humanities Financial Services Review Project. 1. 2 BackgroundNew transactional systems and processes have been implemented recently, being Concur and BPI (Humanities only) with an upgrade to Finance One to occur in November 2007. In addition, the Division is looking at ways in which to best undertake support activities including purchasing and accounting to ensure that efficiencies are obtained. A Financial Services Office is already operational and undertakes some financial processes i. e. electronic processing of credit card transactions. Based on the above, it is now timely to review current sys tems, processes and structures which accounting and purchasing transactions operate under across the Division.The areas that would be reviewed include but are not limited to; internal process flows (including invoicing, ordering, approving and reconciling), the number of people with access to systems (both Concur and Finance One), the structure of the invoicing and procurement function (who does what), skills, and how systems are used and what they are used for (e. g. request for Curtin tax invoice, what are allonges used for, what type of transactions are going through credit cards / purchase request). 1. 3 Project Sponsor The Project Sponsor is Ken McCluskey 1. 4 Project Manager The Project Manager is Craig Medley. 1. 5 Project Team The Project team is comprised of Raymond Seah and Craig Medley 1. 6 Key StakeholdersThe key stakeholders (Humanities only) of this project include: Executive Dean Deans Review Panel 2 Project Scope 2. 1 Strategic Link This project specifically contribu tes towards to the following strategic objective(s):  §Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Excellence in operations  §Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Financial security 2. 2 Project Benefits The expected benefits and impacts of the project deliverables are: ? Improved definition and understanding of the role / scope of work of the Financial Service Office in Humanities, ? Roadmap and high level implementation plan for the agreed changes, ? Improved efficiencies and effectiveness of processes within Humanities through standardization and centralization where identified, Potential cost savings and risk reduction in procurement and credit cards processes / systems. 2. 3 Project Deliverables The project’s key deliverables are: Document / s covering: ? Matrix of processes and systems under Humanities Financial Services Office and respective Teaching Areas, ? Services identified for improvement via end to end processing / procurement arrangements / invoicing, ? Recommended proces s flow for identified services, ? List of service deliverables (with the resource requirement) of the Humanities Financial Services Office, ? Policies to support recommended services, ? High level implementation plan 2. 4 Out of Scope The following items are considered out of the scope: ? Implementation of recommendations Expenditure incurred whilst traveling (this may be included at a later date) 2. 5 Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) The project tasks to produce the project deliverables are listed in the Gantt chart at Appendix B1. 2. 6 Constraints The following key project constraints were identified: ? Availability and willingness of staff to contribute ? Data quality 2. 7 Assumptions The following key assumptions influenced the development of this Project Management Plan: ? All staff will be available as required 3 Project Time Schedule 3. 1 Schedule The detailed project schedule is provided in the Gantt chart at Appendix B1 4 Project Costs 4. 1 Budget summary The budget breakdown is summarized as follows: Resource Type |Total Cost ($) |Hours | |Human resources |$30,000 | |Equipment and products | |Consumables | |Totals |$30,000 | |   |   |   |   | The Communication Plan examines the key contacts, frequency of communications, and communication medium to be deployed.It is used to ensure adequate consideration has been given to consultation and information dissemination. It is attached as Appendix D. 5 Project Accountabilities 5. 1 Project Organizational Chart The Project Organizational Chart provides a visual representation of the project team and project reporting structure. It is attached as Appendix B. 5. 2 Responsibility Assignment Matrix The Responsibility Assignment Matrix outlines responsibilities allocated to individuals for each task. It is attached as Appendix C. 5. 3 Project Sponsor The roles and responsibilities of the Project Sponsor include: Responsibility to senior management for the project;Endorsing this document to confirm that proj ect scope and deliverables are correct; Approving changes to scope, schedule, and quality; Reviewing progress and providing strategic direction; Resolving issues beyond the Project Manager’s authority; Providing the resources and sponsorship for the project; and Examining the project at completion2 and completing a Project Sign-off form. 5. 4 Project Manager The roles and responsibilities of the Project Manager include: Managing the day-to-day operations of the project to ensure the project deliverables are produced to scope, schedule, and quality; Monitoring and controlling the Project Management Plan;Providing status reports to the Project Sponsor; Leading the project teams to meet the project objectives; Undertaking the tasks assigned, as specified in the Responsibility Assignment Matrix (refer Appendix C); and Consulting with the Project Sponsor and key stakeholders to maintain communications and keep parties up to date on project progress. 6 Communications Plan 6. 1 Plan The Communication Plan examines the key contacts, frequency of communications, and communication medium to be deployed. It is used to ensure adequate consideration has been given to consultation and information dissemination. It is attached as Appendix B4. 7 Risk Management Plan 7. 1 Risk AssessmentThe Risk Management Plan, attached as Appendix B5, examines risks, rates those risks and identifies potential treatment strategies. 8 Project Control 8. 1 Progress Reporting The Project Management Plan will be controlled on a regular basis, by means of completing Project Status Report to the Project Sponsor on a fortnightly basis. The key elements are scope, schedule, and risk, with the control process comprising: †¢ Monitoring and measuring performance; †¢ Comparing performance to this plan; †¢ Reporting on deviations and issues; and †¢ Taking corrective action (where necessary). 8. 2 Change Management Any proposed changes to the scope or quality will be processed as follows: Proposed changes will be evaluated on the basis of their impact on the project process and outcome, and in light of reasonable alternatives; ? Proposed changes will be formally recorded on a Project Change Control report and submitted to the Project Sponsor; ? The Project Sponsor will review proposed changes, and either accept or reject them; and ? Accepted changes will be communicated to all concerned stakeholders, and project documentation will be amended accordingly. Appendices Appendix A1 Project Management Areas of Knowledge and Its Process ? Appendix B1 Task, Schedule & Gantt Chart Adapted from (PMI Standards & Duncan 1996, p. 7) Appendix B1 Timeline/ Gantt Chart Appendix B2 Project Organizational Chart Appendix B3 – Responsibility Assignment Matrix ID |WBS TASKS |Project |Team Member |Review Committee |Sponsor | | | |Manager | | | | | | |Craig |Raymond |Ken |   | |1 |Policy review |R |I |N |I | |2 |Purchase to Pay Stream |R |I |N, C |A | |2. 1 |Data analysi s |R |I |N, C |C | |2. 2 |Data modelling |R |I |N |N | |3 |Invoicing Stream |N, I |R |I, C |I, C | |3. |Invoice profiling |N, I |R |N |N | |3. 2 |Develop process documentation |N, I |R |N |N | |3. 3 |Present P2P and Invoice data |R |I |N |N | |4 |Interviews |R |I |I, C |C | |4. 1 |Define questions |R |R |C |I | |4. 2 |Agree on questions |R |I |C |A | |4. |Conduct interviews |R |R |I, C |N | |4. 4 |Collate information |R |I |N |N | |4. 5 |Develop activity lists / |R |R |I |N | | |matrices | | | | | |4. 6 |Develop process maps |R |R |N |N | |4. 7 |Review process maps with users|R |R |I |I | |4. |Present findings |R |I |N |C, I | |5 |Recommendations development |R |R |I |I, A | |5. 1 |Analyze prior findings |R |I |N |N, I | |5. 2 |Brainstorm options |R |I |I |I | |5. 3 |Develop recommendations |R |I |I |I | |5. 4 |Review recommendations |R |I |I |I | |5. 5 |Finalize ecommendations |R |I |A |A | |   | |LEGEND | |R – Responsible for executing activity A – Approval author ity | |I – Provides input C – Consulted | |N – Notified | APPENDIX B4 – Communication Plan Stakeholder |Information To Be Communicated|Frequency |Medium |Responsible |Timing | |Faculty/Area Administration staff affected by this review | |Review Panel |Request for feedback on the |Once before the |Meeting |Project Sponsor, |31st August | | |draft project plan and |project is | |Chair of panel & | | | |outlining next steps |officially kicked| |Project Manager | | | | |off | | | | |Executive Dean |Presentation of the draft |Once before the |Meeting |Project Sponsor and |Beginning of Sept 07 | | |project plan. The purpose of |project is | |Project manager | | | |the project; next stage on |officially | | | | | |from previous financial |kicked-off | | | | |services review project | | | | | | |looking at financial | | | | | | |transactional processes & | | | | | | |where these could be improved | | | | | | |& additional services that may| | | | | | |then res ide within the | | | | | | |division’s financial Services | | | | | | |office in the future. | | | | | |Representative from |Outline of Humanities |Prior to project |Meeting & Emails |Project Sponsor and |1st meeting end of August | |Price Waterhouse looking|Financial Services Review |kick-off | |Project Manager | | |at standardization of |project and the Project Team’s| | | | | |processes & systems |approach.Also to gain input | | | | | |across the organization |into the project depending on | | | | | | |some of the objectives that | | | | | | |Price Waterhouse have been | | | | | | |tasked with. | | | | | |Executive Dean and Deans|Kick-off Project, Project plan|At start of Presentation at HMB |Project Sponsor & |10th Sept | | |- main project objectives, |Project | |Project Manager | | | |communications plan, risks & | | | | | | |key areas being covered in the| | | | | | |project | | | | | |Project Sponsor |Project Status updates – |Fortnightly |Meeting |Projec t Manager |Starting 5th September | | |activities, key findings and | | | | | | |issues | | | | | |Financial Services |Introduce the new Associate |Once |Meeting |Project Sponsor, |Approx 3rd week in Sept | | |Director Transaction services | | |Project Team, & | | | |to the project and go through | | |Chair of Review | | | |project plan & request his | | |Committee | | | |involvement on the review | | | | | | |committee | | | | | |Review Committee |Introduction of the new |One of three |Committee meeting |Chair of Review |Towards end of September | | |Associate Director Transaction| | |Committee & Project | | | |services to the review | | |Manager | | | committee as a new member, | | | | | | |Also Summarization of | | | | | | |activities, findings at end of| | | | | | |Purchase to Pay Stream Phase | | | | | | |plus next steps | | | | | |Faculty/Area |General communication to staff|One of three |One on One meetings |Review Panel Members|Towards end of Sept | |Administration staff |in their area about the 1st | | | | | |affected by this review |phase i. e.P2P & Invoicing | | | | | | |quantitative analysis | | | | | |Review Committee |Summarization of activities, |Two of Three |Committee meeting |Project Manager |Towards end of October | | |findings at end of Invoice | | | | | | |Phase plus next steps | | | | | |Faculty/Area |General communication to staff|Two of Three |One on One meetings |Review Panel Members|Towards end of October | |Administration staff |in their area about the 2nd | | | | | |affected by this review |phase i. e. Interviews | | | | | |Review Committee |Review of draft |Three of Three |Committee meeting |Project Manager |Mid November | | |recommendations and gather | | | | | |feedback for inclusion in | | | | | | |final report | | | | | |Faculty/Area |General communication to staff|Two of Three |One on One meetings |Review Panel Members|Mid November | |Administration staff |in their area about the | | | | | |affected by this review |‘draf t’ recommendations | | | | | |Executive Dean and Deans|Project Outcomes and |Conclusion |Presentation at HMB |Project Sponsor and |Early December | | |Recommendations | | |Manager | | Appendix B5 Communication Plan Calendar *Note – Meeting dates with exception of HMB are indicative and subject to change Appendix B6 Risk Management Plan Legend for the Risk Management Plan Defining Likelihood Ratings The following table outlines the definition of likelihood rating as applied to the risk assessment. Descriptor |Definition | |Almost certain |Expected to occur in most circumstances | |Likely |Will probably occur in most circumstances | |Possible |Might occur at some time | |Unlikely |Could occur at some time | |Rare |May only occur in exceptional circumstances | Defining Consequence Ratings The following table outlines the definition of consequence rating as applied to the risk assessment. Consequence |Project Consequence | |Catastrophic |Unacceptable effect on project ob jectives | |Major |Major effects on project objectives, requiring significant effort to rectify. | |Moderate |Moderate effects on project objectives, requiring management effort to rectify | |Minor |Some difficulties experienced, but these are easily managed. | |Insignificant |No noticeable effect on project management objectives | Defining Risk Rankings The following table outlines the definition of risk categorizes, determined by combining the likelihood and consequence of a risk. RISK FACTOR |Insignificant |Minor |Moderate |Major |Catastrophic | |Almost |Low |High |High |Extreme |Extreme | |certain | | | | | | |Likely |Low |Moderate |High |Extreme |Extreme | |Possible |Low |Moderate |High |High |Extreme | |Unlikely |Low |Low |Moderate |High |High | |Rare |Low |Low |Low |Moderate |High |

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Nursing research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Nursing - Research Paper Example The p value is less than 0.001 which indicates that the data obtained are statistically significant. This, therefore, means that one should decrease their caloric intake; to maintain a low BMI because a high BMI puts one at a risk of getting lifestyle diseases such as high blood pressure and type 2-diabetes. 2) There is a very strong link between BMI and HDL cholesterol because according to the results, the correlation coefficient is very close to -1.00 (0.794). The relationship is however negative meaning as the BMI of an individual increases, the level of HDL cholesterol decreases. The p value is also less than 0.001 meaning that the results are statistically significant. Since it is healthy to have high HDL cholesterol levels, one should, therefore, aim at reducing their BMI to acceptable levels. 3) The relationship between the caloric intake and age of the respondents is not strong as indicated by the correlation coefficient (0.129) which is neither close to 1.00 nor - 1.00. The corresponding p value (0.588) also supports the results since it is far much greater than 0.001 indicating that the degree of significance is very low. 4) Using correlations as a statistical test has got several shortcomings. The correlation does not mean a cause-and-effect link between variables and so cannot be used for certain research questions which seek to determine that kind of relationship (Munro, 2005). For instance, it does not show if an increased caloric intake leads to a high BMI or high BMI causes one to take fewer calories. It also quantifies only the strength of the linear relationship and does not provide other details concerning the relationship between the variables. Correlations are also bivariate meaning they only compare two variables from two data sets at a time which may increase chances of making errors since this rarely occurs in reality (Trochim, 2006). This makes it unsuitable for researchers looking for interconnected relationships

No need Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

No need - Essay Example Power and trust play a vital role in decreasing as well as increasing the conflict. This leads to the purpose of this research paper, which is to understand the reason why do countries conflict with each other. This will occur by relating the importance of trust (defined as the number of treaties a countries sign with each other) in increasing or decreasing the conflict (violence attacks) between any two parties. To find an explanation to the reason why do countries conflict with each other? Four theories provide a clear answer to the question. The first theory indicates that the reason of conflict is that human motivation is by their self-interest and will harm each other to gain more resources. The second theory defines economical status and power as the main factors for conflict to exist. In addition, the third theory, illustrate that conflict is a fight over morals where they harm each other to reach a higher position. The last theory specifies the answer that countries should no t trust each other and act to preserve their own interest, not others interest. Indeed, the last theory provides the convenient answer to question the more mistrust the fear and security there are, leading to more conflict. To answer the question why do countries conflict? There is a creation of a connection between the number of treaties and the number of armed conflict between two countries or a country and its government. Then focus on 32 countries from a different region in the world that has armed conflict between the years 1975 to 2011. Furthermore, the focus is on the number of peace treaties that country has to sign at this time when there is a conflict. In addition, to know the relationship between the number of peace treaties and the number of armed conflict, there is use of large-n method. Linear regressions between the two variables are the point of attention and expect that the less trust (more peace treaties) between any two party the more conflict. Because if two part ies do not trust each other then they will fear each other and increase their security leading armed conflict to exist. The analysis results show that after measuring the variables, there is no relationship between the number of peace treaties and the number of armed conflict in all level of significance. Thus, the decision is to check if there exist factors that lead the hypothesis to fail by using the multi regression method, where the independent variables are the number of peace treaties, and the number of parties a country involve in conflict. Indeed, the result shows that there is a strong positive relationship between the number of parties and the number of armed conflict. In other words, the more parties that takes place the more conflict. The Process of the Research Paper To understand how is trust related to conflict there is a creation of a model to explain the connection between the Independent variable (trust) and dependent variable (conflict) in Micaville’s hypo thesis, which is the less the trust the more conflicts. If there is less trust between any two parties, then both parties fear each other. For example, if party A do not trust party B then party A fails to predict party B actions and this make party A fear party B. Indeed, with the appearance of fear, party A increases its security and advances its military power in order to protect its resources from party B. This example is similar to the model where both party A and party B do not trust each

Importance of Communication Essay Example for Free

Importance of Communication Essay First, in order to communicate effectively, a person needs to know what barriers there are, and there are many. I will do my best to explain the barriers of effective communication and how to overcome them. These barriers include Language, defensiveness, misreading of body language, noisy transmission, receiver distortion, power struggles, self-fulfilling assumptions, supervisors hesitation to be candid, assumptions, distrusted source, perceptual biases, interpersonal relationships, and cultural differences1. So now, let us break these barriers down, starting with language barriers. Language barriers include using words that could imply another message than the one that the sender wants to send. Moreover, the reason for this is that each person will interpret some words differently. So, in order to transmit the message that you want to send make sure that the words you use to send the message cannot imply anything that you do not want sent. The next barrier is defensiveness. Most of the time when trying to conduct a face-to-face meeting with someone to communicate some flaws in a persons work performance or just to ask them a question on what they have done make sure the message is concise and clear. Most people will get defensive when the person being Importance of Communication SPC Eric J. Seiberling – 3 counseled has a distorted perception on what is being covered, or a feeling of implied guilt of wrongdoing without having a chance to explain ones actions. A person will also get very defensive when any anger or a feeling of negativity is being transferred to them from an issue the sender has at home or with another co-worker. In addition, a person will get extremely defensive when there has been a trend of negative distortions of counseling in the past; a person would feel as if the sender is still beating an issue that was resolved prior to this session. Noisy transmission is another barrier to effective communication. Noisy transmission happens when the messages being convoluted with erroneous information or a common inconsistency in relaying the message from bouncing around the subject or hitting numerous subjects when wanting to convey a message about one, certain subject. Another sticking point is receiver distortion. This happens when the receiver subconsciously has selective hearing and hears what they want to hear and completely miss the intended message. This also happens when the receiver and sender ignore the non-verbal cues each other is not noticing or taking into account the way each other is acting or feeling, by not noticing a subtle thing like body language. Power struggles is something that a superior needs to watch out for, this will kill any attempt to communicate a plan to a group. For instance if a subordinate has the superior’s job in their crosshairs that person will have a distorted view of the message that is trying to be conveyed. People who have not had a vast majority of the same experiences will not understand or even be able to decode what the manager is trying to say. Assumptions are a major killer of effective communication. Most people will assume that everyone understands the problem the same way that they do. When in most cases, that is not the case. Some people will see a problem in a different perspective. When that happens the receiver will wonder what the sender is complaining about because they do not see the same problem and will refuse to see the problem in the same light. When a supervisor is basing his counseling on a certain source that some subordinates do not trust the supervisor is accomplishing nothing in the counseling. The supervisor might want to make sure there is more than one source of information. When there is more than one source of information then it will not become a value judgment against the supervisor or the subordinate. When conveying a message a person must make sure, they are not portraying any perceptual biases in the message. In saying that do not go into a meeting with any stereotypes of the people that attend. Basic communication requires that the receiver can decode the senders meaning and if the sender is convoluting the meaning in their own experiences, background, values, aspirations, or assumptions, the receiver might not understand because they did not have the same experiences, background, values, aspirations, or assumptions. This is a major issue in communicating with people from different geographical areas, and different generations. So, after explaining all the major barriers of communication, now will be the time to defeat these barriers and start communicating effectively. Moreover, if someone is not communicating effectively, the messenger is not communicating at all. In addition, if they are not communicating at all, the receiver will have no clue on what is going on and what needs to happen. The army says since leadership is about getting other people to do what you want them to do, it follows that communicating—transmitting information so that it’s clearly understood—is an important skill. 2 In order to communicate effectively a person must understand the different forms of communication.

The Importance of Being Earnest Essay Example for Free

The Importance of Being Earnest Essay We live, as I hope you know, Mr Worthing, in an age of ideals what are these ideals in the context of the play in Act One, and how does Wilde present them to the audience?  In The Importance of Being Earnest, ideals are a dominant theme, and to that end are critical in determining the actions of the characters. Wilde is typically subtle in his presentation of these ideals, and consequently many of them come to be used as a means for satirising the society depicted. It is important to establish from the outset that Wildes presentation of ideals utilizes the different characters as bastions for the various ideals, and in doing that subjects them to scrutiny when ridiculing their respective characterizations. One of the most important ideals presented is fittingly one of the first to become apparent; that being the division of the classes and the social status that they entail. On line 1 of the play, Algernon asks Lane, after playing the piano in the adjoining room: Did you hear what I was playing. Lane? Lanes response: I didnt think it polite to listen, sir is indicative of various aspects of his position. Firstly, his butlership requires that he should abstain from partaking in any activity considered to be distracting to his duties, of which listening to the piano would be one. Secondly, his position in society, that of one of the lower classes, demands utter obsequiousness, hence any comment on Algernons playing would be risky in case it appeared to be unflattering. The ideal of social standing being absolute is immediately challenged by Wilde, as it is quite preposterous that Lane should think it not polite to listen, a distinctly ironic and seditious undertone is palpable. In this instance, Algernon represents the foppish dandy without a brain, whereas Lanes quiet obedience, representative of the downtrodden worker, whilst not perhaps admirable is at least sensible. Thus, Wilde establishes certain connections between the tenets of proper society, and its greatest protagonists, and hence weakens the establishment. The fact that this is done through the means of an implicitly comic exchange helps to alleviate any graveness associated with the matter. Connected to the ideal of status and society is the position of women, which is also a prevalent theme in Act 1. During the Victorian Age and before, it was considered proper practice that woman have an inferior position in society to men. This was effected by their disenfranchisement and their inability to ascend to high positions, whether it is in society or in the work place. It is therefore a shock to the system when Gwendolen challenges Jacks natural authority when speaking to him about their marriage. Whereas he is vacillating and circuitous in what he says: I do mean something else Personally, darling, to speak quite candidly, Gwendolen is forceful and direct: I thought so. In fact, I am never wrong I would certainly advise you to do so. By being so controlling, Gwendolen reverses the accepted patriarchy, and in doing so challenges the ideal. In this case in point, Wilde is quite prepared to dispose of any comic vignettes in order to make a point; instead the dialogue itself provides ample means for dismissing the given principle that women should be subordinate. The character of Lady Bracknell is another example of a dominating woman; a slightly more matronly persona gives some precedence for such commands as: Mr Worthing! Rise, sir, from this semi-recumbent posture however her assumption of authority is still contradictory to the established social norms. Her verbose and eloquent manner of speaking is also out of the ordinary, as it challenges the demure image normally associated with women. Lady Bracknell challenges the patriarchal society in a more forceful and deliberate way than does Gwendolen, as seen from her interviewing Jack: You can take a seat, Mr Worthing. Although this matronly caricature is somewhat trite by todays standards, at the time of writing it would have served to provide an original attack on the males dominance of the running of society.

Antoni Gaudis Architecture Style

Antoni Gaudis Architecture Style Introduction In order to appreciate Antoni Gaudis creative vision we must look at the context in which he worked. It seems that previous studies of Gaudi have not researched extensively into placing him within this cultural context; and have rather preferred to outline him as a lonely reclusive figure or concentrated on his elaborate architectural forms. This dissertation will explore whether political, social and economic developments in the late 19th and 20th Centuries in Catalonia and Spain proved touchstones for the architect, his work and his immediate circle; and whether these factors influenced his creative decisions and have been overlooked throughout his life. The work is composed of three inter-related sections. The first section will discuss Gaudis Catalan roots, and early social influences. Park G?ell will be used to illustrate this. The second section explores Catalan nationalism, social classes and the rise of Catalan industrial capitalism. It will also examine the political conflict and tensions between Castile and Catalonia, including the three Carlist wars, which were fought out on Catalan territory, the disastrous effects after Spains loss of her empire in 1898, and the impact of Tragic Week in 1909. It will consider how these may have affected Gaudi and his working rationale. This section will be analysed through the example of the Casa Mila. The third section will examine Gaudis shift in faith and the impact that this had on his architecture. This will be shown through the example of the Sagrada Familia (Holy family) Cathedral. This discussion starts by considering the view expressed by Clara Gari of the Catalan architects approach: Perhaps what makes a quick understanding difficult in Gaudis work is its daring and fascinating uncertainty, that range which slips between architectural code and structure. Such ambiguity is accentuated much more when the matrixes from which Gaudi extracts a determined stylistic code are not always clearly evidenced. But rather they appear, as often happens, ambiguously confused as a consequence of a sort of intervention, prior to the adoption of the chosen code, which by way of a distorted lens, varies the facets and the colour in it, tricking us with a free all embracing conduct, and with an underlying energy directly emanated from the ethnic heritage which is difficult to simplify Gari seems to be commenting that, despite Gaudis classical education and training as an architect, he could risk being very radical in his use of the accepted architectural codes and structures of his time. In Gaudis work, codes and structures seem to be passed through the filter of his imagination and his Catalan identity, and are transformed into something which may appear distorted but can have a powerful effect upon us as observers. Gaudis Catalan roots and early social influences Antoni Placid Guillem Gaudi I Cornet was born in Tarragona, Catalonia, Spain on June 25, 1852, into a family which had come from a long line of Catalan merchants, miners, farmers, weavers, boilermakers and coppersmiths. Gaudi was introduced to the family craft tradition at an early age when watching his father in his workshop. He was proud of this heritage and once said: I have the quality of spatial apprehension because I am the son, grandson, and the great grandson of coppersmiths All these generations of people gave me preparation. Gaudis predecessors came from a cross-Pyrenean culture that bordered the Mediterranean Sea and were accustomed to absorbing influences from different cultures, while somehow retaining their own Catalan identity. The Catalan language, for example, is closer to the tongue of Languedoc in France than it is to Castilian which is spoken in most of Spain. Joan Bergos explains in his book, Gaudi the man and his works, that: Gaudis lineage therefore has deep, i f distant roots in central Europe, mixed with the virtues traditionally found among the people of Tarragona, a typically Mediterranean people, passionate, industrious, courageous in the face of adversity and somewhat inclined to irony. The Mediterranean region of Tarragona, with its natural surroundings and quality of light, are elements of the rural world that Gaudi seems to provide as references to his architectural forms. His love of nature began as a small child, when rheumatoid arthritis, made physical exploration and play painful and difficult and he was restricted to riding around on the back of a donkey, according to family stories, he was able to study his natural surroundings and to create his own imaginary world. Perhaps because of his difficult start in life Gaudi may have developed an inner world of fantasy, shape, structure and colour, produced by his knowledge of the artisans craft and the natural forms found in his environment. Gaudi came from a deeply religious family and received a thorough Catholic religious education generated from the continuation of medieval Guilds. This would have included obligatory prayer to the Virgin, Christian doctrine, religious morals and religious history. By 1874, at the age of 22, Gaudi had moved to Barcelona with his brother Francesc; and here he began his preparation to train as an architect at the Escuela Tà ©cnica Superior de Arquitectura (Upper Technical School of Architecture). Here he studied Spanish architecture which would have focused upon its many cultural traditions, including: Phoenician, Roman, Greek, Visigothic, Celtic, Arab, Berber and Jewish. These would have been completely absorbed into the thinking of contemporary design so that there was no prejudice against the adoption of Islamic motifs and symbols. One could imagine how important this multi-faceted cultural heritage of Spain would have been for the development of Gaudis own approach to architecture. Gaudi also seemed to share the concerns and ideals that surrounded the dynamic and intellectual atmosphere during his youth, and would have been influenced by the famous intellectuals of the time: Pugin, Ruskin and Viollet-le-Duc. The latter was responsible for the Gothic revival in France and as a pupil of Le Grand Durand he had influenced Frances adoption of Renaissance models and rationalist approach to city planning, which had put the country at the forefront of European artistic and architectural debate. One could also presume that Gaudi had read the work of the English writer Ruskin, in which he states, in his book: The seven lamps of Architecture: I say that if men really lived like men, their houses would be like temples which we would not dare to violate so easily and in which it would be a privilege to live. There must be some strange dissolution of family affection, a strange ingratitude towards everything that our houses have given us and that our parents have taught us, a strange awareness of our infidelity with respect and love for our father, or perhaps an awareness that our life is not for making our house sacred in the eyes of our children, which induces each one of us to want to build for ourselves, and to build only for the little revolution of our personal life. I see these miserable concretions of mud and limestone that shoot up like mushrooms in the boggy fields around our capitalI look at them not only with the repulsion of the offended view, not only with the pain that is caused by a disfigured landscape, not with the painful presentiment that the roots of our national grandeza must have infected with gangren e right down to their tips from the moment that they were planted in such an unstable manner in out native soil. It seems that Ruskins moral and aesthetic dilemma was one that Gaudi would also experience as a young professional architect, and he would move between his support of socialist ideals and various privileged connections with the aristocracy and upper middle classes (his possible clients) throughout his life. Gaudi was discovered by the bourgeoisie without whom his architecture would not stand today. However it seems he was not indifferent to the social life of his age and its contradictions. Other contemporaries working towards these ideals, were: Elies Rogent (1821-1897), whose design of Barcelonas University building was influenced by the German Rundbogenstil, which was a Neo-classical rounded arch; Joan Martorell (1833-1906) who designed the Neo-gothic brick and glazed-tiled church of Saint Francesc de Sales (1885); Josep Vilaseca who collaborated with Lluis Domà ¨nech i Montaner (1850-1923) on the Batlo tomb (1885). As his former professor at the Escuela Tà ©cnica Superior de Ar quitectura, Lluis Domà ¨nech i Montaner was at the forefront of the Catalan Modernist movement, also known as the Renaixenca (or Rebirth), which encouraged art, theatre and literature in the Catalan language. He was also responsible for designing the Palau de la Musica Catalana which symbolises the coming together of the Catalan nationalist sentiment and international culture. It also shows a particular connection to Gaudis Colonia Guell, Casa Vicens and Park Guell, though its elaborate ornamentation, sculptures and colourful ceramic mosaics, all of which seem to refer to a deep connection with Catalan nature and nationalism that were apparent at the time. This connection can be seen in the leaf and flower patterns on the facade of the Palau de la Musica Catalana which are inspired by Moorish architecture and followed the curvilinear design seen in Art Nouveau. At the same time, the civil engineer Ildefons Cerda (1815-1876) had been given the commission to expand Barcelonas boundaries by demolishing its walls and providing land for new residential areas. It seems that his plans were influenced by Haussmanns redesign of Paris, and were based on a similar grid system. Cerda was shocked that the working classes were paying proportionately more in rent for their confined living accommodation than the wealthy paid for their luxurious housing. The design for city, although Neo-classical, was also considered realist because of Cerdas understanding of modern urban sociology and living conditions. It seems that this expansion signalled to other architects that it was acceptable to explore new ways of designing public and private spaces. This new sociological attitude towards urban spaces can be seen as the catalyst for the creation of the idea of the Garden City. The concept of setting up communities outside cities was started by enlightened industr ial philanthropists such as Robert Owen, Titus Salt and George Cadbury, creating small housing projects for their workers in England as far back as 1800. However, the most important of the Garden City movement was Ebenezer Howard whose book Tomorrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform, published in 1898, was to become highly influential in town planning throughout the 20th century. The Garden City movement is a good example of the changing social attitude towards the built environment and can be seen in the later planning texts of Tony Garnier and of Le Corbusiers ASCORAL, first published as Les Trois Establissements Humains in 1945. In a short text called Notes on the family house (Casa Pairal) written by Gaudi between 1878 and 1881, he reflects on the relationship between house and family: The house is a small nation of the familyThe privately owned house has been given the name of Casa Parial (family home) who among us does not recall, on hearing this expression, some beautiful example in the countryside or in the city? The pursuit of lucre and changes in customs have caused most of these family homes to disappear from the city, and those that remain are in such a terrible state that they cannot last long. The need for a family house is not only limited to one age and one family in particular but is an enduring need for all families. The text seems to be referring to the unity of a nation and of its people, it reflects the understanding of an architect who strives for sanitation and well being, as well as the anti-urban feeling which had arisen in England and spread throughout Europe. One could presume that it also reflects Gaudis deep-rooted connection with the rural world, that of peasant and craftsman, a world from which he had come. Maria Antonietta Crippa explains in her book, Living Gaudi that: Gaudis attention was not directed immediately to the bourgeois house, but to the needs of everyone. She goes on to say that He does not hide his unease at the excessive, over accelerated growth of cities, which uproot many people from the land of their birth and force them to live in rented houses in the land of emigration. And he applauds the decision to abandon congested city centers for the spacious, light-filled, leafy suburbs. Perhaps this sociological approach is what allowed Gaudi to think up the imaginative design that he created for Park G?ell in 1900. This was a garden city which captured the spirit of the 20th century and followed the fashionable trend in Europe for creating large ornamental spaces. It was a public space which would create a haven away from industrialisation, where the common man, both wealthy and poor, could exercise and see public events during their new-found leisure hours. It was also designed as a space where nouveau-riche families could live comfortably away from the crowded city centre. The park seems to reveal Gaudis extraordinary imagination in what could be seen as an optimistic phase of his life. Maria Antoietta Crippa explains that: Gaudis gardens are reminiscent of The Rose Garden, evoked in the first of T.S Eliots Four Quartets: a place that arouses memories of childhood, but which is also a symbol of a past and a future that are alive in our present: Humankind cannot b ear too much reality. / Time past and time future / what might have been and what has been / point to one end, which is always present. She goes on to explain that the garden is a metaphor not just for an earthly paradise, but also of the power of human memory, another expansion of Gaudis inner world. The park draws together urban sociology, his early childhood interest in nature and his strong sense of Mediterranean Catalan nationalism and symbolism. Gaudi uses the Moorish art of trencadis, a method of deliberately breaking tiles and re-arranging them into intricate patterns. He uses this technique on the long serpentine bench-balustrade where broken ceramic pieces have been arranged into words and symbols with religious and Catalan nationalist connotations. Some historians have also suggested that the Doric columns which consist of fluted shafts made of rough stone, covered at the base with white ceramics, and joined to the ceiling by domes which are supported by gently curving be ams, not only evoke the motion of Mediterranean waves but are also reminiscent of the Temple of Delphos and reflect the culture of Greece and the Mediterranean. They believed the structure of these columns existed as a tribute to Greece, which had won its independence from the Turkish Empire, drawing parallels with the political situation of Catalonia and the Catalans desire for independence. Gaudi arrived in Barcelona at a time of important change in architectural thinking and it seems that he benefited from meeting and leading architects of his day, who were involved in the regeneration of Catalan culture, in which, the re-birth of the language had a vital contribution in Catalans rediscovering their heritage and their common identities. In the journal: Tongue tied: The role of linguistics in Basque and Catalan Nationalism, Ryan Barnes explains how important the rebirth of the Catalan language was: Language has always been an essential element of nationalism, providing a distinctive feature and source of pride for a collective people. The ability to communicate with one another is essential to building bridges between strangers and forging the idea of a nation, which instils the idea of unity among a people that have never met Moreover, communication brings knowledge with it. Language conveys the ideas of a people or nation through literacy works such as poems or novels, which nationalists can look back on with pride. It seems that Catalan nationals were comparing themselves, not to the intellectuals in the Spanish capital, Madrid, but to artists and designers of other nations in Europe who were more technologically advanced, such as: England, France and Germany. The Catalan language had been suppressed for many years by Spains central government but now Catalans seemed to take pride in self-expression, while being aware of developments from the other side of the Pyrenees, including the redevelopment of Paris and the creation of the London squares with their ornamental gardens. They also seemed aware of the Neo-gothic architecture which was encouraged by intellectuals such as Pugin, the architect of the Houses of Parliament and John Ruskins ideas on workers education and benefits. It seems that Gaudi too was aware of these ideas, and although Catalonia was isolating itself from the decline of Spain, it was also keeping up with new and important influences from abroad. Catalonia was becoming a deve loped region within an undeveloped country. The history of Catalan nationalism, social classes and the rise of Catalan industrial capitalism and political tensions in Catalonia and Spain. Catalonia had become the industrial centre for the rest of Spain during the 19th century, a period when there was increasing unrest in the whole country. During the 18th century Catalonia had evolved from an economy based on goods for local consumption to an economy with wider commercial aspirations. This industrialisation took place in a country of untapped raw materials and very low purchasing power. Catalonias manufacturing expansion depended upon its source of energy generated from hydraulic turbines on its irregularly flowing rivers, but in the 20th century the hydroelectric potential of the Pyrenees was eventually secured for advancing industrial production. The class system of Catalan society was largely the result of three successive long waves of industrialisation and capital accumulation, with the attendant growth of new factory-linked centres, the massive importance of the workforce, the consolidation of a skilled working class and a large middle class, together with furth er advances in the direction of secularisation and urbanisation. These three long waves entailed the following developments: the growth of the bourgeois class, the rise of an industrial society based, at first, as in so many other places, on the textile industry, and the establishment of great family fortunes. Karl Marx was writing in Das Kapital at this period of time about the expansion of the bourgeoisie in Europe: Constant revolutionising of production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions, everlasting uncertainty and agitation distinguish the bourgeoisie epoch from all earlier ones. All fixed, fast frozen relations, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and opinions, are swept away, all new formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify The bourgeoisie has subjected the country to the rule of the towns. It has created enormous cites, has greatly increased the urban population as compared with the rural, and thus rescued a considerable part of the population from rural idiocy. In common with the bourgeoisie across Europe there was an increasing number of newly rich Catalan industrialists such as Eusebi G?ell and Pere Mila i Camps who were seeking the outward expression of their fortunate position in society. The city culture of Barcelona attracted them because it offered them a style of life that was equivalent to what they witnessed in other European industrialised societies. To express their power, and their love of the new, as Marx discusses, they needed modern fashionable architects who could take advantage of the trends in design that were current in those other countries. Most of the architects at this time were drawn into the Capitalist desire to use space as a commodity that could be built on and sold. Gaudi, although willing to offer his considerable talent to industrialists who were acquiring land for building projects, eventually rejected this approach to architecture in favor of a return to the traditional architectural forms, such as church building, as a symbolic representation of Catalan nationhood. According to Maria Antonietta Crippa, Gaudi was already setting out on a different path in terms of the secularisation of modern architecture, as will be demonstrated in the example of the Casa Mila. In her book, Living Gaudi, The architects complete vision, she suggests that: (Gaudis) constructions were built at a time when a utopian, secularising trend was developing in the world of European architecture. This trend, which was radically different from the direction taken by the Catalan architect, proposed the creation of the new urban and residential spaces that would resolve the imbalances caused by the violent growth of cities and by the technological revolution that took place in the second half of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth. Despite the apparently luxurious life of Barcelonas bourgeoisie, the political situation in the whole of Spain was increasingly unstable throughout the 19th century. Instead of developing a system of political parties Spain had been confronted by a series of military coups; and instead of political debate there were attempts to change the written constitution. Between 1822 and 1875, opposition to liberal capitalism led to five civil wars, which were fought out on Catalan territory. The last three were to be known as the Carlist wars, in which royalists and the military opposed the liberals and republicans, and this conflict continued into the 20th century with increasing brutality and bloodshed. The Third Carlist war ended in 1876 when Gaudi was 24. Gaudi believed that: war, offering violence as a solution to any problem, is inevitably demoralising. The Crusades were a failure and many sensible Carlists abandoned that cause in the face of the behaviour of the Carlist forces. It seems that Gaudi was interested in public affairs and followed developments on the political scene. He once said: I am very like my father. At one point, not long before he died, there had just been elections, and he still had enough enthusiasm for the subject to ask me to tell him which candidates had been elected He railed against separatism and he defended energetically the ideas of rationalism and a strong and united Spain. Gaudi was one of a large group of intellectuals known as the generation of 98. In 1898 the political decline of Spain worsened when it entered a war with the USA, which it could not afford to fight. America supported the minority of planters in the colony of Cuba, who were making demands for emancipation from Spain. Following Spanish reprisals against these rebels, and supported by fictitious claims in the US press, America launched an attack on Spanish forces which caused enormous loss of life and led to Cuba being liberated into an American sphere of influence. The shock of defeat in Spain was overwhelming, as Gabriel Tortella explains in The Development of Modern Spain, an Economic History of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: the loss of markets for industry and agriculture, the loss of human life, of physical and military resources and income to the Treasury, the disappearance of various transportation and communication networks, and perhaps the most important, a widespread sense of revulsion and demoralization. For Spanish rulers and people, it seems that such a national humiliation inflicted by a relatively young democratic state would mark their country out as deeply flawed and unstable in the modern age of the early 20th century, and would be linked to decline, political chaos and eventual brutal civil war in 1936-1939. A few years after this catastrophe, Gaudi began work on the Casa Mila, a building six stories high, with eight apartments on each floor grouped around two internal courtyards, one circular and the other oval. It is designed so that light floods in through the two inner courtyards which are open to the sky. Gaudis idea was that the building should be a pedestal for an enormous statue of the Virgin Mary accompanied by two angels, which he had hoped would stand 25m above the roof of the building and would have dominated the city. The building seems to reflect Gaudis revulsion at the anti-clerical violence in Spain and loss of spiritual meaning in modern day society. Perhaps he would have agreed with Kandinskys view that: the nightmare of materialism, which has turned the life of the universe into an evil, useless game, is not yet past: it holds the awakening soul still in its grip. It seems that Mila I Camps was uneasy about the appearance of the proposed vast statue of the Madonna on the roof of his property, as according to art historian Robert Hughes: given the turbulence of 1904 it would probably lead to the destruction of his building by infuriated anti-clerical mobs. It seemed that Gaudi was obliged to convey the importance and opulence of the life of this new entrepreneurial class, who: did not look to the past, but only desired one thing: to invent their own future. Instead of the statue of the Virgin Mary, Gaudi was compelled to replace it with ventilation towers, chimneys and sculptures. The stair units are topped with crosses with four equal arms and the chimneys are surmounted by small domes similar to warrior heads. According to Maria Antonietta Crippa the resulting sculptures on the roof: (carry) a powerful emotive charge. She goes on to say consider, for example, that way that he uses catenary structures and fluted surfaces, or the features that appear in his artificial landscapes and stone gardens; these elements all work to create a fantasy world, as in the case of the multitextured, undulating faà §ade of Casa Batllo, or the mysterious ghost world of the roof terrace of Casa Mila. Could these anguished, twisted shapes express Gaudis inner fantasy world? Or indeed his mental state at the time? Could they possibly convey the violence of his times and his personal bereavements? It is reasonable to consider that the architects creative process is strongly influenced by his unconscious mind, as Karl Jung argues: Archetypes are numinous structural elements of the psyche which have a degree of autonomy and energy of their own, which allows them to attract whatever contents of the consciousness that suit them. These are not hereditary depictions, but rather certain innate predispositions to form parallel representations, which I called the collective unconscious. One could assume that these distorted forms were connected with his distress at the loss of his preferred sacred symbol, the Mother of Christ, but may also have held a more personal significance as a representation of his own mother, who had died 30 years previously along with his brother Francesc. The period following their deaths, in 1876, had caused an all enveloping depression for Gaudi. Reflecting on the Casa Mila it was probably a good idea that Gaudi had not used the building as a living shrine, as violent protests again erupted in the city, and saw the burning of 40 religious schools, convents and monasteries, and 12 Parish churches in 1909, the rioters considering the Church to form part of the corrupt bourgeois structure. The so-called Tragic Week seemed to affect Gaudi deeply; perhaps this is why everything he produced afterwards seemed to be built in the Catholic spirit of somehow making amends for the destruction. Could it be that he was carrying the burden of unconscious guilt for his own losses and for those that had devastated the Mother Church? At the same time as dealing with this spiritual crisis, it seems that he was coping with failing physical health. The death of Gaudis patron Don Eusebi G?ell in 1918 ground him to a complete halt, after which it is presumed that he had a psychological breakdown. During his last eight years of increasing isolation, perhaps he turned his back on the chaotic events in his country and withdrew into a life of abstinence and religiosity. Upon these painful tragic loses, after his fathers death and the death of his sisters daughter Rosa, his sense of uncertainty about life and on suffering from bouts of Mediterranean fever. He began his descent into a strict life of religiosity. My closest friends are dead; I have no family, no clients, no fortune, nothing. Now I can dedicate myself wholly to my church. Gijs Van Hensbergen summarises the crisis for Gaudis generation when he explains in his book: Gaudi the Biography: Spains loss of her empire in 1898 and the Tragic Week of 1909 in which convents and churches were burnt down; both had strong effects on Gaudi, his friends, patrons and completely changed his working patterns. The political situation in Catalonia was a complex, potentially explosive one. Catalonias alliance with Spain (Castile) was one of immense tensionBefore the civil war, some Spanish intellectuals and politicians recognised the dangers, but tragically they didnt have the power to halt the momentum of the approaching crisis. Few generations have ever been so savagely self analytical as Gaudis. Few have put themselves through such painful discoveryThese political and social tensions between reform and reaction provide the subtext and hidden structures of Gaudis work. Shift in faith and its impact on Gaudis architecture The wish to form something uniquely powerful and symbolic in a time of unpredictable political and social events may be at the heart of Gaudis most famous design, the cathedral. A personal account of Gaudi is given by one of his close friends Joan Bergos who remarked on the transformation in Gaudi during the latter years of his life, when he became completely consumed by his creative masterpiece. Bergos said: Faith changed the passionate, impetuous, irascible youth into a serene, balanced, exemplary man, who only on rare occasions gave vent to any temperamental outburst and who radiated such a beneficent aura that he sometimes inspired conversion and even heroic sacrifice in those lives he touched. Furthermore, Mark Burry suggests in his book Expiatory Church of the Sagrada Familia: Architecture in detail: The Sagrada Familia is a biography of a singular architects coming to terms with his time, his personality and, eventually, his vulnerability. Also one could also consider that Gaudi had been influenced by Viollet-le-Ducs statement that: We must find creativity through an accurate knowledge of the works of our ancestors. Not that such knowledge must lead us to imitate them slavishly, but rather it will reveal and make available all the secret skills of our predecessors. Perhaps what was important for Gaudi was that a designer must take from the traditional what he has absorbed into his own knowledge and re-interpret and re-work it so that it can appear innovatory and familiar, as well as inspirational. When Gaudi moved to Barcelona as a young man, it seems that he had been impressed with its wealth of historical architecture, which dated back to the Middle Ages. He had visited the Basilica Church of Santa Maria del Mar in the Ribera district which has three aisles forming a single space with no transepts and no architectural boundary between nave and presbytery. The simple ribbed vault is supported on slender octagonal columns, and daylight streams in through the tall clerestory windows. The foundation stone was laid by King Alfonso IV in 1329 and the whole building was carried out by local people including dockworkers, who collected the large stone slabs from near