Medieval Era And Gawain And Green Knight English Literature Essay

One of the most honest and glorious epochs of all clip was the mediaeval period. The narrative of ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight ‘ portrays this facet of life throughout the full narrative. Although there were a batch of great narratives written during this point in clip, this one stood out the most amongst all the others. The mediaeval period, while really structured and proper, had a batch of really disgraceful things that went on in mundane lives. The narrative ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight ‘ was written in a verse type of manner like many of the other narratives thought up during this epoch. Because the narrative was written in such a splendorous and elaborate manner, nevertheless, it is known as a arresting success. Again, like many of the other narratives written from 500-1500, these narratives were composed as many states were going shaped into the states they are today. Many of the narratives written during this clip were besides written with many literacy traditions that the people of that epoch would understand ; better than the people reading the narrative today. Peoples in the Middle Ages were considered â€Å" homogenous. † Basically, all of the people, work forces and adult females, operated in the same mode, but were really of many diverse civilizations. Therefore, because ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight ‘ was written in the metropolis of Birmingham, a European state, it portrays the life that the people lived during that clip in that part. In the medieval epoch, the construction of their society was really dainty and proper. They had a male monarch and a queen, princesses and knights, and etc. The male monarch was in charge of everything and everyone in the land had to reply to him. Now in the instance of ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight ‘ they use a similar construction. The Sir Gawain is evidently beneath King Arthur for multiple grounds. First off, the manner they communicate with each other tells the reader rather a spot about where each individual stood. For case, the fact that King Arthur stairss down when â€Å" Sir Gawain † asks to take on the undertakings of the Green Knight shows rather a spot on how things were done back so. Sir Gawain asks to turn out himself, merely as King Arthur did before he merely about took off the Green Knight ‘s caput, to be courageous and honored by others. By making so, Sir Gawain will derive the regard he deserves from everyone, every bit good as maybe kn ock some of the fright of decease out of him every bit good. Although, Sir Gawain is beneath King Arthur, he is one of the most extremely apprehended knights that are among King Arthur ‘s tribunal. We know this because of the trust that King Arthur puts into him. When Sir Gawain says that he is traveling to take on the undertakings of the Green Knight, King Arthur allows him to make this with without vacillation. Even though Sir Gawain makes some â€Å" humanly † errors, throughout the narrative, he is still considered a really charming character in the narrative. Besides, when Sir Gawain does take on the duties of the Green Knight he does so entirely without aid from his fellow knights. Obviously, King Arthur thinks that he is â€Å" worthy † plenty to take the Green Knight on by himself. During his travel to the Green Knight ‘s palace, Sir Gawain is asked to remain at a different palace where the Godhead greets him with great cordial reception. The host asks Sir Gawain to remain a piece with them at his topographic point, and promises to allow Sir Gawain leave on New Year ‘s Day to contend the Green Knight. While Sir Gawain is remaining at the host ‘s palace the host asks him to rest while he goes out to run each twenty-four hours. The gimmick of the affair is that Sir Gawain would give back, to the host, what he had been given that twenty-four hours and the host would give him what he had caught that twenty-four hours. We start to see that Sir Gawain ends up snoging the lady of the palace on each twenty-four hours while the host Hunts game each twenty-four hours. The host gave a banquet and Sir Gawain kissed the host each dark ; to give back what he had been given each twenty-four hours. On the last twenty-four hours at the palace Sir Gawain is giv en a sash and Sir Gawain does non state the host. When he goes to the Green Knight the following twenty-four hours he laughs in Sir Gawain ‘s face for have oning the sash, evidently non giving it to the host. It was a trial for Sir Gawain. Thus, the Green Knight takes his â€Å" blows † and ends up merely cutting Sir Gawain ‘s cervix. Sir Gawain apologizes for non giving the sash to the host and the Green Knight takes the apology. Sir Gawain says he will have on the sash for the remainder of his life to remind him of his mistakes. When Sir Gawain returns to his place everyone greets him gleefully. Sir Gawain tells the whole tribunal of the escapade he had while he was gone. Everyone got a good laugh out of it and yet felt sorry for him every bit good. They all decided to have on green sashes every bit good in award of Sir Gawain ‘s courage and embarrassment. Basically, they ended up honouring him to the highest extent by making so for him. King Arthur did non even complain about anyone making so, which shows that King Arthur had somewhat regard for this one knight of his. He did non even get covetous of Sir Gawain for this either, which shows that he trust Sir Gawain plenty to non acquire a â€Å" large caput † about what he did. As in lasting the â€Å" undertakings † of the Green Knight and being honored by all â€Å" King Arthurs † people. Honestly, the sad portion of this full narrative is that the writer is unknown. We truly can non appreciate his work to the fullest extent ; as in it reflected the Middle Ages really good. I believe that this narrative will go on to be successful for many old ages to come. It portrays how life one time was long ago ; along with an interesting narrative.

glory (movie) essays

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La Belle Dame sans Merci and The Eve of St Agnes Essay Example

La Belle Dame sans Merci and The Eve of St Agnes Essay Example La Belle Dame sans Merci and The Eve of St Agnes Paper La Belle Dame sans Merci and The Eve of St Agnes Paper Essay Topic: Fanny Hill Literature The poet John Keats, inspired by the sentimental nature of his unrequited love for Fanny and the depression he felt due to the death of his mother and his brother, wrote both ballads using the key theme of time, to engage the listener. The use of tenses links succinctly in with Keats use of time. The change of tenses throughout La Belle Dame, whereby the first three verses are set in the present tense, no birds sing, verses four to eleven are set in the past, I met a lady and verse twelve is again set in the present, no birds sing. The effect of this as well as the first and last verse including, Alone and palely loitering, is to create a circular chronological structure. This represents a question asked and answered within the poem and a feeling of entrapment within a cycle of death and love (key themes featuring in Keats poetry, and contextually in his life). Moreover, the lack of future tense suggests to the listener that there is to be no future and hence no hope adding to the melancholy mood produced by Keats. Conversely, Keats uses a linear chronology in the past tense throughout The Eve of St Agnes, How changed, in order to construct an ordered narrative. This separates the feel of both poems, distinguishing one (Eve of St Agnes) as more story-like than the symbolic other (La Belle Dame). This also infers to the listener that Keats use of time was a deliberate endeavour within his poetry and not simply the standard arrangement of poetic literature of the time. The use of seasons and the weather conditions in La Belle Dame create the ambiance and atmosphere of the poem. As the squirrels granary is full dictating that the harvests done and that the agricultural labouring and gathering of the summer growth is complete, this implies the beginning of autumn, leading on to winter, cold hills side, and the cold, desolation of the surroundings that is associated with it. This use of pathetic fallacy warns the listener for what is to come later in the poem, adding to the sense of intrigue and mystery. However, whilst he is with her, summer is inferred via the use of sensual floral references, garland for her head (touch), fragrant zone (smell), suggesting the warmth and intimacy of his feelings for her. This atmospheric separation between the seasons intensifies the loneliness and suffering of the knight after his meeting with her, alone and palely loitering. The Eve of St Agnes also uses a wintry setting, bitter chill, trembling [ frozen grass, frosted breath, yet this is used to conjure the symbolism of God and Madelines familys disapproval of their courtship. This creates the impression of a higher power perhaps scrutinising Porphyro and Madelines doings; Porphyros inner thoughts, fears and paranoia. Similarly, Keats use of the Moon represents the urgency of Porphyros passion, particularly as the moon is commonly associated with its lunar calendar, in which he has to capture Madeline before his opportunity is lost, Ive mickle time to grieve, an expression of his determination. Both poems create a medieval scene, La Belle Dame; knight-at-arms, pale warriors, faerys child, pacing steed, Eve of St Agnes; lofty plume (reference to a knights helmet), witchs sieve, liege-lord, Elves and Fays, wolves and bears, Merlin, Dame, maiden, queens and kings, mermaid, Beadsman, via a plague of fairy tale characters, having the effect of setting up both poems for an atmosphere of a differing time period to that in which Keats wrote the poems. This creates a historical parallel between the world Keats imagined within the medieval Romeo and Juliet-esque time period and his own affairs and thoughts of Fanny. In addition to this, the use of archaic language such as, La Belle Dame; steed, woebegone and Eve of St Agnes; thy, thee, Quoth, help create the practicality and realism within these imaginary characters and historical scenarios. Unlike the more untouched setting of La Belle Dame, the sedge has withered from the lake, Castle imagery is extensively used in The Eve of St Agnes; arched way, dusky gallery, chamber, balustrade, citadel, carved angels, level chambers, portraying the scene within the listeners minds eye. In addition, The Eve of St Agnes is written in Spenserian stanzas, adding to the medieval feel of the poem (Spenser invented the term Spenserian stanza to be used within his epic, medieval poem, The Faerie Queen). The use of an irregular rhyme scheme in The Eve of St Agnes- Iambic pentameter except for last line which is iambic hexameter suggests an ongoing narrative throughout as well as displaying the infrequency of the pagan Eve of St Agnes feast (whereby virgins may see their future husbands). Also, syndetic listing is included within the caesura, and sleep, and dream creating a rhythm comparable to that of a heart beat, in order to show how Porphyros fear creates a slow motion of time and an increased physical and sexual awareness, as he prepares to witness Madeline. La Belle Dame involves a similar rhyme scheme iambic tetrameter except for the last line of each stanza that are of varying length this variation of length represents the abrupt change in the relationship/ knights life, as the listener, lulled into a security within the regularity, is subconsciously disturbed by a change in rhyme in verse nine. Overall, the use of time in both poems aids the in-depth view into Keats life and emotional workings. Ultimately, it is his use of archaisms that create the setting, yet it is his use of tenses, seasons, rhythm and rhyme scheme that imply the subtleties of The Eve of St Agnes and La Belle Dame sans Merci.

How did France come to look like a consolidated democracy and why the Essay

How did France come to look like a consolidated democracy and why the fifth republic has been a relatively stable period in French history - Essay Example This partly explains why democracies, unless the freedom on which they are founded is violated, are assumed to be poorly equipped to deal with threats to their security. This antinomy currently appears to be more pronounced as both terms of the alternative have been assuming new configurations. In terms of security, two opposing trends are at work. There is on the one hand an overall sense of irenization of modern polities' internal and external order that is encapsulated in the image of the neo-Saint-Simonean "consensual/warless society," and the parent neo-Hegelian view of "'the end of history." At the domestic level, their sociopolitical foundations are no longer questioned, and conflicts over the management of the state are settled through electoral alternatives. At the external level, appeasement induced by nuclear deterrence and continued with the progress of disarmament policies was enhanced by the collapse of the communist system, which represented enmity for the West. On the other hand, a new and more ambivalent threat pattern emerged that increases the ubiquity of order and security issues. Within societies, deepening center-periphery tensions and sociological cleavages lead to the displacement of traditional civility by more frictional relationships. From withou t, menaces become more insidious, discontinuous, and multifocal, and less predictable and identifiable than before the end of bipolarity, extending on the low-intensity side of the violence spectrum and assuming unconventional aspects. Concomitantly, old-fashioned institutions and instruments of violence management, doctrines, and protocols ruling their employment, and their articulations with the state appearing less suitable and effective, call for other less orthodox means based on preemption, swiftness, and secrecy, which are generally at variance with the democratic process. The concept of democracy has been evolving also. Karl Mannheim, T. H. Marshall, and more recently Edward Shils have described its logic in advanced polities. First, rights have been extended and their nature modified to encompass almost every aspect of the individual's life. Formerly limited to civic and political contents, they became economic and social, and finally sociological and cultural so as to include security. Second, the beneficiaries of these rights, once very few, have been extended to include the farthest peripheries of the social system (even beyond, in that advocates of the so-called "natural contract" or "deep ecology" also include animals and the environment). Thus, those who until recently would not have been judged as legitimate recipients of such rights, either because they were unable to enjoy them--e.g., the child, those mentally impaired, or immigrants, or those legally deprived such as delinquents--are now considered full members of the polity. Democratic rig hts, in other words, are seen as belonging to everyone, partisans as well as adversaries of democracy. Saint-Just's famous utterance, "no freedom for the enemy of freedom," would not be applicable today. Democracy has become a holistic concept, no longer defined in a discrete manner, be it in terms of the rights composing it or in terms of its titulars. The dilemma, then, is obvious. The rightful exigency for order and

A short review of Nancy Folbre, Valuing Domestic Product New York Term Paper - 2

A short review of Nancy Folbre, Valuing Domestic Product New York Times, May 28, 2012 - Term Paper Example In her New York Times article titled â€Å"Valuing Domestic Product,† eminent economics professor Nancy Folbre lamented how domestic work or housework, is excluded from the usual computation of gross domestic product, which is the total value of all products and services that are produced within an economy in a given period. This is quite ironic because household work, if actually given a monetary value by computing the total amount of hours devoted to household chores and multiplied by the domestic workers supposed current market wages, is really a big amount of money and therefore constitutes a very significant portion of any gross domestic product. The economists have excluded or omitted this home sector of mostly unpaid services. An implication of the said article is that women who form the vast majority of the house workers suffer from gender inequality (Folbre, 2012, p. 1), an invisible workforce that over the years contributed greatly to improving living standards. This unpaid work has been exchanged in recent years with paid work due to globalization fostered by neoliberalism, which is more of a social and moral concept than just a mere economics idea, as more women join the workforce. A consequence of the neoliberalism fostered by the globalization concepts of free trade, privatization of public institutions, economic liberalization and open markets is an uptrend in the exploitation of labor, mostly women who now joined the paid labor force, and the degradation of the processes in social reproduction and a diminution of the social contract under a regime of the liberal democracy government. The home or family as a basic social unit has been weakened due to more women leaving the home in search of paid work outside, but at wages considerably less. Brown argues neoliberalism is a political project because it enforces the existence and operations of a free market by a state that can either promote or suppress it, but primarily to enhance it. This means

ENFLESHING freedom Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

ENFLESHING freedom - Essay Example lized use, making an indication of the cross may be, as stated by the setting, a demonstration of calling of confidence, a petition to God, a commitment, or an invocation. There are four fundamental sorts of iconographic representations of the cross: the crux quadrata, or Greek cross, with four equivalent arms; the crux immissa, or Latin cross, whose base stem is longer than the other three arms; the crux commissa, as the Greek letter tau, now and then called St. Anthonys cross; and crux decussata, named from the Roman decussis, or image of the numeral 10, otherwise called St. Andrews cross. Custom supports the crux immissa as that on which Christ kicked the bucket, however some accept that it was a crux commissa. The numerous varieties and ornamentations of processional, sacrificial table, and heraldic crosses, of cut and painted crosses in holy places, cemeteries, and somewhere else, are improvements of these four sorts. Cross structures were utilized as images, religious or overall, much sooner than the Christian Era, however it is not generally clear whether they were essentially characteristics of recognizable proof or ownership or were critical for conviction and love. Two prechristian cross structures have had some vogue in Christian usage. When the time of the ruler Constantine in the fourth century, Christians were amazingly hesitant about depicting the cross on the grounds that excessively open a showcase of it may lay open them to scorn or risk Cross structures were utilized as images, religious or overall, much sooner than the Christian Era, yet it is not generally clear whether they were essentially characteristics of distinguishing proof or ownership or were huge for conviction and love. Two prechristian cross structures have had some vogue in Christian utilization. The old Egyptian hieroglyphic image of life—the ankh, a tau cross surmounted by a circle and known as crux ansata—was received and broadly utilized on Coptic Christian

Ethics and Financial Services Essay Example for Free

Ethics and Financial Services Essay Question A1 Outline the frauds identified in the case and explain the inconsistencies with proper accounting treatment. Relate your answer to broad accounting concepts and accounting standards where relevant. (8 marks; approximately 800 words) Answer: Livent Inc. is a theatre production corporation registered in Toronto, Canada. Therefore, all the accounting behaviours were subject to the General Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) of Canada. In a broad sense, the GAAP imposes four main constraints on the accounting behaviours of companies – objectivity, materiality, consistency and conservatism. In the case of Livent Inc., there are several behaviours that was inconsistent with the proper accounting regulations in general. Large kickback scheme At the very beginning of the entire fraud by Livent, the two executives, Drabinsky and Gottlieb, fabricated transactions that did not exist at all, in order to transfer the revenue of the company secretly to their own pockets. They made the fake transaction on their balance sheet by colluding with their vendors. Drabinsky and Gottlieb received the money from vendors and asked them to fabricate evidences of charging fees. Manipulation of accounting records The kickback scheme sacrificed the net profit of the company, and as a result, Drabinsky and Gottlieb started manipulating the records. There were evidence from later investigation that Livent was exaggerating its revenue from the box office to show that it kept good income statement with good  profit. Also, they asked the accountants at Livent to modify the financial statements to hide the potential financial problems Livent had and to exhibit good operating performance to attract more investment. Drabinsky even used special software to manipulate the financial statements to make them as if they were the original record and hard to be detected. Keeping the fraud as secret to auditors With the help of the special software, Livent Inc. was able to keep two records of their financial performances, the phony one and the real one. And the outside auditors did auditing of Livent based on the phony financial records Livent provided. Therefore, the Deloitte, Livent’s outside auditing company, could hardly see signs of fraud during annual auditing. Significantly, the fraud of Livent Inc. broke the accounting principle of objectivity, which is also the primary standards companies should stick to. The objectivity principle basically requires that all kinds of financial statements the companies offer should be based on the facts. That is to say, every transaction and item recorded in the financial statements should be supported by unbiased and objective information. Under no circumstances are the managers, shareholders and accountants allowed to fabricate or distort any accounting reports and materials of the company. However, what Drabinsky and Gottlieb did at Livent went against the accounting standards. The fact that the two partners urged the internal accountants to modify the seasonal expenses and liability is definitely away from the proper professional behaviours. Livent benefited from manipulating its performance with additional investment and bank loans, which boosted aggressive expanding plans of Livent. It is even intolerable that the company invented the special software, which allowed unlimited arbitrary modification of all the accounting records of the company. This made the fraud much easier and less likely to be discovered because it enabled the manipulation looked as if they were the original data. Elrod and Gorhum (2010) made quantitative research on the way of detecting fraud by examine the extent to which the cash flow from operation and the earnings from continuing operations are correlated. Livent Inc. forced the accounting staff in the company to comply with the fraud behaviour without any doubt. The executives showed a â€Å"matter-of-fact† attitude toward the fraud. The accountants, independent auditors were not working independently and objectively as required by GAAP. On the contrary, they have been coerced or instructed to make fake accounting records, and did not show cooperation with the independent outside auditors. GAAP intends to ensure auditor independence. But Messina used her previous influence at Deloitte to disturb the independency of Deloitte auditors in examining the financial performance of Livent. The objectivity principle additionally restricts unreliable reports, materials and sheets offered to the auditors for annual auditing. Under the current accounting principles and standards in Canada and the United State, the auditors are responsible only for ensuring the preparation of all the accounting documents of the company align with the GAAP. But the outside auditors do not have access to the detailed daily record of the company. Therefore, the annual auditing is unable to prevent managerial collusion if the company provides counterfeit accounting materials. Livent was giving the fake balance sheet, income statement and other reports to Deloitte, which is not allowed by the accounting standards to a broad extent. Some companies correct their cheating behaviour when the situation improves, which makes it even harder to be detected. Nonetheless, such behaviours done by Livent are inconsistent with the standard professional ethics and regulations. Moreover, the aggressive developing strategy Livent had taken also violated the conservatism principle that the GAAP requires. This principle asks the accountants to exclude the uncertain income or revenue, while include the possible losses and risks in the financial statement. The conservative accounting behaviors are necessary because they can effectively prevent the shareholders and investors from potential losses. But in this case, Drabinsky is in such a haste to pursue aggressive development of the company, and obviously was exaggerating its revenue as well as concealing its losses. Question A2 Describe the corporate ethical culture at Livent Inc. How did this culture affect employee behaviour? Explain and justify your answer. (12 marks; approximately 1,200 words) Answer: Several researches supported the argument that the corporate ethical culture had large influences on the behaviours of the employees and their ethical judgements. The company does not have to have a specific code of ethics for the employees to constraint their ethical behaviours. The corporate environment in itself is enough for influencing the ethical behaviours inside the company. Nwachukwu and Vitell (1997)’s research found that the ethical culture in corporate has certain impact on the moral conviction of the employees upon what is right and wrong. Fraudulent behaviour was a very significant issue in the development of companies. It was because that it had tremendous impacts on the corporate, the employees as well as the public. Also, the difficulties in preventing such behaviours were to define, prevent and detect it. Schwartz (2013) made research and emphasized the three key factors in maintain an ethical corporate culture in the company. They are the set of ethical beliefs or values throughout the company, establishing â€Å"formal ethics program† and the ethical leadership throughout the development of the company. However, in the case of Livent’s fraud, all the three factors were lack in the system of the company. They had no clear ethical values, as the self-regulation mechanism, set and administrated inside the company to constraint the behaviours of not only the employees, but the senior executives as well. The unethical culture set by the top executives had not only influenced, but also forced all the staff, especially the accountants, to cooperate and to help conceal the fraud from being detected by the outsiders. This caused the company running under a set of very unethical corporate culture. It seemed to be routine to manipulate the financial records in Livent Inc. for quite a long time. As early as the year of 1990, Drabinsky, together with his best partner Gottlieb, began the kickback scheme to illegally create fake transactions to transfer money from the company to their own pockets. Then later Dranbinsky and Gottlieb had to tell even bigger lies and got more people involved in in order to make up for the expense losses from the kickback plan. The company lacked ethical leadership from the very beginning. To make the financial performance of Livent look promising,  Drabinsky and Gottlieb meddled in the daily accounting records as well as the preparation of the annual financial statements that were handed in and were examined by the auditing company, Deloitte. The executives and the senior level staff were not establishing positive example inside the company so as to maintain a positive ethical corporate culture. What’s even worse, they acted as the leading role in such fraudulent behaviours and arbitrarily got the other employees into the serious fraud scheme. Drabinsky and Gottlieb shouted at and coerced the staff and even the senior level managers to fulfil their ambition. They developed a specific computer software inside the company’s accounting system, so that they were able to take control of the financial status of the company. They could adjust any amount and transaction records in the system to make the quarterly, semi-annually and annually report of financial performance of Livent look promising to invest in. Even worse, by applying the software, Livent was able to cheat on the accounting records as if they were the raw figures, and avoid being discovered. It had also facilitated the fraudulent behaviours and motivated the employees and the executives to fraud continuously. Another serious issue inside Livent, besides the manipulation of the accounting records and financial statements, is the overwhelming attitude of viewing fraud as a matter of fact among executives as well as the employees. Even if some of the accounting staff including Messina and Webster questioned the unethical behaviours they got involved in, they were influenced by the overall environment and paid no attention to the fraudulent behaviours in Livent. They took for granted that what they did was to follow the instructions of the executives so as not to get fired. The employees would see Drabinsky shouting and bullying the accountants and even the senior level staff in the company if they had any different opinions against him. This was in fact establishing bad example for the employees and was to warn the other staff to just accept the deviant behaviours as a matter of fact. For a long time, employees were aware of the fraud happening, but were unwilling to avoid it. Llopis et al. (2007) argued that â€Å"effective communication is essential for the ethical message to be properly assimilated†. However, in Livent, the top two executives, Drabinsky and Gottlieb, were much too autocratic in the way of managing the company. There  were barely any information about the ethical culture passed to the employees, and the staff had little freedom to do their job but to listen to Drabinsky’s instructions. Last but not least, Livent Inc. lacked proper self-regulation mechanism to prevent the non-ethical behaviours. More often than not, self-regulation are considered as the last prevention of bad corporate ethical culture. Schwartz (2013) pointed out that the set of ethical value of the company was critical for making ethical decisions. Real self-regulation should not be independent of the public interest. Instead, the behaviours under self-regulation should be compatible with the social values and principles. In addition, as the ethical value of the company should not be arbitrarily decided by the executives or a few people in the company; instead the set of ethical value should gain the consent of the majority of the employees (Llopis et al. 2007). Yet, what the set of value acquiesced by the employees in Livent went against the public’s interest, and thus led to the unethical corporate culture overall. Formally, inside Livent, they did not have complete ethical programs including regulations on the professional operation of each position to prevent fraud. The ethical value of the company should be clearly stated in the policies and regulations, or even set incentive mechanism to encourage the employees to follow and to form good habits. In conclusion, there were three factors causing the unethical corporate culture inside Livent. The first is the long-standing fraudulent behaviours from the top executives, which were then passed down to the employees of lower levels arbitrarily. Second element of the unethical culture was the attitude of taking committing fraud as a matter of fact, and thus no one in the company were willing to discourage it. Finally, the lack of internal ethical corporate regulations or values established throughout the company accelerated the forming of unethical corporate culture. Working under such environment, the employees got involved in the fraudulent behaviours willingly or unwillingly forced by their boss. Moreover, their original ethical judgement became vague as they got used to the prevalent fraudulent working culture after a long time. They loss the sense of justice to judge the right and the wrong things. They might even rationalize what they had  done to be just and necessary. PART B Question B1 Why do you think Maria Messina become complicit in the fraud(s)? Explain your answer using the fraud triangle. (15 marks; approximately 1,500 words) Answer: The fraud originally started with the large kickback scheme by Drabinsky and Gottlieb, and finally Maria Messina, as the chief financial officer of Livent, got involved and helped in the huge fraud. Messina’s motivation to become complicit in the fraud can be explained by the theory of fraud triangle, which reveals much of the psychology of committing a fraud. The three key factors in the fraud triangle, considered as prerequisites of fraudulent behaviours, are the pressure, the opportunity and the rationalisation of doing it. Pressure The pressure of committing the fraud, according to the theory of fraud triangle, is more often than not â€Å"non-shareable† (Dellaportas 2013). The type of pressure may be related to financial issues, or may come from the job and working atmosphere. Dellaportas (2013) pointed out that the evil ideas can also be the source of pressure that causes fraud. People in Livent who joined in the fraud had different reasons of incentive to do illegal things as they had different kind of pressure. For example, for the two executives, Drabinsky and Gottlieb, they shared financial pressure. At first, their greed for money stimulated them to design the large kickback plan to secretly transfer money from the company to their own pockets. And later, just as Brenna and McGrath (2007) described in the paper, the executives had the motivation to fraud to keep the company at good performance so that they could gain high bonus as well as keep continuous outside investment for the company. But the motivation and pressure for Messina was a little different. Although as CFO of Livent, her bonus was linked with the performance of the company, the evidences in the  case and in the trial were insufficient to decide whether her fraudulent behaviour was directly motivated by financial pressure. However, it is clear that she was forced to involve in the fraud, like many other accountants at Livent, because of the coercion of Drabinsky and Gottlieb. Messina testified that the executives including Drabinsky would shout at the accountants and force them to cooperate in work. She worked under the pressure of the executives in the company. Messina would be at the risk of losing her job if she did not follow the instruction of Drabinsky. The financial situation was negative long before Messina joined Livent, meaning the fraud had already started before Messina was able to stop it. Taking over the responsibility of managing the financial performance of the company, she was faced with the situation out of her control. The environment of fraud and routine to manipulate the financial records had long been formed. The frequent use of software that enabled Drabinsky to easily manipulate the financial records and financial statements as much as he wanted was a common behaviour in Livent, acquiesced by everyone in the company. Under the threat of Drabinsky, Messina thus had no choice but to try her best to manage the fraud from being detected, making herself really exhausted by the daily work. The pressure Messina faced as the chief financial officer was unable to share with other colleagues and she was forced by the financial pressures to involve in the fraud. She could feel the threats from Drabinsky and the already very troublesome financial situation. And she could perceive that her subordinates and other staff in Livent were suffering the bully and coercion from their executives as well. Opportunity The factor of opportunity in the fraud triangle refers to the ability to commit the fraud and in the situations like the one in the case, such opportunity mainly results from having specific professional skills or knowledge. That is to say, the person was able to manipulate skilfully and knew how to avoid being discovered by his supervisors or regulations. In addition, the trust that the person is able to accomplish the job in accord  with laws also contributes to the opportunity. The trust existing in the relationship between the supervisor and the employees may contribute to getting authorized without careful screening. The trust caused the space of opportunity to fraud expanded. In case of Livent, Messina was an experienced accountants as well as a Chartered Accountant, who had been promoted to partner of the Deloitte Touch, LLP in Canada. Her previous experience in the industry enabled her to have a good knowledge both in accounting and auditing. That is to say, Messina potentially knew how to manipulate the accounting records daily and prepare the fraudulent financial statement annually. Also, she understood the normal practice of outside professional auditors, who were responsible for examining the financial performance of the company and avoiding inconsistency with the GAAP. Thus, Messina could give professional advice to Drabinsky and Gottlieb so that their manipulation of the accounting records would not be detected in the annual auditing. Besides her professional knowledge and skills in assisting in the fraud in accounting, the opportunity for Messina to get involved also includes the trust on her and her influence in her previous company. Messina had worked at Deloitte Canada for quite a long time and had been promoted to position as partner before she left the company and became CFO of Livent Inc. She had therefore built broad relationship within Deloitte, who was the outside auditing firm for Livent at that time. As Dellaportas (2013) pointed out in the research, insufficient internal regulation and supervision upon such fraudulent behaviours prompted the fraud to continue without being detected by others. However, in the specific case of Livent, there was no self-regulation mechanism at all, since the entire company, from the executives to the employees of the lowest-level, got involved in the fraud. Thus, it was hopeless to discover and discourage such deviant behaviours by the people inside the company. This caused the fraud of Livent to continue to expand and to be very serious. Rationalisation The rationalisation is not rational, instead it is an excuse for the person  who commits the fraud to justify the behaviour to himself. Coleman (1987) discussed this factor of fraud within the context of white collar crimes, and he argued that rationalisation is not an â€Å"after-the-fact† excuse. In fact, people who commit the crime do not realize that their behaviours are deviant. A large number of white collar crime criminals argued that they considered the laws to be unjust or unreasonable, causing them to break the rules (Coleman 1987). The factor of rationalisation is more risky than the other two factors because the people who have violated the laws believed that they had the right reason to do so. He also mentioned other common argument of the fraudulent behaviours. They claimed that such behaviours were the only way for them to achieve the goal or to â€Å"survive† (Coleman 1987). Based on the research results from Dellaportas (2013), he identified the three most common way of denial that people think to justify their fraudulent behaviours. People would rationalize their behaviour as they deny the â€Å"responsibility, injury and victim†. First, the offenders will shirk responsibility and say someone else are supposed to be in charge of the fraud. Secondly, they justify what they have done by arguing that there is no victim in this situation. Finally, if there is victims, the offenders may consider that the victims deserve the sufferings. Thus, they are free from taking responsible or even committing their fraud is illegal. Definitely, there were rationalisation inside Messina that made her behaviour â€Å"just† according to her own value. After quitting the partner position at Deloitte, Messina believed it to be right or rational for her to help Drabinsky in the fraud. Or otherwise, she would lose her job and would be unable to survive. And the overall atmosphere inside the Livent, considering what they were doing as â€Å"matter of fact†, alleviated the employee’s sense of responsibility for the fraud. Messina could hardly feel guilty and never considered about the consequences of helping the company’s fraud. She might rationalize her efforts in the fraud as under the instruction of Drabinsky, instead of out of her own willingness. The above analysis clearly dissected the reasons why Messina became complicit in the fraud from the perspective of psychology. However, as Dellaportas (2013) discussed, the influence of each factor in the fraud triangle varied  from case to case, and was not often equally impacting the fraud behaviours. Recent researches intend to improve the fraud triangle by considering additional factors into the model to better understand the behaviour of fraud in current times. What Messina had done assisted the fraud in Livent to continue for quite a long time after she joined Livent. Messina became the complicit in the serious fraud due to the pressure she was facing, mainly financially, the opportunity she was able to take advantage of and the rationalisation she found for herself to justify her deviant behaviours. Dellaportas (2013) discovered, through case study from ten accountants’ committing fraud, that the opportunity of committing fraud was a much more important factor in dete cting fraud and to take control of it. The motivation and rationalisation contributed less in this kind of accounting fraud cases. Question B2 Comment on the adequacy of the disciplinary action taken against Messina. (5 marks; approximately 500 words) Answer: Finally, Messina was fined for $7,500 and was suspended from doing accounting practice for two years. It is adequate but not enough punishment for Messina’s violation to the accounting standards according to the facts already known. After joining Livent, what Messina did in the Livent’s case of fraud went against the code of professional ethics, which discourages cheating and manipulations. Also, her behaviours broke the securities law in the United States, where the trial of Livent was held. Her involving in the fraud conflicted the interest of the public, especially the investors, who were unable to judge the real performance of Livent from their financial reports. Messina abused her authority in Livent and her influence on Deloitte, for the interest of her own and the executives at Livent. At the very beginning of joining Livent, Messina faced coercion and threats from Drabinsky to keep decent records by manipulation. However, she did not take positive action to resolving the conflict of interest between Drabinsky and herself. Proper ways when one faces conflict of interest is to  quit the job or decline to do the fraud. Messina could have turned to a confidential counselling firm for advice so that she did not have to get involved further in the fraud. On the one hand, it is enough punishment for her involvement in the fraud. She helped the accounting department at Livent to conceal the manipulation of financial statements. Also, as former partner at Deloitte, she abused her influence on the outside independent auditors to comb the financial reports of Livent before they filed to ensure the fraud undetected. What she did violated the standard professional codes for accountants and auditors, and thus she should be subject to penalty. According to the documents from Securities and Exchange Commission (1999), Messina was involved in discussion and approval of every manipulated records. She helped to hide these materials from the auditors so as not to be discovered the inflation in the company’s revenue. On the other hand, the SEC is conservative in judgement because of lack of evidence in proving Messina’s role in the fraud. First, it requires further investigation of the case to identify what she really did and her attitude in the fraud supported with evidence. Moreover, Messina, according to the case material, did show adversarial attitude toward Drabinsky’s fraud plan at first. It means that she still sticked to professional discipline in the beginning, though she yielded to Drabinsky’s bullying later. Also, Messina showed humble attitude in investigation and trial, and cooperated with the commission to investigate the case. It is adequate that the judges punished Messina both financially and professionally. She not only has to give back the illegal money she gained from the fraud, but also should be prevented from doing the practice until she can finally reflect on her mistakes before returning to the business as chief financial officer. However, the amount of fine is too little for Messina to realize her improper behaviours, considering the massive consequences of the fraud and the amount of money they benefited from manipulation. But the judgement should after all based on the evidences and regulations. The judge should take the good and bad things Messina had done  throughout the fraud into account to decide. Also, the punishment against Messina requires further investigation of her role in the fraud, which is disputable. References Coleman, J W 1987, ‘Toward an integrated theory of white-collar crime’, American Journal of Sociology, vol 93, no. 2, pp. 406-439. Dellaportas, S 2013, ‘Conversations with inmate accountants: Motivation, opportunity and the fraud triangle’, Accounting Forum, vol. 37, pp. 29-39. Elrod, H Gorhum, M J, ‘Fraudulent financial reporting and cash flows’, Journal of Finance and Accountancy, vol. 11, pp. 56-61. 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