Jacobean drama is, quite simply defined, the drama that was written and performed during the reign of Elizabeth’s successor, James I.Some of the most prominent of the Jacobean playwrights, apart from Shakespeare, are Jonson, Webster, Tourneur, Beaumon and  Fletcher.James inherited a whole English drama culture. Audiences loved the humour and the many human situations – the tragic and comic dramas – that were unfolding before them on the stage. Playwrights, reading the audience’s changing appetite, felt the need to give them even more realistic representations of the society of which they were a part. The playwrights were focusing on the human being’s capacity for selfishness, and exaggerating such Renaissance forces as human ambition, and its effects. They were exploring the nature of evil, pushing things to the extremes of human behaviour.

Extreme violence was being portrayed on the stage. A final, almost separate feature of Jacobean theatre sprang from a passion of the king and queen – the musical drama, and so the Jacobean theatre is full of masques – dramas with music and elaborate sets.By showing extreme violence on stage the playwright can produce catharsis in the minds of spectacle.The revenge tragedy, or revenge play, is a dramatic genre in which the protagonist seeks revenge for an imagined or actual injury. The term, revenge tragedy, was first introduced in 1900 by A.H. Thorndike to label a class of plays written in the late Elizabethan and early Jacobean era. The revenge drama derived originally from the Roman tragedies of Seneca but was established on the English stage by Thomas Kyd with The Spanish Tragedy. 

“The Duchess of Malfi” by John Webster is a kind of Revenge Tragedy modeled on Seneca, the Latin playwright of 1st century A.D. This play contains the depth of extreme violence, plotting and mostly revenge on the best part which are the chief elements of revenge tragedy.  From the beginning to the end of this drama, there are a lot of elements of horrors. In this drama, we find people taking revenge and are murdering others .The revengeful brothers are both villains. A love affair between the Duchess and Antonio and at last they marry and they produce three children. On hearing the news of their secret marriage and their children, the cardinal and The Duke Ferdinand react angrily. And from the beginning to the end of Act two, scene five, we seed the reaction of the two brothers for the action of their sister. They think that the Duchess has destroyed the reputation and status of their family.

To conclude, this drama contains all the elements of a revenge tragedy and also characters.A drama is a reflection of that era.Through the drama a playwright introduces human follies.Playwrights portrays political,social,cultural and economical issues in a play.In this drama we can understand people’s apetite for power and their craving to be selfish in their life.

A STUDY ON SELECT COLLEGES IN KERALA

        The COVID -19 pandemic situation brought about drastic change in the education system and it  gave rise to online learning method .Corona virus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus.The first case of the COVID – 19 pandemic in Kerala was first confirmed in Thrissur district on 30 January 2020.According to the survey  based on the impact of COVID in the learning experience of college students in Kerala, many students are not able to adapt to the new mode of studying ;through virtual classroom.

            The COVID-19 pandemic is a great  challenge to the  educational system . As a part social distancing students are unable to go to colleges and the institutions adopted online learning measure. Due to the shift from traditional method of studying to  digital mode , many students lack proper facilities to attend the online classes.According to the online survey  conducted among  students in Kerala ,it is observed that students  face regular problems while they accessing study  materials such as; 36% of the students face connectivity problems,32% of students have  unfavourable home environment,24% of them suffers from stress due to the inability to access materials through online and 8% have insufficient data problems.These issues prevent/ students from  concentrating on their studies and gave them more stress. It is not always about  technology ; majority of students have physical problems too .Around 68% of students have physical problems like: headache,bad posture and eye strain due to the e-learning  method  on the otherhand   24% of students have no health issues.

           In Thrissur district, around  92% of  students access their study materials through mobile phone and only  4%  of the students uses laptop and desktop computer.It was great challenge for  students who are not financially sound to cope up with this unforseen pandemic.Lack of support from Government and society even  caused some students to commit suicide.Therefore this method made some students more vulnerable.  The excessive use  of technology also made students more  lazy and also it tempted them to use another social medias.It is assumed that only  28% of students are studying on a daily basis while 24% of them are not .The duration of live classes varies from different colleges such as ; 1-5 hours, 6-10 hours and 10-15 hours in a week.E-learning also brought about changes in the pattern and mode of examinations.Majority of the students prefers written exams than online exam,because they  feel more stress while attending  exams in virtual mode on the otherhand some students are comfortable in this method.

           Another challenge for  students are sustaining interactions with teachers in the digital platform,due to noise disturbance in the amplitude of modulation. Although online learning method benefited college students in a certain way , recorded classes are useful them to clear their doubts and they can access it in anytime.Recorded classes is also beneficial for students who have connectivity issues while attending live classes. Around 64% of the students disagrees to the statement that; online learning is better than offline ,while 20%  of them agrees with it and 16% took a neutral stand in this statement. Peer pressure induced learning is more via e-learning than offline.

        The survey provided  that, majority of the students are discontended  in the online learning method and they prefers to re-open colleges by  following COVID  safety protocols.Digital education also  brought about change in the learning routine of students to a great extent.One  of the major consequence  of this pandemic is that,it is an obstacle for providing quality education to college students.Although digital education appears to be viable solution in this current situation ,it fails to ensure a healthy atmosphere for learning.

David crystal is a British linguist,academic,and author.He was awarded the OBE and became a fellow of the British Academy in 2000.He is also a Founding Fellow of the Learned  Society of Wales.Crystal has authored,co authored and edited over 120 books on a wide variety of subjects.David Crysta’ls classic “English  as a Global Language” considers the history,present status and future of the English language, focusing on its role as the leading international language.

        Crystal states that a language achieves a genuinely global status when it develops a special role that is recognized in every country.  Such a role will be most evident in countries where large numbers of the people speak the language as a mother tongue – in the case of English, this would mean the USA, Canada, Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, several Caribbean countries and a sprinkling of other territories. To achieve such a status, a language has to be taken up by other countries around the world.  There are two main ways in which this can be done. Firstly, a language can be made the official language of a country, to be used as a medium of communication in such domains as government, the law courts, the media, and the educational system. Secondly, a language can be made a priority in a country’s foreign-language teaching, even though this language has no official status. , there is great variation in the reasons for choosing a particular language as a favoured foreign language: they include historical tradition, political expediency, and the desire for commercial, cultural or technological conta.

                        Why a language becomes a global language has little to do with the number of people who speak it. It is much more to do with who those speakers are. There must be something inherently beautiful or logical about the structure of English, in order to explain why it is now so widely used.  ‘English doesn’t have a lot of endings on its words, nor do we have to remember the difference between masculine, feminine, and neuter gender, so it must be easier to learn. A language may have certain properties which make it internationally appealing. A language does not become a global language because of its intrinsic structural properties, or because of the size of its vocabulary, or because it has been a vehicle of a great literature in the past, or because it was once associated with a great culture or religion. A language has traditionally become an international language for one chief reason: the power of its people – especially their political and military power.

      Crystal explains why do we need a global language. Translation has played a central  role in human interaction for thousands of years. The more a community is linguistically mixed, the less it can rely on individuals to ensure communication between different groups. In communities where only two or three languages are in contact, bilingualism (or trilingualism)  but in communities where there are many languages in contact, as in much of Africa and South-east Asia, such a natural solution does not readily apply. The problem has traditionally been solved by finding a language to act as a lingua franca, or ‘common language’. Sometimes, when communities begin to trade with each other, they communicate by adopting a simplified language, known as a pidgin, which combines elements of their different languages for example, West African Pidgin English is used extensively between several ethnic groups along the West African coast.

AN ANALYSIS

        In  “Of Marriage and Single Life” ,Bacon highlights the differences between the married life and the single’s life and the various advantages and disadvantages of the same.Bacon starts his essay with a sudden statement. The statememt clearly depicts that marriage is an impediment to great fortune and luck.Bacon supports his argument by telling a fact that ; most of the works  that helps the society is done by  non-married or childless men.In response,these bachelors married public and endowed their affection and life to it.the burden of  married life according to Bacon, a married man has a family to raise and take care of.He is totally committed to providing security to them, but such commitment leaves him  unable to take up any enterprise whether good or bad,noble or wicked.There is another kind of men those who are unmarried yet,they spend their lives caring about themselves and they  are not apprehensive of future time.

            There is  a few people ,who are married but consider their wives and children  as mere bills of charges and as burden in their own freedom .There are also some wealthy people who wittingly decide to not to reproduce or have children in fear of losing their riches to their heirs.To them material possessions are more important than  having a family.They refuse to see the needs and benefits of  a family because  they are only influenced by the fears of losing their wealth.There are some foolish covetous men who believes that having no children is a pride and they consider themselves as richer.

            Bacon explores the themes of independence,liberty and marriage throughout his essay.He also comments on the liberty that being single provides individuals who wish to live free from the restraints and responsibilities of marriage.However most men choose to remain single for the sake of liberty that a single life allows. Bacon says that  unmarried men are best friends,best masters and best servants ,but they do not make the best citizens as they  have so great sense of freedom that they tend to run away from responsibilities.The single life is best suited for a clergy man because he can be more charitable as he does not have  any needs to satisfy. For magistrates the situation is indifffernt because if they are corrupted it makes them servants who are worse than wives.For soldiers it is often an emotional support  to think of wives and children before going in to battle .That is why bacon says that the dislike of marriage among Turks makes the vulgar soldiers even more so .

          It is one’s wife and children that provides them with a moral understanding of their behaviours  and conducts  whereas single men lack the empathetic and sensitive side that comes from genuine companionship therefore single men tend to be cruel and hard hearted .A grave man with traditional beliefs is often a loving husband they are not tempted by the pleasures of infidelity and remain honest and loyal to their wives and marriage.Here  bacon gives the example of Ulysses who valued his wife more than an immortal life.Women are often proud of their chastity and a wife will always remain chaste and obedient if she thinks that her husband is wise and not jealous.

            Bacon pays tribute to wives in his eassay as for a young man, a wife serves the purpose of a mistress,in the middle age she is a companion and to the old man she is a nurse.Bacon observes that bad husbands often have good wives.He says that this may be because it makes the husband’s kindness more valuable or because the wife takes pride in her patience in dealing with him.Therfore  a man can reasonably decide when he would like to get married.Bacon here quotes a philosopher and mathematician who answered the question of when a man should marry and said -”a young man not yet,an elder man not at all”.

           Bacon compares the advantages and disadvantages of single and married life through different view points.He puts forward the pros and cons of marriage in terms of how it is viewed by society and how it affects an individual.even though he enlists the burden and limitation of marriage he extols  the benefit of marriage and how it shaped a person.Bacon insists that having a family can make a man generous and merciful and it teaches a form that singlemen lack and thus are more cruel and reckless.