The Is The Atomic Bomb Signaled Not Only The Commencement...

The atomic bomb signaled not only the commencement of the Cold War, but also a political divide between the communist ideologies of the Soviet Union and the democracy of the Western world. A fear of communism behind the Iron Curtain and nuclear annihilation spread throughout the US, while existential views regarding the meaning of life arose. Through their texts, composers subverted dominant Cold War paradigms to †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. ATQ†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. Samuel Beckett’s modernist existential play ‘Waiting for Godot (Godot) (1953)’ is a philosophical questioning on the purpose of human existence, and the nature of scientific development. In response to the existential angst following WW2, Beckett uses the conventions of Absurdist theatre to examine philosophical†¦show more content†¦This is established at the beginning of Act 1, through an allusion to Christian philosophy in Vladimir’s dialogue about the fable of the two thieves, where ‘One is supp osed to have been saved and the other damned’. In his allusion to the Bible, Beckett emphasises chance being woven into even the most sacred of texts that supposedly hold the ultimate truth for humanity. Moreover, in his book Understanding Samuel Beckett (1990), Alan Astro highlights that it is God s silence that causes the real hopelessness amidst all the comical actions of Beckett’s characters. He suggests, the recourse to bookkeeping by the philosopher (Pascal) no less than the clownish tramp shows how helpless we are with respect to God s silence. However, while Beckett’s play is concerned with a loss of meaning, it raises a positive message, implying â€Å"we are free to give our own lives meaning and purpose, free to redeem our suffering by making something of it† (Kaufmann). While Beckett sees little reason for hope after witnessing the trauma caused by the very weapons meant to preserve world peace, he is unable to relinquish it entirely. This is evident in the symbol of the tree. The tree is central to the set design of the play, for the sprouting of leaves in act 2, metaphorically suggests new life and resolution- an image of hope againstShow MoreRelatedProject Managment Case Studies214937 Words   |  860 Pagesrecognized it had a problem deciding how to assign the right project manager to the right project. Project managers had to be familiar with all three methodologies. The alternative, considered 6 FERRIS HEALTHCARE, INC. impractical, was to assign only those project managers familiar with that specific methodology. After six months of meetings, the company consolidated the three methodologies into a single methodology, focusing more upon guidelines than on policies and procedures. The entire organization

Importance Of Economic Market Structure - 3664 Words

Importance of Economic Market Structures Kevin Green Economics 204 Principles of Microeconomics Charles Fanning 8-3-14 Importance of Economic Market Structure In today’s economy, before an investor or any organization makes a strategic decision to begin production of a product, a market analysis is done to get vital information and to thoroughly understand the domestic or international demand, current suppliers, entry and exit barriers into a market, and the cost of producing a product or service. From gathering this information a firm can identify the market structure the product will enter, find out potential long-run profitability, survivability, incentives and cost efficiency. In this paper I will describe the characteristics of these four market structures: perfect competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly, monopoly while providing an illustrative example of a couple. Also within this paper will describe the pressures with high entry barriers, preferred selling and buying markets, projected reaction to price changes for elastic and inelastic goods, government intervention and the e xpected effect of international trade on economic markets. The knowledge of knowing how a product or production firm fits into a particular economic market structure is important to investors because it influences a firm’s opportunities and business strategies for a successful venture. 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The Psychological Tendency of Saddam Hussein

Questions: A) Tyrant outline à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" Give brief introductory background on Saddam Hussein(from Iraq) on why he is considered a tyrant, and explain which type of social power he was showing from the following: Coercive Reward Legitimate Referent Informational or expert power B) Compliance, Identification and internalisation à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" Explain each, and give examples of individual responses to the influence of others.    C) Types of conformity and theoretical models- Describe majority and minority compliance; also discuss two models of conformity (informational and normative) explaining why and when they occur.    D) Increasing conformity and resisting pressures to conform à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" Describe factors increasing or decreasing conformity and evaluate Aschà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s variations on his (1951) line experiment.    E) Social power and obedience à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" Evaluate Milgram, Zimbardo and Hofling experiments; on practical and ethical issues (make sure you outline the ethical issues).    F) Increasing obedience and resisting pressure to obey- Describe and evaluate factors that make obedience to an authority figure more and less likely using Milgramà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s variations of his (1963) electric shocks experiment (you have to explain what happens when he changed the setting and also when the uniform changed).       Answers: Introduction: This assignment deals with the psychological tendency of Saddam Hussein, a ruler of Iraq. However, this assignment has dealt with different models and theories of internationalization. Proper models of conformity have been described with detail explanation within this assignment. A. Outline of Tyrant: Saddam Hussein is called one of the most brutal oppressive presidents among world. He was the president of Iraq during the era of 1994 to 2003. Previously, he had joined Baath party and become the leader of this party. During his regime, mass of Iraq had faced immense problems and issues regarding social as well as human rights. Saddamà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s main target was abolishing the people of Shiite Muslims and ethnic Kurds. Iraqi people had faced immense troubles during the regime of Saddam. Different types of civil and religious war happened during this era. As discussed by Baker (2002), human rights was very much trouble some during the era of Saddam Hussein. There was lack of women safety or any types of human rights within the society. The people of Iraq had to face difficulties in order to acquire education and other necessities of life. Iraqi government that was ruled by Saddam had conducted pervasive repression as well as oppression. This oppression and suppression had led to the success of widespread terror within the society. During the regime of Saddam, level of violence against the women had been increased a lot. Women within this regime had suffered from psychological trauma. Incidents of rape had been increased among lots of women within this society.   However, different political units have done sexual harassment and rape towards the women as a political instrument. They had used this violence as a political instrument. On the other hand, Bocchiaro and Zamperini (2012),   argued that, Saddam did illegal experiment on biological weapons. Saddam targeted ethnic Kurds to oppress them. During his regime, Saddam took different brutal techniques of punishments. Electric shocks, pulling out nail from finger, beating, burning, dripping acid on face, denial of water and food to the inhabitants were very common phenomenon of Saddam while ruling Iraq. According to the report of United Nations, Iraq had executed 1500 people for different political reasons. On the other hand, Saddam had started giving training of weapon use among the scool children of Iraq. Saddam had forced more or less every family to take training of guns and other weapons. These camps were called à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"Saddam Cubsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ those were included 10-15 years children who had to initiate hand to hand fighting and other types of brutal behaviors. There were immense levels of child labors within the society. There was lack of proper medicine, food within the society. Basic freedoms of speech, press and information were in danger. However, Brownlee (2002) discussed that, Saddam Hussein had shown coercive power to the people of the society. Saddam Hussein had done a dictatorship towards his people. The feature of coercive power is involved in giving punishment to the people who have non-compliance with the ruler. Therefore, it can be seen that Saddam had provided punishment to the people of his choice. Saddam Hussein had abused the people of society by providing coercive power towards them.    B. Concepts of Compliance, internalization and identification: As discussed by Bruno et al.(2011), social influence refers to the process of affecting behavior, opinion and emotion of a person through individual person or organization as well as society. However, social influence can occur with many forms of conformity, peer pressure, socialization, leadership and persuasion. On the other hand, noted psychologist Herbert Kelman had identified three distinct ranges of social influence. These ranges are as follows: Compliance: It happens when individual agree with other people within the group by keeping their private opinion safe. As discussed by Gordon (2003), compliance can be an act of response towards implicit or explicit requests those are given by other members of the particular group. Internalization: It happens when people starts to accept behavior or belief and values both private and public level of the society. In this process, individual people accept set of norms those are guided by some other people of the society. People can be influenced by some norms of other influential people in this process. Individual like to accept the influences as because the influential people are influence to every individual within the society. Identification: In this process, people are influenced by some famous as well as respected personality within the society. This process mainly happens within the aspect of providing advertisement with celebrity while attracting the people about the brand or product. Celebrity endorsement is involved within this process. C. Types of theoretical models and conformity: Majority and minority compliance: As discussed by Jarman et al. (2015),   mainly there are two types of social influences in terms of psychological processes. There are also differences within the minority and majority influence. Majority influence refers to the desire of people in order to fit in within particular group. However, this includes acquiring different attributes as well as behavior or different attitudes within the group. As consequence of majority compliance people within the group have to face pressure of the particular group. On the other hand, Jue et al. (2012) argued that, minority compliance refers to certain influences those can be exerted by minority over the majority. In this regard, majority starts to accept beliefs, values, and behavior of the minority. However, Klose and Lasser (2012) stated that, one important psychological process of majority influence underlies through direct compliance of public. In this regard, Deutsch and Gerard had proposed dual process dependency model of majority and minority compliance. Therefore, two motives of conformity are informational social influence and normative social influence.    Influencing factors for conformity: As discussed by Asch, group sizes, unanimity, confidence, and self-esteem are the factors for influencing conformity. However, in order to increase conformity self-esteem should be challenged. However, size of group should be increased for increasing conformity and vice versa for decreasing the level of conformity. Increasing factors of conformity always are linked with the authority. However, decreasing level of conformity is closer to victim. Normative social influence: Normative social influence is referred to the process of need acceptance and approval by the society. Normative influence refers to the process of updating the behaviors to adopt new association among the particular group. The people need to change the behavior as per the particular group as they have fear of reject by the group. However, in this case of conformity, every individual member can secure his or her individual opinion within the group.   Informational social influence: On the other hand, Ã…Â ukasik et al. (2013) explains about the informational social influence as a type of uncertain association with a particular group. In this case, individual people are very much uncertain about the behavior within a situation. Individual people are not sure and confident about their beliefs, values and behaviors as well as opinions. Major difference within majority and minority influence is involved within compliance, high demand of support within majority influence. On the other hand, and minority influence relies on change, lower need for approval. D. Aschà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s variation line experiment: There are different experiments regarding conformity or social influences upon individual people. Aschà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s Conformity Experiment is very popular as well as important in order to research with this particular area of social influence. Popular psychologist Solomon Asch asked different participants for completing their belief through simple perceptual task. Asch told the participants to choose a line that always matched the length of three lines. However, Asch asked one participant the individual would choose correct line. However, in this regard, Solomon Asch asked individual in the presence of confederates who were on the experiment and intentionally selected the wrong line. However, 75 % participants have conformed to the group. In this regard, Aschà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s Conformity Experiment can be one of the best examples of normative influence within the participants. The participants of this research has changed their respective answer and conformed to the particular group in order to fit within this group.    However, Perle (2001) discussed that, many researchers have properly utilized Aschà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s methodology. The paradigm of Asch has been remained very influential for the individual within the aspects of social psychology. Many researchers within the field of psychology can utilize this paradigm of social influence. This experiment can be utilized in order to examine effective relationship between task importance and conformity, gender, age and culture within the society. On the other hand, Pillar (2006) argued that, many researcher has interpreted the conformity experiment of Asch as an evidence of normative social influence and power of conformity. Evaluation of Aschà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s study: The main limitation of this study is that Asch was biased in taking sample for the experiment. Every participant was male and had belonged to the same group of age. According to Klose and Lasser (2012), this indicates that sample has lacked from effective validity. This study had not included female participants as well as elder people therefore; result cannot be called as proper and accurate result.    On the other hand, Russell (2011) argued that, this task also can be considered as artificial technique of measuring conformity among people. This study has low level of ecological validity. The results of this study cannot be generalized with other types of situation within the human life of individual.    This study has also faced different ethical issues regarding the participants. The participants of the study had to face immense pressures of psychology after participating in this experiment.    E. Social obedience and power: Milgramà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s Experiment: Psychologist Stanley Milgram conducted a series of experiments to measure the willingness of the participants for obeying an authoritative figure. This authoritative figure has instructed them to provide effective performance regarding the particular process. This authority instructs the people to act like them that are very conflicting with the personal conscience and beliefs of those persons. This experiment took place at the era of Nazi war in German. This experiment is involved within the experiment of shock. Practical issues: However, Milgramà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ study has effective practical value as because the application of this study have shown that the people have a tendency to the destructive obedience. Ethical issues of this experiment: However, this experiment has raised the questions about research ethics of different scientific experiments. However, this experiment was conducted within the era of brutal tyranny of Nazi in Germany. Milgram wanted to experiment the behavior of general people in accordance with the cruel behavior of the oppressor within the society. This experiment broke several guidelines of ethics. Zimbardoà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s experiment: As discussed by Schmitter et al. (2015), psychologist Zimbardo had conducted an experiment to investigate the process of conformation of people to the brutal guards of the prison in an exercise of role-playing. Zimbardo had conducted this experiment in order to find the brutality of guards of prison of America. Zimbardo had conducted this experiment in order to study the level of conformity among the prisoners of America. This psychologist had conducted this study to assess the effective role of people within the situation of prison. This experiment can be called as prison simulation process. Practical issues: Regarding the practical issues virtual prison cannot be made like realistic structure of model. Some real conditions of prisons were missing at the time of the study, like racism, practice of homosexuality, unnecessary beatings etc. Ethical issues: However, this study has also received criticisms regarding different ethical issues. Participants of the experiment did this study without taking full consent. However, the people who acted as prisoners had been experienced from distress and mental pressure. The participants of prisoners had to suffer from physical and psychological harm.   Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚   Hoflingà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s experiment: According to Wedgwood (2003), Hofling had conducted a realistic experience of obedience through a naturalistic field study within the setting of hospital. Hofling conducted this study by involving 22 real nurses and a doctor for completing the experiment. Hofling demonstrated that, people in front of their authority become very unwilling in order to question to the authority. If those people have good reason, still they do not disclose true answers to the authority. On the other hand, Woods et al. (2006) argued that, this experimental study have shown a wide level of ecological validity as this experiment had conducted within real environment. This study was more real than other two studies of this particular field. Practical issues: The group after meeting each of the individual has faced some issues in private level. Such burning of flag can be considered as practical issue of the people. Ethical issues: Like other experiments, Hoflingà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s experiment also broke ethical guidelines of conducting experiment or research. The doctor was not real. He was supposed to act like doctor. However, this experiment had less ethical issues rather those two experiments.      F. Increased nature of obedience and resistance of pressure to obey: As discussed by Zakaria (2001), shock experiment of Milgram has raised different questions regarding ethics of research or data collection. This experiment has been conducted with three distinct roles; those are experimenter who played an authoritative role within this experiment. Apart from this, teacher, learner is involved within this experiment.   However, the experiment of Milgram had been conducted for assessing the human obedience within the period of Nazi German. On the other hand, Klose and Lasser (2012) stated that, Milgram did an experiment on the effect of authority upon obedience. Milgram has provided that, people obey the authority out of fear. Milgram has discussed peopleà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s behavior against the power holder in his experiment. In this experiment, the learner had been taken to a room with the attachment of electric shock. The teacher is asked to provide electric shock at the time of making mistakes by the leaner. The learner gave wrong answer. In this experiment, Milgram had concluded that, general people always follow orders of authority. Conclusion: This assignment has dealt with some psychological experiments. This assignment has also provided different ethical issues while dealing with psychological experiments.    Reference lists Baker III, J. A. (2002). The right way to change a regime.  New York Times,  25, 9 Bocchiaro, P., and Zamperini, A. (2012).  Conformity, obedience, disobedience: The power of the situation. INTECH Open Access Publisher Brownlee, J. (2002). à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ And yet they persist: Explaining survival and transition in neopatrimonial regimes.  Studies in Comparative International Development,37(3), 35-63. Bruno, M. A., Bernheim, J. L., Ledoux, D., Pellas, F., Demertzi, A., and Laureys, S. (2011). A survey on self-assessed well-being in a cohort of chronic locked-in syndrome patients: happy majority, miserable minority.  BMJ open,  1(1), e000039 Gordon, P. H. (2003). Bush's middle east vision.  Survival,  45(1), 155-165 Jarman, M., Nowak, A., Borkowski, W., Serfass, D., Wong, A., and Vallacher, R. (2015). The Critical Few: Anticonformists at the Crossroads of Minority Opinion Survival and Collapse.  Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation,18(1), 6. Jue, J. J. S., Press, M. J., McDonald, D., Volpp, K. G., Asch, D. A., Mitra, N., ... and Loewenstein, G. (2012). The impact of price discounts and calorie messaging on beverage consumption: a multi-site field study.  Preventive medicine,  55(6), 629-633. Klose, L. M., and Lasser, J. S. (2012).  Selected Social Psychological Phenomena's Effect on Educational Team Decision Making. INTECH Open Access Publisher Ã…Â ukasik, P., van Asch, M., Guo, H., Ferrari, J., and Godfray, C. J. (2013). Unrelated facultative endosymbionts protect aphids against a fungal pathogen.Ecology letters,  16(2), 214-218. Perle, R. (2001). The US Must Strike at Saddam Hussein.  New York Times,28 Pillar, P. R. (2006). Intelligence, policy, and the war in Iraq.  Foreign Affairs, 15-27 Russell, N. J. C. (2011). Milgram's obedience to authority experiments: Origins and early evolution.  British Journal of Social Psychology,  50(1), 140-162. Schmitter, P., Zwart, S. J., Danvi, A., and Gbaguidi, F. (2015). Contributions of lateral flow and groundwater to the spatio-temporal variation of irrigated rice yields and water productivity in a West-African inland valley.  Agricultural Water Management,  152, 286-298. Wedgwood, R. (2003). The fall of Saddam Hussein: Security Council mandates and preemptive self-defense.  American Journal of International Law, 576-585 Woods, K. M., Pease, M. R., Stout, M. E., Murray, W., and Lacey, J. G. (2006).Iraqi perspectives project. A view of operation Iraqi freedom from Saddam's senior leadership. United States Joint Forces Command Norfolk Va. Zakaria, F. (2001). The politics of rage: Why do they hate us?.  Newsweek Magazine,  14

Sin, Punishment and Redemption in King Lear free essay sample

This article aims to explore the essential propositions of Christian: sin, punishment and redemption as the clue, and analyzes the behaviors and fates of characters in King Lear. First, human beings are born with sins. The characters can not escape the deep-rooted original sin in human’s nature, committing different kinds of sins. Second, God is fair to everyone. The punishment follows their sins. The characters deserved their proper punishment accordingly. Owing to their different sins, some experienced kinds of sufferings; some lost their life; some will be tortured in the hell forever. Third, God punishes those who commit the sins, but he also saves those who die for justice, and forgives those who repent. Suffering is the road leading to being redempted. After those sufferings, people were saved. The religious ideas are widely used King Lear, further heightening the feelings of Christians, and preaching the lessons of punishing the evil and advocating the good. We will write a custom essay sample on Sin, Punishment and Redemption in King Lear or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Keywords: Bible, Sin, Punishment, Redemption 1. Introduction William Shakespeare lived during the time of English Renaissance featuring humanism. And he is regarded as one of the most prominent representatives of this time. And a lot of books and papers studying humanistic elements have been cropping up all the time. However, Shakespeare and his works are also influenced by Christianity notably. Superficially, these two points of views seem to be in contradiction with each other. Virtually, humanism and Christianity are not a completely opposite Cultural system. The movement of Renaissance denied many aspects of Christianity, but the fact that the movement of Renaissance is deeply rooted in the hotbed of Christian Culture can not be ignored ither. Therefore many spirits and ideas of Renaissance are the extension and development of inherent elements of Christianity under the new historical circumstances. So now it should be not difficult for us to accept the certain influence of religion on Shakespeare and his works. From 1601 to 1605, William Shakespeare created his four principal tragedies, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Mac beth. For four hundred years, these tragedies have been sparkling with a peculiar beauty of their own, and have never failed to evoke pity or fear. How come they have achieved such everlasting effects? The reason is that Shakespeare endows them, especially King Lear, with some valuable religious qualities, which this thesis paper attempts to examine. 2. The influence of Christianity on Shakespeare and his works 2. 1 The influence of Christianity on Shakespeare Scholars and critics of all strips have long conceded the importance of religious belief in the production of art, literature and drama. Yet how Christian was Shakespeare? This remains a disputing question for a long time. And it is still very disputing till today. The eminent critic Harold Bloom, author of the best-selling Shakespeare: The invention of the Human (Riverhead Books, 1999), argues that â€Å"Shakespeare seems too wise to believe anything† political or religious. According to Bloom, Shakespeare could not have any religious convictions and still remain Shakespeare. And Rev. Paul Murry, O. P. , notes: â€Å"It would not, I think, to be helpful to characterize Shakespeare formally as a religious dramatist. 119 Vol. 5, No. 9 Asian Social Science The fact is that he chose, by and large, to leave religion alone. †[1] As to Bloom’s view, I myself am strongly opposed to it. Compared with the former, the latter sounds more reasonable. During the English Renaissance, Protestant reformers had recently put an end to the centuries-old tradition of religious drama. And strict laws regulating theater prohibited any explicit religious or current political events from being represented on stage. So no playwright writing for the public during this time could be formally considered a religious dramatist. Therefore, Shakespeare had to choose to address the religious issues in a strictly universal way, free of any clannish meaning or color. Although all the above-mentioned, he is very Catholic in many respects. And it is not exaggerated to say that Shakespeare is a Catholic totally. And there is a lot of evidences demonstrating that Shakespeare is closely related to Catholic. First, Shakespeare’s families are closely connected with Christian. Both of his parents appeared to have conformed to Christian despite the risks to personal wealth, freedom and life. His mother, Mary Arden, came from one of the most prominent and tenacious Catholic families in Warwickshire. The head of the clan, Edward Arden, for instance, kept his own Catholic priest, disguised as a gardener but known throughout the Avon valley as Father Hugh Hall. One of Arden’s sons-in-law, a hot-headed Catholic Fantastic named John Somerville, traveled to London on a personal mission to assassinate the Queen; apparently quite deranged, he betrayed his intensions to anyone who would listen to his ranting during his frequent tavern-hopping,. Inevitably, he was arrested and, under torture, implicated Arden and Hall. The priest died in prison while his case was being adjudicated; but in 1583 the hapless Arden was hanged and quartered, and his head struck on a spike on London Bridge. William Shakespeare was nineteen years old at the time of his cousin’s execution. Well before that traumatic date, from as far back as William’s thirteenth year, his father John had apparently begun to run into financial difficulties, at which time he tried to avoid town meetings and church attendance, allegedly to elude summons by subpoena (one could be served for debt in church). Presumably the debts were real (he defaulted on a mortgage in 1580), but the father’s financial woes seem to have been exacerbated by Crown revenge against the Ardens. In any event, John’s name was later entered on the recusant rolls of Stratford for failing to come to Anglican Church services on Sunday, as the law required. One often reads that John Shakespeare’s absence was due strictly to his fear of subpoena. But Catholic convictions must have played at least some role in the father’s recusancy. A document, supposed to have been found about 1750 under the tiles of a house in Stratford which had once been John Shakespeare’s, professes to be the spiritual testament of the said John Shakespeare, and assuming it to be authentic it would clearly prove him to have been a Catholic. The document, which was at first unhesitatingly accepted as genuine by Malone, is onsidered by most modern Shakespeare scholars to be a fabrication of J. Jordan who sent it to Malone. (Chuck Lee, 1908: 302) And we know that William Shakespeare’s daughter was also fined for recusancy and that William and his fiancee Anne Hathway married not in his Stratford church but in Temple Grafton, five miles from his birthplace. Neither the Shakespeare nor the Hathways had connections there, but the vicar of the v illage, John Frith, was cited in contemporary records as â€Å"unsound in religion,† a code-term for Catholic priests. And finally, a seventeenth-century Anglican archdeacon from nearby Coventry reported that, according to Stratford oral tradition, Shakespeare â€Å"died a papist†. Besides his family members, many of his teachers, classmates and friends maintained close connections with the Christian. Shakespeare’s teachers at the Stratford grammar school all had contacts with the â€Å"old faith†. Simon Hunt, his first schoolmaster, from1571 to 1575, left Stratford to matriculate at the University of Doual in the summer of 1575 and later become a Jesuit. One of Shakespeare’s classmates from Stratford, Robert Dibdale, abruptly left with Hunt, was also ordained a priest, and was martyred in 1586. And while studying for the priesthood Debdale shared classes with Thomas Cottom (executed in 1582), whose brother John Cottom was a schoolmaster at Stratford and taught Shakespeare until, under mounting Anti-Catholic pressure from the Crown, he fled home to Lancashire, a Catholic stronghold. And just at the recommendation of Cottom Shakespeare took up a position as a tutor and a player in the Houghton household, a recusant noble Catholic family of Lancashire. David Bradley, 1979: 28) All these go to show that the dramatist in his youth must have been brought up in a very Catholic atmosphere, and indeed the history of the Gunpowder Plot conspirators shows that the neighborhood was regarded as quite a hotbed of recusancy. 2. 2 The influence of Holy Bible on Shakespeare’s Works Due to Shakespeare’s close connection with Chris tianity, the classical work of Christianity, Holy Bible, deeply influenced all of Shakespeare’s works. We all know that Shakespeare knew Holy Bible thoroughly, not only a by-stander, but also a propagator. And there were a lot of pistils in the Bible he read. And especially when he read The Divine Comedy, he circled all the words and expressions related to Holy Bible, without any omission. His tragedies, comedies, historical plays, poems, etc. are full of the elements of Holy Bible. And among all of Shakespeare’s works, the religious ideas embodied more fully in his tragedies than his other works, especially in his four famous tragedies Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear and Othello. The English contemporary critic, Helen Cardina, even deemed Shakespeare’s tragedies as â€Å"Christian tragedies†. Helen Gardner, 1998: 72-74) And one of the famous English scholars has said that there will be no Shakespeare’s work without the Holy Bible. (Zhu Weiji, 1992: 64) 120 Asian Social Science September, 2009 As the essential Christian propositions: sin, punishment, and redemption are found everywhere in his four tragedies. And these are important themes which form the inherent plots and advocated the tragedies; or they become the main measures to realize the tragedies and enlarge the connotations of the tragedies. And here in this article I will mainly explore the exhibition of Sin, Punishment and Redemption in King Lear. . Sin, punishment and redemption embodied in King Lear 3. 1 The sin What is the sin? The ceaselessly swollen desires and lusts will result in the sin; too much free will result in the sin; harboring the evil idea will result in the sin; violating the law of any moral or ethical rules will result in the sin; and so on . The bible emphasizes the original sin of the man. Humans are born with sin. Man’s original sin begins with our forefathers Adam and Eve. Before the original sin comes into our world, â€Å"Everyone who commits sin is a child of the evil; for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. (National TSPMCCC, 2000: 422) And our forefathers Adam and Eve have the right to choose to be good or to be evil, but this depend s on their attitudes. Under the seduction of the evil serpent, Eve ate the forbidden fruit in the Eden and gave some to her husband. So they committed the original sin and were driven out of Eden by God as the punishment. Therefore, from now on, every man is born with sin. Sin can be found in every works of Shakespeare. The connotation of sin in four tragedies is deeper and more serious than his comedies. The four tragedies do not just take some kind of sinful behaviors as the plot frame, but go into the deep meaning of the sin such as the apprehension and the application of the original sin. 3. 1. 1 The sin in King Lear â€Å"Everyone who commits sin is a child of the evil; for evil has been sinning from the beginning. † (National TSPMCCC, 2000: 422 ) Goneril, Regan and Edmund are devils if they were not human. Goneril and Regan persecuted their old father, drove him out of their house, and left him homeless in the wilderness. They would be wiling to kill each other to be Edmund’s queen. They are selfish. Their blood is cold. Edmund demands that all of his desires must be satisfied. His insatiable ambition extends past Cornwall to English Throne. He claimed, â€Å"All with me’s meet that I can fashion fit. † Besides, Edmund disrespected the God. He said, â€Å"My father compounded with my mother under the Dragon’s tail and my nativity was under Ursa Major, so that it follows I am rough and lecherous. Fut, I should have been that I am, had the maidenliest star in the firmanment twinkled on my bastardizing. † (William Shakespeare, 1999: 435) And all these demonstrate the original sin in human. Regarding Lear, he is an imperious, capricious, arrogant and self-centered king. In any case, he welcomes poisoned flattery but interprets well-intended criticism, whether from Cordelia or Kent, as treason. Lear’s ego seems fully capable ofdemanding the sacrifice from his daughters, especially from his favorite, Cordelia; he has given them his whole kingdom, now let them care for him as befits, his royal rank and patriarchal role. Goneril and Regan are content to flatter and promise obedience knowing that they will turn him out once he has relinquished his authority. Cordelia senses that Lear is demanding love as payment for his parental kindliness. Genuine love ought rather to be selfless. She refuses to lie like her sisters. So Lear misjudges his children and disinherits his loving daughter in favor of his duplicitous daughters. And Gloucester is another Lear. Without any clear evidence he wronged his virtuous son and fell into prey to Edmund’s deceptions and disinherits him. There are too many subjective ideas in these two old man’s mind. This is also one nature of human resulting from the original sin. 3. The Punishment Since everyone is sinned from the beginning according to the Bible. The punishment must follow behind. Usually, there are three aspects of meaning in the punishment: the punishment in the present life, the punishment of the whole life and the punishment of conscience. Adam and Eve are driven out of Eden by God and have to suffer on the earth. And Cain is driven out of hometown. All these convey a meaning that one must responsible for what he is doing in his real life. â€Å"Just as sin came into the world through one man, death came through sin and so death spread to all because all have sinned. (National TSPMCCC, 2000: 270) And death is the most serious punishment. God has arranged for the man. There are also three kinds of death according to the Bible. The first one is the death of the body, or the departure of the body and the soul. To the pagans, this kind of death means that he will lost all the nice things in the earth and be tortured in the hell forever. To the well-behaved believers, this kind of death means free from the bitter life, entering a beautiful world and enjoying the happiness forever. The second one is the death of the soul, that is, the restorable departure of the soul and God. And just like the first kind of death, it is possible to resurrect from this kind of death. For example, the souls of two criminals who are crucified with Jesus have departed from God. Their souls are dead. But one of the criminals begins to have faith in Jesus before he dies. When the other criminals kept deriding Jesus, he said, â€Å"Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, 121 Vol. 5, No. 9 Asian Social Science for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong. Jesus told him, â€Å"Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in the paradise. † (National TSPMCCC, 2000: 157 ) The third kind of death is the eternal death, which means the complete departure with God and the torture in the hell forever. The death of the criminal who kept deriding Jesus when he was going to put to death belongs to this type. He will never have the chance to resurrect from his eterna l death. 3. 2. 1 The punishment in King Lear In King Lear, none of the people who sinned can avoid the punishment of God. Regan is poisoned to death by her sister Goneril. And Goneril commits suicide. Goneril and Regan have done too many evil things. But they have not repented and asked for pardon until their death. Just like the criminal who deriding Jesus even when he will put to death very soon, their deaths belong to the eternal death. They will be tortured in the hell forever. And they will never have any chance to resurrect from their death. Edmund, whose soul is dead before his body dies, have done numerous evil deeds. He is killed by his brother and deserved his punishment. Regarding Lear and Gloucester, they experienced the hardship owing to their errors. Lear was turned out into the storm by his two daughters and went mad; Gloucester is made physically blinded because of his son Edmund’s betrayal. 3. 3 The Redemption Man has sinned from the beginning. And man’s original sin will no doubt lead to the punishment from the law on the earth, God and the conscience. But it does not mean that man can not find a way out. The Bible will lead the man to redemption. The God will pardon their sins if they believe God. And man can be rescued through the repentance of their sins and their conversion to God. And God loves all those who regret for guilt. Besides, hardship is the symbol of purgatory. One can also be rescued through the hardship he experienced, and his soul will be purified. After the suffering, one may realize the truth thoroughly. And in Shakespeare’s four tragedies, each hero finally realizes his misdeeds and obtains a deeper understanding of life. Christian is a religion of love. The Christian spirit of benevolence, leniency and universal love goes through the Bible distinctively. So some people can be rescued by God because of their benevolence, leniency and universal love. These are the moral qualities the Bible advocates. Therefore the soul this kind of people will be rescued by god even their body is dead. They will live happily in the heaven with God. [21] 3. 3. 1 The redemption in King Lear In King Lear, Lear and Gloucester are rescued through the suffering they have experienced. Lear’s suffering is not without compensation. He learned the truth and discovered himself through his suffering. And through his suffering, he has understood what human’s suffering and need are all about. He begins to pray for the poor, â€Å"Poor naked wretches, wheresoe’er you are,/ That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,/ How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,/ Your looped and windowed raggedness, defend you / From seasons such as these? O, I have ta’en/ Too little care of this1 Take physic, pomp;/ Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel, / That thou mayest shake the superflux to them/ And show the heavens more just. †[22]And he begins to sympathize with the fool, â€Å"Come on, my boy. How dost, my boy? Art cold? / I am cold myself. — Where is the straw, my fellow? / The art of our necessities is strange, /And can make ile things precious. Come, your hovel. —/ Poor fool and knave, I have one part in my heart/ That’s sorry yet for thee. (William Shakespeare, 1999: 483) And when Lear recognized Cordelia after all of his suffering, he attempted to kneel down before her and said, â€Å"I am a very old foolish fond old man. à ¢â‚¬  and â€Å"I fear I am not in my perfect mind. † To kneel down is a kind of true enlightenment, indicting the repentance in the bottom of his heart. Gloucester learns a similar truth and expresses it in much the same way as Lear. Like Lear he has driven into exile a virtuous child and had placed in the power of the wicked. Enlightenment comes only though suffering. Just as Lear achieves spiritual wisdom when he goes mad, Gloucester achieves spiritual vision when he is physically blinded. His eyes having been ground out by the heel of Cornwall’s boot, Gloucester asks for Edmund only to learn that Edmund has betrayed him in return for siding with Lear in the approaching civil war. Gloucester’s response, however, is not to accuse Edmund of treachery but to beg forgiveness of the wronged Edgar. Cordelia and Edgar are rescued by God because of their benevolence, leniency and universal love. They both have forgiven and cherished their sinned fathers. And their love is one of the elements that make their fathers grow spiritually. The power of their love, though learned too late to avert catastrophe is at last discovered in its very defeat. And the love embodies by Cordelia and Edgar’s final triumphs over the more anarchic and brutal forces embodies by Regan and Goneril, which can be seen in Albany’s shifting and reconciliation and the restoration of the national order and Edgar’s survival and restoration to his social status. Although Cordelia is dead, her death is not a secular one. The soul of Jesus in the Holy Bible has returned to the arms of God. Cordelia has died for justice like Jesus, so her death is the same as the death of Jesus. She is remembered and respected by the people and her soul also returns to the arms of God. Edmund, whose soul is dead before his body dies, have done numerous evil deeds. But just as the criminal who is 122 Asian Social Science September, 2009 crucified with Jesus together is converted to Jesus before he is put to death, he tells Kent the secret order of killing Lear Cordelia and helps them rescue Cordelia and Lear. Therefore, he will not tortured by the flame in the hell. He will be with the God in the heaven. 4. Conclusion The Christian ideas are the body and soul of Shakespeare’s four tragedies, which add the features of western classic culture and the religious elements to the play. Without them the tragedies will be lack of their original vitality. Shakespeare’s King Lear ends with heroes’ deathKing Lear dies of heartbreak and over-exertion. The sin, punishment and redemption are embodied fully in the death of King Lear. And these tragic endings render the tragedy a far-reaching influence among western countries. The drama not only plays the role of moral teaching of punishing the evil and advocating the good, but also leads the audience to think about means of â€Å"punishment† and â€Å"death† under the Christian culture. King Lear has deepened the religious ideas in the play, and further heightened the Christian feelings, making the play shed the eternal radiance similar to the Holy Bible.