Sin, Punishment and Redemption in King Lear
Asian Social Science
September, 2009
Sin, Punishment and Redemption in King Lear
Yujun Liu School of Foreign Languages, Qingdao University of Science and Technology Box 502, 69 Songling Road, Qingdao 266061, China E-mail: lyjlotus@126.com Financed by Qingdao University of Science and Technology. Project number: 08XA05 Abstract Holy Bible is the classic of Christian, having a deep and far-reaching influence on the thought and the everyday life of western people. The elements in Holy Bible were shown everywhere in Shakespeare’s tragedy: King Lear. 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. 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
September, 2009
Sin, Punishment and Redemption in King Lear
Yujun Liu School of Foreign Languages, Qingdao University of Science and Technology Box 502, 69 Songling Road, Qingdao 266061, China E-mail: lyjlotus@126.com Financed by Qingdao University of Science and Technology. Project number: 08XA05 Abstract Holy Bible is the classic of Christian, having a deep and far-reaching influence on the thought and the everyday life of western people. The elements in Holy Bible were shown everywhere in Shakespeare’s tragedy: King Lear. 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. 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
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