How Does Shakespeare Show Forgiveness In Gran Torino

Everyone in the world is thought to be given a sense of morality, distinguishing right from wrong. Most if not all of us, in our lives have a moment where choosing right from wrong is particularly challenging. At this judgement point, our human conscience is in play. However in society, it’s especially difficult to follow the right way. That is why the theme of the portrayal of human conscience, can be used to connect ideas presented in my four texts: The Tempest by William Shakespeare, Atonement by Ian McEwan, Gran Torino by Clint Eastwood and Punishment by Seamus Heaney. These four texts can all be connected through their various ways of portraying characters decisions and their effects of these decisions that have on themselves. This makes

Forgiveness is a main concept that us humans seek to achieve in our lives. This is especially the case when we’ve chosen to ignore the signs of right from wrong. Thus, is also known as our human conscience. We who’ve committed the wrongdoing or know of someone who has, have to try and listen to our own conscience. This will often lead us to forgiveness, if we choose to listen. What better way than to display this common action, than through protagonists in texts.

This idea that forgiveness is displayed through protagonists is well demonstrated through the protagonist itself Prospero in The Tempest. Prospero was the Duke of Milan, however his brother, Antonio, alongside Alonso, King of Naples, usurped him. He was forced to flee in a boat with his daughter, where they managed to survive on an

Guilt is an emotive feeling that only arises when we haven’t listened to our conscience and thus haven’t done the right thing. We wouldn’t need to experience guilt if we would just listen to our conscience in the first place.

In Punishment the idea of guilt is portrayed in a number of ways throughout the poem. The narrator dedicates the first half of the poem to describing this young girl who has been brutally tortured and killed as punishment for adultery. Heaney connects the girl found in the bog to those women who were punished during much of the turmoil and war in Ireland for having relationships with the British. He also mentions in the last two stanzas of the poem he did nothing as he watched those women being stripped and tarred in the streets. At this point, he almost places the blame partially on himself, as well as all those like Heaney who stood by and did nothing. Both these situations, even though are different are similar. This is because the people, who were not even directly involved in executing the punishment, still share the guilt of the mistreatment for their complacency. These people who were partially involved in the punishment therefore didn’t take notice that actually what they were doing was not the right thing to do. As a result they share the guilt of the mistreatment for