“Some Shall Be Pardoned, and Some Punished.” -Romeo and Juliet Essays

â€Å"Some Shall Be Pardoned, and Some Punished.† -Romeo and Juliet Essays â€Å"Some Shall Be Pardoned, and Some Punished.† -Romeo and Juliet Paper â€Å"Some Shall Be Pardoned, and Some Punished.† -Romeo and Juliet Paper â€Å"Some shall be pardoned, and some punished. † This was the verdict handed down by the Prince yesterday at the scene of the aftermath of the long-documented Capulet-Montague rivalry. With both houses suffering the losses of some of their most promising youth to love, lust and misperception, only one question remains: who are to be punished? The main offenders in this charade were Tybalt Capulet (who killed Mercutio) and Romeo Montague (who killed Tybalt and Paris). The problem with punishing the two: they’re both dead. With these two law-breakers out of the picture to whom do you look to next? Friar Lawrence commented on the issue, â€Å"Well obviously the parents. I mean they just let their kids run wild, leaving me to look after them and clean up their messes. † It is true that in the absence of any parental involvement many of the people involved sought advice from the Friar. Both Romeo and Juliet, the central figures of the controversy, were counselled by Friar Lawrence. But was the Friar’s advice really as harmless as it seemed? It was the Friar who married Romeo and Juliet which, indirectly, led to Mercutio’s death and Romeo’s revenge on Tybalt. And it was his bungled plan that later caused the twin suicide of the lovers. When confronted with this evidence Friar Lawrence became defensive, â€Å"I meant well. I was only trying to put an end to the bloody feud between the Montagues and the Capulets. † No matter how ‘well-meant’ a plan may be, when made by a misguided fool it can cause disaster. When placed in the Friar’s position I think I, or any other right-minded person, would handle things a little differently. Any other person would have realized that a marriage between two fighting factions would be more likely to cause tensions to flare rather than bring instant peace, especially when the responsibility for bringing said peace is placed in the hands of the very young. Any intelligent person would also have seen that the risks involved in Friar Lawrence’s plan to unite Romeo and Juliet far outweighed the advantages. Although he maybe a well-meant but misguided fool, the Friar still remains a valid suspect in the case. Not all of the blame can be placed on Friar Lawrence though. We must remember that the cause of the entire debacle was the feud between the adults of the Montagues and the Capulets. To raise your children to harbour such hate for another person or house is a crime within itself. Although there was speculation that the parents had been punished enough through the loss of their children, this reporter believes that they need to pay a little more for disturbing the peace in fair Verona.

Bones of the Buddha - Excavating the Piprahwa Stupa

Bones of the Buddha - Excavating the Piprahwa Stupa 2013. Secrets of the Dead: Bones of the Buddha. Directed and written by Steven Clarke. Executive producers Steve Burns and Harry Marshall. Produced by Icon Films for Thirteen and WNET. Featuring Charles Allen, Neil Peppe, Harry Falk, Bhante Piyapala Chakmar, and Mridula Srivastava. Special thanks to the Archaeological Survey of India, the Indian Museum of Kolkata, the Mahabodhi Temple committee, Dr. S. K. Mittra, the Srivastava Family and Ram Singh Ji. 54 minutes; DVD and BluRay The Bones of the Buddha is an historical entry in the PBS series Secrets of the Dead, published in 2013 and touching on the politically dicey discussion of religion and history in India. Centered around the ongoing research of historian Charles Allen, Bones of the Buddha tells the story of the stupa at Piprahwa, a Buddhist sacred structure in the Basti district of Uttar Pradesh in India. Piprahwa is believed by some scholars to be near the site of Kapilavastu, the capital of the Shakyan state, and the Shakyas were the family of the man who would become the historical Buddha [Siddhartha Gautama or Shakyamuni, 500-410 BC], the center of the Buddhist religion. But more than that: Piprahwa is, or rather was, the family burial place of some of the Buddhas ashes. Historical and Archaeological Investigations Bones of the Buddha details the investigations by amateur archaeologist William Claxton Peppe, professional archaeologist Dr. K.M. Srivastava, and historian Charles Allen to identify one of the most important of the several burial places of the ashes of the Buddha: that belonging to the Buddhas family. After his death, so the legend goes, the Buddhas ashes were divided into eight parts, one part of which was given to the Buddhas clan. Evidence of the Shakya family burial place of the Buddhas ashes was ignored for nearly 100 years due to the damage inflicted by a corrupt archaeologist: Dr. Alois Anton FÃ ¼hrer. FÃ ¼hrer was the head of the British colonial archaeological center for northern India, a German archaeologist who was at the center of a scandal concerning faked and looted artifacts, attributed falsely to the Buddha. But when the excavations at Piprahwa were being undertaken by W.C. Peppe in the late 19th century, the scandal was yet a few months away: but near enough in time to cast doubt on the authenticity of the finds. The Buddhas Cache What Peppe found buried deeply within the enormous stupa was a stone reliquary, within which were five small jars. In the jars were hundreds of tiny jewels in the shapes of flowers. More were scattered within the reliquary, intermingled with burned bone fragments of the Buddha himself: this burial is believed to have been placed here by Buddhas disciple, King Ashoka, 250 years after the Buddhas death. In the 1970s, archaeologist K. M. Srivastava reexcavated at Piprahwa and found, beneath Ashokas elaborate burial, a simpler burial place, believed to have been the original site where the Buddhas family placed the remains. Indian History The story brought forward by Bones of the Buddha is a fascinating one: one of the British Raj in India, when the amateur archaeologist W.C. Peppe plowed a trench through an enormous stupa and found the 4th century BC burial remains. The story continues in the 1970s, with K. M. Srivastava, a young Indian archaeologist who was convinced that Piprahwa was Kapilavastu, the capital of the Sakyan state. And finally it concludes with modern historian Charles Allen, who wanders suburban England and northern India in search of the artifacts, the language and the history behind the stupa at Piprahwa. Most of the all, the video (and the sites investigations for that matter) is excellent as an introduction to the archaeology and history of Buddhism. The Buddhas life, where he was born, how he came to become enlightened, where he died and what happened to his cremated remains are addressed. Also involved in the story is the leader Ashoka, Buddhas disciple, who 250 years after Buddhas death promulgated the religious teachings of the holy man. Ashoka was responsible, say the scholars, for the placing the Buddhas ashes here in a stupa fit for royalty. And finally, Bones of the Buddha provides the viewer with an introduction to the broadening of Buddhism, how it came to be that 2,500 years after the Buddha died, 400 million people world wide are following his teachings. Bottom Line I very much enjoyed this video, and I learned a lot. I dont know much at all about Buddhist archaeology or history, and it was good to have a bit of a starting point. I was surprised to see, or rather not see, any Indian archaeologists interviewed during the filming: although S. K. Mittra and the Archaeological Survey of India are credited at the end, and Allen visits the sites and museums where the relics are deposited. That circumstance led me to do a bit more investigation on my own; more of that later. We cant really ask more of a video: to pique the viewers interest into the past. Bones of the Buddha is a fascinating video, and well worth added to your viewing choices. Disclosure: A review copy was provided by the publisher. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.