Blog Post 2 The York Crusifixion

Values and Morality in The York Crusifixion

The York Crusifixion speaks of the possible dangers of ignorance and making mindless actions when forgetting to question one’s own values. The author uses the four soldiers as an example to challenge the audience to think about their actions before doing them.  The author sets up the clear dichotomy between Jesus and the soldiers as both spectrums of morality and mercy.

            While the soldiers do not have a clear development throughout the play, the author uses their continuous actions as to provide a point. As soldier number 1 points out, all four soldiers are simply following the orders of “lords and leaders of our law” and carry out a crucifixion without neither questioning nor knowing Jesus’ wrong doings that evoked such a punishment. The author demonstrates the perils of following orders and working mindlessly and demands the audience to question their actions, even when doing something as simple as your every day tasks. While the soldiers’ intentions were probably not to torture and kill Jesus, their failure to question their own moral values presented them as primitive and savages, especially when compared to the sheer contrast of Jesus’ mercy and tolerance. While others would curse the names of their executioners, Jesus prays to God for their forgiveness.

            Since the opening lines of the play:

1          ”Sir knights, take heed hither in hie:

            This deed undree we may not draw:

            Ye wot yourselves as well as I

            How lords and leaders of our law

5          Have given doom that this dote shall die.”

 The author shows the soldiers’ mindless attitudes and their willingness to oblige to their “lords” orders, even when the order is as painful as torturing and killing a man. The soldier seems to adopt the values and attitudes of their leaders calling Jesus a “dote” when he gives no other proof that he knows what Jesus has done. Although it is soldier 1 who says these lines, all four soldiers seem to have the same set of values and attitude throughout the play. The author subtly demonstrates this trait by not giving the soldiers any names, as a way for the audience to not differentiate between them.  By the end of the play we see basically neither development, nor repentance in any of the soldiers, pointing out the carelessness of mankind. As an observer of the play, the audience recognizes that the soldiers are oblivious of who Jesus is and the powers of God. Although Jesus’ prayer and mercy spared the four soldiers weren’t of their actions, the play demonstrates the importance of looking into ones value before every action.