Introduction
The story of Androcles and the lion tells of a slave who was thrown into a lion’s den but the lion ends up saving him. The slave happens to be a Christian send to the coliseum for him to be tortured because of the differences in beliefs based on religion. All the characters viewed in the play portray some religious themes based on the religious differences. In this case, the largest difference is based on the controversy between roman values and Jesus’ teachings of the gospel. As a result of these differences, other people like Androcles are also subjected to tough situations in order to test their religious faith.
For instance, we have Spintho who is seen have engaged in almost all the crooked activities around the region. He is seen to have engaged in gay practices something that the Christian fraternity despises a lot. In this case, martyrdom is not the only way to die as Androcles hopes that natural death can take away Spintho because his possibility of dying is very high (Evans and Shaw, 90). This is because his practices don’t confess anything close to Christianity. The issue of being martyred challenges him completely as he believes that martyred people go straight to heaven and thus should not pray. He thus rushes to the lion’s den to deny his association with Christianity but ends up being eaten by the lion.
On the other hand, Ferrovius is another victim of challenges in order to test the foundation he has in regards to Christianity. For instance, he has been known to bully people into accepting Christianity and keeping off from the roman beliefs and practices. He seems to have changed from this practice after his arrest but is seen to still have the same practices in his mind. He is thus agitated when Lavinia is being told to denounce Christianity. This proves that he still has a passion for Christianity whether he has been arrested or not (Shaw, 175). Ferrovius is tested by the soldiers by being slapped to find out whether he will be able to turn the other cheek. In this case, Ferrovius manages to control himself and thus does not strike back hence passing his test. Ferrovius also performs well in fighting the gladiators hence barring him from being fed to the lion thus saving other people.
The third character is Lavinia who also has her life put on the line by deciding whether to follow or denounce Christianity (Shaw, 78). A captain in the army offers to help her escape if only she denounces Jesus but she rather chooses to be a captive who is close to Jesus. In this case, Lavinia believes in the idea of life after death hence refusing to burn incense in the temple hence choosing to be martyred. She also declines the captain’s offer of marrying her something which she declines and holds onto Jesus.
On the other hand, Androcles also refuses to burn incense in the temple hence being subjected to being martyred by the lion. In this case, he decides to die for his religion hence being put on the line awaiting his death. Ferrovius good performance in fighting the gladiators leads to the conclusion that all people should convert to Christianity. However, one prisoner has to be fed to the lion and this is Androcles who surprises people when he is not killed by the lion. He does not disagree or try to denounce Jesus but rather proceeds to the lion’s den where his life is saved. This is because he once assisted the lion when it had a a pricked paw thus becoming friends with him.
Conclusion
In conclusion the Christianity of many characters has been put on hold for them to denounce Christianity. The people who are seriously practicing Christianity are able to survive the trials and tribulations apart from the weak ones like Spintho. In this case, Androcles, Ferrovius and Lavinia manage to win the trials because of the strong faith they have in Jesus. As a result of this, Caesar orders the non-Christians to convert to Christianity and the prisoner’s freedom is granted to them in good faith.
Works cited
Evans, T F, and George B. Shaw. George Bernard Shaw: The Critical Heritage. London [u.a.: Routledge, 1999. Print.
MobileReference, . Androcles and the Lion: By George Bernard Shaw. Boston: MobileReference.com, 2008. Internet resource.
Shaw, Bernard. Androcles and the Lion. Fairfield, IA: 1st World Library Literacy Society, 2005. Print.
