As most of you know, I am not a religious person. One of the major reasons for this is that conventionalized religion was invented by man, and only spread because the leaders of certain countries couldn't govern their people properly so they adopted a religious belief that would make the people govern themselves.
With those thoughts in mind, I have read Dulcitius. This is a play to be performed in church. As such, it screams moral guidelines, and overly values and promotes purity and virginity. The “miracles” that this play encompasses present a false security; that God will watch out for those who are pure and obedient, which, as most people know, is not the case. As the saying goes “bad things happen to good people.” This play is an unrealistic attempt to get an illiterate audience to understand that they need to be good, and keep their daughters virgins. What this play also does is show that if you follow your physical desires you will be punished. Dulcitius tries to molest the girls, even though he doesn’t, he is still humiliated and beaten. This tells the illiterate audience that if you try to do something bad, you will not be able to do the deed and you will be punished after you fail; a very negative message against following your natural instincts. (*Disclaimer: I am NOT condoning molestation, simply making a point using the play’s events)
I do not believe that people should be force-fed morals. For the most part, you have them or you don’t. Very few people don’t know the difference between right and wrong; those who don’t or don’t care are psychopaths, and need psychiatric attention. If you live your life in a compassionate and generally respectful way, you are a good person and will be treated thusly. However, if you are a bad person and do not treat others well, or take advantage of others, you will not have a healthy or quality life, and that is punishment enough.
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