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"Thus conscience does make cowards of us all" - William Shakespeare.

Is it true? Does the conscience actually regulate our behaviour and make us timid and humble as Shakespeare suggests? Does the conscience have the power to make cowards of us? Or would it not be able to prevent us from becoming tyrants? More importantly, does the conscience actually exist?

The Oxford Dictionary defines 'conscience' as, "a moral sense of right and wrong especially as felt by a person and affecting behaviour (my conscience won't allow me to do that) [or] an inner feeling as to the goodness or otherwise of one's behaviour (my conscience is clear; has a guilty conscience)"

The concept of conscience has had a presence in literature throughout time. We particularly find themes relating to the conscience in classical literature. In Shakespeare's Macbeth, we see a powerful scene where Macbeth is shown struggling and fighting with his conscience whilst he ambitiously considers killing the present King and thus claiming the crown. Eventually, in the inner tussle between the conscience and the ambition, the conscience loses.

The theme of the vocal conscienceness is not just delt with in literature, but is a predominant thesis prevailent in all human thought. In Philosophy, ancient Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle don't explicitly mention conscience,but their discussions of virtues, practical wisdom, and weakness of will form the backdrop to medieval discussions of conscience. From here on the concept of conscience was developed in philosphy. Later on, the famous eighteenth century philosopher Bishop Joseseph Butler made autonomy of conscience the central concept of his theory on ethics and morality.

In the science of psychology, prominent psychologist Sigmund Frued talks about the development and the role of the conscience in his theory. Other later psychologists also use the concept of conscience in their cognitive and behavioural theories.

The conscience is not tangible and it is a complex idea to which different theorists have presented different ideas. I shall not delve into the details of what these different theorists say about conscience as that would be beyond the scope of this paper. However, since the concept of conscience has significant presence in literature, philosophy, and psychology it would be logical to conclude that the conscience does exist. Taking this as our basic premise this paper will now go on to analyze human behaviour.

It was Intezar Hussain's story, 'City of Sorrow' that stimulated me to write this paper. I was inspired to study and analyze what may have been going on in the minds of the characters in this story. What role did their consciences play (or not play) in the story?

The story, City of Sorrow, is set in the sub-continent at the time of partition. During the story, there is a reference to a prior partition that makes us think that this is a story about the partition of Bengal. However, according to the writer himself, the story reflects the time of both the first and the second partition of the sub-continent. The story is a dialogue between three men. Three men, who have no names, whose faces have been disfigured, and who are completely lost. They don't know where they are. They think they are dead, but don't seem to be sure. During the dialogue they tell each other of their wrongdoings. These men have left their hometown behind after taking part in a large scale massacre, which caused devastation to the people on whom it was inflicted, and are now in the City of Sorrow. These three men took an active part in the massacre and committed heinous war crimes. The first man was part of a gang that forced a brother to strip his sister naked before them. Later in the story his daughter is also made victim to a similar fate. The second man is guilty of raping a woman himself. The third man, cannot seem to remember anything about what happened to him, except that he turned his back on his own people. These three characters could all be the same person; however that is left to the reader's imagination to decide.

The story symbolizes what actually went on during the time of the partition. In fact the actual events of 1947 and then again in 1971 was more appalling. It is horrifying how people who shared the same land, a greater common culture, people who have co-existed in harmony for centuries could suddenly act so inhumanly brutal toward each other. Neighbours, childhood playmates, friends all turned against each other and all past relationships were severed.

Why did this happen? How did these people become bestial all of a sudden? Did their conscience not stop them?

Thinking about the characters in Hussain's story, I realised that not only were these characters real but that they were not some people who existed in distant time, in a far off place. This is my own country's history. These characters represent people who existed only one generation before me. Existed right here where I live, not too long ago. Our own history is stained by people who have inflicted immense misery out of rage and ferociousness. One imagines that only truly evil people can be so ruthless, but it scares me to think that these people were my own people. It makes me wonder even more how they could be capable of these acts. It makes me wonder if I too am capable of stooping to this level.

This paper aims to carry out an analysis of the behaviour of these people. In order to help me carry out this analysis, I shall be using the results of a series of experiments shown in a BBC2 programme called Five Steps to Tyranny.

Five Steps to Tyranny is a powerful and disturbing documentary by a woman called Sheena McDonald that left me contemplating the malevolent capacity of human nature. "The documentary features a number of ground-breaking psychological experiments, and conducts a few new tests of its own in order to prove how easily people obey orders and do harm to others." The experiments range from the initial creation of 'out-groups' to the final acts of vicious behaviour. The series of experiments show what are called the five steps to tyranny.

Step one: "US AND THEM"

The first step is to establish 'in-groups' and 'out-groups'. The documentary shows a famous experiment conducted by an American schoolteacher. The teacher tells her primary school pupils subjects that blue-eyed children were smarter and got privileges while the brown-eyed children

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