Free «False Testimony» Essay

Ciappelletto lived a life of sins, and by the end of it changed his image into a Saint. Though to the eyes of the world, his image was changed, but his objectives internally remained the same nonetheless. How is that possible? His prior objectives were to provide benefits to his friends at the cost of being bad in the eyes of the Lord. Later on, his objectives were to be good in the eyes of Lord at the cost of his own self benefits. Though his objectives to ‘benefit’ remained the same, the direction of these objectives changed readily.

If one looks at his personality closely one gets the notion that the man did deserve to be a saint eventually, as he possessed the true qualities of one. It is no doubt true that his direction was towards falsehood and adultery before but when directed to the righteous path, he proved how saint like he was and attained an eternal reputation that surpassed his earlier ill reputation. What was this characteristic that potentially engraved him as a saint? It was his fear-for-nothing attitude that always existed and up to him to focus on either direction: good or bad.

A strange thing about life is that one good deed can change a lifetime image of a person. But that depends how big the scope of that particular good deed is. Ciappelletto’s selfless deed by the near end of his life changed his fate forever, the foremost impact being upon his life-long image of a corrupt man, which transformed into a saint. Though, he gave a false testimony, it was selfless of him, as he did not care how it could affect him. But his selfless act changed his image forever.

Ciappelletto did no good in his life for the benefit of others, and even if he did, it was merely on the basis conning and lying. Lying and deceiving was so common in his life that in every gathering and every confrontation situation he would make his way out nicely with conning and fooling people. His false testimony in the end, gives way to his image as a saint, as people who were listening formed the perception that a man who has never lusted over a woman, never lied or cheated, never traded for money etc. is nothing short of a saint, who has been pious all of his life. But that was not true. What he really was good at was making himself look good despite of doing everything bad there was to do, and this act of window dressing his personality image was an immoral act as well. But then again, how can people develop an image of a person just by what he says. Who is like this during their entire life? So pious, that never even have lusted or lied at least once. He surely when overboard with his stories of righteousness in front of friar that to him appeared false, because he has a good judge of character, but to the innocent people taking his every word as the gospel truth, he using mere words transformed his image like that of a saint, with no ill in his record. This reflects his self-image and two things can be said about him. Firstly, he knows he has done bad and admitting that is tough for him so he takes the easiest possible route and deviates people from every questioning his character. On the other hand, knowing that his acts are evil, he still carries on with him, and in his own mind, he believes himself to be a saint, that is why he portrays that same to the people listening to him.