When Mak wasn't punished harshly enough for stealing the sheep, it was just one more thing to show the hypocrisy in the story, and in everything we have been reading so far. I feel like its a theme of the class. Characters constantly say one thing, promise one thing, and then do the complete opposite or don't follow through. This particular scene is just another piece of evidence about the hypocrisy in this play. 

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On Oct 27, 2011, at 9:32 PM, "DeWulf, Jessica" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Though I still do not understand how the first half of The Second Shepherd's Play leads up to the second half, I felt like some things that happened in the beginning half were very interesting. I thought it was ironic how they shepherds found the hidden sheep in the cradle after they had already believed Mak's lie. They were going to give them some money as congratulations and instead found their missing sheep. Also, I was surprised that all they did was "blanket" Mak, or throw him up in the air with a blanket, even though stealing a sheep is often penalized with death. Why didn't they punish him more if they were that upset about it? To me, Mak got off a little too easy for stealing that sheep from the shepherds.