Pizarro’s loss of faith in the Catholic church sees him becoming to believe that, maybe Atahuallpa is a god and that he is the son of the Sun, in the same way that Jesus was, supposedly, the son of God. “What if I’ve gone God-hunting and found one?” when Atahuallpa does not rise again, as the Inca priests said he would he loses all sense of faith altogether.
These parallels and similarities are that both Pizarro and Atahuallpa are illegitimate. Pizarro and the Spaniards on the expedition regard Illigitimate children as inferior, however the Inca king says “to be born so is the sign of a great man”. This is another contrast in the cultural values of the Incas and the Spanish, but it is said in the context of Atahuallpa joking about his increasingly close relationship with Pizarro. The other major parallel between the characters is that they are both illiterate. Pizarro needs young martin to read and write for him. Atahuallpa, on the other hand, had not seen writing of that type before and seemed to be completely fascinated. “We will learn together like brothers” also shows that the two are becoming closer together.
It could be said that Atahuallpa, himself, was to blame for the tragic end of the play. He is far too confident about his own divinity and, at first, of the divinity of Pizarro and the Spanish. “No danger. He is coming to bless me. A god and all his priests. Praise Father Sun!” This is contrast to the attitude of Atahuallpa’s own priests, who advise him dramatically “Kill them now!” and “Destroy them-teach them the meaning of death.” The directness of this language contrasts to Atahuallpa himself who is far calmer about the whole situation. A virtue that would come back to haunt him later when he fails to recognise the very real threat of his own death. “Only father sun can take me from here.” This shows that he does not believe that he will die at the hands of the Spaniards as only his father can decide when it is his time to die.
Atahuallpa also mocks the Spanish, which would not help his situation any. He mocks their religion by listening to, licking and then spitting on and throwing the Bible to the floor. He also, openly makes fun of the fact that the Spaniards say that God is inside them. In front of the Spaniards he says, to his priests, “First they drink his blood, then they eat him”, as this is the only way that God can actually be, physically, inside someone. This seems a very unwise thing to do, given that the two fathers have come on the expedition to convert the Peruvians to Christianity and that all the Spaniards are armed to the teeth and surrounding him.
The Christian priests also have a great deal to play in the tragic ending of the play, as they put enormous pressure on Pizarro to kill Atahuallpa. The hypocrisy and arrogance of the priests is representative of the Church at that point in history. They only accept their teaching and the word of God as the truth. They would not accept any other, no matter who or what it was from. One example of the way that the church persecuted people in this way is Gallileo, who said that the earth was not the centre of the universe. The churches said that everything revolved around the earth and would not accept his theories. They even went to such lengths as to ban his publications. Other scientists had their work published after they had died so s not to be punished in this way. So when Atahuallpa said that he was a god they did not accept it. They described the Incas as “antichrists”. De Nizza also says “I know as well as you how terrible it is to kill, but it is worse to spare evil.” This shows that they regard any, who do not believe, as being evil. There hostility towards the Inca king lessens momentarily when Pizarro says “if Christ were here, would he kill the Inca?” they realise at that point that they want to kill the king for their own good, not that of their religion and what they regard to be the right thing. This part is reminiscent of the massacre, earlier in the play where the priests are insulted by the way that Atahuallpa disregards the Bible and throws it to the floor. They order Pizarro to kill the Incas because they are angered, not because it is what their religion commands.
It is clear from very early on in the play that Atahuallpa will be killed. The Spaniards believe that he will attack them as soon as they let him loose and leave for the coast. The pilling up of the gold in the gold room is used to show a build up to the tragic ending of the play and the end of Atahuallpa. This also shows the involvement of fait in the play. Fait, being one of the generic features of tragedy. It is clear form the start that the Spanish intend to kill the Inca as they go to conquer the kingdom. Pizarro himself has been given the right to claim any land that he conquers. The only way to completely take over a kingdom is to remove its king.
Over all I believe that the one person that it most responsible for the tragic end of the play is Francisco Pizarro. He is the man who’s idea the mission was, the man who decides to lead the mission, the one who funds the mission and the one who decides to capture the Inca king. He is single-handedly the one man that is responsible for the death of Atahuallpa and the tragic ending to the play.
If the mission had not gone ahead, none of this would have happened. You could also argue that the king of Spain was the one responsible for the death of Atahuallpa, although he did not know that it would happen, he gave permission to Pizarro to go to Peru in the first place.
