Despite these factors, their stories all have something in common. Religion. Shakespeare was a Protestant who used Catholic beliefs to create tragedy, the Mayans used their culture and beliefs to create a story explaining how the world came to be, and Voltaire used his story Candide to mock religion. Each story is connected because each author shares their opinions on how religion affects human nature. Hamlet's human nature is grief and how to deal with that, the Popol Vuh is humans defying their creators and being the hero, and Voltaire talks about humans using religion to be optimistic when things are tough.