Justice is enforced and withheld every single day. Of course, individuals and societies as a whole all have different views on what is right and wrong, making what one person may consider just, another consider immoral. In Ariel Dorfman’s play, Death and the Maiden, three paradoxical views of Justice go head to head as a voice from the past, Roberto, reenters the lives of a scarred and revenge set women, Paulina, and her “macho” husband Gerardo. Paulina is forced to decide what to do with one of the men who rapes and tortured her during her imprisonment by the Pinochet Regime. Inevitably, conflict is created when all three want to act upon their personal ideas of justice. Paulina’s belief of “an eye for an eye”, Gerardo’s politically right …show more content…
For Paulina, being kidnapped raped and tortured left her damaged and vengeance seeking. Her long time grudge is what enabled her to justify her Regime like actions towards her captive. Roberto re entering her life through accidental fate, triggered a flashback which resurfaced all of the pain and emotion caused by the regime. A clouded mindset causes a sane person, like Paulina, to want to rape and torture a man she can't even be sure was her assailant. When Paulia states “ This b**** can take a bit more.” while talking about Roberto, it is clear that in order for Roberto to feel exactly how she did 15 years prior, she implements a role reversal, mirroring exactly what her kidnappers said to her. For her, justice means equal suffering, and …show more content…
Paulina, Gerardo, and Roberto all had valid reasons to back up their beliefs on justice. However, this does not make any of them entirely correct. Revenge, the law, and forgiveness can rarely go hand in hand, forcing choices and sacrifices to be made by the characters. Similarly, Dorfman makes the reader choose whose idea of justice they most identify with, causing the events and the outcome of the play to be seen differently by each individual. One can choose to believe that Paulina killed Roberto, or set him free. The topic of justice is also relevant due to the lack of it found in Chile during the Pinochet Regime and thereafter. During its reign, individuals were tortured and killed, and after its collapse, the new government had no punishment for those blameworthy. This clearly shows that all forms of Justice have flaws and whose repercussions lead to dissatisfaction to some. However, Dorfman’s paly illuminates that no matter what one's idea of right and wrong is, growth as an individual can lead to a change in
Giovanna is a very determined and fearless woman who stopped at nothing to get what she wanted. When she sent the money to the kidnappers for what was promised to be the last payment, she included a letter saying, “This is it. Here’s my final payment. I want my daughter returned immediately. If you delay, next is your coglioni. They’ll start to itch, blister, and fall off” (351). Giovanna has been through and seen terrible events, such as having her husband venture off across the world and be crushed by a giant ball of metal, but nothing has changed her life more than having her daughter stolen from her. Every day from the moment she woke up to the moment she had to sleep was filled with her wandering the city ravenously searching her environment for any clues on the disappearance of her daughter. She even went out of her way to go to chinatown and pickup herbs that she created into
Throughout the novel, we see the influence that Trujillo has over the women’s actions for the simple fact that he is in charge. There is a domination that men have that seeps ...
The play begins with the monologue of the judge explaining the courtroom case circumstances. It explains the situation that the jury is to determine if the 18-year-old boy is guilty or innocent of murdering his father, and that if the boy is convicted, he will receive the death penalty. It is mandatory for the jury to have a unanimous verdi...
Maria Teresa’s cautiousness and sensitivity remain consistent during the revolution, while her consideration for others changes. Maria Teresa is exceedingly careful throughout her life starting with her relationships with men, and carrying her into her revolutionary skills. Her emotional fragileness is responsible for her many breakdowns, both major and minor, during her life. When Maria Teresa becomes imprisoned, she loses sight of her consideration and focuses on getting herself home. Although her life was cut short due to a tyrannical leader, Maria Teresa Mirabal made her mark on history as a strong, beautiful butterfly.
During the time of Shakespeare a powerful woman ruled over England and all of its empire and yet the average woman in society was often brushed aside and disregarded. These conflicting images of woman where depicted throughout Shakespeare's plays from stichomythia we see between King Richard and his mother and the disregard we see for Ophelia in Hamlet but these contrasts are best encapsulated in his comedies Much Ado About Nothing and Measure For Measure Woman. Woman of the time where considered weak and weak willed and yet Beatrice and Isabella each brave their societies views when they are faced with the persecuted of someone they love. This love causes them to fight against their oppressors without sacrificing their beliefs and eventually be a martyr to save those that they love. In this paper I will discuss the parallels of Beatrice and Isabella and the love, loss, and battles they face and how despite their actions they still end up losing but for a purpose they believe in. These woman each have their own view and struggles yet in the end they will fall back into the societal obligations that fall upon them but not without saving their loved one.
“Just Mercy” by Bryan Stevenson (2014) really uncovers the devastating truth behind our justice system, from people who provide false testimony on a whim, to biased jurors, to an entire court system that does not, chooses not, to recognize its own errors. The book focuses on the Walter McMillan case, and is interwoven with chapters of how Stevenson came to study law, with different cases he’s worked on braided in with accurate and relevant facts throughout. The story, from a perspective as a person that is relatively against the death penalty, and certainly is against youth being punished to “die in prison” (a term used by Stevenson that is much more factual) is heartbreaking to read.
Throughout reading this play, the audience must make the hard decision between whether or not they believe Brutus’ motives were justifiable, or if Caesar was the victim of a cruel, heinous crime. This opens up the question, is murder ever justifiable? Linda Fudge, a resident of Irvington, New Jersey, was cornered and raped in a dark alley in the summer of 2002. The assailant was brought to justice, but Linda got the shocking news she was pregnant. Only 23 years old, single and afraid of having a child, Linda made the hard decision to have an abortion.
Throughout the story, Juvencio seems very selfish. He never cares about anyone besides himself and what happens to him, which causes him many problems with those who care about him. His selfishness creates a divide between him and his family. This is shown in the first few paragraphs of the story, “‘All right, I'll go. But if they decide to shoot me too, who will take care of my wife and kids?’ ‘Providence will take care of them. You go now and see what you can do for me. That's what matters.’” Even this early on in the story, Juan Rulfo shows the reader how self-centered Juvencio is, that he would tell his son to endanger his life to save Juvencio’s own life. Juvencio states to Justino that saving him matters more than the safety of Justino or his family. Juan Rulfo also shows that Juvencio’s selfishness makes his son less ready to help him by describing Justino having an inner conflict about whether to take the risk of helping his father. Justino almost doesn’t help his father, showing that he is losing empathy for his father as a result of Juvencio’s selfishness and self-centered lifestyle. Juan Rulfo uses this scene to illustrate his theme related to selfishness. There are also a few examples of Juvencio’s lack of empathy in this story, including the scene in which Juvencio talks about his crime, showing a total lack of caring for any other human
Upon further reading, however, one begins to observe a complete loss of rationality in the women characters. It looks as if, when a significant male character abandons the female in death or desertion, the woman loses all sense of responsibility and reason and shuts herself off into seclusion. This incident is seen happening, in one form or another, to Rebeca, Amaranta, Fernanda, Meme, and Ursula, to a certain extent, bringing up the possibility that the men may, in actuality, be h...
Scene 1. At her wedding Hero, is publicly accused of being a cheater by he fiancé Claudio. After being denounced by Claudio Hero faints, while she is on the ground her father Leonato says: “Do not live, Hero, do not ope thine eyes, For, did I think thou wouldst not quickly die, Thought I thy spirits were stronger than thy shames, Myself would, on the rearward of reproaches, Strike at thy life”(4.1.131-135). Leonato is hoping that his daughter Hero is dead, and if she is not, he will risk the punishment and kill her himself. Although he has no evidenced of Hero’s crimes, and Hero tells him she is innocent Leonato choses to believe Claudio over Hero. He is so angry at what his daughter has allegedly done he is prepared to kill her. It is seen here that in this time period men are much more trusted then women. This scene also shows how serious it was for a woman to have premarital sex. Leonato had no trouble believing his daughter was unfaithful with no evidence, and was ready to kill her because she had sex out of wedlock and dishonored his
Written one year apart from the other, one cannot fail to recognize the parallels between William Shakespeare's tragedies Julius Caesar and Hamlet. To begin, they are both stories of assassinations gone horribly wrong. Although the details of the plays are different, the two assassins (Brutus and Hamlet) provide interesting comparison. Through these two killers, Shakespeare reveals the different levels of justice; one’s personal sense of justice; others’ perception of justice; the justice of the monarchy that supports Shakespeare’s craft. Through this, the audience realizes that a just person is not always a humble one, a condition that may turn out to be a fatal flaw in the end. When a man decides to play God by taking justice into his own hands, the world can unravel much more quickly than he had ever imagined.
Antonia and Agnes are the characters in the novel that suffer the most, the difficulties that they encounter are due to their position in society, as women and as under the control of those who have more power than them. Agnes in particular is held prisoner and tortured by those who yield power over her. While Agnes is trapped in a one room prison with the decaying body of her baby, the nuns hold complete control over her. Agnes is depleted of all control in her life, she is brought down to skin and bones and she has lost years of her life as well as the child she gave birth to in her prison cell. The differences in power is extremely stressed with the nuns and Agnes as well as with Ambrosio and Antonia.
William Shakespeare’s tragic drama Othello presents to the audience a picture of many different shades of morality and immorality. It is the purpose of this essay to elaborate in detail on this thesis.
In our class discussions, we were vexed by a condition we found prevalent in both Othello and King Lear; both of these plays end with the deaths of two innocent women: Desdemona and Cordelia. Not only are these women innocent, they are by far the most benevolent and forgiving female characters in the play, little deserving their violent ends. During this discussion, we also added Ophelia to the list of innocent women who die at Shakespeare's hand and questioned whether the playwright was rewarding, punishing, or martyring these women. Although the question was raised, we were not able to come up with a satisfactory answer.
But the same objective detachment can become the face of a very repressive and dehumanized system if the persons involved in the process of justice are themselves devoid of human value and compassion. In the present play we find how Benare becomes the victim of sadism of his male counterparts. The audience is made to witness a mere enactment of what is a rehearsal of sorts of a mock-trial to be staged later in the day. But what begins as a harmless game begins to assume a grim aspect before long. At first all the characters vie to be the accused in the mock trial.