Justice for All The word “justice,” is a difficult word to define. Looking thru a number of definitions one can find the word “just” included to explain the word justice. Just means to be fair and ultimately we can say that justice has the characteristic to be fair or right. Keeping this definition in mind while reading Agamemnon and The Libation Bearers one can see that the characters within both plays took justice into their own hands and believed that they were doing the “right” thing. Based on the ancient law of the Furies, they state that blood should be compensated for with blood and an unending cycle of calamity. Both plays depression carries a sense of looming doom and makes it clear that each character has a different view …show more content…
In Libation Bearers, Orestes, Agamemnon’s son is sent to avenge his father’s death by killing his mother, Clytaemnestra and her lover, Aigisthos. Orestes was sent by the god Apollo to kill his mother and her lover and is assured that if he carries out this murder then he will not have to pay for his crimes. Orestes is visited by an oracle and then says to himself, “Apollo will never fail me, no, his tremendous power, his oracle charges me to see this trial through…’Gore them like a bull!’ he called, ‘or pay their debt with your own life, one long career of grief.’”(ll.272-281). Orestes is faced with a difficult choice. Like many of his ancestors before, he ultimately decides to take on this task and carries it out with the help of his sister, Electra.
Electra does not like her mother but agrees to take libations to her father’s grave on her behalf after Clytaemnestra was awakened after being disturbed by a horrible dream. Clytaemnestra nightmare was that she had given birth to a snake, and the snake nursed from her breast drawing out both milk and blood. Seeing the blood and being fearful of revenge. Clytaemnestra decided to send Electra to pour libations over Agamemnon’s grave as an act of penance. However, Electra meets her brother at their father’s grave. Upon hearing of the dream, Orestes sees himself as being the snake. Envisioning himself as the snake along with the message from Apollo,
The Justice system seeks to prevent crimes and to capture those who have committed crimes. But what are the causes of crime, maybe poverty, or greed, or is sometimes caused by the system. Is the risk worth the reward and is reward the worth risking the punishment? Power and influence is threaded deeply into the Criminal Justice System. Are all offenders caught and processed with the same demeanor and given the same punishment? The system needs to be impartial to all offenders regardless of the offender’s social position, job or yearly income. The general punishment for most crimes is incarceration in most states with a difference in duration to adjust per each crime. This is the deterrent against crime. This is what should be keeping
Orestes’ father, Agamemnon, is suffered for the truth of the prophecy, the child is the price: if he kills his child, his country will win the war. Due to this prophecy, Agamemnon is tortured and agonizing between his two important roles: father of his family and father of the country. If he chooses his family and doesn’t kill his child, they will lose the war. All people in the country will be tortured as slaves and colonists. However, if he chooses the win, the peace and the pleasant from a family will not exist anymore. His family will be demolished. Eventually, in the middle of the story, he decides to kill Iphigenia. Agamemnon chooses his country, his subjects, and the win, not his family’s peace. He makes Iphigenia drink three solutions including the pills which make her die. “I feel like I’ve done something so wrong that my whole life, my family, nothing will be able to- the worst mistake. I got it wrong. It was wrong. It was wrong” (Aeschylus, 56.) This demonstrates how he is suffered by the truth that he killed his daughter. His choice, even
Cassandra walks fearfully into the palace, then the chorus hears Agamemnon’s cry for help. After some deliberation of what to do, they go into the palace only to see Clytemnestra over the dead bodies of Agamemnon and Cassandra. Clytemnestra tells that the reason for this seemingly wrong act was to do justice for Agamemnon sacrificing their daughter. Clytemnestra’s lover and partner in crime, Aegisthus, enters the palace with an armed bodyguard and justifies his part in the crime. He tells of Atreus’, Agamemnon’s father, sinful act against Thyestes, Aegisthus’ father.
Social Justice: Justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society.
There comes a time, in most citizens’ lives when they must stand against their government to produce change. Change can only be acquired if people take the necessary actions for it to take place. Nelson Mandela was a historical revolutionist who helped his people in Africa, to revolt against the government, in order to bring about change. As a result, he was sentenced to prison for 27 years for trying to overthrow the government. Many revolutionist, such as Arundhati Roy and Martin Luther King Jr., explain in their essays how the role of the citizen is to stand against injustice, and how the government labels them as anti-national because of it.
Within The Eumenides by Aeschylus, one of the main themes is Justice. Justice is a virtue perfecting the will, which enables one to give others their due. Justice involves punishing actions that are wrong and defending what is right. According to the play, justice is essential for order in society, for everyone must be given their due. Without justice, there would be a lack of order and peace.
The term justice is used in some of America's most treasured and valued documents, from the Pledge of Allegiance, to the Constitution, and the Declaration of Independence. Everyone wants to be treated justly whether it's in the courtroom or the local bar. Most people would feel confident giving a definition for justice, but would it be a definition we could universally agree to? Given that justice is a very common term, and something we all want, it's important to have a precise definition. For hundreds of years philosophers have argued, debated, and fought over this topic. Justice can clearly be defined as the intention to conform to truth and fairness. This is true justice.
The concept of justice is manifested through the three plays of Aeschylus' Oresteia. The old tradition of justice, the private blood feud, caused an ungoverned succession of violent acts that spiralled uncontrollably. Aegisthus, Clytemnestra's lover, is introduced in Agamemnon; he desires vengeance for the plot contrived by Agamemnon's father (Ag: 1605-1611).1 Neither Agamemnon nor Aegisthus took part in this "plot" and yet as the chorus explains (Ag: 755-6)
What is social justice and how does it relate to liberation theology? How do sin, love, grace, and human freedom affect social justice? What restricts freedom and social justice? And how does all of this play a role in the Kingdom of God?
Over the years in our country’s history it has been apparent that the idea of same sex marriages is becoming much more popular, however in most states there is still one thing stopping them. That one thing stopping two people from the pursuit of happiness which they desire is a social injustice. Social injustices are situations where a person or group of people is treated unfairly due to certain factors for example discrimination, prejudice, racism, heterosexism, sexism, and so forth. In the case of same sex marriages, the factor playing a major role in this social injustice is where most people believe that opposite sexes attract, but in the case of a same sex couple wanting to be married, this brings about many topics to be discussed by
The concept of access to justice embodies the formal conception on one side, and substantive conception on the other. The formal conception of access to justice is considered to indicate abilities of people to have access to courts of law and other tribunals in a reasonable and effective manner coupled with the opportunity to receive legal services from qualified professionals. Access to justice in this way embraces the concept of the equality before the law which is the foundation of human rights protection, and protects the poor and the vulnerable from deprivation and violation of their rights. The substantive conception of access to justice, on the other hand, refers to people's ability to attain a substantive legal outcome. The substantive
I believe that the statements and ideas listed herein this quote, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” (Martin Luther King Jr.) relates to how if one country is allowed to abuse, mistreat and terrorize their citizens that countries all over the world will fall like a domino and will eventually allow themselves to give similar treatment to their countries. I understand this quote as being a statement given by Martin Luther King Jr. against communism, fascism, civil rights abuses and unjust treatment in general because of the brutal and horrible lives that some people during his time had to experience and suffer under. The quote also states that injustice to any person of this planet is wrong and that regardless of rhyme or
When will we stop being unjust? Our society today is full of problems and issues. We not only experience economic and politic issues, but we face social problems as well. One main problem that our society must acknowledge is injustice. However, many members of our society are blind not to recognize that permitting unjust and unfair acts is an actual injustice. They believe it’s appropriate to judge others, to make inappropriate comments and to be disrespectful.
American prisons have a disparity of minority inmate population, and one of the reasons this is so is because of the manner the judicial system operates. The investigator chose this topic because there are many African Americans and Hispanics that have been incarcerated for crimes they committed, as well as for crimes they didn’t commit, and because of their cultural background they were given severer sentencing. After performing the research the investigator found that many factors played a big part in the incarceration of minorities that included, ethnicity and gender. Although there is a high crime rate in minority areas, there are more
Communitarian critics of Rawls have argued that his A Theory of Justice provides an inadequate account of individuals in the original position. Michael Sandel, in Liberalism and the Limits of Justice argues that Rawls' conception of the person divorces any constitutive attachments that persons might have to their ends. Hence, Sandel asserts that Rawls privileges the standpoint of self-interested individuals at the expense of communal interests. I do not find Sandel's specific criticisms to be an accurate critique of what Rawls is doing in A Theory of Justice. However, this does not mean the more general thrust of the communitarian analysis of Rawls' conception of the person must be abandoned. By picking up the pieces