Justice vs Mercy (King Lear)
"Too much mercy... has often resulted in further crimes which were fatal to innocent victims who would not have been victims if justice had been put first and mercy second" those were words said by Agatha Christie(1890- 1976). If mercy is essential to society we wouldn't have great personalities such as Agatha Christie telling us those great words. Through the play King Lear by William Shakespeare we see how mercy gave pain to so many people and even an entire kingdom. In the following essay I will discuss how a world with lack of justice results in a world with chaos and crimes and why justice being served rapidly is essential to establish stability in a society; and as a final point individuals are aware of the consequences and can decide whether or not to commit another wrong act, then mercy should not be applied but justice. I will show that Justice, and not mercy is overwhelmingly important when it comes to have a peaceful and civilized world. Mercy fails at that point when it needs to provide with fairness when it comes to society.
Without justice the world will be in enormous chaos. In King Lear we see this point very clear. When Albany responds to his wife by saying ,"If that the heavens do not their visible spirits /Send quickly down to tame these vile offenses, it will come,/Humanity must perforce prey on itself,/Like monsters of the deep. "(IV ii 46-49) What Albany is saying is that without justice, the world will be in chaos where everyone will kill each other; this will convert people in monsters. Gorneril , is the most evil daughter of Lear because she ends up doing bad things such as poisoning her own sister and plotting to murder her husband also Gorneril conspired to dethrone her father causing pain to her family. As punishment of the gods, she eventually committed suicide.
Gorneil's sister, Regan showed no remorse of her evil acts. She conspired to strip Lear out of power. Also, she helped Cornwall to rip out Gloucester's eyes and planned to have Edmond as a lover. She states "My lord is dead; Edmund and I have talk'd; / and more convenient is he for my hand. / Than for your lady's: you may gather more. / If you do find him, pray you, give him this; / And when your mistress hears thus much from you, / I pray, desire her call her wisdom to her. / So, fare you well. / If you do chance to hear of that blind traitor, / Preferment falls on him that cuts him off" (IV v 32-42) Regan is as evil as her sister Gorneril. She is immediately seeking for another man after her husband died. Justice is the only solution with Regan because she will never stop her evils acts. The only thing that stopped her was being poisoned by her sister. Regan and Gorneril were working fine together to beat Lear, but when Lear was conquered they started to do evil deeds to each other. This show that mercy is not the solution to stop crimes but Justice is.
Justice served sooner can save life. The Act III show us this, when Lear's messenger Kent was put in stock by Cornawall. Lear did not punish Cornwall for his decision, allowing Cornwall to commit many crimes. Also we can see another example of justice delivered late instead of being served earlier when Gloucester's eye is rip out. Albany instead of seeking justice with Edmund he rather claimed justice by saying, "Gloucester, I live To thank thee for the love thou show'dst the king, And to revenge thine eyes. - Come hither, friend: Tell me what more thou know'st." (IV.II.93-96) Cornwall is an evil character that abused of his power. You can see this when he punished Kent for no having respect, but the real abuse of power comes when he plucked out Gloucester's eyes. Both Albany and Lear are example of how criminals can abuse of your mercy and do evil acts again if people do not seek justice when is needed.
To conclude justice not mercy is essential to have a civilized, and peaceful society. Mercy and justice can work together until a certain point in a society, however justice is what gives balance to what is right or wrong. To forgive people for their wrong acts can be a good option however many people can abuse of the situation, and do bad acts again. Lastly, justice implemented sooner rather than later is what is going to stop people from doing more crimes. Through the entire play of King Lear we see clues that demonstrate that justice is needed to be put first and mercy second in order to have a great society.
