Poetic Justice

**~~Exarch~~** · March 15, 2008, 11:34 PM

poetic justice is the ideal form of justice IMO.
but does it really exist? do ppl who commit evil deeds really get their comeuppance in the end?
a lot of religions have something like this, whether it be 'god's will' or karma
i dont know about u guys, but personally, i need to know that someone who's commited evil, gets their just desserts in the end. Perhaps i've been spoiled by too many hollywood happy endings.....but i need to know that they suffered for their sins..

*Warning*spoiler for 'no country for old men'

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

now take this scenario for eg:

jack and wendy are a young newlywed couple. they're having marital problems due to emotional friction and they fight aplenty over stress, money, in-laws, etc. they do love each other but the stress makes tings unbearable.
They got married becuz wendy got pregnant and jack's parents made them both marry each other.
now wendy's a singer. she's got talent and loves doing it, enjoys the friends she makes in the music industry; but the thing about the music industry is that music producers tend to abuse their positions and sleep with young aspiring singers.
It happens when jack is off on a business trip. wendy is at a songwriters' convention when she's seduced by a rich music producer from out of town and is informed by colleagues that wendy is a married woman; wendy ends up spending the night in his hotel room, having been swept up by dreams of singing careers and success. rich music producer flies out the following morning having enjoyed his sample of the local produce, and wendy breaks down in grief about it afterwards.
jack returns home, wanting to heal things between him and his wife but despite wendy not saying it; he senses his wife's infidelity and this subsequently furthers the rift, causing them to split and breaking up their child's family.

will the rich music producer get his comeuppance? will poetic justice be served? i ask you, can someone in the position of the the music producer get his just desserts?

Discuss

**Vladimir Lenin** · March 16, 2008, 12:03 AM

Originally Posted by Exarch

poetic justice is the ideal form of justice IMO.
but does it really exist? do ppl who commit evil deeds really get their comeuppance in the end?
a lot of religions have something like this, whether it be 'god's will' or karma
i dont know about u guys, but personally, i need to know that someone who's commited evil, gets their just desserts in the end. Perhaps i've been spoiled by too many hollywood happy endings.....but i need to know that they suffered for their sins..

*Warning*spoiler for 'no country for old men'

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

now take this scenario for eg:

jack and wendy are a young newlywed couple. they're having marital problems due to emotional friction and they fight aplenty over stress, money, in-laws, etc. they do love each other but the stress makes tings unbearable.
They got married becuz wendy got pregnant and jack's parents made them both marry each other.
now wendy's a singer. she's got talent and loves doing it, enjoys the friends she makes in the music industry; but the thing about the music industry is that music producers tend to abuse their positions and sleep with young aspiring singers.
It happens when jack is off on a business trip. wendy is at a songwriters' convention when she's seduced by a rich music producer from out of town and is informed by colleagues that wendy is a married woman; wendy ends up spending the night in his hotel room, having been swept up by dreams of singing careers and success. rich music producer flies out the following morning having enjoyed his sample of the local produce, and wendy breaks down in grief about it afterwards.
jack returns home, wanting to heal things between him and his wife but despite wendy not saying it; he senses his wife's infidelity and this subsequently furthers the rift, causing them to split and breaking up their child's family.

will the rich music producer get his comeuppance? will poetic justice be served? i ask you, can someone in the position of the the music producer get his just desserts?

Discuss

Your example is too complex. Who deserves the punishment:

a. The Producer for seducing
b. Wendy for being seduced
c. Jack for furthering the rift

It takes two people to have (consentual) sex as Wendy and the Producer had. I think Wendy should'nt be sleeping around as a way to get her career started.

**Noble Savage** · March 16, 2008, 08:50 AM

I don't think the cold dish should be served to the floppy haired record producer , although he has done wrong but it's really down to Wendy .

If she wanted to have this git ,she should of told her husband it was over.

**HopliteElite** · March 16, 2008, 06:30 PM

Indeed, unless the producer raped Wendy, he has done nothing wrong; if all horny guys that try to get laid by using their job as influence were avenged by fate almost every guy alive would be struck down. If anything, Wendy deserves to be struck down for betraying her husband.

**SaberHRE** · March 17, 2008, 04:44 PM

Well we are in ethos, and I can easily say(and still be valid) that indeed the producer did 'rape' Wendy. As the producer(as a general figure of power in the land of music industry) WOULD destroy Wendy's career if she wouldn't agree to sleep with him.

Violation of one's freedom of choice. A Cop demanding bribe instead of punishing a driver with a ticket, will give a bad choice(breaking the law the second time, by bribing) and another bad choice(paying the damn ticket and possibly much worse, as to cover up the Cop's demand of bribe).

I say, 'poetic Justice' should be served to the Producer for his forcing young aspiring girls into sleeping with him, Wendy for thinking that she's got 'talent', and Jack for being unable to resolve a fight between his wife and him, and inability to stand up to his parents.

The least punishment of course being served to Jack.

However again Poetic Justice is gibberish. How do we assess how severely one should be punished? Death chair or 20 years of prison is the question everyone asks themselves what they think a murderer of 2 young girls should get

**different_13** · March 17, 2008, 05:39 PM

Well, as we all know, the best revenge is going on to live well. Sadly, this is sadly under-represented in the arts - you don't see it turning up in a lot of opera plots:
"Ludwig, maddened by the poisoning of his entire family, wreaked vengeance on Gunther in the third act by living well."
"Whereupon Woton, upon discovering his deception, wreaks vengeance on Gunther in the third act again by living even better than the Duke.”

Well, you get the idea (ie, I like Frasier)

SaberHRE brings up some good points - it's quite possible to force someone to do something without overtly threatening them (coercion's so much more satisfying for all those involved)

In the end, I don't believe in poetic justice (or indeed, any form of ultimate justice). Coincedences, maybe - it's possible the prodcuer may be divorced by his wife, thereby losing half his assets. It's possible Wendy catches something from the guy, a nice physical manifestation of God's displeasure. Sadly, it's rather possible that Jack then catches said STD, whereas his reaction to his wife's infidelity was really quite understandable.
However, as we all know, life's a **** (and in the record producer's case, she then divorces him and takes half his stuff)

**~~Exarch~~** · March 17, 2008, 06:46 PM

imho
the producer took advantage of a woman undergoing marital problems and used her.
He knew wendy was a married woman; he was in a position of power, and abused it accordingly. And after he'd finished using this poor woman, he left the country on a business trip (as is the nature of being a music producer) having got some of the local booty.
the producer displayed utter contempt for the institution of marriage; no respect for his fellow human beings ie no respect for jack or wendy.