Good and Evil in Art and Law : An Extended Essay

Chapter One Setting the Scene 1 Chapter Two Six Figures: Real and Imaginary 27 2.1 Evil in the world of art 27 (a) Don Giovanni: the irresistible amoral 27 (b) Faust: the restless spirit 28 (c) Satan (from Paradise Lost): the fallen grandee 30 2.2 Evil in real life 31 (a) The murderer in Roper v. Simmons 31 (b) The recidivist child molester 33 (c) The intruding journalist in Kay v. Robertson 34 Chapter Three The Appeal of the Characters 37 3.1 In literature 37 (a) The evil character is larger than life; he is made impressive even when fallen and disgraced 37 (b) The artist may even wish to make us prefer the "bad character" to the "good" 41 (c) Motives recognized/shared by humans 49 (d) Are the human motives ascribed to evil so universally reprehensible? 51 (e) Why does the anthropomorphic conception of "God" invariably appear so haughty, remote and cold? 60 (f) Deviating from the "expected" pattern 66 (g) The loneliness of evil (and the genius) 69 3.2 In law 73 Chapter Four Just Deserts? 77 4.1 The treatment of the villain in art 77 (a) Predetermined summary punishment 77 (b) The punishment is severe if not excessive 81 (c) The passage of time and its effect on the interpretation of the law 85 (d) The lack of appeal, even in theory, against the Divine sentence 88 4.2 In law 90 (a) Better treatment for the accused 90 (b) Taking into account his personal characteristics 90 (c) Remission of the sentence 92 (d) Continued concern for the wrongdoer's rights 93 (e) The balancing process of legal reasoning 93 Chapter Five Some Technical Reasons for the Differences 97 (a) Divine justice has clear lines to follow 98 (b) The need to protect the villain 99 (c) Does the law neglect the good? 100 (d) Human justice must reflect a changing society; Divine justice is largely immutable 101 (e) Different tasks 105 (f) The lawyer's need to convince 106 (g) Motives, outlook and mentality 107 Chapter Six The "Flawless" Hero 111 (a) Aeneas 111 (b) The Cid 115 (c) Flawed and human; flawless and wooden: a Russian twist to the debate 121 Chapter Seven Controlling People's Thoughts 131 (a) Another form of evil? 131 (b) Soviet literature from the early 1930's onwards 137 (c) The effects of control 144 (d) The way the pressure was applied 150 Chapter Eight Joining up the dots 153 (a) First theme: the dependence of art and law on life 154 (b) Second theme: the connection of art and law 171 (c) Third theme: the interaction between the real and the invented and how the latter can enrich the former 180 (d) Fourth theme: "perfect" v. "imperfect" justice? 198 (e) Fifth theme: "good" or "bad" and the alternative of the ambiguous human being 202 (f) Sixth theme: the character as a reflection of its creator's real life experiences 209 (g) Seventh theme: the ambiguous nature of humans 219 (h) Postscript: the gathering clouds 223 Works referred to in this book 241 Index of names 251 About the author 263