Antigone
After conducting a literary examination of Antigone, as well as other Greek plays, it is important to highlight the distributive, procedural, restorable and retributive forms of justice in the text and in society in order to understand each term within American and international cultures.
What is Antigone?
Antigone is a Greek tragedy written by the historically significant playwright Sophocles; the play explores the nature of justice as well as many other themes throughout the book. Even though we were assigned to read Antigone in class and analyze the text, it is important to pinpoint that the text is not the only play from the time period including such themes. Many surviving plays from the Greek and Roman eras are significant to examine-both comedies and tragedy. Since the story in Antigone shows a lot of people committing murder and crimes as acts of revenge and perceived justice, the play is a great study for examining justice. After conducting a literary examination of Antigone, as well as other Greek plays, it is important to highlight the distributive, procedural, restorable and retributive forms of justice and the text and in society in order to understand each term within American and international cultures.
Justice
When critics examine the nature of justice they are referring to the concepts of ethics, law, religions, equality and fairness. The most logical explanation for the concept is that it is any action opposing injustice. However, it is important not to look at justice in such simple terms. The concept can be very elaborate; it includes components of benevolence, charity, prudence, mercy, generosity, and compassions that teach people how to understand human actions and know that all of humanity is interlinked. All of such components are present in Antingone; however, in the real world these components are presented differently depending on the culture. Religion, history and mythology, for example, frequently explore the concept of justice but do so in different ways.
Theory
The theory of justice deals with natural law regarding consequences that occur as the result of choices. In Antigone, there were several moments in the play where a character was negatively impacted as the result of a particular choice. The same is true in the real world. The command theories, which take another alternative perspective on justice, argues that the concept is inseparable form the ideas of morality and the command of god. It concludes that if a criminal murders another person then he or she will be punished for that instance. It is difficult to observe the suicides taking place in Antigone in the same context because it is difficult to justify such an action under any circumstances.
Types of Justice
The most frequently studied forms of justice are distributive, procedural, restorable and retributive. Distributive justice is for people who receive goods in exchange for offering social order. Procedural justice was found by the idea of fair play. Restorative justice talks about betraying a person in attempts of gaining some form of restitution. Retributive justice has a principle of punishments; it constitutes fair and propositional punishment even during situations where the facts are a matter of dispute. Its performances deal with the efficiency and productivity that are in association. Procedural justice has different characteristics; one is being independent that constitutes a fair outcome for the procedure. The second one is dealing with procedurally fair outcomes that are achieved. Restorative Justice shows that human beings are much happier, cooperative, productive and capable of making positive behavioral decisions in life. Many obstacles exist within the concept of restorative justice requiring strategic and operational responses. During the 19th century, retributive justice was promoted by philosopher Immanuel Kant who was arguing that legitimate forms of punishment for the courts are based on retribution. Procedural justice has four models: the outcome, balancing, participation, and group engagement model. I believe the best out of these categories is procedural justice because it’s letting other people know in the courtroom whether the jury finds the person guilty or not guilty of the charges in clear terms.
Justice Today
Unfortunately, in today’s world, many people experience the works of the criminal justice system. They come in contact with the concepts of justice. Many people discover that justice is not always fair depending on the components within the concept in the particular situation. While people can do a better job ensuring they are not committing crimes, it is important to note that people have a responsibility to learn what justice means to them and in their communities in order to keep people safe and neighborhoods secure.
All of the concepts of justice take place during Antigone’s plot. However, since the play is a tragedy, it feels that none of the characters truly got the justice they deserved. It seemed that many of the characters either inadvertently loss their lives or were sentenced as forms of perceived retribution. The play proves that justice may not be fair in society, but it exists and can be see looked at in many different ways.
Today the United States is seen as having the most constructive forms of justice in the courts and in other areas. Many other countries wish they could serve the people justice in ways that American courts do. While there are instances were the system does not work very well, more often than not it seems to work effectively. The reason American is viewed as the paradigm for justice is because of the democracy. Countries without democracies have a hard time discovering sufficient ways to definite what justice means to them so it can be hard for criminals to go through the court system. However, within the literary and historical context of Antigone there was no democracy. Even though the story took place in a completely different, lesser developed world than we live in today, it is striking how the story is still so important that we can read it and analyze so we can learn something about justice.