Justice Wargrave - Representation Of Contrasting Flaw And Virtue Of Society

Justice Wargrave was a just and sadistic psychopath, who did have an understandable reason to commit the murders on soldier island and his behavior reflects the main flaws and virtues in our society. He was quite intelligent and methodical, however his lust to kill could not be restrained by his just mindset. His sadistic nature does reflect the negative flaws of society just as well though.

The first one of his main attributes that reflects the position of society is his just mindset and his belief in justice rather than retribution. First we must define what we mean by retribution and justice, retribution is very closely related to the belief of revenge which is basically “getting back” at someone, or getting something in return for the crime against you. Justice is more closely related to being morally right and fair which is rooted in prime human nature and instinct. Although it seems that Wargrave did not reproach anyone, however, as we saw with Anthony Marston and Ms. Rogers, he did allow a quick death and as painless as possible. He reproached them a small amount because he thought that at heart these people were less guilty then the others, as stated in the quote, “Anthony Marston and Mrs. Rogers died first, the one instantaneously the other in peaceful sleep. Marston, I recognized, was a type born without that feeling of moral responsibility which most of us have. He was amoral-pagan. Mrs. Rogers, I had no doubt, had acted very largely under the influence of her husband. ” which was derived from The Manuscript at the end of ATTWN. This really shows that, even with his sadistic and violent personality, our society has a bottom line for justice. The statement that our society values justice over any other forces and personality trait, the innocent shall not suffer. However, there are a select few in a society that does not have that natural instinct to do no harm to those who do no harm.

The other main attributes of the late Justice wargrave was that he had his actions rooted in his sadistic nature. By sadistic I mean that he enjoys seeing or causing pain, death, suffering, and just being all around a malevolent being. He even he admits that he has a natural sadistic personality in The Manuscript, where he states that he knows he has a sadistic feature in him with the quotes, “From an early age I knew very strongly the lust to kill,” and, “I have a definite sadistic delight in seeing or causing death. ” Where he blatantly states that he is sadistic, using the exact word sadistic at that too. This attribute reflects society’s flaw wherein the people and individuals are fueled by their hunger for strength and their never ending lust for power. This relates because Justice Wargrave shows sadistic pleasure in the harming of others and we as a society use our lust to power to control us and eventually lead us to harm another human. Although most people would deny it we as a society enjoy to watch the unjust suffer and our enemies perish, whether or not it is a violent and cruel death it does not matter, we enjoy seeing those we dislike suffer at our hand. This ties in to the first paragraph where I mentioned retribution, retribution, in this case, means the ends of getting revenge or getting revenge on someone who has wronged you. This is the direct flaw in contrast to the sense of justice we as humans hold, which is a virtue. For if there is a virtue in a society it is accompanied by a flaw. We do not wish harm onto the innocent and actually we seek to protect them from it, however we derive a great amount of pleasure from seeing those who have wronged us be wronged themselves. It is an act of retribution, we feel that the person is holding a due after they did the fault, whether or not it was done with malicious intent, and the wronging of them is then a payment to refill the debt of pain that they have caused upon you. The virtue of justice is, unfortunately, most often accompanied by the flaw of vengeance as a chaperone refraining the extreme growth of a society and her virtues.

So, in short, Justice Wargrave reflects the greatest contrasting flaw and virtue of our society by expressing a sadistic satisfaction along with a belief in justice. Our society is extremely just in our rules and our laws, however we do express gratification in the execution of vengeance on a people or an individual. With that in mind I believe that Justice Wargrave really does represent some of the flaws and virtues of our society.