Retribution & Reform

Much about a society can be learned from how it responds to threats against its body, whether the whole or the individual. From liberal reform to conservative deterrence, approaches to quelling rebellion, sedition and crime differ in both their approach and how they are represented.

Two of Britain's most famous authors, Shakespeare and Tolkein, have looked at this in their works. Two prescient examples are Shakespeare's eponymous Macbeth and Tolkein's Saruman from The Lord of the Rings. Both Macbeth and Saruman face tragic falls into evil - holding high and noble appointments before falling into plots and betrayals.

In Macbeth, we begin with the successful and fêted protagonist riding high. However, the revelation of a prophecy pronouncing him the future king triggers a descent into paranoia and ambition. Tolkein's The Lord of the Rings sees Saruman introduced as a wise and highly trusted counsellor, later to be twisted by the arcane writings he turns to for the power and knowledge to save middle earth.

In Macbeth, evil is presented as a simple seduction. In Shakespeare Uncovered, Ethan Hawke (2012) discusses how Macbeth and his fall are presented to the audience:

'What's so unsettling about this play, is that the one characteristic that undoes Macbeth is simply ambition. What's scary about it, is what lives inside each one of us, and not all of us want to be King, but there's a tonne of actors out there that would lie, cheat and kill their mothers for an Oscar. We have these ambitions and we want to set ourselves apart, so much, that we're willing to forgo all kindness and the best parts of ourselves in the name of achieving the goal.'

The Lord of the Rings presents evil in a similar way. Saruman is much alike to the Dark Lord himself in the seduction and fall. Neither where always evil.

The seduction is achieved by tantalising the subject's ambition with the possibility of that which they want most. Whether want, need or duty; desperation and necessity are provoked to twist a person's actions towards an utilitarian extreme - where only the end result matters and can be used to justify the means of getting there.

So if a fall can be so quiet a thing, that can happen to anyone and at any time, then how do we respond to it? And how do we prevent it?

The conservative doctrine would look to suppression - to deter those who might be tempted through threat of punishment or sanction. To set up balances of power that pre-emptively watch and check each other; all in fear that there will be times where we might not watch ourselves. Those who break those barriers face retribution for their victims.

The liberal doctrine would be reform - to seek pre-emptive, ongoing and after the fact attempts to educate towards and set positive examples of self-discipline. Through this the aim would be to encourage people to think for themselves. By doing so their understanding of the rights, wrongs and whys of their actions can be trusted in to remove the fear that when people find themselves unguarded they would turn to criminality. For those who fail more eduction and support is provided.

Macbeth commits crimes of terrible brutality in his fall and his tragic tale ends in death at the hands of an avenging enemy - retribution for his crime. Alternatively, Saruman is offered chances for reform despite joining with the enemy of the free peoples and making war upon them. But the attempt ultimately ends in failure, after hopes for reform first from Gandalf and later from Frodo, when his death comes at the hands of an oppressed servant.

Can we take from this - from balance restored by retribution against Macbeth and the failure to reform Saruman - that deterrence and punishment are just and that reform is not worth bothering with?

We write our heroes down the road of reform: Gandalf, Frodo, Luke Skywalker, The Doctor - all of these try to save their enemies from themselves rather than seeking vengeance. The way we avoid our heroes seeking an eye-for-an-eye solutions suggests that vengeance is flawed. Maybe the fear is that no matter how much crime is met with retribution, sooner or later reform will have to be our course, lest we be subject to oppressive supervision and an endless cycle of revenge.

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+ Ethan Hawke on Macbeth; 'Shakespeare Uncovered' series for the BBC; 26 June 2012.