King Lear

Victor Hugo once said “Let us have compassion for those under chastisement. Alas, who are we ourselves? Who am I and who are you? Whence do we come and is it quite certain that we did nothing before we were born? This earth is not without some resemblance to a goal. Who knows but that man is a victim of divine justice? Look closely at life. It is so constituted that one senses punishment everywhere.” This quote depicts the concept of assuming that all people are the same and deserve what they get, but throughout the play we realize that sometimes a punishment is way harsher than the crime that was committed. Based on the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution, punishment excessive to the crime that was committed is forbidden. But does that amendment exclude the divine justice? Of course it does. The concept of divine justice does not extend to those of the world. It is exclusive to the Divine One, meaning God. However in this particular play God, is not the Divine One, He is rather depicted as many gods, like in Greek mythology. God sees to it that both evil doers and good doers receive justice and rewards, but sometimes God is not fair, those good doers are sometimes persecuted with the evil doers because of association or to prove a point. Divine justice is a very ambiguous notion; one might ask what punishment is too much for a certain crime or what punishment is too little for a crime. For example, in the case of Chris Brown and Rihanna, some people may think that Chris Brown’s punishment is not just. But based on divine justice his punishment will come in due time. You cannot always rely on the courts or those that are considered the “crown” like King Lear, to intervene and ensure proper consequences. In Chris Brown’s case he is still enduring his punishment, he has been shunned publicly, badgered constantly, lost fans, lost money, and on a downward spiral, the courts could not have caused this. This is justice by the divine One.