POETIC JUSTICE, LEGAL JUSTICE (OR: WHAT POETS AND LAWYERS MIGHT HAVE IN COMMON)

In this paper, the author introduces its main subject, which is the idea of justice in both poetry and law, by comparing the role of both poets and lawyers in the the movement of reinforcing the morality in a society. To analyze this idea, the professor uses the language of myth, which has a great deal in common with both pursuits. By telling the myth of Philoctetes, the author introduces that both poets and lawyers have in common a certain crave after justice, and what differs each one is the manner of satisfying this craving. Then, by comparing the characters of the myth with poets and lawyers, he describes the disparities between the both. Then, by analyzing and comparing the character Philoctetes with the poetic persona of the poem used as an example, he shows that the poetic subject tends to be an individual who suffered injustices, suffered from loneliness and distress, and when seeking for a better solution to his pain, reveals his longing for justice. The lawyer, in his turn, is someone with a great sense of a job to do, and wants to get it done. Even if he feels a sincere attachment to the ideals of justice, he is not usually someone who has been gravely wounded by injustice. Like the kind of artist we all admire, he embodies in his work, and in his life, something of the rectifying urge.