Our rational morality is grounded in the concepts of rational reflection, personhood, rational self-consciousness, self-esteem and individuality. It uses the ideas of fairness and freedom to construct moral limits, policies and ideals of how a civil society should be constructed and then carried out. The limits and ideals that are laid out by this should promote and protect the ideals of equal opportunity for fulfillment of personhood and the achievement of well-being. They should also be concerned with the right to equal protection and security, especially from anything that is dangerous to us physically or mentally. Wi

Let me give a brief recount of the story on which this essay will be centered. In the film Death and the Maiden, the story is told of a woman, Paulina Lorca in post-Pinochet Chile. The movie starts by showing how absolutely encompassed her whole mental state is with fear, anger and countless other emotions. Paulina remembers being raped and tortured, and is so mentally scarred that normal life is impossible. At the time of the story, she is living with her lawyer husband who is being considered by the new president to head up a commission in charge of to investigate the hundreds (thousands?) who were murdered or disappeared under the old regime. The commission however, is not interested in those who were tortured and survived. The couple lives on an isolated and rugged shoreline, neighbors are not common here. The immensity of her feelings of violation is apparent in by her being scared of unexpected lights, eating by herself, and an obvious gloominess and pent-up anger. It can also be seen in her lack of enjoyment from anything, most especially when making love to her husband.

In a crazy twist of fate, the husband is rescued from a flat tire in a torrential downpour by another driver. After driving the lawyer back to his house the man then leaves. Unfortunately, the man leaves with the flat tire still in his trunk. Later that night the man returns to drop off the tire and it is at this time that the husband invites the man in for a drink. Instantly, the wife recognizes the visitor as the doctor whom had tortured and raped her all those times in her memories. Out of sheer need to appease her thirst for revenge, or out of fear, or for requirement to rid her mind of the torment, she decides to steal the doctors car, a gun and some money. Paulina then drives off to ultimately push the car off a cliff and return to the house to find the doctor drunk and sleeping on her couch. With gun in hand, she pistol whips the doctor, ties him up and tapes him to a chair, uses her own panties as gag and proceeds to get some redemption. Eventually her husband awakes to see the scene and the three prepare for a long night and a deep look into the morality of violation and the right to be happy and maintain self-esteem.

Every case is different though. Every victim finds justice in a different end. Some people require death, or the ultimate violation to feel satisfied. Others only need an apology. Where does this distinction come from and what dictates the level of revenge or redemption that is necessary? These are questions that have been running through my head for the last few days. Unfortunately, I haven’t found the answer. The best I can come up with is that it depends on the case and the medium. Every human has had a different set of experiences. Ever human was raised differently and believes in a different set of moral values. Depending on what religion you believe in, or what culture you were born into, or how much education you have received the requirement for fulfillment is different. All of the factors combine to a unique set of morals and a different definition of closure. Everyone will strive for happiness, but what is also very unique is the intensity to which some people will strive. Paulina felt it necessary to point a gun in doctor’s face to achieve her goal. Other people wouldn’t use violence to reach a means even if it seemed the

Some topics in this essay:
Paulina Lorca, Dr Miranda, , Furies Aeschylus's, Categorical Imperative, Apparently Paulina, Dr Miranda’s, Death Maiden, moral limits, court law, set moral, “death maiden”, mental pain, debilitating mental, rational morality, human set, flat tire, judicial process, debilitating mental pain,