Preview

Evil (Crime & Punishment)

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
9972 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Evil (Crime & Punishment)
Evil is a character in nature that is marked by bad moral qualities bringing about harm and misfortune. In a rational world, with a superior goal demanding righteousness and peace, evil disrupts society and results in sorrow, distress, or calamity. Evil is an almighty force of nature that has forever corrupted societies relentlessly, never to be halted.

As far back as history will tell, evil has shown it's wicked face. Evil has transgressed through centuries, hindering those who it has come to and sometimes the environment surrounding. This dire forceful has seeded traits in mankind that have grown due to society. Forces of it's strong antithesis, good, have fought to overcome and be rid of evil succeeding at times maybe in battle but never in the war. It seems that due to the caliber of its force and prevalence in society, man may never see an end to evil. Supporting this theory is the fact that there is a never-ending battle to resolve this sinister force.

Evil has shown so overpowering that it is part of every creature and being in the

known world. It comes in many different forms, styles, and shapes. Everyday life consists

of many types of evil showing forth, disguising itself at times or at other putting itself in a

clear eye's view. This all depends on the creature it is within. Those who consider or

have been considered by society as "good" are the ones that have resisted and fought off

this compelling force. On the contrary, as nature has revealed, evil in some creatures is

too much a part of them for it to be held down.

Resulting factors illustrate the argument to the belief that evil results when man interrupts natural processes. (Americana 731)

Philosophers and educated people alike, for centuries have argued the conflict of

nature versus nurture as two possible causes of evil in man. The nature theory supports

that man is inherently evil in a sense that there is no one to blame for his

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The explanation for why someone or something is evil can not be easily defined, as the answer may vary based on a person’s psychological thought process or intellectual reasoning. The justification of this paper is to discuss Peter Van Inwagen and his philosophical response to the argument from evil, as well as his free will defense theory for the answer to this complication. I will carefully evaluate the two standard objections to his solution and offer my personal opinion of rather or not he offers a successful resolution for this universal problem.…

    • 321 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Everyone is evil—but being immoral is in the eye of the beholder. Not every person will consider the same things evil. So in reality evil has many different faces and it seems to be more powerful than good. For example one person may think that tattoos are evil and others use tattoos to express their beliefs. The choices made are also a great influence in the outcome accomplished. In the novel “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” Flannery O’Connor explores the nature of evil.…

    • 1088 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Evil in Dante and Chaucer

    • 467 Words
    • 2 Pages

    We in the twentieth century would be much more hard-pressed to define evil than would people of either Chaucer's or Dante's time. Medieval Christians would have a source for it -- Satan -- and if could easily devise a series of ecclesiastical checklists to test its presence and its power. In our secular world, evil has come down to something that hurts people for no explicable reason: the bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, the burning of black churches in the South. We have taken evil out of the hands of Satan, and placed it in the hands of man. In doing so, we have made it less absolute, and in many ways less real.…

    • 467 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Throughout history, good and evil have been a constant topic of discussion. Whether we are talking about terrorists, natural disasters, or simply your older brother breaking your toy, good and evil surround us. While opinions differ about the nature of good and evil, the tension remains the same. Outcomes are created, whether positive or negative. However horrible an event is, we seem to make light of it. We seem to be able to find the needle of good in the haystack of evil of life. But what is evil…

    • 1760 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The word “Evil” carries with it a weight condemned by almost every culture, religion and person around the world. Where it is universally understood that when evil pertains to something it directly means that it is malevolent and immoral. When evil corresponds to the actions of another human, so much to the point where the human is considered evil and wicked, we then have an individual who possesses a strong moral evil and lust for the corruption of humanity. I strongly believe that the most vile, wicked, and immoral person to ever live throughout history is Vlad Dracula (or) Vlad the Impaler.…

    • 1109 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Since the creation of the world, humans have been falling into darkness and evil, as displayed in stories like Adam and Eve. All humans-beings have the potential to become evil, which usually comes from self-centered wants. When people go down the path of doing whatever it takes to get what they want, they end up hurting others along the way. Evil tempts everyone on a daily basis, but it is the choice whether to reject temptation or give in that exemplifies who someone is. When humans repel evil, the good shows through and their actions have a positive impact. Surrendering to evil is the easy way out, but will lead to darkness and destruction, and make it almost impossible to find a way back to the light.…

    • 333 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Summary: James Rachels addresses the conflicts of evil in his book “Problems from Philosophy” by providing various forms of logical problems. The author points out the different possible explanations to why evil would exist. The first major idea Rachels makes is that perhaps pain is essential to caution people of danger. He goes on to suggest that this would not account for why some people are born with deadly diseases. Another idea he makes is that evil helps people appreciate the good in life. One would not be able to distinguish the good in life if evil did not exist. However, this does not explain why the world needs so much evil to exist, instead of letting a few bad things happen occasionally. The third idea the author makes questions why bad things happen to good people. Rachels suggests maybe those bad things that occur in life are…

    • 998 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Martin Luther King Jr. once said “He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.” Evil comes in many forms resembling events like terrorist attacks and crimes such as burglaries, rapes, hit and runs, plus more. No matter how small the evil may seem it always has its companion, fear. Fear is able to consume even the smallest of children and make evil seem much more extreme than it has to be. Evil is something that you can overpower or it can overpower you no matter the age in the novels Lord of the Flies, I am Malala, and the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.…

    • 798 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Everyone, no matter what age remembers their childhood and the “bad guys”, no matter what book, movie, or game there was an antagonist. There must be one, it’s a part of writing and storytelling, at the creation of woman and man, God made the Snake to trick Eve into eating the forbidden fruit of the tree. Most of the time, their name had the word “evil” in it, they were the antagonist for the good heroine to beat up and save the girl at the end of their story. However, the word “evil” has been generalized over the years, after being plastered on so many characters for so long. From the change of times, the situation that causes the word to be introduced into the conversation has changed also. We’ve gone through so many wars, genocides, and…

    • 1116 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Someone’s evil could be easily identified by his/her malevolent intentions and acts of cruelty toward others people. Villains, well known as dictators, usually tend to have all these characteristics. Through the history there are many examples of dictators as the government of Adolf Hitler, who totally wanted to eliminate all people who did not meet the physical qualities that he had resigned. Especially he wanted to remove Jews people from German Civil Society. Hitler expressed evil through his deeds and hatred towards other races. Some have tried to justify his way of thinking and even some of the things he did. However, Hitler’s malevolent acts went beyond any other cruelty that ever existed on earth. From all the bad things he committed there are three acts that classified him as a villain. Among them are human torture practices, about 17 million murders and the…

    • 732 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There are different types of evil that are allowed in this world. The first is moral evil, which began in the garden of Eden when Eve ate the fruit off the tree and deliberately disobeyed God in an act of sin and evil (Gen. 3)(Elwell, pg 412). The next is natural evil; this is explained mainly in natural disasters such as, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, and disease. Elwell writes, “natural evil is the consequence of moral evil,” then goes onto explain that natural evil is not distinct…

    • 828 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Lastly, the problem of evil questions the omnipresent God…

    • 1931 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Evil a Learned Behavior

    • 6329 Words
    • 26 Pages

    What is evil? Is it characterized by a desire to cause hurt or harm, “an evil mood”? What causes people to do evil? The strong feelings of hatred and dislike that builds up in all of us or simply that all our emotions are constantly on the dark side for such a long period of time. What is right from wrong when the hate in our hearts makes us all make terrible mistakes and commit evil. The writings of Confucius say, “There is no light without darkness, no positive without negative, no good without evil.” Throughout the history of humanity, humans have committed inconceivable and unthinkable acts of cruelty towards one another. From the brutal wars during the times of the ancient Greeks and Romans, to the modern area of ethnic cleansing and genocide one cannot help but wonder what is the root cause of this evil. Unthinkable numbers of human life has been lost in every corner of the world from the genocides in Armenia and Nazi Germany to the guerilla wars in Vietnam and Cambodia and presently to the devastating conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Sudan. Evil is a learned behavior which is illustrated in dictators, school violence, and classical novels such as Lord of the Flies by William Golding and Night by Elie Wiesel.…

    • 6329 Words
    • 26 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Believer or non-believer, we all appear to suffer from the problem of evil. Perhaps in the highly economically and technologically developed countries we live in now we are faced, on a day to day basis, with far less evil, than those 90 years ago on their way to fight in WW1. But there is always a presence of evil. Although it may not be first degree, we see it in the news on a daily basis. Natural, Moral and Metaphysical evil will affect all of us in our lifetime, whether it be a natural disaster, violence or are eventual death, these three different types of evils will be discussed in further detail later in the essay. The problem of evil only seems to affect…

    • 2433 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The topic of evil is discussed in multiple ways within the stories of Beowulf, Paradise Lost, Lord of the Flies, and “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”. These writers’ opinions on evil vary. Evil is portrayed in many different ways. Is evil a choice that is made by an individual? Or is it merely a concept that humans have no control over? Although these writers may disagree on who will be defeated in the battle between good and evil and whether evil lives within every man, they agree on the concept that evil always brings negative consequences.…

    • 881 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays