Justice

Fair treatment and the giving of what is rightfully due. In the play, characters disagree about whether enforcing a legal entitlement necessarily produces justice.

Fair treatment and the giving of appropriate rights, rewards or punishments. In The Merchant of Venice, characters disagree about whether enforcing a contract necessarily produces justice.

Law supplies enforceable rules; justice concerns what is fair; mercy means showing compassion when someone could be punished. An action can follow the law and still seem unjust or cruel. Equally, mercy may require someone to surrender a legal right.

A judgement or response concerned with fairness, responsibility and proportionate treatment, rather than satisfying personal hatred.

Build an argument about the relationship between mercy, justice and revenge, rather than treating them as interchangeable themes.

Distinguish a character’s claim to justice from Conan Doyle’s presentation of that claim. Small’s belief that he deserves the treasure is not proof that he owns it rightfully.

Part (b): distinguish Shylock’s legal entitlement from the moral justice of his intended revenge, and test the Christians’ claims against their actions.

Fair treatment: giving people what they are due, protecting the innocent and holding wrongdoing to account. Justice may involve compensation as well as punishment.

Fair treatment and judgement, including giving people what they are rightly owed. Moral justice is not necessarily the same as enforcing a law.

The central question becomes whether enforcing an agreement necessarily produces justice.

Fair treatment and judgement, including whether punishment fits wrongdoing. Legal decisions can be questioned on moral grounds.

Fair treatment and proportionate accountability for wrongdoing, rather than punishment driven chiefly by personal hatred.

Fair treatment and judgement, including whether punishment is proportionate and recognises a person’s circumstances.

Joe responds that he would not want the convict to starve, whatever he has done. Their actions suggest a form of moral justice that recognises human need rather than treating a criminal label as the whole person.

Fair treatment and the giving of what is due; in the play, enforcing a legal right does not necessarily produce a morally fair outcome.

Shylock claims that justice means receiving the penalty Antonio has accepted. The Christians ask him to show mercy instead. Yet when they gain power over Shylock, their treatment of him makes their own understanding of mercy open to question.

Definition

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AQA GCSE English Literature · 8702

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Edexcel GCSE English Literature · 1ET0

OCR GCSE English Literature · J352

Eduqas GCSE English Literature · C720