Edwardian Era [Wylie Period 6 Team 2] (:

To even begin analyzing moral practices, one must be able to differentiate between “amorality” and “immorality”. Amoral is the lack of morality as a whole, the lack of righteousness and wrongness of something. Immoral is the defiance against accepted practices of morality. In previous eras, such as the Greek and Medieval eras, indiscriminate punishment was considered a righteous retribution because no one challenged this idea since their religion, the dominant figure at the time, practiced this, thinking it was God’s fated way of punishing His people.

The primitive minds of humans are focused on one thing: survival. In this survival mentality, humans act in defense. Charles Darwin’s scientific novel about the human evolution illustrates the development of the human intellect and the physical transformation that occurs to fit the changing time periods. Since the Victorian Era, Darwin and other authors such as Charles Dickens wrote novels that challenged the human’s moral judgment. This moral awareness progressed into the Edwardian era. In the midst of World War I during the Edwardian Era, there were two “-isms” that were used to justify the acts of violence in warfare: imperialism and patriotism. War was declared on the premise of defense and offense. It is the ignorance of morality that drives humans to violence. The instinct of humans to defend using violence is amoral, not immoral. The action of humans to attack and deprive people of their freedom is immoral, which is the imperial aspect of the Edwardian Era. Patriotism is the dedication and willingness to sacrifice for a country. It is amoral rather than immoral to sacrifice oneself for what one loves.

Currently, violent retribution, to some, is considered legal punishment for crimes committed, or in a more severe sense, capital punishment. It is the victim’s way of finding justice in society and in humanity. However, violent retribution is not a favored subject by others nor is it a moral form of punishment. People who have sinned now seek retribution religiously. Some believe that violence is the act from the heart and not the mind.

The Everlasting Mercy by John Masefield (1911) stressed the boldness in language to counter the charming English country life that most artists have shown; however, the entity of the story revolves around the subject of redemption. The gruel violence in Masefield’s story presented itself with no sympathy and no censor. The main character lived a life of violence, lies, and failures and had an epiphany that leads him on a path to redemption, which to be received, forces the character through hardships and pain. Violence is retribution when it proves that the victim is justified in receiving redemption.