Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange

In A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, the character, Alex uses his free will to commit crimes with his gang (Pete, Georgie, and Dim) where violence, death, and rape are committed. The act of violence is committed among them four because they liked the power, violence, and the feeling of satisfaction when the evil acts are committed against innocent people. The behavior of Alex is very disturbing and brutal where he leads the reader to think and understand the danger of what free will could bring about. The choices Alex expresses are not the acts society would like to see- since society would only like to see the goodness express by humanity. Therefore, the way Alex decided to use his free will was not right for society whereas the government had to interfere to seek control of his behavior by a behavior Reclamation treatment where it had left him cure- feeling sick of all thoughts of violence or hurting anyone.

Revenge is a can be extremely destructive and it is dangerous to carry out. When the Count wants to avenge his enemies for all the wrong things they had done to him, he can’t do it without accidentally harming his friends as well. His friends had become friends with his enemies and now attempting to carry out vengeance on his enemies would be quite the difficult job. Thus in the end you should not take avenge your enemies for whatever they have done to you. Myself, the Bible and Dumas all agree on this point.

“A man who cannot choose ceases to be a man.”—Anthony Burgess A Clockwork Orange is a novel about moral choice and free will. Alex’s story shows what happens when an individual’s right to choose is robbed for the good of society. The first and last chapters place Alex in more or less the same physical situation but his ability to exercise free will leads him to diametrically opposite choices—good versus evil. The phrase, “what’s it going to be then, eh?,” echoes throughout the book; only at the end of the novel is the moral metamorphosis complete and Alex is finally able to answer the question, and by doing so affirms his freedom of choice. The capacity to choose freely is the attribute that distinguishes humans from robots; thus the possibility of true and heartfelt redemption remains open even to the most hardened criminal.

Jekyll’s conscience ultimately comes into play and knows that he cannot let Mr. Hyde be a permanent character in society as it is too dangerous. After trying to get himself to no longer turn into Hyde fails, he chooses to kill himself. “The pleasures which I made haste to seek in my disguise were...undignified...his every act and thought centered on self; drinking pleasure...from any degree of torture to another; relentless like a man of stone...but the situation was apart from ordinary laws, and insidiously relaxed the grasp of conscience” (129). Jekyll realizes that he has made a bad decision by wanting himself to be able to act on his suppressed ideas as Hyde has put his life in jeopardy after killing a man. Jekyll knows that he cannot be caught because he carries out his evil thoughts through Hyde, who nobody suspects to be Jekyll as that would be seen as nonsense in that time period.

Ivan’s belief that man should kill himself may make sense through rational deduction, but is not truly applicable to real world situations. It is a shared belief throughout society that suicide is considered a tragedy and the loss of a precious life. When a person commits suicide it drastically increases the suffering and pain of loved ones, rather than absolving it. Having the love and compassion of another person is what makes life so special, and religions that bring man closer to God would not be possible without man working together as a collective whole. Through Dostoevsky’s analysis, humans are all capable of causing suffering because we are innately evil, but humans are also capable of lessening it.

Though killing Banquo is unforgivable, Macbeth’s ruthlessness was more evident when he also sends the murderers to kill Fleance. Macbeth’s ignorance of Fleance being a helpless child who cannot defend himself makes him more ruthless. Banquo could have defended himself from the attack of the murderers, as he is a great and experienced solider. Trying to have Fleance killed is unfair as he had no way of defending himself. Fortunately for Fleance, he was able to escape his death.

As for Chillingworth, his sin is the manipulation of a human being. His deathly sin is not committed because he needs to, but Chillingworth commits this sin because he wants to. " Never did mortal suffer what [Dimmesdale] has suffered"(p.150) and it's all because of Chillingworth. His only reason for why he is sinning is because Chillingworth wants revenge on Dimmesdale, which is more serious than Hester's sin. Chillingworth actually knows that his actions are hurting a human being and that's where the seriousness of his sin comes in.

Then again, he is still punished when he slaughters his father and marries his mother since it is such an unethical, incomprehensible act. Oedipus realized that he would execute a man and marry a lady and it was those actions which prompt to his divine

Oedipus cannot accept the fate that he cannot avoid his fate. He tried with the best intentions and the highest use of his freedom to replace with a different outcome. He does his best to escape the horrific fate given to him, but he fails. He is found by his fate and not his free will. Some people claim that he went to change his fate, with his own actions, was the cause of his downfall, however one would argue the opposite.

These groups are following an evil that is not related to jihad on the contrary it is the cause of wicked minds that think selfishly and only regards their own interest. These individuals are not using jihad for the betterment of themselves and the society, on the contrary they terrorize the world. They are aware of the criminal acts they commit and feel no remorse or empathy to the innocent lives killed. The Jihadis and the modern world have unfortunately tainted jihad. For those who follow jihad and the Qu’ran with faith and spiritual connection for the benefit of the society it is just the beginning of a long road to change the mentality of many who believe jihad is the “holy war” .