Justice at the heart of Society Anonymous 12th Grade

“There is no greater tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of the law and in the name of justice.” - Montesquieu

“Corruption is inevitable under a system of society which only survives through the exploitation of one class by another.” – Dario Fo (p.64)

As long as people have thought about justice and how to deliver it, compromised judicial figures and corrupt officials have denied the marginalised of equity and fair treatment. Many writers have strived to initiate a reconsideration in readers of what constitutes legal and political integrity. Notable successes in this regard include Hannah Kent’s Burial-Rites and Dario Fo’s Accidental-Death of an Anarchist. Fo exposes the real-life corruption of the police and political class of 1960’s Italy. He makes use of an effective mixture of farce and characterisation. Kent utilises motif and narrative point of view to explore the victimisation of women and the poor in a fictionalised, eighteenth century Iceland.

Throughout Accidental-Death of an Anarchist, Fo has utilised characterisation to highlight the political and societal means through which justice is sought. The characters of the Superintendent, Inspector and Pissani were crafted to embody the widespread...