Thursday, November 27, 2008

Mistaken Grace: Dogville Notes

In the end of Dogville, Grace has to decide whether she should either punish the inhabitants of the town where she has been hiding out for months, where the inhabitants have been torturing her, or refrain from acquiring retribution (her father is a powerful gangster/political type capable of achieving vengeance). While making her decision, she considers the generally harmless nature of her civil microcosm and points out that they likely didn't know any better and are generally harmless, and, consequently should not be punished. Her epiphany occurs when she places herself inside the village and asks herself whether or not she would have been able to forgive herself if she had engaged in any of the activities that her tormentors had engaged in, and finds herself unable to forgive herself. Consequently, the entire village is gunned down by her father's henchmen.

Problem: she places herself inside the village after growing up outside of the village; therefore her conclusion is based on an impossible conjecture gained from the application of a moral principle that may not have been present within her constitution had she been nurtured with the people of Dogville.

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