Poetic Karma

Poetic justice is according to Wikipedia is the ironic outcome of a character’s conduct or fate. In Dante’s Inferno poetic justice is present in every single Circle or Ring of hell, either in a figurative way or more literal way. The sinners are being punished by the sin they committed. For example the traitors are kept covered by ice to feel the cold heart that their betrayed benefactors felt when they committed treason, as well to those who did not felt regret for what they did now cry eternally with frozen tears that seal their eyes, “Their very weeping there wont let them weep,…and grief that finds a barrier in their eyes… turns inward to increase their agony;…because their first tears freeze into a cluster,…and, like a crystal visor, fill up all… the hollow the is underneath the eyebrow.” (Canto XXXIII, 94-99) They did not weep for their sin, and now their weeping is agonizing and forever. Poetic Justice is somewhat like Karma, the actions that you do eventually turn back to you, either negative or positive. It is the irony of life, fate depends on your actions and most of the time it does not match the way it should be.

In Season 3 Episode 1 “Two” of The Twilight Zone, poetic justice is perceived as an unexpected turn of fate. The series originated in the 1980s as science fiction and abstract ideas. The episode plots a setting of an abandoned city where war had destroyed and left it isolated. There are two only characters. A woman comes first as a stranger in dark uniform to the zone, she does not know where she is and what she will find there, nevertheless she looks around for food and when she finds a can of chicken a man comes in, in a light uniform. The moment they see each other they fight desperately for the food and as enemies of different armies. He feels guilty, I am not sure what made him change his mind about her, but he gives her half of the chicken. Maybe he realized that the fact that they had different color of uniform would not do a difference in a deserted area. However, she does not give in so easily. Why so? It was not that she didn’t understand what he was saying, and she knew that he was kind enough to give her food. The women breaks in fear after seeing war propaganda posters, in which she was titled as the “enemy” because of her uniform and he was titled as a “hero”, so attacks him. Swiftly the day after she puts on the dress, (the one that he wanted her to put on) and they smile at each other as a loved couple would do. Even though hate and love are not necessarily antonyms, they are known to be opposite and it is paradoxical that the outcome of the episode is not that one of them kills the other, but that they fall in love. Therefore, it is Poetic Justice.