Betrayal the Inevitability of Betrayal Term Paper

In short, Hamlet is a man in search of a reason to blame his hated uncle for some wrongdoing, the realization that the current king is a criminal comes as no shock. Medea is shunned by Jason's court as a foreigner, even before he casts her off, and his careless treatment of her should have proved a warning. Likewise, although Hester is sympathetic, she knew her relationship with Dimmesdale was illicit, and that he was a weak man. Finally, in the "Inferno" when God created hell, he surely knew Man would sin, even though he also gave humanity free will.

The looming specter of betrayal in a dangerous and mendacious world is often obvious. Just like when God forbade Eve to eat of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, when there is an obligation there is also the corresponding temptation to flout that obligation, a temptation seemingly ingrained within the human heart. All of the obligations outlined above are formal obligations, either contractual like a marriage, or so sacred, like the bonds of obedience one owes to God or to one's host, that they have the seriousness of a legal obligation.These obligations hold society together, but because human nature is fallible, and most of these obligations are ultimately unenforceable, the social bonds the obligations were meant to forge are broken.

The result is violence -- but not the type of violence that is coolly inflicted by the hand of the law. Instead, it is a violence of disorder and misrule. The most horrific example of this is Medea's infanticide, but in all of the cases of transgression, it is not simply the perpetrators who are hurt. The royal house of Denmark is destroyed, a houseful of young men die as well as Odysseus' crew, a New England community is torn apart -- everyone suffers when an act of betrayal occurs. Thus both betrayal and the cycle of violence are interlinked and are seemingly inevitable......