Ethics in Shawshank Redemption

Shawshank Redemption was definitely one of the best movies I have ever watched, along with the fact that it had several ethical principles which made me think a lot during the movie. The story consisted of a man, Andy Dufresne, who is unjustly imprisoned accused of committing a murder, and during his stay in Shawshank prison he works hard to acquire freedom. While in prison Andy creates a strong friendship with Red, a man who had been there for several years and the one who narrates Andy's actions. I thought all characters within the movie committed some sort of ethical error, including abuse of power, slavery, and falsification. However, because of the movie's focus and the way it portrayed the story, the audience sees the different ethical principles differently.

           

The first big ethical principle present in the movie was power. Almost all characters imposed enough power to create consequences considered immoral. The most vivid one were the guards, who used brutal force upon the prisoners without mercy. This is unethical because some of the prisoners might not even have been guilty, but unfairly convicted and punished for nothing. However, since we cannot know this for sure (knowledge issue), as an audience and by the way the movie showed the guard's brutality, we feel sympathy for prisoners being slaughtered and tortured and believe it is a truly immoral way of dealing with power. They abuse of their power in a way to get prisoner's respect, but instead getting the opposite. Another character related to this was Norton, the director, who believed that his words ruled Shawshank Prison. He viewed the prisoners as having no purpose in the world or having no value, and thus tortured them without thinking about their personal lives--another ethical issue. One example of the brutality that really shocked me was the death of the new inmate, who expressed his feelings of innocence and was murdered by the guards immediately. It felt to me like critic to suppression of a voice, or opinion, because none of the inmates could show any sort of grief or anger without being tortured. Another way in which power was used in the wrong sense was the Inside Out program, which obviously promoted slavery. I thought it was interesting to see the inmates willing to work for the program, while from an outside perspective I saw it all as slave labor and immoral use of their strength. Norton basically made them work in order to get money, having no mercy for the prisoners. This is highly unethical since he used others' hard work and punishment as a way of helping himself and getting all the wealth. He also went against his religious principles, as he so strongly held onto the Bible yet did things that the Bible would completely reject. One example of how he goes against the Bible is when he kills Thomas, the new inmate, just because he knew the truth and for no other reason.

            

However, although the above descriptions made me sympathize over Dufresne and Red more than the guards and Norton, both of them did things that went against moral principles too. Dufresne, while trying to get away from prison, began to work in the financial office of the prison and completely use it to his advantage. He made up false accounts and changed rules within the code of ethics of the prison. He then used false identification at the end to get away with things and destroy Norton's life, who was then seen as the guilty one. However, due to the fact that his actions were done in response to an incorrect conviction, they seemed morally justifiable, since he was simply trying to get revenge. Emotion distorts our view of this ethical issue. By escaping at the end, we feel happy for him rather than shocked at his ability to trick others and get away with all the benefit, without even telling his own friends who helped him throughout the process of 'redemption'. But by helping Red at the end, we see his actions differently once again and I even had tears of joy in seeing both of them reunite in freedom at the end of the movie--a beautiful scene.

            

Looking back into our TOK class I found that the characters' actions (most of them, at least) had to do with utilitarianism. All characters, despite the terrible conditions they were in, were trying to find happiness and trying to find utilitarian ways to leave the prison. For instance, because of the context of the movie, we saw Dufresne's actions as less unethical than those of other characters. Yet all actions relate back to the idea that your actions will have consequences and one must look at the consequences to choose whether or not to do the action. Boggs, for example, did not look at the consequences and was sentenced to death after torturing Dufresne. Dufresne, however, did look at the future consequences of his actions as he got all the advantage out of all those years in prison. Norton was also unethical when he killed Thomas due to the simple fact that Thomas knew the truth about Dufresne's innocence. Norton wanted to escape any consequences that would ride upon himself because of the certified unjust conviction of Dufresne. The movie clearly has ideas that were talked about in class and it shows all the different ethical ideas that are present in society. It was by far one of the best movies ever made.