Crimes and Misdemeanors analysis essay

Crimes and Misdemeanors analysis essay Crimes and Misdemeanors: morality of five characters In the film Crimes and Misdemeanors, Woody Allen shows us five different men with their own systems of ethics. We meet an ophthalmologist Judah Rosenthal, filmographer Clifford Stern, philosopher Louis Levy, producer Lester, and rabbi Ben who is about to lose his sight. During watching, we can see each of them acting in according with their ethical views. The first character we meet is rich and successful Judah Rosenthal who works as an ophthalmologist and lives in peace and harmony with his beloved wife. But this man is worried about his scandalous affair with a woman Dolores that happened a few years ago. He appears in a weird situation when Dolores starts to blackmail him; a woman wants to force Judah to fulfill everything she wishes. So, Mr. Rosenthal understands he needs to make a choice â€" he may let Dolores tell people about their affair, and his life would be destroyed, or he could neutralize a persistent woman and continue his happy life. Finally, Judah comes to the decision that killing Dolores is the most optimal way to solve his problems. He cant just tell his wife everything and beg for her forgiveness, so he decides to kill his ex-lover. Judah thinks he lives in a cold world without God presence, so he needs to make justice himself. Somewhere deep inside Judah worries about his decision because he understands killing a human is not the same thing as to kill a fly, but he tries to defend himself that he needs to protect his own success most of all. Ben plays a small but significant role in the film. He supposes that the entire Universe has its moral structure. Its not hard for the rabbi to make decisions because he trusts God and he knows that his future depends on Gods will. Ben is almost blind physically, and this fact brings some symbolism into the film â€" the man trusts his beliefs blindly and deny darkness and evil of the world. Clifford Stern is a person that always is looking for sense in his own life and in films he creates. He lives in his own world of wrong and right terms and observes how his own actions affect the world. This man creates films based in subjects that seems very important for him. Clifford separates everything to right and wrong, so its possible to say hes an idealist. He is a married man but he lives with affection for another woman, Halley Reed. The man doesnt think this is immoral thing because he somehow believes his marriage is doomed and he also knows he wants to find a real love of his life. Stern makes a biographical documentary about Lester where he was showed ridiculous and odd, though it could bring to Clifford success. As for Lester, he thinks those things that bring him something good are right, and those things that make him feel bad, are wrong. He allows himself to do anything he wants to do, ignoring morality. This man doesnt care about morality, he is just ready to accept anything that brings him happiness and joy. He cares only about his success, wealth, and glory. Its obviously that Lester is a haughty and rough character of the film. The philosopher Louis Levy is a person that has his own ethical system: according to his theory, life is just a search of everything that a person needs to survive. Levy supposes that only love can bring a sense to human life. He also thinks that if a person cant find their love, there is no point to live at all. We see that Louis views led him to commit suicide. We can observe these characters and analyze their ethical systems and see why they came to this or that point. Its possible to find reasons of people behavior trough their morality and individual features.