Justifiable Retribution : Women and Payback in Stephen King's "Big Driver" and "A Good Marriage"

Abstract

This study looks into justifiability of payback in two of Stephen King’s novellas “Big Driver” and “A Good Marriage” that center around violence against women. The purpose of this research is to find out, whether the cathartic feeling that most consumers of horror literature experience holds up to scrutiny through moral and ethical standards. This study is conducted through several close readings of the source materials and their adaptations to different moral theories, namely to jus ad bellum and jus in bello. The main findings of the study are that the in relation to these texts catharsis and moral justifiability do correlate, but that neither story fulfils all of the criteria for moral justifiability on the jus ad bellum and jus in bello scales, and therefore need to be supplemented by moral mandate and the ethical principle of less harm. Further research could be conducted as a reader response study to see, whether the results could be generalized to a larger reading public.