Good and Evil

The movie Casablanca exhibits the views of Emmanuel Kant on good and evil in terms of categorical imperative and the concept of duty. Mill’s view on the same subject in terms of utilitarianism and the concept of the "greatest good for the greatest number” is also evident in the movie. This paper discusses how two characters in the movie, Rick Blaine and Ilsa Lund, help to bring out the views of the two philosophers, concerning good and evil https://writing-service.org/personal-statement.

Rick Blaine

Rick Blaine is a character in the movie who displays both Kant’s and Mill’s views on good and evil. He first gets a letter of transit from Signor Ugarte and determines that the letter is important for many refugees who are seeking asylum in the United States. Therefore, he hatches a plan to have this letter from Signor Ugarte. Apparently, Signor Ugarte did not want to use this important document to help the refugees who are running away from the war in their countries. In Kant’s view, it is categorically imperative for Rick Blaine to have the letter from Ugarte so that he can help the refugees in their transit to the United States. It is also his duty, since he is the only person who knows that Signor Ugarte has this letter. In Mill’s view, Rick Blaine is acting for the good of all people because the letter can help a large number of people to avoid war in their countries.

However, Rick Blaine’s personal interests are revealed when he meets his former lover, Ilsa Lund, who is accompanied by her husband. He changes his initial plans to have the refugees transferred using the letter to help Ilsa Lund and her husband transfer to the United States. He does not use the letter as he initially intended, because he decides to use it to help her former lover, with whom he is still in love. Thus, Blaine’s actions reveals that his interest is based on his sense of duty and not on just the results, because he believes that he is to help his former lover to transfer,and it is not obligatory for him to give a helping held to the great number of people that are depending on the letter that he holds.

Ilsa Lund

She displays her character as a person who loves her husband so much, so that she abandons Rick Blaine when she realizes that her husband is still alive. She therefore displays her sense of duty to her husband. When they are stranded in Casablanca and Rick Blaine threatens to shoot her, she goes back in memory and tells him that she is in fact still in love with him. Ilsa Lund displays Kant’s view in a way that she has a duty to protect her husband and therefore she accepts to lie to him that she still loves him, so that he can help them with their transit. On the other hand, Ilsa Lund displays her utilitarian character when she decides to share her love between Rick Blaine and her husband Victor Laszlo, a renowned fugitive.

Nevertheless, Ilsa Lund proves Kant’s view that the ethical claim, especially the one based on a rational duty, forms the highest claim. It happens when she accepts to use the letter that Rick Blaine has to transfer to Canada with her husband, despite the fact that she has also told Rick Blaine that she is in love with him. To her, that is not a crime, provided she can give in to assist them flee to Canada. Ilsa Lund’s actions are opposite of what Mill views in terms of utilitarianism, because the letter of transit is only used to transfer two people, while the rest of the refugees are left stranded in Casablanca.

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