¶ … freedom and responsibility in that one always comes along with the other. Firstly, one has personal freedom but also responsibility to other people. Secondly, one has freedom to society as a whole. There is the situation where one is torn between responsibility to society and responsibility to an individual. In "Trifles" the message is that responsibility to an individual should take priority.
Firstly, as a person one has freedom, but having this freedom means another person is repressed. Conversely, one's own freedom is repressed because of the freedom of another. The most common example of this is the anti-smoking argument. If smoking is banned in public places, the smoker has lost their freedom to smoke, while the non-smoker has gained their freedom not to be in a smoke-filled environment. The decision to be made in this case is easy. Smoking is damaging to one's health. Therefore, the non-smoker is justified in being allowed the freedom not to inhale the smoke. The same could be said of the speeding rule. A person's freedom to drive at whatever speed they like is restricted because of traffic rules. This is justified because speeding puts other people's lives at risk. What we see here is that a person's freedom ends as soon as their actions can endanger another person. There is also the case where a person's freedom ends because of the effect on society as a whole, with government being the center of society.
A person's freedom is restricted because of the law requiring them to pay taxes, this directly impacts on society as it raises the revenue required. Freedom is limited because everyone is part of the community. There is no option here for people. You do not have the choice whether to be part of society and pay taxes, it is a requirement of living in society. Mrs. Peters shows this belief when she says, "But Mrs. Hale, the law is the law." (Glaspell, 16.)
Many of the laws that govern society are based on maintaining society. This includes criminal laws, which are easily justified, they protect everyone's safety. It also includes business laws, which again protect society by clarifying how businesses can operate. Everyone has a responsibility towards society simply because they are part of it. This means that individual freedom is restricted in favor of the freedom of society.
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