No Crime by Billy Goda - Literature review Example

page # My Essay # No Time for Justice In the play “ No Crime” by Billy Goda the story line is about the untruthful profession of lawyers where they cover the truth to earn money , fame and success. In the play a young man called Carl Roberts is being interviewed for the position of a lawyer by Jim Abner who was in his fifties. Jim is the owner of the law firm and Carl is the students of Jim’s good old friend, Dave Horowits. Jim asks Carl what he would do if a man confesses that he has committed murder. Carl tells that if he had not confessed to the police then he would be proven not guilty. With this Jim offers Carl the job and gives a first client who has smashed the head of a lady with a bat. In this play, the author wants to point on the unethical standards of professional lawyers where truth and innocence has no value. We can see from the statement of Jim about his illegal ways where he says that “ What would you do in defending a client that was guilty, and your only hope of winning the case was by twisting the truth” ( Goda 81)The play attempts to prove that there is no place for truth in the profession of lawyers. To be a lawyer one need to successfully lie and be ready to do any less humanistic and hateful practices. In the play Jim chews tobacco and offers it to Carl whic he accepts and it shows that he is being welcomed to the world of immorality and corruption. Jim says that he found no interviewees to like tobacco and Carl replied that it is because tobacco is disgusting. This shows that the practice of lying and dishonesty is disgusting which is not acceptable for all. Actually this tobacco has a great symbolism in the play. Tobacco is not a standard ethical product in a society as it is more often consumed by people who are wrong direction in life. Tobacco represents a negative connotation in life as both the characters entering a venture where lie and deceit. In the play when Jim hands over tobacco to Carl it represents that he is initiating him to wrongful things in life. Carl was welcome to the world of people who do disgusting things who prove guilty people tube innocent and spit it when they are done with it. This is the truth of the lawyer practice and play shows the realities of modern world. This is evident when Carl answers Jim for the question about the success of his law firm. Car responds “That you have improved the situation of the defendant, you’ve either plea bargained form a much lesser charge or you’ve had your client acquitted”. ( Goda 74) Lawyer practice is a profession which is to give justice and liberty to people. It is a lawyer’s duty to prove innocence or guiltiness of a person but the clients should be truly guilty or innocent. The play shows us that sometimes the lawyers make guilty people innocent and naïve people get imprisoned. The twisted words and shrewd brain of lawyer distorts facts and even present false evidence to prove their client innocent. We can see in the play that Jim scrutinizes the interviewee for their approach towards criminals. He just wants to know whether he can be unethical in his profession so that the law firm can make huge money. There is no look out for the right or wrong or the consequences of such acts on the society. No proof is the play which showcases the untrue, cruel and lying world in which humanistic values like dignity and honesty is replaced by money. The moral values have no place in this world as lawyers like Jim and Carl tries to save people who are murdered, criminals and thieve .The lawyers are attempting to save people who are enemies of society and do not give value to the life of people who are killed or to the loss of the family members of the victim. This shows the people are becoming crueler in search of money. People are untrue and want money and acts against the ethics of morality and humanity. Dignity, honesty has no place in this world where money rules. We can see this when Jim say the follow to Carl “Make that two things that matter. If he can pay our bill and if there is a least a slight chance of our improving his situation” ( Goda 79) The play is looking at lawyer profession as a way to money. The start of the play is clear enough for the audience and they can understand the relation between the two characters well. The dialogues in an interview process of a law firm are shown in the play. The play was supposed to be a reminder to the world about the atrocities of the legal profession. The lawyers do opposite what is expected from them. Instead of proving the guilt of convicts they prove that innocents are criminals. They are the guardians of justice and liberty but they themselves destroy it for the selfish motive of money and success. The character Jim in the play is a social evil as people like him is influencing young lawyers in to the disgusting attitude towards work. He is not only initiating Carl in to a corrupted profession but he is also introducing tobacco to him. So by profession and health Carl is drowning. The play has a theme of immorality, dishonesty, greed of money and distorted liberty. The immorality and dishonesty of lawyers is the central theme of the play. He also points out that money is the only motive of lawyers in modern society. The greed for money is imminent in the play and we can see it when Jim hires the person who is ready to compromise on ethics. The play is a warning how young ambitious lawyers are persuaded to enter a vicious profession where there is a lure of money and compromise of ethical values. We can see that Jim has rejected all applicants who were honest and straight. He wanted a person like Jim who wanted money and success and who can play dirty games to win over clients. In the beginning itself Jim makes sure that the success of the firm in based on the unethical practices. This play shows the inside story of law firms where the only criteria is to save the client despite of the person being guilty. The criminal lawyers are everywhere unethical and only a percentage of them remain moral in their profession. Car say “ Everyone has a price, that becomes , that is , a weakness, and it’s up to me, as a thinking man, to find out what that is, and then, if need be, to use it” . ( Goda 80) So we can see that he is tagging price to the weakness of people and exploiting the situation maximum to earn riches. Here we can see the irony which is lawyers who is supposed to be the protectors of law and human right has taken the role to destroy truth and honesty. The play has a realistic theme where one can find that lawyers are more or less liars who look out for money and use their knowledge and talent to motivate crime in modern society. The ending scene shows how criminals are getting away from punishment with help of such corrupted lawyers. Read More