Ambition – The Main Tragic Flaw Of Macbeth

People, by nature selfish, will try to exploit each other if they are not discouraged. Many nations today have laws or codes that citizens are expected follow. Hammurabi’s code is one of the oldest laws in history. Hammurabi’s code is an ancient law code that dates to around the 18th-century B.C.E. The Babylonians of Mesopotamia lived there (Andrea #13) in what is now Iraq. According to Hammurabi’s Code (Andrea #13), which was preserved for posterity on an enormous stone pillar.

The code does give a sense “justice”. The code defines crimes committed against each other and the punishments that are to be given for them. In the code it is stated that if a man is found guilty of brigandage (“brigandage”), he must be put to death. In order to provide justice for the victim, if the perpetrator is not found, the governor will return the stolen property. A life’s value is also established in another instance of justice. The code stipulates that in the event of murder, “half a minta of silver” is to be given to the family. Different people can have different values, even though the code specifies a price for life. Code says that someone who destroys a freeman’s eye must also lose his own. A peasant’s eye can be destroyed by paying a mere mina in silver. In order to destroy an eye on a slave one must pay to its owner the equivalent of half the price of the slave. The value of men was different during Hammurabi’s time.

In Babylonian culture, women were valued differently than men. Code supports the idea that women were valued similarly to property. Men who controlled the family were allowed to pay a debt by renting their wives and kids to other people for a three-year period. After three years, the women are allowed to rejoin their family. A man who kills “the daughter a freeman” must also be responsible for the death of the murderer’s own daughter. This is a form of justice, since the man who killed another’s daughter also loses his daughter. The murdered daughter isn’t repaid, since the man who killed her was not punished. Hammurabi’s Code was written so that the male head of household had the most authority over the family and also took on the most responsibility.

This control was not absolute. Both a husband or wife could divorce each other under the Code, but the man had more freedom. A man’s obligations when divorcing her wife depended on whether she had given him children. The code stipulated that a married woman who had children with her husband would be given her dowry as well as the “use” of her garden, property, and field. As soon as her children grew up, the husband had to pay her a proportion of what was given to her sons. A husband had to pay the bride-price to the bride’s family if the wife was not pregnant. In marriages without bride-price the Code specifies the divorced wife will receive a silver mina. The Code was designed to ensure that a divorced spouse was not rendered helpless by her circumstances and still had the ability to lead a reasonable lifestyle.

The Babylonians did not consider women or children to be less than men, but they also did not think of them as worthless. They were protected by the law while still respecting that they were below their male counterparts. If a woman became ill and her husband abandoned her, she was not to be left alone. Women seeking a divorce were allowed to get their dowry after their grievances and faults were resolved. The Code also gives special consideration to sons. The Code stipulates that fathers wishing to disown the sons they have must explain their reasoning in front of a magistrate, and then the magistrate will decide the validity. A son was allowed to commit a serious crime against his father. However, after this offense he could be disowned.

The Code of Hammurabi made sure that Babylonia was governed by a set of common laws, and that crimes had clear consequences. Also, it governed the relationship between men, women, and children. The punishment for harming different groups of people was determined by their value. Although the Code made it clear that men, woman, and children weren’t equals, the Code also included protections so women and kids could have their complaints heard and justice provided, even if the standards of today are different.