Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Noun Phrase 146. The noun phrase today is
"poetic justice." Okay. Let's take a look at the note here. If someone says that
something bad that happens to someone is poetic justice, he or she means that it
is just, what happened to that person. So it's a just thing. Even though it's a bad
thing. It was just that it happened to them because of the bad things they did. So
basically kind of like they deserved it. They got their just desserts or they got
what they deserved because they were so bad. It can also be used in stories to
mean that good wins over evil or good in the end will be rewarded and evil will
be punished in a suitable way. Unfortunately in real life, it doesn't
always happen this way. So that's why sometimes we say poetic
justice. Like well in the in the stories and in the movies a lot of times they do
make it end that way. And sometimes when we do see it happen in real life, you say
it's poetic justice like the poet or the writer wrote it in. But we know sometimes
in real life unfortunately that doesn't always happen. Sometimes bad people do
get away with bad things, at least for a while. Okay. Anyway, let's go on. The origin
of the idea goes back to 1678. There was a literary critic and historian named
Thomas Rhymer who was credited with creating the term. So he coined this term.
He made this term. He coined it in an essay called "The Tragedies of the Last
Age considered. Okay. In his thinking , in his mind, he demanded that the good character
should always be rewarded and the evil punished and that he implied there
should be kind of a moral to the story. You know, maybe this way you know, it
helps people. It teaches people in some way. All right.
Anyway, we got three different examples here.
Let's look at number one. That sweetheart swindler...
Yeah. I've explained this in other videos before. That's like, especially an older
guy that targets older women who have money. He falls in love with them and
then you know, he always you know he always showed a lot of money like he was
a rich businessman. But then for some reason , some expenses come up I don't
know maybe he says he's got a sick mother or something. His money is tied up. Can
He just borrow the money for a short while. You know, don't worry. I'll pay right
back. I got all these businesses. The women lend it to him and then he takes off. So
he often steals their money. That's a sweetheart swindler. Okay. Anyway let's
look back at this. That sweetheart swindler conned many women out of their
fortunes. However, you know, maybe in the end , after you know maybe had enough. for
at one point a female sweetheart swindler conned him out of
his fortune that he stole from others. This is a real case of poetic justice.
Yes. Maybe he never expected somebody to do it back to him. What he did to others.
Okay. Good. Let's look at number two here. Okay.
well I guess we say here the first one ... just by chance that terrorists ended up
being a victim of another terrorist attack. So he ended up.. he you know, he
wasn't he wasn't doing this terrorist attack. He was just in the wrong place at
the wrong time. He ended up being a victim, but he himself was a terrorist
that did this to other people and then you know in this case we might have
somebody else will say well you know that's just poetic justice. You know,
maybe he deserved it. Maybe that should have happened to him. Okay. Here and
number three here. Many Hollywood movies have a theme of poetic justice in their
plot. Yeah. So it is true Hollywood often did
have movies where the good guy you know, gets rewarded in the end and the bad guy
you know gets punished. Even though to be honest there are some movies that don't
do this. But still the majority do and traditionally they always did. So that's
why we say that it's poetic justice like in the stories. But
unfortunately not always in real life. Okay. Anyway, I hope you got
it. I hope it's clear. I hope it was informative. Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.