「윈저의 명랑한 부인」들에 나타난 회복적 정의

Recently, the administration of criminal justice has paid much attention to restorative justice, which involves a local community in coping with crimes with great responsibility. This article argues that in William Shakespeare’s comedy, The Merry Wives of Windsor, the Windsor community in fact practices restorative justice discussed nowadays in that the community does not just punish Sir John Falstaff for his crimes but utilizes him as a tool for restoring social order through public shaming and eventually reintegrates him into the community. In this sense, restorative justice needs to be understood in close association with the tradition of the British criminal justice system, which has shown strong reluctance to make police enforcement nationwide under the control of the central government, but rather supported the idea that a local community has autonomy and responsibility for dealing with crimes. Falstaff, a poverty-stricken knight in the play, sends identical love letters to both Mistress Ford and Mistress Page in order to seduce and use them as his East and West Indies. But Falstaff’s dark scheme is frustrated by the merry and honest wives with the help of Mistress Quickly; hence, Falstaff gets disciplined by the entire community of Windsor. The Windsor community, however, does not concur on the punishment for its sole purpose; instead, it expects apology and compensation from Falstaff while embracing him. Thus, the Windsor community emphasizes healing and rehabilitation rather than punishment on Falstaff, thus resulting in a good example of restorative justice. Punishment on Falstaff in the play is not only linked to the belief that the community has both autonomous and ultimate responsibility for crimes, but also to folk rituals known as skimmington, public shaming against moral offenders. Likewise, various conflicts within the Windsor community are resolved in accordance with the principles of dialogues between victims and perpetrators, mediation, apology and compensation. Therefore, this play presents a healthy practice of restorative justice and provides a new perspective on a conceptual approach to restorative justice as well.