『ガリヴァ旅行記』と『セヴン』における 「怒り」の特質について

This essay examines the deadly sin of anger (wrath) in Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s
Travels (1726) and Andrew Kevin Walker’s film Seven (1995). While anger in
aphorisms written by Gustav Flaubert or Ambrose Bierce seems to be light and
humorous, the anger expressed by Det. Mills and John Doe in the film Seven is intense
and serious due to horrible homicides committed in a very extraordinary situation. In
contrast to Seven, ‘colère’ in the French/Italian film of comedy Les Sept Péchés
Capitaux (1952) appears light and vulgar because it is tied to a quarrel between
husband and wife. Both Swift and John Doe display aggression as a means to force
people to pay attention to them by kicking the stomach or hitting with a sledgehammer.
Both of them share ‘indignation’ against the squalor in the corrupted world around
them. Avoiding ‘sæva Indignatio (fierce indignation)’ requires us to be patient as
Gulliver displayed at the court of Brodgingnag when the virtuous giant King treats him
as a tiny insect.