Analysis of Se7en

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John Doe combines different types of evil; sadistic, instrumental and idealistic. All these methods indicate his self-awareness of his actions and make one contemplate his sanity.

Perhaps the most transparent type of evil John Doe uses is the sadistic evil. Instead of "just" killing his victims, he uses the most reprehensible methods to do so. All of his operations include symbolism of the seven deadly sins. You might argue that this is not only to make his message clearer but rather that he is enjoying himself doing it. In the car, (1.44.54) Mills provocatively tries to understand John Doe's actions. However, John Doe confronts Mills by saying: "How happy would it make you to hurt me with impunity? You wouldn't only because there´s consequences" (1.46.13) while at the same time justifying his actions of turning each sin against the sinner. John Doe consistently tries to justify that he does not choose to do evil for evil's sake, but rather to prove a point. This scene seemed to humanize a genius psychopath in two minutes. Furthermore, the use of the seven deadly sins remain as an instrument to pursue the Old Testament words "an eye for eye, tooth for tooth".

John Doe is utterly convinced that his actions of evil justify the message of apathy, which implies his use of idealistic evil. The perpetrator of the idealistic evil is often driven by the desire to achieve a subjectively good for itself. John Doe believes that he benefits the whole society and says himself that God told him to expose to mankind what a foul and tragic place the world has turned into (1.45.20).

Instrumental evil is a planted evil. It is often put in relation with great affection and strong emotions. John Doe desires to achieve the exposure of apathy, using any means to reach it. In this case the seven deadly sins. John Doe will no longer keep resistant to these sins and therefore uses them as an instrument to express and justify his actions. Additionally, the objective or the subjective good that determines its behavior as instrumental, is to achieve a missing part[1] “We see a deadly sin on every street corner, in every home and we tolerate it. We tolerate it because it´s common. It´s trivial.” (1.47.49) That is the point, John Doe is setting the example for people not to remain resistant of the deadly sins or apathy.

In conclusion, the movie Se7en is an illustration of the declining morality and charity of individuals. People are becoming more self-centred, egocentric and individualized in a modern urban society, where everyday life of an individual is marked by violence, cruelty, evil and apathy. Along with evil, the absence of empathy manages to build a defense mechanism consisting of being resistant against evil, cruelty and the sins of sinners. Apathy in modern society results in making the average individual to easily succumb to dark impulses with the result that evil breeds evil.

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