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HOW POWER IS USED IN:
The Shawshank Redemption
In The Shawshank Redemption power is held by Andy and also by Warden Norton. Andy uses his power of knowledge and intellect to help fellow prisoners, by building an upgraded library (in memory of Brookes, a rehabilitated prisoner who couldn't stand life on the outside) and providing a means for some of the uneducated prisoners to get an education and in some cases pass their high school diploma. Andy also helps the guards by assisting with their tax returns and other financial problems they may be having. He also possesses personal power which he uses as his motivation to get through his time in Shawshank prison. It is this power in Andy that gives him hope and also helps give hope to others. Warden Norton, on the other hand, uses his power to take hope away from the prisoners. He does this by making prison life as stark as possible and also through physical abuse. Norton makes it look like he is rehabilitating the prisoners while at the same time providing a community service, which is in fact a slave labor scheme which allows a stream of dirty money into the prison. Norton then uses Andy's account keeping abilities to make the money clean which in doing so breaks the law but the power he has within the prison is weakened and eventually turned against him. This is a contrast to what happened in Othello because in The Shawshank Redemption the good use of power triumphs over the misuse.