Moral victory

Moral victory

A moral victory occurs when a person, team, army or other group loses a confrontation, and yet achieves some other moral gain. This gain might be unrelated to the confrontation in question, and the gain is often considerably less than what would have been accomplished if an actual victory had been achieved.

For example, a sports team that loses fairly to a cheating team might claim a moral victory in spite of the loss. Another, less straightforward situation in which a moral victory could be claimed is if a team which is yet to win a game, and which has been blown out every game so far, loses by a narrow margin, or perhaps in an overtime of sorts, to a team which is either undefeated, or generally considered far superior.

For a real life example consider the Detroit Lions of the National Football League. Despite not having won a game in Green Bay, Wisconsin, the home of one of their rivals the Green Bay Packers, since 1991, they lost a game on October 3, 2010 by only 2 points. They also had 170 more total yards than the Packers. Some might call this a moral victory while others would say it is just the continuation of the team's futility.

Another moral victory can see seen in Arthur Miller's play The Crucible the character John Proctor was executed but his children received his land

Others may include scenarios in which a force loses a struggle, but inflicts great losses upon their opponents. Examples include The Alamo and the 300 Spartans at the Battle of Thermopylae.

References

Further reading



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