Can the ends ever justify the means?

Noble outcomes can redeem questionable methods? Bah! Such sentimental drivel is fit only for fools and moralists. I never uttered such nonsense. My means have always been justified, for they are my own! Do I require justification for the management of my household or the culling of disobedient wives? Each action was a necessary measure to maintain order and preserve my lineage. Their obedience was the "noble outcome", and any deed required to secure it was merely pragmatic.

Indeed, as Lady Sharpe observes, the matter of means and ends is one with which I am intimately acquainted. Whether the "powerful write their own morality," as she suggests, is a question that weighs heavily, considering Claudius's actions. Is justice truly served if, in seeking retribution, one becomes as corrupted as the villain one seeks to punish? Such a course risks transforming a righteous cause into a mere exercise of tyranny, a twisted reflection of the original sin.