poetic justice theme

An evildoer ironically falls victim to the very wickedness that they themself intended for (or meted out to) someone else.

Notes

This theme does not apply if the result is achieved through the considered designs of another character, for example as vengeance. It must also be reasonably clear that the irony is a noteworthy component of the story. The interpretation of "wickedness" must be reasonably specific. For example, if a murderer ends up getting murdered, it is only "poetic justice" if there is a salient similarity in methodology between the intended and the actual murder.

Examples

In nightgallery2x19a "Deliveries in the Rear", Dr. Fletcher is perfectly content to look the other way while innocent people are murdered in order to provide cadavers for dissection in his anatomy class. Eventually, in an ironic twist of fate, he uncovers a new corpse only to find that it is his own beloved fiancée that has become the victim.

79 total · 60 major · 18 minor

Story	Level	Motivation
ahh1x30	major	John meant for his wife's lover to be charged with her murder but was caught in his own intricate web of lies and ended up justly exposing himself in the end.
ahh2x08	major	Though arguably taken a few steps too far, it seems a point of the story was that Doc Carrol having played around with cadavers to fool people once too many times finally ended up a cadaver himself because of it.
ahh2x16	major	Adelaide fooled Edward to scam him out of money, but ended up fooling him so well that he ended up going mad and killed her.
ahp1x24	major	Paul put shards of glass in the eggs to kill Rosalie, but by an ironic twist of fate she changed her mind and the eggs were later served to Paul who promptly died in well deserved agony.
ahp2x10	major	Gil tried to murder the stepmother he hated but ended up murdering the father he loved.
ahp2x11	major	Louis hired an assassin to kill his wife and her lover but through an ironic twist of fate, the chosen assassin was in fact himself the lover and elected to kill Louis.
ahp3x11	major	The story ended with the blackmailing plumber being blackmailed by the many housewives he had extorted money from.
ahp4x21	major	John bashed Felix' head in and drank Felix' whiskey. By an ironic twist of fate, Felix had actually killed himself and the whiskey was poisoned, thus killing the putative killer.
ahp5x06	major	The story concluded with Hermie dying from a heart attack after he'd been bitten by the very snake he'd purchased with a view to it administering a lethal bite to his wife.
ahp5x22	major	Hubert ended up himself imbibing a lethal dose of the poison that he had intended his mother to meet her demise by.