I believe that in this story, the author would like us to understand the difference between crime committed by bad people for bad purpose and crime committed by good people for good purpose.
The protagonist is a man who is ugly on the outside, yet basically good on the inside. His crime is that of killing wild animals to survive. He is caught and sent to prison. His incarceration sends him further to the dark side when eventually he sees the man who had him imprisoned hunting the same game. He then has what psychologists today might call a “moment of temporary insanity” and kills the bailiff, turning outlaw.
But his soul is too good to live in the company of such terrible men, so he tries to turn back to the good side, much like Darth Vader in “Return of the Jedi.”
I believe Friedrich Schiller was using this story to tell the world that not all criminals deserve such severe punishment. Some criminals are simply good people who break the rules in order to survive.
Furthermore, I believe that Schiller’s thinking in this matter is derived from the Kantian ethical system, where each and every life has value in and of itself. The power of the human spirit that is inside each of us gives us the power to change, to redeem ourselves from our past mistakes.
Some people would call it Classical-Romanticism in putting the individual first, but I feel this story resonates with the Kantian ethical system, as opposed to the Utilitarianism point of view, where the proper course of action is what is best for the majority of the people, leaving individualism out of the equation. Perhaps Schiller was trying to draw people’s attention to the individual in the story, rather than society as a whole.
Now, as promised, I give you: REDEMPTION!
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