Heinrich von Kleist's Michael Kohlhaas

What is it that ties a person in to their society? His or her family? Friends? Networks of social contacts? Who regulates those interactions? Who says what is acceptable and what is not? Are there too many questions in this paragraph?

Law. That is what binds together citizens of thier lands. Citizens are supposed to be afforded the protection of the law, as well as surrender to it, when warrented. If citizens are no longer protected by the law from the harmful actions of their neighbors, how can the law ask them to submit themselves to the law?

Michael Kohlhaas was a good, proud man. When he was ripped off he did everything in his power to legally seek satisfaction. But because he was not held in as high esteem within the realm as the Junker von Tronka, his satisfaction was denied. He was not protected by the laws, indeed it was as though he was outside of the law's protection. An outlaw.

So if the state cannot protect him through the legal system, how can they expect to legally hold him accountable? Through their failure to seek justice on Kohlhaas' behalf, they forefeited the right to try him.

I belive von Kleist was trying to illustrate the dual obligation of the legal system. On one side, the legal system is a means to seek satisfaction for wrongs done to you, on the other side, it is a means for the state to seek justice from wrongs you have committed against the state.

Through Kohlhaas' "rebellion" he was just doing the only thing he could to get satisfaction from the Junker.




Kohlhaas ist ähnlich wie Robin Hood, da sie sowohl ein starker Sinn für Gerechtigkeit, und sie sind beide gut zu schüren Bauern zu helfen, sie zu suchen Gerechtigkeit: