The Jew's Beech

I believe this novella discusses not only aspects of crime and punishment, but also the question of why. Why do people commit crimes against their fellow people? How crimes are selfish, and through crime, a minority can damage the majority.
I also believe this story shows us how people feel justice is served. It shows us that justice is not only a subjective concept, but also one that perhaps could lie entirely in the mind.

Since the community in this story owes their wealth to the rich timber of the surrounding lands, a small band of timber thieves are able to severely damage the town through their actions.

The means of protecting the timber seemed to be in no way officially coordinated. It seemed that most of those charged with protecting the wood, were ordinary citizens, where contrarily, the “law” seems to be in league with the thieves.

On the 14th page of my edition, there is a quote which seems to implicate either a judge or a lawyer in the thievery of the timber.

“…as much conscious pride as he displayed taking his seat in the courtroom.”
This adds weight to the argument that the legal system is corrupt.

Indeed, when those whom we entrust with the execution of our laws, are themselves, on the wrong side of the laws they themselves serve, it constitutes a complete breakdown of not only the legal system, but society.

This is evident when we read the description of the world in which Friedrich Mergel was born.

“The wooden railings which had formerly encircled the garden and yard had given way to a neglected fence…” (P. 14-15)

This railing which has fallen into decay, to me, represents the decay of the law and the legal system. A legal system acts not just as a barrier to keep out unwanted intrusions, but also as a safety net, keeping those inside its protection from wandering wayward.

Continuing the quote, “…the roof was defective…” could allude to the absence of any divine justice such as those found at Sodom and Gomorrah. So with the legal system in shambles, and no divine intervention forthcoming, we have the rest of the quote, “…the cattle grazing on the pastures and the corn growing on the land adjoining the yard did not belong to the owner.” So with the complete breakdown of society, the cows eating someone else’s grass and the corn being grown in someone else’s field represents humanity with the controls taken out. Thievery runs amuck with nothing to keep it in check. This is the world Friedrich Mergel was born into.

For a while it looked as though Friedrich would have a decent life. He was a tall, strong man who was seemingly well liked. His guilt or innocence in the matter of the watch, and the subsequent murder of the Jew is ambiguous at best. But the fact remains that with his flight from the town, Friedrich appears guilty. Also the fact that his accuser was murdered does not bode well. But who are we to judge his guilt or innocence? The author has not chosen to definitively state the matter, and so we should move on to what we do know, and what we can deduce.

What we do know is that Friedrich and Johannes looked similar. We know also that Johannes returned to his home after many years. Years which could have erased any physical differences between the two men.

Johannes, now poor, broken, and only looking to live out the remainder of his days in some sense of peace, was murdered in an act of vengeance. Paying for a crime which he certainly didn’t commit, and for which the real perpetrator has never been identified.

After years of waiting in vain for someone to pay for the murder of the Jew, they finally got their vengeance. They don’t know that the man who hanged himself under the tree is not the one responsible, but it seems his blood has slaked their thirst just the same.

But so long as they believe Friedrich to be dead, they are content. This indicates that there is no cosmic scale balancing out the world. If there were, the killing of Johannes would not have made them “whole.” This seems to say that the idea of justice is purely subjective, and exists only in our minds.

Therefore, what punishments we mete out to the guilty, only serve to correct a perceived imbalance. And if justice is truly subjective, then the idea that the scale must always be made to balance can be tossed out the window, and if the world realized that the only way to move past a perceived injustice is to first look inward, we could theoretically change the entire penal and justice system.

Die Schwartze Spinne und wer hat recht.

Ich glaube, das Thema der Gerechtigkeit in dieser Geschichte hat mehr mit der Gemeinschaft des Rechts, als Strafe für eine Person für ihr Handeln zu tun.

In dieser Zeit geschrieben wurde, die Stärke einer Gemeinschaft bezog sich direkt auf ihr Überleben. Wenn Ihre Gemeinde war voll von faulen, egoistischen Menschen, sie könnten es nicht durch einen langen, harten Winter.

Also, wenn die Herren der Burg verlangte, dass die Gemeinschaft diese Aufgabe der Anpflanzung der Bäume führen, alle hatten die Dorfbewohner zusammen zu arbeiten. Gemeinsam würden sie Erfolg haben, oder gemeinsam, sie würden scheitern.

Deshalb ist das ganze Dorf für eine Person erlitt. Sie sprach nicht nur für sich selbst, wenn sie den Teufel um Hilfe bat, war sie für das ganze Dorf spricht.

Wenn wir etwas lesen, sollten wir auch den Hintergrund des Autors angucken. Es gibt keine frage, dass Gotthelf ein Religioeses Thema gemacht hat, weil er einen Pastor war. Er wollte alles Gottlich zu sein. Das ist natuerlich, dass ein Grossesteil seines Buchs handelt von moralischem Verfall.


Note: Since I searched all of project muse, jstor u.s.w. and didn't find any relevant articles on Gotthelf or the Black Spider, I looked for background information on Wikipedia and have these sources for further reading:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/JeremiasGotthelf.jpg (Picture of Gotthelf)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremias_Gotthelf