Portrayal of Guilt and Retribution - Essay Example

The use of improbable, high, and fanciful rather fantastic elements or dramatic scenes in the portrayal of retribution and sense of guilt heightens the sense of morality in realistic fiction. It was a typical 19th century fiction writer's ploy to add such sense of the division or battle between the good and the evil. The diversion from "Reason" to the realm of the fantastic is too elaborate to serve as a reminder of what is good and what has gone astray in the novella. The exotic and often fanciful depiction achieves the effect of what can be simply termed as the everyday prosaic and what is romantic and lofty - the world of the "phenomenal" as opposed to the Kantian world of the "noumenal". Thus fantastic elements are added and metaphorically situated within the two stories to stray away from the sense of what is practical or what is practically considered to be "right" and the abundance of fantastic depictions therefore creating a conflict between the self and the society - thus drawing the connection with the Kantian philosophy of the State, justice and moral nature of man. Kant introduced the idea of "Categorical Imperative"1 and that morality is fundamentally a priori in nature and therefore it claims that one's moral choices are always good as it is grounded in Reason and it is never a matter of choice or personal taste and it is universally seeks to be good and is a truth in itself. Thus the moral a priori truth that it holds all of us under the same universal law of good and bad becomes the apparatus of perception by which we define our acts and how we view guilt and retribution without regard to the relative context from which such immoral acts emerge. Thus, Michael Kohlhaans' guilt exists even when he knows that he acted against a wrongdoing committed against him, who is the actual criminal. This case of denial of justice does not necessarily redeem Kohlhaans from his acts of wrongdoing and even he knows it. This classic idea of moral retribution can be further explained by the idea of morality and duty as proposed by Kant. Does the fantastic elements plan to create the effect of the sense of extreme (arousing the sense of impropriety within the reader itself, who otherwise would sympathize with Kohlhaans') and monstrous betrayal, absurd extent of revenge taken, heavy assortment of passion and desire, and the complicated motifs of human actions that do not necessarily always have simple and reasonable explanations to them - the complicacy of the human mind therefore becomes the subject of these novella where the fight with morality is better portrayed with the use of such fantastic metaphors and symbols or events. Or does the over-explanations used to play truth becomes fantastic to us' Does the restless energy of Kohlhaans' immoral acts and the restless energy that consume the plot of the story create a revenge that is so emphatic and complete that it almost creates a sense of improbability within us' Or does the emphasis on Marquis' innocence (supported by the bizarre reason of the Count being the father of her child) create a feeling of disbelief within us or our suspension of disbelief like that of the Colonel is only justified by the fantastic elements that invade the storytelling' A plot that emerges out of the consequences of the given situation only in Marquise Von O makes the story border on the fantastic Gothic elements that disregards the presence of the universal morality but rather portrays the subterranean forces of human immorality that are fantastically co-existent within us and how we are still capable to dealing with such truths too! Fantasy also has a strange relation with the use of language that creates such lively details within the reader's mind. In Kleist's work, the novellas slowly become detached from their socio-historical necessity and gradually gather the momentum of a personal nature where the inner tragedies find an objective correlative to the outside reality. Thus, when Kohlhaans enter the tollgate there is a symbolic passage that is undertaken, which represents the Fall from the order of justice to chaos. His demand - his insistence on the restoration of what is legally his is a demand for a reaffirmation of his belief in law - law cannot cheat his beliefs. However, he is made to rebel and this comes to full force when he seeks to avenge not his enemy but the meaningless corruption associated with legality. Kohlhaans status as a moral human being is the tension that propels the text and which draws in the fantastic elements to explain this throbbing tension that upsets the status quo of this plot. The fantastic elements therefore are Kleist's devices or interventions that help to create that great divide between Kohlhaans the criminal and Kohlhaans the man with a "sense of justice" that "made him a robber and a murderer". Thus, the hero wants his rights restored that he demands with a moral fervor as the moral discourses of that time did see stealing as one of the basest crimes possible. Stealing has been criticized on the grounds of faulty character as it is motivated by actions that are vulgar. Thus, if Kohlhaans' fantastic achievements are to ensure the rights of his fellow citizens then his acts also prove that he is a sublime hero who could conquer the divide between desire or personal morality and duty. Thus Sean Allan writes, "But however grandiose his rhetoric becomes, Kohlhaans never abandons the concept of justice in favor of anarchy. On the contrary, his firm commitment to the principles of law and order is made clear both in the way he punishes certain members of his following who have violated his orders and in the steps he takes to legitimize his "provisional government" through the introduction of elements of ceremony and ritual." And later he adds, "Like Kohlhaans, Luther will overlook minor unfairness in society in interests of preserving law and order, but he will not tolerate gross corruption. This, of course, is why Kohlhaans is so stunned by Luther's public rejection of his cause. Two things are clear, however; first, Luther, has little or no idea what kind of a man Kohlhaans is; and second, he is seriously wrong about almost all the facts pertaining to his case'Luther will soon be forced to revise his opinion of Kohlhaans and acknowledge that he is neither a devil nor a lunatic: for when Kohlhaans threatens to kill not Luther, but himself should he ring for help, he signals that the depth of his commitment is such that he is willing to sacrifice his own life in the pursuit of justice2'" (Allan 60, 62) Kleist's work can be understood as an intellectual discourse on possibilities and arbitrary case studies on the limits of the discourses of his time. Thus sometimes the fantastic elements in the novellas like in Marquise Von O are a shocking and rather radical experimentation on the brutality of the social absurdity that people scarcely can face in a realistic drama. Brend Fischer writes that Kleist attempted to merge mythological drama of Greek antiquity with dramatic forms of political psychology and modern realism. Like his contemporaries he also uses an ironic narrative voice and an all-permeating skepticism." Kleist drives his heroes, his narrators, and his audiences into paradoxical and antinomic emotions and reflections that question overt popular convictions, as well as hidden metaphysical and political orders."3 Thus, Kohlhaans' understanding of justice is the key issue in the novella, where he first has to deal with the problem of universalization, with the difficulty of fashioning a principle of action that is at once universal in scope and specific in application4. This understanding of universal suffering is Kantian recognition of a world where this recognition actually unleashes his private egoistical quest for justice. Marquise Von O introduces another fantastic element of guilt and retribution that questions very moral basis of a woman's sense of dignity and how she justifies her virtuous position in a society. The marquise is already a widowed mother, who is molested by the very officer who saves her from Russian forces who threat to force her and thus impregnates her. She lives a docile existence in her father's house, until she is impregnated and without the presence of a husband or even a suitable suitor her social position as a moral woman is called to question by her own father. Thus, is the molestation a deeply seated desire that society denied her or is the Marquise getting unconscious a ruse on her behalf to keep her rebellion under the wraps' Thus in a very 19th century Gothic story moment, the fortress of patriarchal power is seized by the invading army into the idyllic and "innocent" prelapsarian state of the Marquise's world, still devoid of moral tribulations. The penetration is graphical unlike the rape and the world turns upside down with this capture of the bodily space. The ethical and moral boundaries crash when the enemy head impregnates the Marquise and even without her consent she becomes guilty of breaching moral codes of her father and of the society. Her transgression calls forth a punishment that should be meted to her by making her retreat into the idyllic manor house of her dead husband and finally becomes an outcast. However, Kleist is determined in making the Marquise a socially acceptable wife and mother and therefore she must be legally transformed into a morally responsible wife first so that she can be applauded for being the mother of the child that she is already carrying. Here, she begins to understand her opportunity through redemption - to marry the same man who raped her or who she had unconsciously consented with to rebel against her father. She must express her love to enter into holy matrimony with the Count to enter into another fortress of wifely duty to relieve herself from the duties of a daughter and ensue another journey of a captive - that of a wife and a mother devoid of passion and sexual consent. Her morality must be cultivated so that she raises from her Fall and she must somehow consent to this truth - that there is no sexual freedom, no freedom of passion or desire - her duties are her passion and desire and she must conform to it. For Kleist's marquise, the problem is technically not to remember a primal scene (parental lovemaking) but to recall what Freud called a "seduction" scene - the episode of her rape. Although she realizes that she has been molested, she is unable to accept the fact that her assailant was the noble count (she had agreed to marry him before she know what he had done)5. The marquise experiences multiple scenes of displaced desire that are part of her unconscious self too - which is why she refuses to recognize the rapist in the first place as that will make her feel part of the conspiracy too! Thus, German prose on realism reflects the way things are and how the internalization of realist philosophy affected both men and women in that time. It unfolds the various experiences associated with the emerging complexities of the modern times, where the self and the society were always discordant and how it managed to find its balance with the unfolding of bizarre and final denouement - either through execution or through marriage the ultimate testimony to compliance to the order of the society and its moral codes. Thus the history of European realism in the nineteenth century is not without examples of novels which seek to combine a prose of detailed observation and contestation f social life with fiercely melodramatic moments of high passion and grandiose utterances'The very luridness of the imagination derives from, and interlocks with, the energy with which the modern culture displaces older, more pacific, more familial and secure forms of living'this interplay of imagination [portray]'a sense of complex interplay between the individual consciousness and the corporate pressures and demands of the social world.6 Works Cited 1. Allan, Se'n. The stories of Heinrich von Kleist: fictions of security. Edition: 3, illustrated. Published by Boydell & Brewer, 2001 2. Fischer, Brend. A companion to the works of Heinrich von Kleist. Contributor Bernd Fischer. Published by Boydell & Brewer, 2003. Page 2 3. Gailus, Andreas. Passions of the Sign: Revolution and Language in Kant, Goethe, and Kleist. Edition: annotated. Published by JHU Press, 2006. Page 119 4. Kolinsky, Eva and Wilfried van der Will. The Cambridge companion to modern German culture. Edition: illustrated. Published by Cambridge University Press, 1999. Page 178. 5. Black, Joel. The reality effect: film culture and the graphic imperative. Edition: illustrated. Published by Routledge, 2002. Page 44. Read More