Justice In Kolhaas And Chilean Earthquake

Heinrich von Kleist’s depiction of discontent and frustrations at the society’s chauvinistic attitudes in the book Selected Writings, is not only filled with entertainment value, but upon closer examination, leaves abundant room for analysis using literary themes. His narrations often deal with the quest for justice in a disordered world; through complex story plots they describe what goes on in an individual’s mind when the justice system is fabricated and subjective, and the consequent crisis when his characters are not satisfied with the law and order. In this essay, by taking examples of two of Kleist’s very famous stories, Michael Kohlhaas and The Chilean Earthquake, I will discuss “the crisis that occurs when an individual's desire for justice is challenged or thwarted” (Sakai). As both these stories were written based on real-life events that took place in history, they appeal to readers as more realistic than fictitious stories would.
In Michael Kolhaas, Kohlhaas the protagonist, commits his hideous crimes after not getting absolute justice, not
The story “poses the question of whether there is any justice in the Natural World, and strongly suggests there is none. It then goes on to explore what happens when a basically decent, God-fearing couple wish to give thanks to God for what they see as His mercy, and come face to face with a more powerful, violent mob, who think that they know better what God wants.” (Sakai) And committing atrocious criminal acts to relish anger is also common – ‘honour killings’ are heard of in many societies. Kleist shows in this story that even an apparent injustice caused by God/ Nature (the earthquake) can cause a level of societal