Akt eins - Zusammenfassung

Its autumn, and four men from the town are gathered near a painter, who is making a banner that reads

"Welcome Claire,"

In a burst of nostalgia, Ill describes his fond memories of their liaisons

her "red hair streaming out, slim and supple as a willow, and tender, ah, what a devilish beautiful little witch

Standing with Ill in the wood, she points out the irony of it all

now she is the one with the money, and it is Ill who leads "a laughable life"

The gathering outside the hotel is lively

among those in attendance are a gymnastic team, the town band, the Mayor and his wife, and Ill's wife, Matilda

She plans to marry him in Guellen Cathedral

something that had always been a childhood dream of hers

Claire happily announces that she will give Guellen one million dollars

half for the town, and half to be shared amongst the families

The Schoolmaster identifies Boby as Chief Justice Courtly

he was once the Lord Chief Justice of Guellen, and then assumed a position with the Kaffigen Court of Appeal

Years later, Claire tracked down the two men at the ends of the earth

Jacob in Canada, Louis in Australia

The result of this "miscarriage of justice"

Claire gave birth to a baby that lived for only one year, and became a prostitute in Hamburg

The name "Guellen" refers directly to liquid excrement, and while the allusion may appear overt to the point of being grotesque, it also successfully enhances the tone of the play, assaulting the sensibilities of the audience on a number of levels

the characters are comic, grotesque, and macabre, and the idea of "justice" has been sullied almost beyond repair

It is, however, suggested that this metamorphosis did not have to be so tragic

something that is "built" can also be "just" and in harmony with nature → suggests that an idyllic human existence transpires at that unseen point where nature and society meet

The manner in which she arrives is especially telling

she pulls the emergency brake on an express train

In her view, she has every right to pull the emergency brake

not because it is an emergency, but merely because doing so is easy and convenient

In other words, Claire believes that she exists on an entirely different plane from those whom she employs

a category that includes her husbands

(It is important to note here that her first husband has retained his full name in her memory

he is a kind of creator-figure whom she has come to emulate and almost deify

Claire developed her understanding of marriage based on Ill's example

he chose money over love, disregarding the welfare of others

The irony in Koby and Loby's characters is twofold

- they are eunuchs, who are traditionally considered to be protectors of a woman's chastity, while here the two men were bribed to claim that they had slept with Claire
- they are blind, and the traditions of Ancient Greek drama (from which Durrenmatt draws many of his symbols and plot devices) hold that the blind are "seers", in the sense that they "see" the truth

The question that Durrenmatt proposes is whether a humanist education and strong sense of values is enough to enable anyone

to resist temptation

In this play, Durrenmatt grapples with the very nature of justice

he critiques its corruptibility, and studies the relationship between "justice", and "revenge"

In Claire's mind, "justice" past wrongs

Claire believes in "an eye for an eye."

Her version of justice virtually discards the system that has been developed over time

in Claire's world, justice is meted out in pure accordance with her will