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Justice Breeds Murder: Justice in Diirrenmatt as Theme and as Theatrical Material GABRIELLE ROBINSON In Diirrenmatt's plays "justice is at stake," as Palamedes tells his father in The BlindMan. ' Diirrenmatt tends to examine every situation and every action from the standpoint ofjustice, discussing such themes as the possibility of changing the world throughjustice, the perversion and parody ofjustice in our world, and man's injustice versus the justice of God. As far as his characters are concerned , they are obsessed with it; it is the idea of justice which makes their existence meaningful. "If there is no justice, one parts easily from it [life],'" says the man who is about to die in Nighttime Talk With A Despised Man. DiirrenmaU's characters fight to their last breaths for their visions of justice, however distorted. For no matter how elevated or debased their aims, their conflicts arise from their pursuits of justice: whether hunting down a criminal, sentencing a son, rObbing a bank, seeking revenge, destroying or saving an empire, they all believe themselves to be fighting for justice and order. Some of them, like the old lady in The Visit, seek personal justice for wrongs they have suffered, but most of Dilrrenmatt's major heroes pursue absolute social and historical justice. The Emperor in Romulus the Great sets himselfup as Rome's judge and condemns his corrupt civilization to death in the name ofjustice. In The Marriage ofMr. Mississippi, Mississippi fights to reinstitute iron Mosaic justice in his unjust and chaotic society. The Bastard in King John uses all the power of his reason to work for justice and order in his war-tom country, whereas Titus of Titus Andronicus seeks justice for Rome as well as for his tortured family. Dilrremnatt's seekers after justice are exceptional men. Most of them hold powerful and outstanding positions; yet they choose to play madmen, clowns or victims in orderto achieve their goals. Typically, it is Romulus who focuses on the crucial question: "Do we still have the right to be more than a victim?" (I, 68). In the end-time in which they live, heroism can work only through deliberate self-victimization: Romulus's clowning, Mobius's and Titus's mad- 74 GABRIELLE ROBINSON ness, the Bastard's and Bockelson's playacting. But even this reduced form of heroism is ultimately doomed, and the heroes end trapped by their own acts, victims now against their wills, able to prove their greatness only by bearing injustice. In his later plays, Dtirrenmatt denies them even this most personal achievement. The monstrous disorder wins. "Nonsense is victor!" (III, 212), "And heroes there are none. Only victims" (III, 2(5). Therefore, although both Dtirrenmau and his characters want to light up the world with the "pure ray of justice" (as is said of the four old lawyers in The Puncture),3 thus bringing meaning and dignity to their lives, what they achieve is "justice reflected in the eyeglass ofa drunk ..."4 Not content with showing the hero's victimization. Diirrenmatt demonstrates paradoxical reversal and grotesque parody of justice. Judges tum into executioners, just men into criminals, and justice into farce. "... Justice I Breeds murder and does not create an order" (III, 370). Although this quotation stems from the later and more farcically distorted Titus Andronicus, its message is inherent in all of Dtirrenmatt's plays. It is foreshadowed in Sainte-Claude's reply to Mississippi, who has called him a fool because "There is no justice without God." You are the fool. There is justice only without God.... We both have spilled blood; you killed three hundred and fifty criminals and Inever counted my victims. What we do is murder;therefore we have to do it meaningfully. (I, 114-115) As we shall see, Durrenmau's idealistic heroes are forced to accept this monstrous paradox and with it their defeats, whereas the cynical characters use it, or play with it, to serve their ends. The Puncture (1956) offers an ironic combination ofthese possibilities when four jovial old lawyers sentence a chance visitor to death in the name of the highest ideal of justice. "... Only in the act of sentencing ... does justice become knighted; there...

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