When evaluating Judge Adam, I believe that he may not have always been an evil man, but that his position as judge, a position of great power in such a small village, transformed him into a villain over time. To quote the British historian Lord Acton, “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
Throughout the play, we see how much power Adam has as judge in Huisum. He treats his two servants around as if they were his slaves, “you stupid mare / Get me my wig. March! / Shut up! You hear?” While in court, he threatens the townsfolk and attempts to use the power of his position to get the ruling in the case of the broken jug that will best suite him. Because of this fact and of the way he tries to hurry the case along, one wonders how many innocent people he sent to jail or sentenced to death due to his selfishness. At the end of the play, Eve reveals that Judge Adam tried to blackmail Eve into giving him, what I believe to be, sexual favors if she wanted to prevent Ruprecht from fighting in an area where there was a good chance he would be killed. This act by Judge Adam shows how corrupt his position of power has made him.
When he first became a judge, I would not be surprised if Adam put a lot of thought into the cases he oversaw, made rulings based on indisputable evidence, and treated the people around him with respect. As time progressed, however, Adam would have started to see that as a prime figure in the judicial system he had a lot of control over people, had access to fine foods and wine, and could do what he wanted in the village if he was smart about it. For example, if it were not for Walter being given the forged document by Eve, no one would have been able to discern it as a forgery and what is worse is that if Eve somehow were able to prove that it was a fake, who would believe her with the writer in control of the law? The fact is without Walter, Adam would have been able to continue doing what he wanted in “his” village and who knows what kind of evil acts he may have been able to commit.
I like your post. It is easy to assume that Adam had always been a selfish, bloated, immoral buffoon. Adam's life did not begin when the play begins. There was a time before in which he may have been a good, upstanding citizen who dreamed of being a symbol of order and justice. But, I do not believe that Adam's past was alluded to (I watched the video and I may have missed a subtitle or two). So we must take care when making assumptions about that which is not mentioned in the text. Remember when I did the same kind of thing for my post about The Venetian Twins?
ReplyDeleteI agree in that quote you gave by Lord Acton. It reminded me of the Stanford prison experiment, where group of people were gathered. They were assigned the role as being either a prisoner or prison guard. These people assumed their roles, but some of the people acting as guards got too into their roles and ended up actually trying to dictate and abuse the people that acted as prisoners.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I agree with Zach in taking care when making assumptions. Judge Adam could've started out as a decent guy with justice in mind, or he could've weaseled his way into the judge position, like by money or by doing something shady.
An excellent connection, Alice, and an appropriate warning against overgeneralization, both of you. We don't know what Adam was like when he started his appointment as judge, but maybe he came to the position through deception and lies, which seem to be his forte.
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