The Beaver Coat: Wulkow in the Court

            August Phillip Wulkow: he is the character who paid for illegally hunted deer and a stolen coat. However, the author Gerhart Hauptmann wrote the story so that Wulkow would not be caught in the end along with Mrs. Wolff and her husband, but Hauptmann also allowed Wulkow to return in the play during the courthouse scene, where he was trying to register his newborn daughter. Hauptmann could’ve written the play where Wulkow actually got away and went up the canal with his boat and still have the play end with the same unsolved crime. Why did Hauptmann write the play so as to have Wulkow return in the end and not get caught? The main reason would be to support the irony of the final act.

For example, in the courthouse scene, Von Wehrhahn is able to utilize Wulkow to testify against Fleischer’s claim of seeing a boatman with Krueger’s stolen beaver coat. Wulkow said, “There’s plenty [boatmen], I can tell ya, that’s got the finest beaver coats. And why not? We all make enough money (pg.213).” Because Von Wehrhahn doesn’t know that Wulkow is involved in illegal activities, the dramatic irony here is to poke fun of his archetype (a judge who is supposed to have authority and high intelligence).

            Another example would be for Wulkow to reveal to the audience that his baby girl was recently born. Of all things Hauptmann would have Wulkow come to the courthouse for, he chose the birth of a child. A baby’s birth sometimes represents innocence, purity, goodness. Perhaps, Hauptmann wrote it like this to add to the irony in that Wulkow (a man who engaged in criminal activity) is given the wonderful event of the birth of his child: a criminal rewarded such a wonderful event (situational irony)!

            Thus, Wulkow’s role in appearing in the final act was to support the irony in this scene, which satirizes the justice system in this play. (Satirizing the justice system is another topic I could talk about… but that would make this post even longer. Sorry!)