The Broken Jug and Aspects of Comedy

The Broken Jug is a comedy that depicts the social corruption throughout communities and the legal system.  During the play, various circumstances point to different characters and their immorality.  The scandalous affairs that take place show the downfall of the legal system.  Instead of a traditionally noble character for a judge, Von Kleist chooses a morally corrupt hypocrite.  Adam is both the judge and the criminal.  He judges others but then acts dishonestly himself.  The broken jug is the main symbol throughout the play.  The jug can represent the loss of Eve’s virginity and the low morals of all involved.  However, I also thought it could represent the community as a whole and the cracks are the selfishness of the people and the downfall of morality in general.  Without the broken jug, they never would have made it to court and none of the events would have taken place.

To me, it didn’t seem much like a comedy at first, but there are many things that point us in that direction upon further investigation.  In a previous class, we talked about how the argument of comedy was to point out the flaws in people and show their lack of knowledge.   Here, Von Kleist shows how Adam is morally corrupt by pointing out his flaws as a judge.  He is supposed to be someone who can be looked up to with noble morals, but instead he is seen as a suspicious character that turns out to have some questionable moral values.  He knows he is the one who broke the jug, but he does everything he can to point suspicion in the other direction.  Also, the absurd way things happen help us point out the comedy in the play.  Adam acts so rashly and hectically that it becomes funny to the audience.