In the play, The Broken Jug, viewers can't help but notice the significance of the judge's name, especially when they learn of the maiden's name too. Adam and Eve are names that are not paired together accidentally. What are the significance of these two names?
First, there is Adam. The name comes from the Bible with as Adam the first man created by God. Due to Adam's mistake in eating from the Tree of knowledge of good and evil, mankind, today and in times past, has been condemned to a life full of suffering and sin. Licht, the court clerk, pokes fun at the coincidental relationship between Judge Adam's fall and Adam the first man's fall. "Adam's first fall was into bed, not out!" Licht's statement leads the audience to believe that not only does he already know what Judge Adam has been up to the night before, he fully understands and is amused by the irony of the sinful judge's name.
The name Eve is also significant when looked at in a Biblical context. Biblical Eve, the world's first woman, causes Biblical Adam to sin, coaxing him the the fruit of the Tree, though Biblical Eve was only convinced to do so because of listening to a serpent in the Garden of Evil. However, Eve the maiden does not appear to have done anything wrong in the play, although it could be argued Eve tempted Judge Adam simply by being so beautiful. This should be no fault of her own, because it is not a sin to be beautiful and certainly not her fault Judge Adam is creepy enough to try to take advantage of her using his high position. Eve's only sin the play is lying, but she only lies because she is afraid of Judge Adam's threats to murder her fiance. Unlike the Biblical Adam and Eve, Judge Adam and maiden Eve are not a pair linked in friendly companionship, but are only linked through Adam's evil hold he has over her obtained by threats. So unlike the Biblical story, the fault in the play lies more with Adam being the cause of sin than Eve.
Another character in the play has a name of significance. Licht, Adam's court clerk, has a name that mean "light." Licht's light comes from his knowledge of Judge Adam's sinful secret, as viewers can guess from his teasing of Adam at the beginning of the play and hints dropped throughout the trial of the broken jug that Licht knows all about Adam's activities of the previous night. However, untrue to his name, Licht does not choose to shine light upon the situation in the courtroom; rather, he chooses to keep silent and watch the awkward struggle of Judge Adam trying to keep his terrible misdeeds a secret. Licht chooses to let Adam out his own awful secret in loo of giving Adam away himself.
So though the names of the play are significant and ties might be made to other sources containing the same names, they do not exactly mirror the stories from which the names might be pulled.
Great post!! But I have to disagree about Eve. She was going to let Judge Adam bear false witness that Ruprecht was sick to keep him from going to war. Maybe I am being a little hard on her, but a person with integrity usually tells the truth.
ReplyDeleteCarol, I'm interested to hear more in class about your opinion of Eve. You have a very clear sense of right/wrong, though part of me feels that Eve is in a double-bind, Catch 22 situation: she tries to avoid the courtroom and the lawsuit by begging Ruprecht to speak to her and by trying to hold her tongue. This is a great topic for debate and we'll talk more about it in class!
DeleteI do find it interesting that the names don't fit the classical roles associated with the names themselves. I, too, was thinking about Licht's name being ironic, as it seemed he was doing more to keep the "light" to himself than to share it during the proceeding. Eve's temptation wasn't of her own fault, and her lie was certainly "excusable" by comparison to the severity of Judge Adam's series of untruths. So, Adam is hardly led to his sin by the actions of Eve, Eve turns out to not be a temptress, Licht is more like darkness, but is there any significance with any of the other characters? I'm not sure, off hand.
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