Female Sexuality in The Broken Jug

Heinrich von Kleist's, "The Broken Jug," offers audiences great insight into the cultural significance of women's sexuality--specifically their virginity in the 18th century in culturally German areas. As someone else mentioned in their post--the actual broken jug can be interpreted as the loss of Eve's virtue. If the virtue of women was not so highly treasured in this culture, I would have interpreted the broken jug as the crumbling judicial system or the vices of humanity.

 I believe that the reason Frau Martha argues so vehemently with Judge Adam is because she represents the conservative percentage of the population, attempting to uphold traditional Germanic values in the face of Judge Adam's corruption and in light of the nocturnal activities her daughter has recently been involved in:

 “Forgive me, no, at night. I’d put out the light, when I hear men’s voices in my daughter’s room. A terrible row! Like the devil himself had broke in! I hurry down the steps, and there’s her door, smashed in by force, and angry voices inside. And when I light the lamp, I find my jug here smashed to bits, and the girl wringing her hands, and him, that lout, blustering there in the room.”

Unmarried women were expected to maintain their chaste status throughout Europe during this time because of reinforced Christian-influenced, patriarchal values, and Frau Martha was prepared fight for her daughter’s virtue. Just like the broken jug, Eve was considered less appealing and practically worthless, especially to her suitor, Ruprecht, once it had been perceived that she had been violated by Adam. Essentially, in the pseudo-Dutch/German society presented in "The Broken Jug," unwed women had to maintain their virginity and chaste attitudes in order to maintain their social standing and self worth. 
           Kleist understood the general ideas and socio-political norms that prevailed in Germanic society at this time, and he wrote to an audience who would appreciate the plot twists and turns, as well as the symbols interwoven into "The Broken Jug." Luckily for the characters, this is a light-hearted comedy so Eve and Ruprecht have their happy ending with neither shame nor conscription to the East Indies. 

The Broken Jug: The Significance of Names

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.