The Concept of Justice in Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s The Pledge
The question of “What is justice?” has been examined since the time of Plato. In his work The Republic, Plato defines justice as harmony and order among the different parts of an individual’s soul and also among the various classes in society. According to him, if each class in a society properly fulfills its designated role, that society will be just. The question of justice has continued to be a central theme in many literary works after Plato, with authors offering different interpretations. One such writer is the Swiss author Friedrich Dürrenmatt, who placed this question at the heart of his novella The Pledge.
In The Pledge, the pursuit of justice is represented by a promise made by the main character, detective Matthäi, to the mother of a murdered girl named Gritli Moser. The promise – to find the murderer – becomes an obsession for Matthäi and gradually consumes his life, pulling him away from a normal existence and social relationships. Eventually, after years of relentless effort, a bitter truth is revealed: the killer had died long ago, and Matthäi’s quest was ultimately in vain.
This essay explores how Dürrenmatt addresses the question of justice in The Pledge.
Justice, in the form of Matthäi’s vow to the victim’s mother, becomes the driving force of his life. As the story progresses, his obsession deepens while justice becomes increasingly elusive. The first path the novella explores is the involvement of the police and legal system. After a brief investigation, the police arrest a vagrant named von Gunten. However, the narrative soon makes it clear to the reader that he is not the real killer:
“I said that police power has its limits, and should have them. Everything is possible—even the most improbable, but we must begin where there is some probability. I said we cannot say von Gunten is certainly guilty, in fact, we can never say that, but we can say he is probably guilty.”
Thus, Dürrenmatt presents the police and legal apparatus not only as ineffective in establishing justice but even as one of the reasons crimes occur:
“Crime always happens – not because of the lack of police, but precisely because there is police. If there were no need for us, there would be no crime.”
The second level introduces the idea of personal responsibility. Can one individual’s sense of duty bring about justice? Matthäi’s responsibility becomes evident when he chooses not to accept a promotion and instead stays in his hometown to continue the investigation. His decision is prompted by a moment at the airport:
“When he reached the airplane, the other passengers were already aboard. The stewardess reached out to take his boarding card, but the inspector turned away again. He looked at the crowd of children waving with joy and longing at the ready-for-takeoff airplane. The inspector said, ‘Ma’am, I’m not flying,’ and returned to the terminal.”
The third level is time. By showing the prolonged duration of Matthäi’s investigation, the novella raises the question: Can justice be achieved over time? The answer appears early in the story when we are shown an image of the aged Matthäi:
“When we reached the Opel Kapitän, we turned back once more; the old man had clenched fists and was shaking them, speaking to himself, a few words aloud. There was a strange light of belief in his face: ‘I’ll wait. He will come. He’ll come eventually.’”
Time, too, is not a factor that ensures justice.
The fourth layer involves fate. It is revealed to the reader, though not to Matthäi, that the real killer had already died:
“I read in the paper that a girl had been murdered in St. Gallen, probably with a razor blade. Then I remembered that last night Albertli had been cleaning his razor in the bathroom, even though he always shaved in the mornings. Suddenly, I realized, like a revelation, and I became very serious with dear Albertli and asked: ‘Albertli, am I right? You killed the girl in St. Gallen?’ Albertli stopped eating his eggs, bread, jam, and pickles, and said, ‘Yes, Mommy. I had to. A voice from beyond told me to.’”
Soon after, we learn that the killer had died long ago. This fatalistic turn directly correlates with the disappearance of justice. In this story, justice is never achieved. The harder Matthäi tries, the further it drifts away – until it disappears entirely.
Another question posed in the novel is whether justice can be achieved through inhumane means and by exploiting others. When Matthäi fails to find the killer, he decides to open a gas station as a trap, reasoning that the murderer must pass this road on the way to Zurich and will likely stop there. Matthäi even brings a woman and her child to live at the station. He explains his reasoning to the police chief as follows:
“He calmly replied, ‘Anyone who wants to travel from Graubünden to Zurich, unless they want to take a detour through the Oberalp pass, must pass this road.’
I said, ‘That girl is bait.’ And I was horrified.
Matthäi replied, ‘Her name is Annemarie.’
I said, ‘Now I know who she resembles. She looks exactly like Gritli Moser, the murdered girl.’”
Matthäi finds a little girl who resembles the previous victim and places her in danger, hoping to catch the killer and bring justice. Through this action, he even draws conclusions about the murderer’s behavior. This “success” reflects Dürrenmatt’s perspective that the pursuit of justice may sometimes involve morally questionable methods, and the path to justice is not always legal, sacred, or pure.
The theme of justice also manifests in the form of the narrative. In The Pledge, the classical structure of the detective story is deliberately broken. There is no “hero” figure in the traditional sense; the killer is never caught before his death, and the narrative’s internal and external orders do not align. This breakdown of form serves as a symbol for the collapse of an absolute or ideal concept of justice. Unlike Plato’s philosophical structure – where justice arises from order and harmony –Dürrenmatt’s novel depicts a disordering of the detective genre and portrays justice as bordering on meaninglessness.
Ultimately, Dürrenmatt’s answer to the question of justice is fundamentally different from Plato’s. While Plato defines justice as a state of harmony and balance, Dürrenmatt focuses on the complexities and contradictions involved in its implementation in the real world. This contrast clearly illustrates that justice, in Plato’s world, is idealistic and order-driven, but in Dürrenmatt’s world, it is chaotic, unjust, and corrupted by human flaws and institutional failure. In Platonic thought, justice can and should be realized in a well-organized society, whereas in The Pledge, the quest for justice not only fails but also disrupts Matthäi’s life and leads to his personal ruin.
The Pledge was translated into Persian by Mahmoud Hosseinizad and published by Nashr-e-Mahi.