DOI: 10.47743/jss-2025-71-4-16

Iași Courthouse.

Abstract: The absurd is woven into our world, at times saturating it, shaping its own existence and rules, far from the reach of pragmatic reality and its laws. What is justice, and what is guilt? Who administers justice, and who is condemned? Alfredo Traps, a traveling salesman whose car breaks down, spends the night in the home of Mr. Verge, a retired judge. There he encounters the Judge, the Prosecutor, the Defense Attorney, and Pilet—the executioner. Traps is drawn into a strange parlor game: „Our game consists of reenacting, night after night, our former professions. We play at being a Court”. Gradually, the salesman takes on the role of the Accused—the only role left—and begins to unveil his life, his deeds, his faults. „Can you truly be the judge of your fellow men?” asks Father Zosima in one of the most moving confessions in world literature. The play „Traps” by the Swiss playwright Friedrich Dürrenmatt is built around a central theme—playfully and almost grotesquely framed—Justice and Guilt. Here, justice is carried out through an unusual, personal, and invented system. „Traps” is, above all, a story about how the Judge confronts both the guilt of the man before him and his own. The Judge’s perspective on justice, guilt, and humanity is also masterfully explored by Krzysztof Kieślowski in the film „Red”, part of the magnificent „Three Colors” trilogy. At its center is the story of Joseph Kern, a retired judge. At times, he confides in his young friend Valentine, speaking to her of judicial errors and, above all, the ultimate act of human vanity: deciding what does—or does not— constitute Truth. Therefore, starting from Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s radio play and continuing with the final part of the „Three Colors” trilogy, this study aims to outline two distinct perspectives on justice and guilt—perspectives seen through the eyes of those called to administer justice. These viewpoints are depicted from a distant and unconventional angle, at times unsettling, yet they reflect our world with unflinching clarity.

Keywords: judge, conviction, truth, justice, guilt.

References:

Dürrenmat F., Conversație nocturnă cu un om demn de dispreț, Editura Univers, București, 2021.

Dostoievski F.M, , Frații Karamazov, vol. I, Editura Corint, București, 2014.