Opis: | The thesis Via Mala – family Lauretz – family violence, is an attempt of a restoration of a criminal law system in Switzerland by means of the use of literary texts of John Knittel: Via Mala. The thesis are divided into three parts: the first part presents the violence in the Lauretz family; the second part describes social circumstances after the First World War; and the third part depicts religiousness of the environment as perceived and lived by the Lauretz family. Violence carried out by father Jonas Lauretz upon the family members, led to multiple permanent physical injuries of the members of his family. Jonas Lauretz stood a four-month imprisonment for different offenses, not for an offense of domestic violence; however, the sentence did not discourage him of repeated violence. An event when Jonas Lauretz alienated a high amount of money of his daughter Silveli (that a painter Matias Lauters left to her in his last will) led to a murder. With a help of journeyman, Jori Wagner, son Niclaus murdered his father, whereby he was aided by his sister Hanna and his mother Marta. Sister Silveli, absent at the time of the committed criminal offense, has not committed a sin or an offence on her father. Despite the fact that she did not approve their horrible act she remained solidary with the family members and lied to the investigating authorities in order to help for Jonas Lauretz to be declared missing. Later on, Silveli met an investigating judge Andreas von Richenau and married him, but did not tell him the truth about the disappearance of his father. The matter has entangled when Andreas, by duty, got the acts on Silveli’s father into his hands. During his inquest of the mysterious death of his father-in-law, he discovered inconsistencies in the acts and started to question validity of the stated reasons for his disappearance. He sought the answers to unexplained questions with Silveli. Since she did not want to tell him the truth, he confronted the family with his suspicion and under his pressure Hana broke first and then also Niklaus. He learned about a horrible crime on the father of Lauretz family – patricide. Andreas should have disclosed the crime and brought the perpetrators before a court. The perpetrators would have certainly been condemned. After a long inner struggle with him-self, and in spite of the violation of the principles of professional ethics and a high risk to his personal honor, Andreas decided to help them. He understood that they murdered in self-defense and that they were not dangerous to the human society. He covered-up the case Lauretz through administrative means, by publishing a public proclamation about the disappearance of Jonas Lauretz; he classified the matter ad acta and shelved it into the depths of archives. In this way he saved the Lauretz family from severity of the law.
In the second part of the thesis, I analyzed a harsh atmosphere in the time after the First World War. This was a time of the global economic crisis, in the spirit of which the novel Via Mala is written. The crisis has been reflected in the field of economic as well as political and moral life of the population of Switzerland.
In the third part of the thesis I outlined religious nature of the Lauretz family reflected through the novel. The fact that they were almost the only protestants throughout the province and thus had lots of enemies, reflected itself also in the life of the children of Lauretz family. |
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