Breaking boundaries of moral evil in Michael Kohlhaas

Abstract

Ricoeur (1988) tells us that the concept of evil is a problem that goes through the centuries, due to its need for logical consistency. Already discussed its origin, its causes and its effects, but never came to a term that would eliminate the contradiction at its core. In this space, the literary works of Heinrich von Kleist (1777-1811) present a theme that includes a break of boundaries between the concepts of evil and goodness developed during the Aufklärung, highlighting this problem. This break seems to be strongly associated with the relationship between the "I" and the chaotic world in which it is inserted, resulting in a complexity of the sources of moral evil that dilutes the boundaries between good and evil and lead us to challenge these tight limits. Therefore, we try to demonstrate in this paper what this boundary break is made of and how the composition of a reality guided by mistakes integrates Kleist's literary universe, especially in the work Michael Kohlhaas.