“The Betrothal in Santo
Domingo” was an interesting short story in many ways. Initially, I was taken by the description of the situation in
Haiti during the revolution. The former
black slaves were on a campaign to exterminate the all white people. The group described in this story was Congo
Hoanga, who was an extremely violent warlord who killed his master and took
over his plantation. Not only does he
go on excursions to slaughter fellow humans, he also uses the old woman and
Toni to deceive whites who come to the door while he is away. Toni is to use her beauty to keep them there
until they can be ambushed. The
campaign is reminiscent of that described in de las Casa’s writings, the
systematic slaughter of a helpless race of people. Their power had come from money, but once the revolt began, money
could not save them.
The
other interesting part is the similarity to Shakespeare, specifically Romeo and
Juliet. In Kleist’s story, Toni and
Gustav, from two different “families” fell in love. But because of the current situation, they could not be together
and Gustav was in fatal danger. In her
attempt to save Gustav, she had to tie him up, thus appearing to betray
him. When Gustav’s family came to
rescue him, he shot her with his pistol to prevent her from betraying him
again. When he discovered his error and
her love, he shot himself because he could not live with two loved ones being
murdered because of his actions. Thus
the two star-crossed lovers will be together in the end, just like
Shakespearian tragedies.
One strong motif used in
Heinrich Von Kleist’s “The Bethrothal of Santo Domingo” is color.
In particular white, black and yellow.
At first glance the obvious connection you make is that white represents
good and black represents the bad and for about ninety percent of the story
that is true. But I believe that Kleist
really makes his statement in the end and as part of this statement he blurs
the lines of color completely out of focus.
The
story takes place on a limited scale within a larger conflict between black and
white. Essentially as the story unfolds
it becomes apparent that the line between the good and the bad is also the line
between the black and white characters in the story. Representing the good are people like Gustav, Heir Stromli and
Stromli’s party. On the side of the bad
lies Babekan, Congo Hoango and his followers.
However where the issue become more complex is in the person of
Toni. Toni is described as yellow in a
blatant attempt to distance herself from the rest of the “black” people. Yellow is used as a way to put her sort of
in between the two groups which is perfectly accurate for the majority of the
story. During the course of events of
the story Toni kind of goes back and forth between sides mentally.
The
story really comes together and makes it’s point at the very end. The ending while I saw it coming early on it’s
still the heart of the message within the story. It also bears some resemblance and made me think of “Romeo and
Juliet” and really when you think about it the message is kind of the
same. In the end Gustav blindly kills
Toni who is really his savior and hero.
Kleis delivers a message that color or creed is not so important as a
persons ability to reason. Kleis’
writing is said to often have a theme relating to reason and this was no
different. The moment when Gustav
stopped thinking with his head and just reacted unthinking in the moment he
lost his love. In the end it was not
Toni’s color that mattered it was the power of her mind and her heart that
ended up keeping everybody safe. The
real moral of the story is that reason above all else should govern your
decisions because if you act on prejudice or emotion your judgement lies in
question.