The Madman · Chapter
War explained
A thief loses an eye while attempting to rob a weaver's shop and demands justice.
What happens
A thief loses an eye while attempting to rob a weaver's shop and demands justice. The prince orders the weaver's eye removed, but the weaver argues that he needs both eyes for his trade and suggests the cobbler, who has two eyes, should lose one instead. The prince complies, and the cobbler's eye is taken, satisfying the demand for justice.
Themes in this chapter
Critique of Society and Religion
The prince's mechanical application of 'an eye for an eye' leads to an innocent man losing his eye, exposing the absurdity and cruelty of blind justice.
Illusion and Reality
The thief mistakes the weaver's shop for the money-changer's, and the weaver's claim that the cobbler's trade requires fewer eyes creates a distorted sense of fairness.
Characters to notice
- The Madman
The narrator recounts a tale of flawed justice, observing the absurdity of how punishment is transferred from the guilty to the innocent.
Key passages
“O prince, I am by profession a thief, and this night, because there was no moon, I went to rob the money-changer’s shop, and as I climbed in through the window I made a mistake and entered the weaver’s shop, and in the dark I ran into the weaver’s loom and my eye was plucked out.”
The thief explains that he accidentally entered the weaver's shop instead of the money-changer's and lost his eye on the loom.
The thief's error sets off a chain of misplaced blame.
“O prince, the decree is just. It is right that one of my eyes be taken. And yet, alas! both are necessary to me in order that I may see the two sides of the cloth that I weave. But I have a neighbour, a cobbler, who has also two eyes, and in his trade both eyes are not necessary.”
The weaver accepts the punishment but argues that the cobbler, who needs only one eye for his work, should be the one to lose an eye.
The weaver deflects punishment onto an innocent third party, revealing the flawed logic of the justice system.