Law and Literature – Part IV

I believe I came into the world to write and tell what I see.

Naipaul

Law and Literature: A Reflection of Society

Literature has always been a key tool for reflecting society, whether real or imaginary, and cannot avoid showing the law that defines it. Law and literature are intimately connected, like communicating vessels. In representing a society, law is present, influenced by it.

Capitalism and Law in Literature

Classic works such as The Red and the Black or The Charterhouse of Parma by Stendhal, portray the social tensions of emerging capitalism and the industrial bourgeoisie. These novels show the contradictions between the old aristocratic power and the reforms that the law cannot ignore, highlighting both the benefits and the problems of this new social order.

The Dark Side of the American Dream

In addition to reflecting progress, literature has also shown the negative side of capitalism. Novels such as Franz Kafka’s America narrate the struggle of immigrants to obtain civil rights in the face of an incomprehensible legal system. Here, law becomes a tool of oppression, a recurring theme in Kafka’s work.

Immigrant Law and Life in New York City

Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn explores the plight of immigrants in the United States, where informal neighborhood rules often clash with formal law. The novel raises an interesting debate about the hierarchy of norms and the tension between formal laws and “local” rights.

Isaac Bashevis Singer, in Shadows on the Hudson, also narrates the legal difficulties faced by Jewish immigrants in New York, confronted with abusive clauses in adhesion contracts. The work demonstrates that law is not a neutral set of rules, but a reflection of social tensions.

Women and Law in Literature

Jane Austen’s novels, such as Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility, expose the legal limitations women faced in marriage and inheritance. Through these stories, women’s dependence on men to ensure their economic security is reflected.

On the other hand, in Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina or Gorky’s The Mother, the vulnerability of women and the working classes in an industrial society is analyzed. These works offer a social and legal critique that is still relevant today.

Indebtedness and Succession in Literature

The theme of debt and its consequences is recurrent in many 19th century novels. Flaubert’s Madame Bovary and Tolstoy’s War and Peace address how indebtedness leads to ruin and how legal relationships, such as buying and selling and inheritance, reflect the social and economic tensions of the time.