The Scoundrel: Der Schurke

Walter Benjamin's "Fate and Character" introduces a cast of eclectic characters. The final character, the Comic—otherwise known as the Scoundrel—is loved on the stage but despised in the world. This character study attempts to catch Benjamin's Scoundrel, who shadows the others, revealing layered concepts of character. The others ground their character in a tragic moral order that condemns the poor to uphold the authority of the Law. The Scoundrel, lacking character altogether, breaks from tragedy by scandalously exposing the moral world order as fiction, and fate as farce.