Comparison of Seinfeld's Jacket and the Greek play Acharnians

Jerry of Seinfeld's The Jacket and Dicaeopolis of Acharnians are both characters in these scripts that offer comic relief through a challenging situation. Jerry buys his expensive jacket in order to increase his self-confidence and feel good. He is going to meet Elaine's difficult dad and desires that a peaceful meeting ensue. The jacket ends up getting ruined, which seems to say that true confidence and happiness can't be bought or is only temporary. Dicaeopolis desires peace as well, but with the war between Sparta and the Athenians. He also involves monetary items to invoke a peaceful trade between neighboring peoples and a place of peace where all can go and escape from the hassles of war. But in the end, the Athenian's general dies and Dicaeopolis merely gets drunk and shows how ignoring the war is no more effective than fighting it in efforts for peace.

Both Jerry and Dicaeopolis don't just have futile attempts at happiness. The comedy in the plays add a blameless quality to each character, creating compassion and sympathy for their strained efforts. It draws us into the characters' predicaments and through our sympathy, we not only desire the success of the characters' efforts, but are prepared to forgive them for failing. The comedy humbles the characters and makes them into real people who have faults. Real people trying to make light of a heavy situation. With a demonstrated humility, we can relate to these characters more easily.

The faults of the characters is what makes them so engaging. Jerry has a weakened self-confidence and he admits to it. We admire his ability to be honest with himself and become intrigued with how he is going to solve his problem. It is easy to like someone who is not threatening to us or who "shows their guts." If we can like a character, we will be interested in whatever they do. If they are arrogant, mean, rude, etc. without a clear comedic effect, we don't care about the desires, hopes, or dreams of the character. At that point, their story is merely that, just a story, and not made real by our interest in them. For instance, Dicaeopolis is sarcastic in his comments and constantly mimics Lamachus and the other authorities, but because we understand his desire for peace and feel his frustrations with the "orderly" bumbling authoritarians, we feel relief from his comedic outlet of emotion. We do not get to know the authorities or militia at all, so it is easy to dislike them as Dicaeopolis does.

In both stories, there is also a lot of pending drama. Dicaeopolis seems to always be on the verge of either death or punishment, therefore every effort he makes to entertain or stall his opponents is carefully noticed by us as we wait in anticipation of his success. A success we are hoping he will succeed in since we know him and like him. Jerry also has dramas that are pressing moments for him. When they are at dinner and run off to the bathroom, what will Jerry and George do to escape the dreaded personality conflicts with Elaine's dad? And when Jerry must brave the snow, will he decide to ruin his jacket (sense of self) or risk a conflict with Benes? Whatever the characters' decisions, we are invested in their success. If they fail, we want to know how they handle that too, so really a writer can write most anything if they can get their characters to sway the audience's sympathies enough!

Another key element that makes the plays engaging is the use of opposition. If the characters never have anyone to oppose them or their beliefs, the plays would lack depth and be boring. In addition, if characters are too perfect, we would not only find them unrealistic, we would not relate with them, thereby not feel any emotion for them. Jerry needs Benes, just as Dicaeopolis needs his authorities so that we can chose the one we favor. Of course, since we know little about the opposition, we are actually manipulated into rooting for Jerry and Dicaeopolis. It's much easier to like characters who have "the whole world against them," than to like characters just for the sake of liking them.

Another interesting feature is that futility is almost more interesting than success. Both Jerry and Dicaeopolis fail in the end. Jerry ruins his jacket and Dicaeopolis gets numb drunk with no mention of peace in the war. However, they both go through a transformation, even if we don't see it directly on screen. Perhaps Jerry gives in to his fate after he doesn't impress Benes by giving his jacket away to Kramer with no complaints. He might have learned it was stupid to use a jacket to boost his esteem. Dicaeopolis, on the other hand, realizes he cannot stop a war, therefore celebrates that he is still alive, even though he continues to see death around him. Without some kind of transformation, the play would feel incomplete or we would feel a sense of wasted-time by the end. Even though some situations in life are incomplete, we like to see characters that try their hardest to deal with their situations and come to resolutions and conclusions.