Establishing identity and a communication line creates new exploitable threat value

Evidence

Angelo’s only interest in torturing the brother is in what he may gain by making a threat to do so; once there is somebody available to whom the threat can profitably be communicated, the possibility of torture has value for Angelo—not the torture itself, but the threatening of it. The sister has gotten negative value out of her trip; having identified her interest and made herself available to receive the threatening message, she has been forced to suffer what she would not have had to suffer if she had never made her identity known or if she could have disappeared into the crowd before the threat was made. — Thomas C. Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict, 326

Categorization

• BMF: Jean Valjean… no. Regarding the exact library: this echoes Edmond Dantès’s vulnerability… not in list. Strongly evokes the hostage-threat dynamic the reader maps to Godfather-bonds in The Godfather — how the state’s failure turns a threat into leverage, exactly Puzo’s Don operating through threatening made credible by identification.
• XREF: The Measure for Measure scene is the Shakespearean template for how identification enables a threat to have value — the same mechanism the reader traces in The Godfather’s private enforcement. — connects to: Obscure symbolic threats minimize exposure while maximizing terror; Hostages and shared vulnerability render agreements self-enforcing — Thomas C. Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict, 313; Extortion and threats require a communication channel to the intended victim. — Thomas C. Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict, 338 (+2 more)