In Death and The Maiden, Paulina's struggle is symbolic of the struggle of oppressed nations all over the world. What is the message that Dorfman is trying to express through her? To what extent is he successful?

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Paulina’s struggle is symbolic of the struggle of oppressed nations all

over the world. What is the message that Dorfman is trying to express

through her? To what extent is he successful?

Chile, an oppressed nation, held in fear for fifteen years. Like many others in the country, Paulina Salas was tortured for weeks, and for fifteen years she has not been able to accept the crimes done to her and has therefore not been able to move on with her life. Death and the Maiden starts of with Paulina hiding when she hears an unfamiliar sound, which immediately makes the audience wonder why she has that fear. Throughout the play the audience is introduced to the situation where Paulina was raped and tortured fifteen years ago during Pinochet’s rule. Through the kidnapping of her oppressor and forcing a confession out of him, Paulina represents the wishes of all the others in her situation, as she takes action to gain justice for herself. Dorfman brings out the message of firstly, forgiving and forgetting, which is portrayed through her conflict with not only Roberto, but also Gerardo. Secondly he brings out the message of revenge compared to self justice, which is shown to the audience through Paulina’s debate throughout the play as to whether she kills Roberto or not, as well as through her interaction with Gerardo.

In Death and The Maiden, Dorfman introduces the situation where

Paulina has kidnapped her oppressor, and is now holding him in her house, tied to a chair. By the end of the play, the audience knows that she wants to kill him, as at the end of Act III, Scene 1, she states that nothing will be lost if one of the men who committed such crimes is killed. “What do we lose? What do we lose by killing just one of them? What do we lose? What doe we lose?”(Act III, Scene I, pg 44) What the audience doesn’t know is whether or not she actually killed him because Dorfman leaves us with a very ambiguous ending. Paulina struggles to move on, which is shown through her irrational behaviour as she kidnaps Roberto, and she speaks about how she can not ever listen to Schubert again because of the memories and pain it brings back. Also the fact that she talks about being ‘vulnerable again’, and Gerardo having to ‘take care of me all over again’(Act I, Scene I, pg5), shows that there is something holding her back, and making her feel uncomfortable with those who died having justice done. Because she is not having justice done, and because she has not gained revenge on her oppressor until now, Paulina acts irrationally and does something drastic, kidnapping Roberto, in order find some way to get a balance in getting revenge and justice. In these ways, Paulina represents not only those in Chile who have been through what she has, but all the other oppressed nations in the world. These signs of her struggle shows her representing the wishes and ideas of all those in her position. However, these are not the only signs of her struggle. “I want him to confess. I want him to sit in front of that cassette recorder and tell me what he did-not just to me, everything, to everybody-and then have him write it out…and I would keep a copy forever.”(Act II, Scene I, pg 28) Paulina shows to the audience, the extent of her desperation to have something to help her to move forward. The fact that she wants Roberto to confess, the fact that she wants a copy on tape and handwritten copy to keep, shows the audience that even a simple act such as this is going to help her. It shows the audience that she is so desperate to have something to hold onto, to help her let go.

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Paulina also has a situation with Gerardo, which holds her back, and which keeps her from killing Roberto throughout the play. The audience learns that Paulina was taken because her oppressors wanted to know Gerardo’s name, but she never gave it to him. When they finally let her go, she went back home, and finds Gerardo with another woman. When the play commences, Paulina has a very strange conversation with Gerardo, which brings up questions in the audiences mind as to what to expect. “Was she pretty at least? Sexy…Why do you always have to suppose there’s a woman… Why ...

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