Compare and contrast the theme of 'revenge' and its after-effect in Isabel Allende's 'House of Spirits' and Ariel Dorfman's 'D

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Bittu Kri, IB-2 2005-06        World Literature essay                

Compare and contrast the themes of justice and revenge and its after-effect in Isabel Allende’s ‘House of the Spirits’ and Ariel Dorfman’s ‘Death and the Maiden’.

‘House of the Spirits’ serves as a paradigm of a novel based on magical realism. It is an amalgamation of real life events, magical events, a family saga and cyclicality of life. Written by a Chilean journalist and author Isabel Allende in the year 1982, it has several semblances with contemporary Chilean writer Ariel Dorfman’s ‘Death and the Maiden’ written in the year 1992. ‘Death and the maiden’ is a stimulating drama combining theatricality with clear thought and fierce compassion. It is set in a country that has recently returned to democracy. Both of the writers were successful in unzipping their thoughts and motifs through different ways of literary work. The time period in Isabel Allende’s novel stretches for about four generations but Dorfman’s play is confined to just a few days. Inspite of the differences in genres of literature they have several similarities in the matter presented. Political upheaval, women’s role, power of writing, revenge, justice, affinity to the real life and its cyclical nature can be seen in both the works. The themes of revenge and justice are quite clear in both  ‘House of the Spirits’ and ‘Death and the Maiden’. The most obvious acts of revenge in 'House of the Spirits’ are Esteban Trueba and Esteban Garcia’s revenge. In case of 'Death and the Maiden’ it is based completely on the concept of justice and revenge.

The revenge that Esteban Garcia exacts on Alba for what her grandfather did to his grandmother, in ‘House of the Spirits’, leads Alba to write her testimony and continue the thread of writing about their long family saga spanning over four generations, which Clara the clairvoyant, had started. In ‘Death and the Maiden’ Paulina Escobar kidnapped Dr. Miranda and instead of any physical abuse, forced him to write a testimony and to confess his guilt in front of a recorder, about physically torturing her when she was imprisoned some fifteen years ago. There is an obvious difference in the acts of Paulina and Esteban Garcia but the thing to be noted here is the theme of justice. Garcia’s concept of justice was a true revenge or an eye for an eye whereas; Paulina’s concept of justice was the fulfilment of her desire, her desire of confession of Dr. Miranda.

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Unlike 'Death and the Maiden' theme of revenge and justice is not the main motif of 'House of the Spirits’, however we see events of revenge in several points throughout the novel. The significance of revenge can be seen in 'House of the Spirits' quite vividly as Allende even titled the sixth chapter of the novel ‘Revenge’. After learning of Blanca’s pregnancy, Esteban seeks revenge on Pedro Tercero. This revenge of esteban Trueba on Pedro Tercero is the most obvious source of the chapter’s title. Nevertheless, this chapter has a shrouded revenge to be taken in the future too. ...

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