Theme of Revenge in the Death and the Maiden

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Revenge

After the incident, Paulina was left living in terror and fright for the fifteen years after. This is shown by her constant agitation throughout the play. For example, in the opening scene she seems very paranoid after she hears a car coming towards her house. ‘Paulina hides the gun away. She stands behind the curtains.” The incident has been keeping her in this state for fifteen years and this shows that she has been longing for revenge ever since. To prove this, she remembers the exact words that were promised by Gerado when he swore to get revenge on the men that raped her, if they find them. “Some day my love, were going to place these bastards in trial.” This shows that it was a case that haunted her memories and is engraved in her memory.  

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After she caught him, she gives him a small feeling of what she felt during the torture, by putting him in the same situation as her. At the beginning of act 2, she makes him realise how powerless he is and that she has all the control over him, the same way he was with her, “…but in here, for now, I’m in command…” She continuously hints at what he did to her. “..beats drinking your own piss doesn’t it?” By telling them this and proving that she is in command, it is mostly clear that Paulina wishes for revenge ...

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