Death and The Maiden

I really enjoyed Death and The Maiden and found it to be an extremely thought-provoking read. We are introduced to our three characters, Paulina, her husband Gerardo, and Roberto. We discover that Paulina was tortured and raped under the dictatorship the unknown-to-the-reader country was in and she believes Roberto is the man who had raped her. Along with some of my fellow classmates, I believe confession plays a very important role in this piece. As a reader, you feel pathos for Paulina since she experienced torture and rape, very traumatic events. On the other hand, we have the man who is responsible for inflicting both physical and psychological pain and we see how his action has affected him as well. "There can be no worse punishment than that which is imposed upon me by the voice of my conscience" is an extremely powerful phrase taken from the play. It is a super relatable quote in which the reader can identify with and therefore makes his offense seem a little less harsh because we want to believe that he has suffered from the pain he has inflicted on Paulina. Yet at the same time the reader can see how he dramatizes his confession similar to how Rosseau does in his work Confessions.