Monday, April 7, 2014
Response to Death and the Maiden
Death and the Maiden by Ariel Dorfman is about a woman named Paulina, who was taken and raped by an unnamed doctor, finds herself in his midst years later. Only, her paranoia takes over the situation, and it is never clear whether or not, Dr. Miranda is truly at fault for the rape. Although, I'm curious to know if her paranoia and perverse thoughts is the result of the trauma she faced through rape and capture during political tyranny. It brings back the idea of experiencing so much pain that the idea of the world through your eyes is changed after so much physical or psychological torture. We saw this in "The Wall" by Sartre, when Pablo's psychological torture changed his idea about life and death and the emptiness of it all. In Death and the Maiden, we, as well as Paulina's husband, find it as a reader hard to believe Paulina's story because of the psychological trauma that she faced through the rape. The idea became warped when physical torture was introduced into Paulina's storyline. Had she not, we may have been more inclined to believe her.
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Great post, Katie! I really liked how you tied in our reading of Sartre's "The Wall." I think it is a really good point to bring up her psychological state of mind. Although she seems like she knows what she is talking about in the play, she could be creating a story in her mind. Someone who has had any type of psychological trauma should be carefully looked at (in terms of honesty) through the eyes of the reader. We should take everything she says and question it, to be critical readers.
ReplyDeleteGood points by both of you! Often I feel like people take psychological torture much less seriously than physical torture because we feel that it is much less pain and suffering and more easily recovered from since there is no actual physical harm done. However, it is often the case, such as in Death and the Maiden, that psychological harm is much more traumatizing than physical harm, and it affects the victim far more. Paulina is clearly horribly traumatized by the psychological effects of her rape, especially since there was a physical torture as well. This is seen also in The Wall, when Pablo snaps and possibly goes crazy solely from the psychological circumstances of his imprisonment and release.
ReplyDeleteGood point. I think Avelar's commentary about Death and the Maiden answers a lot of your questions (although you may or may not agree with her points.) Avelar argues that because of the theatricality of the film and the need for the audience to remain interested, the director tells a story in a way that keeps us guessing about the truth behind Paulina's statements. I agree with Avelar in the way that such a spin really makes us question the sanity of all victims of torture, which isn't helpful since victims are the only ones that really understand the pain of their torture. I think that regardless of the physical torture, we would not be inclined to believe a victim of torture: the physical pain is what makes it "legitimate" to many people and the psychological torture is what in turn makes their narrative illegitimate.
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