Death and the Maiden

Ariel Dorfman's play Death and the Maiden and Roman Polanski's movie of the same name lead the audience to believe that Paulina's accusations. Dorfman's use of sound directions and spare set directions create an atmosphere where the audience must use their imaginations, a technique that Polanski also follows. In this moody and isolated world, the audience comes to accept the man as Paulina's accuser. While Dorfman and Polanski create some doubt about the validity of Paulina's claims, this is cleared up relatively early. Ultimately, Death and the Maiden has a lot to teach us about the ability to forgive while still holding onto important lessons from the past.

Dorfman's play and Roman Polanski's movie share a common plot. They are set in a South American country as a democratic regime takes over from a brutal dictatorship. Paulina is a woman who was repeatedly raped and tortured during the regime, who comes to believe that a man who stumbles onto her home is the man who tortured her in the past. While the general details of the plot remain true between the play and movie, there are important differences as well.

Ariel Dorfman is a Chilean novelist and playwright who was forced into exile after Chile's military coup in 1973. After democracy was restored in Chile in 1990, Dorfman has divided his time between the U.S., his adopted home, and Chile. Death and the Maiden was written in Chile during the summer of 1990, as the country made its difficult transition to democracy. It is the story of Paulina Salas, a woman who kidnaps and tortures a man who she believes was her torturer over 20 years previously (Duke University).

Dorman's play seems to support Paulina's certainty that the man who arrives at her door is the man who tortured her 20 years earlier. Further, Roman Polanski's movie also seems to support Paulina's certainty. However, both the play and novel seriously allow the viewer to entertain the idea that the emergence of the man may have triggered a kind of delayed stress syndrome in Paulina. In other words, the man may indeed not be her accuser. Ultimately, Dorfman's stage directions and Polanski's direction play important roles in establishing the credibility of Paulina's story

In the play, Dorfman's staging is carefully created in order to help increase the audience's interaction with the story. Overall, Dorfman's play is relatively bare of stage directions. Dorfman only gives a number of sound cues, but is relatively spare on details about character's actions and sets. As a result, members of the audience must use their imaginations to imagine the character's actions and even motivations In Dorfman's original play, the active participation of the audience is a key component in the success of the play. This staging allows the audience's imagination to take hold, ultimately encouraging the audience to imagine the man as Paulina's tormenter.

Both Dorfman's play and Polanski's film use sound as an important way to set mood. Dorfman's stage directions rely largely on sound, rather than on specific sets. Sounds set a mood and tone for the isolation of the three main characters, and allow their drama to play out isolated from the rest of the world. The tempest of a storm outside effectively creates the tone for the mad and tempestuous world that the characters inhabit.

Dorfman's original play begins as Paulina is sitting in the living room, and the sound of the sea can be heard. A car approaches, and Paulina gets up and looks out the window. The sound of a car's brakes outside reach her, and the lights from the car illuminate her. Dorfman then describes Paulina getting a gun from a drawer. Similarly, Polanski's movie showcases the sound of the sea and the isolation of the house.

The majority of Dorfman's play is set at Paulina and her husband's home, a setting that is surrounded by nothingness. Dorfman's stage directions note that the house is isolated and remote, and that it is surrounded by sounds like the sea and the wind. Polanski's movie also use the isolation and remoteness of the home to great effect.

The effective use of sound in both the movie and Dorfman's play, and the incredible isolation of the home play a large role in the audience's ability to accept Paulina's certainty as real.

Despite the influence of sound and isolation on legitimizing Paulina's accusations, Dorfman's play and Polanski's book allow the viewer to seriously entertain the idea that Paulina may have indeed made up the story. Certainly, the spooky and isolated setting can also allow the viewer to entertain the idea that the emergence of the man may have triggered a kind of delayed stress syndrome in Paulina. She certainly seems emotionally unstable in many of the scenes, and her credibility is often lacking.

In addition, the influence of the actor playing Paulina can have a great deal of influence on the audience's belief in her accusations. In many spots in Polanski's movie, Sigourney Weaver plays Paulina as tightly wound and unhinged, and greatly unstable. Despite this, Weaver allows Paulina's intelligence, humanity and capability to shine through, creating some credibility and sympathy for the character. Thus, Paulina's credibility rests, in part, on the ability of the actress to establish sympathy for the character

No matter how plausible the disbelief about Paulina's rather extreme accusations, the dramatic movement of the play and movie both strongly suggest that Paulina's accusations are ultimately valid. Paulina is set up to be a credible personality; she is successful and clearly intelligent, though perhaps rightfully disturbed by her past. The question of whether or not the man is her true accuser is answered relatively early, leaving the rest of the play to deal with questions about who has the right to assume guilt, and ultimately take revenge. Eventually, Paulina becomes the torturer, as she pistol-whips and binds the man to a chair, and extracts a confession.

As Dorfman's play reaches its end, it remains a mystery whether or not she eventually killed the doctor. She has demanded a confession from him, in order to put a face to her blame, yet the audience is left to wonder if she has carried out her ultimate revenge. However, in an unexpected final scene, she sees his face in the end at a concert. He is listening to the song that he played while raping and torturing her, and all Paulina can do is stare at his face and finally look away.