Study Guide: Ariel Dorfman: Death and the Maiden

Home | Syllabus | Schedule

Death and the Maiden was originally produced in London at The Royal Court Upstairs in 1991. Later, in 1992 it moved to Broadway starring Glenn Close, Richard Dreyfuss, and Gene Hackman. Ariel Dorfman, the playwright lived in exile during the dictatorship and now teaches at Duke University.

Study Questions | Topics for Further Research | Videos | CDs | Internet Resources

Study Questions

1. This play is based on actual facts. Each of the characters, Paulina, Roberto and Gerardo must grapple with the past. Analyze each character carefully and discuss what each represents. Are they social metaphors?

2. In Death and the Maiden art articulates the harsh experience of living under a dictatorship and of its victims. However, the roles of victimizer and victim shift several times throughout the play and between the characters. Is it clear who is the victim and who is the victimizer? What does this shift suggest?

3. Although Dorfman had a clear political intention in writing this play, its open ending and the changing roles of the characters might lessen the impact of the message. What do you think? Or, perhaps is it that Dorfman has achieved his objective of telling a story that is political yet not pamphletary, popular yet daring in its artistic experimentation?

4. Every character is confronted with a dilemma. Explain how they go about resolving it. Are they successful or not?

5. This play requires the active participation of the audience. Look and analyze carefully the stage directions. Explain how the staging is used to achieve the audience's interaction.

Topics for further research

· Although the play is not set in a particular country, it is clear that Dorfman intended to write about Chile. Read and discuss about the 1973 military coup that overthrew Salvador Allende's government and the dictatorship that lasted 17 years. Pay particular attention to the human right abuses during this period.

· What is a "Truth Commission"? What are its goals? Was the Chilean commission successful in achieving its goals or not?

· Read about he role of memory for individual trauma victims. What is the role of memory for the collective in reconstructing a lost or repressed history.

· Listen to Schubert's quartet "Death and the Maiden." Read the poem "Der Tod und das Mädchen" by Matthias Claudius that Schubert set to music.

Look for images of "Death and the Maiden" such as Edvard Munch's sketch and painting by that name. See also the online exhibition from the Munch Museum, Echoes of The Scream, which includes precursor's and echo's of this theme.

Videos-on reserve at Hatfield Library

Death and the Maiden (dir. Roman Polanski,1995, 103 min.) Call no: PN1995.9.S87 D34 1995

Americas: Vol. 5, In Women's Hands: The Changing Roles of Women (WGBH/Annenberg, 1993, 57 min.) Call no.: F1408 .A64 1993 v.5

Chile, Obstinate Memory (In Spanish with English subtitles) (National Film Board of Canada, 1997, 58 min.) Call no.: F3100 .C475 1997

A Force More Powerful: A Century of Nonviolent Conflict: v. 6. Chile: "Defeat of a Dictator" (Films for the Humanities & Sciences, 2000, 34 min.) Call no.: JZ5574 .F67 2000 v. 6

Missing (dir. Costa Gavras, 1988, 122 mins.) Call no: PN1995.9 D7 M4 1988

Threads of Hope (Films for the Humanities & Sciences, 1996, 50 min) Call no.: HQ1236.5.C5 T57 1996

CDs-on reserve at Hatfield Library

"Death and the Maiden" Quartet by Franz Schubert. Call no.: DG 4497462