Introduction
Being a world-renowned political activist Arial Dorfman has created a play that helped him to reveal the lasting impact of military aggression and torture on the individual. Ghosts of the Chilean General Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship carried over the Death and the Maiden. They made the readers become witnesses of the rights abuses under the rule of Pinochet, the transition to democracy made in Chile, and the democratic government’s response to the rights abuses in the past.
The National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation
The political drama under consideration should be considered a product of the time, place, and circumstances of its composition. The novel has been written during the critical age in the history of Chile.
After the plebiscite of 1988 in Chile when 55 percent of the population voted against Pinochet’s rule, the author could not resist his desire to recognize the events of the past and their influence on the present and future of the country. The Death and the Maiden were written during several weeks that Dorfman was in Chile, hence the credibility of the events described and of the circumstances under which they took place.
Though the exact location of the play is unknown, it very closely resembles Chile and anticipates the crucial changes in the country’s history. Writing the Death and the Maiden the author relied on the facts gathered by the Rettig Commission. This Commission, also known as the National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation, established in 1990 by the newly elected president Patricio Aylwin, investigated the consequences of the rights abuses under the rule of Pinochet. The worst violence occurred in the first three months of the dictatorship: the number of suspected leftists killed (or, “disappeared”) has reached thousands. The concentration camp, the former National Stadium, held 40,000 prisoners; at least 3,000 people were killed or disappeared. The majority of the arrested people were incarcerated and tortured. Many Chileans who were exiled were treated like political refugees abroad. Many of the exiles were followed and murdered by DINA or other secret services.
The disappearance of many people resulted in death, the Commission revealed their names. But the victims of the regime who were still alive were neglected by the Commission. What is more, most of the crimes stated by the process were not prosecuted or punished. The Death and the Maiden is the author’s response to the atmosphere of impunity that reigned at that time in the country.
Symbol of all victims
The play is concerned with the crises of former revolutionaries for democracy – Paulina Escobar, a courier who was raped and tortured for protecting her lover’s identity and the very lover who first was the editor of an underground newspaper and then became Paulina’s husband and was called to take part in a Commission investigating crimes by the former regime. This time it turns out that his wife is a victim of the dictatorship: tortured by the rapists fifteen years ago, now she is tortured by the desire to take vengeance on the culprits. Paulina is sure that the person who was unintentionally allowed by her husband to spend the night in their home is the one responsible for her torture. We are inclined to believe that Doctor Miranda symbolizes Pinochet, whereas Paulina is a symbol of all victims of the dictatorship regime and her husband is an embodiment of the democratic authority whose task is to administer justice. As far as this hypothesis is concerned, several facts remain fascinating. How could the author have foreseen that Pinochet would step down in March 1998 to assume the position of senator of life that guaranteed him immunity from prosecution? Also, Dorfman could not have known that Pinochet would be arrested by the Spanish government and would avoid punishment. It comes out that the play forecasted the history of the country. Thus, the author managed to unite the depiction of the political genocide of the era of Pinochet with the foresight of the democratic changes (a Schubert concert at the end of the play is a symbol of these changes).
The Death and the Maiden were favorably accepted internationally for their critical revealing of the crisis of democracy during the dictatorship. But the play was not well received in Chile. The country resisted confronting the issues raised in the work. In the author’s interview with Carlos Reyes and Maffei Paterson on this issue he explains his position: “In a transition to democracy as in Chile, Bolivia, South Africa, there are different reasons why people do not want to remember. They say, Look, if we keep on stirring up the past it’s going to destroy us. This includes many who were themselves repressed, hurt, or part of the resistance. Gerardo in Death and the Maiden does that…There’s a future ahead, let’s turn the page, let’s forget this, let’s start over again. This is a desire to reach a consensus about where the country is going, and it means excluding those who continue to remember. But the conflicts are real; you can submerge them but not erase them.” (McClennen, p. 1).
Conclusion
The Death and the Maiden is a play that will not allow the people of Chile to forget their history. It is a constant reminder of the past with a look into the future.
References
- Dorfman, Ariel. Death and the Maiden. Penguin (Non-Classics), 1994.
- Leitch, Vincent, and Cain, William. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. W.W. Norton, 2001.
- Mcclennen, Sophia A. “Ariel Dorfman.” The Review of Contemporary Fiction 20.3 (2000): 81.