After seventeen years of the totalitarian regime of General Augusto Pinochet, Chile has re-established itself as a democratic country. After the regime, a commission was established to investigate human rights violations of the dictatorship. The play, Death and the Maiden, confronts the issues of justice and reconciliation. The main character Paulina’s silence has prevented her ability to heal and in order for her to move forward, she needs to know the full truth because the commission will not investigate her case because they will only investigate human rights violations that led to death or presumption of death. When her husband Geraldo Escobar gets a flat tire, he is helped by a Doctor name Roberto Miranda who takes him home. When he returns, Paulina recognizes his voice and gestures as that of the doctor who raped and torture her 15-years ago when she a political prisoner. Certain of her own suspicion, she holds the doctor …show more content…
Her madness is motivated by the need for the country to recognize the needs of their citizens. She does not want to forget because if no one is being held responsible for their actions and what is the possibility of another individual in power to abuse its citizens in the future. The old totalitarian regime may silence her, but they cannot silence her any longer she states: “I’m not dead, I thought I was but I am not and I can speak, damn it- so for god sake let me have my say…” (Dorfman, 37). Paulina believes that the dead should not get justice when she is alive and can speak up against those who violated her. Patricia Vieira’s article: Twists of the blindfold: torturer and Sociality in Ariel Dorman’s Death and the Maiden discusses this issue of Paulina’s actions to be recognized as a victim: “The madness attributed to Paulina is the underside of her desire for social recognition”
“As I Lay Dying, read as the dramatic confrontation of words and actions, presents Faulkner’s allegory of the limits of talent” (Jacobi). William Faulkner uses many different themes that make this novel a great book. Faulkner shows his talent by uses different scenarios, which makes the book not only comedic but informational on the human mind. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner is a great book that illustrates great themes and examples. Faulkner illustrates different character and theme dynamics throughout the entire novel, which makes the book a humorous yet emotional roller coaster. Faulkner illustrates the sense of identity, alienation, and the results of physical and mental death to show what he thinks of the human mind.
The recent death of Riley Hughes and numerous other deaths of babies arouses the attention of the public to the serious issue of anti-vaccination and whether or not parents should vaccinate their infants. In the opinion piece entitled "Don't let any more babies die because of anti-vaccination lobby" published in The Herald Sun on March 24, 2015, author Susie O'Brien targets especially the anti-vaccinators parents of the young children, in addition to the general adherents of it. Accordingly，it professes the opinion of the parents should definitely vaccinate their infants to preclude them from suffering from the fatal diseases. Consequently, the incipient tone that O' Breins used is distressed towards the fact of a number of babies died from
Although death seems to be a theme for many literary poems, it also appears to be the most difficult to express clearly. Webster’s Dictionary defines the word “death” as, “A permanent cessation of all vital function: end of life.” While this definition sounds simple enough, a writer’s definition goes way beyond the literal meaning. Edwin Arlington Robinson and Robert Frost are just two examples of poetic writers who have used death successfully as the main theme of their works. Robinson, in the poem “Richard Cory,” and Frost in his poem, “Home Burial,” present death in different ways in order to invoke different feelings and emotions from their readers.
The natural tendency of life is towards death, thus death is not an uncommon thing. So it is in Willa Cather’s My Àntonia and Death Comes for the Archbishop, with several deaths spread throughout the novels: the violent deaths of Mr. Shimerda and the Cutters in My Àntonia, as well as the peaceful deaths of Father Joseph Vaillant and Father Jean Latour in Death Comes for the Archbishop.
While Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" overtly deals with the distinction between social class and the opportunity for greatness, the poem also contains a subtle yet strong message against the dominant role of men over women in society. Gray's tone throughout the poem is permeated with regret and a sense of something lost, voicing his opinions clearly against social class prejudice. This emotional tone, when applied to the stereotypical roles of differing sexes discussed throughout the poem, portrays the injustice of inequality between males and females.
Emily Dickinson's Obsession with Death. Emily Dickinson became legendary for her preoccupation with death. All her poems contain stanzas focusing on loss or loneliness, but the most striking ones talk particularly about death, specifically her own death and her own afterlife. Her fascination with the morose gives her poems a rare quality, and gives us insight into a mind we know very little about. What we do know is that Dickinson’s father left her a small amount of money when she was young.
Victorian Mourning was referred to by many as the “cult of death.” This type of mourning existed as early as 1800, but it was popularized by Queen Victoria in 1861 after the death of Prince Albert (“Victorian Days: Victorian Death and Mourning”). Queen Victoria mourned for her husband until she died, and most of England mourned with her for the whole 40 years (Mitchel 163). If one did not follow mourning customs to a tee, it was seen as an enormous sign of disrespect, and they ran the risk of being ostracized. While Victorians did not fear death, they did fear not being properly mourned (Flanders 378). Most mourning customs were based on primitive superstition, but even as the world advanced, the traditions stuck with families. Although there are some slight similarities between current mourning customs and Victorian mourning customs, Victorian mourning customs were radically different than ours today.
In Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Gabriel García Márquez demonstrates the extent that people will go to be accepted by their community. Cultural acceptance is a common goal that people try to achieve, however, it can induce negative effects on a person’s quality of life. The author uses clear diction to expose how family and society force people to abandon their personal values and self honesty to conform to the values of their community.
Emily Dickinson And the Theme of Death Emily Dickenson, an unconventional 19th century poet, used death as the theme for many of her poems. Dickenson's poems offer a creative and refreshingly different perspective on death and its effects on others. In Dickenson's poems, death is often personified, and is also assigned to personalities far different from the traditional "horror movie" roles. Dickenson also combines imaginative diction with vivid imagery to create astonishingly powerful poems.
The past lives within Paulina and serves as a guide in the way she acts. In order to kill the power the past holds over her, Paulina must confront it as her reality. During the opening moments of the exposition, the negative effects of Paulina’s past life is revealed to the audience as she begins to anticipate the worst. Paulina’s paranoia show the existing effects of her past.
DEATH AND THE MAIDEN Derived from the Danse Macabre, an artistic genre of Late Medieval allegory on the universality of death, the Death and the Maiden motif has been inspiration for works of Art from painting and sculpture to plays and musical compositions. Though this concept has been utilised many times over the centuries, little has been said concerning its allegorical meaning or its psychological impact. Death and the Maiden is a common motif in Renaissance art, especially in painting, and music.
In Beloved and Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Toni Morrison and Gabriel Garcia Marquez discuss how the events that go on in each book fall under the category of magical realism, which is when and the supernatural coexists with ordinary events throughout the day, leading to people accepting the strangest things are just something normal, and how it shapes the conflicts of each story and how the people react to these unique occurrences.
In conclusion, control is seen as a power factor in Death in the Maiden and Punishment. Paulina and Chandara are considered inspirations for many women, because many may be in the same situations as they were and don’t know what to do, but Chandara and Paulina were able to do things their way and had control over their lives. Paulina and Chandara were outsiders in their country when it came to justice and laws, but that did not stop them from believing what was correct and getting justice from others actions.
While the old concept of “whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger'; is present in both the play and the film (particularly in the characterisation of Paulina), it is much more prevalent in the movie. We can see Paulina’s strength from the start. As she strides confidently around the house and violently tears off a piece of chicken, the suggestion that she is unsuited to the domestic position which she has obviously been forced into by the side effects of her traumatic experience need not be made any clearer. Although possessing remarkable strength in both texts, the movie shows a much stronger, almost completely masculine Paulina. This Paulina has been almost entirely defeminized by her ordeal, physically, symbolised by the scarred breast and her desire to “adopt'; a child, which also serves as a glimpse of the vulnerable element of womanhood in her character that still remains. Throughout the bout of verbal jousting that goes on in the opening scene Paulina is able to hold her ground much more firmly than she appears to do in the play. In Polanski’s version of the scene she actually manages to use her domestic role to gain power in the argument, fiercely flinging the dinner in the bin. Weaver’s powerful acting conveys the unmistakable tension associated with an incredible amount of suppressed anger. I...
Death is something that causes fear in many peoples lives. People will typically try to avoid the conversation of death at all cost. The word itself tends to freak people out. The thought of death is far beyond any living person’s grasp. When people that are living think about the concept of death, their minds go to many different places. Death is a thing that causes pain in peoples lives, but can also be a blessing.