Essay On Paulina Trauma

Trauma: Progressive Loss of Rationality

Trauma is most often unexpected and usually, leaves open wounds that can rarely be healed. In order to heal, one feels that they need closure to the trauma they have suffered, whether the way they get that closure be right or wrong. Just like in the play, psychological trauma can shatter the shield of protection an individual has and disconnect them from the reality of things. This can cause a person to act on impulse when they see or hear something that reminds them of the trauma that they have suffered. Similarly, in the play Death and The Maiden by Ariel Dorfman, Paulina’s actions, behaviour and thought process while confronting her torturer progressively leads her to a loss of rationality due to

For instance, when Gerardo Escobar finds Roberto tied to a chair in ACT I, scene 4, he accuses Paulina of being sick and tells her that the similarity in a person’s voice is not proof of anything. To which Paulina replies, “It may be a teensy-weensy thing, but it’s enough for me. During all these years not an hour has passed that I haven’t heard it [...].” (23). This passage proves that Paulina Salas is blinded by the rage she withheld about the trauma for the past fifteen years, which lead her to believe that a guest who has some similarities to her torturer is, in fact, him. Her constant denial, that for her the similarity of his voice is enough shows that she is not behaving rationally, but is being impulsive because of what she believes. Similarly, in the scene where Gerardo confronts Paulina about the idea that what if Roberto has nothing to confess and is innocent, she replies to him by saying that, “[she’ll] kill him” (42) and that, “he’s really screwed” (42). This confrontation between Paulina and Gerardo demonstrates how Paulina is not yet ready to see things from a point of view other than hers because ultimately she has been through a trauma which is causing her to be impulsive. As a result, Paulina’s behaviour illustrates the idea that she’s hanging on by a thread as her behaviour is erratic and not processed through her

This is when she admits to Roberto that at one point she doubted that he was her torturer because she had no actual proof. Yet, she still says that because he has confessed, she is sure that he is the man and now she wants to kill him or she won’t be at peace. This part of the scene really goes out to illustrate that Paulina was not thinking rationally, as she wanted to kill him and go against what she had promised Gerardo and that was to free Roberto if he confessed. In other words, she was so blinded by her past that she could not manage to function rationally because she was about to commit murder, this can be seen when “she points the gun at him” (63) and tells him to say his last prayer. Thus, throughout the play, her thought process changes instantly when faced with obstacles that stop her from achieving her goal, which is to find peace within her because of the entire trauma that she