Death and the Maiden [Paperback]

Ariel Dorfman (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Nick Hern Books (1992)
• ASIN: B002O5FF1I
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars DEATH AND THE MAIDEN finds excitement in ideals., March 28, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Death and the Maiden (Paperback)

Thousands of Chilean citizens are said to have "disappeared" during the regime of General Augusto Pinochet, who reigned from 1973-1990. Though not specifically set in Chile, DEATH AND THE MAIDEN is about learning to live again in the aftermath of such an era.

Gerardo Escobar has just been named to a commission that will investigate human rights cases against the old government that ended in death (or the presumption of death). His wife, Paulina, was victimized herself fifteen years earlier, and still has not recovered from the trauma. Now she believes Roberto Miranda, the good Samaritan who came to Gerardo's aid on the road when he had a flat tire, is the same doctor who oversaw her torture years ago, and since there is no hope of gaining justice from the courts, she decides to put Dr. Miranda "on trial" herself.

Playwright Ariel Dorfman pits his characters' heads against their hearts, and the result is a play that is as exciting intellectually as it is emotionally. They are forced to try to answer the kinds of questions with which human beings prefer never to be faced.

How can we be sure of our own ideals? How can we escape our demons when they surround us every day? How can there be justice if the criminal is never punished?

How can we ever learn to forgive, and NEVER learn to forget?

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Masterpiece of ambiguity and questions, December 7, 2007

By 

H2Steacher (South Gate, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Death and the Maiden (Paperback)

I recently re-read this play after watching the DVD (which, though very good, does not do the book justice IMO). Upon my second reading, I re-discovered what had made this book so appealing to me in the first place: Dorfman does not let the Reader have any easy answers. Throughout the course of the play, the Reader grapples with questions of power, of justice, of redemption, of truth. Each individual Reader must determine for him/herself the answers to the questions which Dorfman's characters posit. It's precisely this ambiguity and involvement of the Reader that make this little book a masterpiece, a work of literature which one won't soon forget.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Is justice ever really served?, April 7, 2004

By 

Melissa Niksic (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Death and the Maiden (Paperback)

Ariel Dorfman was a Chilean exile who feared that he might "disappear" if he attempted to live and work under the Pinochet dictatorship. "Death and the Maiden" is a sort of autobiography for Dorfman. The play centers around the character of Paulina, a woman who ultimately kidnaps the man she suspects of holding her prisoner and presiding over her torture and rape many years ago. It's a suspenseful play that tackles the issues of justice and retribution, but it also has elements of suspense and mystery: is Dr. Miranda really the person that Paulina thinks he is? This is an excellent play that's fairly well-known, yet it's hardly ever staged for some reason, which is a shame. (Note: Never, EVER subject yourself to the Sigourney Weaver/Ben Kingsley movie version. It is so awful.)