Death and the Maiden Summary
Death and the Maiden is a play by Ariel Dorfam in which Paulina Escobar stages a trial for the man that she believes tortured her years prior.
- Chile has recently converted from a dictatorship to a democracy.
- Paulina Escobar becomes convinced that Dr. Roberto Miranda is the man who kidnapped and tortured her during the dictatorship.
- Paulina imprisons Miranda and convinces her husband to act as Miranda's defense attorney in a mock-trial. He agrees in the hopes of saving Miranda's life.
- Miranda initially professes his innocence, but eventually confesses to the crimes.
- The ending leaves the truth of Miranda's guilt and his overall fate ambiguous.
Act I Summary
As the play begins, "The time is the present and the place, a country that is probably Chile but could be any country that has given itself a democratic government just after a long period of dictatorship." At the secluded beach house of the Escobars, it is late at night, and an untouched dinner sits on the table. Paulina is on the terrace, startled by the sound of an unfamiliar car engine. She retrieves a gun from the sideboard and listens intently as her husband, Gerardo, talks to the car's driver and then enters the house. Paulina is unsettled by the unusual event, and Gerardo explains that he had a flat tire on his way home and accepted a ride from a passing motorist. He blames Paulina for the spare tire being flat and for the missing jack (which Paulina had lent to her mother). The couple argues over these details before discussing Gerardo's recent meeting with the country's president.
Gerardo has been appointed to a commission that will investigate human rights abuses committed by the previous military dictatorship. Through their conversation, it is revealed that Paulina was arrested and tortured while she was in medical school during this regime. Paulina feels conflicted; she is wary of the commission since it will only investigate cases that resulted in death. Her own abduction and torture would not be covered. Paulina is still haunted by the memories of being raped and tortured, but she has never shared the specifics of her ordeal with her mother or anyone close to her.
Gerardo acknowledges that the commission's power is limited but believes that "there is so much we can do... ." He pretends to seek Paulina's permission to join the commission, but the scene ends with him confessing that he has already accepted the president's appointment. An hour later, a knock at the door awakens the Escobars. Gerardo is uneasy until he opens the door to find Doctor Roberto Miranda, the man who had given him a ride home earlier. Miranda apologizes for the disturbance, and as the two men converse, Paulina moves closer, eavesdropping. She becomes visibly agitated by the sound of Miranda's voice. Miranda explains that he heard a news story about the commission on the radio, realized who Gerardo was, and felt compelled to return to congratulate him on his appointment. Miranda seems very enthusiastic about the commission, though he acknowledges that the investigations are unlikely to result in punishment. Miranda prepares to leave, promising to pick Gerardo up the next morning to help retrieve his car, but Gerardo insists that Miranda stay the night.
The third scene serves as a brief interlude occurring shortly thereafter, where Paulina is seen dragging Miranda's unconscious body into the room and securing him to a chair. She gags him with her own underwear, takes his car keys, and exits. When dawn breaks in the fourth scene, Paulina has returned and sits with her gun, watching over Miranda. Upon his awakening, she engages him in a lengthy conversation, playing a cassette of Schubert's quartet Death and the Maiden which she found in his car. This music holds painful memories for Paulina, as it was played during her captivity. She interprets Miranda's possession of the cassette—and the familiarity of his voice—as evidence that he is the doctor who tortured her.
Gerardo enters, shocked by the scene before him. Paulina explains her discovery, and Gerardo's immediate reaction is: "You're sick." When Gerardo attempts to untie Miranda, Paulina wildly fires the gun. She informs him that she has already called a mechanic, and when the mechanic arrives, she...
(This entire section contains 631 words.)
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sends Gerardo out of the house to retrieve their car. The act concludes with Paulina's chilling statement, "We're going to put him on trial, Gerardo, this doctor. Right here, today."
Act II Summary
It's midday. Miranda remains tied up while Paulina speaks to him intimately about her captivity and the night she was freed. Gerardo returns after retrieving the car, determined to persuade his wife to release Miranda. Gerardo invokes the principle of law, suggesting that Paulina is no better than the military regime if she denies Miranda a chance to defend himself. Paulina assures him that she plans to let the doctor present his case and was merely waiting for Gerardo’s return, having decided that her husband will serve as Miranda's lawyer. When Paulina removes the gag, Miranda insists he has never seen Paulina before, describing her as "extremely ill, almost prototypically schizoid."
Gerardo continues to plead with Paulina, and their argument reveals his discomfort discussing her ordeal. Paulina asks if Gerardo would still want her to release Miranda if she could prove beyond a doubt that he is the same doctor. Gerardo responds, "If he's guilty, more reason to set him free ... Imagine what would happen if everyone acted like you did." He argues that if Miranda is guilty, they should hand him over to the proper authorities. Paulina, however, believes that while the new government calls itself a democracy, many of the same men from the dictatorship remain in power. She contends that the authorities would promptly release Miranda and claims that he is part of the current government, suggesting his encounter with Gerardo was no coincidence.
Paulina explains that she once sought retribution from Miranda but now only wants him to confess, promising to let him go if he does. "What can he confess if he's innocent?" Gerardo wonders. The scene concludes with Paulina's retort, "If he's innocent? Then he's really screwed."
The second scene takes place at lunch. Paulina watches from the terrace as Gerardo feeds Miranda and the two men converse. Gerardo emphasizes that a confession, even a false one, is Miranda's only chance to escape unharmed, while Miranda insists he is in this predicament solely because he stopped to help Gerardo and now relies on the lawyer to extricate him. After another menacing appearance by Paulina, Miranda accuses Gerardo of not being as impartial as he claims: "She plays the bad guy and you play the good guy ... to see if you can get me to confess that way." The two men argue but ultimately admit they are both frightened. The act ends with Miranda asking Gerardo to help him fabricate a convincing confession for Paulina.
Act III Summary
The final act begins just before dusk. Miranda remains tied up, while Gerardo, with a tape recorder on his lap, implores Paulina to recount the details of her kidnapping before he hears them from Miranda. Paulina reminds him that she had tried to share these details right after her release, but they were interrupted by the woman Gerardo was seeing during Paulina's absence. This recollection hits Gerardo hard, and he eventually convinces Paulina to narrate her ordeal. As she describes her first encounter with the doctor and hearing Schubert in the darkness, the lights dim, and her voice merges with Miranda's. When the lights return, Miranda is seen confessing into the tape recorder. He claims the music was meant to ease the prisoners' suffering and admits that a "brutalization took over my life," leading him to take a detached, "partly morbid, partly scientific" interest in the torture.
After the confession, Paulina sends Gerardo to fetch Miranda's car. Once he leaves, she changes her demeanor, stating she was completely convinced by the doctor's confession but now says, "I could not live in peace with myself and let you live." She reveals that she planted small inaccuracies in her taped account, which Miranda corrected himself; now Paulina declares she will kill him "because you haven't repented at all." On her unanswered question, "What do we lose by killing one of them?" the scene freezes, and the lights go down.
A large mirror descends in front of the characters, "forcing," as the stage directions specify, "the members of the audience to look at themselves." The lights come up on the play's final scene, set in a concert hall several months later. Gerardo and Paulina, elegantly dressed, enter and sit facing the mirror. When the music ends, they rise as if during an intermission, and Gerardo converses with several well-wishers who gather around him. Paulina notices Miranda entering ("or he could be an illusion," the directions suggest). The three characters take their seats as the performance resumes, and Schubert's "Death and the Maiden" plays. Paulina and Miranda lock eyes briefly, then she looks ahead into the mirror as the music continues.