Death and the Maiden is a play written by Chilean playwright Ariel Dorfman. It tells the story of Paulina Salas, her husband Gerardo Escobar, and Doctor Roberto Miranda. The action takes place in an unnamed country in the years following a brutal dictatorship.

Gerardo is driving home one night when his car breaks down. Doctor Roberto Miranda, a stranger to Gerardo, offers to drive him home. To thank him for his assistance Gerardo offers Roberto a bed for the night. However, on hearing the doctor’s voice Gerardo’s wife Paulina is convinced that Roberto is one of a group of men who tortured and raped her fifteen years ago during the military regime. Paulina had been kidnapped by the secret police and experienced horrific physical and sexual abuse at their hands. But, of all of the men who tortured her, the doctor was the cruelest.

Paulina kidnaps Roberto as he sleeps and is determined, despite Gerardo’s protestations, to put him on ‘trial’ for what he did to her. Gerardo does not believe that Roberto is the man that Paulina thinks he is. But, not only that, Gerardo has been installed to a democratic Investigating Commission that is investigating the crimes of the recent dictatorship and is appalled at his wife’s plan for vigilante justice. The story centers around Paulina and Gerardo’s differing views of what justice should be. As Gerardo plays the part of Roberto’s defense lawyer he tries to mediate between the pair.

Dorfman is asking the audience to think about whether what Paulina is doing is appropriate? Does she have the right to enact physical justice herself? Or, should she leave it to the government? What Paulina finally decides to do is not revealed.

In the play Death and the Maiden, the theme of justice is portrayed in a way that leaves the reader asking what is the truth? At the beginning of the play, Paulina Salas is being held as a prisoner of war. She is raped repeatedly by a sadistic doctor, whose face she never saw. Paulina is released and years later marries a man named Gerardo. In a twist of fate, Gerardo is heading home and gets a flat tire. A man named Dr. Miranda offers to give him a ride home. Once the two men arrive at the house, Paulina hears Dr. Miranda's voice and notices his actions. Paulina is convinced that this is the doctor who had raped her years ago. Paulina decides to put him on "trial", with Gerardo acting as Dr. Miranda's lawyer. Gerardo is convinced the man is not the same man that had raped Paulina. Throughout the story themes of justice come into play. Author Ariel Dorfman makes the reader ask some really tough questions. What would you do if this had happened to you? Do we as humans have the right to act as judge and jury? Ariel Dorfman also makes you question the justice, or lack of justice of Paulina's rape. Does Paulina have the right to accuse and put Dr. Miranda on trial, solely based on his voice or actions? Would you? These are the themes of justice that run throughout the story. The real justice is never known. It is left up to the reader to determine what the real justice should be.