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Characters · 3
Gerardo Escobar
Gerardo Escobar is a human-rights lawyer and Paulina's husband in Ariel Dorfman's Death and the Maiden.
character
Paulina Salas
Paulina Salas is the protagonist and moral heart of Ariel Dorfman's Death and the Maiden.
character
Roberto Miranda
Roberto Miranda is the third and most morally complex character in Ariel Dorfman's play Death and the Maiden.
character
Key quotes · 10
“Death and the Maiden. That's what he would put on. He said it was his favorite piece of music.”
This line is spoken by Paulina Salas, the main character in Ariel Dorfman's 1990 play Death and the Maiden.
Paulina Salas · Act One
“And yet I'm the one who has to be careful, the one who has to measure every word, every gesture.”
This line is delivered by Paulina Salas, the traumatized main character in Ariel Dorfman's political thriller Death and the Maiden (1990).
Paulina Salas · Act One
“The real problem is that she can't be sure. And neither can we.”
This line is delivered by Gerardo Esposito, the lawyer and husband of Paulina Salas, near the end of Ariel Dorfman's 1990 play Death and the Maiden.
Gerardo Esposito · Act Three
“Just because someone does terrible things doesn't mean they can't love music.”
This line is spoken by Paulina Salas in Ariel Dorfman's 1990 play Death and the Maiden.
Paulina Salas · Act II
“I want him to confess. I want him to sit in front of that recorder and tell me what he did — not just to me, everything — and then I'll let him go.”
This line is delivered by Paulina Salas, the deeply affected protagonist in Ariel Dorfman's political thriller Death and the Maiden.
Paulina Salas
“I'm not going to hurt you. I just want you to listen to me.”
This chilling line is spoken by Paulina Salas in Ariel Dorfman's 1990 play Death and the Maiden.
Paulina Salas
“You know what the worst part of it was? Not the pain. It was the silence. The silence of the others.”
This haunting line is delivered by Paulina Salas, the traumatized protagonist of Ariel Dorfman's 1990 political thriller Death and the Maiden.
Paulina Salas · Act Two
“If you're innocent, then you can afford to humor a sick woman.”
This chilling line is delivered by Paulina Salas, the protagonist of Ariel Dorfman's 1990 play Death and the Maiden, as she addresses Roberto Miranda, a stranger her husband Gerardo has brought home.
Paulina Salas
“We're going to have to get used to living in a country where we can't always punish every crime.”
This line is spoken by Gerardo Escobar, a human rights lawyer, to his wife Paulina in Ariel Dorfman's play Death and the Maiden (1990).
Gerardo Escobar
“I need to do this. I need to do it for myself. So I can — so I can heal.”
This line is delivered by Paulina Salas, the deeply affected protagonist of Ariel Dorfman's 1990 political drama Death and the Maiden.
Paulina Salas
Symbols · 5
Rope and Gun
In Ariel Dorfman's Death and the Maiden, the rope and gun symbolize both the brutal machinery of authoritarian violence and the delicate, often disputed nature of justice that follows.
Schubert's Death and the Maiden Quartet
In Ariel Dorfman's Death and the Maiden, Schubert's String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, known as "Death and the Maiden," represents the intricate and unavoidable mix of beauty, terror, and trauma.
The Blindfold
In Ariel Dorfman's Death and the Maiden, the blindfold symbolizes the ignorance and powerlessness that authoritarian regimes impose on their victims.
The Cassette Tape
In Ariel Dorfman's Death and the Maiden, the cassette tape highlights the delicate nature of memory, truth, and evidence.
The Sea
In Ariel Dorfman's Death and the Maiden, the sea symbolizes both freedom and psychological confinement.
Literary devices · 12
Dramatic Monologue
Paulina Salas is the moral and emotional heart of the play, delivered through her extended solo speeches that act as dramatic monologues—expressions shaped by her trauma, directed both at Roberto Miranda and the audience.
Irony
Dorfman fills the play with dramatic and situational irony.
Symbolism
The Schubert quartet 'Death and the Maiden' serves as the play's central symbol.
Aporia
Dorfman structures the entire play around aporia — a true, unresolvable deadlock.
Juxtaposition
Dorfman highlights the contrast between the personal and the political throughout the play.
Motif
Darkness and blindness are recurring motifs in the play.
Metaphor
Paulina's body serves as the play's key metaphor for the body politic.
Imagery
Dorfman's stage directions and dialogue are rich with sensory imagery that grounds abstract political questions in physical experience.
Rhetorical Question
Paulina uses rhetorical questions as tools for both interrogation and self-reflection.
Pathetic Fallacy
The play's physical environment enhances its emotional atmosphere through pathetic fallacy.
Paradox
The play's moral core revolves around a set of paradoxes.
Volta
Though this play is written in prose rather than poetry, it features a structural volta—a turning point—at the end of Act II when Miranda makes his 'confession.'
Vocabulary · 19
dictatorship
A system of government in which one ruler or party holds absolute power, often enforced through violence and the suppression of political opposition.
noun · Chapter 1
truth commission
An official body set up after a period of political violence or oppression to investigate and document past human rights abuses, though usually without power to prosecute.
noun · Chapter 1
go crazy
To lose one's mental composure entirely; here used to mean reaching a breaking point of anxiety or fear that one can no longer endure.
phrase · Chapter 1
cooperate
To do what someone in authority demands without resistance; in this context, to comply with a captor's instructions in order to avoid harm.
verb · Chapter 2
tribunal
A court or formal hearing that judges someone's guilt; here it refers to the improvised, unofficial trial Paulina stages in her own home.
noun · Chapter 2
regime
A government, especially an authoritarian one that maintains power by force; used here to mean the former military dictatorship under which abuses were committed.
noun · Chapter 3
confess
To formally admit to having done something wrong or criminal; here, to say aloud and on record that one committed acts of torture.
verb · Chapter 2
coerced
Forced or pressured into doing something against one's will, typically through threats; describes a confession extracted under duress rather than given freely.
adjective · Chapter 3
savage
A person regarded as brutal and without moral restraint; Paulina uses the word to deny that her actions are mere cruelty without principle.
noun · Chapter 3
fair trial
A legal proceeding in which the accused has the right to hear the charges, present a defence, and be judged impartially — the basic standard of justice Paulina claims to be applying.
phrase · Chapter 3
put right
To correct or remedy something that is unjust or harmful; here it means to receive acknowledgement and redress for suffering that was wrongly inflicted.
phrase · Chapter 3
political prisoner
A person imprisoned by a government because of their political beliefs or activities, not because of an ordinary crime.
noun · Chapter 1
blindfolded
Having one's eyes covered so as to be unable to see; used here as a deliberate tactic by torturers to prevent a victim from identifying them.
adjective · Chapter 1
overpowers
To physically subdue someone by superior strength or surprise, taking control of them against their will.
verb · Chapter 1
at gunpoint
Under the direct threat of being shot; forced to comply because a firearm is being aimed at you.
phrase · Chapter 2
moral decline
A gradual worsening of a person's ethical standards and behaviour, leading them to do things they would once have considered wrong.
phrase · Chapter 3
ambiguous
Open to more than one interpretation; not clearly resolved one way or the other, leaving the audience uncertain about what is true.
adjective · Chapter 3
revenge
The act of harming someone in return for harm they did to you, driven by personal anger rather than by an impartial legal process.
noun · Chapter 3
just this once
An appeal asking someone to make an exception on this single occasion, implying they normally would not or do not.
phrase · Chapter 1