Death And The Maiden Study Guide

Death and the Maiden
Ariel Dorfman

Online Information For the online version of BookRags' Death and the Maiden Premium Study Guide, including complete copyright information, please visit: http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-deathmaiden/ Copyright Information
©2000-2007 BookRags, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. The following sections of this BookRags Premium Study Guide is offprint from Gale's For Students Series: Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on Commonly Studied Works: Introduction, Author Biography, Plot Summary, Characters, Themes, Style, Historical Context, Critical Overview, Criticism and Critical Essays, Media Adaptations, Topics for Further Study, Compare & Contrast, What Do I Read Next?, For Further Study, and Sources. ©1998-2002;
Themes.........................................................................................................................32 Atonement and Forgiveness...............................................................................32 Death and the Maiden.........................................................................................32 Doubt and Ambiguity.........................................................................................33 Freedom..............................................................................................................33 Justice and Injustice............................................................................................34 Memory and Reminiscence................................................................................34 Morality and Ethics .............................................................................................35 Style..............................................................................................................................36 Historical Context.......................................................................................................39 Critical Overview........................................................................................................42 Criticism .......................................................................................................................45 Critical Essay
(The play's title is taken from a piece of music by Franz Schubert; Paulina loved the piece but grew to revile it when it was played repeatedly during her torture sessions.) Dorfman began writing the play in the mid-1980s, when he was in exile from Chile, a country under the rule of the military dictator General Augusto Pinochet. It was not until Chile's return to democracy in 1990 that Dorfman returned to the play and "understood ... how the story had to be told." A workshop production of Death and the Maiden was staged in Santiago, Chile, opening in March, 1991, and in July of that year the play had its world premiere at London's Royal Court Upstairs. In November the production, which received the London Time Out Award for best play of 1991, moved to the Royal Court Mainstage. Reception of the play was positive, critics finding it both dramatically engaging as well as historically timely (given the number of societies around the world facing painful legacies of repressive regimes). The play had its Broadway premiere on March 17, 1992, directed by Mike Nichols and starring Glenn Close as Paulina (a performance for which she received an Antionette "Tony" Perry Award), Richard Dreyfuss as Gerardo, and Gene Hackman as Miranda. The casting of three Anglo