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Analysis of Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s The Visit

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on September 17, 2020 • ( 0 )

Tragedy presupposes guilt, despair, moderation, lucidity, vision, a sense of responsibility. In the Punch-and-Judy show of our century . . . there are no more guilty and also, no responsible men. It is always, “We couldn’t help it” and “We didn’t really want that to happen.” And indeed, things happen without anyone in particular being responsible for them. Everyone is dragged along and everyone gets caught somewhere in the sweep of events. We are all collectively guilty, collectively bogged down in the sins of our fathers and of our forefathers. . . . That is our misfortune, but not our guilt: guilt can exist only as a personal achievement, as a religious deed. Comedy alone is suitable for us. . . .

But the tragic is still possible even if pure tragedy is not. We can achieve the tragic out of comedy. We can bring it forth as a frightening moment, as an abyss that opens suddenly.

—Friedrich Dürrenmatt, “Problems of the Theatre”

Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s view of the theater as a vehicle for moral revelation and universal relevance is reflected in Der Besuch der alten Dame ( The Visit ), a tragicomedy combining expressionistic devices and elements of Brechtian epic theater with an inspired sense of the shocking and grotesque. At its core the play is a serious exploration of humanity’s dark side in its conviction that economics determines morality, an idea that is found in drama as early as the 1830s, with the opening scene of Georg Büchner’s Woyzeck . In The Visit the tragedy is that an entire community is caught in a sweep of events that leads to a murder by the masses; Dürrenmatt’s genius is to present what is a tragedy of commission into a work of unsettling humor.

In Friedrich Dürrenmatt the attributes of the dissident intellectual coalesced with those of the rural villager, the result of a family situation in which strict Protestant training coexisted with unorthodoxy. Dürrenmatt was born in 1921 in the Swiss village of Konolfi ngen in the canton of Bern, the older of two children of Reinhold and Hulda Zimmerman Dürrenmatt. His father was the Protestant pastor of the town church and his paternal grand father, Ulrich, was an eccentric, who had been active in 19th-century Swiss politics. A fanatically conservative newspaper publisher, Ulrich was proud to have spent 10 days in jail for composing a viciously satiric poem he printed on the front page of the paper. His grandson was also affected by the tales his father told him from classical mythology and the Bible tales recounted by his mother, all of which would later provide material for his works. Dürrenmatt’s first ambition was to become a painter, and while attending secondary school in a nearby village he spent his spare time in the studio of a local painter. He continued to paint and draw as an adult, and his first published plays were accompanied by his illustrations. In 1935 the family relocated to the city of Bern, where Dürrenmatt attended the Frieies Gymnasium, a Christian secondary school. He was adept at classical languages but was otherwise a poor student, and after two and a half years there he was asked to leave. He was then sent to a private school from which he often played hooky. Rejected from the Institute of Art, Dürrenmatt studied at the University of Zurich and the University of Bern, where he tutored in Greek and Latin to earn money. After a stint in the military and a return to the University of Zurich, a bout with hepatitis sent him home to Bern, where he studied philosophy at the university and considered writing a doctoral dissertation on Søren Kierkegaard and tragedy.

Dürrenmatt began his literary career in the early 1940s with fictional sketches and prose fragments, and in 1945 he published a short story echoing the intense style of German writer Ernst Jünger. He failed in his attempt to become a theater critic as well as a cabaret sketch writer, although the latter efforts displayed his gift for social satire. In 1946 he married Lotti Geissler, an actress, and the following year the couple relocated to Basel. His first play, Es steht geschrieben ( Thus It Is Written ), performed in Zurich in 1947, is a parody of Western history in the guise of a panoramic historical drama with Brechtian influences. Set in the 16th century the 30-scene play concerns Anabaptists, their transformation of Münster into a New Jerusalem, and the destruction of the city by a coalition of Catholic and Protestant troops. At once solemn, passionate, prophetic, religious, existential, cynical, and apocalyptic, the play is unwieldy in execution, with a large cast and dialogue ranging from the biblically hymnic to the absurd. It drew boos from its first-night audience; however, reviewers praised Dürrenmatt’s potential, and he was awarded a cash prize from the Welti Foundation as an encouragement to continue writing plays. Twenty years later Dürrenmatt reworked the play as a comedy, Die Wiedertäufer ( The Anabaptists ), which was more stageworthy but failed equally with audiences. A similar fate greeted his second play, Der Blinde (1948; The Blind Man ), considered to be a pretentious, heavy-handed blend of theology and philosophy.

Dürrenmatt’s first theatrical success was Romulus der Grosse ( Romulus the Great ), performed in 1948. It is a Shavian-like tragicomedy, in which the title ruler, personifying deliberate irresponsibility and inaction, accepts that the power and tyranny of Rome must give way to truth and humanity. He refuses to try to halt the barbarian destruction of Rome and ultimately accepts a pension from the German conqueror that will allow for a comfortable retirement. In 1949 Romulus the Great became the first Dürrenmatt play to be performed in Germany, where it became a standard offering in German theater. Nevertheless, Dürrenmatt continued to suffer financially, and to help support his family, which had grown to three children, he turned to writing detective novels, which were a great success, as were his radio plays. The royalties from the latter allowed him to purchase a home near Neuchâtel in 1952, where he lived until his death in 1990. He completed the manuscript for his next play, Die Ehe des Herrn Mississippi ( The Marriage of Mr. Mississippi ), in 1950. A panorama of violence and intrigue, with expressionistic touches, in which the title character destroys himself and everyone around him with his determination to impose absolute Mosaic justice, the play was rejected by Swiss theaters but was produced in 1952 at the Intimate Theatre in Munich and established Dürrenmatt as an avant-garde dramatist. Ein Engel kommt nach Babylon ( An Angel Comes to Babylon ), also produced at the Intimate Theatre in 1952, is a satire of power and bureaucracy that validates, through the hero, the beggar-artist Akki, the values of innocence and ingenuity over institutional power and corruption.’

https://viennaoperareview.com/

The philosophical, theological, and social themes that Dürrenmatt explored in his previous plays are highly developed, straightforward, and sardonically and grotesquely amusing in The Visit , first performed in Zurich in 1956 and from then on a mainstay of Western theater. The Visit is set in Guellen, a small town somewhere in German-speaking central Europe. The once-prosperous Guellen, where “Goethe spent a night” and “Brahms composed a quartet,” has decayed in recent years to the point where it is almost completely impoverished (the name in German translates to “liquid manure”). The Visit begins and concludes with a parody of a chorus like that of a Greek tragedy, which serves to give the play a classical symmetry, that heightens its sense of irony. The first act opens at the ramshackle railroad station, where four unemployed citizens sit on a bench and interest themselves in “our last remaining pleasure: watching trains go by,” as they recite a litany of woes:

Man three: Ruined.

Man four: The Wagner Factory gone crash.

Man one: Bockmann bankrupt.

Man two: The Foundry on Sunshine Square shut down.

Man three: Living on the dole.

Man four: On Poor Relief Soup.

Man one: Living?

Man two: Vegetating.

Man three: And rotting to death.

Man four: The entire township.

This chorus of men, together with Guellen’s mayor, schoolmaster, priest, and shopkeeper, gather to meet a train and greet its famous passenger, Claire Zachanassian (née Wascher), daughter of Guellen’s builder, who is visiting her hometown after 45 years. Now 63, she is the richest woman in the world, the widow of the world’s richest man, and the owner of nearly everything, including the railways. She has founded hospitals, soup kitchens, and kindergartens, and the Guelleners plan to ask her to invest in their town:

Mayor: Gentlemen, the millionairess is our only hope.

Priest: Apart from God.

Mayor: Apart from God.

Schoolmaster: But God won’t pay.

The mayor appeals to the shopkeeper, Alfred Ill (sometimes translated as Anton Schill), who was once Claire’s lover, to charm her into generosity. For his part Ill knows that if she were to make the expected financial gift, he will be victorious in the next mayoral contest. Madame Zachanassian arrives. She is a grande dame , graceful, refined, with a casual, ironic manner. She is accompanied by an unusual retinue: a butler, two gum-chewing thugs who carry her about on a sedan chair, a pair of blind eunuchs (who, as Dürrenmatt states in his postscript to the play, can either repeat each other’s lines or speak their dialogue together), her seventh husband, a black panther, and an empty coffin. When Claire and Ill greet each other, Ill calls her, as he used to, “my little wildcat” and “my little sorceress.” This sets her, as Dürrenmatt’s stage notes indicate, purring “like an old cat.” Eventually, the two leave the fulsome (and transparently false) cordiality of the town behind to meet in their old trysting places. In Konrad’s Village Woods, the four citizens from the first scene play trees, plants, wildlife, the wind, and “bygone dreams,” as Ill tries to win Claire over. When he kisses her hand, he learns that it is made of ivory; most of her body is made of artificial parts. Nevertheless, he is convinced that he has beguiled her into making the bequest. At a banquet in her honor that evening Claire sarcastically contradicts the overly flattering testimonial offered by the mayor of her unselfish behavior as a child, but declares that, “as my contribution to this joy of yours,” she proposes to give 1 million pounds to the town. There is, however, one condition: Someone must kill Alfred Ill. For her 1 million, Claire maintains, she is buying justice: Forty-five years earlier she brought a paternity suit against Ill, who bribed two witnesses to testify against her. As a result she was forced to leave Guellen in shame and to become a prostitute in Hamburg. The child, a girl, died. The two witnesses are the eunuchs, whom Claire tracked down, blinded, castrated, and added to her entourage. The butler was the magistrate in the case. The mayor indignantly rejects the offer “in the name of humanity. We would rather have poverty than blood on our hands.” Claire’s response: “I’ll wait.”

The second and third acts chronicle the decline of Guellen into temptation, moral ambiguity and complicity. In the weeks that follow the banquet, Madame Zachanassian, who, it is revealed, intentionally caused Guellen’s financial ruin, watches with grim satisfaction as the insidiousness of her proposal manifests itself in the town’s behavior. She also marries three more times; husband number eight is a famous film star, played by the same actor as husband number seven. At first gratified by the town’s loyalty to him, Ill becomes increasingly uneasy when the Guelleners, including his family, begin to buy expensive items on credit, even from his own store, and there comes into being the kind of night life and social activities found in a more prosperous town. Guelleners are clearly expecting their financial positions to change, and with this expectation comes a withdrawing of support for Ill and collective outrage for his crime of long ago. Claire’s black panther, who symbolizes Ill, is shot and killed in front of Ill’s store. Fearing for his life Ill tries to leave town on the next train but is surrounded on all sides by Guelleners. The citizens insist they are just there to wish him luck on his journey, but a terrified Ill is convinced they will kill him if he tries to board the train. He faints as the train leaves without him. The play reaches a crescendo, with the finale becoming a grand media event, when reporters and broadcasters arrive. Ill faces up to his guilt and publicly—and heroically—accepts responsibility for his crime and the judgment of the town, despite the support of the schoolmaster, the only citizen who attempts to question Guellen’s willingness to abdicate its responsibility as “a just community.” Ill is murdered by the crowd. The death is ruled a heart attack; the mayor claims Ill “died of joy,” a sentiment echoed by reporters. The mayor receives the check for 1 million, and Claire Zachanassian leaves with Ill’s body; the coffin now has its corpse. A citizen chorus descries “the plight” of poverty and praises God that “kindly fate” has intervened to provide them with such advantages as better cars, frocks, cigarettes, and commuter trains. All pray to God to “Protect all our sacred possessions, / Protect our peace and our freedom, / Ward off the night, nevermore / Let it darken our glorious town / Grown out of the ashes anew. / Let us go and enjoy our good fortune.”

In his postscript Dürrenmatt makes clear that “Claire Zachanassian represents neither justice . . . nor the Apocalypse; let her be only what she is: the richest woman in the world, whose fortune has put her in a position to act like the heroine of a Greek tragedy: absolute, cruel, something like Medea.” Guellen is the main character and Alfred Ill its scapegoat, ritually murdered so that the community can, at the same time, purge itself and justifiably accept a portion of Claire Zachanassian’s bounty. They are not wicked, claims Dürrenmatt, but, tragically, “people like the rest of us,” concerned with sin, suffering, guilt, and the pursuit of justice and redemption in an ostensibly alien and indifferent universe.

Source: Daniel S. Burt The Drama 100 A Ranking of the Greatest Plays of All Time

by Friedrich Duerrenmatt

The visit summary and analysis of act 1.

The play opens at the railway station of a small town named Guellen, which literally means "excrement". This ramshackle town is the very picture of poverty. It is autumn, and four men from the town are gathered near a painter, who is making a banner that reads: "Welcome Claire..."

The express trains pass noisily by, and the four men discuss the fact that even the commuter trains no longer stop in Guellen. The factory is dead, and the town lies in ruin. The town was once a place of extraordinary culture and artistry: Goethe once spent a night there, and Brahms composed a quartet within its borders. The painter chimes in to say that he was once a brilliant student at the Ecole des Beaux Art , and has now been reduced to sign-making. Another man notes that the town is "rotting", and they begin to discuss the impending arrival of a millionairess who has donated extraordinary amounts of money to villages all over the country.

The Schoolmaster , the Mayor , the Priest , and Mr. Alfred Ill , the most popular man in town, arrive at the railway station. These four prominent townspeople discuss their preparations for the millionairess' arrival. The famous Claire Zachanassian (previously Claire Wascher) was born in Guellen. Her father was a builder in the town, and, long ago, Ill and Claire were lovers. In a burst of nostalgia, Ill describes his fond memories of their liaisons in Petersen's Barn and Konrad's Village Wood: her "red hair streaming out, slim and supple as a willow, and tender, ah, what a devilish beautiful little witch. Life tore us apart. Life" (205). As the Mayor prepares his speech, Ill tells him that in their youth, Claire was a great lover of justice, and was always a generous woman. The Mayor then informs Ill that he is to be named the successor to his office. Ill is elated by the announcement of this honor.

Suddenly, the express train comes to a stop: Claire Zachanassian is early. Claire is 63; her hair is still flaming red, and she is ostentatiously dressed. The overall effect of her appearance is both graceful and grotesque. Apparently, Claire had pulled the emergency brake on the express train, casting everything into disarray. The townspeople are thrown into a frenzy, not being fully prepared for her arrival. Claire argues with the ticket master, who chastises her for having pulled the brake. She attempts to demonstrate the power of wealth by offering him a large sum of money, but he refuses her bribe.

Claire's husband (Husband VII) or "Moby", as she refers to him, appears. Alfred and Claire meet face-to-face for the first time in years, and are quick to exchange endearments. Alfred refers to Claire as his "little wildcat" or "sorceress", and she remembers that she had called him her "black panther" when they were young lovers. Claire, who has grown old and fat, shows off her prosthetic limb, received after a terrible car accident. Her husband's real name, she explains, is Pedro, but she calls him "Moby" because the moniker rhymes with "Boby", her butler.

The celebration begins on an awkward note, as the singing of the choir and the Youth Club is drowned out by the rumbling of the express train. Claire, upon meeting the Policeman , cryptically asks him whether he'll turn both of his eyes blind, and then laughs. She then asks the Priest whether he comforts the dying and the condemned, and ignores the Priest when he replies that there is no longer a death penalty in Switzerland. Claire declares that she wants to go to town, and explains that ever since the accident she has traveled by sedan-chair. Her attendants Roby and Toby , who are described as a Herculean, gum-chewing pair, lift her sedan-chair into the air. Roby and Toby, it is explained, were once Manhattan gangsters facing death by electric chair, but were saved when Claire paid a million dollars for each man's life. The sedan-chair, she notes, was a gift from the French President, and at one time resided in the Louvre.

Seated atop her sedan-chair, Claire declares that she wishes to see Petersen's Barn and Konrad's Village Wood. The townspeople notice that she has come with a great deal of luggage and - oddly enough - a coffin. Her entourage also includes a pair of old, fat, neatly-dressed men. The men are named "Koby" and "Loby", and they are both blind. Claire has also brought with her a cage containing a black panther. Seeing this, the Schoolmaster begins to feel fearful. He states that Claire is a terrifying sight, and that she gives him the impression of "an avenging Greek goddess...spinning destiny's webs herself" (216).

Claire plans to stay at the Golden Apostle, but first wishes to revisit the places where she spent the most important moments of her youth. In Konrad's Village Wood, the four men from the station are transformed into trees as Claire recalls how deeply she and Ill were in love when she was seventeen and he was twenty. When she became pregnant, he betrayed her by denying her paternity claim and marrying Matilda Bluhard, the daughter of the owner of the general store. Claire, in disgrace, fled to a brothel, and eventually married an old Armenian millionaire named Zachanassian. Standing with Ill in the wood, she points out the irony of it all: now she is the one with the money, and it is Ill who leads "a laughable life" (220). Claire warns Ill of her malicious nature by saying, "I've grown into hell itself" (219). When Ill tenderly kisses Claire's hand, she explains that it is made of ivory; she lost her real hand in a plane crash. "Clara, are you artificial?" Ill asks (221). She responds by telling him that she is "unkillable".

As they approach the Golden Apostle, the trees become men once again. The gathering outside the hotel is lively: among those in attendance are a gymnastic team, the town band, the Mayor and his wife, and Ill's wife, Matilda. Claire asks the doctor whether he makes death certificates, and she advises him that the next time someone dies, he ought to declare that the cause of death was a heart attack. The townspeople all seem to find her a little disturbing, but Ill laughs joyfully and says that she is "delicious" (222). To add to the confusion, Claire announces that she is getting a divorce, and that her future husband (Husband VIII) is a German film star. She plans to marry him in Guellen Cathedral - something that had always been a childhood dream of hers. The Mayor, prompted by Ill, then gives a long speech that concludes with the words "three cheers for the prodigal returned" (225).

Claire happily announces that she will give Guellen one million dollars: half for the town, and half to be shared amongst the families. She states that her gift is conditional, but before she can explain the condition, the crowd bursts into a euphoric roar. The Mayor asks Claire what the condition of her gift is, and she replies, "I'm buying myself justice" (226). The Mayor responds that "Justice can't be bought" (226), but Claire says that everything can be brought. She then brings Boby the Butler forward to prove her point. The Schoolmaster identifies Boby as Chief Justice Courtly: he was once the Lord Chief Justice of Guellen, and then assumed a position with the Kaffigen Court of Appeal. Twenty-five years ago, the Butler explains, Claire offered him an astounding sum of money to enter into her service, and he accepted.

The Butler then goes on to explain why Claire feels that she is owed "justice". In 1910, when he was Lord Chief Justice of Guellen, he arbitrated a paternity claim in which Clara Wascher (now Claire Zachanassian) claimed that Alfred Ill was the father of her child. Ill denied her claim, and called in two witnesses. Koby and Loby come forward, holding hands, and say that their real names are Jacob Chicken and Louis Perch. It was they who had falsely "confessed" to sleeping with Claire in exchange for a pint of brandy. Years later, Claire tracked down the two men at the ends of the earth: Jacob in Canada, Louis in Australia. She handed them over to Toby and Roby, who castrated and blinded them, and then took them into her service.

The result of this "miscarriage of justice" was tragic: Claire gave birth to a baby that lived for only one year (228), and became a prostitute in Hamburg. Now, she tells the townspeople, she wants someone to avenge her by killing Ill. She turns to the man that she loved in her youth and says, "You decrepit, and me cut to bits by the surgeon's knives. And now I want accounts between us settled. You chose your life, but you forced me into mine" (229). The Mayor steps in and says, "You forget, we are not savages...I reject your offer; and I reject it in the name of humanity. We would rather have poverty than blood on our hands" (229). The assembled crowd applauds loudly, but Claire ominously declares, "I'll wait" (229).

The opening of Act 1 is ominous and dramatic, and effectively foreshadows the tragedy to come. Beginning the play at the train station gives the audience a wide view of the town of Guellen, and reveals how its humanist, cultured history sharply contrasts with its present state of impoverishment. The tragic state of the town forces the audience to question how this has come to be. The figure of the painter is particularly notable against the barren city landscape, in part because Duerrenmatt was once a painter, but also because the painter in the play was a brilliant student of art, and has now been reduced to fashioning a welcome sign at the train station. The painter is clearly intended to serve as a meter for the town's cultural prosperity or poverty. Additionally, the very fact that the painter is talented yet unable to express his ability indicates the "waste" that is stifling the city. The image of a factory no longer in use also underscores this "wasted potential." In other words, the town and its citizens are not without potential or skill; their artistic proclivities and talents have merely been crushed by circumstance. The name "Guellen" refers directly to liquid excrement, and while the allusion may appear overt to the point of being grotesque, it also successfully enhances the tone of the play, assaulting the sensibilities of the audience on a number of levels: the characters are comic, grotesque, and macabre, and the idea of "justice" has been sullied almost beyond repair. However, this strategy forces the audience to question the world in which they themselves live, a world which, while not necessarily as grim as Guellen, may share with the town a number of disconcerting qualities.

The scene at the train station also introduces several of the town's key figures. The townspeople are all in a state of excited anticipation, and discuss the fact that the approaching visitor, Claire, is their only hope for survival. Here, the audience learns several key facts: (1) Claire is the richest woman in the world; (2) Claire is a native of Guellen; and (3) Claire and Ill were lovers in their youth. Ill nostalgically describes her as a delicious young girl, "slim and supple as a willow." This description is set against a pastoral vision marked by the landmarks of Petersen's Barn and Konrad's Village Wood. Claire's physical arrival at the station, however, sharply contrasts with the idyllic image that Ill has painted: she is, of course, older - 63 - and though her red hair is still a notable characteristic, everything else about her strikes the audience as "monstrous" and "artificial". She is "ostentatiously dressed," and her false limb, combined with her odd declaration that she is "unkillable", create an impression of surreal, almost grotesque power over the natural order. Through Ill, the audience learns that Claire used to be fresh, alluring, and innocent, and was most likely a good-hearted girl, but it is implied that over time something has caused her to grow into a monster. At the very least, she is virtually unrecognizable.

As Claire and Ill revisit the pastoral sites of their youthful liaisons, the four men from the train station metamorphose into trees. Over the course of the play, these four men repeatedly metamorphose into trees, and then back into humans, suggesting the transitory nature of their environment. This device alludes to the pastoral innocence upon which society is built; also, Claire, whose father was a "builder" in Guellen, has a history rooted in the town's birth. It is implied that modernity and urbanity "corrupt" nature, just as Ill corrupted Claire. It is, however, suggested that this metamorphosis did not have to be so tragic: something that is "built" can also be "just" and in harmony with nature. The play suggests that an idyllic human existence transpires at that unseen point where nature and society meet. Ill's unjust act, however, disturbed that delicate balance and thrust Guellen into its current state of disrepair.

Claire's early arrival signals that something unexpected is about to happen to the town. The manner in which she arrives is especially telling: she pulls the emergency brake on an express train. In other words, her refusal to follow the rules upon which others rely is an expression of her inflated sense of power, and her belief that her needs take precedence over the dictates of society. In her view, she has every right to pull the emergency brake - not because it is an emergency, but merely because doing so is easy and convenient. The rationale behind this action is rooted in Claire's status as the richest woman in the world. The characters of Roby and Toby, whom Claire saved from the electric chair, reveal that Claire is not afraid to use the power of her purse to subvert society's rules, even in situations where the "goodness" of her actions can be called into question. It seems likely that Claire did not rescue Roby and Toby because she felt that they were being slain unjustly, but rather because she simply desired a strong pair of bodyguards. In the past, her money has given her the power to make her own rules; however, at this point in the play it remains unclear whether Claire is a benevolent "goddess" who assists the troubled and poor with her magnanimous donations, or is a monster who gleefully engages in the blatant abuse of her power.

Claire's numerous husbands suggest her willingness to abuse the social institution of marriage, and also imply that Claire's ability to love has been "corrupted" by Ill. She renames each of her husbands so that their monikers rhyme with the rest of her entourage in a manner that is reminiscent of Adam renaming the animals in the Bible. In other words, Claire believes that she exists on an entirely different plane from those whom she employs - a category that includes her husbands. (It is important to note here that her first husband has retained his full name in her memory: he is a kind of creator-figure whom she has come to emulate and almost deify. Along these lines, Claire's decision to dehumanize each of her subsequent husbands through the process of re-naming can be thought of almost as a homage to her deceased husband). Claire developed her understanding of marriage based on Ill's example: he chose money over love, disregarding the welfare of others. Ill used marriage as a ladder to climb up in the world; Claire, who at the outset of the play has already climbed as high as she can go, cycles through husbands as though they are mere consumer goods. Overall, the corruption of the town, Claire's literal artificiality, and the grotesque tone of the play combine to suggest that Claire is not the benevolent "goddess" that the townspeople are hoping to meet.

Act 1 culminates in a celebratory gathering in honor of Claire. At the celebration, Claire announces to the townspeople that she is ready to offer them a generous gift, on one condition. She declares that she wishes to buy herself "justice". The Mayor's reply that justice cannot be bought is the crux around which the rest of the play revolves. We know from Ill's previous statement to the Mayor that Claire "loved" justice when they were young; but, like her ability to love, her reverence of justice has evolved into a monstrous obsession. Her butler, Boby, and the blind eunuchs Koby and Loby also underscore Claire's perverse sense of justice. She bought justice by offering Boby the Butler a large salary to become one of her employees, thereby forcing him to sacrifice his authentic position in a high court (though the infallibility of the judicial system is, at the same time, brought into question, since it seems possible for the average citizen to fool a judge, as Ill did in the paternity suit). In the case of Koby and Loby, Claire exacted justice in the manner of the Old Testament by tracking them down to the far corners of the earth and blinding and castrating both of them. The irony in Koby and Loby's characters is twofold: (a) they are eunuchs, who are traditionally considered to be protectors of a woman's chastity, while here the two men were bribed to claim that they had slept with Claire; and (b) they are blind, and the traditions of Ancient Greek drama (from which Duerrenmatt draws many of his symbols and plot devices) hold that the blind are "seers", in the sense that they "see" the truth. Koby and Loby "see" the truth, ironically, only because they were the ones who lied in the first place.

In keeping with the theme of "seeing," the Schoolmaster is the only one who "sees" Boby the Butler's true identity. As the drama unfolds, the Schoolmaster assumes a distinctive role as a "seer" of truth. The question that Duerrenmatt proposes is whether a humanist education and strong sense of values is enough to enable the Schoolmaster - or, indeed, anyone - to resist temptation.

In this play, Duerrenmatt grapples with the very nature of justice: he critiques its corruptibility, and studies the relationship between "justice" (which is impersonal), and "revenge" (which is personal). In Claire's mind, "justice" past wrongs: Claire believes in "an eye for an eye." In their youth, Ill "forced" Claire into her circumstances by contaminating the justice system with false witnesses and lies, thereby revealing the system's inability to discern the truth. While her lifestyle, at the time of her visit, may appear enviable, she is furious because she was not permitted to choose it for herself. Her life has been wholly determined by the actions of another.

Seeking retribution, Claire returns to the town and offers the townspeople a conditional gift. Over time, her fury has been magnified, and she has come to view the town itself as complicit in Ill's unjust act. To that end, the townspeople must repay her debt by sacrificing their values. Her version of justice virtually discards the system that has been developed over time: in Claire's world, justice is meted out in pure accordance with her will. This power causes Claire to take on the status of a mythical, omnipotent god or goddess. In fact, Duerrenmatt explicitly stated that readers ought to consider The Visit in the context of Medea ; he intended the work to be a contemporary manifestation of the angry, sorrowful woman who was betrayed by her lover.

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The Visit Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Visit is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

What are the actors celebrating in "The Visit"?

The actors are attending a homecoming celebration.

grandparents

Ok, so i know this is weird because this answer is 4 to 5 years from when you asked this question. But, what happened is the real grandparents were working at the asylum. and the fake grandparents broke out and went to there house, knowing they...

How do I choose the best Laravel developers?

Sorry, this is a literature site.

Study Guide for The Visit

The Visit study guide contains a biography of Friedrich Duerrenmatt, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

About The Visit
The Visit Summary
Character List

Essays for The Visit

The Visit literature essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Visit.

Examining Claire Zachanassian in Act One of The Visit
An Exploration of Mob Mentality in The Visit
The Ironic Tragicomedy
The Effect of Dehumanization in The Visit
Poverty and Humanistic Values in The Visit

Lesson Plan for The Visit

About the Author
Study Objectives
Common Core Standards
Introduction to The Visit
Relationship to Other Books
Bringing in Technology
Notes to the Teacher
Related Links
The Visit Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for The Visit

Introduction
Film and television
Literature and theatre

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Act Summaries & Analyses

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Symbols & Motifs

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Summary and Study Guide

The Visit , by Swiss author and playwright Friedrich Dürrenmatt, premiered in 1956 at the Schauspielhaus Zürich under the German title Der Besuch der alten Dame , or The Visit of the Old Lady . Dürrenmatt’s darkly comic satiric plays are credited with helping revitalize German theatre following World War II. His writing also reveals the influence of German playwright Bertolt Brecht, notably in Dürrenmatt’s use of parables: simple stories using human characters to illustrate a lesson or moral. One of the themes Dürrenmatt explores in The Visit is the corrupting power of money.

The play, a tragicomedy in three acts, is Dürrenmatt’s most well-known and enduring work as a dramatist. The hugely successful 1958 Broadway debut starred the famous acting married couple Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne and was staged by famous English director Peter Brooks. The play has been widely adapted, as a 1964 Hollywood film, a 1971 German opera, a 1992 Senegalese film Hyenas , a 2001 musical by John Kander and Fred Ebb, and a 2020 version by American playwright Tony Kushner that ran in London.

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This guide references the translation by Patrick Bowles published by Grove Press in 1990.

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The fictional small town of Guellen , located vaguely in central Europe, has fallen into poverty since the end of World War II. But fortunately for its inhabitants, famous multimillionaire Claire Zachanassian grew up in Guellen and is returning for a visit after 45 years. In hopes that Claire will share her wealth to save the town, the Mayor has planned a grand welcome. Alfred Ill , who is the most well-liked man in town and slated to become the next mayor, happens to be Claire’s long-ago lover. He is also the only person in town who knows and remembers her at all, and his help is enlisted to sweet-talk Claire into giving the town money. Claire upsets their preparations by arriving early, her seventh husband and a strange entourage in tow. She also brings, along with mountains of luggage, a coffin. Claire goes with Ill to some of the places where they trysted. She confronts Ill for ending their relationship to marry Matilda Blumhard, whose family had money and owned the town General Store. Because of Ill’s actions, Claire left Guellen and ended up working in a brothel until her first husband, a billionaire, married her. Ill claims that he did it to save Claire from staying in Guellen. Claire tells Ill that she will give the town money, and Ill excitedly accompanies her into town for a reception in her honor. After the Mayor gives an erroneous speech about her, Claire announces that she will donate a million pounds to Guellen, half of which will go to the town and the other half to be divided among the townspeople. But she has a condition, which they quiet their cheering to hear.

Claire’s butler comes forward, introducing himself as Guellen’s one-time Lord Chief Justice. Once, he arbitrated a paternity case. Claire, who was 17, was pregnant and named Ill, who was 20, as the father. But Ill paid two men to claim that they slept with her. Claire left Guellen in disgrace. The baby was taken away and died after a year. To survive, Claire was forced into sex work. She has had the two men who lied blinded and castrated, now a part of her entourage, and she wants to buy justice against Ill. She’ll give the money in exchange for someone killing Ill. The Mayor immediately rejects the offer as inhuman, but Claire says that she will wait.

Act II begins in Ill’s store, where townspeople are buying things on store credit. Although they all tell Ill that they stand with him, Ill suddenly realizes that everyone is spending extravagantly on credit, because they know that someone will follow through to get Claire’s money. Recognizing that he is being threatened, Ill goes to the Policeman , the Mayor, and then the Priest , begging each of them to help him. But they all demonstrate that they are spending money too. Terrified, Ill goes to the train station, followed by the entire town. Afraid that someone will grab him, Ill misses the train and collapses in panic. The townspeople walk away, leaving him there. In Act III, the Doctor and the Schoolmaster go to see Claire, who has just married and divorced another husband, to ask if she will invest in the town instead of giving a gift. But Claire reveals that she already owns everything in the town. She shut down the factories to create the rampant poverty.

At Ill’s store, his wife is helping customers who are still upgrading their purchases and buying on credit. Some men from town come in and decide to sit and make sure that Ill doesn’t decide to talk to the press that came to town for Claire’s wedding. The Schoolmaster, who has started drinking, nearly speaks up when reporters come into the store, but Ill, who has been hiding upstairs, stops him. After the reporters and townspeople leave, Ill comments that his family has also been buying on credit, including his son’s new car. He surprises his family by telling them to dress up to go for a drive. The Mayor comes in and tells Ill that there will be a town meeting and a vote about accepting Claire’s offer. He tries to give Ill a gun to save the town the trouble by killing himself, but Ill refuses, although he agrees to abide by the results of the vote. His family returns, and after a pleasant ride, Ill says goodbye and goes to the woods where Claire is supposed to be walking with her new husband. Ill and Claire talk about the end of their relationship and their daughter who died. Claire promises to take Ill in the coffin to a mausoleum in Capri, so he will be near her forever. Ill goes to the town meeting. The press is present, so the Mayor and Schoolmaster speak vaguely, but they finally hold a vote. Only Ill votes against taking the money. After the press leaves, the men of the town strangle Ill. The Mayor tells an errant reporter that Ill died of a heart attack from happiness. Claire gives the Mayor the check and has Ill’s body carried out and placed in the coffin. As Claire and her luggage, along with the coffin, head to the train station, the townspeople sing her praises and pray for their own good fortune.

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IB Language and Literature 2.0

Group 1 english higher and standard level, drama study: the visit by friedrich dürrenmatt, from the prl / translated work (german) / c20th / europe / switzerland.

“He considers it a part of his philosophical business to reach a mass audience through his [works] without diluting that one main idea which permeates much of his writing: justice.” William Gillis, writing in the German Quarterly, 1962

Introduction

The impoverished town of Guellen looks to multi-millionaire Claire Zachanassian for financial salvation. When she offers them a million dollars, they think their dreams have come true – but her offer comes with a condition attached. They must kill a citizen of the town, named Ill, a popular man standing for mayor – and someone who just happens to be her former lover. Initially, the townspeople refuse, but their resolve is tested by the allure of wealth. Will they hold true to their morals, or will they end up carrying out her wish?

The Visit , written in 1956, was Dürrenmatt’s third published work and is set approximately ten years after the end of the war. Famously, Switzerland remained neutral throughout the conflict, siding with neither Allied nor Axis forces. However, Switzerland had deported its Jewish citizens, refused to allow migrant Jews fleeing the Nazis to enter Switzerland, hosted Allied soldiers in prisoner of war camps, and accepted looted gold from German forces. In Dürrenmatt’s opinion, ‘neutrality’ was merely a euphemism for ‘complicity’. Therefore, his play is set in Guellen, a thinly veiled representation of Switzerland; a community forced to choose between moral convictions and material gain.

Biography – Friedrich Dürrenmatt
Wider Reading – from A Ranking of the Greatest Plays of All Time

IB Student Learner Profile: Thinker

“We use critical and creative thinking skills to analyse and take responsible action on complex problems. We exercise initiative in making reasoned, ethical decisions.”

If any writers on your course can be called a thinker, Friedrich Dürrenmatt must be near the top of the list. He was born in 1921 in Konolfingen, a small town just outside the Swiss capital of Bern. The son of a pastor, he developed a keen interest in philosophy and went to Berlin where he began a doctoral dissertation on the philosopher Kierkegaard. In the middle of his studies, though, he came to believe that greed and hypocrisy had polluted life in Switzerland after the second world war. He abandoned his dissertation and returned to Switzerland, becoming a playwright and crafting controversial works full of dark humour and grotesqueries, laying bare the absurdity of European politics and society. He famously said, “it is not only possible to think with the philosophy, but also with the theater stage.”

IB Lang and Lit Concept: C ommunication

Arguably the defining language feature of Dürrenmatt’s play is pervasive irony . Hardly anybody says what they really mean, and their actions contradict their words. Even the ‘hero’ of the piece is guilty of shifting the truth when it suits purposes. As you read The Visit , consider how certain uses of language can be used to conceal as well as reveal, to distort as well as illuminate, and how communication is rarely straightforward in Dürrenmatt’s play.

“Everything can be bought.”

The first act begins with several townspeople gathered at the train station. They note with regret how few trains stop in Guellen; a sign of the city’s recent economic decline. They are waiting for the arrival of Claire Zachanassian, a woman who was born in the town, but had to leave under a cloud of shame when she was seventeen years old. Claire is now a multi-millionaire and the townspeople hope that Claire will give them money so they can restore their town to its former glory.

Claire arrives – early – and disrupts the townspeople’s preparations to welcome her. Nevertheless they give her the best reception they can manage and, after she visits a few places she remembers from her youth, the mayor gives a speech in her honour at the town’s hotel, the Golden Apostle. Claire then delights the gathered townspeople by offering them a million dollars – it seems like their hopes will be granted. But she attaches a condition which they cannot yet accept: they must kill Ill, her former lover, now a popular storekeeper and the man in line to be the next town mayor.

Act 1 Scene 1

“We must drink a special toast to Ill – a man who’s doing all a man can to better our lot. To our most popular citizen: to my successor!”

The once prosperous town of Guellen is plunged into desperate poverty, even while the rest of Europe seems to be prospering. Various men of the town of Guellen are gathered at the train station. The way the people look forward to Claire’s arrival shows their fixation on money, and in fact, it seems that they put money above anything else, such as religion, when they mention that “God doesn’t pay.” Guellen is a fictional town of Dürrenmatt’s invention meant to represent any Swiss town in the decade following the second world war. Therefore, the townspeople of Guellen also represent average Swiss people – if not European people as a whole – and so their fixation on money can be seen as a criticism of post-war European materialism. Equally, the town’s mayor, who is eager to welcome Claire and writes an oily speech praising her intelligence and generosity, can be seen to represent any politician who is willing to put materialism before morality and say whatever he needs to say to secure financial rewards.

Claire arrives at the station by riding a train which normally does not stop in Guellen. She pulls the emergency brake to make sure it does, and is initially scolded by an official of the railway until he finds out who she is. Then, like everyone else in the play, he wants to slavishly fulfil her every wish – even going to the ridiculous extent of offering to keep the train and all of its passengers there waiting for days until she wants to leave.

Act 1 Scene 1 (Discussion and Activities)

Why are Dürrenmatt’s stage directions so specific about how Guellen should look? The shoddily tiled railway station, the ripped posters on its walls, the outlines of dilapidated buildings in the background; these details visually alert the audience to the town’s dire situation even before the unemployed men say anything.

Learner Portfolio: Putting on the Play

Based on Dürrenmatt’s detailed stage directions throughout Act 1, design the staging for a new production of The Visit. You could do some research into set design by visiting this Museums of the World online collection and viewing Milan Butina’s wonderful concept drawings for a 1958 performance of the play in Ljubljana.

Annotate your work with explainers as to the effect you want your design to have on the audience. If you don’t like doing visual or graphic design work, you could submit this Learner Portfolio entry in the style of a ‘letter from the director’, communicating with your design team about your ideas and the effects you want to create for your audience.

Act 1 Scene 2

A moment ago you wanted time turned back, in that wood so full of the past. Well I’m turning it back now, and I want justice. Justice for a million.

Claire and Ill tour some of the places they trysted together when they were young: Petersen’s Barn and Konrad’s Village Wood. Claire recalls how their relationship ended: Ill married another woman and left her all alone. She wound up leaving the town and becoming a prostitute in Hamburg, where she attracted the attention of a rich Armenian, the first of many wealthy husbands. Ill insists all turned out for the best because, if she had married him, she would not have become rich. Eventually, talk comes back to the reason for Claire’s visit and she promises that she will not let her hometown continue to suffer. Elated, Ill regrets aloud that they could not have married, and admires her once more. He keeps saying how she has not changed and kisses her hand. She corrects him; her hand, like her leg, is artificial. She was the only survivor of a plane crash and needed numerous artificial limbs.

Back at the hotel, the Mayor finally delivers his fawning speech in Claire’s honour. Afterwards, she reveals that she will indeed make a contribution to the town’s economic recovery. She will donate a million dollars to the town and its residents – but she has a surprising condition attached.

Act 1 Scene 2 (Discussion and Activities)

While the possession of excessive wealth can lead to the corruption of one’s character, there seems to be the suggestion that poverty can have negative effects, too. Ill says that the lack of money in his family has made his home unhappy. Dürrenmatt criticises extreme wealth – and simultaneously recognises the effects of poverty. Do you think his play supports the idea of wealth redistribution from the obscenely rich (people like Claire) to ordinary people like the citizens of Guellen?

Learner Portfolio: Claire’s Worldview

Throughout the play, ‘justice’ means something different to each of the central characters. To Claire, justice is the same as vengeance – it is her desire for retribution against Ill because he wronged her forty-five years ago. This kind of justice is personal, Claire feels entitled to take Ill’s life even though it is outside the laws or even religious guidelines of her community. Furthermore, Claire treats justice as a commodity to be bought or sold. When the Mayor protests that “justice can’t be bought,” Claire responds that “everything can be bought.”

Write a one-two page piece about Claire Zachanassian’s worldview based on Act One of The Visit . Include a selection of her thoughts about various topics, such as:

Relationships
Other topics that you think might be meaningful.

“You can get anything you want with money”

Ill’s curiosity is aroused by the behaviour of people in the town. Customers in his shop order more expensive items than usual, people ask for their purchases to be charged to expense accounts; everyone in the town seems to have new clothes and shoes. Ill gradually starts to fear that all of this debt is being taken out on the expectation that the town will receive its reward from Claire; something they can only receive if he is killed.

Things take a more sinister turn when the black panther Claire brought with her to Guellen escapes. The Mayor orders that everyone carry a gun – even the priest Ill turns to for help has a rifle strapped to his chest. The priest, like everyone else in the town, dismisses his fears, and suggests that really it is the miserable state of his soul which should trouble him, not his fear of his fellow citizens. Eventually, things get too much for Ill and he resolves to leave town. He is headed to the train station with his suitcase, but the townspeople stand in his way. Guellen, they say, is the safest place for him. Is Ill simply being paranoid – or is the lure of money starting to erode the Guelleners’ moral convictions?

Act 2, Scene 1

“The way they all rejected the offer, all the Guelleners… unanimously, that was the finest moment of my life.”

Ill is alone in his shop. His son and daughter have both made excuses to be elsewhere, and he can only watch through the window as the townspeople bring flowers to adorn the coffin Claire has had set up as a reminder of her offer – and the condition she has attached. Throughout the morning, his shop is frequented by customers who tend to be a bit more liberal in their purchases and, what’s more, he notices their nice clothes and new shoes. All his customers ask him to charge the bill to their accounts. They would not do so unless they expected to come into possession of money in the near future, and with Guellen’s otherwise slim prospects, it is obvious they must be counting on the money from Claire. Ill quickly realizes this for himself, and this scene marks the beginning of his anxiety.

Throughout this scene, Ill sees that the people are getting used to living better than they have in the past, and he does not think that they will want to return to their previous way of life. Dürrenmatt criticises Western society’s obsession with materialism: people are unable to sacrifice what they have, even for a good cause such as saving a man’s life.

Act 2 Scene 1 (Discussion and Activities)

Learner Portfolio: Practise for Paper 1 (Literature students only)

If you are a Language A: Literature student, at the end of your course you will sit Paper 1: Guided Literary Analysis. This paper contains two previously unseen literary passages. SL students write a guided analysis of one of these passages; HL students write about both passages. The passages could be taken from any of four literary forms: prose, poetry, drama or literary non-fiction . Each of the passages will be from a different literary form.

Here are two passages taken from The Visit ; as this is a play the literary form is ‘drama’. Each passage is accompanied by a guiding question to provide a focus or ‘way in’ to your response. Choose one passage and complete this Learner Portfolio entry in the style of Paper 1: Guided Literary Analysis .

Act 2 Scene 2

“Do you believe the people will betray you now for money?”

His anxiety rising, Ill visits both the Mayor and the town Priest for reassurance. The mayor then tries to reassure him by recalling the lofty heritage of Guellen; the citizens would never stoop to murder, he says. The mayor becomes resentful when Ill demands Claire’s arrest and points out that perhaps Claire has a point and that what Ill did to Claire was a pretty bad thing to do. Because of this, the Mayor tells Ill that his chances of becoming mayor have been dashed. The priest, like the others, dismisses his fear, and also suggests that Ill’s conscience is troubling him. Finally, it all gets too much for Ill and he decides to leave town. At the train station, he is surrounded by people who prevent him from leaving.

If their words contradict their interior desires, the exterior actions of the townspeople mirror the true direction of their thoughts. Many carry around guns, ostensibly to defend themselves from the panther. But, as Ill points out, their reaction is excessive. Even the priest, who represents religion, succumbs to this ambivalence and carries with him a rifle.

Act 2 Scene 2 (Activities and Discussion)

Learner Portfolio: A State of Denial

‘Denial, or evasion of responsibility, is what plagues the townspeople. As their subconscious minds become more focused on murdering Ill, they refuse to see the reality for what it is’.

Use an analysis of Act 2 to support this statement. Spend a few minutes deciding on the kind of work you might like to produce for your Learner Portfolio. For example, you could write a mini-essay, mind-map the theme of ‘denial’, or create a Point-Quote-Explanation chart.

“You must judge me, now. I shall accept your judgement, whatever it may be. For me, it will be justice; what it will be for you, I don’t know.”

In the third act, the Press arrives to cover Claire’s visit to her hometown. They are aware that she has offered the town money, but they don’t know anything about the condition she attached to it – and the townspeople are anxious to keep it that way! The schoolmaster, with the aid of some strong drink, gathers up his courage and tries to tell the press the town’s secret; unexpectedly, it is Ill himself who stops him. Ill has realized that he brought this situation on himself through his past actions.

The town is planning to vote later that day on whether or not to accept Claire’s proposal and Ill tells the mayor he will abide by whatever decision is made. Will the town vote in favour of Claire’s proposal and kill him? Or will their humanist ideals and morality prevail over the lure of cash?

Act 3 Scene 1

“The world turned me into a whore. I shall turn the world into a brothel.”

The next step in the psychological ‘devolution’ of the Guellen townspeople is an attempt to bargain with Claire to avoid the downsides of her offer while still getting the benefits. They appeal to her own sense of greed by pointing out that Guellen’s industry could be quite profitable to her if she invested in it. Their efforts fall on deaf ears. Whatever profit Claire could gain through investment could hardly be worth her time, if she can simply marry another rich husband – precisely what she is now planning to do.

Meanwhile, Ill returns to his shop to find his family enjoying their own new purchases, and a group of reporters asking questions about the town’s proposed windfall. Of all the townsfolk, only the schoolteacher seems at all repentant, and tries to pluck up the courage to go to the Press with the truth about Claire’s ghastly offer.

Act 3 Scene 1 (Discussion and Activities)
Wider Reading – Justice and Morality in The Visit

Ill’s situation seems to have prompted some powerful reflection on his part, signified by the way he is directed to pace up and down in his shop. Do you think that his remorse over his past actions is genuine? Or is he still hoping to avoid his fate by evoking the pity of the townsfolk?

Learner Portfolio: Practise for Paper 2

Write this Learner Portfolio in the style of a practice Paper 2 response. You can use one of the prompts below, or another prompt given to you by your teacher. Although Paper 2 requires you to write about two literary works, for the sake of this exercise you could focus only on your response to The Visit , or you could try to compare your ideas to another literary work you have studied ( visit this post for more help with Paper 2 ).

Choose one of the following prompts (or use another prompt you have been given), talk with your teacher about how to approach and structure your writing, then complete your portfolio entry:

In what ways can the term ‘artificial’ be applied to literary works you have studied?
Works of literature can often function as social or political commentary. Discuss this idea with reference to literature you have studied.
Consider how works of literature employ humour, and to what effect.
It is not always easy to ‘forgive and forget.’ Illustrate this observation with reference to literary works you have studied.

Act 3 Scene 2

“Not for the sake of the money… But for justice.”

Ill finds Claire in the Village Woods which, he finds out, she owns. After they briefly recall the time they had together when they were young, Ill thanks her for the decorations to his future coffin and tells her that the city council is going to meet to decide his fate. Unrepentant and unapologetic, she says that she will intern him in a mausoleum she owns, thereby asserting absolute control over him. After his death she says she will no longer be haunted by him; he will become just another memory.

Ill returns to the Town Hall where the press has gathered to cover the town meeting, though they are still unaware of its full meaning; they are not aware of Claire’s offer. The mayor begins speaking and offers his thanks publicly to Ill for securing the donation from Claire. They will hold a vote to decide whether to accept or reject Claire’s offer. Surprisingly, Ill tells the mayor that he will respect whatever decision the city makes. Will the lure of money prove too much to resist or will the town’s morality and idealism win the day?

Act 3 Scene 2 (Discussion and Activities)
Research: Types of Justice: Forgiveness (The Guardian podcast)

This scene helps the audience understand Claire’s offer more fully. As a rich woman Claire always gets what she wants: if she wants to travel somewhere, buy up an entire town, buy a panther, she can. So far, however, she has not been able to shake the heartbreak Ill caused. Therefore, she uses the same tactic of throwing money at a problem to solve it. Do you think, though, that killing Ill will really make her problem go away?

Learner Portfolio: Crime and Punishment

‘The most obvious overall themes of The Visit are those of vengeance and justice. Claire’s driving force in the play is vengeance and what she believes is justice for the crime which drove her from town in humiliation – and she stops at nothing to get it.’

Write a one-two page Learner Portfolio entry about vengeance and justice as presented in The Visit . Consider the following points to help you structure and develop your response:

What type of justice does Claire represent? What does ‘justice’ mean to her?
What does ‘justice’ mean to the townspeople? Are they really motivated by a sense of justice for Ill’s past crimes?
How has Ill’s notion of justice developed and changed over the course of the play? What does ‘justice’ mean to him?
Given that Guellen is a microcosm of Europe, what, seemingly, does Durrenmatt conclude about justice in Western societies?

Towards Assessment: Higher Level Essay

Students submit an essay on one non-literary text or a collection of non-literary texts by one same author, or a literary text or work studied during the course. The essay must be 1,200-1,500 words in length. (20 Marks).

Please find suggestions here; but always be mindful of your own ideas and class discussions and follow the direction of your own programme of study when devising your assessment tasks.

Now you have studied the entirety of The Visit , if you are a Higher Level student, you might like to turn your thoughts to the essay that all Higher Level students must write. The Visit has been described as a ‘tragi-comedy’ and you might like to take this description as the starting point for your investigation. Begin by considering one of these angles of approach; although remember to follow your own ideas and interests where you can:

How do the characters in The Visit present different ideas about justice?
How are the themes of appearance, reality, and artifice developed in both the stage directions and dialogue of Durrenmatt’s The Visit?
Is it possible for the audience to truly sympathise with Alfred Ill in Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s play The Visit?
How, and to what purposes, does Durrenmatt employ different types of irony in his play The Visit?
What does The Visit have to say about the corrupting power of money? How does Durrenmatt convey ideas about money through elements of his play?

Towards Assessment: Individual Oral

Supported by an extract from one non-literary text and one from a literary work (or two literary works if you are following the Literature-only course), students will offer a prepared response of 10 minutes, followed by 5 minutes of questions by the teacher, to the following prompt: Examine the ways in which the global issue of your choice is presented through the content and form of two of the texts that you have studied (40 marks) .

Th e Visit could be an excellent text to talk about in your oral assessment. The themes of humanism, morality, money, denial, deception, revenge and justice can be formulated into the Global Issue which will form the core of your talk. Now you have finished reading and studying the play, spend a lesson working with the IB Fields of Inquiry : mind-map the play, include your ideas for Global Issues, make connections with other Literary Works or Body of Works that you have studied on your course and see if you can make a proposal you might use to write your Individual Oral.

Here are one or two suggestions to get you started, but consider your own programme of study before you make any firm decisions about your personal Global Issue. Whatever you choose, remember a Global Issue must have local relevance, wide impact and be trans-national :

Field of Inquiry: Power, Politics and Justice
Global Issue: types of justice
Possible Pairings (Lit course: if you are following the Literature-only course, you must pair a text originally written in English with a translated work) : The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare; Waiting for the Barbarians by J.M. Coetzee.
Possible Pairings (Lang and Lit): I, Daniel Blake by Ken Loach; Nelson Mandela’s speeches;

The action of The Visit is motivated by Claire Zachanassian’s desire for revenge – which she calls ‘justice’ – over Alfred Ill for his treatment of her decades ago; a type of ‘eye for an eye’ justice. In fact, ‘justice’ means different things to different people throughout the play and exploring this idea could make for an excellent Individual Oral activity.

Field of Inquiry: Beliefs, Values and Education
Global Issue: money vs morality
Possible Pairings (Lit course: if you are following the Literature-only course, you must pair a text originally written in English with a translated work) : The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare; Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw; Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet; The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter.
Possible Pairings (Lang and Lit): editorial cartoons by Ann Telnaes ; I, Daniel Blake by Ken Loach; The Waldo Moment by Charlie Brooker; Drop the ‘I’ Word online campaign; various artworks by Mr Brainwash .

The townspeople of Guellen are offered a Faustian bargain by Claire: a million dollars in exchange for a man’s death. Dürrenmatt’s play shows his belief that idealism is no match for the lure of money. What do other writers have to say about this conundrum?

6 replies »

best website ever, super useful

Like Liked by 1 person

This is fantastic! So well organized and clear. Really useful! Thanks!

Love this, thank you!

love this so helpful but can you please share the answers to the worksheet

I haven’t made ‘answers’ – the multiple choice questions are easy enough to find in the text. The ‘understanding’ questions, I have my students write short answers or make notes and simply compare ideas. Any that are too difficult, the students listen to each other and note down ideas. Sometimes it’s interesting when students have similar or different answers. You can set these to do as prep for a class or let students do them in the first part of the lessons (15 – 20 minutes, then share answers and ideas).

very very cool

‘The Visit’: Theater Review

Lesley Manville gives a chillingly brilliant performance in Tony Kushner's grand, flawed adaptation of the Dürrenmatt play.

By David Benedict

David Benedict

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Director Jeremy Herrin’s extraordinary take on Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s 1956 play “ The Visit ” is less of a production and more of a show. A wordy one, to be sure, which is no surprise since it’s an adaptation by Tony Kushner that, including two intermissions, comes in at three-and-a-half hours. It’s never going to be described as fleet-footed, and there are undeniable longueurs, but with a 28-person cast, five musicians, 12 child acrobats, 16 supernumeraries and a 30-person choir, fascinatingly theatrical it most certainly is. And it’s topped off by a chillingly brilliant lead performance from Lesley Manville .

Rather like Eugene O’Neill’s “The Iceman Cometh,” but with more laughs, the first part of the play consists of the entire cast anxiously awaiting the arrival of the key character, in this case, the fierce and fabulously wealthy Claire Zachanassian (Manville). For the first time since she left as an adolescent 45 years ago, she’s returning to her fast-fading hometown of Slurry — in Kushner’s hands, we’re outside New York — which has not so much fallen on hard times as become bankrupt.

Her only real friend from her past, the family man Alfred Ill (the nicely shambling, but doughty, Hugo Weaving ) with whom she once had a secret, passionate affair, has been strong-armed by the mayor (Nicholas Woodeson, amusingly inept, but punchy) into heading the revved-up reception committee planning to greet her upon her arrival at the rickety train station. They’ll serenade, flatter and woo her into, what, filling the town’s coffers? Rebuilding it from the ground up?

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In the first in a succession of directorial triumphs from Herrin, his set designer Vicki Mortimer, lighting designer Paule Constable and sound designer Paul Arditti, we hear the screaming brakes and billowing clouds of steam as the (unseen) express train screams to a halt. And there, as the clouds part, is Manville’s Claire.

A dazzling cross between Eva Perón and Elaine Stritch, with a side order of Bette Davis, the glitteringly bitter Manville doesn’t so much walk the cavernous stage of the Olivier Theatre as stalk it. Backed up at every turn by her entourage of flunkies led by an erstwhile judge-turned-butler, plus her pretty-but-vacant seventh husband — not to mention an ominously empty coffin — she is commanding in every sense.

Initially playing her cards close to her lavishly dressed chest (the exquisite costumes are by Moritz Junge), she holds not just the townsfolk in thrall, but the entire audience. Having quizzed everyone about the state of affairs, she declares she will be the town’s savior and donate a billion dollars. But universal rejoicing is stopped in its tracks by her announcement of a single terrifying condition: At the climax of the lengthy first act she demands justice. For her, justice is retribution of the worst possible kind, and she has Alfred in her crosshairs.

From that point onwards, it becomes clear that “The Visit” is more of a fable than a play. An eventful plot is replaced by a premise: How far will people go in pursuit of wealth and prosperity? In the second and third acts, everyone makes the right noises, but they’re simultaneously preparing for what they argue is the best and which we know is the worst. It’s like a reverse spin on “It’s A Wonderful Life,” with the town slowly weighing up Claire’s utterly extreme demand and allowing greed not just to thrive, but, possibly, to win.

Alongside the increasingly vivid dramatization of the implications of her demand, Kushner builds a few too many opportunities for himself to debate the ideas behind it all. As a result, he slows proceedings down with well-written but static disquisitions. Yet Manville gives her character an unimpeachable self-confidence, filling the auditorium with such voice and staring demeanor that audiences are carried along. And speaking of impeachment, is it any wonder that the play set in the ’50s about the lure of money and the selling of a place’s soul resonates so strongly now?

One of the night’s biggest surprises is a song between Manville and Weaving that pops up, seemingly out of nowhere. She drops her fire and frost, he relinquishes his anger and distress, and, in the context of the nightmare surrounding them and engulfing the town, their singing in the atmospheric woodlands of their youth is shockingly tender. This gear change, so late in the dark proceedings, really ought to not work. It’s a hallmark of the production’s winning self-confidence that it so manifestly does.

Herrin’s production expertly balances small-town detail with epic sweep, the division between the two punctuated by woozy ’50s jazz played live by a quintet, highlighted by Miles Davis-like muted trumpet. Mortimer’s multiple sets, suggestive and enhanced with piquant detail, rise up and drop down through the Olivier’s giant central turntable, constantly turning to change locations, while Constable’s lighting swings expertly from the ache of nostalgia to the viciously hard chill of the baldly and boldly staged finale, supposedly “live on TV.”

Beyond the two leads, it’s the very definition of an ensemble production. Sara Kestelman and Joseph Mydell make strong impressions as the elderly schoolteacher with a moral sense and the local minister who sees things similarly, but also rather likes the idea of his church bell being replaced.

It is by no means a flawless evening, but the sheer scale of the production, unimaginable outside of the massively resourced National Theatre , fills gaps in the dramatic writing. Once any desire for an eventful story has been parked, audiences are left to revel in the playing out of a grand idea in a theatrical style rarely seen today.

Olivier, National Theatre, London; 1,129 seats £89 top ($116). Opened, reviewed, Feb. 13, 2020. Closes May 13. Running time: 3 HOURS, 30 MIN.

Production: A National Theatre presentation, originally commissioned by and produced in association with David Binder of a play in three acts based on the play by Friedrich Dürrenmatt adapted by Tony Kushner.
Crew: Directed by Jeremy Herrin. Sets, Vicki Mortimer; costumes, Moritz Junge; lighting, Paule Constable; movement, Aletta Collins, music, Paul Englishby; sound, Paul Arditti; production stage manager, Tariq Rifaat.
Cast: Lesley Manville, Hugo Weaving, Troy Alexander, Charlotte Asprey, Jason Barbett, Sam Cox, Bethan Cullinane, Paul Dodds, Ian Drysdale, Richard Durden, Michael Elcock, Paul Gladwin, Mona Goodwin, Garrick Hagon, Liz Izen, Sara Kestelman, Joshua Lacey, Simon Markey, Louis Martin, Kevin Mathurin, Alex Mugnaioni, Joseph Mydell, Stuart Nunn, Simon Startin, Tony Turner, Douglas Walker, Flo Wilson, Nicholas Woodeson.

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The visit : a play in three acts

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The Ending Of The Visit Explained

The Visit M. Night Shyamalan Olivia DeJonge Deanna Dunagan

Contains spoilers for The Visit

M. Night Shyamalan is notorious for using dramatic twists towards the endings of his films, some of which are pulled off perfectly and add an extra layer of depth to a sprawling story (hello, Split ). Some of the director's other offerings simply keep the audience on their toes rather than having any extra subtext or hidden meaning. Shyamalan's 2015 found-footage horror-comedy The Visit , which he wrote and directed, definitely fits in the latter category, aiming for style over substance.

The Visit follows 15-year-old Becca Jamison (Olivia DeJonge) and her 13-year-old brother Tyler (Ed Oxenbould) when they spend the week with their mother's estranged parents, who live in another town. Loretta (played by WandaVision 's Kathryn Hahn ) never explained to her children why she separated herself away from her parents, but clearly hopes the weekend could help bring the family back together.

Although The Visit occasionally toys with themes of abandonment and fear of the unknown, it wasn't particularly well-received by critics on its initial release, as many struggled with its bizarre comedic tone in the found-footage style. So, after Tyler and his camera record a number of disturbing occurrences like Nana (Deanna Dunagan) projectile-vomiting in the middle of the night and discovering "Pop Pop"'s (Peter McRobbie) mountain of used diapers, it soon becomes clear that something isn't right with the grandparents.

Here's the ending of The Visit explained.

The Visit's twist plays on expectations

Because Shyamalan sets up the idea of the separation between Loretta and her parents very early on — and doesn't show their faces before Becca and Tyler meet them — the film automatically creates a false sense of security. Even more so since the found-footage style restricts the use of typical exposition methods like flashbacks or other scenes which would indicate that Nana and Pop Pop aren't who they say they are. Audiences have no reason to expect that they're actually two escapees from a local psychiatric facility.

The pieces all come together once Becca discovers her real grandparents' corpses in the basement, along with some uniforms from the psychiatric hospital. It confirms "Nana" and "Pop-Pop" escaped from the institution and murdered the Jamisons because they were a similar age, making it easy to hide their whereabouts from the authorities. And they would've gotten away with it too, if it weren't for those meddling kids.)

However, after a video call from Loretta reveals that the pair aren't her parents, the children are forced to keep up appearances — but the unhinged duo start to taunt the siblings. Tyler in particular is forced to face his fear of germs as "Pop Pop" wipes dirty diapers in his face. The germophobia is something Shyamalan threads through Tyler's character throughout The Visit, and the encounter with "Pop Pop" is a basic attempt of showing he's gone through some kind of trial-by-fire to get over his fears.

But the Jamison kids don't take things lying down: They fight back in vicious fashion — a subversion of yet another expectation that young teens might would wait for adults or law enforcement officers to arrive before doing away with their tormentors.

Its real message is about reconciliation

By the time Becca stabs "Nana" to death and Tyler has repeatedly slammed "Pop-Pop"'s head with the refrigerator door, their mother and the police do arrive to pick up the pieces. In a last-ditch attempt at adding an emotional undertone, Shyamalan reveals Loretta left home after a huge argument with her parents. She hit her mother, and her father hit her in return. But Loretta explains that reconciliation was always on the table if she had stopped being so stubborn and just reached out. One could take a domino-effect perspective and even say that Loretta's stubbornness about not reconnecting and her sustained distance from her parents put them in exactly the vulnerable position they needed to be for "Nana" and "Pop-Pop" to murder them.

Loretta's confession actually mirrors something "Pop-Pop" told Tyler (before his run-in with the refrigerator door): that he and "Nana" wanted to spend one week as a normal family before dying. They should've thought about that before murdering a pair of innocent grandparents, but here we are.

So, is The Visit trying to say that if we don't keep our families together, they'll be replaced by imposters and terrify our children? Well, probably not. The Visit tries to deliver a message about breaking away from old habits, working through your fears, and stop being so stubborn over arguments that don't have any consequences in the long-run. Whether it actually sticks the landing on all of those points is still up for debate.

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Ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions, claire zachanassian, husbands vii-ix, koby and loby.

Far-right coup suspects go on trial in Germany's 'Reichsbürger' plot

Federal prosecutors said some 3,000 officers conducted searches at 130 sites in 11 of Germany's 16 states against adherents of the so-called Reich Citizens movement.

Nine men go on trial in Germany on Monday charged with high treason, attempted murder and plotting a violent coup d’etat aimed at installing an aristocrat as national leader and imposing martial law.

The hearing in a maximum security courtroom in Stuttgart marks the start of three marathon trials of 27 people in total accused of conspiring in a plot foiled by authorities at the end of 2022. Together they amount to one of the largest legal proceedings in German history.

Monday’s trial focuses on nine suspects, members of the Reichsbürger (Citizens of the Reich) group, who allegedly aimed to impose harsh military law on Germany after carrying out a coup.

The country’s domestic intelligence service Verfassungsschutz put the Reichsbürgers, who it says number some 21,000 people and who do not recognize modern-day Germany as a legitimate state, under observation in 2016.

The political leadership of the group on trial, led by real estate investor Heinrich XIII Prinz Reuss — scion of a now throneless dynasty — appear in court in Frankfurt next month, while another group of suspects including an astrologer stand trial in June in Munich.

Prosecutors say that the suspects’ meticulous planning and stocks of firearms and cash show they were a real danger.

“They planned to infiltrate an armed group into the parliament building in Berlin, detain legislators and bring down the system,” they wrote. “They understood that seizing power would involve killing people.”

Reuters was unable to reach the suspects, who are expected to contest the charges, or their lawyers for comment on Sunday.

Reichsbürger trial - Courtroom at the Higher Regional Court

One of those going on trial on Monday, referred to in trial documents as Markus L., shot and seriously injured a policeman while resisting arrest, prosecutors say.

The nine had stored up 500,000 euros in cash alongside 380 guns, 350 bladed weapons and some 148,000 rounds of ammunition.

Reichsbürgers tend to believe they are citizens of an earlier Germany — typically the pre-World War One German Reich — which has been usurped by today’s Federal Republic.

They base their beliefs on the idea that a foreign “Alliance” including the U.S. and Russia stands ready to help them depose an illegitimate “Deep State” squatting in office in Germany since World War Two.

“These militant Reichsbürger are driven by hatred for our democracy,” interior minister Nancy Faeser said on Sunday. “We will continue our crackdown until these militant structures have been fully exposed and crushed.”

The Reichsbürgers have parallels to and are partially inspired by similar sovereign citizen or the QAnon movements in Britain and the U.S., where similar theories about a Deep State helped fuel the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the Capitol in Washington, D.C.

Judges have scheduled hearings in the Stuttgart case until January 2025, but given the complexity of the case and the number of witnesses and suspects, experts believe it could run for much longer, possibly even for several years.

The last comparable trial, of members of the far-right National Socialist Underground gang that murdered 10 people, most of them ethnic Turks, lasted five years.

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Home games in May already have been more rewarding for the Los Angeles Dodgers, who are in line for a three-game sweep over the Atlanta Braves when the National League powers meet on Sunday afternoon.

The visiting Baltimore Orioles will look to complete a series sweep on Sunday against the Cincinnati Reds, who will bid to snap a season-high four-game losing streak.

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The Visit (Play) Plot & Characters
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The Visit (play)
The Visit (German: Der Besuch der alten Dame, English: The Visit of the Old Lady) is a 1956 tragicomic play by Swiss dramatist Friedrich Dürrenmatt. Synopsis [ edit ] An enormously wealthy older woman returns to her former hometown with a dreadful bargain: she wants the townspeople to kill the man who got her pregnant, then jilted her.
The Visit by Friedrich Dürrenmatt Plot Summary
The Visit Summary. The Visit tells the story of a woman returning to her hometown after forty-five years to exact revenge on the man that betrayed her—or, as she puts it, to "buy justice.". The play opens on a gaggle of unemployed townsmen who sit at a railway station in the fictional Swiss town of Güllen, awaiting the arrival of the ...
The Visit (Play) Plot & Characters
The Visit plot summary, character breakdowns, context and analysis, and performance video clips. ... Friedrich Dürrenmatt's The Visit is a piercing, darkly comic story of a scorned woman's ultimate revenge, exploring what dark deeds a desperate man can be pushed to. Lead Characters. Claire Zachanassian. The Visit - Play. 0. Alfred Ill. The ...
The Visit (Musical) Plot & Characters
The Visit plot summary, character breakdowns, context and analysis, and performance video clips. ... Based on the Play/Book/Film "The Visit" by Friedrich Dürrenmatt. Category. Musical. Number of Acts. 1. ... powerful step towards absolution. The Visit, the historic final collaboration by John Kander and Fred Ebb (Chicago, Cabaret, The ...
Analysis of Friedrich Dürrenmatt's The Visit
The Visit begins and concludes with a parody of a chorus like that of a Greek tragedy, which serves to give the play a classical symmetry, that heightens its sense of irony. The first act opens at the ramshackle railroad station, where four unemployed citizens sit on a bench and interest themselves in "our last remaining pleasure: watching ...
The Visit Study Guide
Key Facts about The Visit. Full Title: The Visit (German: Der Besuch der alten Dame ) When Written: 1956. Where Written: Switzerland. When Published: The play was written and produced in 1956. Genre: Dürrenmatt describes the play as a "tragicomedy," a comic response to the tragic nature of life in the wake of WWII.
The Visit
Article History. The Visit, drama in three acts by Swiss playwright Friedrich Dürrenmatt, performed and published in German in 1956 as Der Besuch der alten Dame. The play's protagonist Claire, a multimillionaire, visits her hometown after an absence of many years and offers the residents great wealth if they will kill one of their leading ...
The Visit Summary
The Visit Summary. The story opens with the town of Guellen (which literally means "excrement") preparing for the arrival of famed millionairess Claire Zachanassian. The town is in a state of disrepair, and the residents are suffering considerable hardship and poverty. They hope that Claire, a native of the small town, will provide them with ...
The Visit Act 1 Summary and Analysis
Analysis. The opening of Act 1 is ominous and dramatic, and effectively foreshadows the tragedy to come. Beginning the play at the train station gives the audience a wide view of the town of Guellen, and reveals how its humanist, cultured history sharply contrasts with its present state of impoverishment. The tragic state of the town forces the ...
The Visit Summary
Complete summary of Friedrich Dürrenmatt's The Visit. eNotes plot summaries cover all the significant action of The Visit. ... Though there is a fantasy-like air about the play, it contains ...
The Visit Summary
The Visit, by Swiss author and playwright Friedrich Dürrenmatt, premiered in 1956 at the Schauspielhaus Zürich under the German title Der Besuch der alten Dame, or The Visit of the Old Lady.Dürrenmatt's darkly comic satiric plays are credited with helping revitalize German theatre following World War II. His writing also reveals the influence of German playwright Bertolt Brecht, notably ...
The Visit Plot Summary
See Plot Diagram Summary Act 1 The play is set in the impoverished fictional European town of Güllen in the post-World War II era of the 20th century. The townspeople are excitedly preparing for the visit of renowned billionaire Claire Zachanassian. Zachanassian grew up in Güllen, and the townspeople hope she will give them money to restore ...
The Visit Act 1 Summary & Analysis
Analysis. The play opens on the fictional Swiss cathedral town of Güllen, literally "liquid excrement" in Swiss German. The name fits: the town is dirty, dilapidated, and, as noted by a chorus of the local unemployed (the First Man, Second Man, Third Man, and Fourth Man ), the town is in the midst of a deep and mysterious economic ...
Drama Study: The Visit by Friedrich Dürrenmatt
Here are two passages taken from The Visit; as this is a play the literary form is 'drama'. Each passage is accompanied by a guiding question to provide a focus or 'way in' to your response. Choose one passage and complete this Learner Portfolio entry in the style of Paper 1: Guided Literary Analysis.
The Visit
The Visit. Full-Length Play, Drama / 5w, 25m, 2any gender (youth) By Friedrich Dürrenmatt. Translated by Maurice Valency. In this haunting and blistering play, a wealthy woman offers financial help to her struggling hometown - in exchange for the life of a man who wronged her years before. Request license.
'The Visit' Review: Lesley Manville Stars at London's ...
The Visit, Tony Kushner. 'The Visit': Theater Review. Olivier, National Theatre, London; 1,129 seats £89 top ($116). Opened, reviewed, Feb. 13, 2020. Closes May 13. Running time: 3 HOURS, 30 ...
The visit : a play in three acts : Dürrenmatt, Friedrich : Free
The visit : a play in three acts by Dürrenmatt, Friedrich. Publication date 1958 Topics Drama, German drama, Durrenmatt, Friedrich -- Tr. into English Publisher ... Soon the townspeople realize they have become enmeshed in her vengeful plot: murder Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2021-03-18 15:08:34 Associated-names Valency, Maurice ...
The Visit (musical)
The Visit is a musical with a book by Terrence McNally, lyrics by Fred Ebb, and music by John Kander.. Based on Friedrich Dürrenmatt's 1956 satirical play about greed and revenge Der Besuch der alten Dame, it focuses on the world's wealthiest woman, Claire Zachanassian, who returns to her financially depressed hometown and offers its residents a new lease on life in exchange for the murder of ...
The Ending Of The Visit Explained
The Visit follows 15-year-old Becca Jamison (Olivia DeJonge) and her 13-year-old brother Tyler (Ed Oxenbould) when they spend the week with their mother's estranged parents, who live in another ...
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IF: Directed by John Krasinski. With Ryan Reynolds, John Krasinski, Cailey Fleming, Steve Carell. A young girl who goes through a difficult experience begins to see everyone's imaginary friends who have been left behind as their real-life friends have grown up.
The Visit (Play) Plot Summary
Plot. Guide written by. Marielle Renée Rousseau. The Visit full plot summary including detailed synopsis and summaries for each scene.
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The Visit Themes
Claire 's quest to win justice for Ill 's betrayal propels the plot of The Visit, and she ultimately succeeds in taking Ill's life and reputation as punishment for his wrongs. In many stories that depict a person avenging past wrongs, the ultimate verdict is seen to vindicate justice, truth, and morality. The Visit, however, uses Claire ...
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PALM BEACH, Fla. — Top officials for former President Donald Trump 's campaign believe they can flip Democratic strongholds Minnesota and Virginia into his column in November, they told donors ...
The Visit Character Analysis
Claire Zachanassian. Claire is a fateful figure, having returned to Güllen after forty-five years to seek revenge upon Alfred Ill, a man who betrayed her in her youth. She was driven from town at seventeen after… read analysis of Claire Zachanassian.
Far-right coup suspects go on trial in Germany's 'Reichsbürger' plot
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‘The Visit’: Theater Review

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Olivier, National Theatre, London; 1,129 seats £89 top ($116). Opened, reviewed, Feb. 13, 2020. Closes May 13. Running time: 3 HOURS, 30 MIN.

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