Friedrich Durrenmatt: The Visit
From: Durrenmatt's Drama by Kenneth Northcott.
"Dürrenmatt believes not only that there are no dramatic heroes today—that, indeed, in modern society the dramatic hero has become an impossibility—but also that democracy has no need of, nor any place for, real heroes. Even though the media will try to elevate athletes, winners of minor military actions, or firemen who rescue someone from a burning building into momentary heroes, their life as hero is a short one, and for this reason he calls all but one of his plays "comedies."
But "comedy" for Dürrenmatt is a broad term: in comedy the shortcomings of the individual are revealed. "The tragic is still possible even if pure tragedy is not"—and here the essential point is that the tragic flaw has taken on a new form in modern society: it is society, not fate, that dooms the protagonist."
Today we will read The Visit, a play Durrenmatt called his only tragi-comedy (We will complete the play next class, in class)
Information about Friedrich Durrenmatt can be found here. Essential questions to consider:
--how does society or the group affect what we believe is right or morally good?
Themes include: the corruption of people based on the promise of money/gain; the recurrence of past events (how our histories can come back to haunt us)
HOMEWORK: Please complete this play.
"Dürrenmatt believes not only that there are no dramatic heroes today—that, indeed, in modern society the dramatic hero has become an impossibility—but also that democracy has no need of, nor any place for, real heroes. Even though the media will try to elevate athletes, winners of minor military actions, or firemen who rescue someone from a burning building into momentary heroes, their life as hero is a short one, and for this reason he calls all but one of his plays "comedies."
But "comedy" for Dürrenmatt is a broad term: in comedy the shortcomings of the individual are revealed. "The tragic is still possible even if pure tragedy is not"—and here the essential point is that the tragic flaw has taken on a new form in modern society: it is society, not fate, that dooms the protagonist."
Today we will read The Visit, a play Durrenmatt called his only tragi-comedy (We will complete the play next class, in class)
Information about Friedrich Durrenmatt can be found here. Essential questions to consider:
--how does society or the group affect what we believe is right or morally good?
Themes include: the corruption of people based on the promise of money/gain; the recurrence of past events (how our histories can come back to haunt us)
HOMEWORK: Please complete this play.
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