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How Does Dorfman Present Paulina's Insecurities In The Play

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In the play Death and the Maiden by Ariel Dorfman, the dialogue used by Paulina Salas expresses her insecurity and continued suffering. Through diction and syntax, Dorfman displays Paulina’s inner feelings, showing her continuous suffering from the torture she faced in her past. His choice of words show the remnants of Paulina’s insecurities, and the way she speaks allows the reader to have some insight on how she tries to make up for her insecurities when surrounded by a man she sees as a threat. Dorfman uses dialogue to characterize and develop Paulina Salas, a woman of about forty years old, as an insecure woman suffering from the events of her past, especially through the use of monologues. Her dialogue tends to be mocking and repetitive …show more content…

In doing so, Paulina unintentionally shows one of her biggest insecurities: she now has a lingering fear of not having control over the situation, as seen in the instance when she accuses Roberto of torturing her in the past. She even says, “I hope you don’t mind that this must remain, for the moment, a monologue,” showing that she gets to control what Roberto says and when (20). In this way, she uses her monologues to make her demands and accusations, but as a whole, they act as a way to show the reader that she still feels pain, still feels suffering, still feels insecure. Paulina accuses Roberto of working with the people torturing her in one of her monologues, stating that “[she] never gave them Gerardo’s name” (30). The entire time she was being tortured for information, she never once gave up his name. This one action shows her defiance, as she relied on this to keep Gerardo safe, becoming one small way she was able to maintain some sense of control. However, her insecurity returns, as she turns to questioning her own actions, asking Roberto whether he knows about her husband or not; this shows that she still suffers from the tortures she endured, and in order to heal, she wants to place blame upon someone else. Even though she had had some control in the past and could regain it again in the present time, her insecurities …show more content…

For instance, Paulina, in discussing with Gerardo what to do with Roberto, works through forcing Gerardo to say that her abusers raped her, and that it had happened many times. She prompts Gerardo through saying things like, “what did they do to me, Gerardo. Say it. You never wanted to say it before. Say it now. They...” (34). Through doing this, she once again takes control of the situation, by making the men tell her what she wants to hear. This control covers her insecurities, as it makes Roberto feel just as bad as she perpetually does, allowing her to regain some small semblance of power. She does this again later in the play, when she convinces him to tell her if he was still having an affair while she was being raped and tortured over information about him. In this instance, while she believes that taking control of the situation will benefit her and cover her insecurities, she instead faces heartbreak and more pain. Rather than convincing Gerardo to tell her what she already knows, how many times she endured rape, she forces him to tell her how many times he had been with the woman he cheated on her with while she was gone. She demands to know “how many times,” (54) and in doing so, causes immense pain to both herself and her husband, as she was being

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