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
Sofia was the fun, carefree child in her family and all of her sisters are shocked when they see Sofia being suppressed and controlled by her boyfriend. The sisters liked Manuel at first, but then they took a step back and saw that, “The Lovable Manuel is quite the tyrant. A Mini Papi and Mami rolled into one. Fifi can’t wear pants in public. Fifi can’t talk to another man. Fifi can’t leave the house without his permission. And what’s most disturbing is that Fifi, feisty, lively Fifi, is letting this man tell her what she can and cannot do” (Alvarez 118). They see how Sofia is being suppressed and are shocked at how Sofia let her boyfriend do this to her. Sofia meets Manuel in the Dominican Republic and at first everything was going great. But then everyone started to see what was really going on. This man, as acceptable in the Dominican Republic, was completely in control of what Sophia did and how she acted. This passage shows that men in the Dominican Republic need to be in control of their women and have them listen to everything they say. This shows even more when Sofia tries to stand up to him, saying, “‘You have no right to tell me what I can and can’t do!’” (Alvarez 118). Sofia standing up for herself infuriates Manuel because he believes Sofia should not stand up to him because he is the man of the house. Sofia then feels she must beg for
In Edward Bloor’s novel Tangerine, Theresa’s choices and the consequences of her choices affect the main character Paul’s development. Throughout the book, Theresa made choices that change Paul in different ways.
Paul has constructed more self confidence to speak the truth compared to his antecedent self. When Paul first meets Tino, Victor and Hernando, on page 108 he states “My stomach started to knot again.” This reveals that Paul is obviously terrified of them because he's the reason for their suspension. In Paul’s mind, if he tells the truth they will tear him apart in millions of pieces, which makes Paul refuse to speak the truth. Later, Paul finally had the courage to admit that he was the one who ratted them out, however Tino reacted surprisingly calm about it. Paul realizes that they are actually really great people, once you get to know them. After Paul took the truth off of his chest, their relationship
The victim speaks about how much her life has changed since the incident. She speaks about "sleeping with the lights on", showing the fact that she is still scared a year and a half later. The "long and invasive" rape exams effected the victim not only mentally but also physically. The psychological damage inflicted on rape victims is long lasting. The victim uses words like
The author agrees with the idea of women as victims through the characterisation of women in the short story. The women are portrayed as helpless to the torment inflicted upon them by the boy in the story. This positions readers to feel sympathy for the women but also think of the world outside the text in which women are also seen as inferior to men. “Each season provided him new ways of frightening the little girls who sat in front of him or behind him”. This statement shows that the boy’s primary target were the girls who sat next to him. This supports the tradition idea of women as the victims and compels readers to see that the women in the text are treated more or less the same as the women in the outside world. Characterisation has been used by the author to reinforce the traditional idea of women as the helpless victims.
As Alice was going through major hell during the rape and even after the rape, it seemed as it was not taken seriously by others. Alice describes her pain, fears, and many problems that came along the way when it came for fighting for herself and the after effect of the rape. Being a rape victim was not easy, and Alice showed many signals that she needed more than just comfort, but sadly many of them failed to provide that for her.
``(198) Melinda is talking about when she got raped. She is feeling regret for not speaking up when she should of. She wants to forget what happened but she can’t.
Equality, where are you on that grand scale between 10 and 90% and who will be your voice to equate? Bernie Sanders was born September 8th, 1974 in Brooklyn New York City, NY. Sanders, indisputably has the most unusual history of anyone in the U.S. Congress. He is the longest serving independent in U.S. congressional history and the only candidate who is not working with Super P.A.C 's having decided on primarily soliciting small private contributions. He became U.S senator of Vermont in 2006 and was reelected by capturing almost 71% of the popular vote. Bernie Sanders is a viable candidate with an ethical appeal who speaks to the populist, a candidate with a logical appeal who is most known as a progressive voice on political issues such as universal health care, civil rights, and income inequality. Above all, Sanders is a man with an emotional appeal who speaks of the Democratic values that everyday American 's care about regardless of their political affiliation. Throughout his career he has focused on the diminution of the American middle class and the expanding income and wealth gaps in the United States.
As a Renaissance woman protagonist, she acts within an completely male world: "I do not know/ One of my sex; no woman's face remember" (3.1.48-49). While no other women appear in the play, references are made to other women, but the count here is still minimal and sums up to three. Miranda speaks of the lack of female companionship around her because of her location, but simultaneously the audience sees that the references to women that do occur within the play often have a sinister purpose for appearing within the lines. The other women mentioned in the play seem to provide a sort of dark cloak over the proceedings of the play, even if they are completely absent. Regardless, Miranda, as the only physical woman in the play the audience actually sees and hears, is described by Prospero with kind words, and few, if any, negative imagery revolves around the appearance of the innocent Miranda. For example, Prospero informs Miranda that this "Art" is prompted by his concern for her; "I have done nothing but in care of thee" (1.2.16). Prospero also tells Miranda that his mistreatment and harshness toward Caliban stems from the fact that Caliban attempted to rape Miranda and Prospero wants to protect her from any harm that could come about from Caliban.(1.2.347-51). Prospero also indicates that Miranda, to him, is "a third of mine own life,/ Or that for which I live" (4.1.3-4); therefore after she is
In the surreal, dim lighting of her bedroom Paulina is shaken by a strangely disturbing laugh upon recognising Roberto Miranda's voice as that of her tormentor. This moment sees the birth or manifestation of another facet of Paulina's character, the part of Paulina's mind that fantasized about doing to her torturers what they had done to her. This is the unbelievably unreasonable Paulina; she is a Fury, a mythical deity, the embodiment of vengeance, unsusceptible to male logic or opportunistic, careerist rationalisation. Polanski makes Paulina throw the car over the cliff-edge. In doing this she is not only destroying a phallic symbol, and thus undermining Roberto's sexuality and any claims he has on sexual dominance or superiority, she is destroying a perfect symbol of the male thirst for power and control, and the pragmatic logic to which her need for revenge has been sacrificed, into the infinite, chaotic abyss that defies all these principles, and unquestionably swallows it up. In doing this she breaks the railing, civilized society has created to guard itself
In Sympathy, a poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar, the narrator speaks of his feelings that sympathize with how a caged bird feels and why he does what he does in his cage. The author uses style to convey the theme of oppression and imprisonment and the tone of pain and agony through the use of imagery, diction, and repetition.
For example, when Mayor Romero asked her about Fernanda; she didn’t want to reveal anything about Fernanda what she was thinking was revealed. She said “You’re not going to get find out a thing. If you know as much as you say you do, mayor, then why ask” (17). An example of an interior monologue was when she said, “You’ll also never know, little Romero, that I saw Fernanda almost every day. We worked together in the poorest parts on the outskirts of the capital, organizing projects for communities” (18).
The story proves that women are mentally unprepared for a life-threatening situation. Estelle has a comical tone through out the excerpt, “you know? RAPE, TEN THINGS TO DO ABOUT IT, like it was ten new hairdos or something. I mean, what’s so new about it?” The narration explains the
In addition, one can also argue about Paulina’s love-hate relationship with Gerardo, as she is clearly very emotionally attached to him, yet seems as though she treats him with a sort of disrespect or harsh manner. Paulina’s strange relationship also brings the audience to question this woman’s sense of judgment, and maybe even her past. Ironically, later she refers to him as ‘my little man’, contrasting with how he called her, and making sure that Gerardo knows that he is her husband, and she’s in charge.
“Trifles” a play by Susan Glaspell, emphasizes the thought that women were kept in their homes and their contributions to the home and family went unappreciated and unnoticed. The play gives readers a view of how women were view and treated during the 1900’s. As a female analyzing the play, Mrs. Wright’s motive for killing Mr. Wright was quite clear. Susan Glaspell gives her readers a feminist approach, to demonstrate how Mrs. Wright’s murdering of her husband is justified.