A Challenging Case: Characters and the Weight of Reality in Death and the Maiden

The chapter provides a comprehensive analysis of the characters in Roman Polanski's challenging film Death and the Maiden, using this case study to test the analytical framework developed in the book. The film, based on the play by Ariel Dorfman, centres on Paulina Escobar, who believes that a chance guest, Dr Roberto Miranda, was her torturer during a dictatorship. She captures Miranda and interrogates him, while her doubting husband Gerardo tries to dissuade her. Through its characters, the film explores serious themes such as political violence, rape, trauma, loyalty, and justice. Its multi-layered narrative and aesthetic forms constantly shift the viewers’ perspectives and their appraisals of the characters. The study emphasises how complex the experience of characters is already on the level of their traits and motives. Above all, however, it emphasises how important it is to also consider characters as symbols and symptoms, dimensions that are often overlooked in the analysis. As symbols, the characters in Death and the Maiden convey far-reaching themes, such as different conceptions of justice. Their symptomatic dimension is shaped by socio-cultural and biographical contexts and associated ethical questions: Polanski's personal history as a convicted rapist flows into a controversial discourse about the film and influences how viewers evaluate it and react to its characters.