“Money alone makes no one happy”, says Mrs Ill (p. 72). Discuss how this statement relates to the plot of The Visit.

Monstrous Love , Wealth and Revenge

in Friedrich D 'rrenmatt 's The Visit

He who confronts the paradoxical exposes himself to reality ' is a very speaking quote for D 'rrenmatt 's imagery and vision . His auctorial universe is a disenchanted one , where human nature is haunted by folly and self-contradiction . Irreverent and in the same time sublime in his literary dissections , the author from Switzerland found paradox and hypocrisy to be the only constants of a world which confusedly emerged from two world wars . It is no surprise to find monstrosity so deeply

br embedded in D 'rrenmatt 's plots , as during his time (and not only history proved to be a collection of obscene horrors and senseless slaughter , which rendered the human spirit both perplexed and thwarted in contrast to the former Humanistic views that affirmed the dignity and worth of all people , based on the ability to determine right and wrong by appeal to universal human qualities

I found that what we normally read as a clichy : Money alone makes no one happy ' turns into a multi-faceted paradigm in the context of his play , and that it enforces exactly this underlying incongruity as both leitmotiv and unifying stylistic index for all the characters and dramatic situations of The Visit . In the great dark comedy of morals that Friedrich D 'rrenmatt forwards for meditation we find a surrealistic but subtle concoction of principles and concessions , of self-delusional acts and contradictory justifications we find an infernal chain of unjust acts that excessively cause further unjust chains of events , we find betrayal turning against justice in a gratuitous effort to do right , while the good and the bad lose contours and bs between the human and the grotesque melt in a terrific game of subversion . In The Visit , people and institutions affirm and then lose credibility identity or conviction - one by one - but without exception and the hallmark phrase Money alone makes no one happy ' -which hides a great cynical koan - is representative for the ambivalence of human nature and its treacherous essence . Dubious money , doubtful happiness . The purpose excuses the means and law excuses the purpose

First played in Zurich in 1956 , The Visit is a subtle manifesto about a post-war society haunted by guilt and presumably ready to sell its soul again if given the right bait . This vision shares the dramatic and darkly witty stylistics of the German Expressionism which at the beginning of the 20th century focused on the more sinister aspects of the human psyche . German Expressionism conveyed a feeling of darkness eccentricity , madness , paranoia , and obsession . German Expressionists often focused on the criminal underworld , infusing their works with a surreal , eerie atmosphere , anti-heroic characters , and elements of evil and betrayal

Betrayal is a special notion in D 'rrenmatt 's The Visit , as the key phrase put into the mouth of Mrs . Ill is brought in to symbolize the very contrary . There is symbolic and real treachery everywhere in the plot . During his youth , Mr . Ill had betrayed...