The Visit: A Tragicomedy

Somehow I had managed to remain totally unfamiliar with Friedrich Durrenmatt until I stumbled across a used copy of The Physicists a few months ago. Fortune has again favored me; I just located a copy of The Visit, a tragi-comedy by Durrenmatt.Friedrich Durrenmatt created his imaginative tragicomedies in the 1950s and 1960s. His quirky plots, eccentric characters, and dark humor remind me of stories by Kurt Vonnegut. The pessimism found in Durrenmatt's plays is not entirely surprising as the European psyche was slow to recover from the devastation of WWII. What did surprise me was the remarkable ability of Friedrich Durrenmatt to blend comedy with this pessimism. He uses comedy to entertain us and we do laugh. But, nonetheless, we readers remain aware that this comedy, no matter how funny, is only a superficial layer covering a more serious topic.Fifty years have passed and Claire Zachanassian, now a multi-millionairess, returns to her childhood home, the small town of Guellen, not due to nostalgia, but to exact revenge. She offers the people of Guellen a fortune in return for justice, that is, the killing of her onetime sweetheart.Claire Zachanassian is an intriguing character, rich enough to do what ever she desires. She seemingly approaches revenge in an disinterested, almost passive manner. Neither rational arguments nor pleading for compassion have any influence on her. In his short postscript Durrenmatt suggests that her role might best be enacted as a Greek tragic heroine, something like the legendary Medea.I highly recommend the two plays, The Visit and The Physicists. I am already looking for his other plays.

"The Visit: A Tragi-comedy," by Friedrich Durrenmatt, has been translated from German into English by Patrick Bowles. This three-act play has a copyright date of 1956, and the English translation has a copyright date of 1962.This is an outrageous tale with a strong satiric flavor. The story takes place in Guellen, a European town that has fallen into economic depression and decay. As the play opens the townspeople are eagerly awaiting the arrival of Claire Zachanassian, a hometown girl who has gone on to become super-wealthy. The townspeople hope that her financial generosity will save Guellen. But from early on in the first act, Claire hints that she has a sinister, even deadly, ultimate goal.This is a colorful, richly peopled dark comedy. It's full of arresting dialogue, suspense, and grotesque characters. A major theme is the tension between capitalistic greed and the Western humanistic tradition. The play is also about sex, lies, and injustice.With her artificial body parts, bizarre retinue, and colorful backstory, Claire is one of the most remarkable characters in the history of drama--perhaps the most commanding female stage character since Lady Macbeth. She is charming yet sinister, grotesque yet oddly sympathetic. The creation of this character is, in my opinion, a great triumph for Durrenmatt.For companion texts, I would recommend the following: "Rene's Flesh," by Virgilio Pinera; "Bedside Manners," by Luisa Valenzuela; and "The Doorman," by Reinaldo Arenas. Each of these works is, in its own way, as bizarre and stimulating as "The Visit."

I have also studied this book and I was so amazed by the sexual tension and excitement created by the characters. I would recommend it to anyone!

I have studied this book with great interest as part of my further education studies in the German language. I was thrilled by the use of dramatic irony and symbolism to portray the many themes and morals throughout the play. This book was a ray of light in my otherwise dull life.

In "Visit" (Der Besuch der Alten Dame, original title in German), Durrenmatt takes the reader on what starts like some innocent journey, a simple walk down memory lane. But the journey quickly becomes very sombre as the characters make a generous display of all those sides of the human soul that none of us feel very comfortable with: revenge (half a century later), fear, cowardliness, greed, and group-think that can lead to murder.