Claire Durrenmatt Quotes

The Visit, by Friedrich Dürrenmatt, is about the billionaire who seeks revenge. Claire got pregnant from Alfred in her young years, but he denied being the father, destroying her reputation. She was drawn into prostitution after her town, Güllen, abandoned her. She became rich after a billionaire fell in love with her and married her. After his death she married again several times until she came back to the town to get her revenge from Alfred. She is willing to give the whole entire town one billion dollars if they kill Alfred. A hunt begins for Alfred who constantly has to worry about getting killed by the town inhabitants. The main character, Claire, who is the most powerful character in this play and as well a woman, is shown as a cruel,

wicked person. She uses her power for her personal revenge. He shows her as a wicked personality that is using her power for the bad once she received it. Dürrenmatt uses Claire’s physical appearance as well as her vengeance and reputation to criticize women in power.

In the Middle Ages, Europeans were hunting women who looked a certain way and had suspicious behavior, because they thought they were witches.

A typical image of a witch was red hair, green eyes or in general extraordinary features. Dürrenmatt uses this image and pictures Europeans have of witches to influence our perception of Claire. He describes Claire as a red haired, old woman with extraordinary clothes and a wicked personality. “…, Claire Zachanassian, sixty-two, red-haired, pearl necklace, huge gold bracelet, extravagantly made up, quite impossible but just for that reason a grande dame, with peculiar grace, despite her grotesque appearance.” (Dürrenmatt, p.

9)
He is associating Claire with a witch and is putting this image and perception of her in the head of his reader. Her cruel and wicked behavior makes this image of her even stronger and shows her as even more inhuman.

Claire has multiple prosthesis because she lost a few body parts in accidents. Those make her really artificial and inhuman, almost as if she were a robot.
The Visit “Ill: Clara, is everything about you artificial? Claire Z.: Almost. “
(Dürrenmatt, p.26). Dürrenmatt is using that to show the audience how inhuman Claire is and prevents us from being able to relate to her. It gives the reader an image of a machine without a heart and soul. She acts mechanically instead of someone with forgiveness and kindness. Her decisions are mechanical and made without deeper thinking and ethical questioning behind them. Dürrenmatt wants to deepen this understanding of Claire with her visual appearance as well and creates her as a half human, half mechanical, artificial person. What makes it impossible for the reader to build any kind of connection to her.

Claire received her billions after prostituting herself and after that marrying a rich man who fell in love with her. Since then, she has married multiple men without being in love, and divorces them after a short time. “Claire: May I introduce you to my seventh husband, Alfred? He owns tobacco plantations. We’re happily married.” (Dürrenmatt, p. 14). Although she says she is happy, she divorces him shortly after and marries somebody new. The fact that she is saying she is happy but still is looking for new men and divorces the other ones shows that she is liar as well. Within the play she marries three times without being sorry about the failure of her past marriages what makes her very unsympathetic. Especially in the time of the Visit the reputation of a women was extremely important for how she was seen in her community. Dürrenmatt uses that to give people back then an even worse view on Claire. After they associate her with a witch, they now have her in mind as a woman who is just marrying every men she sees.

Claire has a really special way of getting justice. She is not just getting “justice” from Ill, who started all of the things that destroyed her life. She also punishes the judge that held her case and the pair who claimed she slept with both of them so Ill would not have to take responsibility for Claire’s and his child. Claire did not just get justice she got revenge. She blinded and castrated them as revenge of what they have done to her. “Claire: Now tell them what I did with you, Koby and Loby.
Butler: Tell them.
The pair: The lady tracked us down, the lady tracked us down.
…
Butler: And what did Toby and Roby did to you?

The pair: Castrated and blinded us, castrated and blinded us.”

(Dürrenmatt, p. 33-34)

The two men were young, immature and did not know the right thing to do. She wanted to punish them for their ignorance and lies, so she blinded them. When she ruined their lives by castrating and blinded them, she did not get justice, she took revenge. That shows how cruel and unremorseful she is. Instead of giving both of them a fair trial and give them an appropriate punishment for their past actions, she uses her power to get revenge.

Dürrenmatt shows his perception of women in power especially in Claire’s revenge on Alfred.

Claire uses her power to influence the people and convince them to go over their essential ethical viewpoints and get them to murder one of their town people. “Claire: I can afford justice. One billion for Güllen, if someone kills Alfred Ill” (Dürrenmatt, p. 35). Claire is getting her revenge without giving Alfred a fair trial. Like the pair, Alfred was young, probably afraid of taking such a huge responsibility at this age. He should have gotten the chance of a fair trial, where he can at least show his side of the story and has the chance to defend himself. But Claire is not giving him that and shows no mercy, the only thing she has in mind is her revenge, even when she says that it is justice. Dürrenmatt shows women’s “incapability” to have power. Claire is the only woman in the play who received power and she is using it to do something not just illegal but also

unethical.

Dürrenmatt uses different techniques to influence our perception of women in power, such as Claire. He gives the audience a visual association with Claire as a witch, her red hair and odd clothing are leading the European reader into his inner perception and picture of a witch and connects those with the image of Claire. He makes her inhuman in creating half of her body artificial and makes her a machine without a human soul. With those visual images he prevents the ability for the reader to connect with Claire’s character. With Claire’s reputation and past he tries to give us the picture of an impulsive, irresponsible and unsympathetic woman. Especially for people during the 1950’s was the reputation of a woman extremely important. A woman that got pregnant in such a young age, prostituted herself, whether she had a choice or not, and married for money and multiple times, was not seen well. The only important woman with power in the play is Claire, with her cruelty he shows what women would do if they had power, he shows his views on women empowerment through that. Especially her cruelty in her revenge on the pair, although they should have the opportunity of a fair trial. As well as corrupting the town inhabitants to get her revenge from Alfred, showed that Claire is using her power in an evil way. Dürrenmatt uses those elements to manipulate our perception of a woman in power and makes her an evil monster that is guided by her hate and incapable of making reasonable decisions and show mercy.