Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Gerardo's Dilemma

I watched the trailer for the movie "Death and the Maiden" right after I read the play, and it shocked me to see how different my perception of who is telling the truth switches after I watched the characters on the screen. While reading, I saw Dr. Miranda to be the honest and truthful one. I thought it was near impossible for Paulina to recognize him solely by his voice, this being fifteen years later. I pictured Dr. Miranda as a genuine, nice, old man who was truly innocent and caught in a predicament that was completely out of his control. Paulina was portrayed as an insane, jealous woman stuck in the past and cannot seem to let go. Even when she caught the doctor in a lie, I still was convinced that she has a psychological disorder and that he was innocent.
However, when I watched the trailer, my mind completely changed. Something about the mannerisms of the man who played Dr. Miranda struck me as guilty and trying to hide something. The sound of his voice, the way he quoted Nietzsche, everything made him look guilty. It was odd to me that a two minute trailer could put me on such an opposite side of the spectrum.
This put it in perspective for me, then, how difficult it was for Geraldo to side with one of them. On one hand, his wife, the one he clearly loves more, is telling him this man tortured and raped her. He should believe his wife, however, she is obviously mentally disturbed even after fifteen years and would probably be hard to believe. On the other hand, this man just helped him out, he was a Good Samaritan and he has no reason to believe that this man is Schubert, "the doctor." But he can't not believe his own wife. Geraldo is in a pickle, as the reader is at the end of the story. I believe an important aspect of "Death and the Maiden" is the struggle between reason and loyalty when there are huge risks at hand.

This link is an essay that talks about soldiers being torn between loyalty to their country, and the internal conflicts they face in war.

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