1. 1. Where are Gerardo and Paulina at the beginning of this scene? What importance does this have?
Gerardo and Paulina are in a concert hall in the beginning of this scene. I personally thing that it is important to acknowledge that Paulina and Gerardo may be sitting “in two of the seats in the audience”, through this the audience is made to reflect on the play in a more personal light, it makes them think about how Paulina and Gerardo are just like anyone else in the audience which then forces them to think about themselves. They are then forced to look at themselves in a mirror and so Paulina and Gerardo’s presence in the audience suggests that they’re just like everyone else, thus helping the audience to reflect on themselves and their actions and to think back on the play and think about what they would do if they were in Paulina’s position. Another way this is important is not only for the audience to look at themselves as individuals but also to think about those around them. The audience is aware of Paulina and Gerardo's situation (they've just been watching them and judging what they did) but when they join the audience, the audience no longer focuses on Paulina and Gerardo as characters. They see them more as figures through which REAL situations and emotions have been fed through. Then makes them think about the people around them, what have each of them suffered? Has anyone gone through the same struggles and suffering as the characters. Also, this can show that there is regularity back in Paulina’s life. The fact that Dorfman has decided to have “Death and the Maiden” playing in the background suggests that Paulina has accepted her past and gotten over (lessened) her suffering from the rape and torture.
2. 2. “It was the first time anyone had ever asked her to sit down” – Gerardo tells this anecdote as though it is proof of success. Do you agree that, if this is what the Commission achieves, it has been a success?
In my opinion, the whole idea of the truth commission was to bring justice to those who had suffered and continue to suffer since the change in government. If this is the case then the truth commission being the people who were the first to have asked a lady to sit down since the disappearance of her husband, then they have not achieved what they had set out to do. However, if the aim of the truth commission is to make those that suffered during Pinochet’s presidency feel as though they have some form of worth once again, then I believe that they have done so successfully.
3. 3. How do you think the audience would understand Roberto entering lighted by a “phantasmagoric” light?
The fact that Roberto enters “under a light which has a faint phantasmagoric moonlight quality” suggests to the audience that he is a fragment of Paulina (and their own) imagination. This also suggests that had Paulina followed through with her threats about killing him as a “faint” light surrounding a figure suggests the death of the given figure, as angels are usually surrounded by a faint, pearly light. This would then suggest that either Roberto had been released of all his sins by confessing to Paulina or that he was never guilty to begin with.
Also, the “moonlight quality” links back to all throughout the play, as the moon is one of the main features used by Dorfman to create an eerie and tense atmosphere, and links directly back to when Paulina was “drinking in the light of the moon” in the opening scene of “Death and the Maiden.”
4. 4. The play ends with Roberto “always looking at Paulina” whereas Paulina turns slowly, looks at him and then, after their eyes “interlock”, turns away. What do you feel this implies?
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