Duerrenmatt's Mass Play

DUERRENMATT'S MASS PLAY IN EVERY SENSE OF THE WORD, Friedrich Duerrenmatt's The Visit is a mass play. That is to say it is a play about the behavior of the dehumanized masses of the twentieth century as well as a play about the realities underlying the symbolism of the Christian Mass. The Visit studies the behavior of a community as it drifts from unconscious conniving at murder to a conscious participation in a sacrificial killing. In the process of this transformation, from the unconscious to the conscious, the individual is obliterated and becomes absorbed into a mass of people speaking and acting like an automaton. The automaton is fed by a promise of a million pound check. The effacement of the individual is foreshadowed by the "characters" of the play who, with the exception of two, are identified only as numbers, nicknames, professions or community functionaries. After fifty years of absence Claire Zachanassian returns to her native town, Guellen, to right a wrong done to her in her youth. Alfred III who got Claire with child denied his paternity. To validate his denial he bribed two men into perjury, who claimed to have had sexual intercourse with Claire. Now, fabulously rich, she has come back with an offer of "a million for Guellen if someone kills Alfred Ill."! She demands "... justice. Justice for a million." (p. 39) There are in town all the institutions of a civilized society necessary to execute the sentence: the police to arrest, the Priest to console the condemned; the strong-muscled Gymnast to strangle, and the Doctor to confirm death. The business in hand is to bend these institutions to Claire's purpose, or as she herself puts it: "The world turned me into a whore. I shall turn the world into a brothel." (p. 67) The Mayor unambiguously rejects the offer "... in the name of humanity. We would rather have poverty than blood on our hands." (p. 39) Duerrenmatt does not provide the reader with explicit textual evidence documenting the steps by which the rejection turns into acceptance. The collapse of Guellen's moral system is not preceded by soul-searching soliloquies or dialogues weighing the reward and punishment that may result from the Guelleners' action. The absence of rational discussion reflects characters whose ability to think and feel has been removed. Between the unanimous rejection of the offer at the end of ! The Visit (London, 1962, p. 38). All citations are to the Jonathan Cape edition , and will appear in the text hereafter. 30 1969 DUERRENMATT'S MASS PLAY 31 Act I and the unanimous acceptance of it in the middle of Act III, III experiences a growing awareness of his impending end, expressed in the interview with the Mayor: "You've already condemned me to death," III tells him. (p. 55) Parallel to Ill's awareness of the inevitable , the Guelleners seemed to have arrived at a tacit understanding of the profit to be had by killing their fellow-citizen. This latent agreement becomes explicit in the railway-station scene, the closing of Act II. I should like to follow, here, the process that finally leads to the elimination of the human element from the characters of the play. At the opening of Act II, III sees through his window-shop a wreath being delivered to the Golden Apostle where the coffin waits to be inhabited. He is, however, confident that the "town's on my side." (p. 40) The citizens in the shop, while treating themselves to expensive brandy "on account," declare their readiness to ". . . stick by you. We'll stick by our Ill. Com.e what may." (P.44) Encouraged by the solidarity displayed in the Golden Apostle and in his shop, yet terrified by the sudden boom overrunning the town, III rushes to the Police Inspector to "demand the arrest of Claire Zachanassian," on the grounds of "inciting the people of our town to kill me." (p. 48) The Police Inspector's refusal to comply with Ill's demand is based on absurd logic and sterile legalism. First, he contends "this proposal cannot be meant seriously, because one million is an exorbitant price.... People offer a hundred...