Durrenmatt Pride And Forgiveness

When someone is hurt as a result of another individual’s action, it is assumed that his/her pride will be damaged, and it can be hard for him/her to forgive. In Friedrich Durrenmatt’s drama, The Visit, the internal conflict between forgiveness and pride is clearly depicted in the text. Durrenmatt’s main protagonists, Alfred and Claire, both exhibit excessive pride which leads to their incapacity to extend forgiveness. Durrenmatt introduces pride to the reader upon Claire’s arrival; however, after further reading it is revealed that the pride in Gullen is a result of a past occurrence with Alfred and Claire. The butler begins to tell of the pride filled incident by reminding Ill, “‘Claire charged you with being the father of her child’ . . . . . ‘you denied paternity, Mr. Ill’” ( ). The Chief Justice at the time, is offering Alfred the opportunity confess to the paternity of his and Claire’s alleged baby. Instead of coming clean, Alfred allows his pride to get in the way and he denies it. The butler then concludes by stating “That’s the story: a judge, a defendant, two false witnesses, a miscarriage of justice” ( ). By using this metaphor, the reader can interpret

When Claire returns to Gullen after many years away, she states “life has gone on, but I have forgotten nothing” ( ) . In this statement, Claire is outwardly expressing her inability to let go of the past and forgive Ill. Furthermore, Claire tells Alfred that she is “indestructible” (26). This implies that her life hasn’t been easy for her and that her pride has protected along the way. Claire has created an identity filled with pride from her bad memories of Alfred and because of that, she has no intention of ever making herself vulnerable again, even if that means never forgiving Alfred and cutting off her nose to spite her own