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Analysis of Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s The Visit

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on September 17, 2020 • ( 0 )

Tragedy presupposes guilt, despair, moderation, lucidity, vision, a sense of responsibility. In the Punch-and-Judy show of our century . . . there are no more guilty and also, no responsible men. It is always, “We couldn’t help it” and “We didn’t really want that to happen.” And indeed, things happen without anyone in particular being responsible for them. Everyone is dragged along and everyone gets caught somewhere in the sweep of events. We are all collectively guilty, collectively bogged down in the sins of our fathers and of our forefathers. . . . That is our misfortune, but not our guilt: guilt can exist only as a personal achievement, as a religious deed. Comedy alone is suitable for us. . . .

But the tragic is still possible even if pure tragedy is not. We can achieve the tragic out of comedy. We can bring it forth as a frightening moment, as an abyss that opens suddenly.

—Friedrich Dürrenmatt, “Problems of the Theatre”

Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s view of the theater as a vehicle for moral revelation and universal relevance is reflected in Der Besuch der alten Dame ( The Visit ), a tragicomedy combining expressionistic devices and elements of Brechtian epic theater with an inspired sense of the shocking and grotesque. At its core the play is a serious exploration of humanity’s dark side in its conviction that economics determines morality, an idea that is found in drama as early as the 1830s, with the opening scene of Georg Büchner’s Woyzeck . In The Visit the tragedy is that an entire community is caught in a sweep of events that leads to a murder by the masses; Dürrenmatt’s genius is to present what is a tragedy of commission into a work of unsettling humor.

In Friedrich Dürrenmatt the attributes of the dissident intellectual coalesced with those of the rural villager, the result of a family situation in which strict Protestant training coexisted with unorthodoxy. Dürrenmatt was born in 1921 in the Swiss village of Konolfi ngen in the canton of Bern, the older of two children of Reinhold and Hulda Zimmerman Dürrenmatt. His father was the Protestant pastor of the town church and his paternal grand father, Ulrich, was an eccentric, who had been active in 19th-century Swiss politics. A fanatically conservative newspaper publisher, Ulrich was proud to have spent 10 days in jail for composing a viciously satiric poem he printed on the front page of the paper. His grandson was also affected by the tales his father told him from classical mythology and the Bible tales recounted by his mother, all of which would later provide material for his works. Dürrenmatt’s first ambition was to become a painter, and while attending secondary school in a nearby village he spent his spare time in the studio of a local painter. He continued to paint and draw as an adult, and his first published plays were accompanied by his illustrations. In 1935 the family relocated to the city of Bern, where Dürrenmatt attended the Frieies Gymnasium, a Christian secondary school. He was adept at classical languages but was otherwise a poor student, and after two and a half years there he was asked to leave. He was then sent to a private school from which he often played hooky. Rejected from the Institute of Art, Dürrenmatt studied at the University of Zurich and the University of Bern, where he tutored in Greek and Latin to earn money. After a stint in the military and a return to the University of Zurich, a bout with hepatitis sent him home to Bern, where he studied philosophy at the university and considered writing a doctoral dissertation on Søren Kierkegaard and tragedy.

Dürrenmatt began his literary career in the early 1940s with fictional sketches and prose fragments, and in 1945 he published a short story echoing the intense style of German writer Ernst Jünger. He failed in his attempt to become a theater critic as well as a cabaret sketch writer, although the latter efforts displayed his gift for social satire. In 1946 he married Lotti Geissler, an actress, and the following year the couple relocated to Basel. His first play, Es steht geschrieben ( Thus It Is Written ), performed in Zurich in 1947, is a parody of Western history in the guise of a panoramic historical drama with Brechtian influences. Set in the 16th century the 30-scene play concerns Anabaptists, their transformation of Münster into a New Jerusalem, and the destruction of the city by a coalition of Catholic and Protestant troops. At once solemn, passionate, prophetic, religious, existential, cynical, and apocalyptic, the play is unwieldy in execution, with a large cast and dialogue ranging from the biblically hymnic to the absurd. It drew boos from its first-night audience; however, reviewers praised Dürrenmatt’s potential, and he was awarded a cash prize from the Welti Foundation as an encouragement to continue writing plays. Twenty years later Dürrenmatt reworked the play as a comedy, Die Wiedertäufer ( The Anabaptists ), which was more stageworthy but failed equally with audiences. A similar fate greeted his second play, Der Blinde (1948; The Blind Man ), considered to be a pretentious, heavy-handed blend of theology and philosophy.

Dürrenmatt’s first theatrical success was Romulus der Grosse ( Romulus the Great ), performed in 1948. It is a Shavian-like tragicomedy, in which the title ruler, personifying deliberate irresponsibility and inaction, accepts that the power and tyranny of Rome must give way to truth and humanity. He refuses to try to halt the barbarian destruction of Rome and ultimately accepts a pension from the German conqueror that will allow for a comfortable retirement. In 1949 Romulus the Great became the first Dürrenmatt play to be performed in Germany, where it became a standard offering in German theater. Nevertheless, Dürrenmatt continued to suffer financially, and to help support his family, which had grown to three children, he turned to writing detective novels, which were a great success, as were his radio plays. The royalties from the latter allowed him to purchase a home near Neuchâtel in 1952, where he lived until his death in 1990. He completed the manuscript for his next play, Die Ehe des Herrn Mississippi ( The Marriage of Mr. Mississippi ), in 1950. A panorama of violence and intrigue, with expressionistic touches, in which the title character destroys himself and everyone around him with his determination to impose absolute Mosaic justice, the play was rejected by Swiss theaters but was produced in 1952 at the Intimate Theatre in Munich and established Dürrenmatt as an avant-garde dramatist. Ein Engel kommt nach Babylon ( An Angel Comes to Babylon ), also produced at the Intimate Theatre in 1952, is a satire of power and bureaucracy that validates, through the hero, the beggar-artist Akki, the values of innocence and ingenuity over institutional power and corruption.’

https://viennaoperareview.com/

The philosophical, theological, and social themes that Dürrenmatt explored in his previous plays are highly developed, straightforward, and sardonically and grotesquely amusing in The Visit , first performed in Zurich in 1956 and from then on a mainstay of Western theater. The Visit is set in Guellen, a small town somewhere in German-speaking central Europe. The once-prosperous Guellen, where “Goethe spent a night” and “Brahms composed a quartet,” has decayed in recent years to the point where it is almost completely impoverished (the name in German translates to “liquid manure”). The Visit begins and concludes with a parody of a chorus like that of a Greek tragedy, which serves to give the play a classical symmetry, that heightens its sense of irony. The first act opens at the ramshackle railroad station, where four unemployed citizens sit on a bench and interest themselves in “our last remaining pleasure: watching trains go by,” as they recite a litany of woes:

Man three: Ruined.

Man four: The Wagner Factory gone crash.

Man one: Bockmann bankrupt.

Man two: The Foundry on Sunshine Square shut down.

Man three: Living on the dole.

Man four: On Poor Relief Soup.

Man one: Living?

Man two: Vegetating.

Man three: And rotting to death.

Man four: The entire township.

This chorus of men, together with Guellen’s mayor, schoolmaster, priest, and shopkeeper, gather to meet a train and greet its famous passenger, Claire Zachanassian (née Wascher), daughter of Guellen’s builder, who is visiting her hometown after 45 years. Now 63, she is the richest woman in the world, the widow of the world’s richest man, and the owner of nearly everything, including the railways. She has founded hospitals, soup kitchens, and kindergartens, and the Guelleners plan to ask her to invest in their town:

Mayor: Gentlemen, the millionairess is our only hope.

Priest: Apart from God.

Mayor: Apart from God.

Schoolmaster: But God won’t pay.

The mayor appeals to the shopkeeper, Alfred Ill (sometimes translated as Anton Schill), who was once Claire’s lover, to charm her into generosity. For his part Ill knows that if she were to make the expected financial gift, he will be victorious in the next mayoral contest. Madame Zachanassian arrives. She is a grande dame , graceful, refined, with a casual, ironic manner. She is accompanied by an unusual retinue: a butler, two gum-chewing thugs who carry her about on a sedan chair, a pair of blind eunuchs (who, as Dürrenmatt states in his postscript to the play, can either repeat each other’s lines or speak their dialogue together), her seventh husband, a black panther, and an empty coffin. When Claire and Ill greet each other, Ill calls her, as he used to, “my little wildcat” and “my little sorceress.” This sets her, as Dürrenmatt’s stage notes indicate, purring “like an old cat.” Eventually, the two leave the fulsome (and transparently false) cordiality of the town behind to meet in their old trysting places. In Konrad’s Village Woods, the four citizens from the first scene play trees, plants, wildlife, the wind, and “bygone dreams,” as Ill tries to win Claire over. When he kisses her hand, he learns that it is made of ivory; most of her body is made of artificial parts. Nevertheless, he is convinced that he has beguiled her into making the bequest. At a banquet in her honor that evening Claire sarcastically contradicts the overly flattering testimonial offered by the mayor of her unselfish behavior as a child, but declares that, “as my contribution to this joy of yours,” she proposes to give 1 million pounds to the town. There is, however, one condition: Someone must kill Alfred Ill. For her 1 million, Claire maintains, she is buying justice: Forty-five years earlier she brought a paternity suit against Ill, who bribed two witnesses to testify against her. As a result she was forced to leave Guellen in shame and to become a prostitute in Hamburg. The child, a girl, died. The two witnesses are the eunuchs, whom Claire tracked down, blinded, castrated, and added to her entourage. The butler was the magistrate in the case. The mayor indignantly rejects the offer “in the name of humanity. We would rather have poverty than blood on our hands.” Claire’s response: “I’ll wait.”

The second and third acts chronicle the decline of Guellen into temptation, moral ambiguity and complicity. In the weeks that follow the banquet, Madame Zachanassian, who, it is revealed, intentionally caused Guellen’s financial ruin, watches with grim satisfaction as the insidiousness of her proposal manifests itself in the town’s behavior. She also marries three more times; husband number eight is a famous film star, played by the same actor as husband number seven. At first gratified by the town’s loyalty to him, Ill becomes increasingly uneasy when the Guelleners, including his family, begin to buy expensive items on credit, even from his own store, and there comes into being the kind of night life and social activities found in a more prosperous town. Guelleners are clearly expecting their financial positions to change, and with this expectation comes a withdrawing of support for Ill and collective outrage for his crime of long ago. Claire’s black panther, who symbolizes Ill, is shot and killed in front of Ill’s store. Fearing for his life Ill tries to leave town on the next train but is surrounded on all sides by Guelleners. The citizens insist they are just there to wish him luck on his journey, but a terrified Ill is convinced they will kill him if he tries to board the train. He faints as the train leaves without him. The play reaches a crescendo, with the finale becoming a grand media event, when reporters and broadcasters arrive. Ill faces up to his guilt and publicly—and heroically—accepts responsibility for his crime and the judgment of the town, despite the support of the schoolmaster, the only citizen who attempts to question Guellen’s willingness to abdicate its responsibility as “a just community.” Ill is murdered by the crowd. The death is ruled a heart attack; the mayor claims Ill “died of joy,” a sentiment echoed by reporters. The mayor receives the check for 1 million, and Claire Zachanassian leaves with Ill’s body; the coffin now has its corpse. A citizen chorus descries “the plight” of poverty and praises God that “kindly fate” has intervened to provide them with such advantages as better cars, frocks, cigarettes, and commuter trains. All pray to God to “Protect all our sacred possessions, / Protect our peace and our freedom, / Ward off the night, nevermore / Let it darken our glorious town / Grown out of the ashes anew. / Let us go and enjoy our good fortune.”

In his postscript Dürrenmatt makes clear that “Claire Zachanassian represents neither justice . . . nor the Apocalypse; let her be only what she is: the richest woman in the world, whose fortune has put her in a position to act like the heroine of a Greek tragedy: absolute, cruel, something like Medea.” Guellen is the main character and Alfred Ill its scapegoat, ritually murdered so that the community can, at the same time, purge itself and justifiably accept a portion of Claire Zachanassian’s bounty. They are not wicked, claims Dürrenmatt, but, tragically, “people like the rest of us,” concerned with sin, suffering, guilt, and the pursuit of justice and redemption in an ostensibly alien and indifferent universe.

Source: Daniel S. Burt  The Drama 100 A Ranking of the Greatest Plays of All Time

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Film Details

Brief synopsis, cast & crew, bernhard wicki, ingrid bergman, anthony quinn, paolo stoppa, romolo valli, claude dauphin, technical specs.

Karla Zachanassian, reportedly the world's richest woman, returns to her birthplace, the small European town of Guellen. The people of the economically depressed town prepare for her visit, hoping that she will give them financial aid. She arrives in her Rolls-Royce, accompanied by bodyguards and a pet leopard. During a banquet in her honor, Karla shocks the townspeople by offering them $2 million to kill Serge Miller, the owner of the general store, who was once her lover. She explains that when she was about to bear his child, Miller bribed other men to testify that she was a whore, and she was run out of town. The child died, and Karla became a prostitute before marrying her wealthy husband. The townspeople are shocked by what they hear, but they refuse her offer. Later, trucks begin bringing valuable merchandise into Guellen, and soon the affluent townspeople come to regard Karla with more sympathy. When Karla's leopard escapes, the townspeople arm themselves for the hunt, but they are really hunting for Miller, who hides until the animal is killed. He begs Karla to put an end to her vengeful scheme, but she refuses. Miller tries to leave town, but the citizens prevent him. The town councilmen ask Karla to stop her persecution of Miller and invest in Guellen, but she informs them that she already owns all the town property. Finally, Miller is forced to stand trial, and he is sentenced to death. Karla announces that Miller will be freed if one man thinks his sentence is unjust, but no one speaks out. Then Karla instructs the court to free Miller, saying that her revenge will be Miller's living among the people who have killed him for money. Announcing that the visit is over, Karla leaves Guellen, taking with her Anya, a young woman whose life Karla fears may be damaged like her own.

Jacques Dufilho

Hans-christian blech, richard münch, ernst schröder, leonard steckel.

Valentina Cortese

Irina demick.

Eduardo Ciannelli

Marco guglielmi, lelio luttazzi, dante maggio, renzo palmer, fausto tozzi, richard arnell, léon barsacq, ben barzman, samuel e. beetley, robert christides, claudio cirillo, attilio d'onofrio, julien derode, françoise diot, christian ferry, giorgio di roma, rené hubert, wieland liebske, hans-martin majewski, jacques maumont, armando nannuzzi, john o'gorman, ottavio oppo, umberto picistrelli, award nominations, best costume design.

Location scenes filmed in Italy. Opened in Paris in July 1964 as La rancune at 120 min; in West Germany in September 1964 as Der Besuch at 100 min; and in Italy in 1964 as La vendetta della signora .

Miscellaneous Notes

Released in United States 1964

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by Friedrich Duerrenmatt

• The Visit Summary

The story opens with the town of Guellen (which literally means "excrement") preparing for the arrival of famed millionairess Claire Zachanassian . The town is in a state of disrepair, and the residents are suffering considerable hardship and poverty. They hope that Claire, a native of the small town, will provide them with much-needed funds. Alfred Ill , the owner of Guellen's general store and the most popular man in town, was Claire's lover when they were young, and agrees with the Mayor that the task of convincing her to make a donation should fall to him. As the town gathers at the railway station to prepare for Claire's arrival, they are met with an unexpected surprise when Claire steps off of an earlier train. She is grand, grotesque, and fantastic, and is accompanied by two henchmen, her husband, a butler, and two eunuchs, along with a coffin, a caged black panther, and various pieces of luggage. She begins a flirtatious exchange with Ill, and they promptly revisit their old haunts: Petersen's Barn and Konrad's Village Wood. Ill finds her as delightful as ever, though they are both now in their sixties and significantly overweight. Claire draws Ill's attention to her prosthetic leg and artificial hand.

After settling into the Golden Apostle Hotel, Claire joins the rest of the town, who have gathered outside for a homecoming celebration. A band plays, gymnasts perform, and the Mayor gives a speech. Claire takes the opportunity to announce that she will make a donation of one million dollars, half for the town and half to be shared among the families. The townspeople are overjoyed, but their happiness is dampened when Claire's Butler steps forward to reveal her condition. The Butler was once the Lord Chief Justice of Guellen, and had overseen the paternity suit that Claire had brought against Ill in 1910. In the suit, Ill had produced two false witnesses (who have since been transformed into Claire's eunuchs), and the court had ruled in his favor. Ill went on to marry Matilda, who owned the general store, and Claire moved to Hamburg and became a prostitute. She declares to the townspeople that she has come to Guellen to prove that justice can, indeed, be bought. Her donation is conditional on Ill's death. When the Mayor refuses, the town cheers in support, but Claire states rather ominously, "I'll wait."

Ill feels generally confident about his status in the town. However, as time passes, he begins to feel troubled about their growing discontent, and then increasingly fearful as he begins to notice the proliferation of new yellow shoes on the feet of the townsmen, and the fact that everyone seems to be purchasing especially expensive items on credit. He goes to see the Policeman to demand that he arrest Claire for having threatened his life, but the Policeman tells him that the threat is nonsense. Ill then turns to the Mayor, who echoes similar sentiments. Both figures are armed, because Claire's black panther has escaped from his cage and is prowling about the town. This only feeds Ill's fear, since "my black panther" was Claire's pet name for him in their youth. He runs to see the Priest , but the Priest seems to be turning away from him as well, as he effectively ignores Ill's fears and instead draws attention to the magnificent new church bell. Slowly, the standard of living in the town rises, even though the townspeople continue to assure Ill that he is safe. Claire then receives the news that her black panther has been killed, and she has a funeral song played in its memory.

In an effort to escape, Ill heads to the railway station, but finds that, strangely, the entire town is gathered there. They ask him where he is going, and he says that he is planning to move to Australia. They wish him well, again assuring him that he has nothing to fear in Guellen, but Ill grows increasingly nervous nonetheless. The train arrives, but he decides not to board, believing that someone will stop him anyway. Paralyzed, he collapses in the crowd, crying, "I'm lost!"

After some time passes and Claire weds a new husband in the Guellen Cathedral, the Doctor and the Schoolmaster go to see her and explain that the townspeople have run up considerable debts since her arrival. The Schoolmaster appeals to her sense of humanity and begs her to abandon her desire for vengeance and help the town out of the goodness of her heart. She reveals to them that she already actually owns all of properties in the town, and that she is the reason the businesses have been shut down and caused stagnation and poverty for the citizens. The Doctor and the Schoolmaster are aghast at this revelation.

In the meantime, Ill has been pacing the room above the general store, his terror growing as the townspeople buy more and more expensive products on credit. News reporters, having received word of Claire's imminent wedding, are everywhere, and they enter the store to get the scoop on Ill, having heard that he was Claire's lover back in the day. The Schoolmaster, drunk, tries to inform the press about Claire's cruel proposal, but the townspeople stop him. Finally Ill descends the stairs, surprised at the hubbub, but quiet. The reporters clear the room when they hear that Claire has just divorced the man she has just married, and has found a new lover.

After the confusion has cleared, the Schoolmaster and Ill have an honest discussion. The Schoolmaster explains that he is certain that Ill will be killed, and admits that he will ultimately join the ranks of the murderers. Ill calmly states that he has accepted his guilt, and acknowledges that the town's suffering is his fault. The Schoolmaster leaves, and Ill is confronted by the Mayor, who asks whether Ill will accept the town's judgment at that evening's meeting. Ill says that he will. The Mayor then suggests that Ill make things easier on everyone and shoot himself, but Ill refuses, insisting that the town must go through the process of actually judging and then killing him.

Ill goes for a ride in his son's newly-purchased car, accompanied by his wife, Matilda, and his daughter, both of whom are wearing new outfits. As they drive through Konrad's Village Wood, Ill says that he is going to go for a walk through the woods before heading to the town meeting. His family continues on to the movie theater. In the woods, Ill comes across Claire, who is walking with her newest husband. She asks her husband to leave so that she and Ill can speak privately. They reminisce about the past, and make plans for the future. Claire tells Ill that she plans to take his body away in the coffin to a mausoleum in Capri that overlooks the Mediterranean. She also tells Ill that she has never stopped loving him, but that over time her love has grown into something monstrous.

The town meeting is flooded with press, and the town publicly announces their acceptance of Claire's donation. They then go through the formality of a vote, which is unanimous, and the Mayor states that they have Ill to thank for their new-found wealth. The press is then ushered out of the auditorium to enjoy refreshments. The doors are locked, and the lights are dimmed. The Priest crosses Ill, and he is killed by the townsmen. Just as a reporter reappears in the auditorium, the Doctor announces that Ill has died from a heart attack. The reporters gather, and declare that Ill has died from joy. Claire examines the corpse, gives the Mayor his check, and leaves the town with Ill's body in the coffin that she brought with her when she arrived in Guellen. Claire boards the train at the railway station, and the visit comes to an end.

The Visit Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Visit is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

What are the actors celebrating in "The Visit"?

The actors are attending a homecoming celebration.

grandparents

Ok, so i know this is weird because this answer is 4 to 5 years from when you asked this question. But, what happened is the real grandparents were working at the asylum. and the fake grandparents broke out and went to there house, knowing they...

How do I choose the best Laravel developers?

Sorry, this is a literature site.

Study Guide for The Visit

The Visit study guide contains a biography of Friedrich Duerrenmatt, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About The Visit
• Character List

Essays for The Visit

The Visit literature essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Visit.

• Examining Claire Zachanassian in Act One of The Visit
• An Exploration of Mob Mentality in The Visit
• The Ironic Tragicomedy
• The Effect of Dehumanization in The Visit
• Poverty and Humanistic Values in The Visit

Lesson Plan for The Visit

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to The Visit
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• The Visit Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for The Visit

• Introduction
• Film and television
• Literature and theatre

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Additional Info

• Genre : Drama
• Release Date : May 13, 1964
• Languages : English
• Captions : English
• Audio Format : Stereo

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Friedrich Dürrenmatt

Ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Friedrich Dürrenmatt's The Visit . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

The Visit: Introduction

The visit: plot summary, the visit: detailed summary & analysis, the visit: themes, the visit: quotes, the visit: characters, the visit: symbols, the visit: theme wheel, brief biography of friedrich dürrenmatt.

Historical Context of The Visit

Other books related to the visit.

• Full Title: The Visit (German: Der Besuch der alten Dame )
• When Written: 1956
• Where Written: Switzerland
• When Published: The play was written and produced in 1956.
• Genre: Dürrenmatt describes the play as a “tragicomedy,” a comic response to the tragic nature of life in the wake of WWII. The play can also be considered a contribution to the theater of the absurd, which portrays the hopelessness of human struggle in a meaningless world.
• Setting: The fictional small Swiss town of Güllen in 1956
• Climax: The climax of The Visit comes near the end of its third act when the townspeople of Güllen finally execute Ill, thereby wrecking any hope that Ill might be saved or that humanism might prevail over greed.

Extra Credit for The Visit

Movie love: The German actress and documentarian Charlotte Ker approached Dürrenmatt in the early 1980s with the hope of producing a documentary about his life. The result of their collaboration was not only the film (entitled Portrait of a Planet ), but also their marriage in 1984!

Politically active: Dürrenmatt was involved in global politics throughout his life and he wrote a number of articles supporting Israel during and following its six-day war with Egypt in 1967.

IB Language and Literature 2.0

Group 1 english higher and standard level, drama study: the visit by friedrich dürrenmatt, from the prl / translated work (german) / c20th / europe / switzerland.

“He considers it a part of his philosophical business to reach a mass audience through his [works] without diluting that one main idea which permeates much of his writing: justice.” William Gillis, writing in the German Quarterly, 1962

Introduction

The impoverished town of Guellen looks to multi-millionaire Claire Zachanassian for financial salvation. When she offers them a million dollars, they think their dreams have come true – but her offer comes with a condition attached. They must kill a citizen of the town, named Ill, a popular man standing for mayor – and someone who just happens to be her former lover. Initially, the townspeople refuse, but their resolve is tested by the allure of wealth. Will they hold true to their morals, or will they end up carrying out her wish?

The Visit , written in 1956, was Dürrenmatt’s third published work and is set approximately ten years after the end of the war. Famously, Switzerland remained neutral throughout the conflict, siding with neither Allied nor Axis forces. However, Switzerland had deported its Jewish citizens, refused to allow migrant Jews fleeing the Nazis to enter Switzerland, hosted Allied soldiers in prisoner of war camps, and accepted looted gold from German forces. In Dürrenmatt’s opinion, ‘neutrality’ was merely a euphemism for ‘complicity’. Therefore, his play is set in Guellen, a thinly veiled representation of Switzerland; a community forced to choose between moral convictions and material gain.

• Biography – Friedrich Dürrenmatt
• Wider Reading – from A Ranking of the Greatest Plays of All Time

IB Student Learner Profile: Thinker

“We use critical and creative thinking skills to analyse and take responsible action on complex problems. We exercise initiative in making reasoned, ethical decisions.”

If any writers on your course can be called a thinker, Friedrich Dürrenmatt must be near the top of the list. He was born in 1921 in Konolfingen, a small town just outside the Swiss capital of Bern. The son of a pastor, he developed a keen interest in philosophy and went to Berlin where he began a doctoral dissertation on the philosopher Kierkegaard. In the middle of his studies, though, he came to believe that greed and hypocrisy had polluted life in Switzerland after the second world war. He abandoned his dissertation and returned to Switzerland, becoming a playwright and crafting controversial works full of dark humour and grotesqueries, laying bare the absurdity of European politics and society. He famously said, “it is not only possible to think with the philosophy, but also with the theater stage.”

IB Lang and Lit Concept: C ommunication

Arguably the defining language feature of Dürrenmatt’s play is pervasive irony . Hardly anybody says what they really mean, and their actions contradict their words. Even the ‘hero’ of the piece is guilty of shifting the truth when it suits purposes. As you read The Visit , consider how certain uses of language can be used to conceal as well as reveal, to distort as well as illuminate, and how communication is rarely straightforward in Dürrenmatt’s play.

“Everything can be bought.”

The first act begins with several townspeople gathered at the train station. They note with regret how few trains stop in Guellen; a sign of the city’s recent economic decline. They are waiting for the arrival of Claire Zachanassian, a woman who was born in the town, but had to leave under a cloud of shame when she was seventeen years old. Claire is now a multi-millionaire and the townspeople hope that Claire will give them money so they can restore their town to its former glory.

Claire arrives – early – and disrupts the townspeople’s preparations to welcome her. Nevertheless they give her the best reception they can manage and, after she visits a few places she remembers from her youth, the mayor gives a speech in her honour at the town’s hotel, the Golden Apostle. Claire then delights the gathered townspeople by offering them a million dollars – it seems like their hopes will be granted. But she attaches a condition which they cannot yet accept: they must kill Ill, her former lover, now a popular storekeeper and the man in line to be the next town mayor.

Act 1 Scene 1

“We must drink a special toast to Ill – a man who’s doing all a man can to better our lot. To our most popular citizen: to my successor!”

The once prosperous town of Guellen is plunged into desperate poverty, even while the rest of Europe seems to be prospering. Various men of the town of Guellen are gathered at the train station. The way the people look forward to Claire’s arrival shows their fixation on money, and in fact, it seems that they put money above anything else, such as religion, when they mention that “God doesn’t pay.” Guellen is a fictional town of Dürrenmatt’s invention meant to represent any Swiss town in the decade following the second world war. Therefore, the townspeople of Guellen also represent average Swiss people – if not European people as a whole – and so their fixation on money can be seen as a criticism of post-war European materialism. Equally, the town’s mayor, who is eager to welcome Claire and writes an oily speech praising her intelligence and generosity, can be seen to represent any politician who is willing to put materialism before morality and say whatever he needs to say to secure financial rewards.

Claire arrives at the station by riding a train which normally does not stop in Guellen. She pulls the emergency brake to make sure it does, and is initially scolded by an official of the railway until he finds out who she is. Then, like everyone else in the play, he wants to slavishly fulfil her every wish – even going to the ridiculous extent of offering to keep the train and all of its passengers there waiting for days until she wants to leave.

• Act 1 Scene 1 (Discussion and Activities)

Why are Dürrenmatt’s stage directions so specific about how Guellen should look? The shoddily tiled railway station, the ripped posters on its walls, the outlines of dilapidated buildings in the background; these details visually alert the audience to the town’s dire situation even before the unemployed men say anything.

Learner Portfolio: Putting on the Play

Based on Dürrenmatt’s detailed stage directions throughout Act 1, design the staging for a new production of The Visit. You could do some research into set design by visiting this Museums of the World online collection and viewing Milan Butina’s wonderful concept drawings for a 1958 performance of the play in Ljubljana.

Annotate your work with explainers as to the effect you want your design to have on the audience. If you don’t like doing visual or graphic design work, you could submit this Learner Portfolio entry in the style of a ‘letter from the director’, communicating with your design team about your ideas and the effects you want to create for your audience.

Act 1 Scene 2

A moment ago you wanted time turned back, in that wood so full of the past. Well I’m turning it back now, and I want justice. Justice for a million.

Claire and Ill tour some of the places they trysted together when they were young: Petersen’s Barn and Konrad’s Village Wood. Claire recalls how their relationship ended: Ill married another woman and left her all alone. She wound up leaving the town and becoming a prostitute in Hamburg, where she attracted the attention of a rich Armenian, the first of many wealthy husbands. Ill insists all turned out for the best because, if she had married him, she would not have become rich. Eventually, talk comes back to the reason for Claire’s visit and she promises that she will not let her hometown continue to suffer. Elated, Ill regrets aloud that they could not have married, and admires her once more. He keeps saying how she has not changed and kisses her hand. She corrects him; her hand, like her leg, is artificial. She was the only survivor of a plane crash and needed numerous artificial limbs.

Back at the hotel, the Mayor finally delivers his fawning speech in Claire’s honour. Afterwards, she reveals that she will indeed make a contribution to the town’s economic recovery. She will donate a million dollars to the town and its residents – but she has a surprising condition attached.

• Act 1 Scene 2 (Discussion and Activities)

While the possession of excessive wealth can lead to the corruption of one’s character, there seems to be the suggestion that poverty can have negative effects, too. Ill says that the lack of money in his family has made his home unhappy. Dürrenmatt criticises extreme wealth – and simultaneously recognises the effects of poverty. Do you think his play supports the idea of wealth redistribution from the obscenely rich (people like Claire) to ordinary people like the citizens of Guellen?

Learner Portfolio: Claire’s Worldview

Throughout the play, ‘justice’ means something different to each of the central characters. To Claire, justice is the same as vengeance – it is her desire for retribution against Ill because he wronged her forty-five years ago. This kind of justice is personal, Claire feels entitled to take Ill’s life even though it is outside the laws or even religious guidelines of her community. Furthermore, Claire treats justice as a commodity to be bought or sold. When the Mayor protests that “justice can’t be bought,” Claire responds that “everything can be bought.”

Write a one-two page piece about Claire Zachanassian’s worldview based on Act One of The Visit . Include a selection of her thoughts about various topics, such as:

• Relationships
• Other topics that you think might be meaningful.

“You can get anything you want with money”

Ill’s curiosity is aroused by the behaviour of people in the town. Customers in his shop order more expensive items than usual, people ask for their purchases to be charged to expense accounts; everyone in the town seems to have new clothes and shoes. Ill gradually starts to fear that all of this debt is being taken out on the expectation that the town will receive its reward from Claire; something they can only receive if he is killed.

Things take a more sinister turn when the black panther Claire brought with her to Guellen escapes. The Mayor orders that everyone carry a gun – even the priest Ill turns to for help has a rifle strapped to his chest. The priest, like everyone else in the town, dismisses his fears, and suggests that really it is the miserable state of his soul which should trouble him, not his fear of his fellow citizens. Eventually, things get too much for Ill and he resolves to leave town. He is headed to the train station with his suitcase, but the townspeople stand in his way. Guellen, they say, is the safest place for him. Is Ill simply being paranoid – or is the lure of money starting to erode the Guelleners’ moral convictions?

Act 2, Scene 1

“The way they all rejected the offer, all the Guelleners… unanimously, that was the finest moment of my life.”

Ill is alone in his shop. His son and daughter have both made excuses to be elsewhere, and he can only watch through the window as the townspeople bring flowers to adorn the coffin Claire has had set up as a reminder of her offer – and the condition she has attached. Throughout the morning, his shop is frequented by customers who tend to be a bit more liberal in their purchases and, what’s more, he notices their nice clothes and new shoes. All his customers ask him to charge the bill to their accounts. They would not do so unless they expected to come into possession of money in the near future, and with Guellen’s otherwise slim prospects, it is obvious they must be counting on the money from Claire. Ill quickly realizes this for himself, and this scene marks the beginning of his anxiety.

Throughout this scene, Ill sees that the people are getting used to living better than they have in the past, and he does not think that they will want to return to their previous way of life. Dürrenmatt criticises Western society’s obsession with materialism: people are unable to sacrifice what they have, even for a good cause such as saving a man’s life.

• Act 2 Scene 1 (Discussion and Activities)

Learner Portfolio: Practise for Paper 1 (Literature students only)

If you are a Language A: Literature student, at the end of your course you will sit Paper 1: Guided Literary Analysis. This paper contains two previously unseen literary passages. SL students write a guided analysis of one of these passages; HL students write about both passages. The passages could be taken from any of four literary forms: prose, poetry, drama or literary non-fiction . Each of the passages will be from a different literary form.

Here are two passages taken from The Visit ; as this is a play the literary form is ‘drama’. Each passage is accompanied by a guiding question to provide a focus or ‘way in’ to your response. Choose one passage and complete this Learner Portfolio entry in the style of Paper 1: Guided Literary Analysis .

Act 2 Scene 2

“Do you believe the people will betray you now for money?”

His anxiety rising, Ill visits both the Mayor and the town Priest for reassurance. The mayor then tries to reassure him by recalling the lofty heritage of Guellen; the citizens would never stoop to murder, he says. The mayor becomes resentful when Ill demands Claire’s arrest and points out that perhaps Claire has a point and that what Ill did to Claire was a pretty bad thing to do. Because of this, the Mayor tells Ill that his chances of becoming mayor have been dashed. The priest, like the others, dismisses his fear, and also suggests that Ill’s conscience is troubling him. Finally, it all gets too much for Ill and he decides to leave town. At the train station, he is surrounded by people who prevent him from leaving.

If their words contradict their interior desires, the exterior actions of the townspeople mirror the true direction of their thoughts. Many carry around guns, ostensibly to defend themselves from the panther. But, as Ill points out, their reaction is excessive. Even the priest, who represents religion, succumbs to this ambivalence and carries with him a rifle.

• Act 2 Scene 2 (Activities and Discussion)

Learner Portfolio: A State of Denial

‘Denial, or evasion of responsibility, is what plagues the townspeople. As their subconscious minds become more focused on murdering Ill, they refuse to see the reality for what it is’.

Use an analysis of Act 2 to support this statement. Spend a few minutes deciding on the kind of work you might like to produce for your Learner Portfolio. For example, you could write a mini-essay, mind-map the theme of ‘denial’, or create a Point-Quote-Explanation chart.

“You must judge me, now. I shall accept your judgement, whatever it may be. For me, it will be justice; what it will be for you, I don’t know.”

In the third act, the Press arrives to cover Claire’s visit to her hometown. They are aware that she has offered the town money, but they don’t know anything about the condition she attached to it – and the townspeople are anxious to keep it that way! The schoolmaster, with the aid of some strong drink, gathers up his courage and tries to tell the press the town’s secret; unexpectedly, it is Ill himself who stops him. Ill has realized that he brought this situation on himself through his past actions.

The town is planning to vote later that day on whether or not to accept Claire’s proposal and Ill tells the mayor he will abide by whatever decision is made. Will the town vote in favour of Claire’s proposal and kill him? Or will their humanist ideals and morality prevail over the lure of cash?

Act 3 Scene 1

“The world turned me into a whore. I shall turn the world into a brothel.”

The next step in the psychological ‘devolution’ of the Guellen townspeople is an attempt to bargain with Claire to avoid the downsides of her offer while still getting the benefits. They appeal to her own sense of greed by pointing out that Guellen’s industry could be quite profitable to her if she invested in it. Their efforts fall on deaf ears. Whatever profit Claire could gain through investment could hardly be worth her time, if she can simply marry another rich husband – precisely what she is now planning to do.

Meanwhile, Ill returns to his shop to find his family enjoying their own new purchases, and a group of reporters asking questions about the town’s proposed windfall. Of all the townsfolk, only the schoolteacher seems at all repentant, and tries to pluck up the courage to go to the Press with the truth about Claire’s ghastly offer.

• Act 3 Scene 1 (Discussion and Activities)
• Wider Reading – Justice and Morality in The Visit

Ill’s situation seems to have prompted some powerful reflection on his part, signified by the way he is directed to pace up and down in his shop. Do you think that his remorse over his past actions is genuine? Or is he still hoping to avoid his fate by evoking the pity of the townsfolk?

Learner Portfolio: Practise for Paper 2

Write this Learner Portfolio in the style of a practice Paper 2 response. You can use one of the prompts below, or another prompt given to you by your teacher. Although Paper 2 requires you to write about two literary works, for the sake of this exercise you could focus only on your response to  The Visit , or you could try to compare your ideas to another literary work you have studied ( visit this post for more help with Paper 2 ).

Choose one of the following prompts (or use another prompt you have been given), talk with your teacher about how to approach and structure your writing, then complete your portfolio entry:

• In what ways can the term ‘artificial’ be applied to literary works you have studied?
• Works of literature can often function as social or political commentary. Discuss this idea with reference to literature you have studied.
• Consider how works of literature employ humour, and to what effect.
• It is not always easy to ‘forgive and forget.’ Illustrate this observation with reference to literary works you have studied.

Act 3 Scene 2

“Not for the sake of the money… But for justice.”

Ill finds Claire in the Village Woods which, he finds out, she owns. After they briefly recall the time they had together when they were young, Ill thanks her for the decorations to his future coffin and tells her that the city council is going to meet to decide his fate. Unrepentant and unapologetic, she says that she will intern him in a mausoleum she owns, thereby asserting absolute control over him. After his death she says she will no longer be haunted by him; he will become just another memory.

Ill returns to the Town Hall where the press has gathered to cover the town meeting, though they are still unaware of its full meaning; they are not aware of Claire’s offer. The mayor begins speaking and offers his thanks publicly to Ill for securing the donation from Claire. They will hold a vote to decide whether to accept or reject Claire’s offer. Surprisingly, Ill tells the mayor that he will respect whatever decision the city makes. Will the lure of money prove too much to resist or will the town’s morality and idealism win the day?

• Act 3 Scene 2 (Discussion and Activities)
• Research: Types of Justice: Forgiveness (The Guardian podcast)

This scene helps the audience understand Claire’s offer more fully. As a rich woman Claire always gets what she wants: if she wants to travel somewhere, buy up an entire town, buy a panther, she can. So far, however, she has not been able to shake the heartbreak Ill caused. Therefore, she uses the same tactic of throwing money at a problem to solve it. Do you think, though, that killing Ill will really make her problem go away?

Learner Portfolio: Crime and Punishment

‘The most obvious overall themes of The Visit are those of vengeance and justice. Claire’s driving force in the play is vengeance and what she believes is justice for the crime which drove her from town in humiliation – and she stops at nothing to get it.’

Write a one-two page Learner Portfolio entry about vengeance and justice as presented in The Visit . Consider the following points to help you structure and develop your response:

• What type of justice does Claire represent? What does ‘justice’ mean to her?
• What does ‘justice’ mean to the townspeople? Are they really motivated by a sense of justice for Ill’s past crimes?
• How has Ill’s notion of justice developed and changed over the course of the play? What does ‘justice’ mean to him?
• Given that Guellen is a microcosm of Europe, what, seemingly, does Durrenmatt conclude about justice in Western societies?

Towards Assessment:  Higher Level Essay

Students submit an essay on one non-literary text or a collection of non-literary texts by one same author, or a literary text or work studied during the course. The essay must be 1,200-1,500 words in length.   (20 Marks).

Please find suggestions here; but always be mindful of your own ideas and class discussions and follow the direction of your own programme of study when devising your assessment tasks.

Now you have studied the entirety of The Visit , if you are a Higher Level student, you might like to turn your thoughts to the essay that all Higher Level students must write. The Visit has been described as a ‘tragi-comedy’ and you might like to take this description as the starting point for your investigation. Begin by considering one of these angles of approach; although remember to follow your own ideas and interests where you can:

• How do the characters in The Visit present different ideas about justice?
• How are the themes of appearance, reality, and artifice developed in both the stage directions and dialogue of Durrenmatt’s The Visit?
• Is it possible for the audience to truly sympathise with Alfred Ill in Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s play The Visit?
• How, and to what purposes, does Durrenmatt employ different types of irony in his play The Visit?
• What does The Visit have to say about the corrupting power of money? How does Durrenmatt convey ideas about money through elements of his play?

Towards Assessment:  Individual Oral

Supported by an extract from one non-literary text and one from a literary work (or two literary works if you are following the Literature-only course), students will offer a prepared response of 10 minutes, followed by 5 minutes of questions by the teacher, to the following prompt:  Examine the ways in which the global issue of your choice is presented through the content and form of two of the texts that you have studied (40 marks) .

Th e Visit  could be an excellent text to talk about in your oral assessment. The themes of humanism, morality, money, denial, deception, revenge and justice can be formulated into the Global Issue which will form the core of your talk. Now you have finished reading and studying the play, spend a lesson working with the  IB Fields of Inquiry : mind-map the play, include your ideas for Global Issues, make connections with other Literary Works or Body of Works that you have studied on your course and see if you can make a proposal you might use to write your Individual Oral.

Here are one or two suggestions to get you started, but consider your own programme of study before you make any firm decisions about your personal Global Issue. Whatever you choose, remember a Global Issue must have  local relevance,   wide impact  and be  trans-national :

• Field of Inquiry:  Power, Politics and Justice
• Global Issue:   types of justice
• Possible Pairings (Lit course: if you are following the Literature-only course, you must pair a text originally written in English with a translated work) :  The Merchant of Venice  by William Shakespeare; Waiting for the Barbarians by J.M. Coetzee.
• Possible Pairings (Lang and Lit):   I, Daniel Blake by Ken Loach; Nelson Mandela’s speeches;

The action of The Visit is motivated by Claire Zachanassian’s desire for revenge – which she calls ‘justice’ – over Alfred Ill for his treatment of her decades ago; a type of ‘eye for an eye’ justice. In fact, ‘justice’ means different things to different people throughout the play and exploring this idea could make for an excellent Individual Oral activity.

• Field of Inquiry:  Beliefs, Values and Education
• Global Issue:   money vs morality
• Possible Pairings (Lit course: if you are following the Literature-only course, you must pair a text originally written in English with a translated work) :  The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare; Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw; Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet; The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter.
• Possible Pairings (Lang and Lit): editorial cartoons by Ann Telnaes ; I, Daniel Blake by Ken Loach; The Waldo Moment by Charlie Brooker; Drop the ‘I’ Word online campaign; various artworks by Mr Brainwash .

The townspeople of Guellen are offered a Faustian bargain by Claire: a million dollars in exchange for a man’s death. Dürrenmatt’s play shows his belief that idealism is no match for the lure of money. What do other writers have to say about this conundrum?

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5 replies »

best website ever, super useful

Like Liked by 1 person

This is fantastic! So well organized and clear. Really useful! Thanks!

Love this, thank you!

love this so helpful but can you please share the answers to the worksheet

I haven’t made ‘answers’ – the multiple choice questions are easy enough to find in the text. The ‘understanding’ questions, I have my students write short answers or make notes and simply compare ideas. Any that are too difficult, the students listen to each other and note down ideas. Sometimes it’s interesting when students have similar or different answers. You can set these to do as prep for a class or let students do them in the first part of the lessons (15 – 20 minutes, then share answers and ideas).

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Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921-1990)

IMDbPro Starmeter See rank

• Writer (as Friedrich Durrenmatt)
• 1957 • 1 ep

• based on a story by

• short story: Der Tunnel

• play "Der Besuch der alten Dame"

• based on "Es geschah am hellichten Tag" by
• Director (theatre version)

• Lamont Friedrich

• Narrator (voice)
• In-development projects at IMDbPro

Personal details

• Friedrich Duerrenmatt
• January 5 , 1921
• Konolfingen, Switzerland
• December 14 , 1990
• Neuchâtel, Switzerland (heart failure)
• Spouses Charlotte Kerr May 8, 1984 - December 14, 1990 (his death)
• Other works Playwright: "Das Versprechen" (filmed as The Cold Light of Day (1996) )

Did you know

• Trivia Was nominated for Broadway's 1959 Tony Award as author, as adapted by Maurice Valency , of Best Play nominee "The Visit."
• Quotes What was once thought can never be unthought.

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The Visit Paperback – October 5, 2010

Purchase options and add-ons.

• Print length 112 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Grove Press
• Publication date October 5, 2010
• Dimensions 5.4 x 0.5 x 8.1 inches
• ISBN-10 0802144268
• ISBN-13 978-0802144263
• See all details

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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Grove Press; 1st edition (October 5, 2010)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 112 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0802144268
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0802144263
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 4.8 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.4 x 0.5 x 8.1 inches
• #51 in European Dramas & Plays
• #2,769 in Reference (Books)

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Friedrich durrenmatt.

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The visit : a tragi-comedy

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