Death and The Maiden

I didn’t really notice too, too many differences between the play and film versions, aside from the beginning and the end. For instance, in the play, Paulina doesn’t steal his car, she just knocks him out. And the ending is more open to interpretation in the play; we do not know if she actually kills him or she lets him go. I think ultimately, in comparison to The Reluctant Fundamentalist, we can see that the major difference between book and film adaptation is in the details. A book clearly has more space to give lots of detail about characters and plot; whereas, in a film, it has to condense the book into a script. Details have to be spared. Because of this, films aim for a more dramatic effect I think. They pack a punch and get the point across more quickly, because they have to. Books have the leisure to go on as long as they need to, and readers have the opportunity to go back and reread parts that they do not fully understand. Sure, we can re-watch a film but still we will not understand as clearly as we would from the details in a book, or in the case of Death and The Maiden, a play.

            As for what we discussed in class, I realized I really have this weird fascination with the topic of rape and why people do it and how victims recover, or don’t. Knowing now that Polanski raped a young girl and then wrote this play I think says something about him. Maybe it is just me, but I feel like in a way, this is his method of reconciling himself. A rapist is caught and forced to verbalize the terrible crime he has committed. Polanski, probably like Miranda, at the time didn’t feel like what he was doing was so terrible. Of course, to the viewer/reader, that sounds like crap. How could you possibly not know that what you are doing is wrong? I think Polanski uses Miranda’s confession as a means to confess to his own heinous deed. And like with Miranda, we never know if Polanski was killed (figuratively, meaning couldn’t handle what he had done) or if he was let free (figuratively, meaning he reconciled with his actions). In both cases, regardless of the outcome, no one is ever forgiven.

I really think what Norway is doing is a good thing, for the people who really do have a psychological problem, which I feel that many serial criminals have. Someone does not just wake up one day and begin to rape women over and over again. I understand that it can happen once and someone not have a mental problem, but if it happens continuously, in a similar form, someone has a real problem. I do not think, though, that these people should receive so many luxuries. They still committed a crime, but they should be getting help. Not just get thrown in jail and possible be released and commit those crimes all over again.