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The Visit, written by Fredrich Dürrenmatt shortly after World War II, in 1956, depicts the life and death of the protagonist, Alfred Ill. Ill is Güllen’s most respected citizen and is soon to be given the title of major. However, Ill’s future is quickly altered by Claire Zachanassian’s Visit to the impoverished town. Claire used to be a citizen of the town, however, she was exiled after a man named Ill denied fathering her child and paid off two men to corroborate his claims many years ago. By doing this, Ill effectively disregarded her morals and stripped them from her. Now, forty-five years after the incident, Claire has returned for revenge, this time as an affluent woman that can buy anything she sets her eyes on. Her goal is to take away the morals of the town, just as the town took her morals from her years earlier. She offers the town one billion dollars for the life of Alfred Ill, knowing that the town will eventually lose their morals due to the severe poverty they are experiencing. Dürrenmatt utilizes the motif of dehumanization in order to display the progressive loss of morals of social institutions.
Dürrenmatt lays the foundations of the high morality of the town in the first act through the dialogue of the mayor; however, it becomes apparent that the town will eventually give in to the temptation of money. When Claire offers one billion for the life of Ill, the mayor refuses based on the fact that he does not want to be dehumanized and lose his morals. He tells Claire, ‘We are still in Europe, we’re not savages yet.’ (Dürrenmatt 35; Act I). It is clear by this that the mayor has set a high moral standard for both himself and the other social institutions of Güllen. However, the mayor’s use of ‘yet’ (35) shows he acknowledges that at some point in the future, he, along with the other social institutions of Güllen, will gradually move away from this moral high ground and will begin to crumble. Furthermore, Dürrenmatt uses this dialogue by the mayor to foreshadow the loss of morals amongst the townspeople and the contrast between justice and human necessity. Dürrenmatt believes that human necessity will always disregard justice and morality in the right situations. His goal is to show the reader that even though the town still has their morals, they will eventually dehumanize itself by abandoning them out of the need for money and a better life.
Secondly, Dürrenmatt utilizes the motif of dehumanization through the dialogue between Ill and the pastor, who represents the social institution of religion. Religious institutions are generally considered to be less concerned with matters of affluence in comparison to matters of justice and morality. However, the pastor suggests otherwise, when he responds to Ill’s concerns by merely saying, ‘All they’re doing is affirming life, that’s all they’re doing, affirming life’ (57; Act II). Here it is apparent that even the pastor is beginning to distance himself from justice and is beginning to allow himself to be corrupted by Claire’s affluence. The repetition in the pastor’s dialogue shows that not only is he trying to convince Ill that everything is fine, but he is also trying to convince himself. He knows what he and the town are going to do if Ill stays, that is why he encourages him to leave by saying, ‘Flee! We are weak, Christians and heathens alike& Flee and lead us not into temptation by staying’ (59). Here, the pastor admits that not even religion can save them from the dehumanization of Claire’s wealth. The only thing that can stop them from falling under Claire’s control is Ill leaving the town.
Furthermore, Dürrenmatt uses the characterization of Claire in order to show the progressive loss of humanity amongst the Gülleners due to her affluence. At the beginning of act three, the teacher, who is the only one with some sense of morality left, goes to Claire and proposes a business deal, pleading her to stop taking Ill’s humanity in return for the local businesses. To the teacher’s surprise, Claire admits that ‘[She] owns [everything]… The factories, Pückenried Valley, Petersen’s barn, the town, street by street, house by house’ (Dürrenmatt 71; Act III). Claire is characterized as wealthy here. However, she is also a smart woman who was patient enough to slowly cripple the town’s economy in preparation for her revenge on Ill. She has enough money to quickly bring the town out of its poverty-stricken state; however, she decides that if the town wants to achieve such affluence, they will have to sell out their morals and lose their humanity for it. Claire is the primary source of this dehumanization when she tells the teacher and doctor, ‘You know what you have to do (70). She has a very dominant and condescending tone when talking to them, which is enough to imply that Claire believes everyone is her disposable pet. Therefore, with the use of her immense financial power and her dehumanizing attitude, it is quite easy to observe why she is able to control the people of Güllen. One by one, the people of Güllen will sacrifice their morality in order to attain affluence, resulting in the eventual loss of morality within various social institutions.
In addition, through the butler’s dialogue, it is clear that Claire has no regard for anyone’s humanity. In fact, it seems as though she represents the motif of dehumanization and is the embodiment of it throughout the play. Claire has, in the past, stripped many people of their humanity. A prime example of this is her butler. Her butler used to be a noble and respectable judge, who was consequently involved in her case with Ill many years ago. However, according to Claire, everything can be bought. The butler agrees, saying, ‘[Claire] offered me the opportunity to enter her service as her butler. I accepted& The salary was so fantastic’ (31: Act I). This foreshadows the eventual corruption of social institutions because if Claire has done this once in the past successfully, nothing is stopping her from doing it again. In addition, after buying out people of respectable careers, she renames them to awful rhyming names to further dehumanize them, as seen in Claire’s following dialogue directed at the butler, ‘Get to the point Boby’ (31). This further characterizes Claire as a cruel and inhumane woman, as it shows her disregard for the butler’s personality. It also shows her abilities to commodify the people of the town, such as the butler, and ultimately control them in turn for money.
Lastly, through the town’s repetition, it is apparent that the various social institutions in the town are beginning to fall under the control of Claire. This is due to the fact that no one is standing up for Ill anymore. As Ill plans to escape the town via the train station, everyone began crowding around him and blocking him from getting onto the train. This is beginning to show the progressive shift from Gülleners as individuals with a high moral standard to one single conjoined mob that has one goal in mind – to get Claire’s wealth. This progression is seen in the following quote,
- All. Where are you going?
- Ill. To the station.
- Mayor. We’ll come along!
- First man. We’ll come along!
- Second man. We’ll come along! (63; Act 2)
Through parallel structure and repetition in these lines, it is apparent that Claire’s plan is beginning to work. It signifies what the overwhelming temptation of wealth is able to do to someone in such a short period, considering the fact that in the previous act, everyone was on Ill’s side. Therefore, Claire has been very successful in dehumanizing the Gülleners and corrupting the ideals of the various social institutions within Güllen. This is seen in the following quote:
- Mayor. Well, I’ll, have a good trip!
- All. A good trip, a good trip!
- Doctor. A healthy, happy life!
- All. A healthy, happy life!
- The gülleners crowd around ill
- Policeman. And lots of luck in Australia! (63; Act 2)
The stage directions in this quote signify the loss of humanity amongst the Gülleners, and the repetition shows that the people are now acting as one unit, and no one is willing to stand up for Ill anymore. This once again brings up the overlying theme that Dürrenmatt is trying to establish, which is that when forced into desperate situations, humans will do anything to survive, including abandoning their morality. Therefore, the temptation of money will be too much for the social institutions to resist, and they will eventually forsake their morality and succumb to Claire’s manipulation.
In conclusion, Dürrenmatt utilizes various literary elements such as foreshadowing, dialogue, and parallel structure in order to display the progressive loss of morality and individuality of various social institutions. Throughout the play, it is apparent that Claire is essentially representing and embodying antihumanism, and her plan to slowly convince the Gülleners of betraying their ideals eventually works. Dürrenmatt hopes to establish the fact that when in desperate situations, people will do anything to survive, and that greed will strip away one’s humanity. This is showcased by the town’s progressive loss of morality throughout the play when the Gülleners transition from having their own ideas about everything to acting as a single unit without any sense of individuality. Ultimately, the town eventually succumbs to the temptation of affluence and gathers to murder Ill in order to be able to collect their wealth. Through these things, Dürrenmatt is successfully able to convey the effects of greed and affluence, and the dangers that it may yield with it.
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