Psychoanalytical Analysis of "The Visit" By Friedrich Durrenmatt

The Visit by Friedrich Durrenmatt contains numerous acts of projection committed by characters. Claire, the main character of the story, had a rough time in her youth. She had a baby out of wedlock with Joseph Ill, who denied responsibility and bribed witnesses to avoid Claire’s paternity suit against him. As a result, Claire was forced out of town by the self-righteous, upstanding citizens of Guillen. She went to Hamburg and stayed in a brothel until she got married to a wealthy man. Claire felt that Ill forced her into the life she led. She felt weak. To overcome this, she sought out power by marrying wealthy men and getting rid of them as soon as possible. Claire got married seven times. Over the years she was away, she accumulated wealth with a single purpose: to get justice, or rather, revenge for what Ill did to her in her youthful days.

After the death of Zachanassian, Claire considered all the subsequent husbands as consumer goods. This was a sign of her willingness to abuse marriage as a social institution. It indicated that her ability to love was corrupted. She renamed each of her Husbands after her first husband, Zachanassian, to justify her belief that she is on a different plane from all those she employs. She dehumanized her husbands as a homage to her beloved deceased Zachanassian. She learned the concept of marriage from Ill’s example by choosing money over love and disregarding the well-being of others.

Claire sought out the two witnesses that Ill had bribed during the paternity suit: Koby and Loby. He searched and found them at the corners of the earth and had them blinded and castrated. She projected her pains and sufferings to both men using Toby and Roby, the men he rescued as they awaited execution. She was not afraid of using her power to undermine the rules of society. Saving Toby and Roby from the death penalty was not an act of kindness but because she needed a sturdy pair of bodyguards.

From The Visit, we can also see acts of displacement. Some characters in the play satisfy their impulses by acting on other individuals. For example, Claire dehumanized her subsequent husbands through renaming to remind herself of her deceased husband. Secondly, she had Koby and Toby blinded, castrated, and enslaved to show her power. She also bought Boby, who was the Chief Justice of Guellen, to serve as a butler to prove that anything can be bought, even justice (227).

Claire also showed sublimation by seeking wealth to suppress her weaknesses. She lost her baby and was unjustly punished out of her own home (228). She became a prostitute living in a brothel. Once she got married, she learned of the power of wealth, and Claire never stopped seeking it until she became the wealthiest woman in the world. It is because of the wealth that she finally got revenge for all the pains society, and particularly Ill, put her through.

Ill was in denial in the second act of the play. Ill believed that the people would reject Claire’s offer since he has facilitated their survival by offering them goods on credit instead of facing the reality of the threat. When he went to see the Priest, he assumed that he had found help despite all the signs to the contrary (247). The priest gave him a profound speech that was useless, but Ill was hopeful. By the time he realizes the truth of the impending death threat he is facing, it is already too late. Repression is seen when the schoolmaster used alcohol to fight the quilt, as well as the overall situation that prevailed in Guellen (268).

Work Cited

Durrenmatt, Friedrich, and Jon Rosser. "The visit." (1988). Print.