Ariel Dorfman's play "Death and the Maiden" revolves around a husband and wife, Gerardo and Paulina, who live under an unstable democracy after a long chapter of oppressive dictatorship In this moral thriller, Paulina accuses a man named Roberto of being the doctor who tortured and raped her at the time of her kidnapping during the dictatorship. Gerardo meets Roberto on the street after having punctured a tire and Paulina claims to recognize his alleged torturer's voice. He then justifies holding Roberto prisoner when he visits Gerardo in the middle of the night, and then demands an impartial trial under Gerardo's scrutiny. With this testing period, Paulina not only questions the existence of her past brutal relationship with Roberto, but also threatens her relationship with Gerardo. As images of Paulina's kidnapping flash through her mind, she unearths the buried skeleton of Gerardo's betrayal and reveals the instability within Paulina and Gerardo's marriage through her use of sarcasm, repetition, and flashbacks. .Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayGerardo and Paulina use sarcasm as a means of communicating with each other. It typically takes a lot of familiarity with an individual to decipher whether they are being sarcastic. Because Gerardo and Paulina so easily detect each other's tones, this demonstrates the close connection between them. However, sarcasm can also reveal inner bitterness and contempt. For example, Dorfman foreshadows Gerardo's infidelity from the beginning of the play, when Paulina is quick to assume that it was a woman who helped Gerardo fix his flat tire. He says: “Was she even cute? Sexy?" [page 6]. This rhetorical question, which is also sarcastic, personally attacks Gerardo because Paulina is digging into his past mistakes. This question sparks a series of sarcasm-saturated discussions when the couple discusses Gerardo's appointment as Commissioner by the President. They discuss vulnerability, some limitations of the job and the compromises they will have to make. Paulina is reluctant to give Gerardo her blessing to accept his new profession because she feels it would reopen old wounds. At first she gives Gerardo a submissive yes , but Gerardo is not satisfied with the lack of enthusiasm and says: "it's not the yes I need" [pg. 8]. This exchange of refusals to compromise creates tension between the couple. Furthermore, Paulina resents the fact that the Commission limits itself to dealing with cases that “have ended in death or the presumption of death” [p. 9], and sarcastically refers to these cases as “irreparable” [p. 9]. Paulina's use of the word "irreparable" is loaded, as she invokes the emotional damage caused by her kidnapping, which is ultimately irrevocable despite her survival. Furthermore, he underlines his resentment when, in another moment of tension, he spits out another series of rhetorical questions undermining the so-called "judges" [pg. 10] who will deal with the crimes. He ends his tirade with a sarcastic laugh that evolves into "escalating hysteria" [pg. 10]. His behavior in these conversations shows that the couple's traumatic past destabilizes the foundation of their marriage. Gerardo's constant fluctuations between being a crook and being a heroic savior make him an enigma that confuses the reader and Paulina herself. When Gerardo is accused of lying, he always has a sure way to redeem himself. For example, when Paulina assumes that it was a woman who helped Gerardo fix his flat tire, starting.