Poem

Word count:1043

In “The Visit,” the main character, Claire, betrayed by the man she loved and having lost her newborn due to denied paternal support, experienced prolonged grief resulting in a long-term quest for revenge. In this tragic-comic play, Claire became the wealthiest woman in the world in order to obtain “Justice” for the loss that she suffered as she was forced to leave her native town, Güllen. She was pregnant for a man named Schill who she thought would be her life partner but instead abandoned her in her role of mother, bribed false witnesses to accuse her of prostitution, and avoided his responsibility as father to the unborn child. In the play, Claire’s main reason for returning in town was to seek justice, but this need for retribution was intensified by an underlying grieving process. According to modern psychology, Grief is the intense feeling of distress experienced after loss, which can involve either the death of someone or the loss of something valuable ("Grief"). In Claire’s story however, both losses were experienced. She lost her dignity at several occasions and her child for lack of support and resources, a child who later died. From a modern psychology perspective, Claire’s motivations for seeking justice at all cost should be regarded as part of her grieving process.

Claire was denied the choice of a dignified life as a woman, and that created a block on anger, a stage of grief, where she perceived revenge as the solution to appease her mind. In the urban dictionary, dignity is defined as “a proper sense of pride and self-respect” (“Dignity”). On several occasions in this story, Claire experienced loss of dignity as a woman, leading to the intensity of her frustration or anger. The man that she trusted with her intimacy destroyed her reputation by accusing her of being an easy woman in front of the court to dismiss her claims seeking paternal recognition for her child. This led to the inability to find a job in her town, which would have allowed her to sustain herself and take care of her baby. As a result, she was forced to leave town to survive and make end meat without her reputation getting in the way. However, being a young woman of seventeen without any support and no professional skills or assets to offer other than her body, she saw no other alternative than becoming a prostitute to survive. She was forced to give her newborn away because she could not afford to take care of her. This series of experiences killed her sense of self-worth, her dignity, and as she was grieving her dignity, she ultimately used her physical assets to get her revenge.

Elisabeth Kübler-Rosss, a psychiatrist, and David Kessler, a death and grieving expert, propose five stages of grief that help identify the feelings involved in grieving, one of them being anger which is explained to be a stage where the person in grief tends to identify a person related to the grief and use him as an anchor to channel the overwhelming emotions. They argue however, that there are no typical responses to loss as “there is no typical loss,” and grief is unique to individuals. Will Meek, a counseling psychologist in Washington, agrees with this statement by saying that grief is a “highly individualized process,” but he also identifies a more recent concept related to grieving called “prolonged grief,” which occurs when someone suffers for a longer period of time and experiences “a block” on his grieving process. He further explains that there are manifestations of prolonged grief, among them being moral indignation and excessive guilt or anger. Claire demonstrated both of them in this play as she enslaved the twins paid by Schill to be false witnesses at her trial, and she used her money to force the town people to kill Schill, punishing all of them for refusing to support her when she needed it. She said: “The world made me into a whore; now I make the world into a brothel” (Dürrenmatt 736). Claire used anger to channel the emotions of her grief for the dignity that she lost after the trial, and the manifestation of that anger was a plot for revenge.

Claire suffered from the loss of her child twice in this play resulting in a prolonged grief that alimented her need for retribution throughout her life. First, she had to let go of her newborn daughter because she was financially challenged. Second, the child died despite the better chances of care given by other parents. The story shows that Claire was still greatly saddened by this event because after she stated her conditions for providing financial support to the town, Schill asked her about the child, and she could only respond, “in a low voice,” (Dürrenmatt 714) that the baby survived a year. She also exhibited unease concerning the topic at the end of the story in Act III when Schill was asking about the daughter that they had together, Claire avoided talking more about the baby by asking him to talk about herself instead. A study done in 2018 analyzing meaning of grieving in mothers who had lost their newborns identified “adapting work of coping” in their methods, where the mothers would internalize their feelings in order to cope with the loss (Razeq & Al-Gamal 2018), which coincides with Claire’s reaction concerning the baby’s death. Triggers encountered months or years later after the loss are also believed to prolong the grieving process (Morris). Claire most likely had been exposed to such reminders of her child’s death throughout her life which extended her grieving and assured constant motivation to obtain “justice.”

In this play, Claire suffered from the loss of her dignity as her reputation was ruined, leading to her inability to financially sustain herself and her baby, who she lost. This also resulted in her decision to use her body to survive. However, in grieving the loss of her dignity as a woman, she found anchor in her anger which is a normal process in grieving, but she manifested it by using her accumulated fortune to obtain “Justice,” an action that demanded suffering of the characters responsible for her grief. This excess of anger associated with moral issues were identified as common characteristics of a “prolonged grief” (Meek). Her long-term quest for revenge was most likely alimented by triggers reminding her the loss of her dignity and her newborn, which in turns prolonged her grieving process. Overall, a psychological analysis using more recent concepts reveals that Claire’s main motivation for obtaining Justice was a prolonged grief.

Works Cited

“Dignity.” Urban Dictionary, www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Dignity.

Dürrenmatt, Friedrich. “The Visit.” 1962, pp. 690–749.

“Grief.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/grief.

Kübler-Ross Elisabeth, and David Kessler. On Grief & Grieving: Finding the Meaning of Grief through the Five Stages of Loss. Scribner, 2014, http://grief.com/images/pdf/5 Stages of Grief.pdf.

Meek, Will. “Real Stages of Grief.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 18 Oct. 2012, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/notes-self/201210/real-stages-grief.

Morris, Sue. “The Psychology of Grief – Applying Cognitive and Behavior Therapy Principles.” APS, InPsych, Dec. 2011, www.psychology.org.au/for-members/publications/inpsych/2011/dec/The-psychology-of-grief-–-applying-cognitive-and-b.

Razeq, Nadin M. Abdel, and Ekhlas Al-Gamal. “Maternal Bereavement.” Journal of Hospice & Palliative Nursing, vol. 20, no. 2, Apr. 2018, pp. 137–145., doi:10.1097/njh.0000000000000417.