Theme of power in Act 2

Comment on the theme of power as shown in Act 2.

In Act 2, Paulina gains absolute power and authority over the situation and the people around her, Gerardo and Roberto. Throughout the act, Paulina constantly reminds Roberto of what he had (presumably) said to her during the days when she was victimized. Dorfman could have intentionally put in these lines to show the audience that Paulina there has been a role reversal here. The victimized has become the oppressor and vice versa. Also, at first, it seems that even Gerardo has no power over the situation or Paulina at all. Gerardo holds no power over the situation. However, as the act proceeds, he gradually gains more and more control.

Paulina’s total control of the situation slowly gets weakened as Gerardo gains more control. However, she still retains a lot of power as she has a weapon and doesn’t appear to be in a sound state of mind and hence threatening. This is an irony because Gerardo is supposed to be a man of great authority, chosen as a member of the ‘Truth Commission” to lead the people to uphold justice and reveal the truth and so he should have power and authority wherever he is and whatever situation he is in.

So there is a ‘transition’ of power from Paulina to Gerardo although it is insignificant and Gerardo still has very little control over the situation. This ‘transition’ can be seen from the start of the act up to page 39. Here we see Gerardo attempting to dissuade Paulina from doing anything to Roberto and just free him. The transition is shown especially from page 35 to 37 when Gerardo tries to dissuade her by talking to her privately. This seems to weaken her a little and this gives a bit more power to Gerardo.

However, on page 40, it is Gerardo and Paulina who gets convinced. On top of the page, we see Paulina mention the doctor who had torture and raped her had quoted Nietzsche before and put on music composed by Schubert. Then Gerardo repeats Nietzsche as he had heard Roberto mention Nietzsche before. This destroys any sort of power or authority Roberto has on Gerardo.
Roberto had power over Gerardo because his wife is his responsibility. Roberto had also helped him previously on the road and so the task of dissuading Paulina and persuading her to let Roberto go should be Gerardo’s. However, towards the end of the play, Roberto’s words and ridiculous assumptions, shown in this quote, “Playing roles, she’s bad, you’re good, to see if you can get me to confess that way. And once I’ve confessed, you’re the one who’s going to kill me, it’s what any man would do, any real man, if they’d raped his wife, it’s what I would do if somebody had raped my wife. Cut your balls off. So tell me: you think I’m that fucking doctor, don’t you?” causes the scale of power between Roberto and Gerardo to shift to Gerardo. What Roberto says angers Gerardo and all the frustration and stress that had been building up in Gerardo finally bursts and causes him to believe Paulina and gives him the desire to kill Roberto.

Hence, power fluctuates and shifts from one character to another, among the 3 characters we see in the act.
547 words