They offer Ill a cigarette and their prayers, but Ill hopes that they will pray for themselves. With that, the townspeople kill him. When the journalists return to the auditorium, the Gülleners alert them that Ill has “died of joy”—that all the excitement about Claire’s donation made his heart give out.

Why did Claire want to kill ill?

Claire is a fateful figure, having returned to Güllen after forty-five years to seek revenge upon Alfred Ill, a man who betrayed her in her youth. She was driven from town at seventeen after Ill falsely denied fathering her child and bribed two men to corroborate his claims.

How old is Alfred Ill?

Alfred Ill He is a shabbily dressed, overweight, sixty-five-year-old shopkeeper with gray hair.

How does the play The Visit end?

The reporters gather, and declare that Ill has died from joy. Claire examines the corpse, gives the Mayor his check, and leaves the town with Ill’s body in the coffin that she brought with her when she arrived in Guellen. Claire boards the train at the railway station, and the visit comes to an end.

What is the theme of the visit?

The Visit by Friedrich Dürrenmatt is a play about corruption and the ambiguous nature of justice. The townspeople support each other before Claire Zachanassian’s visit. The community is cooperative; together they decorate the town, paint signs, and offer the mayor advice on how to greet the millionaires.

How did Ill betray Claire?

As a young man, Ill romanced Claire, only to abandon her when she became pregnant. He falsely denied having fathered her love child, and bribed Koby and Loby (then known as Jakob Duckling and Walter Perch) to incriminate her.

How many husbands did Claire have in the visit?

Claire cycles through three husbands over the course of the play. She arrives to Güllen with her seventh husband in tow, but promptly abandons him to marry a German film star in Güllen’s cathedral, as per her childhood wish.

What's wrong with the grandparents in the visit?

The grandparents are possessed by demons; C) The grandparents have been replaced by body-snatching monsters from a parallel dimension. As it turns out, though, their crazy behavior is due to the fact that they’re both legitimately crazy.

How is the visit a tragicomedy?

The play follows the billionaire Claire and her quest to exact vengeance upon her ex-lover, Alfred Ill. The use of sarcasm, irony, and Claire’s characterization establish the play as a tragicomedy. Sarcasm is frequent throughout the entire play, and due to its mocking nature it blends together tragedy and comedy.

What does Anton Schill do for a living?

Anton Schill is the owner of Güllen’s general store and the most popular man in town. He was Claire’s lover when they were young, and agrees with the mayor that the task of convincing her to make a donation should fall to him. …

Article first time published on

Why does Claire rename her husbands?

Claire nicknames all of her husbands and servants to dehumanize them and show her power. All of the husbands are played by the same actor.

How many acts is the visit?

The Visit: A Drama in Three Acts: Maurice Valency, Friedrich Durrenmatt: 9780573617546: Amazon.com: Books.

Where is Gullen in the visit?

The Visit by Friedrich Durrenmatt, a Swiss dramatist, takes place in the small town of Gullen, which is located somewhere in Europe. Gullen is a post- World War II European town that has fallen on hard times.

What does Claire represent in the visit?

Many saw Claire Zachanassian as a symbol of that desperate fear, but Durrenmatt was steadfast: “Claire Zachanassian represents namely the richest woman in the world who is enabled by her money to act like the heroine of a Greek tragedy, absolutely, cruelly, perhaps like Medea…”

How much money did Claire offer in the visit?

Claire takes the opportunity to announce that she will make a huge donation: one billion (presumably Swiss francs), half for the town and half to be shared among the families. The townspeople are overjoyed, but their happiness is damped when Claire’s butler steps forward to reveal her condition for the donation.

How old is Claire in the visit?

CharacterDescriptionClaire ZachanassianClaire Zachanassian, 62 years old, born Claire Wäscher, grew up poor, married an oil tycoon, and then cycled through numerous husbands. Read More

Why does Claire keep ills body?

Claire’s unrequited love for Ill has warped, over the years, into something else—a desire to possess him completely, to manufacture his demise and control his dead body. Already she has chosen a plot for his corpse: a mausoleum on her estate. There, he will remain eternally close to her.

How is foreshadowing used in Act 1 of the visit?

The image of the panther next to the coffin foreshadows something ominous (i.e. Ill’s death). The Teacher picks up on this foreboding (even though he doesn’t know Ill will die) and compares Claire to a Greek Goddess or Fate, engineering tragedy from on high (i.e. her sedan chair).

What is the significance of Claire's Butler both as a symbol and as a plot device?

Boby’s significance as a symbol and as a plot device lies in his representation of the corruptibility of humans. The town’s schoolmaster, who detects Boby’s real identity, proclaims himself a “humanist,” but his becomes a lonely existence when Claire succeeds in corrupting the entire town.

How is The Visit like a Greek tragedy?

The modern play, The Visit, exemplifies the meaning of old Greek tragedy. The story portrays a young woman named Claire Zachanassian whose life was changed at the age of seventeen. … Claire Zachanassian can be seen as a person in inescapable pain. At seventeen her life was ruined by Anton Schill, a man she once loved.

Where does The Visit take place?

The Visit takes place in Switzerland about a decade after WWII.

What is The Visit by durrenmatt about?

The Visit tells the story of a woman returning to her hometown after forty-five years to exact revenge on the man that betrayed her—or, as she puts it, to “buy justice.”

Who is the villain in The Visit?

Claire and Mitchell (posing as Fredrick Spencer and Mariabella Jamison), otherwise known as Nana and Pop Pop, are the main antagonists in the 2015 horror film The Visit, which was written by M. Night Shyamalan.

What mental illness is in The Visit?

The 2015 film “The Visit,” also directed by Shylamalan, is listed as the worst depiction of mental illness in any movie by the mental health advocacy organization Resources to Recovery. The film’s villains, who have schizophrenia, appear frightening and monstrous to terrify audiences.

Is the visit satire?

Durrenmatt uses satire in “The Visit” to criticize the the corruptive power of money. As the play progresses, Claire’s statement that everything, including justice, can be bought becomes evident (Durrenmatt 31). …

Is the visit a true story?

Shyamalan’s ‘The Visit’ Is His Creepiest Yet. … The film uses a handheld camera filming style for many shots, giving a sense of realism, but is The Visit actually based on a true story ? Nope. Like the bulk of the director’s other films, the plot for The Visit emerged from Shyamalan’s own brain.

Is the visit a good movie?

With all its terror, “The Visit” is an extremely funny film. There are too many horror cliches to even list (“gotcha” scares, dark basements, frightened children, mysterious sounds at night, no cellphone reception), but the main cliche is that it is a “found footage” film, a style already wrung dry.

What kind of play is the visit?

“The Visit” (“Der Besuch der Alten Dame”) written in 1956 is his best known work. Dürrenmatt called it a tragi-comedy.

Who is the protagonist in the visit?

The play’s protagonist Claire, a multimillionaire, visits her hometown after an absence of many years and offers the residents great wealth if they will kill one of their leading citizens, Alfred, who had betrayed Claire shamefully many years before.

Who are Koby and Loby?

Formerly Jakob Duckling and Walter Perch, these are the men whom Ill bribed to defame Claire at her paternity trial by falsely claiming that they had slept with her.