The Visit Analysis

Establishing Tragic and Comedic Elements in The Visit: A Tragicomedy The genre of tragicomedy surfaces first in Greek and Roman works. After World War II, tragicomedy became widespread in British theatre. The Visit is a play written by Friedrich Dürrenmatt and contains qualities from both tragedy and comedy. 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. In the first act of the play, the local choir of Güllen sings to Claire as a welcome. However, as the choir sings, a train …show more content…
Claire remains light-hearted despite the fact that the majority of her body is fake. She comments on her tendency to “only travel in express trains”. This comment implies that the car accident has traumatized her to the point where she cannot travel in one. As grim as it may seem, Claire brushes it off with her comment on how “nicely” it moves. This is a comedic situation on what otherwise would be a horrific story of the mishaps in Claire’s life. It is comedic due to the absurdity of her conversation. Rather than focus on a tragic moment, she does not expand on it and instead seems to take pride in it. Claire’s artificial body creates more comedic scenarios later on in the play when she and Ill are walking through a forest. Ill takes Claire’s hand to kiss it, but it horrifies him once he discovers it to be ivory. Claire recounts: [I received it] from a plane crash in Afghanistan. I was the only one who crawled out of the wreckage. I’m indestructible” (26). This time, the sheer absurdity of the situation brings the comedic aspect into the play. Claire’s unbelievable dialogue is humorous. She has clearly been in countless of accidents and tragedies as she answers that “[a]lmost” every part of her body is fake (26). Claire’s body being more prosthetic than flesh is an example of dark humor. Her description conjures up images of an awkward appearance that seems more mechanical than human. Once again, Claire quickly skims over the reason for her prosthetic. She mentions “a plane crash” swiftly as if it was trivial, further adding to the absurdity of the situation. Not only that, but Claire’s response also incorporates comedic aspects. She states “I’m indestructible” in a matter-of-fact way. Claire’s statement and herself is contradictory, after all, if she was indestructible she would not need prosthetics. The fact that Claire believes she is indestructible gives rise to dark