In the first act of The Visit, Claire Zachanassian's character makes her first appearance in Guellen, and this is also where we see the main reason why she came to Guellen: Dürrenmatt raises two main themes through her portrait of Claire Zachanassian in the first act, particularly those of dehumanization and the question of whether everything can be bought. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why violent video games should not be banned"? Get the original essay At the beginning of the first act, Claire Zachanassian, a millionaire, has just arrived early in Guellen because she pulled the brakes train emergency. This act alone signifies her power, as it shows that she is not following the rules that everyone lives by. The fact that she gets away with it proves that she is above everyone; the same laws don't apply to her and she is equally capable of changing the laws for everyone. From Claire's point of view, she was right to pull the emergency brake, because it is more convenient for her. ("Are you really and sincerely asking me to go blow in this countryside for half an hour?") Her strange habit of giving nicknames to her employees and her husbands suggests that she dehumanizes everyone around her by putting them in a very distant status. below his. The way in which she presents her seventh husband is quite comical and almost as if she were presenting an animal or an object ("Isn't he nice, with his little black mustache?"), and the way in which she commands him is rather reminiscent of this member the audience of a trainer commanding a dog ("Think about it, Moby... Harder... Harder again.") From the way Dürrenmatt asks Claire to introduce her husband, we, as an audience, see that She's almost like a goddess, because of her power over people and how she can change the accepted social order. The schoolmaster notices this and declares: “I might suspect her of weaving the webs of destiny herself. » She is able to find Louis Perch and Jacob Chicken "to the ends of the earth" and punish them further for the injustice they did to her; she has the ability to play with people's lives, such as saving the lives of Manhattan gangsters, and later, offering a million for the death of Alfred Ill, also showing that she can take lives as well. She is also difficult to kill, as she survived a car crash and was the sole survivor of a plane crash, which helps reinforce the idea that she is above humans, like a goddess, especially Greek, as ancient Greek said. The goddesses were known for their cruel punishments. Dürrenmatt seems to raise the question of whether money can buy everything or not, through his portrayal of Claire Zachanassian and her reckless way of handling money, shown when she told Boby, her butler, to pay the price . The ticket inspector four thousand when he raised objections to her activating the emergency brake. She seems to believe that money can buy everything, since in the past she has purchased things that cannot be bought, such as hiring her butler, former Chief Justice Courtly de Guellen, who explains to the city ​​that the salary was one he couldn't refuse ("but the salary in question was really fantastic..."). Her petition to the two Manhattan gangsters, Roby and Toby, also explores in more detail the question of whether money can buy everything or not, because thanks to her money, Claire Zachanassian was able to change the law herself and has managed to buy the life of the gangsters because she needed two bodyguards. Later we, the audience, also see her offering a milliondollars to the Guellens, not because she really wants to help Guellen get back on his feet, but because she wants to buy justice. Here, Claire Zachanassian still believes that everything can be bought, provided one has enough money ("I can afford it. A million for Guellen if someone kills Alfred III"), and her worrying response to the refusal worthy of Mayor's offer tells the public that she is confident that she will eventually get what she wants. Dürrenmatt uses this to convey to the audience the power of the theater of the absurd, as it is capable of raising questions about human nature. In The Visit, he seems to criticize the corrupting power of money, as Claire Zachanassian abuses the privilege of being rich to demand the death of Alfred III. Another reason for Claire Zachanassian's presence in the first act is to create a sense of foreboding and tension. His strange whims, such as bringing a coffin to Guellen, and his statement: "I may need it (the coffin)" at the beginning of the first act can be seen as a warning that Dürrenmatt gives to the audience: something sinister is about to happen later. on. The constant image of the coffin. Her "jokes" also serve to warn the audience that she is planning to do something soon, something illegal and that could result in someone's death, as her "jokes" are all related to death, like her question to the gymnast: “Have you ever used your muscles to strangle?” and his advice to the policeman: “Start learning to wink at them both,” an indication that crimes are about to be committed and that the policeman is supposed to allow them to happen. The audience is also warned by the scene in Konrad's film. Village Wood, where Claire Zachanassian and Alfred Ill are talking, and Claire, in response to Ill, says that she has "become hell itself". This statement may be Claire reflecting on the things that happened to her and how they changed her, although it is not clear exactly what happened to her until Claire offers the million for her. death of Ill. The first act builds on the tension and reaches its climax when Claire Zachanassian offers the million, but with the only condition of Ill's death. Only then do we see how Ill's betrayal of Claire forced her into prostitution and made Claire the person she is. Dürrenmatt evokes sympathy for Claire because of the past injustice she suffered, and it is easy to dwell with Claire on her condition alone. However, Dürrenmatt also manages, at the same time, to evoke a sense of horror at Claire Zachanassian's sense of "justice", as it concerns the death of Alfred III. The audience is left with a difficult dilemma: should they really blame Claire Zachanassian for wanting revenge, even if it involves murder, after everything Ill has put her through? By the end of the play, we see that the townspeople have given in to temptation, through a series of changes, from sticking with Ill, to thinking that Claire Zachanassian's offer is too good to refuse , and it is this illness which is the cause of Guellen's poverty. The theater of the absurd is particularly powerful because it magnifies a flaw in human nature. The Guelleners are normal people, neither good nor bad, but weak, and because of their reckless irresponsibility, they give in to Claire Zachanassian's offer. It is also important to note the influences from which Dürrenmatt drew his ideas for The Visit; he modeled it after the Greek tragedy Medea, intending to depict a vengeful and sad woman who was betrayed by her lover. In the first act, the audience can see similarities between The Visit and Medea. In the,.