Death and the Maiden: Meddling in the Affairs of Death omnipresence of death. The looming presence of death overshadows the character's actions in Ismail Kadare's Broken April and Ariel Dorfman's Death and the Maiden. It is therefore important to examine how the characters in the separate works approach the concept of mortality, seeing how it fascinates them and how it shapes their lives. This is seen in Broken April with the endless cycle of blood that Gjorg only perpetuates, sealing his fate and leaving him to wander the dark and desolate road. Likewise, Dianna feels the emotional tug of death's threatening power and is transfixed by the doomed hero Gjorg represents. While Bessian is so impressed by the sublime power of death that he distances himself from the reality of human demise. Conversely, in Death and the Maiden, Paulina attempts to control and manipulate death for her own personal vengeance, seeking to reverse the roles of power in her life. At the same time, Gerardo tries to have a broader vision by seeking to heal the scars left in the soul of his country by being the instigator of justice. In both novels, death is the setting against which they take place: the endless vendettas and crimes of a past dictatorship. The protagonist, Gjorg, has lived his entire life immersed in a world of blood, living, as Bessian puts it, “deeply.” in the realm of death” and inevitably comes into direct contact with her as an unwitting murderer – forced by the ancient laws of Kanun to enter into the centuries-old tradition of blood feud, and thus begins the end of his own life (Kadare 69). The concept of a life saturated with inevitable death is anchored in him...... middle of paper ......t of death, to feel the presence of others, those of love and happiness. However, in Death and the Maiden, the only world Paulina knows is tinged with violence and death, and so all she can see in her world is limited to the vicious revenge she can exact. Therefore, with this dark and intensely focused outlook, she ends up leading everyone around her on a path to death. In this sense, we can see that in Broken April the characters passively let death shape their lives, preferring to call it destiny because it is a natural part of the world and seeing it as something strangely beautiful. Yet in Death and the Maiden, Paulina and Gerardo become directly involved in the affairs of Death, seeking either to control it or to right its wrongs. However, they are just as caught in a world of death as Gjorg, Dianna and Bessian..

Essay / Death and the Maiden: Meddling in the Affairs of Death omnipresence of death. The looming presence of death overshadows the character's actions in Ismail Kadare's Broken April and Ariel Dorfman's Death and the Maiden. It is therefore important to examine how the characters in the separate works approach the concept of mortality, seeing how it fascinates them and how it shapes their lives. This is seen in Broken April with the endless cycle of blood that Gjorg only perpetuates, sealing his fate and leaving him to wander the dark and desolate road. Likewise, Dianna feels the emotional tug of death's threatening power and is transfixed by the doomed hero Gjorg represents. While Bessian is so impressed by the sublime power of death that he distances himself from the reality of human demise. Conversely, in Death and the Maiden, Paulina attempts to control and manipulate death for her own personal vengeance, seeking to reverse the roles of power in her life. At the same time, Gerardo tries to have a broader vision by seeking to heal the scars left in the soul of his country by being the instigator of justice. In both novels, death is the setting against which they take place: the endless vendettas and crimes of a past dictatorship. The protagonist, Gjorg, has lived his entire life immersed in a world of blood, living, as Bessian puts it, “deeply.” in the realm of death” and inevitably comes into direct contact with her as an unwitting murderer – forced by the ancient laws of Kanun to enter into the centuries-old tradition of blood feud, and thus begins the end of his own life (Kadare 69). The concept of a life saturated with inevitable death is anchored in him...... middle of paper ......t of death, to feel the presence of others, those of love and happiness. However, in Death and the Maiden, the only world Paulina knows is tinged with violence and death, and so all she can see in her world is limited to the vicious revenge she can exact. Therefore, with this dark and intensely focused outlook, she ends up leading everyone around her on a path to death. In this sense, we can see that in Broken April the characters passively let death shape their lives, preferring to call it destiny because it is a natural part of the world and seeing it as something strangely beautiful. Yet in Death and the Maiden, Paulina and Gerardo become directly involved in the affairs of Death, seeking either to control it or to right its wrongs. However, they are just as caught in a world of death as Gjorg, Dianna and Bessian..

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