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Symbols
The sea is a background presence in Death and the Maiden, overlooked by Paulina and Gerardo’s beach house. It functions in subtle and various ways. First of all, it represents unknowability—and, indeed, big questions hang over the play: will the country be able to move on from the atrocities of the past; will Paulina ever truly recover from her trauma; and, crucially, is Roberto the same man that raped and tortured her? Paulina frequently looks out to sea, especially when she is recounting her past. In this light, then, the sea also represents her memory, both in the way her memories function in the depths of her unconscious and in the ultimate irretrievability of the past. The sea as a constant background also gestures towards greater expanses of time, suggesting that though the country’s wounds—and Paulina’s—may never be healed, they will, over time, come to be forgotten.
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The Sea Symbol Timeline in Death and the Maiden
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Sea appears in Death and the Maiden. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Act 1, Scene 1
...going cold. A strong wind makes the curtains billow and there are sounds of the sea.
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Act 1, Scene 2
...as their confidentiality is guaranteed.” Gerardo believes that eventually “the names will pour out like water.” Roberto says he wishes that were true.
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Act 2, Scene 1
...midday. Roberto is still tied up. Paulina is talking to him, looking out at the sea, rocking gently in her chair. She is evidently part way through the story of what...
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Act 3, Scene 1
Just before evening, Paulina and Gerardo sit on the terrace facing the sea. Gerardo has the cassette recorder on his lap. He asks Paulina to tell him what...
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...confession on again from the beginning. Gerardo tells Paulina “it’s over.” She looks out to sea and sighs deeply. She suddenly turns to Gerardo, and says she’d thought, once Roberto had...
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