Durrenmatt Symbolism Essay

Swiss playwright, Frederich Durrenmatt, in his drama, The Visit, uses color symbolism as a way to control the plot line. Durrenmatt’s purpose is to use color symbolism to add depth to the mood, tone, and theme of the play. Durrenmatt overpowering use of color symbolism allows for a complex plot, characters and theme.

Throughout The Visit, Durrenmatt uses specific color symbolism to affect the tone in a drastic manner. Through the use of dark, morbid colors, a gloomy, ragged and sinister tone are created. Durrenmatt will use this sinister tone as a way to create morbid characters and to add depth to the plot. For example, “The ringing of a railway-station bell before the curtain rises, then an inscription: Güllen- evidently the name of the small town whose buildings, run-down and dilapidated, are sketchily indicated in the background.
By doing this Durrenmatt can link the outward appearance and colors in the drama to the theme of the story, which is, power can become corrupt. An example of this is, “Enter the Pastor, left, with a rifle slung around his shoulder. He spreads a white cloth with a black cross over the table where the Policeman sat earlier, and leans his rifles against the wall of the hotel. The sexton helps him into his cassock. Darkness.” By describing the darkness of this situation, Durrenmatt creates that morbid tone again. Mostly, Durrenmatt uses the white cloth, black cross, and rifle to exaggerate the theme of The Visit. The white cloth is a representation of the church and its purity. No matter what is happening within the world, the church has always been seen as a place of safety and sanctuary. But the black cross is used to show the corruptness of the church and how it is being deceived by Claire’s bribery and manipulation. Also the rifle shows how the church leader or main power is becoming a corrupt individual, again, through the manipulation of