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** Visit - Study Questions 1 ** Claire names her husbands, butler, eunuchs and henchmen in order to exert authority. She renames them not only for her memory’s sake but also to belittle them and enhance the fact that they are interchangeable and are of no sentimental value to her. This definitely contributes to the dehumanization of Claire throughout the play as she is portrayed as a ‘wicked creature’. The idea that the people with whom she spends the majority of her time are entirely interchangeable is horrifying to the reader/audience and leads them to think of her as heartless and without feeling. Claire’s thirst for power is prevalent throughout the play, in her persuading the priest, doctor and policeman, three authoritative figures in Guellen, to “turn a blind eye” to her cunning actions, and even in her owning of the “black panther”- a typically wild and undomesticated animal. While the renaming of her minions is merely one example of her megalomania it is potentially the biggest display of such a quality in the play.



- Caitster