To Resist is to Live and March Forward. The world Won't Change Unless People Change It by Force - Essay Example

Whatever the case be, anyone can picture the apprehension, confusion, and fright that a child would feel growing up right in the heart of rising tyrannical powers. Even at a young age, his disbelief and quizzical approach towards authority – leading possibly to his fascination for Marxism – were engrained deep in his mind through the early events of WWII. In addition to his apprehension and disbelief was the point that his mother was a Christian and his father was a Jew. It is perhaps difficult to know for sure whether or not Weiss was a survivor of the concentration camps, or how much weight he put into his half-Jewish legacy.

This background can be tied up with the central theme of his play, revolution. Weiss, overtly and covertly raises the question in his play that what does true revolution mean? How does this revolution happen? And the most important question is; when revolution comes, is it through changing the society or through changing oneself? Subjects such as human suffering and class struggles have been beautifully woven into the play through poetic conversations between the characters. It would be fair to consider that when getting on with writing Marat/Sade, Weiss had sufficient memories (experienced by himself) and hard evidence on which the story could be constructed.

Possibly the idea of writing a play that happened in an asylum and largely involved the patients was an eye-catching idea to Weiss simply for the reason that it was the substance he knew it like the back of his hand. This play should inspire the American audiences specifically because of America’s involvement in Iraq, especially in the light of the mayhems at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and Bagram. The play, The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade, more commonly known as Marat/Sade by Peter Weiss was written in 1963.

It is a play within a play. The picture portrayed is that of 1808, where the play is staged depicting Marque de Sade staging a play in the asylum in which he was held captive till his death. The play revolves around the debate between the ideas of Marque de Sade, the notorious philosopher and Jean Paul Marat. Many times during the play, Weiss mentions something that can be directly related to his early childhood traumas. For instance, one of the lead characters, Marat says; “People used to suffer everything / now they take their revenge” (21) This is a clear indication of the revenge and the fury trapped inside of Weiss.

Most of the concentration camp survivors felt guilt that they were spared while their fellows were brutally murdered. This element of regret and more importantly, the feeling of resistance and fight back are evident in the play. The antihero (supposedly) of this play is Marquis de Sade and he has a completely different perspective as of Marat. Sade’s point of view in the play is somewhat passive. He says that revolutions and violent resistances are useless. He says that revolutions are bloody, violent, and cruel.

Such movements are based on idealistic designs of a world that is picture of perfection. At the end of the day all that people can do in this "dog-eat-dog" place is dwindle the tyrannical system of the state, and make efforts only to survive. In Act II, Part 28 of the play, the character Sade says something demoralizing. He asks Marat to give up his struggle as if it will go in vain and