Poverty and Humanistic Values in The Visit Anonymous 11th Grade

Poverty is one of the most important themes of The Visit, and serves as the foundation for the entire plot. If the town of Guellen had not fallen into deep poverty, Claire Zachanassian would have never had to visit the town and present the solution of wealth and prosperity to their problem (although, it is arguable that Gullen would not have fallen into poverty if it weren’t for Claire financially corrupting the town, so her motives come into play here). Before Claire, the town of Guellen based their society on humanistic values that they held in the highest regard. These values slowly fade as the citizens of Guellen begin to gain wealth. Poverty serves as a symbol of these humanistic values because of the negative correlation between poverty and humanistic values.

Gullen was obviously an extremely impoverished town. Its citizens were all struggling to get by and everything was closing down and being sold. Poverty was initially the cause of Guellen’s problems. Historically, many European economies were not doing well at this point in time due to the recent world wars. It is not obviously stated where The Visit took place (most likely Germany or Switzerland), but due to its obvious western European location it is safe to say...