Day of Atonement-Margaret Wood
Margaret Eleanor Atwood
(Ottawa, Ontario, Canada ) (born on November 18, 1939) is a
Canadian poet, novelist, literary
critic,
essayist, teacher, environmental activist, and
inventor. Since 1961, she has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books
of non-fiction, nine
collections of short fiction, eight children's books, and two graphic
novels,
and a number of small
press editions
of both poetry and fiction. Atwood has won numerous awards and honors for her
writing, including two Booker
Prizes,
the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Governor General's Award, the Franz Kafka
Prize, Princess of Asturias Awards, and
the National Book Critics and PEN Center
USA Lifetime
Achievement Awards. A number of her works have been adapted for film and
television.
Atwood's works encompass a variety of themes including
gender and identity, religion and
myth, the power of language, climate change, and "power
politics". Many of her poems are inspired by myths and fairy tales which
interested her from a very early age.
Atwood is a founder of the Griffin Poetry Prize and
the Writers' Trust of Canada. She is
also a Senior Fellow of Massey College, Toronto.
Atwood is also the inventor of the LongPen device
and associated technologies that facilitate remote robotic writing of
documents.
Day
of Atonement Theme
The one–act play “Day of Atonement” by Margaret Wood
describes the themes of redemption and forgiveness as its central
motif. The play focuses on the background of the Nazi holocaust in Germany at
the time of World War II.
Day of Atonement Summary
The one–act
play “Day of Atonement” by Margaret Wood describes the themes of
redemption and forgiveness as its central motif. The play focuses on the
background of the Nazi holocaust in Germany at the time of World War II. The
play unveils the life and experiences of the Jacob’s family and their
association with the German doctor, Dr. Kraus. Jacob, along with his wife
Marthe and their children Otto and Ilse are the Jewish victims in Nazi
oppression. The Jacob’s family continued to live in Germany even after the end
of Nazi holocaust. The time of this play takes place after twelve years of
their horrifying experiences of the Nazi oppression.
During their
life in Germany they get acquainted with a German doctor named Dr. Kraus, a
surgeon who is bent on serving the poor and helpless Jews. As part of his
service he successfully operates Ilse who is suffering from tuberculosis. Jacob
and Marthe are thankful to the doctor for saving the life of their daughter.
But Otto, Jacob’s son, does not like the doctor. He knew that Dr. Kraus had
indulged in torturing Jews in Nazi concentrate camps. When Otto
realizes that Dr. Kraus is visiting them, he suddenly goes out of the house
telling his parents that he is going to his friend, Moishe’s house.
On the
night, When, Dr. Kraus visits Jacob’s family to tell them about the success of
Ilse’s operation and her further improvement. Jacob and Marthe want to share
their happiness and express their gratitude by serving wine to Dr. Kraus for
helping their daughter to recover form illness. Otto re-enters the scene while
Dr. Kraus is in their house. He argues with his parents when they scold him for
not greeting Dr. Kraus who is considered as their ‘guest and
benefactor’. In a fit of anger Otto discloses Dr. Kraus’s cruel
activities in concentrate camps to his parents. He reveals that this doctor
used to carry out experiments to see how much pain the human body can withstand
without actually dying….’ by conducting “surgery on the healthy’ and
‘operations to mutilate the strong’. Further, Otto exposes that the doctor’s
real name was Holtz and not Kraus who worked as a doctor in the Nazi
concentration camps and indulged in such cruel and criminal activities. But for
the past twelve years Dr. Kraus is trying to make amends for his past crimes by
extending his services to the helpless and poor Jews as he was being influenced
by the speeches of Carl Baecke.
The
character of Carl Baecke further reinstates the themes of redemption and
forgiveness. Carl Baccke, a Jew of the Theresienstadt camp changed the life of
Dr. Kraus. He used to hold meetings everyday in any one of the huts at nights
though his wife and four sisters died in another concentrate camp. The Nazi’s
thought that he was planning a revolt. One night Kraus slipped into the back of
the hut. The hut was crammed with the poor Jews. Carl Baecke bowed to him when
he saw Kraus enter the hut. He was giving lectures on philosophy from Plato to
Kant. It was then that he realized that they (the Jews) were great people.
Moreover when the war was over, the Russian commander handed the doctor and
other Nazis to the Jews to avenge their crimes. But then it was Carl Baecke who
helped the doctor to escape from the middle of the Jewish mob. These incidents
changed the attitude of Kraus towards the Jews. From then onwards the doctor
was trying to redeem himself and atone for his past crimes.
When Otto
disclosed the identity of Dr. Kraus and his past, Jacob tries to lighten the
situation. In spite of knowing about all this cruelty toward Jews, Jacob and
Marthe wholeheartedly forgive the doctor. When Otto argues with Jacob on
killing the doctor, Jacob says that he neither forgets nor forgives nor he will
take revenge. Further he states that any good Jew wants to avenge the dead
though Otto is bent on taking revenge. Otto decides to kill Dr. Kraus for all
his wrongdoings but his parents vehemently oppose him from doing such an act.
The doctor tells Jacob and Marthe that he is surrender before the court. Jacob
requests the doctor to escape from the house but Dr. Kraus willingly steps out
of the house where he is caught and shot by the Jews.
The Jews
waiting outside the house of Jacob kill the Dr. Kraus. Otto feels a bit
softened at the death of the doctor and he joins his father in reading the
Psalms of David in the Bible. Though Jacob and Otto stands as opposite poles
till the end of the play, they reconcile with each other at the end of the
play.
The play
thus stands as a poignant expression of themes of redemption and forgiveness.
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