Nabila Haruddin
Written Assignment – The Visit
English Literature SL
Ms. Glystra

Significance of Minor Characters

The use of dialogue keeps the character alive in a play. If the character is in the play, what other things can the character do than act and be apart of the play. The dialogue assists the character into what he or she should be doing. The place and timing on when and where the characters appear is very important. Not only does settings sets the place and time for the play, it also shows the characters background information on where they come from. Friedrich Durrenmatt uses both these literary techniques to help understand the characters.
The word ‘minor’ refers to something or it could also be someone that is not as important but when having to take the word ‘minor’ and put it in front of the word ‘character’ we would have minor characters. Thus, if labeling the characters minor and major would it have an affect on how we as reader see the characters and if the character is a minor character, would it make any difference if the character were taken out of the play? Usually when thinking about the significance of a character, the main character is more significant than any other characters. However, some minor characters could also hold a significant role. In many television series the killer or the guilty ones are always the ones who watches from the sidewalks or the ones that seems to be too innocent to do it, but don’t let their behavior fool you. In the play The Visit by Friedrich Durrenmatt, both Mathilde and the teacher play a significant role. And we will see how these characters can affect the major characters.

Mathilde is Schill’s wife. She does not do much, other than help Schill around the store. She also does not appear in the play many times, and she hardly speaks. Some readers will say that she is just one of the props in the