Violence in Peter Weiss's Play Marat /Sade

Abstract

Peter Weiss was born in Germany. When Hitler came to power, his family emigrated to Sweden in 1939. Weiss hated war which deprived him of his country, friends and relatives. As a committed writer, he discussed social and political situations. He wrote Marat/ Sade in 1964. The play takes place in a lunatic asylum in 1808. In the play Marquis de Sade hates the corrupt bourgeois society he belongs to. He detects the violence hidden under the slogans of the French Revolution. It is a revolution that is responsible for irrational and sadistic aspects of life. Weiss was frustrated by that kind of cruelty. According to him violence prevailed when art retreated. He believed that the artist must have the freedom of thought to change and improve his society.