Fisher - Good & Bent

Good, a play written by C.P. Taylor features an antihero named James Halder. He is a literary professor at Germany who has difficulties in life like any other man. These take a back seat after he joins the Nazi party. At first he can be considered the victim as he is forced into book burning and euthanasia of Jews by the SS party. At first he is the victim, however, after deciding to stay with the Nazi party, he assumes the role of the victimizer. He does this because despite his views on the Nazi's politics and proceedings and Hitler, he stays with the party due to the safety factor and is essentially is responsible for the death of millions of Jews. Instead of taking a stand for what he thought was right, he let it all happen in front of his eyes.

Bent, a play written by Martin Sherman, is about the persecution of the gays and Jews by the Nazi's during World War II. After World War I, Germany was considered a "safehaven" for gays in Europe. This all changed when the Nazi party came to power. Bent follows the story of a gay man named Max, who lives in Germany with his boyfriend Rudy. At first, Max can be seen as a victim, despite his cruelty bringing a German solider home with him to his place with Rudy. When the SS soldiers break into their home and kill the German solider, Max and Rudy are forced to flee. Now Max takes on a different role, he victimizes Rudy on the train by denying his sexuality and not helping him while he is being beaten, Max even helps beat Rudy, who dies on the train. Later, in concentration camp, he denies his love for Horst despite their true feelings toward each other. After Horst is shot by the guards, Max puts on a jacket with a pink triangle (signifying that he is in fact gay) and commits suicide by grabbing the electric fence, a victim of himself.

In Night there is no blurring of the victim and the victimizer. Elie Wiesel is the victim from the beginning of the story, along with the rest of his people. The victimizers are the Nazi's who subjugate and kill the Chosen People. Elie can be seen as a victimizer when referring to his feelings toward his dad, yet despite his feelings they support each other and Elie helps his father struggle until the very end. However, when his father is on his death bed he cries out for Elie, who never responds. Elie went to sleep that night only to wake up and find his father gone.

So we see that sometimes the lines between the victim and the victimizer can be blurred. Sometimes (in Good & Bent) it is difficult to tell one from the other. Other times it is very simple to point out who is the victim in each situation. In reference to Good & Bent, one should be true to oneself and stand for what is right despite any circumstances.

Cardon - Bent & Good

“The victim stance is a powerful one. The victim is always morally right, neither responsible nor accountable, and forever entitled to sympathy,” (Zur Institute). When relating this definition of a “victim” to Max’s character from the film Bent, I wouldn’t necessarily say that it applies. In the beginning of the film I would say that Max bullied Rudy (his obsessive boyfriend of sorts) up until the point where they were captured. Even while Rudy was doing manual labor in the fields, Max wasn’t contributing in earning expenses for their escape. On the train ride to the camp when Rudy is being beaten, Max is told not to help because he will be killed as well. Here is where I find myself in a dilemma. Should Max have fought for his loved one? Or did he do the right thing, knowing that it wouldn’t actually help? Once he arrives at the camp, he opts out of being categorized as a “queer” because they are considered the lowest. I would consider this to be among the most cowardly things Max does throughout the entire film. Only after he had to submit to the Nazis did he become a true victim. One could even argue that Max didn’t become a true victim until he accepted himself as a gay man in the concentration camp by putting on Horst’s pink triangle shirt. I don’t think that Max was a completely shitty person, because he did perform some selfless acts. He went down on one of the officers in order to get medicine for Horst (making the officer believe he was the one who needed it). In Taylor’s play, Good, John Halder (the protagonist) is brought in by the Nazis to reaffirm the use of euthanasia. I believe Holder to first be a victim and then eventually turns into a victimizer. He felt that he had no other choice but to assist the Nazis (he being victimized). Eventually it appears that his “honorary” position goes to his head a bit, i.e. leaving his wife, abandoning Morris, etc. I don’t think that Halder was necessarily an evil man, but I don’t really see how he was a particularly “good” one either. It was much easier to empathize with his character in the written text compared to the movie version, although the audience ends of feeling the same about Halder at the end of both artistic mediums. The picture I have included is of Rudolph Brazda, the last known gay Holocaust survivor who just passed away this August. He spent his imprisonment at Buchenwald concentration camp.