The Pillowman

Martin McDonah’s The Pillowman uses morbid comedy to portray Katurian and Michal’s ordeal as they are interrogated by the police for the murder of children. The two police officers, Ariel and Tupolski, use abrasive language and physical abuse to attempt to force Katurian into confessing the murders of the children. While Katurian describes his stories to the officers, he makes it clear his story The Writer and the Writer’s brother have autobiographical elements. This story recounts how Katurian’s parents tortured his brother and began to develop Katurian’s warped since of fantasy. The information the police gather form this story echoes the autobiographical analysis technique readers often use to understand a text. Readers allow an authors history to inform their understanding of an authors writing and what it points to. The detectives use this technique in the play and come to understand that Katurian murders his parents for torturing his brother for many years. The detectives do not rely only on Katurian’s story, but also manipulate him into divulging the information by threatening to destroy his voice, his stories.