Death and the Maiden Essay -- Ariel Dorfman

“There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.” Ââ€"Oscar Wilde Death and the Maiden discusses Princess Diana, her media, and her public from the point-of-view of Maureen Dowd. Was Diana the “spendthrift of her own celebrity”? Is the media a market of vultures feeding off of Diana? Does the public actually have any remorse for the Princess? There is no right or wrong answers for these questions because they are merely opinionated. Whether or not Diana was a victim of celebrity culture or the creator of her own demise is debatable, and even though Dowd thinks the coverage of DianaÂ’s death was awful she felt she brought on a lot of the other attention herself. She implies that DianaÂ’s celebrity led to her making careless, irrational decisions. Dowd states “The Princess of Wales was the queen of surfaces, ruling over a kingdom where fame was the highest value and glamour was the most cherished attribute.” Here she insinuates Diana is superficial and did things on purpose for the fame, she then goes on to say “she rode the...