Les Mains Sales

Abstract

The play, which takes the form of a long flashback, concerns the trial of a resistance worker. He was ordered to carry out a political assassination, but failed to achieve his mission until he surprised his wife and his victim in each other's arms. Was the murder a "crime passionnel" or brilliantly disguised as such by a dedicated political assassin? While in prison, the young man has convinced himself that it was the latter. He unfolds his story to another resistance worker who must judge whether the Party can use him again or whether he must be shot as a bad security risk. The ironical twist comes when his judge announces that he need not be shut [shot], provided he will change his name and forget his action; this Hugo refuses to do. Is he and idealist who will not yield to degrading outside pressure or is he unable to face up to to reality? Is he an escapist with suicide tendencies or does he destroy himself as an act of love towards the man he has murdered?