The Use of Memory in Harold Pinter's Landscape
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THE USE OF MEMORY IN HAROLD PINTER’S LANDSCAPE, SILENCE, NIGHT, OLD TIMES, AND NO MAN’S LAND. A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES OF OF MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY BY EDİBE SERRA AYKEN IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE EDUCATION JUNE 2007 Approval of the Graduate School of Social Sciences Prof. Dr. Sencer Ayata Director I certify that this thesis satisfies all the requirements as a thesis for the degree of Master of Arts Prof. Dr. Wolf König Head of Department This is to certify that we have read this thesis and that in our opinion it is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a thesis for the degree of Master Arts Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ünal Norman Supervisor Examining Committee Members Prof. Dr. Nursel İçöz (METU, ELIT) Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ünal Norman (METU, ELIT) Dr. Rüçhan Kayalar (BİLKENT, ELIT) I hereby declare that all the information in this document has been obtained and presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I also declare that, as required by these rules and conduct, I have fully cited and referenced all material and results that are not original to this work. Name, Last Name: Edibe Serra AYKEN Signature : iii ABSTRACT THE USE OF MEMORY IN HAROLD PINTER’S LANDSCAPE, SILENCE, NIGHT, OLD TIMES, AND NO MAN’S LAND. Ayken, Edibe Serra M.A., Department of Foreign Language Education Supervisor : Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ünal Norman June 2007, 105 pages Harold Pinter’s concern with memory and the verification of the past have been ever-present since his early writings. Although these themes have been explored by Pinter in his early works, they have become dominant in his interim plays, which have been named by critics as his memory plays. In these plays, the characters evoke the past to such an extent that the past virtually co-exists with and influences the present. The characters’ recollections of the past may be real, or they may be partially or even completely altered during the process of remembering. However, since verification of the past is impossible, whether these memories are real or confabulated remains unknown. The motives underlying these characters’ utilization of memories deserves investigation. This paper ventures to examine the reasons why the characters in the memory plays exploit recollections of the past. It focuses on the characters’ use of memory with the aim of asserting and perpetuating identity and existence, of exerting dominance over others, and of coping with their dissatisfaction with the present. To this end, the characters in Pinter’s Landscape, Silence, Night, Old Times, and No Man’s Land will be studied respectively. Keywords: Memory, Identity, Existence, Dominance, Dissatisfaction iv ÖZ HAROLD PINTER’ IN LANDSCAPE, SILENCE, NIGHT, OLD TIMES, VE NO MAN’S LAND ADLI OYUNLARINDA GEÇMİŞİN VE ANILARIN KULLANIM AMACI. Ayken, Edibe Serra Yüksek Lisans, Yabancı Diller Eğitimi Bölümü Tez Yöneticisi: Doç. Dr. Ünal Norman Haziran 2007, 105 sayfa Harold Pinter’ın hafızaya ve geçmişin ispatına duyduğu merak, yazarlığının erken dönemlerinden beri süregelmiştir. Bu temalar, Pinter tarafından erken dönem eserlerinde irdelenmiş olmasına rağmen, eleştirmenlerin hafıza oyunları olarak adlandırdıkları ara dönem oyunlarına hakim olmuştur. Bu oyunlarda, karakterler, geçmişi öyle bir dereceye kadar harekete geçirirler ki, geçmiş, şimdiki zamanla hemen hemen bir arada yaşar ve şimdiki zamanı etkiler. Karakterlerin geçmişle ilgili hatıraları gerçek olabilir, ya da hatırlama sürecinde kısmen, hatta tamamen başka bir şekle girebilir. Ne var ki, geçmişi ispatlamak mümkün olmadığı için, bu anıların gerçek olup olmadığı veya bu anılar üzerinde sadece konuşulup konuşulmadığı hala bilinmemektedir. Bu karakterlerin hafıza kullanımlarının temelini oluşturan sebepler, incelenmeyi hak eder. Bu araştırma, hafıza oyunlarındaki karakterlerin geçmişin hatıralarından faydalanmalarının nedenini inceleme girişiminde bulunmaktadır. Karakterlerin kimlik ile varoluşu ileri sürme ve yaşatma, diğerleri üzerinde hakimiyet kurma ve geçmişle ilgili memnuniyetsizlikleriyle başa çıkma amacıyla hatıra kullanımlarına odaklanmaktadır. Bu amaçla, Pinter’ın Landscape, Silence, Night, Old Times, ve No Man’s Land eserlerindeki karakterler sırasıyla incelenecektir. Anahtar Kelimeler: Hatıralar, Geçmiş, Kişilik, Kimlik, Varoluş, Hakimiyet Kurma, Doyumsuzluk v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am deeply indebted to my supervisor, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ünal Norman, for her meticulous examination of my work, and for the motivating feedback and continuous encouragement she has provided throughout the writing of this thesis. Besides creating an excellent academic atmosphere in which we carried out numerous stimulating discussions, she has lent me her support in all areas of my life by becoming my confidante and mentor. Writing this thesis under her supervision was a privilege for me. I am also grateful to the jury members, Prof. Dr. Nursel İçöz and Dr. Rüçhan Kayalar, for the constructive atmosphere they have created for our discussions, for their detailed review of this thesis, and for their invaluable comments and suggestions that have aided me in improving my work. I would also like to thank my family members, friends, and colleagues whose support has helped me complete this thesis. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS PLAGIARISM ………………………………………………………………………... iii ABSTRACT …………………………………………………………………………... iv ÖZ ……………………………………………………………………………………… v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS …………………………………………………………. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ……………………………………………………………. vii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1. Harold Pinter and His Use of Memory ……………………………………. 1 1.2. Aim of the Study…………………………………………………………… 7 2. ASSERTING AND PERPETUATING IDENTITY AND EXISTENCE….. 8 2.1. Asserting and Maintaining a Sense of Identity ……………………………. 8 2.2. Connecting with Others and Establishing Personal Relationships ……….. 23 3. EXERTING DOMINANCE OVER OTHERS………………………..……. 43 3.1. Subjugating One’s Antagonist ……………………………………………. 43 3.2. Compensating for One’s Insecurities and Inadequacies ………………….. 66 4. COPING WITH DISSATISFACTION……………………………………... 75 4.1. Coping with Dissatisfaction with One’s Present State and Social Circle … 75 5. CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………….. 93 6. BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………………. 103 vii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1. Harold Pinter and His Use of Memory Nobel Prize Laureate in Literature, Harold Pinter (1930 - ), embarked on his journey that has led him to become one of the world’s most renowned playwrights as a professional actor. While he was acting in a Shakespearean company under the stage name of David Baron, he also took up writing. Until he wrote his first play, The Room, in 1957, Pinter wrote numerous poems, short prose pieces, and a semi-autobiographical novel, The Dwarfs, which he later adapted into a radio play. An incredibly versatile playwright, since writing The Room, Pinter has produced a variety of works including stage plays, television plays, radio plays, revue sketches, and screenplays (Esslin: 1980 234; Sakellaridou 1; Taylor 323, 324) all of which have added to his stature as a legendary literary figure. Besides establishing an unparalleled reputation as a literary figure, Pinter has also gained a reputation as an influential political activist through “his sense of responsibility to speak out on political matters” ranging from government policies to issues such as torture and freedom of speech (Smith 35, 36). The variety that can be observed in both his standing as an actor, playwright, director, and political activist and in his exploration of different literary genres can also be observed in the themes of Pinter’s plays. Steven Gale refers to Pinter’s plays as “complex collections of interrelated themes” (17). Indeed, fear, loneliness, menace, communication, verification, fulfillment of psychological needs, the struggle for power, 1 time, and memory are employed interconnectedly as thematic elements in Pinter’s plays (Gale 19-21; Prentice xix). Though most of these thematic elements are ubiquitous, the focus tends to shift from one theme to another, depending on the era in which the plays were written. For instance, Pinter’s early plays, The Room, The Birthday Party, The Dumb Waiter, The Caretaker, A Slight Ache, and The Homecoming, are deemed as “signature ‘Pinteresque’ (the room, a menacing intruder, and the subsequent disintegration of character…)”; his interim plays, Landscape, Silence, Night, Old Times, No Man’s Land, Betrayal, Family Voices, and A Kind of Alaska, are considered as “more lyrical reflections on time and memory”. Furthermore, his more recent plays, One for the Road and Mountain Language, are considered as “overtly political” (Gordon xii) though they also encompass Pinter’s fundamental themes. The themes of memory and the verification of the past have been prevalent since Pinter’s early plays. Bernard Dukore points out the past is unclear in most of Pinter’s plays and gives some examples such as “Stanley’s transgression” in The Birthday Party, “Aston’s experience in the mental asylum” in The Caretaker, and “adultery” in The Collection” (85). Though these themes have been explored by Pinter in his early writings, they have become dominant in his plays, Landscape, Silence, Night, Old Times, and No Man’s Land, which have been named by critics as his memory plays. Therefore, even though the theme of memory is not new for Pinter, the emphasis placed on it is (Gale 21). Pinter’s main concern in his memory plays is with the “immense difficulty, if not the impossibility, of verifying