A Study of Certain Plays by Harold Pinter
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
The Importance of Being Earnest SEETHU BABY MANGALAM 2020-2021 the Importance of Being Earnest Comedy of Manners
SUBJECT: BRITISH LITERATURE 19TH CENTURY TOPIC: The Importance of being Earnest SEETHU BABY MANGALAM 2020-2021 The Importance of being Earnest Comedy of Manners A Comedy of Manners is a play concerned with satirising society’s manners A manner is the method in which everyday duties are performed, conditions of society, or a way of speaking. It implies a polite and well-bred behaviour. Comedy of Manners is known as high comedy because it involves a sophisticated wit and talent in the writing of the script. In this sense it is both intellectual and very much the opposite of slapstick. Comedy of Manners In a Comedy of Manners however, there is often minimal physical action and the play may involve heavy use of dialogue. A Comedy of Manners usually employs an equal amount of both satire and farce resulting in a hilarious send-up of a particular social group. This was usually the middle to upper classes in society. The satire tended to focus on their materialistic nature, never-ending desire to gossip and hypocritical existence. Comedy of Manners The plot of such a comedy, usually concerned with an illicit love affair or similarly scandalous matter, is subordinate to the play’s brittle atmosphere, witty dialogue, and pungent commentary on human foibles. This genre is characterized by realism (art), social analysis and satire. These comedies held a mirror to the finer society of their age. These comedies are thus true pictures of the noble society of the age. This genre held a mirror to the high society of the Restoration Age. -
Interpretation of the Subtext of Harold Pinter's the Room, a Thematic Study
International Journal on Studies in English Language and Literature (IJSELL) Volume 3, Issue 3, March 2015, PP 51-58 ISSN 2347-3126 (Print) & ISSN 2347-3134 (Online) www.arcjournals.org Interpretation of the Subtext of Harold Pinter’s the Room, A Thematic Study Mona F. Hashish Northern Border University, Saudi Arabia [email protected] Keywords: Harold Pinter, subtext, silence, fear and violence. Harold Pinter (1930- 2008) is a modern British Noble-prize winning dramatist. The research tackles his first play The Room (1957). That play represents Pinter’s early subtle plays where he hides meanings within their folds. In his early phase, Pinter chooses to be silent, discreet and indirect in both language and characterization. The research studies the unspoken in The Room because it tells important and crucial information about the characters, their thoughts and their past. Pinter makes his play so ambiguous that it is not understood without analyzing what is said and what is not said. Moreover, the study treats the main themes in the play: alienation, violence, menace and fear. Therefore, the research investigates the subtext in order to reveal the embedded meanings of the text. The Room primarily discusses Rose’s tragedy that is unsaid. The protagonist’s reaction reflects her suffering. The paper manages to discover the reasons of her tragedy through studying her attitude, and analyzing her actions, reactions, silence and gestures. The Room is one of Harold Pinter‘s early plays that are vague and highly suggestive. John Brown calls Pinter‘s early plays –such as The Room (1957), The Birthday Party (1958), The Dumb Waiter (1959), The Caretaker (1960) and The Homecoming (1965) –‗interior plays‘ because they are all subtle and implicit (12). -
Theatre of the Absurd : Its Themes and Form
THE THEATRE OF THE ABSURD: ITS THEMES AND FORM by LETITIA SKINNER DACE A. B., Sweet Briar College, 1963 A MASTER'S THESIS submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree MASTER OF ARTS Department of Speech KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY Manhattan, Kansas 1967 Approved by: c40teA***u7fQU(( rfi" Major Professor il PREFACE Contemporary dramatic literature is often discussed with the aid of descriptive terms ending in "ism." Anthologies frequently arrange plays under such categories as expressionism, surrealism, realism, and naturalism. Critics use these designations to praise and to condemn, to denote style and to suggest content, to describe a consistent tone in an author's entire ouvre and to dissect diverse tendencies within a single play. Such labels should never be pasted to a play or cemented even to a single scene, since they may thus stifle the creative imagi- nation of the director, actor, or designer, discourage thorough analysis by the thoughtful viewer or reader, and distort the complex impact of the work by suppressing whatever subtleties may seem in conflict with the label. At their worst, these terms confine further investigation of a work of art, or even tempt the critic into a ludicrous attempt to squeeze and squash a rounded play into a square pigeon-hole. But, at their best, such terms help to elucidate theme and illuminate style. Recently the theatre public's attention has been called to a group of avant - garde plays whose philosophical propensities and dramatic conventions have been subsumed under the title "theatre of the absurd." This label describes the profoundly pessimistic world view of play- wrights whose work is frequently hilarious theatre, but who appear to despair at the futility and irrationality of life and the inevitability of death. -
Sexual Identity in Harold Pinter's Betrayal
Table of Contents Introduction: …………………………………………………………………………………..1 The Question of Identity in Harold Pinter’s Drama Chapter One:………………………………………………………………………………….26 Strong Arm Her: Gendered Identity in Harold Pinter’s A Kind of Alaska (1982) Chapter Two:…………………………………………………………………………………79 The Indelible Memory: Memorial Identity in Harold Pinter’s Ashes to Ashes (1996) Chapter Three:……………………………………………………………………………..129 Eroded Rhetoric: Linguistic Identity in Harold Pinter’s One for the Road (1984) and Mountain Language (1988) Chapter Four: ……………………………………………………………………………….188 Chic Dictatorship: Power and Political Identity in Harold Pinter’s Party Time (1991) Chapter Five:…………………………………………………………………………………240 The Ethic and Aesthetic of Existence: Sexual Identity in Harold Pinter’s Betrayal (1978) Chapter Six:…………………………………………………………………………………..294 Crumbling Families: Familial and Marital Identity in Harold Pinter’s Celebration (2000) Conclusion:……………………………………………………………………………………350 Bibliography:…………………………………………………………………………………359 I II Acknowledgment I would like to express my special thanks and appreciation to my principal supervisor Dr. Christian M. Billing, who has shown the attitude and the substance of a genius. He continually and persuasively conveyed a spirit of adventure in questioning everything and leaving no stone unturned. You have been a tremendous mentor for me. I would like to thank you for your incessant encouragement, support, invaluable advice, and patience without which the completion of this work would have been impossible. Thank you for allowing me to grow as a researcher. Your advice on both research as well as my career have been priceless. I would also like to thank Dr. K.S. Morgan McKean without which this work would not have been completed on time. A special thanks to my family. Words cannot express how grateful I’m to my sweet and loving parents Mandy Khaleel & Hasan Ali who did not spare the least effort to support me throughout my study. -
The Hothouse and Dynamic Equilibrium in the Works of Harold Pinter
Ben Ferber The Hothouse and Dynamic Equilibrium in the Works of Harold Pinter I have no doubt that history will recognize Harold Pinter as one of the most influential dramatists of all time, a perennial inspiration for the way we look at modern theater. If other playwrights use characters and plots to put life under a microscope for audiences, Pinter hands them a kaleidoscope and says, “Have at it.” He crafts multifaceted plays that speak to the depth of his reality and teases and threatens his audience with dangerous truths. In No Man’s Land, Pinter has Hirst attack Spooner, who may or may not be his old friend: “This is outrageous! Who are you? What are you doing in my house?”1 Hirst then launches into a monologue beginning: “I might even show you my photograph album. You might even see a face in it which might remind you of your own, of what you once were.”2 Pinter never fully resolves Spooner’s identity, but the mens’ actions towards each other are perfectly clear: with exacting language and wit, Pinter has constructed a magnificent struggle between the two for power and identity. In 1958, early in his career, Pinter wrote The Hothouse, an incredibly funny play based on a traumatic personal experience as a lab rat at London’s Maudsley Hospital, proudly founded as a modern psychiatric institution, rather than an asylum. The story of The Hothouse, set in a mental hospital of some sort, is centered around the death of one patient, “6457,” and the unexplained pregnancy of another, “6459.” Details around both incidents are very murky, but varying amounts of culpability for both seem to fall on the institution’s leader, Roote, and his second-in- command, Gibbs. -
The Theme of Isolation in Harold Pinter's the Caretaker
www.the-criterion.com The Criterion: An International Journal in English ISSN (0976-8165) The Theme of Isolation in Harold Pinter’s The Caretaker Dr. H.B. Patil The human being in modern life has become victim of frustration, loneliness, loss of communication and isolation. Harold Pinter, the British playwright reflects exactly this state of human being in his play The Caretaker. His well known plays are The Room, The Homecoming , The Birthday Party, etc. But his real breakthrough came with the publication of The Caretaker. Harold Pinter’s works present directly or indirectly the influences of pre-war and post-war incidents. The sense of rootlessness, loneliness and isolation can be seen in his characters. The audiences are made to laugh but at the same time they are threatened by violent action that destroys the central character. The Caretaker discusses the critical condition of characters in the play. All the three characters Aston, Mick and Davies do represent their isolation with more or less intensity. This play of Pinter opens the life in general and life in 1950s England in particular. The isolation is either forced on them or it is selected by them on their own. His characters do not allow themselves to form good relationship with others. From the very beginning of the play, the realistic details occur. Aston lives in a room of an apartment that is owned by his brother Mick. Though they are brothers there is no proper communication between them. Aston lives the life of mentally retarded human being because of the electric shock treatment given to him. -
A Foucaldian Reading of Harold Pinter's Old Times
A FOUCALDIAN READING OF HAROLD PINTER’S OLD TIMES Yrd. Doç. Dr. İfakat Banu AKÇEŞME* Abstract This paper aims to examine the power struggle initiated for dominance, the possession of territory and love between the characters Deeley, Kate and Anna in Harold Pinter`s play Old Times in the light of Foucault`s theory on discourse, power, knowledge and resistance. It explains how the on-going battle is carried out through the production of discourses and counter-discourses, the fabrication of truth and knowledge and the reconstruction and deconstruction of past memories. The characters exert and resist the power by employing various strategies and maneuvers including subjugation, victimization and exploitation. Nevertheless, this is a battle with no ultimate winner and loser since power rapidly keeps changing hand, and the alliances formed by the characters against each other are constantly altering and redesigned. Key Words: Foucault, Discourse, Power, Knowledge, Resistance, Old Times HAROLD PINTER’IN ESKİ ZAMANLAR ADLI OYUNUNUN FOUCAULTCU SÖYLEM BAĞLAMINDA İNCELENMESİ Öz Bu çalışma Harold Pinter’in Eski Zamanlar adlı tiyatro eserinde karakterler Deeley, Kate ve Anna arasındaki sevgi ve mekana sahip olmak ve birbirleri üzerinde hakimiyet kurmak için yürütülen güç mücadelesini Foucault’nun söylem, güç, bilgi ve direnç üzerine olan teorisi ışığında ele almayı amaçlamaktadır. Karakterlerin bu mücadeleyi söylem ve karşı söylem üreterek, bilgi ve gerçeklik imal ederek ve geçmiş hatıraları bozup yeniden inşa ederek nasıl sürdürdükleri tartışılacaktır. Karakterler boyun eğdirme, istismar ve mağdur etmenin de dahil olduğu çeşitli manevralara ve stratejilere başvurarak hem güç uygulamakta hem de güce karşı koymaktadırlar. Ancak yine de karakterler arasındaki bu savaş, kazananı ve kaybedeni olmayan bir mücadeledir çünkü güç, oyunun sonuna kadar sürekli olarak el değiştirmekte ve karakterlerin birbirine karşı kurdukları ittifaklar sürekli değişerek yeniden dizayn edilmektedir. -
THEATRE, DRAMA, HUMOR, and COMEDY: by Don L. F. Nilsen English Department Arizona State University Tempe, AZ 85287-0302 ( Don.Ni
THEATRE, DRAMA, HUMOR, AND COMEDY: by Don L. F. Nilsen English Department Arizona State University Tempe, AZ 85287-0302 ( [email protected] ) Alexander, D. "Political Satire in the Israeli Theatre: Another Outlook on Zionism." Jewish Humor. Ed. Avner Ziv. Tel Aviv, Israel: Papyrus, 1986, 165-74. Appell, Virginia. "Acts of the Comedic Art: The Frantics on Stage." Play and Culture 1.3 (August, 1988): 239- 46. Apte, Mahadev L. Humor and Communication in Contemporary Marathi Theater: A Sociolinguistic Perspective. India: Linguistic Society of India, 1992. Apte, Mahadev L. "Parody and Comment: Comedy in Contemporary Marathi Theater." The World and I (June, 1992): 671-681. Auden, W. H. " Notes on the Comic." Comedy: Meaning and Form. Ed. Robert W. Corrigan, San Francisco, CA: Chandler, 1965, 61-72. Baddely-Clinton, V. C. The Burlesque Tradition in the English Theatre after 1660. 1952. Balordi, A. Emma Sopena. "Dos Traducciones (Frances y Espanol) de Algunos Rasgos de Humor en La Locandiera. Carlo Goldoni: Una Vida Para El Teatro. Eds Inez Rodriguez Gomez, and Juli Leal Duart. Valencia, Spain: Universitat de Valencia Departament de Filologia Francesa i Italiana, 1996, 119-127. Barber, C. L. "The Saturnalian Pattern in Shakespeare's Comedy." Comedy: Meaning and Form. Ed. Robert W. Corrigan, San Francisco, CA: Chandler, 1965, 363-377. Baudelaire, Charles. "On the Essence of Laughter." Comedy: Meaning and Form. Ed. Robert W. Corrigan, San Francisco, CA: Chandler, 1965, 449=465. Belkin, Ahuva. "`Here's My Coxcomb': Some Notes on the Fool's Dress." Assaph: Studies in the Theatre 1.1 (1984): 40-54. Bentley, Eric. "Farce." Comedy: Meaning and Form. -
2021 Franklin County Fair Book – 4-H and Open Class – Table of Contents
FRONTIER EXTENSION DISTRICT 1418 South Main, Suite 2, Ottawa, KS 66067 Phone 785-229-3520 / Fax 785-229-3527 www.frontierdistrict.ksu.edu Rebecca McFarland – District Director and Family and Consumer Sciences Agent Janae McNally – 4-H Youth Development Agent Jessica Flory – 4-H Program Assistant Tammy Egidy – 4-H Program Assistant Juanita Sleichter – Office Professional Madison Maurer – Communications and Marketing Manager 2021 Franklin County Fair Book – 4-H and Open Class – Table of Contents Round Robin --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12 Beef Cattle ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 14 Bucket Calf ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 16 Dairy Cattle ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17 Dairy Goats ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 18 Meat Goats ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 19 Sheep ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 20 Swine ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 21 Cats --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 22 Dogs -
Comedy of Manners
Compiled and designed by Milan Mondal, Assistant Professor in English, Narajole Raj College Background Reading Comedy of Manners ENGLISH(CC); SEM-II;PAPER-C3T; COMEDY OF MANNERS (BACKGROUND READING) Compiled and designed by Milan Mondal, Assistant Professor in English, Narajole Raj College Overview • A comedy of Manners is a play concerned with satirising the society’s manners. A manner is the method in which everyday duties are performed, conditions of society, or way of speaking. It implies a polite and well-bred behaviour. • The Comedy of manners, also called anti-sentimental comedy, is a form of comedy that satirizes the manners and affections of contemporary society and questions social standards. Social class stereotypes are often represented through stock characters(a stereotypical fictional person or type of person in a literary work). • A Comedy of Manners often sacrifices the plot, which usually centres on some scandal, to witty dialogues ans sharp social commentary . ENGLISH(CC); SEM-II;PAPER-C3T;RESTORATIION COMEDY OF MANNERS (BACKGROUND READING) Compiled and designed by Milan Mondal, Assistant Professor in English, Narajole Raj College • Satirizes the manners and affections of a social class • Often represented by stereotypical stock characters • Restoration Comedy is the highpoint of Comedy of Manners • It deals with the relations and intrigues of men and women living in sophisticated upper class society • It is light, deft and vivacious in tone • Unlike satire, Comedy of Manners tends to reward its cleverly unscrupulous characters rather than punish their immorality. • The plot of the comedy is often concerned with scandal • A middle-class reaction against the courtly Restoration comedy resulted in the sentimental comedy of the 18th Century . -
TIMES, BETRAYAL and a KIND of ALASKA PEREIRA, Luís Alberto
http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0104-93132002000100005 MEMORY AS DISCOURSE IN HAROLD PINTER’S OLD LÉVI-STRAUSS, Claude. Tristes Trópicos. Lisboa: Edições 70. 2004. TIMES, BETRAYAL AND A KIND OF ALASKA PEREIRA, Luís Alberto. Drama biográfico – “Hans Staden”. Coprodução luso-brasileira. 1999. Carla Ferreira de Castro RIBEIRO, Darcy. O Povo Brasileiro – a formação e o sentido do Brasil. São Universidade de Évora Portugal Paulo: Companhia das Letras. 2.ª Edição. 1995. [email protected] ROUCH, Jean. “Les Maîtres Fous”. Documentário/filme. 1955. Consultado a 15 de Maio de 2012: Abstract http://www.veoh.com/watch/v14179347tanDtaPa?h1=Jean+Rouch+%3 A+Les+ma%C3%AEtres+fous+-+The+mad+masters This paper aims at developing the topic of identity and the narration of SANTIAGO, Silviano. “Mário, Oswald e Carlos, intérpretes do Brasil”. ALCEU – v.5 – n.10 – Jan./Jun. 2005. P.p. 5 – 17. Consultado a 15 de Maio de the self through the other in Harold Pinter’s plays Old Times, Betrayal and A Kind . In these plays Pinter deploys strategies to convey multiple implications 2012: of Alaska which are based on the power of memory in which the structure of the plays is http://revistaalceu.com.puc-rio.br/media/alceu_n10_santiago.pdf concocted. STADEN, Hans. 1520-ca 1565. Viagem ao Brasil. Rio de Janeiro: Academia Brasileira, 1930. 186 P. Consultado a 15 de Maio de 2012: http://purl.pt/151 Pinter, Language, Silence, Memory, Time STOLLER, Paul. “Artaud, rouch, and The cinema of Cruelty”. 1992. Key words: Visual Anthropology Review. Volume 8, n. º 2. “Every genuinely important step forward is accompanied by a return to the beginning...more precisely to a renewal of the beginning. -
THE COLLECTION, the LOVER and OLD TIMES Dr
Global Journal of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Vol.4, No.3, pp.29-38, February 2016 ___Published by European Centre for Research Training and Development UK (www.eajournals.org) HOME AS A BATTLEFIELD: POWER AND GENDER IN HAROLD PINTER'S THE COLLECTION, THE LOVER AND OLD TIMES Dr. Abdulaziz H. Alabdullah Assistant Professor, Kuwait University - Faculty of Arts - Department of English Language and Literature ABSTRACT: Harold Pinter has been hailed as a dramatist among the half-dozen best dramatists, able to use his considerable wit in unusual, resonant and riveting ways. The central theme of his work is one of the dominant themes of twentieth-century art: the struggle for meaning in a fragmented world. His characters are uncertain of whom or what they understand, in whom or what they believe, and who or what they are. Pinter’s characters operate by a stark ‘territorial imperative,' a primal drive for possession. In his plays, the struggle for power is an atavistic one between male and female. Hence sexuality as a means of power and control is our priority in discussing a select set of Pinter's playscripts. We here examine the element of sexuality in these chosen texts analysing the relationship between male and female characters, as they snipe and sling potshots across the most intimate of all battlefields: our home and castle. The texts are studied individually, in sequence, in an attempt to lay bare the technique and leverage of sexual negotiations in Pinter's work. KEYWORDS: Gender, Power, Sexuality, Relationships, Harold Pinter Introduction: Three plays by Harold Pinter, not perhaps his best known, The Collection, The Lover and Old Times, show how the playwright cruelly, but critically, investigates how sensible men have to get their rocks off, no matter what the social cost.