Pinter's "Semantic Uncertainty" and Critically "Inescapable" Certainties
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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). -
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 Study of Certain Plays by Harold Pinter
COMEDY IN THE SEVENTIES: A STUDY OF CERTAIN PLAYS BY HAROLD PINTER Annette Louise Combrink A thesis submitted to the Facul ty of Arts, Potchefstroom University for Christian High er Education in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor Litterarum Promoter: Prof. J.A. Venter Potchefstroom November 1979 My grateful thanks to: My promoter for painstaking and valued guidance The staff of the Ferdinand Postma Library f o r their invaluable cheerful assistance My typist , Rina Kahl My colleagues Rita Ribbens and Rita Buitendag My l ong-suffering husband and children My parents and parents-in-law for their constant encouragement CONTENTS 1 A SURVEY OF PINTER CRITICISM 1 1.1 Pinter's critical reputation: 1 bewildering variety of critical responses to his work 1.1.1 Reviews: 1958 2 1.1. 2 Reviews: 1978 3 1.1.3 Continuing ambiguity of response 4 Large number of critical \;,arks: 5 indicative of the amount of interest shown Clich~s and commonplaces in 6 Pinter criticism 1.2 Categories of Pinter criticism 7 1. 2.1 Criticism dealing with his dramatic 7 language 1. 2. 2 Criticism dealing with the obscurity 14 and opacity of his work 1. 2. 3 Criticism based on myth and ritual 18 1. 2 . 4 Criticism based on. his Jewishness 20 1. 2. 5 Pinter's work evaluated as realism 22 1.2. 6 Pinter's work evaluated as Drama of 24 ~ the Absurd 1.2. 7 The defective morality of his work 28 1.2 .8 Pinter and comedy: a preliminary 29 exploration to indicate the incom= plete nature of criticism on this aspect of his work 1,3 Statement o f intention: outline of 45 the main fields of inquiry in this study 1.4 Justification of the choice of plays 46 for analysis 2 WHY COMEDY? 4 7 2.1 The validity of making generi c 47 distinctions 2.2 Comedy as a vision of Zife 48 2.3 The continuing usefulness of genre 50 distinctions in literary criticism 2.4 NeopoZoniaZism 52 2.4.1 Tragicomedy 52 2.4.2 Dark comedy and savage comedy 54 2.4 . -
Reading the Offstage in Harold Pinter's Early Plays
This document is downloaded from DR‑NTU (https://dr.ntu.edu.sg) Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Regarding the unseen : reading the offstage in Harold Pinter's early plays Goh, Qi Wei 2017 Goh, Q. W. (2017). Regarding the unseen : reading the offstage in Harold Pinter's early plays. Master's thesis, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. http://hdl.handle.net/10356/69576 https://doi.org/10.32657/10356/69576 Downloaded on 25 Sep 2021 13:19:07 SGT READING THE THE OFFSTAGE PLAYSREADING PINTER’S IN REGARDING THE UNSEEN: READING THE OFFSTAGE IN HAROLD PINTER’S EARLY PLAYS GOH QI QI WEIGOH 2017 GOH QI WEI SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES 2017 REGARDING THE UNSEEN: READING THE OFFSTAGE IN HAROLD PINTER’S EARLY PLAYS GOH QI WEI School of Humanities and Social Sciences A thesis submitted to the Nanyang Technological University in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Art 2017 Acknowledgements The initial concept for this project came from a unusual idea for an undergraduate essay on Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler (1891). Dr Daniel Jernigan suggested its possibilites as a larger project and for this and more, I owe him my deepest gratitude. His insightful comments on my drafts have been immeasurably helpful and this paper would not be half as decent today without Dr Jernigan’s keen eye for detail. To Dr Kevin Riordan, I similarly extend my sincerest thanks for his ‘gestures of solidarity’. In addition, I would like to thank Dr Jane Wong and Dr Lee Hyun Jung for their constructive comments during my confirmation exercise. -
Harold Pinter's the Dumb Waiter Revisited
109 放送大学研究年報 第25号(2007)109―116頁 Journal of The Open University of Japan, No. 25(2007)pp.109―116 The Silence of Abraham’s God : Harold Pinter’s The Dumb Waiter Revisited Kazuyoshi OISHI 沈黙したアブラハムの神 ― ハロルド・ピンターの『給仕エレベーター』 大 石 和 欣1) Synopsis This essay explores a politico-religious meaning of silence in Harold Pinter’s play The Dumb Waiter. The play has an apparent structural similarity with the Biblical episode of Abraham’s sacrifice of his son. The silence of the authoritative power dominates throughout the play. Curiously, however, it ends in the tragic death of Gus, rather than in his liberation. In this sense, the play can rather be seen as a dramatic parallel to Bob Dylan’s ‘Highway 61 Revisited’, a parody of Abraham’s parable. In the post-WWII age, after holocausts and gruesome political cruelties, God in the Bible was replaced by an arbitrary, silent power which drove human existence into chaos and absurdity. Instead of imposing the pangs of conscience, the new authoritative presence commanded murders and human depravities relentlessly, yet with unfeeling silence. Absurdity in silence is more than tragic. This is the situation which Pinter’s The Dumb Waiter represents metaphorically. 要 旨 本論文は英国の劇作家ハロルド・ピンターの『給仕エレベーター』(The Dumb Waiter)におけ る「沈黙」がもつ政治的・宗教的意義について研究したものである。この劇は旧約聖書におけるア ブラハムの挿話と相関性を持っている。しかし、登場人物の一人ガスがもう一方のベンによって最 終的に生け贄にされてしまう点でむしろパロディーに近い悲劇となっている。その点でボブ・ディ ランの「ハイウェイ61再訪」(‘Highway 61 Revisited’)に登場する神に近い。ホロコーストを含め た第2次世界大戦の悲劇的歴史の後に訪れる神の沈黙の引喩でもある。「不条理」な沈黙がピンタ ーの『給仕エレベーター』を支配している。 God said, ‘you can do what you want, Abe, but The next time you see me comin’, you’d better run’. ‘Well’, Abe said, ‘where you want this killin’ done?’ God said, ‘do it on Highway 61’. -
The Dramatic World Harol I Pinter
THE DRAMATIC WORLD HAROL I PINTER RITUAL Katherine H. Bnrkman $8.00 THE DRAMATIC WORLD OF HAROLD PINTER By Katherine H. Burkman The drama of Harold Pinter evolves in an atmosphere of mystery in which the surfaces of life are realistically detailed but the pat terns that underlie them remain obscure. De spite the vivid naturalism of his dialogue, his characters often behave more like figures in a dream than like persons with whom one can easily identify. Pinter has on one occasion admitted that, if pressed, he would define his art as realistic but would not describe what he does as realism. Here he points to what his audience has often sensed is distinctive in his style: its mixture of the real and sur real, its exact portrayal of life on the surface, and its powerful evocation of that life that lies beneath the surface. Mrs. Burkman rejects the contention of some Pinter critics that the playwright seeks to mystify and puzzle his audience. To the contrary, she argues, he is exploring experi ence at levels that are mysterious, and is a poetic rather than a problem-solving play wright. The poetic images of the play, more over, Mrs. Burkman contends, are based in ritual; and just as the ancient Greeks at tempted to understand the mysteries of life by drawing upon the most primitive of reli gious rites, so Pinter employs ritual in his drama for his own tragicomic purposes. Mrs. Burkman explores two distinct kinds of ritual that Pinter develops in counter point. His plays abound in those daily habit ual activities that have become formalized as ritual and have tended to become empty of meaning, but these automatic activities are set in contrast with sacrificial rites that are loaded with meaning, and force the charac ters to a painful awareness of life from which their daily routines have served to protect them. -
Tacit Significance, Explicit Irrelevance: the Use of Language and Silence in the Caretaker and the Dumb Waiter
Revista de Lenguas ModeRnas, N° 16, 2012 / 31-48 / ISSN: 1659-1933 Tacit Significance, Explicit Irrelevance: The Use of Language and Silence in The Caretaker and The Dumb Waiter Juan Carlos saravia vargas Escuela de Lenguas Modernas Universidad de Costa Rica Abstract Readers who approach the Theater of the Absurd face complex interpreti- ve problems. The style of Harold Pinter, the laureate British playwright, adds an additional difficulty due to his particular use of language. His plays The Caretaker and The Dumb Waiter show how speech is overs- hadowed by silence, which provides a more direct access to the tortured psyche of characters. Key words: Theater of the Absurd, Harold Pinter, silence, dialog, plays, interpretation, The Caretaker, The Dumb Waiter Resumen El Teatro del absurdo presenta complejos problemas de interpretación a los lectores. El estilo del reconocido dramaturgo inglés Harold Pinter, representado en las obras El guardián y El Montaplatos, añade una difi- cultad adicional por su uso particular del lenguaje, donde la prominencia del discurso oral se ve opacada por el silencio. Es este último recurso dramático el que provee un acceso más directo a la torturada mente de los personajes. Palabras claves: teatro del absurdo, Harold Pinter, silencio, diálogo, obras, interpretación, El Guardián, El Montaplatos Recepción: 1-8-11 Aceptación: 5-12-11 32 Revista de Lenguas ModeRnas, n° 16, 2012 / 31-48 / ISSN: 1659-1933 heater, as a dramatic genre, has always posited an ontological problem for readers: since plays are intended to be staged, and not merely read, Tthe capacity of the reader to envision stage elements and their inter- action with characters might affect the interpretive experience of a dramatic work. -
THE FATHER Promises to Be a Profoundly Moving, Memorable Evening of Theatre
CONTACT: Nancy Richards – 917-873-6389 (cell) /[email protected] MEDIA PAGE: www.northcoastrep.org/press FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, PLEASE: NORTH COAST REP PRESENTS WEST COAST PREMIERE OF INTERNATIONAL AWARD-WINNING SENSATION THE FATHER By Florian Zeller Translated By Christopher Hampton Performances Beginning Wednesday, May 30, 2018 Running Through Sunday, June 24, 2018 Directed by David Ellenstein Solana Beach, CA, San Diego audiences will be treated to a play that the London Telegraph called “an unqualified triumph” as North Coast Rep stages the West Coast premiere of THE FATHER. A sensation in Paris, London and New York, and honored with a war chest of awards including a Tony nomination for Best Play, THE FATHER promises to be a profoundly moving, memorable evening of theatre. André was once a tap dancer who lives with his daughter Anne and her husband Antoine. Or was he an engineer whose daughter Anne lives in London with her new lover, Pierre? The thing is, he is still wearing his pajamas, and he can’t find his watch. He is starting to wonder if he’s losing control. This is must-see theatre for the discerning theatre- goer. David Ellenstein directs James Sutorius,* Robyn Cohen, Matthew Salazar-Thompson, Jacque Wilke,* Richard Baird,* and Shana Wride.* The design team includes Marty Burnett (Scenic Design), Matthew Novotny (Lighting Design), Melanie Chen Cole (Sound), Elisa Benzoni (Costumes), and Holly Gillard (Prop Design). Aaron Rumley* is the Stage Manager. *The actor or stage manager appears through the courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States. -
Writer's Trail Rev2
KEY THE CHISWICK TIMELINE OF WRITERS AND BOOKS This record of the writers who have lived in - or written about – A Nancy Mitford 1904-1973. Novelist: The Pursuit of Love, Chiswick was inspired by The Chiswick Timeline: A History in Art Love In A Cold Climate. Lived in Chiswick in the 1930s. and Maps, the remarkable mural situated under the bridges Rose Cottage, 84 Strand on the Green, W4 3PU (Private house, no access) outside Turnham Green tube station . www.chiswicktimeline.org. B Harold Pinter 1947-2008. Playwright: Wrote The Caretaker Created with the Chiswick Book Festival, it is organised when he lived in a at in Chiswick in the 1950s and 60s, and a chronologically, and by genre, and will exist online and in other tramp was invited to stay. Nobel Prize for Literature 2005. forms, such as this Writers Trail. 373 Chiswick High Road, W4 4AG (Private house, no access) Chiswick’s writers have created some of the country’s greatest C EM Forster 1879-1970. Novelist: A Room with a View, Howards works, from Thackeray’s Vanity Fair to Osborne’s Look Back in End, A Passage to India. Lived in Chiswick in the 1940s and 50s, Anger and Pinter’s The Caretaker. Follow this Writers Trail, which when he broadcast reviews for the BBC. Nobel Prize nominee. features novelists, poets and playwrights, and see the website 9 Arlington Park Mansions, W4 4HE - Blue plaque. (Private house, no access) www.chiswickbookfestival.net for more information. D Patrick Hamilton 1904-1962. Playwright: Gaslight, Novelist: His autobiographical trilogy Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sir John Betjeman 1906-1984. -
{Download PDF} the Dumb Waiter: Play
THE DUMB WAITER: PLAY PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Harold Pinter | 40 pages | 31 Jan 2015 | Samuel French Ltd | 9780573042102 | English | London, United Kingdom The Dumb Waiter: Play PDF Book From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Get ready to write your essay on The Dumb Waiter. Ben bursts out loudly again about something he sees in the newspaper, but Gus quickly changes the subject to whether they could go to a football soccer game the next day. They begin to argue, and Gus passionately questions Ben about why their boss, a man named Wilson , wants them to do this job. Ben points his gun at the door, ready to shoot, as Gus enters the room. Our study guide has summaries, insightful analyses, and everything else you need to understand The Dumb Waiter. Ben has to explain to the people above via the dumbwaiter's "speaking tube" that there is no food. Two Person Three Person. Ben criticizes Gus for complaining about their job, which is not yet clear to the audience, saying that he gets plenty of time off. Remember me. To date, this content has been curated from Wikipedia articles and images under Creative Commons licensing, although as Project Webster continues to increase in scope and dimension, more licensed and public domain content is being added. Mostly male cast Includes adult characters. These horrors are dramatized through images of torture and oppression culminating in moments of silence that index the full extent of the destruction unleashed by the forces of power against dissidence. Another interpretation is that the play is a political drama showing how the individual is destroyed by a higher power. -
From Pleasure to Menace: Noel Coward, Harold Pinter, and Critical Narratives
Fall 2009 41 From Pleasure to Menace: Noel Coward, Harold Pinter, and Critical Narratives Jackson F. Ayres For many, if not most, scholars of twentieth century British drama, the playwrights Noel Coward and Harold Pinter belong in entirely separate categories: Coward, a traditional, “drawing room dramatist,” and Pinter, an angry revolutionary redefining British theatre. In short, Coward is often used to describe what Pinter is not. Yet, this strict differentiation is curious when one considers how the two playwrights viewed each other’s work. Coward frequently praised Pinter, going so far as to christen him as his successor in the use of language on the British stage. Likewise, Pinter has publicly stated his admiration of Coward, even directing a 1976 production of Coward’s Blithe Spirit (1941). Still, regardless of their mutual respect, the placement of Coward and Pinter within a shared theatrical lineage is, at the very least, uncommon in the current critical status quo. Resistance may reside in their lack of overt similarities, but likely also in the seemingly impenetrable dividing line created by the premiere of John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger on May 8, 1956. In his book, 1956 and All That (1999), Dan Rebellato convincingly argues that Osborne’s play created such a critical sensation that eventually “1956 becomes year zero, and time seems to flow both forward and backward from it,” giving the impression that “modern British theatre divides into two eras.”1 Coward contributed to this partially generational divide by frequently railing against so-called New Movement authors, particularly Samuel Beckett and Eugene Ionesco, for being self-important and tedious.