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Landscape: Pinter-Ish Characters ABSTRACT : اﻟﻣﺳﺗﺧﻠص

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Landscape: Pinter-Ish Characters ABSTRACT : اﻟﻣﺳﺗﺧﻠص SUST Journal of Humanities (2015) Vol.16.No. 4 ISSN (text): 1858-6724 e-ISSN (online): 1858-6732 Landscape: Pinter-ish Characters Ansam Riyadh A. Almaaroof - Yousif Omer Babiker 1. lecturer-English Department College of Education- Tikrit University-Iraq 2.English Department College of Languages- Sudan University of Science and Technology ABSTRACT : This paper handles Pinter's characters' construction in the first one-act play that denotes Pinter's second phase of writing, Landscape (1968). The paper hypothesizes that Pinter throughout his second stage of writing has tried to give the impression that the conflict which has been appearing throughout his first stage writing is vital to get full-life characters, and without such conflict, there will be neither protagonist nor antagonist. Character analysis will be adopted as a method of discussion. The discussion concludes that Pinter has used inactive characterization to indicate the idea that conflict is an essential part for life continuation and character's construction. Key words: Landscape, Memory, Characterization اﻟﻣﺳﺗﺧﻠص : ﺗﺗﻧﺎول ﻫذﻩ اﻟورﻗﺔ ﺑﻧﺎء اﻟﺷﺧﺻﯾﺎت ﻓﻲ ﻣﺳرﺣﯾﺔ اﻟﻔﺻل اﻟواﺣد , " اﻟﻣﻧظر" (1968) ﻟﻬﺎروﻟد ﺑﻧﺗر واﻟﺗﻲ ﺗﻣﺛل اﻟﻣرﺣﻠﺔ اﻟﺛﺎﻧﯾﺔ ﻓﻲ ﻛﺗﺎﺑﺎﺗﻪ. ﺗﻔﺗرض اﻟورﻗﺔ ان ﺑﻧﺗر ﺧﻼل اﻋﻣﺎﻟﻪ ﺣﺎول ان ﯾﻌطﻲ اﻧطﺑﺎﻋﺎ ان اﻟﺻراع اﻟذي ﯾظﻬر ﻓﻲ اﻟﻣرﺣﻠﺔ اﻻوﻟﻰ ﻣن ﻛﺗﺎﺑﺎﺗﻪ ﻛﺎن اﺳﺎﺳﺎ ﻣن اﺟل ﺑﻧﺎء ﺷﺧﺻﯾﺎت ذوي ﺣﯾﺎة ﻣﺗﻛﺎﻣﻠﺔ وﺑدون ذﻟك اﻟﺻراع ﻻ ﯾﻣﻛن ان ﯾﻛون ﻫﻧﺎك اﺑطﺎل او ﻧﻘﯾﺿﻬم. اﻟورﻗﺔ ﺗﺑﻧت ﺗﺣﻠﯾل اﻟﺷﺧﺻﯾﺎت ﻟﺗﻛون وﺳﯾﻠﺔ اﻟﻧﻘﺎش. اﻧﺗﻬت اﻟورﻗﺔ اﻟﻰ ان ﺑﻧﺗر ﻣن ﺧﻼل اﺑرازﻩ ﻟﺷﺧﺻﯾﺎت ﺑدون ﺻراع اوﺿﺢ ﻓﻛرة ان اﻟﺻراع ﻣﻬم ﻻﺳﺗﻣرار اﻟﺣﯾﺎة وﻟﺑﻧﺎء اﻟﺷﺧﺻﯾﺔ. INTRODUCTION : century’(2007,N.P.) Her opinion is Harold Pinter, the winner of the Nobel definitely correct as Gussow (1994, 123) Award for Literature (2005), is known rightly observed, ‘is essentially world-wide as one of the greatest writers exploratory. […] theatre has always been of a body of literary work that includes a critical act’. Landscape(1968) is thirty-two plays, twenty-one film scripts, chronologically located in the middle one novel, and numerous poems. period between the early and late plays. Besides being a prolific writer, he has This one-act play is the first play Pinter been a director, an actor, and a political has written in this period. It shows a activist in the second half of the distinguished form and content different twentieth century. Pinter's contribution is from that of preceding plays. Though it of such a distinctive quality that he was is different in the way Pinter manipulates described by Brigitte Gauthier, in her things and characters, it is geared to the preface to Viva Pinter, as ‘Harold Pinter same central idea that Pinter has was the Shakespeare of our 212 SUST Journal of Humanities (2015) Vol.16.No. 4 ISSN (text): 1858-6724 e-ISSN (online): 1858-6732 previously exposed, though this time in a the audiences postmodernist characters reversed and revised form. while he is talking about modernist ones. The second phase of Pinter’s work In Landscape there is experimentation begins with two plays so radically with both form and memory which begin different from anything Pinter had now to give voice to some public written previously in the first stage of his consequences of the private conflict at writing. The limited→ the heart of all Pinter’s plays. Pinter controlled/controlled → controlling seems to have broken away from his conflict which dominates his first stage reliable power-play source of tension. writing almost disappears here, but with Setting is used in a different form; Pinter startling consequences. The overall arch is inclined to show that the period of the of the play’s conflict which this play closed rooms has ended, and he is fully shows is mirrored in each detail but aware of the important role of setting in different from the previous works: this understanding his plays. The focus is time with public consequences. Never, shifted from the closed rooms to un throughout the whole of Pinter’s work, walled space that can be anywhere. the conflict has never become repetitive Pinter underlined this new landscape or assumed a merely mechanical form. setting trend by saying, "Certainly they For each play its function and form are are not in a room. So the characters can’t specific to the nature of the limited→ open a door and come in, but I think controlled/controlled→ controlling they’re there". (Tynan, 1967, 8) conflict. In this one-act play, Pinter gives his Methodology audiences a different form of relation, if The paper adopts the character analysis one can say it is a relation at all. The to be the method of discussion. conflict is not there for power and Character analysis is the most suitable dominance or for anything else. Mel method for approaching the selected Gussow(1996, 18) in an interview with play "Landscapr" since the target of the Harold Pinter states that " Landscape paper is to evaluate the characters' and Silence [ the two short poetic construction with relation to conflict. memory plays that were written between Discussion The Homecoming and The Old Times] Landscape presents the other face of the are in a very different form. There is not life that differs from what Pinter used to any menace at all". Beside lacking the register in previous works to show by menace in Landscape, in a very contrast the essence of life that is formalistic way the character can be derived by ethics. In portraying described neither as protagonist nor characters as neither controlled nor antagonist for there is nothing to be controlling and neither modernist nor gained. The quest-line for each character postmodernist, Pinter insists that their is not portrayed throughout the play. At existence will be felt and valued only if the end of the play, the audience realize it occurs at the same time. He predicts the core of the idea which Pinter is postmodernism before its time by giving trying to explain: without the differences between the characters and their 213 SUST Journal of Humanities (2015) Vol.16.No. 4 ISSN (text): 1858-6724 e-ISSN (online): 1858-6732 stimulus there will be no conflict, no which keeps the other in its place. When relation and thus, no life. Also, without true silence falls we are still left with any consideration for others there will be echo but are nearer nakedness. One way no continuation of life. of looking at speech is to say that it is a In Landscape a middle-aged couple constant stratagem to cover nakedness.( (Beth and Duff) speak at, rather than to, Pinter, Harold. Plays: Three. London: each other in a counterpoint that Eyre Methuen, 1978)This nakedness consigns speech to an extension of which is associated with silence is very private memory. The characters essential in Pinter's writing. The speech communicate their thoughts, memories, the people hear is an indication of that and daydreams of past loves aloud to the which they don't hear. Pinter once said: audience but not to each other. Thus, "It is a necessary avoidance, a violent, Pinter describes the genesis: I’ve started sly, and anguished or mocking smoke a couple pages of something quite screen which keeps the other in its true different. A new form and I’m diving. place. When true silence falls we are left It’s simply, as it stands, about a woman with echo but are nearer around fifty. She’s talking. That’s all I nakedness."(Doods,2008,N.P.)Pinter bloody well know. I don’t know where tries to show this nakedness through she is. (Ibid.) silence as well as through speech. Only in the most subtle sense does Conflict, characterization and plot can be this play dramatize the characters’ developed through strong dialogue. Each occupation for power; more obviously it line is meant to cause a reaction in the portrays Pinter’s concern with time, other character or it is wasted. Dialogue space, and the mystery of identity as mustn’t be expositional i.e. explain what choice continues to connect with self- is happening. The playwright should knowledge. But the absence of power reveal little by little as the audience occupation here develops with gradually begins to detect the context unexpected ramifications: not as a good and background of what is being said. but it's opposite. In Landscape the Characters should reveal themselves as implication is that the absence of the the stakes get higher. Of course, all that conflict may be as destructive as its the audiences have is an inertial presence. monologue and not a dialogue. There is In the introduction to the first volume of no progress for the action because of the his Complete Plays, Pinter wrote: There lack of the dialogue. are two silences. One when no word is In Landscape, the setting is the two spoken. The other when perhaps a sides, right and left, of a kitchen table. torrent of language is being employed. The setting in the script is followed by a This speech is speaking of a language note: locked beneath it. That is its continual Duff refers normally to reference. The speech we hear is an Beth, but does not appear indication of that which we don't hear. It to hear her voice. is a necessary avoidance, a violent, sly, anguished or mocking smoke screen 214 SUST Journal of Humanities (2015) Vol.16.No. 4 ISSN (text): 1858-6724 e-ISSN (online): 1858-6732 Beth never looks at Duff, “You’ll plead with me like a woman,” and does not appear to Beth recalls a time past on the beach hear his voice. when, Both characters are relaxed, in no sense He lay above me.” (196) rigid.(175) The setting shows that the She then brings down the final curtain characters are not linked to each other.
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