Power Struggle in Three Plays of Harold Pinter

T. C. øSTANBUL ÜNIVERSøTESø SOSYAL Bø/øMLER ENSTøTÜSÜ øNGø/øZ Dø/ø VE EDEBøYATI Bø/øM DALI YÜKSEK LøSANS TEZø POWER STRUGGLE IN THREE PLAYS OF HAROLD PINTER PINAR ÖZÜTEMøZ 2501050052 TEZ DANIùMANI YRD. DOÇ. DR. CANAN ùAVKAY øSTANBUL 2008 Power Struggle in Three Plays of Harold Pinter 3Õnar Özütemiz ÖZ Bu çalÕúmanÕn amacÕ, Harold Pinter’Õn The Homecoming, Old Times ve Betrayal baúOÕklÕ üç oyununda güç ve güç savaúÕ kavramlarÕQÕn yansÕmalarÕQÕ, bu konuda geçmiúten bugüne gelen önemli kuram ve kuramcÕlara da de÷inerek, karakter ve konu çözümlemesi yöntemiyle incelemektir. 20. yüzyÕOÕn politik, ekonomik ve sosyal arka planÕ göz önünde bulunduruldu÷unda, özellikle Birinci ve økinci Dünya SavaúÕ sonrasÕndaki kaos, korku, güvensizlik ve umutsuzlu÷un oyunlara yansÕGÕ÷Õ, karakterlerin birbirleriyle sürekli bir güç savaúÕ içinde oldu÷u, bu güç savaúÕQÕn temelde sevgi ve aidiyet duygusu gibi temel benlik ihtiyaçlarÕQÕn karúÕlanamamasÕndan do÷du÷u ve bu sonu olmayan güç savaúÕQÕn içinde güce sahip olmanÕn hiç bir úekilde sürekli olamayaca÷Õ görülmektedir. iii Power Struggle in Three Plays of Harold Pinter 3Õnar Özütemiz ABSTRACT This study aims to explore the concept of power and power struggle in Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming, Old Times, and Betrayal. With the application of theories on power, the subject matter is studied through characterization and plot structure of the plays. Regarding the historical background of the twentieth century it is concluded that chaos and the sense of fear, insecurity, and desperation, especially after the World War One, reflect on the plays. We see that the characters are in a ceaseless power struggle with each other and the actual reason of which is lack of fulfilment, love, intimacy, recognition and appreciation. We also see that in such a power struggle it is impossible for one to possess and fix power in hands constantly. iv PREFACE This study includes a detailed analysis of Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming, Old Times, and Betrayal in terms of power and power struggle. The actions, reactions, conversations, and motives of the characters are studied in these terms in order to indicate how power struggle pervades into daily life in a natural and inevitable way in Pinter’s plays. That power struggle sometimes appears as a rough verbal battle, sometimes as a violent physical action and sometimes it maintains itself behind the mask of polite and calm manners. Nevertheless, in every single situation Pinter’s characters are seen in a ceaseless struggle for domination, superiority, authority, manipulation or possession. The issue of power struggle is also related to some personality problems of the characters such as lack of fulfilment, recognition, intimacy or appreciation which lead them to a sense of void and loneliness. Although they generally do not appear alone on stage, they are mostly isolated, separated or distant from each other, which inevitably causes aggression and antagonism in their relationships. In that process, power struggle becomes a way of seeking for satisfaction and fulfilment. Therefore, what I try to indicate in this study is that power struggle is not only a matter of brutality. What lies beneath the surface is the sense of dissatisfaction and emptiness that captures all the characters somehow. Under the light of theories of power that especially consist of Michel Foucault’s, I also try to discuss that in this struggle process power never belongs to an individual or a group. Instead, as Foucault asserts, it is not stable and possessible. It always exchanges sides. Thus it should not be regarded as a simple relation between the manipulater and manipulated. We see the changeable and complicated nature of power in Pinter’s plays. A character who exercises power may immediately appear as the object of power exercise, which means that power is a momentary exercise. This thesis consists of three parts. In the Introduction part I try to discuss the nature of power and power struggle with the help of some important theorists and historical background of Pinter’s period. In Chapter I, after the Introduction, I study the power and power struggle issue in The Homecoming which is one of the most well-known plays of Pinter written in 1965. The weaknesses, needs and motives of v the characters are explored through the endless power battle that also includes brutality and violence both in physical and verbal action. Chapter II covers Old Times, one of Pinter’s most confusing plays written in 1970. In this play, power struggle appears in parallel with the issue of memory and recreation of memory. The characters recall and abuse their past to claim domination and possession over one another. Chapter III, which is the last chapter of my thesis, studies Betrayal. Although it is about the betrayal of two couples at first sight, the betrayal issue has much more interpretations throughout the play. Again we see the sense of desperation and emptiness which lead the characters to an endless power struggle to seek further. Finally, the Conclusion part sums up the results collected from the close study of each play in terms of the nature of power struggle. To whom I owe most for this study is of course my supervisor Assist. Prof. Canan ùavkay and I thank her so much for all her patient and encouraging guidance during this long process which was sometimes painful for me. I also thank Assist. Prof. Arpine MÕ]Õkyan for her interest in my subject and of course for her knowledge that she generously shared with me in the writing process. Finally I thank Tevfik Mersino÷lu who continuously and regularly provided me a lot of sources during my research. Also my special thanks are due to my friends Özlem Karada÷, Petek ùirin, ùenay Yücel who helped me a lot in my research. And I should of course thank my family and my dear friends Gökhan Süzme, Seda ùahin and Yakup ùafak who have always kept their belief in my success. vi CONTENTS Öz....................................................................................................................... iii Abstract.............................................................................................................. iv Preface ............................................................................................................... v Contents ............................................................................................................. vii Introduction........................................................................................................ 1 Chapter 1: The Brutal Representation of Power Struggle in The Homecoming .. 27 Chapter 2: Power Struggle Through Memory and Recreation of Memory in Old Times................................................................................................................. 58 Chapter 3: Power Struggle Through Concealing and Pretending in Betrayal ...... 91 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 118 Bibliography....................................................................................................... 125 vi INTRODUCTION The struggle for power and domination is a central feature that pervades all of Pinter's plays. Pinter's characters are always presented in a ceaseless battle of domination, possession and territorial authority. When they fail to achieve, fear, aggression, threat and violence arise. For Pinter, the right question is not what power is but how it is exercised by people, “what tools they would use to achieve dominance and how they would try to undermine the other person's dominance.” (From an interview with Pinter in Ganz, 1972: 29) And what is important in Pinter's approach to the power issue is that he regards power struggle as a common part of daily life. Any kind of attempt to exercise power, from the most trivial to the most brutal, exists in every sphere of life. Micheal Billington, in his The Life and Work of Harold Pinter, defines the power struggle in Pinter's plays as “minute advantages” (Billington, 1996: 171). He asserts that: A man who does the washing-up has the advantage over a man sitting in an armchair who thinks he can hear resentment in every swilling tea-leaf. The member of a married couple who stays up late has the advantage over the one who goes to bed first. A father has the advantage over his children as long as he can make them think of their birth and not let them remind him of his own death. (Ibid., 172) As we see in the opening scene of The Homecoming (HC), what happens between Max, the father, and Lenny, the eldest son, is such an ordinary but rough power struggle and it is the simultaneity of this ordinariness and roughness that makes Pinter's plays distinguishable. The perpetual sense of tension forces the reader/ audience to recognize the endless struggle going underneath. When Lenny and Ruth meet first in HC, Lenny, after talking for a while, wants to take the ashtray out of Ruth's way because, he says, it is in the way of her glass and so the glass is about to fall. Yet, Ruth does not agree: “It's not in my way.” (HC, 41) she says. Then Lenny wants to take her glass but Ruth keeps resisting: “I haven't quite finished.” (Ibid., 41) Similarly, the inconclusive conflict between Anna and Deeley about whom Kate watched the movie Odd Man Out with in Old Times (OT) or Robert's challenging 1 Jerry to play squash in Betrayal are a few examples of constant power struggle that pervades daily life. Then the simplest, the shortest lines, the units of silence, the commenest

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