To evaluate my assignment click here
Pinter’s plays usually take place on one-room stage, onto which a handful of characters enter and interact with each other. A constant feeling of threat can be sensed from the first words they utter, which emphasises the deliberate effect of conveying uneasiness, confusion and indifference. Power relations and problem of identity remain one of the most important themes, as well as people’s inability to communicate.
Ø
Theme of
Anxiety
The greatest quality of the play lies in the wealth and diversity of the comments which it seems to make on life, not explicitly but by implication. The play can also be regarded as an image or metaphor of the author's existential anxiety. The ravages of anxiety upon the human spirit is Pinter's perennial theme in his plays. He knows that anxiety is a primal force, one that can impel the mind into growth or into retreat. The Birthday Party portrays Stanley's psychological disintegration under the pressure of extreme anxiety. Stanley's neurotic anxiety is presented as one of a man in a trap. He is pursued by Goldsberg and McCann whom Martin Esslin calls "the team of terrorists". They appeared in Act-1 with the apparent purpose of "doing a job" on Stanley and of fetching him back at the behest of whatever organization they represent. The ambivalence between the two concrete reality of the two men and their simultaneous force as symbols or dream-images or thoughts is an important aspect of the play.
The deepest roots of Stanley's neurotic anxiety appear to be psychosexual and Oedipal. He is torn between the smothering attentions and ministrations of Meg, the mother figure and the threats of Goldberg, the punitive father whose purpose is to make a man of Stanley. Some of his gestures in Act-1 suggests as if he was a child. He "yawn broadly, his trunks falls forward, his head falls into his hands", and he lights a match and watches it burn, just as a child might do. At the end of Act-1, Meg gives him a boy's drum as his birthday present. The following lines conveys Stanley;s neurotic anxiety and his infantilism.
"Stanley looks into the parcel. He takes out drumsticks. He taps them together. He looks at her.
Stanley: Shall I put it round my neck?"
Stanley's wearing of the glasses, his removing them and their final destruction is suggestive of his darkening perception, his rising anxiety and his final breakdown. After the loss of his glasses, Stanley Quickly losses emotional control. He screams and becomes violent and inarticulate. The play is a tragedy of soul in extreme anxiety, struggling unsuccessfully to achieve a free and independent identity.
Much of the violence in the play concerns women. Stanley not only intimidates Meg verbally, but he also prepares to assault Lulu. Goldberg in fact does assault Lulu. Finally, the threat of violence is ever-present in the play. Even before we realize that disaster might come, we can feel the potential through the many silences and tense atmosphere.
Ø
Theme of
Social Pressures and Demands
Pinter's The Birthday Party, has been much interpreted. It has been seen as a social allegory. The artiste, Stanley a musician is forced to conform to the materialistic society which he had tried to reject. The values o society are voiced by Goldberg and its pressures applied by McCann. They offer Stanley, the benefits of belonging to a large corporation. Stanley will be "watched over" and "advised" which clearly denotes Stanley's terrible loss of freedom and breathing space. Stanley has been robbed off of all traces of individuality and turned into automation. They offer assurance that the company's benefits includes treatment in case of breakdown or industrial disease. And the statement made is that society simply does not understand individuality and cannot allow for it.
Stanley's submission is seen as he dons the uniform of a respectable, middle-class gentility – the well cut suit, the white collar and the bowler hat. Stanley was an artiste having doubts about his creative ability. Stanley has defied the conventions of society by his mod of living and he has refused to accept the values of society. Society would like to pull back this man from the mode of life which he has adopted because he might pose a threat to society and because his example might encourage other people also to revolt against the prevailing social standards of conduct and behaviour. The author's sympathies are naturally withy the artiste who has thus been treated by society with interests of conformity.
Conclusion: -
These play showcased that what would later become known as “Painteresque.”Harold Pinter’s play is a unbounded by many facts. Any sort of single interpretation of Pinter’s play is not possible. He shows us in the play blindness, society’s treatment of an artist and growing up to adulthood from childhood. One can think of nothingness in every single possibilities. He is greatly respected in his field and the respect he’s earned shows just how affecting his plays. So, the play is the destruction of an individual the independent voice of an individual.
Work cited:
https://www.gradesaver.com/the-birthday-party/study-guide/themes
Name:
Kajal Keraliya
Topic:
Theme of “The Birthday party”
Roll
no.: 18
Paper
no 9: Mordenist Literature
M.A:
Sem-3
Enrolment
no.:2069108420180030
Year:
2017-19
Submitted
to:
Smt.
S.B. Gardi Department Of English
Maharaja
Krishnakumarsinhji
Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter is a renowned
British playwright who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2005. Born
in London in 1930, Harold Pinter is a renowned playwright and screenwriter. His
plays are particularly famous for their use of understatement to convey
characters' thoughts and feelings. In 2005, Pinter was awarded the Nobel Prize
for Literature. Harold Pinter is known for his magnificent use of language,
thus his style of writing was named after him "Pinteresque". His use
of colloquial language, numerous clichés, unpolished grammar and illogical
syntax create dialogues that reflect day-to-day speech.
Harold
Pinter's style is characterized by the use of:
- pauses
- repetitions
- irony
- oxymoron, paradox
- vagueness
- reference failure
- semantic ambiguity
- de contextualization
Pinteresque atmosphere of horror
ignites the feeling of anxiety, but also arouses interest – a spectator can
sense that something is wrong, even though the dialogues do not directly state
it. It is through the combination of long pauses, repetitive structures and the
use of illogical vocabulary that Pinter exhibits his great mastery in writing
realistic plays, with ambiguous meaning. Language is a means of communication
that lost its meaning and purpose. Characters talk, but the words are often
devoid of any content. The action does not proceed smoothly or in chronological
order, sometimes even though some events take place, the audience is confused
on the proceedings. Pinter innovativeness evinces in the special use of
language. Language which is used as a tool for presenting the absurdity of
human existence. A small talk or a lengthy monologue gain new meaning and have
frequently different purpose.
They work as an examples of human
relationships, telegraph characters intentions and even negate the action.
Pinter’s plays usually take place on one-room stage, onto which a handful of characters enter and interact with each other. A constant feeling of threat can be sensed from the first words they utter, which emphasises the deliberate effect of conveying uneasiness, confusion and indifference. Power relations and problem of identity remain one of the most important themes, as well as people’s inability to communicate.
The Birthday Party
Ø List of characters
1.
Petey
- Meg's husband, the owner of the boarding house, 60 years old
2.
Meg
- Petey's wife, helps in the boarding house, 60 years old
3.
Stanley
- tenant of the boarding house, around 30 years old
4.
Lulu
- Meg's gullible and naive friend, in her twienties
5.
Goldberg
- called also “Simey” or “Benny,” a Jewish gentleman working together with
McCann for a suspicious organization.
6.McCann - Goldberg's helper
.
Ø Theme of absurdity:
According to Ionesco : “ Absurd is
that which of purpose.... cut off from his religious metaphysical and
transcendental root, man is lost, all his action become senseless absurd,
useless”.The term is applied to many of the works of a group of dramatist of 1950s.
The concept of absurdity defers person to person. It expressed the belief that, in s godless
universe, human existence has no meaning or purpose and therefore all
communications break down. So, Absurdist theatre examines ideas of
existentialism and the meaninglessness of human existence. The theatre of absurd is characterized by
dialogues senseless, repetitive those are able to give a comic view despite the
tragic sense of drama. For the Theatre of the absurd, these events concerned
life post World War II during which time many people began to question about
the meaning of life.
“The Birthday Party” is an full of absurd drama. The
Birthday Party has been described Martin Esslin as an example of the Theatre of
Absurd. It includes such features as the fluidity and ambiguity of time, place,
and identity and the disintegration of language. “The Birthday Party” is a child of the
theatre of the Theatre of Absurd, which explain why it feels like a plot less
wonder. Like the rest of its ambiguous brethren, But it does make for a bumpy
ride.So, Pinter in his play uses the theme of identity and absurdity that makes
the characters ambiguous and their identity are unclear. The theme of identity makes the play
ambiguous. For example Goldberg is called Nat but in his stories of the past
Simey and Banney. It is also McCann is called as a Dermot in talking to Petey
and Seamus in talking to McCann. Harold
Pinter also uses a contradiction as we see in Act 1 when Stanley says “I have
played the piano all over the world” then he says “ All over the country”.
Then, after a pause he says “I once gave a concert”. It is also in Stanley’s
birthday, Meg decided to celebrate but he tries to deny by saying “It is not my
birthday no; it is not until next month”.
Ø
Theme of
Anxiety
The greatest quality of the play lies in the wealth and diversity of the comments which it seems to make on life, not explicitly but by implication. The play can also be regarded as an image or metaphor of the author's existential anxiety. The ravages of anxiety upon the human spirit is Pinter's perennial theme in his plays. He knows that anxiety is a primal force, one that can impel the mind into growth or into retreat. The Birthday Party portrays Stanley's psychological disintegration under the pressure of extreme anxiety. Stanley's neurotic anxiety is presented as one of a man in a trap. He is pursued by Goldsberg and McCann whom Martin Esslin calls "the team of terrorists". They appeared in Act-1 with the apparent purpose of "doing a job" on Stanley and of fetching him back at the behest of whatever organization they represent. The ambivalence between the two concrete reality of the two men and their simultaneous force as symbols or dream-images or thoughts is an important aspect of the play.
The deepest roots of Stanley's neurotic anxiety appear to be psychosexual and Oedipal. He is torn between the smothering attentions and ministrations of Meg, the mother figure and the threats of Goldberg, the punitive father whose purpose is to make a man of Stanley. Some of his gestures in Act-1 suggests as if he was a child. He "yawn broadly, his trunks falls forward, his head falls into his hands", and he lights a match and watches it burn, just as a child might do. At the end of Act-1, Meg gives him a boy's drum as his birthday present. The following lines conveys Stanley;s neurotic anxiety and his infantilism.
"Stanley looks into the parcel. He takes out drumsticks. He taps them together. He looks at her.
Stanley: Shall I put it round my neck?"
Stanley's wearing of the glasses, his removing them and their final destruction is suggestive of his darkening perception, his rising anxiety and his final breakdown. After the loss of his glasses, Stanley Quickly losses emotional control. He screams and becomes violent and inarticulate. The play is a tragedy of soul in extreme anxiety, struggling unsuccessfully to achieve a free and independent identity.
Ø Theme of Decadence
Other
critics see in The Birthday party man's decay into death; life as a process of
loss. Stanley first loses his sight, then his powers of speech and finally
ceases to exist as a living man. He is taken away dressed in funeral clothes by
two men in a large black hearse. As Goldberg says to him, "You are dead.
You can't live, you can't think, you can't love. You are dead."
In this way the play depicts man's decay into death, and life as a process of loss. Goldberg's black car is like the black negro carrying a suggestion of death. The killers are devoid of human values; they are pathological terrorists deriving immense satisfaction from the distress of innocent, peace loving people. Stanley's correct dress, his blindness and his speechlessness makes an image of him as a dead body. Goldberg and McCann could then be messengers of supernatural powers sent to transposrt a human being into the realm of death.
In this way the play depicts man's decay into death, and life as a process of loss. Goldberg's black car is like the black negro carrying a suggestion of death. The killers are devoid of human values; they are pathological terrorists deriving immense satisfaction from the distress of innocent, peace loving people. Stanley's correct dress, his blindness and his speechlessness makes an image of him as a dead body. Goldberg and McCann could then be messengers of supernatural powers sent to transposrt a human being into the realm of death.
Ø Violence
The Birthday Party is full of violence, both physical and
emotional, overall suggesting that violence is a fact of life. The violence is
doubly affecting because the setting seems so pleasant and ordinary. Most of
the men show their potential for violence, especially when provoked. Stanley is
cruel and vicious towards Meg, but much more cowardly against other men. Both
McCann and Goldberg have violent outbursts no matter how hard they try to contain
themselves. Their entire operation, which boasts an outward civility, has an
insidious purpose, most violent for the way it tortures Stanley slowly to force
him to nervous breakdown. In both Acts II and III, they reveal how language
itself can be violent in the interrogation scenes.Much of the violence in the play concerns women. Stanley not only intimidates Meg verbally, but he also prepares to assault Lulu. Goldberg in fact does assault Lulu. Finally, the threat of violence is ever-present in the play. Even before we realize that disaster might come, we can feel the potential through the many silences and tense atmosphere.
Ø Sex
Sexual tension is present
throughout the entire play, and it results in tragic consequences. Meg and
Stanley have a strange, possible sexual relationship that frees him to treat
her very cruelly. The ugliness of his behavior is echoed when Goldberg calls
him a “mother defiler” and “a lecher.” In fact, Goldberg suggests that
Stanley's unnamed sin involves his poor treatment of a woman. Lulu seems
interested in Stanley as well, but is quickly attracted to Goldberg in Act II.
Her innocence makes her prey to men's sexuality. Her openness leads to two
consecutive sexual assaults, and yet she is nevertheless upset to learn that
Goldberg is leaving. All in all, it is a strange, perverse undercurrent
throughout the play - sex is acknowledged as a fact of life, and yet does not
ever reveal positive aspects of the characters.
Ø
Theme of
Social Pressures and Demands
Pinter's The Birthday Party, has been much interpreted. It has been seen as a social allegory. The artiste, Stanley a musician is forced to conform to the materialistic society which he had tried to reject. The values o society are voiced by Goldberg and its pressures applied by McCann. They offer Stanley, the benefits of belonging to a large corporation. Stanley will be "watched over" and "advised" which clearly denotes Stanley's terrible loss of freedom and breathing space. Stanley has been robbed off of all traces of individuality and turned into automation. They offer assurance that the company's benefits includes treatment in case of breakdown or industrial disease. And the statement made is that society simply does not understand individuality and cannot allow for it.
Stanley's submission is seen as he dons the uniform of a respectable, middle-class gentility – the well cut suit, the white collar and the bowler hat. Stanley was an artiste having doubts about his creative ability. Stanley has defied the conventions of society by his mod of living and he has refused to accept the values of society. Society would like to pull back this man from the mode of life which he has adopted because he might pose a threat to society and because his example might encourage other people also to revolt against the prevailing social standards of conduct and behaviour. The author's sympathies are naturally withy the artiste who has thus been treated by society with interests of conformity.
Conclusion: -
These play showcased that what would later become known as “Painteresque.”Harold Pinter’s play is a unbounded by many facts. Any sort of single interpretation of Pinter’s play is not possible. He shows us in the play blindness, society’s treatment of an artist and growing up to adulthood from childhood. One can think of nothingness in every single possibilities. He is greatly respected in his field and the respect he’s earned shows just how affecting his plays. So, the play is the destruction of an individual the independent voice of an individual.
Work cited:
https://www.gradesaver.com/the-birthday-party/study-guide/themes
http://www.supersummary.com/the-birthday-party/summary/
No comments:
Post a Comment