An Interpretation Of The Power Struggle In Pinter's Three Works

Harold Pinter is widely considered to be the most outstanding dramatist in the 20th century in British. Even his name is used to represent a new genre of the British drama creation–"Pinteresque". This is his literature status in British drama history. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awards Pinter the Nobel Prize.The reason is that"his works reveals the crisis in the daily talk and breaks the door of the closed room."The Swedish Academy says,"Pinter let drama returns to its most basic elements: an enclosed space and unpredictable dialogue, characters between each other may be defeated, hypocrisy crumble."Power struggle is an important theme in Pinter's plays. This thesis analyzes the interpersonal power struggle using his three famous works"The Room","The Homecoming"and"The Birthday Party"to reveal the nature of humanity. Pinter was growing in a war period, so he has a profound understanding of power struggles and survival.This thesis consists of three parts, introduction, body, and conclusion.The first part is introduction. Introduction mainly introduces the domestic and foreign research on Pinter, the main content of this article and the practical significance of this research.The second part is the body part. The body part analyses the power struggle reflected in Pinter's works from three aspects. Power struggle is man's struggle, so it inevitablely happens in interpersonal relationships, human interaction and confrontations. The first chapter analyses the power struggle with the interpersonal relationship as a platform, boundary by gender, and respectively analyzes the power struggle between men and the power struggle between men and women. In Pinter's works, women are mostly in the edge position, and males dominant. So the power struggle between men are most common. The male host Bert attacks the invaders Riley is a reflection. Goldberg and McCann trample Stanley in the seaside hotel is another reflection. While the power struggle between men and women is explicitly reflected in the work"The Homecoming". Ruth, the only woman in this play, uses her own gender priviledge, establishes her supremacy in this family.Chapter two analyses the power struggle in Pinter's drama by combining Foucault's power struggle theory. Power in Foucault's theory is not the ordinary theory in common sense, but also a general existence of influence. This implementation of power is omnipresent, dispersing in everybody. In Foucault's opinion, sex is also an important tool for power. Then by analyzing the two women's sexual dialogue in The Birthday Party, we can see Meg and Lulu's sexual desire. Sometimes more words don't mean powerful. In The Room Ruth is talkative but really weak, contrary ot her silent husband. In The Homecoming, the relevant discourse about power struggle is numerous. We will further analyse the dominance and anti-dominance in my thesis. The third chapter mainly discusses the menace produced by power struggle.Power struggle in Pinter's works not only has a result of winning or losing, but also has a strong sense of threat. Threat is the feeling of Pinter's plays. In a closed room a sense of threat is everywhere. Everyone wants to find a position in this piece of land. The happy atmosphere in the birthday party is stuffed with a sense of threat to the breath.The celebrations of winners are not delectation as expected. The hidden crisis may come to their own destiny on an unknown day. On the way to homecoming, there is no family warmth, only worries about unfulfilled desire. For their power becomes the only way to protect themselves. Fearing of losing becomes everyone's living state. Menace exists in every corner of our life.The last part is the conclusion. By reviewing the previous three parts, conclusion allows readers to understand the power struggle theme Pinter's play. This part also takes reflections on humanity, in this way to guide our life. Reading drama is reading life. Reading the complex power relationship helps us to set a right attitude towards reality and life, to help us control our fire of desire in heart.