On Reality And Absurdity In Harold Pinter's Early Plays

After the Second War, the Great Britain lost its dominant position in the world and was no longer a superpower. It was shattered both in economy and politics. Internationally, the Great Britain had to attach itself economically and militarily to the US. Domestically, in the decade following the war, Britain seemed to be threatened by lots of uncontrollable factors. However, with the Labor Party government came into power in 1945, the trade unions exerted increasing influence upon improving the working conditions and wages of the working class. It appeared that the social expectations of the working class began to be fulfilled, mainly on a material level. It was even declared that a new Elizabethan age was dawning, and the British were convinced to exclaim the rightful place as a world power. On the other hand, ironically, the politically aware and educated youth experienced a growing sense of disillusionment, especially the young people of the lower or inferior social origins, namely, from the working class, suffered the sense of social alienation because of the contradiction between their education and their origins.The impact of the Second World War on human consciousness and artistic expression was far greater than that of the First World War. Faced with the fatal weapon —atom bombs and its instant destruction as the result of the advance in science and technology, people began to think about the meaning of existence and life. One of the most influential expressions of western philosophies over the post-war years was Existentialism, which mainly concerns the absurdity of human's existence and human's anxieties and the inner emptiness of self. The figures of Existentialism have a serious concern for the future and insist on the need for a moral regeneration.Under the circumstances rises Harold Pinter in the British Theatre, who has remained in the forefront of contemporary dramatists. As one of the most influential playwrights in British theatre, Pinter's work can be roughly divided into three phrases. Of his plays, The Room (1957), The Birthday Party (1957), The Dumb Waiter (1957), The Caretaker (1960), and The Homecoming (1965) are regarded as the absurdity masterpieces in the first phrase of his work. Some critics identified a more lyricalsecond phase of his work as existing alongside and subsequent to the first phase, characterized by Landscape and Silence (both inl969), before a third, more overtly political style became evident in plays such as One for the Road (1984) and Mountain Language (1988).hi this thesis, the writer will make a close study on Pinter's early plays, mainly because the motifs and the techniques and even the subject matters can be found recurring in his later plays.The main body of this thesis consists of four chapters. Chapter One introduces the Theatre of the Absurd from three aspects, including its origins and themes, its features and major absurdists. The Theater of the Absurd stands an important and prominent position in the modern western literature. The absurd playwrights endeavor to convey their sense of bewilderment, anxiety, and wonder in the face of an inexplicable universe by abandoning a logical form, character, and dialogue together with realistic illusion. They take it as their duties to make man aware of the ultimate realities of his condition, and to shock him out of his complacency. As such, the Theatre of the Absurd presents its audience with dual absurdity. For one thing, it satirizes the absurdity of lives in which man is unaware and unconscious of ultimate reality. For another thing, it uncovers the absurdity of the human condition, mainly because man has been deprived of value systems due to the decline of religious belief. Man is searching for a modest place for himself in the world. Pinter is quite different from the other playwrights before or even of his age in that he rejects the right of an author to creep inside the characters and to pretend to know what makes them act, and even how they feel.Chapter Two lists the absurdity features in Pinter's early plays — anti-hero characters, anti -suspension and anti-identification.Contrary to the heroes in traditional dramas, Pinter's stages are inhabited by the working -class or people of lower social origin in British society. They speak plausibly realistic contemporary dialogue and are treated seriously by their creators. In spite of the real dialogue and the characters, the over-all effect of Pinter's plays is one of mystery, of uncertainty, and of poetic ambiguity. Suspense in Pinter's plays isthereby not traditional, for it is created by the indeterminacy of the characters and the ambiguity of events. Beginning with the familiar realism of set, character, and language, but uncertain of what exactly was taking place, the audience is forced to share the insecurity felt by the central characters. Instead of asking "What's going to happen?" the audience is forced to focus on "What's happening now?". But they will never be answered. In this way, Pinter gradually dislocates the reality and transports his audience into a world in which anything can happen. Characters with whom the audience fails to identify are inevitably comic. Since the incomprehensibility of the motives and the often unexplained and mysterious nature of the characters' actions in Pinter's plays effectively prevent identification, such theatre is a comic theatre though its subject-mater is somber, violent, and bitter. This is what Pinter's plays present us with and this is the effect of Pinter's own personal brand of tragic-comedy as well.Chapter Three illustrates the realistic elements in Harold Pinter's early plays. The basic and familiar setting of Pinter's plays is that of a room. Both the setting and the characters in Pinter's plays have the concrete nature. The detailed description of the setting and visual images of the characters who are using the regional and lower class vernaculars contribute to a real situation in Pinter's plays. In his plays, Pinter's characters are in a room, and they are frightened. They are scared of their existential conditions, because the outside world is very inexplicable and frightening. Therefore,the room, this small speck of warmth and light in the darkness, becomes* ￡ precarious'■'Iffoothold; outside is a world full of menace, dread, and mystery. Besides, the existential fears may be found in the fear or the rejection of restrictive family demands and patriarchal authoritarians or violent institutions in Pinter's plays. To some degree, the subject-matters of Pinter's plays come from his own personal and social experience. This is one of the main sources of his work, because the young Pinter belonged to the generation whose childhood and family life were disrupted by the war. Other themes of Pinter's plays originate from the social reality of contemporary Britain, which reveals his social and political concerns.Chapter Four, the most important part of the thesis, states that beneath the surface reality of his work, Pinter conveys the basic theories of the Theatre of theAbsurd—the absurdity of the human condition and the alienation of the human relationship. The world is full of the unknown, in which "horror and absurdity go together". The plays can be very funny when the absurdity of the characters' situation becomes frightening, pitiful and tragic until the absurdity of the human condition beneath comes up to the surface. To attain this purpose, Pinter employs some traditional techniques together with some film devices.Finally, the thesis concludes that although he develops a pessimistic view towards human society: the world in Pinter's works is unreliable and absurd and man's fight or struggle is meaningless and in vain, Pinter's plays are of great social significance in reflecting the western world after the Second World War. They are of social significance to have a more rational understanding of the contemporary capitalist society and the thoughts or the situations of people there, so that we have an insight into the severe spiritual crisis of the western society, which is of great significance to the youth who admire the western countries blindly and mechanically. Meanwhile, the audience can appreciate not only brilliant craftsmanship but also artistic achievements in Pinter's plays.