The Construction Of The Other In The Homecoming And Betrayal

As the Nobel Prize winner for the literature, Harold Pinter has earned a great reputation in the world. Many scholars and critics have classified his plays as the comedy of menace. And the studies on his plays mainly focus on the theme of menace, Pinter's existentialistic attitudes, and the characteristics of his theater language. At the same time, some critics devote themselves to Pinter's treatment of female characters. In their arguments, there is a lack of the close concern about the social environment where women live and the relationship between women and men. Therefore, they consider that the female characters in Pinter's plays always stay in strong positions, and are the ultimate winners during the struggle for power. Under the framework of feminism theories of Simone de Beauvoir, this thesis adopts the method of binary opposition, and the author finds that the strong position and victory of women in Pinter's The Homecoming and Betrayal is just superficial. In the patriarchal society, women always stay in a secondary status, they are the absolute Other. Therefore, only by pursuing the integrated personality, women can get themselves out of the difficult position, and find a positive strategy of life. This thesis starts with an introduction to Harold Pinter and the two plays under study as well as the theory of Beauvoir's Other. Beauvoir argues that, in the most primitive societies and most ancient mythologies we can see the expressions of a duality that is the Self and the Other. Women are immanent and dependent, they are the Others, while men are independent and transcendent, they are the Selves. In the patriarchal society, in order to set themselves up as the subject, men are bound to force women to accept the identities of the Others. Following the introduction is the first chapter. This chapter primarily focuses on the analysis about the Other images and values of the immanent women. The second chapter is the discussion on devices used by men to safeguard their dominant positions. The third chapter deals with the characterization of the Other women through the dramatic irony. Based on the above analysis, the final part of the thesis draws a conclusion that the female characters in Pinter's The Homecoming and Betrayal are constructed as the Others. This thesis redefines the female characters in Pinter's plays from the perspective of the feminism. In addition, it also intends to raise the concern about the current living environment of women.