A Study Of Harold Pinter’s Comedy Of Menace From The Perspective Of Abnormal Psychology

Harold Pinter, as one of the most important dramatists, was the second playwright who got the Nobel Prize for Literature in English history. He got focus from critics for his special style of language and atmosphere in plays. Therefore, the two tags:"Pinteresque" and "comedy of menace" have been given to Pinter to describe his unique writing style. The Room, The Birthday Party, and A Slight Ache are three representative works of Pinter’s Comedies of Menace, and what they have in common is the abnormal characters in these three plays.Abnormal psychology, known as pathological psychology, belongs to the category of medical psychology. It studies physical and mental diseases caused by psychological factors. Although critics have analyzed Pinter’s works from different perspectives, abnormal psychology is the first time to be employed to appreciate Pinter’s Comedies of Menace, which can be regarded as an innovation of this thesis.The objective of this thesis is to explore the value of the special function of the abnormal characters in Pinter’s Comedies of Menace so as to appreciate the social and aesthetic significance of these plays. By employing text analysis method, this thesis presents the literature review about the study on Pinter’s plays both at home and aboard in chapter two and expounds the related theory of abnormal psychology in chapter three. Then, it will move to the main body of this thesis in the fourth part. Focusing on the major characters:Rose in The Room, Stanley in The Birthday Party, Edward in A Slight Ache and comparing with the syndromes of abnormal psychology, the author systematically analyzes the abnormal performance of every character from the theory of abnormal psychology, and finds Rose’s symptom of conversion disorder, Stanley’s symptom of acquired brain disorder and Edward’s symptom of delusional disorder respectively in these plays. Meanwhile, the author attempts to probe into the causes from the social and psychological perspectives and discovers that the political corruption, social indifference and interpersonal trust crisis are the main causes to produce so many abnormal characters in postwar Britain. Afterwards, it comes to the fifth part of this thesis. The author makes a comprehensive evaluation of the abnormal characters in Pinter’s Comedies of Menace and digs out the artistic value and social value of Pinter’s works so as to arise people’s sense of social identity and psychological self-redemption. The last part is the conclusion of the whole study.This thesis serves as a modest spur to induce later-comers to come forward with its small contributions. By using abnormal psychology, it is proved to be feasible and effective to appreciate Harold Pinter’s plays. Herewith, it provides a fresh perspective to appreciate such kind of literary works.