The Verbal Violence And Traumas In Harold Pinter's Plays

Harold Pinter(1930-2008),is the renowned contemporary British playwright who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2005.Violence is a recurring image in his plays.When the element of violence is incorporated into the play,the characters' language,which is originally used for communication,will be aggressive and hurtful.Verbal violence is ubiquitous in nearly all of his plays.Precisely is a political skit Pinter wrote for an anti-nuclear performance;The Caretaker and The Homecoming are his early and mid-stage masterpieces,which reflect his life experience and the state of modern British society to some extent.Verbal violence is particularly noticeable in these three plays.However,few scholars have paid enough attention to the motifs of violence and trauma that the dramas mirror.Based on Stephen Pinker's statements about taboo language,forms and features of verbal violence and Judith Herman's trauma theory,this thesis selects Pinter's above three plays as research objects,interprets the verbal violence that the characters use,explores the traumas implied by verbal violence,and analyzes the social origins that cause trauma and corresponding trauma therapy through close reading.The verbal violence in the dramas is the approach that the characters adopt to denounce wars and totalitarianism,fight for space domination,control others,seize power and establish self-identity,and also a means to overwhelm the audience.It also reflects Pinter's hatred of war violence,condemnation on the retrogressive deeds of post-war western governments,criticism onracial discrimination and his concern to the devoid of family affection.Moreover,it is the playwright's educational attempt against violence,warning the prevalence of verbal violence,and his hope to recover from traumas,build equal and harmonious interpersonal relationships and a better world.This thesis is separated into five parts.The Introduction summarizes Pinter's life,achievements,conducts a literature review of his plays both from abroad and at home,and presents theoretical framework and outline of the thesis.Chapter Two classifies the verbal violence in Pinter's drama into discriminatory,abusive,meladictory,threatening,imperative verbal violence,foul language and gibberish,and generalizes its characteristics: diversity,ampleness,oppressiveness and offensiveness,the mixture of powerfulness and mysteriousness,overtness and hiddenness;Chapter Three analyzes the verbal violence and war trauma,race trauma and family trauma in Pinter's above three plays.Chapter Four explores the social source and recovery of trauma,and points out that the trauma in his works is not only the dramatist's,but also the wound of Jewish,British people and even the citizens worldwide.The therapy for trauma is to establish a safe post-war world,narrate the memory of violence as a catharsis and rebuild one's connection with others and community,etc.Chapter Five is Conclusion.The traumas of war,race and family are contained in the verbal violence in Pinter's plays.Meanwhile,the verbal violence that characters wield in the plays is a warped thing nurtured by the context of war,race,and social family,displaying corresponding traumas the characters suffer from in the complex environment;and trauma recovery also needs the efforts from the western government,society,family and individuals,so as to turn the language,a previous weapon of violence,into a powerful tool for the treatment of traumas.