CONCLUSION
There's a very low anger that resides in any respectable, intelligent person in this society about what goes on, and how impotent we seem to be to correct what goes on, and how we give power to people who don't deserve to possess power because they abuse it, and manipulate it, and treat people with contempt, and treat international law with contempt.
(Louise Jury, ‘Harold Pinter: Not a Word Out of Place’. 22 February 2007.)
For half a century Pinter engaged himself in depicting the pathological conditions existing in the society brought about by the people in power who not only treat people with contempt but also defy the laws set by the International Court of Justice. His anger against the power mongers, who abuse and manipulate …show more content…
The audiences then can form their own assumptions of the characters’ motivations or the nature of the mysterious organization as seen in the play The Birthday Party and The Dumbwaiter. In the usage of the technique of role reversal, Pinter very vividly brings out how a menacing situation can turn an aggressor into a victim and a victim into an aggressor, with the final victory resting in the hands of the one superior in terms of power of intelligence and wealth. As far as characters are concerned, Pinter makes them look comic on the superficial level through their speech and mannerisms. But actually they suffer from deep-rooted social pathologies like a coercive totalitarian government (for e.g. the Nazi regime), racial discrimination, poverty and marital disharmony. The characters’ fears, insecurities, loneliness, frustration thus indicate the pathos and tragedy intermingled in their seemingly comfortable lives. Another dramatic technique used by Pinter is the blackout scene which is symbolic of the Blackouts that used to take place during the World War II in Britain and Germany to prevent the German and the Allied bombers from conducting aerial raids in residential and strategic areas of both the countries. Since blackout meant zero visibility, it heightened the fear and tension of the people and even led to many robbery, rapes, accidents and murders. Pinter, having lived through the period of World War II and anti-Semitism, uses this technique in his comedies of menace to create an atmosphere of tension
There's a very low anger that resides in any respectable, intelligent person in this society about what goes on, and how impotent we seem to be to correct what goes on, and how we give power to people who don't deserve to possess power because they abuse it, and manipulate it, and treat people with contempt, and treat international law with contempt.
(Louise Jury, ‘Harold Pinter: Not a Word Out of Place’. 22 February 2007.)
For half a century Pinter engaged himself in depicting the pathological conditions existing in the society brought about by the people in power who not only treat people with contempt but also defy the laws set by the International Court of Justice. His anger against the power mongers, who abuse and manipulate …show more content…
The audiences then can form their own assumptions of the characters’ motivations or the nature of the mysterious organization as seen in the play The Birthday Party and The Dumbwaiter. In the usage of the technique of role reversal, Pinter very vividly brings out how a menacing situation can turn an aggressor into a victim and a victim into an aggressor, with the final victory resting in the hands of the one superior in terms of power of intelligence and wealth. As far as characters are concerned, Pinter makes them look comic on the superficial level through their speech and mannerisms. But actually they suffer from deep-rooted social pathologies like a coercive totalitarian government (for e.g. the Nazi regime), racial discrimination, poverty and marital disharmony. The characters’ fears, insecurities, loneliness, frustration thus indicate the pathos and tragedy intermingled in their seemingly comfortable lives. Another dramatic technique used by Pinter is the blackout scene which is symbolic of the Blackouts that used to take place during the World War II in Britain and Germany to prevent the German and the Allied bombers from conducting aerial raids in residential and strategic areas of both the countries. Since blackout meant zero visibility, it heightened the fear and tension of the people and even led to many robbery, rapes, accidents and murders. Pinter, having lived through the period of World War II and anti-Semitism, uses this technique in his comedies of menace to create an atmosphere of tension