Легедза Марія Іна - 44
The absurd of existence in Harold Pinter’s ―The Birthday Party‖ ―It speaks plainly of the individual’s pathetic pathetic search for security of secret dreads and anxieties of the terrorism of our world.‖ Martin Esslin Martin Esslin, an eminent critic, used the phrase ―Theatre of the Absurd‖, to describe the plays of the 1950s and 1960s. It was influenced by the traumatic experience of the horrors of the Second World War which showed the total impermanence of any values, and highlighted the precariousness, fundamental meaninglessness and arbitrariness of human life. Pinter’s 'The Birthday Party’ Party’ presents The theatre of Absurd and it is one of his best-known and most-frequently performed plays. It explores many themes and issues throughout the play through the dialogue and relationships of the characters and one of them is the theme of absurd of existence. Pinter sees the funny side of the absurd. Since there is nothing for Pinter that is not funny, he employs a comic way of expression to laugh at everything, even at the tragic parts of existence. The absurd is aimed at a deeper perception of human existence. It helps to reveal a more complex reality which is hidden deep inside. Such themes as loneliness, lack of communication, fear of the world outside, and the terror of betrayal become the major concern of the absurdist writer. He sees a chaotic world, where there are many absolute truths which confuses us. It is a world where there are mixed up fantasy and the real, where the choice becomes a real catastrophe, and disconnected situations are what determine the individuals’ prospect of the future life. li fe. In Birthday Party Goldberg and McCann are interrogating Stanley: Goldberg: Where was your wife? Stanley: In — Goldberg: Answer. Stanley (turning, crouched): What wife? 1
Goldberg: What have you done with your wife? McCann: He's killed his wife! Stanley: What wife? Goldberg: Why did you never get married? This situation shows how individuals fail to communicate, how language fails to unite them, and, as a result, they are lead to the solitude of the fearful void. In this drama, everything eventually becomes unreliable, even the language. Language, as a means of communication, becomes a vehicle of conventionalized, stereotyped meaningless exchange. Words fail to express the essence of human experiences, not being able to penetrate beyond its surface. The Theatre of the Absurd shows language as a very unreliable and insufficient tool of communication. According to Ganz, ―The most distinctive elements in Pinter’s dramatic technique are the ambiguity that surrounds events; the mysterious behaves of characters, the near omni presence of menace, and the silences and other verbal characteristics.‖ For instance, Pinter uses repetition as a mode to create laughter and also to ease the tension of the scene and divert the audience’s response slightly from the action. In the first Act, Meg repeatedly asks a question to create laughter: Meg – Is that you, Petey? Pause Petey- is that you? Pause Petey? Petey – what? Meg – Is that you? Petey – Yes it’s me. This ritualistic scene of the breakfast suggests a visual image of the character’s isolation and the boredom of their lives. Moreover, their meaningless conversation indicates clearly the meaninglessness and the emptiness of their relationship. However, Petey’s newspaper itself as ―one of the most effective barriers 2
to communication devised by man,‖ offers a very suggestive visual effect that exposes the failure of communication. As well as constant repeating of one and the same question ―Is it nice?‖ by Meg. For Pinter, language creates a stasis in a communication. Every single phrase characters say leads them into pauses and silences, and any verbal assertiveness causes communicative disjunction. The dialogue between Petey and Meg are more an attempt at evasion than communication. The dynamity of play is attained by manipulation of the exchange pattern of the dialogues. Pinter stresses on four different aspects of language: rhythm, tempo, intensity and tension. These aspects are the main, and not words. In Pinter, the structure of the dialogue plays a vital role in creating a tense dramatic atmosphere of absurdity of existence, and the absurd changes, from one to another, which is a major linguistic element in The Birthday Party. Pinter arranges his words meticulously, and he listens to them through silence.
Pinter’s characters usually use verbal exchanges in order to hide their naked, often vicious reality, and to create sounds that fill their loneliness and isolation, rather than for their own meanings. So, their words seem mere sounds, i.e. suggestive auditory effects to fill the stage time and break silence. Pinter in many occasions points out his belief that the reason of using language is that
“people fall back on anything they can lay their hands on verbally to keep away from the danger of knowing and of being known.” The feelings of anguish and dread are caused by the supposition that man is a miserable creature whose life is controlled by some super-human forces. The image of Stenley helps us to visualize the state of uselessness, absurdity of life. ―Stenley enters. He is unshaved, in his pyjama jacket and wears glasses.‖ Influenced by existentialists, Pinter believes that life is arbitrary and meaningless. A person is thrown into this world, dethroned, disarmed, and helpless. The birthday party itself may be seen as a ritual to complete Stanley’s destruction that is already started before with a torrent of accusations. Martin Esslin indicates that the play may be similar to Beckett’s ―Endgame‖ in the sense that both plays talk about 3
human deterioration and the process of death, regarding birthday as Man’s essential crime. So Goldberg says: There’s a gentleman living here who’s got a birthday today and he’s forgotten all about it. So were going to remind him. Very strikingly, Pinter draws an image of the absurdity of human existence in Stanley’s pantomime when he ―lights a match and watches it burn‖ . Stanley seems now to feel that his existence is as insignificant as this match. It starts with the little noise of lightening and then ends gradually and quietly unnoticed and leaving nothing but ashes. Similarly, after destroying everything, his past, identity, sight and even his ability to express, nothing remains from Stanley as Goldberg and McCann take him away so quietly and without objection. In ―The Birthday Party‖, every object such as a newspaper or a toy drum and ordinarily harmless games or actions and every slight sound and voice plays a worthy role in an individual’s struggle for survival and in projecting the general sense of fear and Man’s terror of loneliness. Confusion, one of the most dominant themes within the play, is perpetuated by the characters’ needs to maintain their delusions by lying to one another. Stanley consistently lies within the play. He tells Meg he has a new job and that he will be leaving, but in reality, nothing could be further from the truth. Stanley does not want to leave the boardinghouse, and yet he feels trapped there, stuck in the mindless and repetitive world of Meg and Petey’s relationship. Everytime he speaks to Meg he tries to offend her, to make her anxious. He behaves like a dying man whose life is absurd and meaningless. Meg: Tickle, tickle. Stenley: (pushing her) Get away from me. Meg: Are you going out? Stenley: Not with you. Meg: You’ll be lonely, all by yourself. Stenley: Will I?
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―The Birthday Party‖ reveals humans’ state of solitude, nothingness, meaninglessness and isolation. In Pinter’s world, language has lost its semantic power and significance. The characters in ―The Birthday Party‖ are neither capable using the language; language for them is like movement, the irrationality, aggressiveness and violence. Language, like an absurd hero, brings to the audience the absurdity of human situation. Pinter succeeds in creating an allegorical drama of epic proportions: Man versus his birth and existence, or Man versus language. To conclude, I would like to say that this play impressed me by its true image. Pinter excellently depicted the modern rootlessness of man, who is wandering with no origin and no destination. He can be involved in dual relationship of being a lover and a surrogate son. There is something always lurking which haunts him so that he is not able to articulate himself fully. The Postmodernism predominates and in the wake of it, the danger, futility, absurdity, terror, guilt, nothingness, all prevails, whi ch never allows the protagonist to rest, and there is no solace for him. The final impression of the play on the audience echoes Pinter’s own words: " In our present-day world, everything is uncertain, there is no fixed point, we are surrounded by the unknown ... There is a kind of horror about and I think that this horror and absurdity go together."
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