click here to evaluate my presantation.
Name:
Gohil Beenaba S
Paper:
Modernist Literature
Subject:c
Roll
No: 13
Submitted
to: MK Bhvanagar University, Department of English.
Introduction:
Harold
Pinter was a Nobel
Prize-winning English playwright, screenwriter, director and
actor. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his
writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays
include The
Birthday Party
(1957), The
Homecoming
(1964), and Betrayal
(1978), each of which he adapted for the screen.
He
also directed or acted in radio, stage, television, and film
productions of his own and others' works.
Pinter was born and raised
in Hackney,
east London, and educated at Hackney
Downs School. He was a sprinter and acting in school plays and
writing poetry. He attended the Royal
Academy of Dramatic Art but did not complete the course. He was
fined for refusing National
service as a conscientious
objector. He continued training at the Central
School of Speech and Drama and worked in repertory theatre in
Ireland and
England.Pinter's dramatic technique
Pinter’s best-known literary mannerism was the pregnant pause in dialogue between characters who felt vaguely threatened; it became such an acknowledged feature of his writing that the term “Pinteresque” (meaning an awkward silence suggesting some kind of hidden menace) has entered the vernacular and is regularly used by many who have probably never seen a Pinter play. In 1990 the Guardian’s World Cup coverage referred to the “Pinteresque silence in Ireland”.Those silences,” Pinter remarked, “have achieved such significance that they have overwhelmed the bloody plays — which I find a bloody pain in the arse.”
At first, the method maddened spectators and critics alike. The ground seemed to be shifting from under their feet. Pinter famously refused to explain what his plays meant, although he denied deliberate obfuscation. In one of his rare programme notes he issued the following statement: “A character on stage who can present no convincing argument or information as to his past experience, his present behaviour or his aspirations, nor give a comprehensive analysis of his motives, is as legitimate and as worthy of attention as one who, alarmingly, can do all these things.” Pinter had been invited, like many of the leading new stage writers of the day, to contribute to West End revues such as One To Another and Pieces of Eight, where his three or four-minute sketches began to acquire a cult following for their terseness, wit and satire. Pinter’s best known mannerism came, in fact, in three sizes. The longest break was marked in the text “silence,” implying a character’s profound change of mood or attitude; the medium length pause was just marked “pause”, indicating a crisis and filled with unspoken meaning; and the briefest pause was marked by three dots.
The term "Pinteresque" has had an established place in the English language for almost thirty years. The OED defines it as "of or relating to the British playwright, Harold Pinter, or his works"; thus, like a snake swallowing its own tail the definition forms the impenetrable logic of a closed circle and begs the tricky question [sic] of what the word specifically means.
Comedy of menace
Literal
meaning of menace means person or thing likely to cause serious harm.
Here we deeply understand that what is the meaning of comedy of
menance and how it is related with the play Menace. A menace is
something which threatens to cause harm ,evil or injury;which doesn't
seem like a logical idea to fit with comedy. Violence and menace are
mostly below thr surface of the play. Mick moves swiftly and silently
and is an unpredictable character.
The
playwrite's objective in mixing comedy and the threat of menace is to
produce certain effects or to convey certain social or political
ideas to the audiance. The phrase comedy of menace as standalone
discription inspires feeling. Title “Comedy of menace” immidiatly
brings contradition to mind because comedy is generally something
that make people laugh. The word menace implies something threatening
;this phrase involves laughing at an ominios situation.
Comedy
of Menace is the body of play written by Devid campton, Nigel
dennis,N. F . simpson and Herold pinter.
The
term “comedy of menace” was first used by David Campton as a
subtitle to his four short plays The Lunatic view”. Now it
signifies a kind of play in which a character or more characters feel
the menacing presence—actual or imaginary, of some obscure and
frightening force, power or personality. The dramatist exploits this
kind of menace as a source of comedy. Harold Pinter exploited the
possibilities of this kind of situation in his early plays like "The
Room", "Birthday Party" and "A Slight Ache",
where the both the character/s and the audience face an atmosphere,
apparently funny but actually having suggestiveness of some impending
threat from outside.
Pinter's comedy of menace have rather simplistic setting he might focus on one or two powerful force that isn't specifically defined to the audience threatens characters in the play. The dramatist exploits the kin of menace as a sourse of comedy. Herold pinter exploit the position of the kind of situation in his early plays like: “ The room”, “ the birthday party”and a sight Ache” where both the character and the audience face an atmosphere apperestly funny but actually having suggestiveness of some impending threat from outside. Pinter himself explained the situation. He said “ everything is funny until horror of the human situation rises to the human surface! Life is funny because it is based on illusion and self-deception like Stanley's dream of a world tour as a pianist,because it is build out of pretence.
Comedy
is present in The Birthday Party from the very first scene; it is a
way of gently introducing the audience to the world which Pinter is
trying to create the humor is quite suitable at first for example the
exchange between Petey and Meg about whether Stanley is up or not
plays on the words up and down.
Meg:
Is Stanley up yet?
Petey:
I don’t know. Is he?
Meg:
I don’t know. I haven’t seen him down
Petey:
Well then he can’t be up
Meg:
Haven’t you seen him down?
(Conversation
between Meg and Stanley)
The "Pinter silence"
There are two silences. One when no word is spoken. The other when perhaps a torrent of language is being employed. This speech is speaking of a language locked beneath it. That is its continual reference. The speech we hear is an indication of that which we don't hear. It is a necessary avoidance, a violent, sly, anguished or mocking smoke screen which keeps the other in its place. When true silence falls we are still left with echo but are nearer nakedness. One way of looking at speech is to say that it is a constant stratagem to cover nakedness.The "Pinter pause"
One of the "two silences"–when Pinter's stage directions indicate pause and silence when his characters are not speaking at all–has become a "trademark" of Pinter's dialogue called the "Pinter pause": "During the 1960s, Pinter became famous–nay, notorious–for his trademark: 'The Pinter pause' ". Actors and directors often find Pinter's "pauses and silences" to be daunting elements of performing his plays, leading to much discussion of them in theatrical and dramatic criticism, and actors who have worked with Pinter in rehearsals have "reported that he regretted ever starting to write 'Pause' as a stage direction, because it often leads to portentous overacting".- arold Pinter,
according to Esslin, is one of the defining playwrights of the
movement and like other playwrights at this time, such as Samuel
Beckett, Pinter wants to communicate the enigmatic and problematic
nature of human existence. Esslin states that however realistic the
situations which arise appear to be, Pinter’s plays are
essentially reflections on, and allegories of, the human condition.
(Esslin,1963). Pinter emphasises the instability and comfortlessness
of the human condition.
Conclusion:
It
also created by Pinter’s ability to drop suddenly from a high comic
level into deep seriousness. By this technique the audience is made
aware that the comedy is only at surface layer. The sudden outbreaks
of violence (verbal/physical?) in the play confirm this and leave the
audience unsure of what will come next.There are so many questions
arise in mind while reading of the play but there is no certain
answer of this. May be because of that Pinter’s own comment like
this; “more
often than not the speech only seems to be funny- the man in question
is actually fighting a battle for his life.”the plays of Pinter the
atmosphere is charged with fear and threat to the natural harmony of
life. Though Pinter depends on the form of comedy than that of
tragedy, this does not decrease the hidden menace against the
characters who want to escape from the forces of evil. Pinter likes
to show the inevitable contradictions faced by people in today’s
world. The tentacles of evil forces drag the individual into the mire
of corruption and nefarious activities. Pinter’s plays have
been rightly called the comedies of menace.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/3949227/Harold-Pinter-the-most-original-stylish-and-enigmatic-writer-in-the-post-war-revival-of-British-theatre.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Characteristics_of_Harold_Pinter%27s_work#Pinteresque
click here to evaluate my assignment
No comments:
Post a Comment