The Various Interpretations of the Play “The Birthday Party”
Paper
Name: The Modernist Literature
Paper
No:
9
NO: 27
Guided
By: Dr.Dilip Barad.
Submitted
To:
Department of English Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University.
The
Various Interpretations of the Play “The
Birthday Party”
Introduction:
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Harold Pinter
was born in 1930. He was born in Hackney, a working-class neighborhood in
London’s East End., the son of a tailor. His parents were Jewish born in
England. Harold Pinter is an English playwright who achieved international
success as one of the most complex post World War II dramatists. Harold
Pinter’s plays are noted for their use of silence to increase Tension, Understatement and Cryptic small
talk. Equally recognizable are the ‘Pinteresque’ themes
nameless menace, erotic fantasy, Obsession and jealousy, Family Hatred and
Mental disturbance.
“I
don’t know how music can influence writing, but it has been very important for
me both jazz and classical music. I feel a sense of music continually in
writing, which is a different matter from having been influenced by it”.
After four more years in provincial
repertory theatre under the pseudonym David Baron, Pinter began to write for
the stage. The Room (1957), originally written for Bristol University’s Drama
department, was finished in four days. A Slight Ache, Pinter’s first radio
piece, was broad cast on the BBC in 1959. He Write the play “The Birthday
Party”, His first full length play, The Birthday Party was first performed by Bristol
University’s Drama department in 1957 and produced in 1958 in the West End. The
Play, which closed with disastrous reviews after one week, dealt in a
Kafkaesque manner with an apparently ordinary man who is threatened by
strangers for an unknown reason. He tries to run away but is tracked down.
Although most reviewers were hostile, Pinter produced in rapid succession the
body of work which made him the master of ‘The Comedy of Menace’.
Harold Pinter’s Childhood Second
World War attack on Jews by German air-raid. In the late 1950s, when Pinter
wrote The Birthday Party, the developed nations of the World were deeply mired
in a cold war that pitted the communist powers of the Soviet Union and Red
China against the free world nations, including both the United States and the
United Kingdom. Fears of a third world war, one fought with atomic weapons,
were Widespread. At the beginning of the decade, war had broken out in Korea,
pitting communist North Korea and its ally, Red China, against South Korea and
a United Nations “Police Force” Comprised largely of American troops.
The Play “The Birthday Party” was
divided in to Three Act. In this play there are some main characters Like: Stanley
Webber, Meg Boles, Petey Boles, Nat Goldberg, Dermonant McCann and Lulu. The
Birthday Party is full of disjointed information that defies efforts to
distinguish between reality and illusion. For Example, Despite the presentation
of personal information on Stanley and his two persecutors, who or what
information about his background, but he offers only oblique clues as to why he
has intruded upon Stanley’s life. Pinter’s Play we can interpret it with the
help of this tools:
a)
The use of oral language.
b) Non
verbal devices.
c)
Symbols.
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In Harold Pinter’s “The Birthday
Party” has various interpretations:
Theme of Absurdity.
Shifting Identity.
Theme of Blindness.
Society’s treatment of an artist.
Theme of Death.
Theme of Growing up to adulthood from
childhood.
A Political View.
Theme of power play and personality
clash.
In the Birthday Party Reality are
clearly shows there, Black car shown as negative symbol. Suggesting that what
is important in where the car is going. In pinter’s play we saw sensitive
version by William Friedkin.. This play starts with that car and that car is
just going. Where? Or why? Director or writer not specifies that but just
moving like everyones life going on. That one is starting’s interpretation that
life is going on and after that scene The
Birthday party opens in the living – dining area of seedy rooming house at an
unnamed seaside resort in England. Petey and Meg Boles, the proprietors,
converse while she prepares his breakfast and he reads the newspaper. Their
talk is inane, centering on their tenant, Stanley Webber. Petey also tells her
of two strangers who might come to rent a room.
Meg:
“ Are they Nice?”
Meg’s query to Petey reveals how
important her delusions are to her. The play opens as Meg and Petey at
breakfast. She asks Petey inane and reprtitive questions, which sets the tone
of not only their marriage but also the atmosphere of the boardinghouse. They
are clearly in a rut – the boardinghouse is in disrepair and they have only one
boarder – but Meg wants assurance to the Contrary. Her delusion allows her
escape from the tedium of her life, but it requires constant attention.
Harold Pinter is successfully
creates the fear in readers mind or while watching the movie we can feel that
fear with frightening effect. In this play he uses many symbols like Mirror,
News paper, Door knocking. Mirror is symbol as Archetype that we can see in the
Mirror what we want to see in that but that is not reality of the things that
is lie of life or Unrealistic life, Form of illusion, petition. Stanley is a
realistic man. He says to truth that he is not like it, to Meg when she asks
about her cooking or that bread. With
this scene we can say that Stanley doesn’t want to adjust with Society, and
that is conflict with Society.
“Oh
Stan, that’s a lovely room. I’ve had some lovely afternoons in that room.”
Meg decides to wake Stanley for
breakfast and goes to his room. Unshaven and half - dressed, Stanley comes
downstairs and sits at the table to eat. After Petey goes off to work, Stanley
teases Meg about her “succulent” fried bread, but when she becomes
affectionate, he gets irritated and complains that her tea is “muck” and the
place is a “pigsty.” Woman as a symbol of the main stream of the house. Meg
talks with Stanley. When he was upset. Although it is never openly stated,
there is a strange sexually – tinged relationship between Meg and Stanley. Meg
is openly affectionate with him, sometimes in mothering ways but more often in
flirtatious ways. However, the cruelty with which Stanley rebukes her
flirtation makes the truth ambiguous. Nevertheless, she ignores his repudiations,
insisting he cares for her, her delicious of importance and beauty require that
she not only believe the affair is happening, but also that he enjoys it. When
Meg says the above line, she is both indicating her belief in their affair and
revealing how she will reinvent his feelings to suit her delusion. It is a
“lovely room,” no matter what he says.
There is one more symbol that is
Stanley’s Glass. His glass is vision that is different from the society.
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“You’re
a bit of a washout, aren’t you?”
Lulu is a more closer to Stanley
than other character. She is described as an attractive woman in her twenties,
but Stanley seems unimpressed. In Act 1 Lulu berates Stanley for not leaving
the house, and for always being underfoot. When Stanley refuses to go out with
her, she insults him in the above manner. The insult still contains a bit of
flirtation, though, which indicates both the strange relationship between men
and women in the play and her desperate desire to have someone, so strong that
she even pursues the out of sorts, lethargic boarder.
In the theme of Absurdity, The
Birthday Party is full of disjoined information that defies efforts to
distinguish between reality and illusion. For example despite the presentation
of personal information on Stanley and his two persecutors, who or what they
really are remains a mystery. Goldberg, in particular, provides all sorts of
information about his background, but he offers only oblique clues as to why he
has intruded Upon Stanley’s life. While
the title and dialogue refer to Meg’s planning a party to celebrate Stanley’s
birthday: “It’s your birthday, stan. I was going to keep it a secret until
tonight,” even that “fact” is dubious, as Stanley denies that it is his
birthday: “This isn’s my birthday, Meg”, telling Goldberg and MacCann: “Anyway,
this isn’t my birthday. No, it’s not until next month,” adding, in response to
MacCann’s saying “Not according to the lady” “Her? She’s crazy.”
Goldberg is a self centered person.
He was just proud in his own self and over confident. The theme of identity
makes the past ambiguous, Goldberg is called “Nat,” but in hi s stories of the
past he says that he was called “simey” and also “Benny”, and he refers to
MacCann as both “Dermot” and “Seamus”. Given such Contradictions, these
characters’ actual names and their identities remain unclear. According to John
Russel Brown, “Falsehoods are important for pinter’s dialogue, not least when
they can be detected only by careful reference from one scene to another. Some
of the more blatant lies are so casually delivered that the audience is
encouraged to look for more than is going to be disclosed. This is a part of
pinter’s two pronged tactic of awakening the audience’s desire for verification
and repeatedly disappointing this desire”.
“At
all events, McCann, I can assure you that the Assignment will be carried out
and the mission accomplished with no excessive aggravation to you or myself.
Satisfied?”.
In this reassurance to McCann,
Goldberg reveals the depth of his insidiousness. Not only do they have a
sinister purpose in mind the “assignment” but they will also treat it with
little personal investment. The tone is businesslike and detached, which is
unsetting when we realize that Stanley is the target. This quote also reveals
the difference in their characters at the top Goldberg is collected, whereas
McCann is jumpy. These roles later reverse somewhat.
Theme of blindness is that man
groping in the darkness and search for identity or search for existential human
predicament. Like in this play Stanley fight for his identity. His vision is
different from other’s vision so he is not ready to accept society’s rules and
regulations and society don’t wants to accept him with his freedom.
“
Why are you call me sir?”
Stanley’s mysterious past is
alluded to in several scenes. Here Stanley tries to convince McCann that they
are mistaken about his identity without ever directly admitting that they might
know him. It is one of the many scenes in which characters talk around one
another. When McCann refers to Stanley as “sir”, he overreacts, suggesting that
the ruth of the scene is the tension beneath it and not the meaningless
language they use.
As Society’s treatment of an artist
Stanley is an artist whom society claims back from a comfortable, bohemian pot
– out existence. His appearance in last act clean shaven dressed with collar
and bowler hat symbolizes that he has accepted or is forced to accept
traditional mode of living and thinking. Pinter would have experienced same as
a non conventional writer, but he did not succumb to the power and it is not
clear whether Stan has really succumbed or not. Last line of Petey:
Petey
(Broken) Stan, don,t let them tell you what to do!”
In the theme of death that one is a
process of death. Stanley first loses his broken glasses, then his speech,
finally ceases to exist. Wheel – barrow and black car is symbolic of hearse
where in coffin is carried for burial. He is neatly dressed up as dead body is
cleaned and dressed up. Goldberg: “You’re dead, you can’t live, you can’t
think, you can’t love. You’re dead.”
During the bizarre interrogation
scene in act II, Goldberg gives this assessment, one of the play’s most
poignant. It is poignant because it is true not only of Stanley, but ostensibly
of everyone in the play, as well as of the apathetic post war Britain that Pinter
was commenting on. Too many of the characters choose comfort because it is
safer, but the flipside is a depressing apathy. And, as the play suggests, the
truth of life never goes away and will sooner or later rear its dangerous, ugly
head.
Theme of Growing up to adulthood
from childhood is the process of growing up, of expulsion from the warm, Cosy
world of childhood. Meg Stanley and Oedipus complex his refusal to go with Lulu
strong attachment with Meg he seems to be afraid of sexuality outside of the
mother son relationship. His aggression is the result of his mental crisis a
struggle with self to overcome sense of guilt. Goldberg in this reference may
be taken as father figure Stan’s fear is also an expression of his dread of
punishment by the father figure for incestuous impulses. His going in gentleman’s
dress up is symbolic of his growing adult and growing adult and going out of
warm world of his childhood.
“Well
it’s very very nice to be here tonight, in my house and I want to propose a
toast to Stanley, because it’s his birthday and he’s lived here for a long
while now, and he’s my Stanley I know him better than all the world, although
he doesn’t think so. Well, I could cry because I’m so happy, having him here
and not gone away, on his birthday, and there isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for
him and all you good people here tonight…”
Meg’s rambling affection for
Stanley explains why she has invited these strangers to his birthday party. In
her simplistic fashion, she wants what is best for Stanley; she is the only
person in the play who truly cares about him. However, her toast also reveals
her own personal blindness. Part of his misery is her unceasing attention to
him and her delusions which he must continue to entertain. When he attempts to
stranger her before being taken away after his broke down, he shows her how he
truly feels, which makes her delusions all the more upsetting.
A Political view of the play is A
sense of shared guilt to be inactive for the cause of society to raise voice
against power of nations on poor nations or by people like Hitler on innocent
people. Political thaetre presents an entirely different set of problems.
Sermonising has to be avoided at all
cost. Objectivity is essential. The characters must be allowed to breathe their
own air. The author cannot confine and consist them to satisfy his own taste or
disposition or prejudce. He must be prepared to approach them from a variety of
angles, from a full and uninhibited range of perspectives, take them by
surprise, perhaps, occasionally but nevertheless give them the frredom to go
which way they will. This does not always work. And political satire, of
course, adheres to none of these precepts, in fact does precisely the opposite,
which is its proper function.
Theme of Power play and personality
clash is a personality which a human being presents to the world and to himself
of his qualities and abilities which may be different or quite opposite of his
real self. Petey’s reading news paper to Meg his symbolic superiority over her
but he is impotent to give a child birth is symbolic of asserting her
personality over him and an attempt to break his personality. Stanley presents
himself as successful pianist and more intelligent than people who live in
boarding room but when Goldberg and McCann comes his superiority is lost and is
reduced to nothingness.
Meg:
“belle of the ball she really was not so but loves to present herself as such
to her husband.
Goldberg,
too, is shaken and knocked out at the end.
“Yes
she does sometimes. Sometimes she forgets.”
Petey seems unconcerned during much of the play, but
this line spoken to Goldberg in Act III, shows he knows more than he lets on.
When he explains that she sometimes gives him tea and sometimes forgets, he in
some ways suggests that he sees nothing more than his physical surroundings.
However, considering how tea is a symbol for Meg’s affection and considering
Petey’s willingness to lie to her at the end about Stanley’s disappearance, the
line also has a significant subtext Petey knows that his wife walks a fine line
of sanity, held together by her delusions that can distract her.
“Let’s
finish and go. Let’s get it over and go. Get the thing done. Let’s finish the
bloody thing. Let’s get the thing done and go!”
Usually, McCann is extremely deferential to
Goldberg. Here, However, McCann is flustered and upset because of Goldberg’s
seeming disinterest in the job. McCann relies on Goldberg to keep them calm and
focused and Goldberg’s trouble in this Act make McCann doubly nervous. He does
not want to get invested, since the job troubles him but Goldberg has seemingly
gotten invested. McCann cannot handle losing his calm Mentor and so he snaps
for a moment.
Conclusion:
We
can say that Harold Pinter’s plays have many interpretations. His plays cannot
be bound in any single definition. When he get noble prize for it that time he
spoke this lines:
“I have often been
asked how my plays come about. I cannot say. Nor can I ever sum up my plays,
except to say that this is what happened. That is what they said. That is what
they did.”
In
the last act Goldberg and McCann were seating and there Stanley comes and that
time he is come with some changes, with clean cloths, shaving and looking like
gentleman. That time Goldberg take his glass from his hand and give him offer
that we will give you all the facilities and luxurious life, but behalf of that
Stanley has to lost his creativity, freedom, his nature, his art, and we can
say his vision towards life after that he cannot live his life on his own rules
but he has to live on their rules. If he accept it than and then society or
rigidity accept it. So at the end we can
see this type of all interpretations in the play. This is the theatre of the
absurd play so in this play we can see the nothingness and absurdity in the
play.
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