Deconstructing Delusion, Confusion and Chaos in Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party
Journal Title: Notions A Journal of English Literature - Year 2017, Vol 0, Issue 4
Abstract
The Birthday Party of Harold Pinter (1930-2008) is one of the three full length plays, called his “comedy of menace”, the other two being The Caretaker and The Homecoming. A critic Irving Wardle describes the play as an expression of the realistic picture while creating a subtext of intrigue and confusion, as if the playwright employed a skill of dramatic trick. Pinter once said, “What I write has no obligation to anything other than to itself,” which both belies the designation Wardle gave his plays, and acknowledges the eccentricities of the playwright along with the originality that inspired such a designation in the first place. This paper deals with the theme of absurdity, existentialism and deconstructionism as employed by Harold Pinter in The Birthday Party. Pinter in fact is deeply inspired and influenced by Samuel Beckett as he himself acknowledges this later.
Authors and Affiliations
Dr. Sumita Ashri
Keywords
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