Name :- Alisha. S.
Vaghasiya
M. A. Sem :- 3
Roll N :-1
Paper No :- 9 The
Modernist literature
Topic :- Various
interpretations of the play,
“The Birthday Party”
Submitted to :-
smt. S B Gardi Department of English
Introduction
The Birthday party,
the play is written by Harold Pinter. It is the representation of the Theater
of Absurd, the meaninglessness of time, place and identity. Harold Pinter, Born
in 1930, English playwright, known for his so – called Comidies of Mence, which
humorously and cynically depict people attempting to communicate as they react
to an invasion or theat of an invasion of their lives. He is also noted for his
unique use of diologue, which expoes his characters alienation from each other
and explores the layers of meaning produced by pause and silence, In 2005
Pinter was awarded the Nobel prize in Literature.
Act 1
While Meg prepares to serve her husband Petey breakfast,
Stanley, described as a man "in his late thirties" (23), who
is dishevelled and unshaven, enters from upstairs. Alternating between maternal
and flirtatious affectation toward Stanley, Meg tells him that "two
gentlemen", two new "visitors", will be arriving (30–31);
Stanley appears concerned and suspicious at this information. At"[a]
sudden knock on the front door" Meg goes offstage while Stanley "listens"
at a voice coming "through the letter box," but it is just
Lulu carrying in a package delivered for Meg. Right after Meg and Lulu exit,
Goldberg and McCann arrive, but Stanley immediately "sidles through the
kitchen door and out of the back door" to eavesdrop (38), but they
speak only vaguely about "this job" they must do with bureaucratic
clichés (41), nevertheless rendering McCann "satisfied" (41). After
Meg's new "guests" go up to their room, Stanley enters and Meg gives
him the package brought by Lulu containing his birthday present. He opens it to
reveal a toy drum.
Act 2
Stanley encounters McCann and the two talk. McCann is determined
to stop Stanley from leaving the house. Stanley's behaviour and speech start to
become erratic. He denies the fact that it is his birthday, insists that Meg is
mad for saying so, and asks McCann if Goldberg told him why he has been brought
to the house. Goldberg enters and sends McCann out to collect some Whiskey that
he has ordered for the party. When McCann returns, he and Goldberg interrogate
Stanley with a series of ambiguous, rhetorical questions, tormenting him to
complete collapse. Meg then enters in her party dress, and the party proceeds
with a series of toasts in Stanley's honor. Lulu then arrives and engages with
Goldberg in romance. The party culminates with a game of blind
man's buff, during which McCann
further taunts Stanley by breaking his glasses and trapping his foot in the toy
drum. Stanley then attacks Meg and, in the blackout that immediately follows,
attacks and attempts to rape Lulu. The act ends with Goldberg and McCann
backing the maniacally laughing Stanley against a wall.
Act 3
Paralleling the first scene of the play, Petey is having
breakfast, and Meg asks him innocuous questions, with important differences
revealing the aftermath of the party. After Meg leaves to do some shopping, Petey
begins to express concern to Goldberg about Stanley's condition and Goldberg's
intention to take him to an unseen character called Monty. There then follows
an exchange between Goldberg and McCann during which Goldberg's usual confident
style temporarily abandons him, though he seems to recover after asking McCann
to blow in his mouth. Lulu then confronts Goldberg about the way he was the
previous night (during unseen events that occurred after the party) but is
driven from the house by McCann making unsavoury comments about her character
and demanding that she confess her sins to him. McCann then brings in Stanley,
with his broken glasses, and he and Goldberg bombard him with a list of his
faults and of all the benefits he will obtain by submitting to their influence.
When asked for his opinion of what he has to gain, Stanley is unable to answer.
They begin to lead him out of the house toward the car waiting to take him to
Monty. Petey confronts them one last time but passively backs down as they take
Stanley away, "broken", calling out "Stan, don't let them
tell you what to do!" (101). After Meg returns from shopping, she notices
that "The car's gone" and as Petey remains silent, he continues to
withhold his knowledge of Stanley's departure, allowing her to end the play
without knowing the truth about Stanley.
Genre
The Birthday Party has been described (some say "pigeonholed")
by and later critics as and as an example of It includes such
features as the fluidity and of time, place, and identity and the disintegration
of language.
Reception
Produce David Hall, the play had its world première at the Arts Theatre, in Cambridge, England, on 28 April 1958, where the play was "warmly
received" on its pre-London tour, in Oxford and Wolverhampton, where it also met with a "positive
reception" as "the most enthralling experience the Grand Theatre has
given us in many months.
On 19 May 1958, the production moved to the Lyric Opera
House, Hammersmith the LyriHammersmith) for its début in
London, where it was a commercial and mostly critical failure, instigating "bewildered
hysteria" and closing after only eight performancesThe weekend after it
had already closed, Harold Hobson's belated rave review, "The Screw Turns
Again", appeared in The Sunday Times, rescuing its critical reputation and
enabling it to become one of the classics of the modern stage
The Lyric celebrated the play's 50th anniversary with a revival,
directed by artistic director David
Farr, and related events
from 8 to 24 May 2008, including a gala performance and reception hosted by Harold Pinter on
19 May 2008, exactly fifty years after its London première
Inte
According to Michael
Billington, The Birthday Party is a deeply political play about the
individual’s imperative need for resistance.
Billington, he “doubts
whether this was conscious on Pinter’s part “it is also private, obsessive work
about time past; about some vanished world, either real or idealized into which
all but one of the characters readily escapes.
“there are no hard
dictions between what is real and what is unreal, nor between what is true and
what is false. A thing is not necessarily either true or false; it can be both
true and false.”
- Harold Pinter
ABSURDITY
The Birthday Party is
like misguiding as it has no connectivity of particular incidents, facts or
story. One can not distinguish between reality and illusion.
The characters,
Stanley and the newly come two remains mystery.
The title and the
dialogue refer to Meg’s planning party to celebrate Stanley’s birthday: “it is
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’t my birthday ,Meg”.
SUFFERING IDENTITIES
Goldberg is called ‘
Nat but he, is also called ‘Simey’ and ‘Benny’. McCann is also called ‘Dermot
’,their identities remains unclear.
Although Stanley
before the lights go out during party begins to strangle Meg, she has no mercy
of threat the next morning.
THEME OF BLINDNESS
Men are forced to go
in darkness by other people.here it is a game of Blind man’s buff. The
characters play in the party.
McCann also breaks
glasses of Stanley. Stanley can not see without it.
SOCIETY’S TREATMENT OF
AN ARTIST
Stanley is an
artist. He is living in a house and we can say, he is afraid of
society as his art is rejected by the society. So he is not surrounded by many
people.
In the last scene, he
is clean, shaven, neatly dressed with collar. So we can say, he is now
accepting the traits and rules of society.
PROCESS OF DEATH
Stanley is drawn
towards death of inner side. His speech, broken glasses are giving signs that
he is about to die. He then dressed up as dead body when he accepts the
society.
There is also a
statement that Goldberg says,
You’re dead, you can’t
Live, you can’t think,
You can’t love,
You’re dead.
THEME OF GROWING UP TO
ADULTERY FROM CHILDHOOD
Here we find the
Oedipus complex between Meg and Stanley. Stanley has strong attachment with
Meg. Lulu is also developing relationship with Meg.
In the last scene,
Stanley’s dress up is also symbolic as he is moving towards adulthood.
THEME OF POWER PLAY
AND PERSONALITY CLASH
There is a difference
of personality that a man shows to society and his real personality. Stanley who
is a pianist and now he is living in boarding room, when he listens that two
men are coming he is afraid of them.
Conclusion:
‘The Birthday Party’
is mainly a political satire and it has many interpretation by critics.
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