Topic- write a critique of the play Birthday Party by Harold Pinter..
Background
The play “The Birthday Party” delineates the predicaments faced by the people in the second half
of the 20th century. It represents the existential problems among the post-war generations who
have given up life and stuck in utter seclusion. The elderly class have been living life by a normal
means; however, they are made to suffer by younger class in ample ways. Life in post-war period
is seen as a dark-phase in the history of England. The circumstances were completely
unfavourable to sustain and lead a life in the certain optimistic mood. Pinter has portrayed this
sense of being and existence in dramatic approach through his narratives giving the image of
menace and suffering in post-war period.
INTRODUCTION
The play “The Birthday Party” represents the
youth who have given up the external hostile
world. So, the characters presented in the play
are idle, sleepy, and dirty most of the time.
Stanley, the protagonist is given refuge by the
elderly couple in the boarding house. He usually
wakes up late in the day and reflects upon the
post-war young London generation. Such
individuals are filthy, messy and a blot on family
and society. These individuals have dragged
families towards terror and anxiety. The personal
and family dignity of such individuals is devalued
and lost. The play portrays the hard work done
by elder generation in society, who leave their
homes at dawn and work throughout the day until
dusk. Such individuals strive a lot to keep their
house running. The elderly couple Petey and
Meg give the impression of being firmly moored
in their daily life. Their poor meals represent the
turmoil in their day-to-day life. This paper
consequently highlights the following as
contained in the play: Pinter’s bird-eye
view, a mystery play, paranoiac protagonist,
hopelessness and weirdness, aggression—an
existential tool, identity and isolation, existential
lingo, and strive to survive.
PINTER’S BIRD-EYE VIEW
Harold Pinter’s plays still puzzle audience and
critics after almost fifty years of acquaintance
with his work. Pinter in his play The Birthday
Party expresses his own vision of looking at the
milieu of the modern age. He employs
psychological devices to present melancholic
post-war human affliction. In this play, he uses
six individuals to narrate the plight and
vicissitudes of life. Among these six, Goldberg
and McCann are the antagonists who exploit
other characters. They treat Stanley badly, who
gets lost in thoughts, makes vigorous efforts to
think, imagine and speak but is powerless to do
so. Lesser submits:
In the play, there are six characters and they
constitute a microcosm of society. They
mirror the economic division of the society
and the division between exploiters and
exploited. Goldberg and McCann are
exploiters, managers, operators, and control
the life as well as decision makers (37).
A MYSTERY PLAY
The Birthday Party is a mysterious play because
we are ignorant of Stanley’s purpose of anguish
and apprehension; and Goldberg—McCann’s mission. The audience, as well as McCann
remain unaware of their intention to visit the
boarding house. The pair brings an aura of
suspense and menace to the audience. Goldberg and McCann ironically
represent Jews and Irish respectively, two of the
most oppressed, persecuted communities that become tormentors. The play is
labelled as ‘Comedy of Menace’ due to its
hilarious and tormenting terror going through its
scenes and episodes. In most events, the
audience is amused at the ambiguous menace of
Stanley. Pinter regarding Goldberg and McCann
declares, “the hierarchy, the Establishment, the
arbiters, the socio-religious monsters arrive to effect alteration and censure upon a member of
the club who has discarded responsibility”.
PARANOIAC PROTAGONIST
Kirby, one of the renowned critics states: “The
Birthday Party enacts with precision a textbook
case of mental breakdown”. The play
depicts mental and nervous breakdown of postwar individuals and their ontological
predicaments that human society profusely experienced. The threat that has colonized the hearts of post-war individuals has disabled them
both physically and mentally. Absurd individuals
do not want to get exposed to external world and
experience fear of strangers...
Stanley feels the extreme fear from the world
outside and, so he chooses to put himself in
isolation. Stanley finds refuge in Meg and Petey
at the boarding house and the moment he is
informed by Meg about the visit of two gentlemen
he loses his temper and begins to act strangely
in a violent manner (Pinter 19) [5]. He turns
violent and begins to behave in an ominous way
that displays his sense of threat. His behaviour
and gestures reflect that he has committed
certain sin and so he feels guilty. Stanley
remains comfortable till the two gentlemen arrive
at the boarding house. The moment they enter
the house, the irrationality and trouble begin to hang on Stanley and their entrance rapidly alters
the whole environment of the house by causing
terror among the characters. Like Kafka, Pinter is
preoccupied with fear, anxiety and terror of the
members in the society. Megged writes:
[Pinter] catches his characters in extreme
situations of nervous sensitivity to what goes
on inside them or around them, to bring them
together on the brink of some disaster or some pathological outburst of psychic forces
which has been slumbering until the moment of this meeting.
HOPELESSNESS AND WEIRDNESS
In the words of Naismith: “During the twentieth
century the individual has become increasingly
alienated and distanced from the centres of
power. The play reflects the state of mid-
20th century youth—lost and hopeless. The idle
and unpleasant life that Stanley lives is noticed
by Meg’s next-door neighbour Lulu who
considers him to be busy. Lulu appears an
uncomplicated character and a girl of little depth. She seems a dull girl through
her activities but dares to revive Stanley’s inert soul. She notices the absurd attitude of Stanley
and desires him to feel calm and relaxed, and abandon all worries and miseries. She knocks
down Stanley for being grimy and filthy, “Why don’t you have a wash? You look terrible”;
“Come out and get a bit of air. You depress me
looking like that” (Pinter 26) [5].
However, Meg feels joyous and extreme
pleasure due to the party organised by Goldberg
and McCann and shares happiness, “I’ll put on
my party dress”; “I hope I look nice in my dress”
(Pinter 33) [5]. Meg presents Stanley the drum as
a birthday gift because he has not played the
piano for a long time. Stanley begins to beat the
drum gently, rhythmically with music that pleased
both Meg and the audience; but all of a sudden,
he thrashed the drum bitterly, violently and wildly.
It appears like the worst experience of past has
struck to his mind and he could not hold his
temper and loses consciousness. Pinter as a
psychiatrist detected Stanley’s paranoia. From
Stanley’s non-sensible activities, we observe that
he has been suffering from post-traumatic stress
disorder that repeatedly overwhelms him in the
course of the play.
AGGRESSION — AN EXISTENTIAL
TOOL
The modern individuals struggle for dominance
over one another, and initiate their interaction in
an aggressive fashion. This we detect in
Stanley’s first encounter with Goldberg and
McCann where he strives to achieve supremacy.
Goldberg has been the dominating figure in all
events since his arrival into the house. He scolds
Stanley many times for his foolish behaviour; and
later he scolds McCann for continuing his
childish activities, “Why do you do that all the
time? It’s childish, it’s pointless. It’s without a
solitary point”; and McCann responds by asking
questions and enrages him, “Questions,
questions. Stop asking me so many questions.
What do you think I am?” (Pinter 76) [5],
and is badly rebuked and severely attacked while
he calls him “Simey” (Pinter 76) [5]. Kerr
expresses:
[So] no one in the play understands the
pattern through which he is moving. . . . .
Because they exist, they act. They do not act
out of prior definition; they are on the way to discovering themselves . . .
Stanley behaves in a rude way with
Goldberg, “Don’t mess me about.
he gets puzzled with their stay at the house and
asserts himself, “I run the house. I’m afraid you
and your friend will have to find other
accommodation” (Pinter 44) [5].
IDENTITY AND ISOLATION
From the psychological point of view, Pinter declares the play to be a process of growth
toward maturity from the warm and cosy world of
childhood (Esslin 84) [8]. Pinter’s plays begin with laughter, use the comic element and turn to
psychological and physical violence rapidly.
Throughout these stages, the play revolves
round the identity crisis so crucial to
existentialism and the Theatre of the Absurd.
Pinter’s plays are more puzzling to the audience
and more problematic at the end (Rusinko 283)
The play shows, how a man in the course of
others’ entertainment is ignored and abandoned
completely. The individual identity is relegated to
the background. Both Lulu and Meg enjoy the party with Goldberg and McCann respectively,
while Stanley, all alone, suffers during their
celebration. Stanley is deeply lost in his thoughts
in isolation and none pays attention to his
despair. They decided to play the game of blind
man’s buff and while Stanley is blindfolded,
McCann crushes down his glasses and puts the
drum in his way to let him collapse down in disgrace (Pinter 63) [5]. Audience feel his gloomy
mood and distorted physique that is almost
crippled. Pinter has observed and shown to the
world the identity crisis that damaged the human
society and put humans into eternal absurdity.
Gale submits:
It is evident that the terrors undergone by the
participants in the drama are representative rather than the portrayal of a single
individual’s plight. Perhaps because the
horror is intensified, by contrast the
characters’ dialogue sounds much more
realistic and the horror comes through much
more strongly. EXISTENTIAL LINGO
In the words of Almansi and Henderson: “Pinter
has systematically forced his characters to use a
perverse, deviant language specialized in
concealing reality” (12) [11]. Pinter shows the
aggressive attitude of individuals whose torment
may lead anyone towards affliction and
devastation. Stanley is tormented by irrational
questions which annihilate his thoughts and
senses. He is reduced to an inarticulate victim;
and accused of certain guilt. The crimes
attributed to him are mostly anti-social—murder,failure to keep a clean house, refusal to marry He is unable to defend
against them although he tried a lot to answer
their nonsensical questions which they posed to
him. Goldberg and McCann’s attacks are so
furious that arouses insanity in him and turns him
into a living corpse. Almansi and
Henderson
remark:
Communication between human beings is
difficult and often dangerous; that family ties
are loose and often harmful; that social
connection are untrustworthy and often
deadly; that memory is reliable and often
treacherous; that others are always a
mystery to us as we are to them (and as we
are even to ourselves); that man is alone in
this miserable world (15) [11].
One form of loss of identity is the breakdown
of communication. Communication breakdown
takes place when an individual is rudely tortured
in the society. He is deprived of thinking power,
ideas, and imagination, hence cannot gossip.
Rosenfield comments:
Pinter, of course, is the acknowledged
master of the unsaid, the echoing silence
that brings a shiver to the soul. There are
rumours that after its short initial run, the play
is to be restaged, though nobody knows
where. If it is, as it should be, it is a
combination of two great talents that should
not be missed (21) [12].
Pinter, as we know, has made an in-depth study
of human psychology to understand the most
internal state of the human mind. So, he should
be called the dramatic psychologist because at
all stages he investigated the human mind.
The psycho-analytical approach helps in
understanding the play and its impact and effect
on audience (Esslin 8) [13].
Pinter has been directly involved in the absurd
life of his society. His characters are inarticulate
and he himself as a dramatist is more colloquial
than other absurd playwrights (Lesser 34) [14].
His characters suffer from psychological
imbalance and are seen performing unexpected
activities. The ideological stance or philosophical
mode of thinking i.e. existentialism with which his
works are associated contain the clarity and
soundness of his ideas, grandeur of thoughts
and glittering eloquence with proper diction. The
dramatic techniques connect his plays with the
modern theatrical movement i.e. The Theatre of
the Absurd. His plays reflect psychological
thought that depends on, “what the characters
say, wish to say, ought to say or don’t say,
trusting the author’s power to breathe life into his
dramatis personae and create characters who
are consonant with his own ideas” (Almansi and Esslin regarding the play
argues:
A play like The Birthday Party can only be
understood as a complex poetic image. Such
an image exists, simultaneously, on a
multitude of levels. A complex pattern of
association and allusion is assembled to
express a complex emotional state; what the
poet tries to communicate by such an image
is, ultimately, the totality of his own
existential anxiety (43) [8].
STRIVE TO SURVIVE
The problem with the modern youth is that they
lack the power and confidence; and cannot
defend against tormenters though awfully
oppressed. So they are badly tormented and are unable to perceive their strength. Such people
find it difficult to survive and strive to free
themselves from tormenting anxieties. Stanley’s
peace of mind at the boarding house comes to its
conclusion
the moment intruders enter in the
house, and worsens in the course of their stay.
Initially, Pinter’s antagonists appear to be victims
but as the play proceeds, they reveal their
identity through skilful dialogues on the stage
e.g. Goldberg and McCann express their plight at
first sight but later we judge them both as
antagonists because they disturbed and tortured
Stanley mentally and physically, throughout the
play Stanley appears to have lost his sense since Goldberg and McCann entered the house, but
after analysing the play it is noticed that they had actually tried to put Stanley out of the absurd,
terror, and anxiety from which he was suffering.
They want to put a live soul in his body to let him live a free and responsible life which he has
given up. At last Stanley has become a wretched
figure, alive corpse, unable to utter a single word
and is ultimately dragged out of boarding house
by Goldberg and McCann. So Stanley is
kidnapped, tortured and taken away in a car by
them.
CONCLUSION
Thus, the play reflects the ridiculous state of the
individuals in the second half of the 20th century.
It presents the grimness and despair in man’s
life. Pinter’s characters are bewildered. They
have put themselves in utter darkness and are
unable to recognise their true nature and
purpose. The modern life at each and every instance shocked the general folk in the post-war
Western society. The play declares the multidimensional chaos, arbitrariness and illogical episodes at their virtual facades. It reinforces the
idea of discreet solution to the existing human predicaments that have ailed and crippled the
societies. The socio-political factors render the individuals meaningless. Existence is questioned
and yearning to seek self-identity remains
unsatisfied as the search for identity remains
elusive
inconclusive and .
