品特的荒诞性背后.doc

Academic Year ThesisTHE ABSURDITY AND ITS IMPLICATIONS OF PINTERS THE BIRTHDAY PARTYBy Yuan YuweiEnglish and American Literature Renmin University of ChinaAdvisor: Professor Xie Jiangnan November 28, 2012摘要：哈罗德品特是20世纪最伟大的戏剧家，2005年的诺贝尔文学奖颁给了他，认为“他的剧作发现了掩盖于日常闲聊下的深刻之处，并强行打开了压抑者关闭的房间。”品特的戏剧属于荒诞派，无论在故事情节，表现手法还是剧本语言上都深深带有品特式的荒诞特征。生日宴会是品特早期的一部重要作品，集中体现了他的荒诞特点，本文通过对生日宴会的故事，语言，写作手法等方面的荒谬性进行分析，进而得出荒诞背后所体现出后工业化时代西方社会信仰缺失，礼崩乐坏的混乱局面以及生活于其中的人们的不安和恐惧。这正是品特戏剧引起共鸣，发人深省之处。关键词：矛盾，语言，悲喜剧，荒诞Abstract: Harold Pinter is the greatest Playwright in the 20th century who received the Nobel Prize in 2005 with the award words: in his plays uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppressions closed rooms. Pinter is one of the important representatives of the theater of absurdity with his works fully embodying its characteristics in plots, artistic features and language. The Birthday Party is one of the most important plays in Pinters early career, which gives full expression to the absurdity. This thesis is an analysis of the ridiculousness as shown in the story, language and writing techniques etc.of this play and behind all the absurdity, an exploration of the faithless and chaotic conditon behind of the western world in the post-industrial era and the uneasiness and terror of people living in it. Thats how Pinter stikes a responsive chord in the hearts of the audience and makes them do an introspection of their own life.Key Words: Paradox, Language, Tragicomedy, Absurdity1.IntroductionThe Birthday Party is Pinters best play of Pinter in his early career as a playwright. It is this play that lays the keynote of absurdity for him, by which he is classified as one member of the absurd theatre. The ridiculousness is seen everywhere in the Birthday Party: characters act and speak in an illogical and self-contradictory way; the relationship between them is complex and confusing; the whole plot, though simple, seems to be a blending of a farces and a tragic story, causing the audience to laugh at one time and then hold their tongue. The following is a through display of the absurdity shown in this play and an analysis of the underlying reasons and implications behind it.2.the Story Synopsis of The Birthday PartyThe Birthday Partyis Pinters second full-length playand one of his best-known and most-frequently performed plays. It tells a story like this: Stanley is a tenant in his late thirties living in Boles house with the owner Meg and her husband Petey, both in their sixties. Alternating between maternal and flirtatious affectation toward Stanley, Meg tells him that two gentlemen, two new visitors, will be arriving. At this information, Stanley appears concerned and vigilant. Meg, together with the newcomers, Goldberg in his fifies and McCann in his thirties hold a birthday party for Stantley, who actually denies its his birthday. During the party, McCann and Goldberg interrogate Stanley with a series of ambiguous, rhetorical questions, tormenting him to complete collapse. Meg then enters in her party dress, Lulu, a neighbor arrives, and the party proceeds with a series of toasts in Stanleys honour. The party culminates with a game ofblind mans buff, during which McCann further taunts Stanley by breaking his glasses and trapping his foot in the toy drum, the birthday present given by Meg. After the chaotic night, the play ends with the collapsed Stantley taken by McCann and Goldberg, with Meg unknown to it. After seeing this play, we can be very confused about the plot and the characters: the story doesnt seem to make much sense as its made up of several confusing events; and what are the true identity, background and motivation of the characters? Besides, there are a lot of paradoxes or contradictories in what they do and say, which puzzles we audience even more. In the following part, this thesis will lead you through the ambiguous maze and dig into the writers real purpose and clear scene behind the thick fog of absurdity.3. Behind the Absurdity as revealed in all the paradoxParadox is a statement that seems to be absurd or contradictory but is or may be true, or refers to person, thing or situation that display contradictory features. It is one of the prominent features in Harold Pinters Plays. The use of paradox in the Birthday Party is so prominent that even the title the Birthday Party is one: generally birthday party is held for the person on his birthday but its easy to find that the day is actually not Stantleys birthday. And a party is supposed to be happy and exciting but Stantley on this party is interrogated, neglected and insulted. Whats more, Meg gives Stantley a boys drum as birthday gift. The use of paradox is also shown in the details. Meg and Petey are a couple, who should be close and intimate but the communication between them seems to be difficult. In the beginning of the play, when Petey enters the room, Meg asks: “Is that you?” A pause. “Is that you, Petey?” Petey: “what?” It is very uncommon to talk in such an inconsistant way between husband and wife. Relying on the paradoxes, the plot develops. Stantley seems to know well about the threat from the two newcomers but he tries to disguise his real mind by pretending they are unrecgnizable. Lulu, the young girl, has amorous affair with Goldberg during the birthday party just because Goldberg looks like the man she first loved. And its ambiguous whether Lulu accepts him actively of passively when she says to Goldberg: “you made use of me by cunning when my defenses were down.”The odd or contradictory behaviors of the characters and the perplexing and inscrutable development of the plot are not casually put together for the effect of absurdity but reveal the true view on life of Pinter. Pinter said in his Nobel lecture, Art, Truth and Politics, “There are no hard distinctions 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.” “Truth in drama is forever elusive. You never quite find it but the search for it is compulsive.” In Pinters view, a traditional writer, who is used to designing a clear and logic plot, having grasp on the development of it, knowing the intension and motivation of all his characters, is but distorting the truth by means of his personal fabrication. The authentic way to reveal life is to just record the fragmented dialogues and behaviors with emphasis in its mysteriness, meaningless and absurdity. Living in the post-war age, its not surprising that Pinter has embraced the postmodern thoughts. After World War II, the western world has sank in a cliff of faithlessness and chaos. Life has been devoid of center as the Darvinism and other theories destroyed the christian religion as peoples spiritual pillar. Besides the traditional values, i.e. ideals, dignity and values of human beings has endured question and requestion. People cannot find the meaning of existance and feel rootless and helpful, thus the life becomes fragmented and absurd. So the theatre of absurd comes into being as a glimpse into the centerless and meaningless living condition of modern people.4 Behind the absurdity shown in ludicrous languagePinter is celebrated greatly for his innovative use of language. Thats one of the most impotant reason why his style has been termed as “Pinteresque”. “His tape-recorder ear has often been prasied. Few English playwrights before him have displayed so acute an observation of the mannerism, repetions and nonsensicalities of the vernacular as it is actually spoken.”(Esslin, Pinter 48) Pinters creative use of languge displays itself in paradox, giving unnecessary details, illogic response, giving irrelavant answers, seemingly meaningless repetitions and so on. Here is a dialogue between Meg and Stantley in the first act when Stantley tries to lead their conversation to the tea after hearing from Meg about the two newcomers:Meg: I took it away. You didnt want itStantley: What do you mean, you took it away?Meg: I took it away.Stantley: What did you take it away for?Meg: You didnt want it.Stantley: Who said I didnt want it?Meg: You did!Stantley: Who gave you the right to take away my tea?In the previous dialogue, Meg and Stantley are quarreling for a trifle with some parallel sentences, insipid diction and repetitious questions and answers. Audience would get confused in this seemingly ludicrous and meaningless dialogue, unable to figure out why Stantley doesnt allow Meg to take away his tea. This on one hand unveils Stantley is very upset about the two coming strangers and on the other again reveals the absurd essence of life.Pinters language is an overthrow of traditional theatre language which means to be elegant, expressive, logical and powerful. For example, the great theatre masters Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde both made their characters speak in an eloquent and influent way, either siver-tongued or quick-witted. However, to Pinters view, these beautiful dialogues are not often seen in real life, which, in contrary, abounds in broken, illogical and even self-contradictory talks and people sometimes have difficulty in making themselves understood. In order to reflect life more truly, playwrights should cast away the traditional way of language application and record the dialogues as they are. A deeper cause for the broken dialogues lies in the uneasy mind of common people in the postmodern society. People are preoccupied in the pursue of material gains which makes them the slave of money and fame. Driven by different interests, people become suspicious and distrust of each other, feeling threatened from many aspects. Together with the spiritual empty inevitably caused by the over obsession with material pursuit, People begin to have a strong sense of insecurity, unstability, alienation and terror. The illogical and absurd dialogues are but the concentrated expressions of this mind. Thus behind the surface of absurdies in communicating with each other is peoples pathetic spiritual conditions and alienation among them.5. Behind the absurdity displayed by a mixture of tragedy and comedyPinters innovation in play reveal itself in another impotant aspectcreating a new tragicomedy mixed with tragedy and comedy. Traditional tragicomedy just shows this characteristic in inserting an interesting episode or a slapstick in a tragedy( or the other way around) or making characters with commic and tragic elements appear at the same time ( for example, put a noble man and a farmer on stage simultaneously). Therefore, they only breaks the limits of tragedy and comedy in form and remain tragedy or comedy in nature. However, Pinters play is a new tragicomedy different from the traditional one, which “ makes one corner of mouth smile and another weep”. In his play, misfortunes and mishaps get ridiculed and derided. He often puts the characters in an plausible but actually unreaonable condition, which they try to explain by reaon. The contradiction thus arises and amusement comes. In Pinters play the characters often behave like clowns by making fools of themselves. The Birthday Party is a good example for this point. The two newcomers, McCann and Goldberg keeps bombarding Stantley with some ridiculous questions, such as: “is the chicken or the egg born first?”, which leave Stantley tongue-tied. And still in the party, they two continue to adress Stantley with both threatening and laughable remarks like “well transform you to a man and a woman.” Under these interrogations and threatening remarks, Stantley gets a nervous breakdown, firstly goes into hysterics, then loses his tongue, gets dumb and finally is taken away by the two outsiders like an oblation. The audience would at first get amused by these clownish dialogues and behaviors but as the development of the plot, they come to be aware of a frightening force controling the life of the characters, stop the laugh and begin to feel sorry for them. Then they may realize suddenly that their own life is full of the same absurdity and adversary. Then the laugh becomes awkward and bitter. Thats what Pinter wants his audience to doto recognize their own life in the play and to make a thorough reflection of the life condition.6.Conlusion Pinters is one of the best playwrights