Harold Pinter’s plays reflect most common themes of the 20th century drama such as the loss of meaning and identity. In Pinter’s plays, the characters are depicted as they are in constant struggle for asserting their identity and meaning to their existence. Since they feel insecure about both their existence and identity, they feel the need to dominate others for the sake of asserting sovereignty over what they possess. In that way, they think they can define their existence and identity. Overpowering others is a way of feeling confident about themselves and their surroundings. Thus, Pinter’s plays represent themselves as battlefields in which every character is on guard to fight against the other for feeling secure in an insecure world, as …show more content…
Kate claims that Anna is the one and only friend she has got, which makes Anna’s existence more intimidating for Deeley. Kate also remembers that Anna used to steal from her such as her underwear when they lived together. That information suggests a sexual relationship between these women, which is another threat for Deeley. He becomes more irritated and defensive as he lacks confidence in his masculinity. As he enquires about Kate’s past relationship with Anna, Kate states that she remembers vaguely because it was a long time ago. Deeley still feels intimidated, and argues: “But you remember her. She remembers you. Or why would she be coming here tonight?” (246). That Anna and Kate remember each other makes Deeley feel threatened by the story they had in the past. Deeley tries to gather information about his possible antagonist by inquiring about Anna’s personal life such as her …show more content…
Kate takes Anna’s side, and dominates Deeley by representing a more realistic point of view regarding Deeley’s expression of the intimate moment they share. Anna takes advantage of that, and attacks with the recollection of Kate again: ANNA: She was always a dreamer. Sometimes, walking, in the park, I’d say to her, you’re dreaming, you’re dreaming, wake up, what are you dreaming? and she’d look round at me, flicking her hair, and look at me as if I were part of her dream. (262) Anna wins at the end of this competition. She involves herself in Kate’s dreams by using a more poetic language as opposed to Deeley’s awkward metaphors. Anna and Deeley go on with their battle through using their words as weapons. This time, they use the lyrics of songs. Deeley compensates for his defeat by picking up a line from a song, and sings: “(To KATE.)You’re lovely to look at, delightful to know”(264). Anna starts singing by picking up the lines carefully in order to dominate Deeley. The lyrics that are picked up are beautiful, but they intention is devious. They are carefully chosen to assert the possession of Kate, or their unique relationship with her: DEELEY: Blue moon, I see you standing alone… ANNA: The way you comb your hair… DEELEY: Oh no they can’t take that away from
In conclusion, it is through these contradictions between history and memory that we learn not to completely rely on either form of representation, due to the vexing nature of the relationship and the deliberate selection and emphasis. It is then an understanding that through a combination of history and memory we can begin to comprehend representation. ‘The Fiftieth Gate’ demonstrates Baker’s conclusive realisation that both history and memory have reliability and usefulness. ‘Schindler’s List’ reveals how the context of a medium impacts on the selection and emphasis of details. ‘The Send-Off’ then explains how the contradiction between memory and history can show differing perspectives and motives.
In this essay I will be comparing two playwrights, A Raisin in the Sun and A Doll’s House, to one another. I will also compare the two to modern time and talk about whether or not over time our society has changed any. Each of these plays has a very interesting story line based in two very different time eras. Even though there is an 80 year time gap the two share similar problems and morals, things you could even find now in the year of 2016. In the following paragraphs I will go over the power of time and what we as a society have done to make a change.
Social pressures change as time passes, therefore it is interesting to see how these three texts whom differ by almost four hundred years perceive society and the effect this has on the protagonists; Shakespeare’s King Lear which was first performed in 1606 during the Jacobean era, presents a patriarchal society. Whilst, Arthur Miller uses the characters in ‘Death of a salesman’ to show the failure of the ‘American dream’ during the “golden era” of America in the late 40’s. The ‘American Dream’ was a set of ideals which suggested that anyone in the US could be successful through hard work, and had the potential to live a happy life. The sense of the deterioration in the equality of opportunities links to the fall in power and hierarchy in King Lear. Arudanthi Roy, however, uses her contemporary Indian novel to illustrate, using a proleptic and coalesce structure, the lives of the protagonists living in a post – colonial society. In each of these three texts there are characters who fit the stereotypes that society has instilled in them, but then there are those characters who noticeably differ from the norm; According to 19th century novelist Alfred de Musset “how glorious it is – and how painful – to be an exception.” Hence this statement can be seen as applicable to these characters, because in all three texts these characters do end up losing a lot.
Richmond, Macrae Hugh. "Women's Roles" Shakespeare's Theatre: A Dictionary Of His Stage Context (2004): 502-504. Literary Reference Center. Web. 31 Mar. 2014.
Throughout the plays, the reader can visualize how men dismiss women as trivial and treat them like property, even though the lifestyles they are living in are very much in contrast. The playwrights, each in their own way, are addressing the issues that have negatively impacted the identity of women in society.
Ibsen, Henrik. Hedda Gabler. Four Major Plays. Trans. James Arup. Ed. James McFarlane. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1998.
Hilda Samuels and Hally’s mother can be compared and contrasted in Athol Fugard’s ‘Master Harold’… and the boys. They can be compared based on their relationship with the overbearing men in their lives as well as their absence in the play as a whole. They are both females; however, they are from different cultural backgrounds. There is a distinct difference between the race as well as the class of both females. The relationship between Hally’s father and mother as well as Willie and Hilda emphasises how dynamic the relationship between a domineering male and a subservient female can be. The two relationships reveal how similar the situations are even though the females are from completely different cultures.
Ekici, Sara (2009). Feminist Criticism: Female Characters in Shakespeare's Plays Othello and Hamlet. Munich: GRIN Publishing.
Gender roles and inequality are still evolving and continue to change. It has only been not that long ago that women started to break out their outlined roles and looked at about the same or- almost the same level- as men on a wide scale basis. Indeed, some women in certain parts of the world are still represented in the same way as in both plays that will be compared in this essay. The characters in Susan Glaspell’s Trifles and Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll's House highlight the challenges of gender roles. The attention focused on points of comparison and contrast of men vs women's reactions in the course of both plays, which, allow the audience to think about gender identity and role conflicts. The other common shared view in both plays is that they are both showcased from a female perspective.
This paper will look at the different conceptions highlighted by Bulman in his article through the use of different methods used by the actors in the play. Twelfth Night, by William Shakespeare captures the different conceptions of gender identity and different sexualities within the Elizabethan period.
Judith Butler’s concept of gender performativity suggests that there is a distinction between “sex, as a biological facticity, and gender, as the cultural interpretation or signification of that facticity” (Butler, 522). Performing certain actions that society associates with a specific gender marks you as that gender. In this way, gender is socially constructed. Alfar defines the societal expectation of women as the “constant and unquestioning feminine compliance with the desires of the masculine” (114). Considering Macbeth from a modern perspective and taking this distinction into account, it is necessary to determine if the play is concerned with sex or with gender. Before the action of the play even begins, the audience is warned that “Fair is foul, and foul is fair” (1.1.11). The first scene of the play casts the world of Macbeth as a land where everything is opposite or disordered. This line at the very start of the play cautions audiences to not take the play at face value because things are not always as they appear to be. Because of this, “all the binaries become complicated, divisions blurred. Thus the binary nature of gender identities, male/female, is eliminated” (Reaves 14). In the world of Macbeth, the typical gender constructions are manipulated and atypical. If the play does not deal with sex, the qualities of Lady Macbeth cannot be applied to all women but rather, representative of society’s construction of gender, “the patriarch, and the limited, restrictive roles of women” (Reaves 11). Within this reading of Lady Macbeth, Shakespeare’s examination and questioning of gender construction allows modern day readers to recognize the enduring relevance of
7. Kahn, Coppe`lia. Man's Estate: Masculinity Identity in Shakespeare. Berkeley, Los Angeles: University of California Press. 1981.
In a more extreme version of the play, directed by Baz Lurhmann, some of the weapons such as swords were replaced by modern day guns, but despite this he still managed to keep it all in context by cleverly placing words, or using other satire. With this paper I hope to produce my own unique version of the play.
Shakespeare’s dramatic theatre performances have long endured the test of time. His tales of love and loss, and even some history, make a reader think about events in their own life and what they wish to accomplish in life. Though written for the stage, Shakespeare’s plays have life lessons that readers of the great works can take put into effect in their own lives. Some may say that his plays are out dated, and are something of the past; though they were written in the 1600’s, they have morals and themes that can apply to life. “You've got to contend with versification, poetic license, archaisms, words that we don't even use any more, and grammar and spelling that were in a state of flux when the works were written,” says Pressley in an attempt to explain how to read Shakespeare. Once read and understood, however, one can start to compare and contrast different plays. The ways in which Shakespeare’s two plays King Lear and Much Ado About Nothing are similar out numbers the instances they are different, even though one is a Shakespearian tragedy while the other is a comedy.
Throughout his life, Pinter has written about and protested against social pathologies like war, human rights violation, terrorism, discrimination and totalitarianism. Having first-hand experience of the horrors of World War II and growing up at a time of Holocaust which caused large scale extermination of Jews in Hitler’s Europe, led Pinter to voice against all forms of social pathologies and the totalitarian institutions which inflict social evils or diseases. The trauma that Pinter went through in the early years of his life made him comprehend and relate with the physical and mental trauma that victims of social pathologies go through. His plays especially the early comedies of menace and the later overtly political plays exhibit his concern with post-war man’s egotism, hopes, feelings, struggles, crises, aspirations and objections against dominion, power, self-obsessed government, menace, suppression, coercion, injustice,