The Caretaker by Pinter Essay -- essays research papers

The Caretaker by Pinter A Play Can Be Confrontational, Challenging and strike to the Values and Assumptions of An Audience. Discuss With closeReferenceThe Caretaker, written by the British breezewright Harold Pinter in the late1950s and early 1960s disrupts the earshots perceptions of existence andtheir understandings of it. The scat deconstructs comprehend notions andconceptions of reality, and disturbs the audiences perception of their ownidentity and place within a domain which is primarily concerned with the searchand need for identity. Pinter was clearly influenced by the rakishphilosophic review of human condition that was prominent in the 1950s and1960s existentialism. The play attacks the notion that in that location are no absolutetruths or realities. Pinter is because concerned with what exists as unknownand intangible to humanity. His theatre interrogates the truth of disposition andrealities of language and demonstrates that much of what the audience regards as fact is fiction as he explores the uncertainty of human existence.When an audience of the 1960s went to the theatre, it can generally be assumedthat they had preconceived ideas about what they expected and what they aregoing to get along from the theatrical experience. The tralatitious attitudes towardstheatre and the conventions of realist drama are disrupted by Pinter. Thisconfronts the assumptions and values of the audience, an experience which wouldbe disconcerting and frightening to some(prenominal).Pinter divorces and exposes societys codes, institutions and human relations. passim the play the audience is rarely comfortable. This disruption isestablished from the outset of the play when Mick, a character who at this stageof the play the audience knows nix about, sits on the bed and stares at theaudience in silence for 30 seconds. Traditionally in realist drama such asHenrik Ibsens Hedda Gabler characters use uncomplicated exposition through with(predicate) languageand n on-verbal elements to let the audience in and enlighten them on what ishappening on the stage and the results and reasons for and behind actions.Pinter disrupts this tradition and this in itself would support been a disturbingphenomena to the conservative audiences of post-war Britain. Micks arrival onstage generates queasiness within the audience and the tension would only increaseas Pinter provides the audience with... ...entity and thestructure of society. This deferral of action is primarily indicated by Daviesand Aston. The prime theoretical account of this is in Davies constant references to hisplanned trip to Sidcup and in Astons references to the shed that he is planningto build. Through the representation of these possible future activities, itappears that it gives purpose to their authoritative actions and to some extent areason for living. It allows these characters to suggest that they are in factworthwhile human beings with a purpose and a life. Pinter suggests thr oughthis deferral of actions that peoples lives hold no worthwhile meaning andultimately there is nothing gained at the point of death.The Caretaker is a subversive play that demythologises many of an audiencesassumptions and values. Pinter makes the audience experience paranoia andfeelings of menace and by disrupting conventions of social behaviour andignoring traditional dramatic realist protocol, Pinter confronts andchallenges the values and assumptions of an audience. He successfullydeconstructs notions of power and security, and problematises the conservative imprint that there are in fact absolute truths and realities.