The Caretaker by Pinter Essay -- essays research papers

The Caretaker by Pinter A Play Can Be Confrontational, Challenging andDisturbing to the Values and Assumptions of An Audience. Discuss With closeReferenceThe Caretaker, written by the British playwright Harold Pinter in the late1950s and early 1960s disrupts the auditions perceptions of existence andtheir understandings of it. The play deconstructs perceived notions andconceptions of reality, and disturbs the audiences perception of their ownidentity and place within a world which is mainly concerned with the searchand need for identity. Pinter was clearly influenced by the fashionablephilosophic review of human condition that was prominent in the 1950s and1960s existentialism. The play attacks the notion that at that place are no absolutetruths or realities. Pinter is therefore concerned with what exists as unknownand intangible to humanity. His theatre interrogates the truth of nature andrealities of language and demonstrates that much of what the audience regards asfact is f iction 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 evaluate and what they aregoing to gain from the theatrical experience. The traditional 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 terrorization to many.Pinter divorces and exposes societys codes, institutions and human relations.Throughout 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 nothing 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 mere(a) exposition through languageand non-verbal elements to let the audience in an d 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 have been a disturbingphenomena to the button-down audiences of post-war Britain. Micks arrival onstage generates unease within the audience and the tension would only increaseas Pinter provides the audience with... ...entity and thestructure of society. This deferment of action is primarily indicated by Daviesand Aston. The prime example 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 original of these possible future activities, itappears that it gives purpose to their current 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 throughthis deferral of actions that peoples lives hold no worthwhile meaning a ndultimately there is nothing gained at the point of death.The Caretaker is a inflammatory 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 conservativebelief that there are in fact absolute truths and realities.