This contrasts with the emotions the audience feels towards Goldberg and his actions.
The play is a comedy of menace because the opening scene is one that is completely unthreatening and comprehensible in a real setting. This false sense of security is deliberately established and the audience is soon exposed to the breakdown of reality and a sense of ominousity can be perceived. The first real oddity occurs when Meg tells Goldberg about Stanley's birthday while suggesting that Stan is not aware that it is his birthday. It seems strange for Meg to arbitrarily decide that today is Stan's birthday and therefore it is the first time that the play steps out of realistic parameters (Dutton, 1986). This leaves the audience confused and also questioning the characters and their intentions. .
The play and the characters are riddled with ambiguity and contradictions that make it difficult for the reader to understand their intentions. The audience never knows the real truth and many issues are left unexplained. The game of Blind man's Buff is played at the party. Traditionally the game is harmless voluntary activity where nobody gets hurt. However, in The Birthday Party, this convention is turned upside down when Stan is forced to play the game. Ironically, the game is suggested by Meg who unwittingly plays into the violent plans of Goldberg and McCann, and they turn this innocent suggestion into a means by which to manipulate Stanley. Significantly, Goldberg gets temporarily blindfolded in this game, but it is through the game that he and McCann manage to permanently blind Stanley. They do this by first breaking his glasses and then completely breaking him down psychologically, making him physically and cognitively blind. This potentially comical scene leaves the audience and Stan unable to determine the true intentions of Goldberg and McCann and also leaves the audience feeling uncomfortable.
Harold Pinter's plays have puzzled critics from their first showing to the most recent adaptations. ... The quote shares many connections to Pinter's treatment of character in the two plays. ... It is more than likely that Pinter deliberately made these characters this way. ... Clearly in the world of Pinter, people are rarely truly understood. ... In conclusion, Pinter's final remark consolidates what he has previously said. ...
The Caretaker, written by the British playwright Harold Pinter in the late 1950's and early 1960's disrupts the audiences perceptions of existence and their understandings of it. ... Pinter is therefore concerned with what exists as unknown and intangible to humanity. ... The traditional attitudes towards theatre and the conventions of realist drama are disrupted by Pinter. ... Pinter divorces and exposes society's codes, institutions and human relations. ... Pinter does not adhere to the accepted use of dramatic conventions. ...
The plays "The Homecoming," by Harold Pinter, and "Lieutenant of Inishmore," by Martin McDonagh, evoke a cathartic response in audiences through portraying the characters and their relationships, which facilitate the levels of the theatrical orgasm embellished in the comedic styles of the plays. ... Mairead displays an upfront authoritarian style as she demands and challenges those around her for what she wants and needs in order to reach her goal and justify who she is, on the other hand, Ruth evinces a manipulative authoritarian style as she uses cunning tactics and mind games on those aroun...
In 2007, Rick's wife, Kelly, was in premature labor with their second son Christian. Fortunately, Christian was born without any defects but Kelly was not so fortunate. She suffered a life threatening hemorrhage. Kelly needed thirteen units of blood in order to survive the hemorrhage. Two years late...
Radio Drama: The Golden Years to the Forgotten Years "None of the people one might expect to be sufficiently enthusiastic about the subject to research it and write about it... have shown much interest in it." This quote, of course, refers to Radio Drama as an art form and dramatic medium and despite the fact that it has been around longer than television and used to be the primary source of family entertainment, "For some extraordinary reason, radio drama has been almost entirely overlooked by many theatre critics and teachers." This essay will, in part, rectify this and endeavour to p...
