THE EVOLUTION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE CHARACTERS AND SPACE IN “THE DUMB WAITER”, “PARTY TIME” AND “ASHES TO ASHES” WRITTEN BY HAROLD PINTER

In this paper I am going to compare three plays written by Harold Pinter. These plays are “The Dumb Waiter”, “Party Time” and “Ashes to Ashes”.

The topic we are going to talk about is the relationship between the space of the play and the characters. Firstly we are should make a note that these three plays have one thing in common: in them, the spaces are closed and during the play they are the same, i.e. the spaces do not change during the whole play. One reason for it could be that there are few characters or for conditions of them. We have to add, secondly, that between the characters some relations are germane with the spaces too.

I am going to analyse each play according to the date they were written to see the evolution.

According to the reading of “The Dumb Waiter”, the characters, Ben and Gus are in a kind of basement. We know this because the author tells us in the stage directions at the beginning of the play: “Scene: A basement room. Two beds, flat against the back wall. A serving hatch, closed, between the beds. A door to the kitchen and lavatory, left. A door to a passage, right.” The characters have some conversations about things like football, but it is one conversation which makes us realise that Ben and Gus are waiting for a call. Ben: “Then when a call comes, I’m ready”. A basement, the waiting for the call. Here is a relationship that causes some confusion. For me, it seems that the characters are hiding from someone or everyone. For this reason we can say that the characters in this play have a relationship with the space, because they are hiding, they are in this space to hide from something. This space is like a refuge to hide from the external world.

In the second play we have read appear nine characters: Terry, Gavin, Dusty, Melissa, Liz, Charlotte, Fred, Douglas and Jimmy. The action takes place in the same room, but in different parts of it, such as one corner, etc. The characters are separated in

groups in which they talk about a club, boating, lovers, etc. They are people of a high social class. The relationship that the characters have with the space is that they meet in a typical environment, a party and in someone’s house, we think. The space in which they meet tells us some information about their lifestyle. The high social class often meet at parties and they talk of things that happened to them. If the characters have met in another space we can also interpret that they are a different kind of people. This is a characteristic of the twenty century in which people tend to be separated in social classes.

I notice that firstly the characters hide in a kind of refuge and secondly they were separated in social classes. This is an exemplification of the society in the moment that the plays were written.

The third play we have read is “Ashes to Ashes” that is performed in a single room as are the other plays we have studied before. There are two characters: Devlin and Rebecca. At the beginning they are talking about someone, Rebecca is speaking to Devlin and he asks more things, but at the end of the play they are talking about many things. It is difficult to understand the relationship through the things that they say. In my opinion this is an example of people that are very confused about life, that is to say, we believe that the characters maintain a patient-psychologist relationship and they talk about Rebecca’s problem, and also problems with the world. In relation to the space, is that people remain closed about the world, about problems with the world, staying in a room apart from the world, running away from problems.

In conclusion, we can say that the evolution between space and the character’s relationship is parallel to reality, showing the different things that society give us, as we hide ourselves in closed rooms, but inside these rooms these things take part, such as the social classes and the problems that a person can have. It is very difficult to understand the correct meaning of the plays, so we have explained the things that we have understood. The space does not change a lot, because in all the plays we have studied the room is the only space. The evolution of this relationship (space-characters) comes marked with the reality.