ENGLISH THEATRE OF XIX AND XX
CENTURIES GROUP A
SURNAME: Giarratana NAME: Melania
HAROLD
PINTER
THE
COLLECTION
Aldwych
Theatre, 18 June 1962, London
This plays has a little cast made up of four characters; Harry is a man
in his forties who shares his house with Bill, a man in his late twenties. James
is a man in his thirties married with Stella, a woman in her thirties. Bill and
Stella are both dress-designers and the plot of this play is based on a
supposed love affair between them.
Harry is older then Bill and seems to treat him like a son, he has a
protective attitude for Bill because discovered his talent and gave him a job.
They live in an elegant house in Belgravia, a part of London,
while James and Stella live in a humbler flat in Chelsea,
another part of London.
These locations make us think, at the beginning, that these two
“worlds” have nothing to do between each other; on the stage they are separated by a telephone box.
Since the beginning there is something that does not work between James
and Stella, he seems to ignore her, but we can grasp intuitively that he is
angry with her. Stella goes out and James goes to Bill’s house because
Stella told him that she and Bill have hade a love affair during a work meeting
in Leeds. Bill denies everything at the
beginning but after James makes him fall down, he confirms the story. They
start talking and drinking, then James goes home and provokes Stella telling
her that he has met Bill. James goes to visit Bill again and while they are
together, Harry decides to solve the problem talking with Stella, and convinces
her of telling that nothing happened. Harry goes back home and tell James
that his wife has made up all the story;
Bill confirm Harry’s theory but at the end he tells that they have just
talked all night long in Leeds. The play ends
with a doubt, James ask Stella to confirm the last version of the story but she
does not do it.
The language used in this play is colloquial but elegant, above all
Harry and Bill talk as the upper class people.
There are no references to the clothes of the characters and above all there are few references about the time of placing the
story, but at the beginning where the author lets us know that it is autumn.
Pinter has been defined a “social writer”, in fact the title
of this play is referred to The Collection of Chinese porcelains which are on a
wall at Harry’s home. It is very expensive porcelain and this stands for the
social status of Bill and Harry who tries his best to avoid a scandal. James is
frustrated by Stella’s love affair, but he is also frustrated because
Bill is a rich, capable and intelligent man of the upper class and it is almost
obvious that every woman could fall in love with him.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Harold Pinter “The
collection”
Auto-evaluation: Notable
Academic year 2005/2006
© a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés
López
© Melania Giarratana
megia@alumni.uv.es
Universitat de Valčncia
Press