ENGLISH THEATRE OF XIX-XX CENTURIES GROUP: A
NAME: Melania SURNAME: Giarratana
MARRIAGE
IN HAROLD PINTER’S PLAYS
“THE COLLECTION” (1962), “PARTY
TIME” (1991), “ASHES TO ASHES” (1996): these three plays have
been written by Harold Pinter in different moments of his life. Harold
Pinter’s plays have always a deep social impact, because they are a sort
of medium of communication through which the author highlights the weak-spots
of human beings and of contemporary society.
Focusing our attention on the way he makes his
characters act in their love relationships, we cannot avoid asking ourselves
what do we expect from our partners and why are we unable to communicate it
most of the times. For example, in “The Collection”, there are
Stella and James, a couple two years married, who have deep problems of
communication between them. Stella: “What are you going to
do...Jimmy...Are you going out?” James does not answer and continues
smoking his cigarette. Later we realize that James has been told by Stella that
she betrayed him with one of her workmates, Bill. James instead of insisting at
asking Stella for more explanations decides to look for Bill: “I’m
going to go and see him...have a chat with him”. Stella, in her turn,
tries to descourage James meeting with Bill, but does
not give him valid explanations: “He’s not important...It was
just...something”. In addition, when she realizes that they have yet met,
she does not communicate: “I’m not interested”. Nearly at the
end of the play, we suspect that Stella has invented almost everything, so the
questions are spontaneous and rhetoric: what did she expect her usband to do? What did she want to obtain and why did she
not ask for?
In “Party Time”, Pinter let us see a
marriage of the upper class following the main rule of keeping up appearances:
Dusty, keeps on asking about her brother Jimmy, who was supposed to be at the
party. Of course the host, Gavin, must know what has
happened but does not want to talk about it, probably because the truth is too uncomfortable
to tell. Gavin to Dusty: “Nobody is discussing it...Nothing’s
happened to Jimmy…And if you’re not a good girl I’ll spank
you”; Terry: “...you come to a lovely party like this, all you have
to do is shut up and enjoy the hospitality and mind your own fucking
business”. No husbands would talk to his wife in this way but the
upper-class ones to keep up appearances! Dusty does not resign and asks again
for Jimmy; and Gavin: “So odd, the number of men who can’t control
their wives”. Later Terry says to Dusty: “Are you mad? Do you know
what his position is?” When Dusty asks him if he loves her, he answers:
“Of course I love you. You’re the mother of my children”.
Another rhetorical question is spontaneous: is still marriage
just a social-economic contract to keep up appearance nowadays?
In “Ashes to Ashes”, we are in front of an
emblematic example of the failure of communication between husband and wife.
Rebecca is in a full delirium: Pinter uses delirium to make his characters
confess their hidden secrets. Devlin does not understand what his wife’s
problem is: “You understand why I’m asking you these questions?
There are so many things I don’t know. I know nothing”. He seems to
be very interested in Rebecca’s life events but he contradicts himself:
“Unless all this happened before I met you. In which case you have no obligation
to tell me anything. Your past is not my business”. How could Rebecca be
able to confess a big problem that gets her upset but through delirium? While
Rebecca is talking about that “man tearing the babies from their
mothers’ arms” Devlin changes the argument of conversation:
“Did you see Kim and the kids?” He neither understands when Rebecca
talks about the comedy she has watched at the cinema. Devlin to Rebecca
“But you didn’t laugh?” Rebecca “Other people
did”. Rebecca talks about a man at the cinema “...a man sitting in
front of me” but also “...to my right”. She is completely
upset and Devlin tries to understand her discourse but he cannot: “Now
look, let’s start again” Rebecca: “I don’t think we can
start again...we can end again...Ashes to Ashes”. Their marriage is dead.
They cannot communicate. Devlin asks: “Why have you never told me about
this lover of yours before this?” Moreover, Rebecca for the third time: “There
is something I meant to tell you”. She has probably been trying to talk
to him for a long time, but he is unable to understand her because that is not
his business: “When you lead a life of scholarship you can’t be
bothered with the humorous realities...you mind...have you got an attentive
landlady, can she come up with bacon and eggs after eight...Aman
who doesn’t give a shit. A man with a rigid sense of duty”.
The lack of communication among people causes the
death of the whole society and not only the death of Love.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Harold Pinter “The Collection”;
“Party Time”; “Ashes to Ashes”.
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