NAME : Mahida Bhumika Prakashbhai
M A Sem - 2
ROLL NUMBER : 4
ENROLLMENT NUMBER :3069206420200021
SUBJECT : Paper 110A: History of English Literature – From 1900 to 2000
ASSIGNMENT TOPIC : "The Birthday Party as a comedy of menace"
Introduction:
Comedy of menace is the body of plays written by David Campton, Nigel Dennis, N. F. Simpson, and Harold Pinter. The term was coined by drama critic Irving Wardle, who borrowed it from the subtitle of Campton's play The Lunatic View: A Comedy of Menace, in reviewing Pinter's and Campton's plays in Encore in 1958. Pinter as one of 'several playwrights who have been tentatively lumped together as the "non-naturalists" or "abstractionists" '. His article "Comedy of Menace," Merritt continues, centers on The Birthday Party because it is the only play of Pinter's that Wardle had seen at the time, yet he speculates on the basis of "descriptions of other plays, 'The Room' and 'The Dumb Waiter', is a writer dogged by one image the womb". Mentioning the acknowledged "literary influences" on Pinter's work "Beckett, Kafka and American gangster films" Wardle argues that " 'The Birthday Party' exemplifies the type of comic menace which gave rise to this article." Comedy of menace and comedies of menace caught on and have been prevalent since the late 1950s in advertisements and in critical accounts, notices, and reviews to describe Pinter's early plays and some of his later work as well. As Merritt points out, among other examples of critics' usage of this and similar categories of Pinter's work, after Gussow's 1971 "conversation" with Pinter, "Though he echoes Wardle's concept, Gussow seems to avoid using comedy of menace when reviewing the CSC Repertory Theatre's 1988 production of The Birthday Party. While still emphasizing Pinter's 'terrors' and the 'shiver beneath the laughter,' Gussow describes the play as 'a play of intrigue, with an underlying motif of betrayal' … Dukore calls the play 'a comedy
The birthday party
The Birthday Party is the second full length play by Harold Pinter and one of Pinter’s best known and most frequently performed plays. The Birthday Party has been described by Irving Wardle and later critics as a “Comedy of Menace” and by Martin Esslin as an example of the “Theatre of the Absurd” It also includes such features as the fluidity and ambiguity of time, place and identity and the disintegration of language.About Harold Pinter and his writing style: As a playwright, Harold Pinter is an innovator of a new kind of drama which becomes famous as the Comedy of Menace. Unlike Coleridge, the famous Romantic poet, Harold Pinter begins his plays in our known, familiar world but gradually makes us move into the trajectory and psychodynamics of a world which is beyond our comprehension. In Pinter's Comedy of Menace, the laughter and elation of the audience in the same or all situations are immediately followed by a feeling of some impending disaster. An audience is, therefore, made aware, in the very midst of his laughter of some menace. The feelings of insecurity and uncertainty throughout the play also enhance the menacing atmosphere of Pinter's The Birthday Party. The menace in Pinterian drama is also produced by potential or actual violence or from an underlined sense of violence throughout the play. Pinter makes the audience feel that the security of the principal character and even the audiences' own security are threatened by some sort of impending danger or disaster. Actually the term 'Comedy of Menace' was first coined by David Campton who used the phrase as a subtitle of his four short plays The Lunatic View, published in 1957. However, in Pinter's hand, the concept of menace becomes highly symbolic and vague.
Pinter's The Birthday Party is a perfect example of Comedy of Menace. Throughout the play, we find that the hint of menace is inflected upon the individual freedom of a person and it juxtaposes the comic element drastically dilutes the comic appeal. Pinter shows his state in the existential view that danger prevails everywhere and life can't escape from it. Pinter thinks that Stanley, the protagonist, might have committed a serious crime and is on the run for escaping the consequence and legal implications of his life. This is precisely comprehended while he almost never leaves his room and becomes furiously apprehensive when Meg informs him that two gentlemen are coming to stay in this boarding house. Stanley soon tactfully tries to conceal his apprehension by mentioning his successful concert and about a favourable job proposal of a pianist. But we can realize his innate apprehension for imminent interrogation or arrest by the two new guests at the boarding house:
"They won't come. Someone's taking the Michael. Forget all about it."
In his attempt to percolate his fear upon Meg, Stanley informs her ironically that some people would come to the boarding house in a van along with a wheelbarrow and take away Meg permanently along with them:
"They're looking for someone. A certain person."
In a mood of topsy-turvy-dom, Pinter often shows an apparent fearful apprehension, but actually gives occasion to amusement. Lulu's arrival and knocking at their boarding's door fulfil the purpose. Similarly, Meg's funny answer to Goldberg's question about Stanley also sustains the suspense of Stanley's immediate arrest. Thus, the dramatist gives a comic relief to his audience.
The interrogation of Stanley by the "two gentlemen" is sometimes funny or comical but have threatening impact both upon Stanley and the audience. Even the birthday party which begins in a light and jovial manner ends with Stanley's attempt to strangle Meg and rape Lulu. Similarly, the birthday party also becomes the excuse of Goldberg's seduction and deflowering Lulu. Again the arrangement of the birthday party acts as a plan to prove Stanley lunatic and takes him away from the boarding:
"Goldberg: ...All is dependent on the attitude of our subject. At all events, McCann, I can assure you that the assignment will be carried out and the mission accomplished with no excessive aggravation to you or myself."
At the end of the play, audiences are given an unsolved riddle about what has been of Stanley which is of paramount significance in Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party a perfect example of Comedy of Menace. Some critics even believe that it is a superimposition of the European concept of absurd to the English native wit. Here what is true or what is false, is not matter but the ambience which Pinter clarifies as his concept of menace: '...menace and fear do not come from extraordinary sinister people but from you and me; it is all a matter of circumstances.'
The birthday party as a comedy of Menace :
The term “comedy of menace” was first used by David Campton as a subtitle to his four short plays The Lunatic view”. Now it signifies a kind of play in which a character or more characters feel the menacing presence actual or imaginary, of some obscure and frightening force, power or personality. A comedy of menace is a play in which the laughter of the audience in some or all situations is immediately followed by a feeling of some impending disaster. The audience is made aware of some menace in the very midst of its laughter. Pinter's comedies of menace have a rather simplistic setting; they might focus on one or two powerful images and usually are set in just one room. A powerful force that isn't specifically defined to the audience threatens characters in the plays.
Who is the father of comedy of manners?
Menander
Such was the case in ancient Greece when Menander inaugurated New Comedy, the forerunner of comedy of manners. Menander's smooth style, elaborate plots, and stock characters were imitated by the Roman poets Plautus. The comedy of humours is a genre of dramatic comedy that focuses on a character or range of characters, each of whom exhibits two or more overriding traits or 'humours' that dominates their personality, desires and conduct.
In fact the play Birthday Party is built around the exchanges of words, which, though funny enough, contain hints that suggest the impending doom lurking around to them. Meg’s situation as a childless old woman who talks through repetitions may seem funny and odd, but those cover up her unconscious desire to have son, a desire she tries to fulfil through the mothering of Stanley and Petey. But Above all, Stanley’s staying in a sea-side lodge, his shabby appearance combined with inconsistent words and memorising may seem strange and invoke mild laughter but in reality he is facing a crisis which he is himself not completely aware of.
Pinter creates an atmosphere of menace through a variety of dramatic elements and techniques. First of all, he lets situations fall from a light-hearted situation unexpectedly down to one which is highly serious. For instance, while talking to Meg among other things, he tells her about a wheel barrow which will come to the house for some body. Here we get a suggestion of impending death through the sudden reference to coffin. Again, we see Meg offering Staley the gift of a drum as a compliment to his supposed musical talent. But Stanley begins to beat it with such savagery that the audience is left dumb struck as to the real intention behind this. This kind of abrupt explosion of violence is once again seen when Stanley kicks at McCann. But more importantly, menace is presented through the fears the characters feel but cannot spot. First of all, fear of weather is introduced: the characters repeatedly enquire about weather, and this becomes tangible once the audience understand that the lodge is situated on the coast of a sea. Then Stanley tries to frighten Meg by prophesying the arrival of wheel barrow which, of course, does not come for her. On the other hand, on hearing the visit of two strangers, Stanley feels a complex fear first of all, the fear of being driven away from the lodge which has become for him as comfortable as his mother’s womb. A house represents security and comforts from the hazards of the outside world but sadly it is impossible to sustain. Goldberg and McCann is the embodiment of menace from a hostile outside world. We also note that he stays in a lodge, which cannot be a substitute for home. Secondly, Stanley faces the fear of being persecuted by the intruders. That is why he expresses his desire to run away with Lulu, but is afraid of doing so in reality.
With the hosting of the birthday party, the play reaches its climax of menace. A birthday party is expected to be a ritualistic celebration of one’s life, but in the case of Stanley it turns out to be the greatest ordeal of life leading to his complete mental derangement. The audience now understand the menace turning real though in transformed forms. Stanley faces not only physical assault but also a torrent of words, with the serious accusations like "He’s killed his wife" mingled with trivial and ludicrous like "Why do you pick your nose?". The persons who could have saved him are either absent or drunk.
The play ends with Stanley’s forced removal from the house by Goldberg and McCann who leave a further note of unknown menace awaiting Stanley in near future. This uncertain menace is further strengthened by Petey’s inability to communicate to Meg what has exactly happened with Stanley. To conclude, it can be said that the final impression of the play on the audience echoes Pinter’s own words: " In our present day world, everything is uncertain, there is no fixed point, we are surrounded by the unknown ... There is a kind of horror about and I think that this horror and absurdity go together."
Conclusion:
The play The Birthday Party is considered a part of The Theatre of the Absurd because the main character, Stanley Webber, finds himself lost in a nonsensical world that he can't make heads or tails of. Something absurd is really silly, absolutely ridiculous, or total nonsense. Thinking you can wear flip flops and a bikini to the North Pole is an absurd idea, for example. If you run into someone dressed in an absurd outfit or watch a movie full of absurd jokes, you'll probably have a good laugh.
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