The theme of menace in Harold Pinter’s the room and the birthday party

Abstract EN

This study deals with the theme of menace in Harold Pinter the room and The Birthday Party.

Here Pinter tackles one of the contemporary problems of his age.

The menace that usually invades certain location is presented by the entrance of a stranger whose arrival disturbs the safety lives of the character These plays are thrillers and full of mysteries that are put in with no intention to solve them.

As a modern dramatist, Harold Pinter (1930-) has concentrated on the negative aspects of daily life, violence and menace .Therefore ,his plays are classified under the newly coined term "Comedy of Menace”.

In fact the phrase "comedy of menace" suggests that although the plays are funny, they are also frightening or menacing in a vague and undefined way.

Even as they laugh, the audience are unsettled, ill at ease and uncomfortable.

The source of menace is often not explicit; the effect is a strong sense of floating anxiety.

This anxiety is set in an enclosed area, usually one room, the plays imply that This anxiety is set in an enclosed area, usually one room, the plays imply that the world outside that room is threatentening the circumstances seem ordinary but there is a generalized, unspecific horror seething beneath the action.

1 Pinter himself is aware ofthe importance ofthe claustrophobic room in his plays.