The theme of the room in representative plays of harold pinter

Abstract EN

Harold Pinter is one of the world’s greatest dramatists.

He has established himself a reputation and a position as one of the most interesting and most influential Playwright of our days.

This reputation has been won by the quality of his work: the language as well as the themes of his plays.

The theme of the room is one dominant theme recurring in Pinter’s Plays.

One of his earliest works.

The Room in 1957 marked the appearance of this theme.

The room is as safe and as secure as a womb to its inhabitants, but this security is shattered by an outside force which reveals the so-called “security” to be but illusion.

Thus, when the door of the room is opened, the cold hostile world, the inhabitants of the room are really frightened and their end is tragic one way or another.

The present paper is an attempt to trace the theme of room in three major plays.

This paper is divided into two parts.

In the first part, light is shed on Pinter’s biography.

The following section is devoted to the discussion of the characteristics of Pinter’s work.

Another section deals with the main features of the language Pinter uses in his plays.

Finally, attentions given to the discussion of the theme of the room as one striking theme in modern drama.

The second part is devoted to the discussion of three representative plays: The Room (1957), The Dumb Waiter (1959) and The Birthday Party (195) and how Pinter tackles the theme of the room in these plays.

The discussion of the individual plays is preceded by a detailed plot summary to provide the reader with a comprehensive picture of the play as a whole.

Although the discussion involves character-analysis, themes and language, due attention is given to the analysis of the theme of the room in the three plays.