Violence, fear, and desire in the plays of Harold Pinter

Abstract EN

Harold Pinter is a great British playwright.

In many of his plays, the characters can find security neither in their surroundings nor in an understanding relationship with others, and finally they are driven into a state of isolation and loss.

The basic interest of this paper is to investigate the thematic development in Pinter‟s early plays, from The Room to The Lover.

The change is from menace to fear and then to desire, which requires different uses of violence.

Violence emerges with the arrival of an unexpected visitor at the door,and by the end of the play, someone has defeated the other.

Pinter builds up in The Room an atmosphere of ambiguity and insecurity.

He compares between the cruelty and coldness of the outside world to the warmth and comfort of the room which Rose considers as her safe heaven.

In The Dumb Waiter, the audience enjoy the comedy that is embodied in violence.

Gus‟s character reinforces our desire to look for the truth, confront our fear and injustice, and to assert our individual character.

The matchsellers motives in A Slight Ache tormentsEdward and arouse his fears and nervousness.

The matchseller is a threat to his existence.Finally, Flora presents herself to the matchseller, leaving her husband broken and lonely in vast emptiness.