Critical Scenes in Harold Pinter's "The Birthday Party"

“I never think of myself as wise,I think myself as possessing,A critical intelligence which I,Intend to allow operating.”-Harold Pinter

                Harold Pinter, the name itself says so many things. He was English playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. He was born on 10^th October, 1930 at Hackney, East London, England. He was a sprinter and a cricket player, acting in school, plays and writing poetry. Pinter’s first play was “The Room” which he wrote in 1957. His second play was “The Birthday Party”. These two play falls under the category of comedy of menace. His two another play “No Man’s Land” and “Betrayal” became known as memory plays.                He was rewarded with so many awards like “Companion of Honour (2002), Noble Prize in literature (2005), David Cohen Prize (1995), Lawrence Olivier Award (1996) for his dedication for literature.

“The Companion of Honour I regarded,As an award from the countryFrom 50 years of work- which IThought was OKAY”-Harold Pinter

                It is not at all easy to speak in front of the people who are honouring you but that needs powerful personality and knowledge to speak like this. He received over 50 awards, prizes and many other honours. He was also appeared as an actor in productions of his own work on radio and film. He also undertook a number of roles in works by other writers. He directed nearly 50 productions for stage theatre and screen.

The Birthday Party:

                “There are no hard distinctions
                Between what is real and
                What is unreal, nor between
                What is true and what is false.
                A thing is not necessarily either true or
                False; it can be both true and false.”
                -Harold Pinter        
                          

                “The Birthday Party” is a play which falls under the category of absurd theater and comedy of menace. The play includes such features as the fluidity and ambiguity of time, place and identity and the disintegration of language. There are nearly six characters in the play.1.       Petey Boles – Chair attendant2.       Meg Boles -  Petey’s wife3.        Stanley Webber – A pianist4.       Lulu – Meg’s neighbor5.       Nat Goldberg – A Jew6.       McCann – A stranger comes with Nat

Critical Scenes in “The Birthday Party”:

        “The Birthday Party” is a play which has deep political meaning, interpretations. There are some scenes which has its own meaning which speaks about so many issues. I would like to discuss some of the scenes from the play “The Birthday Party”.

Interrogation Scene:

        “The Birthday Party” itself struggles with so many questions. The play left so many questions in viewer’s mind. There are few scenes which can critically read. One of the major scenes was Interrogation scene.        The scene began with McCann. He was methodically tears Petey’s newspaper into strips. The tearing of newspaper can also be read as symbolically. As McCann was not came out clearly during the whole play. His character is quite unpredictable. Newspaper is the medium of communication or knowledge but McCann was tearing it methodically. That shows that he had some inner fear from outer world. As he was in doubt during the whole play even he was not sure about his work also. Tearing of newspaper can be read as cut down the communication with the outer world and he was living in Petey’s house so that aloof from world and that gives him security.        As he was tearing newspaper, Stanley and McCann had a small conversation about his birthday party. After that Stanley tries to leave from there but McCann block his path. Stanley pick up a paper strip and that makes McCann angry. McCann start intimidating Stanley and then Stanley start speaking about his plans to return home. McCann finds that Stanley became frantic and he became flabbergasted by Stanley’s behavior That shows that Stanley always lives in fear that someone will come and caught him. When McCann and Petey exit, Stanley tries to convince Goldberg to pack up and leave but Goldberg simply talks about celebrating life and some other things. Then McCann re-enters and he and Goldberg order him to sit down but Stanley refuses and this goes on and finally McCann make him to sit by physical harm. Then they both start questioning in rapid-fire way. That was quite weird and irrelevant. The language which they were using was nonsensical and meaningless. Stanley was unable to speak a single word. That scene was a kind of torture. We were unable to get things from it. The scene also left so many questions in our mind.        The political reading of the scene can be write that power is most probably dominating and that makes us to think that why they target Stanley in such a way that he fall down and became speechless. Stanley was became the puppet of Goldberg and McCann hand. This was humiliation which made by powerful country for the smaller countries. Then Stanley stands up and when Meg enters to the room and then everything became normal.        The interpretation of the scene itself gives so many interpretations. Stanley was a conditioned by both of them and Goldberg and McCann were those people who had evil mind. They had wear the mask in front of the people but they were the god of devil behind that white skin, who have power to harm any people whether they can take person’s life also but when they come into the light they again wear mask of gentleman.

The Climax Scene:

        The climax scene more speaks about conflict of identities. It reveals so many things which were unspoken. Here we can found that Goldberg and McCann’s conversation, which make us to think about the identity question of Goldberg and McCann. McCann calls Goldberg by other name and Goldberg got angry upon McCann. That indicates that whether they are angel or evil.
        When Lulu left the room McCann goes off and returns with Stanley. This time Stanley was totally in different personality. He was dressed in a suit and clean, collared shirt, but that was just physical appearance. Mentally, Stanley was lost. The vision which brakes by McCann on his birthday party was totally broke him as a person. He was not able to speak a single word at all. He was just became puppet of Goldberg and McCann’s prank. His personality’s remote control was with Goldberg and McCann.
        Thus, Harold Pinter in his play “The Birthday Party”, portray the very effective and deeply rooted scenes which have seep meaning g to understand about politics, life and own structure of society. And the climax scene can be considered one of the best scenes in the whole play. As Harold Pinter was highly criticizing the treatment of some big nation like America, who somewhere highly active in creating mess between small counties, he gave an indication towards his this play.