Eng426 20th century english literature

UNIT 3: Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming

Content

1.0 Introduction
2.0 Objectives

0. 
   Main Content
   
1. 
   Harold Pinter
   
2. 
   The Homecoming
   
3. 
   Themes in The Homecoming
   
4. 
   Characterisation in The Homecoming
   

4.0 Conclusion
5.0 Summary
6.0 Tutor-marked Assignment
7.0 References/ Further Reading

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Harold Pinter is one of the late modernist dramatists. He is a playwright of the absurd theatre. In this Unit you are introduced to Harold Pinter, given the synopsis The Homecoming, and a discussion of some of the themes in the play is done.

0. OBJECTIVES

At the end of this unit you should be able to:

• 
  summarise The Homecoming and discuss the themes and techniques used in the play
  
• 
  relate the theme of alienation and loneliness to some of the characters in the play
  

0. MAIN CONTENT

0. 
   Harold Pinter
   

Harold Pinter, playwright, screenwriter, political activist, poet and theatre director was born in London, England in 1930 to Jack Pinter a Jewish Tailor as an only child. He studied at Hackney Downs School, The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art but did not finish his studies there and headed to Central School of Speech and Drama. He had strong antiwar ideas and refused to be enlisted in the military during the Second World War. He began to write poetry at an early age and his work was highly influenced by Samuel Beckett and T.S. Eliot. His works include The Caretaker, The Servant, Accident, Mountain Language and The Homecoming (1965) which is considered his masterwork. The play won a Tony Award and was later turned into a film. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2005 and he won other awards like Companion of Honour, Lawrence Olivier Award amongst others. He married Vivien Merchant but their marriage did not last and he later married Lady Antonia Fraser who was his wife until his death.
He died of cancer in 2008. He is regarded as one of the most influential modern dramatists in English Literature.

Harold Pinter’s experience of both the Turf war and World War II affected his writing, hence the theme of domination and power struggle in his works. As a young child, he suffered the effect of the world and therefore when he reached the draft age, he objected to being draft into the world. Although he did not have any strong religious belief, he saw himself as a conscientious objector who would not contribute to the continuance of the war. His writing career began in 1950 when two of his poems were published in Poetry London, a magazine.

His first attempt at writing a play was unsuccessful though. His first major play, The Birthday Party was premiered in London in 1958 but was welcomed to a rave of bad reviews. In 1959, his play, The Caretaker had its first London performance and was opened to rave reviews in 1961 in New York City. In the 1960s his screenplay “The Servant” won the British Screenwriters’ Guild Award. “The Pumpkin Eater” also won a British Film Academy Award for Best Screenplay. When The Homecoming was premiered in London in 1965, Pinter received a lot of accolades for the play. The play was tagged his cleverest play. The following year Pinter was awarded the C.B.E (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) by Queen Elizabeth. The Homecoming transferred to New York in 1967 where it won the Tony Award and the Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play.
Pinter was appointed Associate Director of the newly formed National Theatre in 1973. His next play The Betrayal was produced against the backdrop of his own scandal about his affairs with Lady Antonia Fraser and the divorce from his wife Vivien Merchant. The play ironically focused on adultery in the literary circle. After the New York premier of The Betrayal in 1980, he married Fraser. He continued to write for film and his adaptation of “The French Lieutenant’s Woman” was nominated for an Academy Award in 1982. His other screen plays include “The Comfort of Strangers.”

0.