Pinters Contexts

The Birthday Party

Themes:
Power (Thriller, Gangster-speak)
Identity
Individual struggling against society

Prepared by:
Shamala Maheswaran

Pinters Contexts:
Thriller Theatre and The
It was
Pinters first Party
hand experience that formed
Birthday
the background for TBP

His material comes from weekly repertory thriller

theatre and farces
Each act ends with a strong climax(Plot Point
Act 1 Climax: Stanley Shall I put this (drum)
around my neck
Stage directions: She watches him uncertainly
drumbeat now savage and possessed
The above is the climax of Act One because of its
thriller like ending with the sound of drumbeats
echoing in stage, Meg looking in shock at Stanley
and Stanley mimicking the heartbeats of fear and

Pinters contexts-Thriller Theatre-A world in

which the only values are of those in
power
.

Pinter appears to portray a world where there is no morality.

The only value system seems to come from the room in
which his protagonists move and the values represented
and held by those, often threatening people, who come to
it.
There may be no outside to which the characters can refer
for guidance and help.
This is reflected in happenings of the past where knocks
on the doors of Jews reflected outside Aryan Nazis coming
for the Jews during World War 2.
Similarly, Goldberg and Mccann sneakily come into Megs
home through the backdoor; suggesting the insidious,
threatening power and values of a dark and terrible state.

Pinters Contexts-Gang
Mccann
and Goldberg use the routines of interrogative detectives
Culture
such as trapping victim in a chair and flanking him on either side
of the chair, imitating Stanleys eventual caging at Monty, calling
Stanley Eh Boy and disallowing adult speech for Stanley.

Violence and menace formed part of the social landscape of

Pinters teens. Gangs were a part of the experience of the youth of
many parts of Britains larger cities. Thus the thuggish behaviour
is seen in the gangsters using everyday household objects to
threaten Stanley. This iincludes lifting up a chair threateningly,
shoving Stanley into a chair and dragging Stanley up the stairs for
further fun

Pinter had ample experience of room as territory and he would

have been acutely aware of the wider territories claimed by
gangsters of 1950s London.

He would have been influenced by 1950s elements such as USSRs

use of electro-shock therapy in mental asylums. Hence M and G
bring Stanley to Monty (a pseudonym for mental institution to
adjust re-orientate and integrated-all suggesting use of drugs,
electric shock therapy etc to adjust Stanley. The word adjust

References to Myths in The

Birthday Party
Pinters The Birthday Party made use of the
concept of inter-textuality; an ability to tap into
the meta-stories, myths and archetypes of stories
that make up our world.
The play deals with the important stories of our
culture The Tempting by Eve; Oedipus Rex and
the mother as defiler story as well as Birth
myths.
An example of this intertextuality is the way in
which we are able to place the relationship of Meg
and Stanley in our knowledge of the dipus story,
the ambiguity of the lover, mother/son in Megs
and Stanleys relationship.

Mother as Defiler Archetype in

The Birthday Party

The play begins with Stanley

terming his fried-bread breakfast
as succulent.

Meg coyly picks up the word and

translates it in her mind as
Stanley referring to her sexually.
Succulent with its connotations
of juicy and prime meat becomes
incongruous, used as it is for the
older woman Meg; well past her
prime.
The mother as defiler archetype
comes through with Megs
pathetic seduction of Stanley;
tickling him and giggling
uncontrollably in his bedroom.

Pinters Contexts: Death,

Retribution and Terror
There are strong undertones of death and
retribution in the play.
The notion of undertakers first occurs when
Stanley chooses to frighten Meg with his stories
of men in a van arriving at the house with a
wheelbarrow, implying that they are there to
collect a body.
In true thriller style, Stanleys description of the
van men selecting Megs house for their visit is
interrupted by a real knock at the door as Lulu
comes to call.
Stanleys wheelbarrow story clearly stays with
Meg for at the start of ActIII she questions Petey
about the big car that has appeared outside the
house overnight, asking him is there a
wheelbarrow in it? (69)

Death and Terror in The

Birthday Party
Stanleys story forewarns; although it is not death
but spiritual and psychological destruction that he
suffers as the men take him away at the end of
the play.
The undertaker image is echoed in Goldbergs
big, hearse like car, his suit and briefcase, slimy,
unctuous and authoritative mannerisms on the
situation, and the neat, dark suit in which Stanley
leaves the house, dressed well for his final exit.
As Stanley sits, spruce but motionless, McCann
and Goldberg comment:
Mccann He looks better doesnt he?
Goldberg Much better.
Mccann A new man

Death and Terror in The

Birthday Party

Idea of messengers of death occur where Mccann and

Goldberg look as though they are viewing Stanley relaxed
and well dressed in his coffin (although Stanley later makes
some ineffectual movements as his interrogators quiz him
once more, and walks from the room).
When Petey protests at Stanleys removal, Goldberg makes
an offer to his challenger:
Petey Leave him alone
They stop. Goldberg studies him.
Goldberg (insidiously). Why dont you come with us
MrBoles?
Mccann Yes, why dont you come with us?
Goldberg Come with us to Monty. Theres plenty of room in
the car.
Petey makes no move.(8586)
The mere mortal Petey cannot stop the messengers of
death from carrying out their duty.

Religion and Identity

Pinter was also caught up in the movement to reject

religious certainty and reject the idea of a certainty of a
powerful being, paternalistically looking over man.
The paternalistic God is examined in The Birthday Party
through ritualistic kneeling to Gods representative on
Earth; the priest.
Thus Mccann screams at Lulu to Confess, the
confessional requiring penitents to be humble and bow to
Gods representative on Earth; in this case Mccann.
Mccann easily slips into the identity of the tough henchman
of God.
Eg-Mccann forces Lulu to assume the role of the penitent
whore of Babylon with his confess scream.

Race and Identity in The Birthday

Party

The uncertainty of the Jewish and Irish

identities in this play is fascinating. At one
level it is about the Jews and the Irish recasting the story with formerly oppressed
people now getting their own back.
This feeling is heightened by the explicit
references McCann makes to an Irish
Nationalist organisation (which he accuses
Stanley of betraying, Black and Tan) and
by Goldbergs accusation of Stanleys
racial impurity (you verminate the
sheets
These are men with a mission and they
seek revenge on Stanley.

Identity and The Birthday

Party

There is also an ambiguity in the frequent

references to the visitors previous contact with
Stanley. In his first, potentially terrifying meeting
with McCann at the start of ActII, for instance,
Stanley states that he thinks they have met
before in Maidenhead. McCann replies I dont
know it (39).
Later in that act, while Stanley sits silently,
broken by the interrogation of the visitors and
never to speak again in the play, Goldberg
mentions the very places about which Stanley
had questioned McCann Fullers Tea Shop, the
Boots Library and the little Austin car (56).

Identity
The organisation that Stanley is accused of
having betrayed is not specifically identified
although it may be seen to stem from a number
of possible sources
criminal (building society with its associations of
shady characters who launder their ill-begotten
riches through the construction industry)
Religious betrayal (Albegenisist heresay, Judas
etc)
metaphysical, or
political.
During interrogation in particular, references are
made to possible interests in Northern Ireland,
for example. But the organisation remains

Freedom of the individual against

social conformity-Pinters Contexts
In an interview with Jeremy Isaacs in
1997, Pinter gave another reading
into Stanley
Stating that lives in Britain are
constrained, he identifies Stanley as
a man who will not follow Societys
rules.
Pinter said that Stanley is not
necessarily a very pleasant
character, but a free one and Society
finds this intolerable, so it sends

Freedom of the individual against

social conformity-Pinters Contexts
The threat to Stanley is stepped up by
degree.
It starts with McCanns blocking his way
(37), progresses through the knock about
of Stanley, then forcing him to sit (4547)
and continues until he is broken by the
final interrogation (4752).
He is reduced to a animalistic figure, to be
released only after his thinking senses are
destroyed poke a needle through his
eyes,

Freedom of the individual against

social conformity-Pinters Contexts
Pinter creates characters who have visceral or
indeterminate identities.
This view is given strength by the fact that
Goldberg is called variously Nat, Simey,
Benny he is an everyman threat.
It must be acknowledged that Pinter is, in this
play (The Birthday Party) as elsewhere, refusing
to pin down a character so as to allow him to be
viewed in a more symbolic, universal way.

Common Individuals fighting against

the organisation-Pinters Contexts
The domestic setting of the play
magnifies the threat and sense of
menace.
The artist Stanley, the immaculately
dressed Goldberg and the small,
cramped quarters of the room in
Megs boarding house, amplifies the
idea that individuals when cramped
into a small territory, will then fight
to the death.

Common Individuals fighting against

the organisation-Pinters Contexts
As ordinary people, Meg and Petey
are impotent, powerless in the face
of the organised combination of
Goldbergs polish and power and
McCanns raw violence.
They are unable to stop Stanley
being destroyed and taken from
them.
Their low social positioning is
reflected in their lack of money
Meg cannot give Stanley a piano,
only a tin drum, a popular, cheap toy.

Common Individuals fighting against

the organisation-Pinters Contexts
As an ineffective member of the working class,
Petey strives to assert himself at the end of the
play when he questions Goldberg as to where
Stanley is being taken. He insists that he will get
Stanley to a doctor, and when his protestations
come to nothing, he gives a last defiant call to
Stanley:
Petey: Stan, dont let them tell you what to do!
But Peteys last defiant call is then pathetically
contrasted with his last scene with his wife, Meg.
He pretends he does not know where Stanley is,
showing his impotence and desire to hide his
impotence as a powerless being from his wife.

Impotence of the common

individual against the organisation

Extending this interpretation, Meg can be seen as

representing the powerlessness of the working class when
she flowers as a gladiola at the party. She is seduced by
the visitors and is manipulated by Goldbergs compliments.
She is finally unaware of Stanleys death. At the end of the
play, even Petey does not tell her the turth
Meg: Wheres Stan?
Pause
Is Stan down yet Petey?
Petey No hes
Meg Is he still in bed?
Petey Yes, hes still asleep.
Meg Still? Hell be late for his breakfast.
Petey Let him sleep.