The tragic atmosphere in Pinter's The Caretaker

Resumo

This dissertation is addressed to the undergraduate student of English literature who is taking British contemporary drama. This is a systematic examination of Harold Pinter's The Caretaker (1960) from the double focal point of Aristotle's issues of peripety and anagnorisis - the two most effective tools at the tragic writer's disposal. Since the characters' linguistic behaviour is the main instrument to bring about peripety and anagnorisis the play has been studied from this point of view as well. The dissertation has led to some specific conclusions. The characters' continual interrelational failures seem to unconsciously establish a continuous oscillation between the factors which lead then to approach and those which lead then to retract from each other, resulting in peripeties. They are always exerting their exodus, or evading reality, in some way, as a means of defending themselves against anxiety. At heart, each feels unable to change the world around him. As they proceed in their interrelational battles their use of language changes: primarily interrelational, it becomes also referential, and, in the end, to announce anagnorisis, acquires symbolic texture. The basic focal point or peripety and anagnorisis is visualized in an appended diagram.