Harold Pinter

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Data:	05.06.2008
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Harold Pinter
The Room
Harold Pinter’s life
- Born in Hackney,London in 1930
- Studied at the Hackney Down Grammar School
- R.A.D.A Royal Accademy of Drammatic Art
- Young art name was David Baron
- 1956: married the actress Vivien Merchant
- In 1957 wrote his first comedy, The Room
- 1962: he wrote his first movie script, The Servant
- 1966: became CBE Commander of the British Empire
- In the ’70 started working as a theatre director
- 1977: he left his wife for Antonia Fraser
- In ’80 began writing political plays
- 1982: Vivien died
- 1985: goes to Turkey with Arthur Miller where he met a lot of victims of political oppression
- At the embassy he started talking about the torture with electric shock to the privates, so he had been expelled
- 2002: became Companion of Honour
- -2002: submit himself at chemioterapy caused by a oesophagus tumor
- 2005: won the Nobel for literature
- 2005: he announced that he will stoop writing comedies and will dedicate himself to politics
- 2006: won the “European award for theatre”
- Genuary 2007: the French prime minister Dominic de Villepin gave him the “Legion d’onore”

Pinter’s works
Theatre:
-1957: The Room, The Birthday Party, The Dumb Waiter
-1958: The Hothouse
-1959: The Caretaker
-1964: The Homecoming
-1966: The Basement
-1967: The Landscape
-1968: Silence
-1970: Old Times
-1972: Monologue
-1974: No Man's Land
-1978: Betrayal
-1982: Family Voices, Victoria Station, A Kind of Alaska
-1984: One for the Road
-1988: Mountain Language
-1991: Party time
-1993: Moonlight
-1996: Ashes to Ashes
-1999: Celebration
Prose:
-1949: Kullus
-1952-56: The Dwarfs
-1953: Latest Reports from the Stock Exchange
-1954-55: The Black and White
-1955: The Examination
-1963: Tea Party
-1975: The Coast
-1976: Problem
-1977: Lola
-1995: Short Story, Girls
-1997: God’s District
-1999: Sorry About This
-2000: Tess
-2001: Voices in the Tunnel
Poetry:
-2003: War
Pinter’s writing style
- Main concern is realism (characters absolutely realistic)
- “The Dwarf” influenced by Joyce’s stream of consciousness
- Influenced by Beckett
- Influenced by Kafka (obsession, nightmares, anxieties)
- Unlike Beckett, Pinter’s characters live in a specific place and period
- His plays are always simple and concrete
- Settings always domestic and familiar
- No dividing line between real and unreal, true and false
- Characters want to hide their thoughts
- Communication is alarming
- In Pinter’s plays there are recognizable themes: The room, the female figure ( possessive mother or femme fatale), the vulnerability of the human spirit
The room
Characters:
- Rose Hudd: A woman of sixty y.o., she welcome all the characters that entered in the room
- Bert Hudd: A man of fifty y.o., he doesn’t say a word untile the lat pages of the book
- Mr. Kidd: an old man, he is the landlord
- Mr. and Mrs. Sands: A young couple that want to buy a room in the palace
- Riley: A black, blind man, that live in the basement; he gives to Rose a strange massage, pretty weird character
Plot:
- Very simple
- Only one act
- The story takes place in a room
- Out is cold, snowy and windy
- Continuos alternance of characters
- Start with Rose and Bert alone, he is reading the newspaper, she is talking alone
- Enters Mr. Kidd, talk with Rose about his life, the weather, the room, Bert leaves
- Mr. Kidd leaves, enter MR. and Mrs. Sands
- Searching for a flat, and for the landlord (Mr. Kidd)
- They want Rose’s room and they’re sure to have seen a men in the downstairs
- They left, enters Mr. Kidd
- He says to Rose about a man that want to see her, then he leaves
- Enters Riley, the black, blind man
- Gives to Rose a message by Rose’s father that wants her back home
- He calls Rose “Sal”, a mysterious name that Rose doesn’t want to hear
- While Rose is touching Riley’s head enters Bert Hudd
- After he says a few sentences about his trip with the van in the snow, he strikes Riley, knocking him down
- Ends with Rose standing, clutching her eyes, saying “I can’t see”