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Abstract: Written in 1957 by one of the most influential contemporary British dramatist Harold Pinter, The Dumb Waiter may never have gained the popularity of other Pinter works, yet it remains to this day one of his most challenging and provocative plays, a powerful metaphor of man’s position in modern society. The play was labelled a “comedy of menace” and placed within the Theatre of the Absurd, while its political side was often overlooked. The very title of the play contains Pinter’s political cynicism as well as his almost apocalyptic view of the future of the human race and is highly symbolic of some of Pinter’s most frequently employed techniques and themes: silence and violence of language, one-way communication, use and abuse of power, the exposure of characters to ominous menace, and the sense of imprisonment of body and soul when trapped inside four walls. Pinter’s preoccupation with confined spaces and consequently with seemingly free individuals who are deprived of basic human rights, such as freedom of speech, blends nicely with Foucault’s vision of a modern carceral society. In this diploma thesis, the play is analysed through Michel Foucault’s concept of panopticism, where the “Pinteresque” room acquires a symbolic meaning of modern man’s ravaged state of mind and loss of identity, constantly exposed to surveillance and the invisible power of the modern information society.
Keywords: The Dumb Waiter, Harold Pinter, Theatre of the Absurd, comedy of menace, Pinteresque, Michel Foucault, panopticism.
Published in DKUM: 12.06.2012; Views: 3054; Downloads: 164
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