The Most Successful Play of Pinter:
The Caretaker is Pinter's second full - length stage play. It has been Pinter's most successful play so far. It was first performed at the Arts Theatre Club, London on April 27, 1960. It brought Pinter the first great success with the public.
The Source of Knitting the Story:
Pinter wrote The Caretaker in the cold autumnal months of 1958 whilst living in two rooms in Chriswick with his wife, Vivenne Merchant. In that house lived a man with a history of mental illness, who brought a homeless man to live with him. Of course what happens in the play is the result of Pinter's imagination, but these people were the starting point for his story. In the most unspeakably dilapidated slum flat, in a house in West London, Aston brings home the tramp Davies. Aston speaks slowly and deliberately as if retarded and befriends Davies, offering him somewhere to live. Aston's brother, the altogether Sharper, Mick discovers Davies alone. Both brothers confide in the tramp, sounding out their ideas and both offer him the job of Caretaker of their finished dream.
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| An Introduction of the Play The Caretaker by Harold Pinter |
The Caretaker as an Absurdist Play:
The Caretaker is an Absurdist play in the sense that it deals with the predicament of both Davies and Aston in the hostile world where they are strangers, and both of them depend on others for their existence. Davies is a tramp. He is homeless and penniless. He lives on his wits for his survival. He plays the two brothers off against each other for his own good. He cannot be taken for what he says. Likewise, Aston's existence is very precarious. He is slow- witted though very kindly. He has nobody except his own younger brother to look after him. After he had received an electric shock for his psychiatric treatment, he could not think, see and hear properly. He has been made handicapped both psychologically and physically.
A New Comedy or the Dark Comedy:
The Caretaker is a new type of comedy. It is a dark comedy or comedy of menace. The humour in The Caretaker is not as bright or sunny as in the conventional comedy. It is rather as dark as that in the tragic plays of Shakespeare. The principal source of humour in The Caretaker is Davies his absurd statements, his absurd situation and his absurd behaviour. It is his absurd existence in the room that causes humour in the play. Humour also lies in his absurd outward appearance. To look at him, he is broken down, his eyes heavily bagged, his hair dirty and greased down with a low parting to cover his pate. He holds his mouth open, his lower jaw gummy as if toothless. His clothes are unspeakably filthy. The long fingers of his large hands scratch his crotch and his behind. He shuffles along dragging his feet. His accent ranges; quite deliberately ............ a touch of Irish , a touch of Cockney, Polish, Welsh, all contributing to this enigmatic man who tells us repeatedly that he has to get to Sidcup to get his papers. Some of the humour is in the ironic fastidiousness of this man , whose outward appearance belies this: He rejects the shoes offered him by Aston because he's uneasy at wearing brown laces with black shoes. He prefers drinking Guinness out of a thin glass rather than a thick jug.
A Farce and Tragedy:
In The Caretaker, there is a blanket of darkness which does not allow the rays of sunny humour to enter. This darkness in the comedy comes from the philosophy of Absurdism. The Caretaker is, therefore, a successful dark comedy in the sense that all the three characters in the play are grouping in dark to find a home and meaning of life for themselves but not without a lighter side of it. Laughter and tears go together. The play has the qualities of both farce and tragedy.
The Theme of Identity in the Play:
Mick buys an old house with several rooms so that he might make his identity permanent in the world. The identity of Aston is also questionable. He loses his identity after psychiatric treatment. He cannot move his neck to left and right. He cannot hear properly. He has lost his thinking power. He is trying to recover himself and establish his identity in the world. Davies is a homeless and penniless man depending on lies and hypocrisy for his survival. What he tells us in the play is that his real name is Mac Davies but he passes under the name of Bernard Jenkins and uses a stolen insurance card to make his false identity a reality. He tells both Aston and Mick that he has got his identity card and character references but they are with a man in Sidcup. He assures both of them that he'll go to Sidcup someday to collect his papers in order to become the permanent caretaker of Mick's house but that day never comes to him.
Characterization in the Play:
In his play The Caretaker, Pinter has chosen very simple and ordinary characters from the real life. Davies is an old tramp. He is homeless and pocketless. He wears cast off clothes but he is never bereft of the feeling of superiority. Aston is in his early thirties but he is physically and mentally handicapped after his psychiatric treatment. He is working as a caretaker in his younger brother's house. He is gradually recovering and trying to make his place in the world. Mick, Aston's younger brother, is in his late twenties. He is a tradesman and owns a van. He buys old houses, renovates them and sells them.
The use of Language in the Play:
(a) Pauses and Silences:
In The Caretaker, Pinter uses the clichés and patterns of everyday conversation to express the darker sense of man's insecurity, aggressiveness or hypocrisy. He also uses pauses and silences.
(b) Poetic Language:
In fact, The Caretaker has passages of genuine poetry— Aston's great speech about the shock treatment, or Mick's description of his plans for re - decorating the old house, which transmutes the jargon of contemporary brand names into a dream like world of wish - fulfilment .
The Plot Structure:
(a) Round Plot:
The Caretaker which is divided into three Acts, is a well-constructed play. It has a round plot. The play begins with the entry of Davies as a guest in the attic room occupied by Aston and ends with his leaving the room the way he came there as a guest. The plot returns to the same point from where it starts.
(b) Tension in the Play:
Aston is living comfortably in his room and trying to get well soon. The trouble arises when Davies is brought by Aston and he is allowed to stay in the room. Tension gradually rises as Davies tries to occupy the room by playing tricks on both Aston and Mick.
(c) Unities in the Play:
The entire action of the play takes place in the attic room. The central theme of the play is the occupation of the attic room by Davies, Aston and Mick in their own way. Thus there are unities of place and action in the play.
Appropriate Title:
The title of the play is very appropriate. The story of the play moves round the room owned by Mick and occupied by Aston. Davies also comes to the same room to stay with Aston and later to dislodge Aston from there with the help of his brother, Mick. Aston is the caretaker of the house. Mick is the owner of the house. Davies is proposed caretaker of the house.
Allegorical Interpretation of the Play:
The tramp Davies in Dionysus, or the Wandering Jew, or may be the tempter in a modern Everyman play, beset by a dark angel and bright angel, namely the brothers Mick and Aston. Perhaps, Aston is the carpenter Christ building his Church in the form of the garden shed.
The Freudian Interpretation of the Play:
In terms of the Freudian psychology, the play is a story of two sons to replace their father. Aston can be seen to feel a filial responsibility for Davies. He collects the old man’s bag from the cafe. He provides food for him. He brings him into his home, but finally decides that he must reject Davies in order to complete his own growth.
The Mythical Interpretation of the Play:
In the mythical terms, the play deals with the theme of expulsion of a son by his father.
The Play Related to Power Games:
This play is about power games and it is in the shifting delicacy of the balance that Pinter's naturalistic dialogue excels. When they snatch a bag of old clothes from each other, we see a compelling physical manifestation of the power structure. All three characters have this simmering unpredictability, a volatile aggression and we as the audience do not know when to expect it.
Poignancy in the Play:
The Pasty White, end - earingly slow Aston seems not to have a nasty bone in his body. One of the play's most poignant moments is when he describes his electroconvulsive therapy in a psychiatric hospital. His life centres around carpentry tools and the shed he would like to build but we feel he never will. His performance as a simple soul is very good.
