Harold PinterHarold Pinter and the Concept of Irrationality and Aggressive Behavior
Chapter One
1.1. Background : Harold Pinter occupies a very significant position in the contemporary British theatre. He is a dramatist, scriptwriter, short story writer, director, and actor and in his later plays, he has become a political voice of Human Rights issues. He is considered the most respected writer for the stage in the world today. He was born in a Jewish family on October 10-1930 at Hackney, in London’s East End, an area with a Jewish population. This working- class neighborhood was the site of many violent clashes during Pinter’s youth.. The years following the Second World War were full of uncertainty of life for menacing anyone with Jewish features. Fear is centered on the unexpected knock at the door. This can be related to the author’s own childhood as a Jew. Growing up in the war in the East End of London, a time when the menace of any one would have particularly disturbed any child, especially a Jewish child in a post-war world, however, the menace of aggression is of a different kind, specifically psychological kind. The actions of the working class characters in this post- war world are in part based on this kind of fear, and in part based on inexplicable actions, both irrational and unmotivated.. Although Pinter seemed to have a relatively happy childhood, he also experienced terror during the Second World War, during Germany’s bombing raid attack on London. However, Pinter often was able to take his way out of these confrontations:
Like many people who grew up during the Second World War, Pinter remembers it through a series of graphic snapshots: as the talksof the past, people places and incidents come to life in his imagination a sense of disruption was also a crucial part of wartime experience. 1
Pinter began his career as an actor and an occasional poet. He studied acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. He produced in a rapid succession the body of work which made him the
1.1. Background : Harold Pinter occupies a very significant position in the contemporary British theatre. He is a dramatist, scriptwriter, short story writer, director, and actor and in his later plays, he has become a political voice of Human Rights issues. He is considered the most respected writer for the stage in the world today. He was born in a Jewish family on October 10-1930 at Hackney, in London’s East End, an area with a Jewish population. This working- class neighborhood was the site of many violent clashes during Pinter’s youth.. The years following the Second World War were full of uncertainty of life for menacing anyone with Jewish features. Fear is centered on the unexpected knock at the door. This can be related to the author’s own childhood as a Jew. Growing up in the war in the East End of London, a time when the menace of any one would have particularly disturbed any child, especially a Jewish child in a post-war world, however, the menace of aggression is of a different kind, specifically psychological kind. The actions of the working class characters in this post- war world are in part based on this kind of fear, and in part based on inexplicable actions, both irrational and unmotivated.. Although Pinter seemed to have a relatively happy childhood, he also experienced terror during the Second World War, during Germany’s bombing raid attack on London. However, Pinter often was able to take his way out of these confrontations:
Like many people who grew up during the Second World War, Pinter remembers it through a series of graphic snapshots: as the talksof the past, people places and incidents come to life in his imagination a sense of disruption was also a crucial part of wartime experience. 1
Pinter began his career as an actor and an occasional poet. He studied acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. He produced in a rapid succession the body of work which made him the