Pinterest – The Hothouse of Postmodern Violence and Repression

Today we live in a world where violence, repression and fanaticism of all kinds threaten the world. People constantly experience nightmares when they are shaken by the fact that the seemingly safe world has now turned into a volatile dark alley. Violence is now a fact of life in even the world’s most liberal democracies and living on this planet has never been more difficult and daunting. Such a world of latent and explicit violence, oppression, fanaticism and mass destruction forms the spiritual setting for Pinterland. Harold Pinter is one of the few playwrights to speak out against US domination, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and premeditated acts of mass murder. He even concluded his Nobel Lecture with a call for “unwavering, unwavering and fierce intellectual determination, as a citizen, to define the real truth of our lives and our societies” as a “crucial obligation that falls on all of us”, one that he regards as “mandatory”, since “if such a determination is not incorporated into our political vision, we have no hope of restoring what we have almost lost: the dignity of man” (Pinter’s Nobel Lecture). He displays a passion for social justice and an abhorrence of authoritarianism and brutality. His works deal with power and powerlessness, resistance to authority, hypocrisy, violence, brutality and repression. This is why Pinterest and the plays from it are getting more attention now than ever before. His work “presents a particularly complex case study, demonstrating the effect of violence and victimization and oppression on the human spirit in a violent society and environment that sees violence as an end in itself.” (as posted on Harold Pinter’s community)

Given the current state of wanton terror, unlimited brutality, and rigorous repressive strategies employed around the world, we are compelled to return to Pinter’s work with a greater understanding of the writer’s intentions to expose contemporary violence and repression in its implicit, hidden or explicit forms. With this renewed understanding, we will be able to appreciate his experience in dramatizing the implicit aspects of victimization and repression at the individual, interpersonal, and community levels and in portraying unexpected terror. If Pinter’s early works presented “metaphors” about power and impotence, later works present “realities” of power and its abuse. The characters in all of his works are basically predators and his works are exclusively about power struggles and possession and power. In The Caretaker and The Room, there is a struggle for a sense of identity connected to the room. The dumbwaiter and the birthday party speaks of the presence of an “organization” that will not tolerate any rebels. The struggle for power reaches the point where the only thing that matters is the survival of the fittest, even if it is at the expense of others. In the more politically oriented works like One for the Road, Mountain Language, and The New World Order, Pinter exposes the forces empowered to institute rape, murder, and nuclear war. Per Wastberg, while delivering the presentation speech for the 2005 Nobel Prize in Literature, rightly says that:

Its characters are at each other’s mercy on the periphery of life… their identities, backgrounds, and histories are vague, and there are different versions depending on who remembers them. They rarely listen to each other, but it is precisely their mental deafness that makes us listen. Not a word goes unnoticed, nor can we relax for a single minute. The atmospheric pressure fluctuates as secrets are revealed and the distribution of power changes. (1-2)

The language in Pinterest’s work acts as a weapon and as a substitute for violence. Language is used for both self defense and verbal aggression. In The Room, Rose’s endless opening monologue is meant to convey anxiety and thus an act of self-defense, and Bert’s silence expresses self-confidence. But towards the end, Rose’s near silence expresses fear, while Bert’s speech about power and self-confidence is intended to betray his vulnerability. According to Pinter, speech is a strategy to cover up the reality of the situation and keep ‘thinking at bay’.

Repression reigns in Pinter’s works and this makes his works inexplicable and enigmatic. Repression in its implicit and overt forms can be seen in his works and because of this his works are very ambiguous. One can find psychological, social, political and personal repression at various levels. In his assessment of Pinter’s works, noted critic Martin Esslin argues that: “Behind the very private world of his works, also lurk what are, after all, the basic political problems: the use and abuse of power, the struggle for living space, cruelty, terror.Only the very superficial observers could miss his social side, his political side of the playwright.(quoted in “Old Times” 3) Pinter says that “Political language as used by politicians “, does not express the truth as “most politicians, according to the evidence at our disposal, are not interested in the truth but in power and in the maintenance of that power.” (“Writing for theater”) To maintain power is important that the public remain ignorant, therefore “what surrounds us is a vast tapestry of lies, on which we feed.”American attacks in the name of religion are all various forms of violence and repression around us.

Each of Pinter’s works is a variation on the theme of violence and the various forms of repression. He analyzes contemporary cruelties and shows their psychological and traumatic effects. He brings to light the hidden structure and agendas of acts of structural violence. Pinter brings us to reality and forces us to examine our conscience and to realize and accept the hitherto hidden fact: that we live in an extremely volatile and insecure world embroiled in a raw animal struggle for power. He brings to the fore things we’ve known but chosen to forget: the fact that the crazy power struggle seen since time immemorial has just arrived in a new guise.

Works Cited

“Notes of works of yesteryear”. Theater of the Court – The Works. May 9, 2006. http://www.courttheatre.org/homelplays/9697/oldtimes/pnoldtimes.shtml

Online posting in the Harold Pinter community

Wastberg, Peru. “The 2005 Nobel Prize in Literature- Presentation Speech”. Concert Hall of the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm. December 10, 2005 http://nobelprize.org/literature/laureates/2005/presentationspeech.html

—-. “Writing for the Theater”. (24-25). Several voices: prose, poetry, politics 1948-2005.ed.1998. London: Faber and Faber 2005. ISBN 0571230091.