The Image of Men in Harold Pinter’s Birthday Party

Hani Oudah Neamah

doi:10.34293/sijash.v12iS2-July.7861

Hani Oudah Neamah Ph.D. Scholar, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India

DOI: https://doi.org/10.34293/sijash.v12iS2-July.7861

Keywords: Masculinity, Gender roles, Power dynamics, Authority, Dominance, Vulnerability, Toxic masculinity, Performance of masculinity, Aggression, Control, Isolation, Identity, Emasculation, Communication breakdown, Absurdity

Abstract

Harold Pinter frequently shows the difficulty of forgotten persons who cannot sense their existence. These characters are fatigued and dissatisfied in a society that strips them of their humanity. They retreat into a little realm where they seek safety and shelter. External influences, portrayed by invasive persons, disrupt the protagonists' feeling of security by representing strange, indefinable forces. The struggle between these hackers and the protagonists concludes with the characters' defeat. The rationale for the hackers' attack on the victims remains unknown and has not been explained. The sense of mystery infuses Pinter's plays and is one of their key features. This dissertation investigates how Pinter coped with this challenge in his debut play, The Birthday Party (1957). This study seeks to answer the issues of how a person escapes from his reality, what forms of dangers assault him, and why he is unable to battle these threats.