Annotated Bib & OUTLINE

Introduction

Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming is a narrative that represents a change of values within the modern family and its transition from traditional women roles in modern society. This essay will compare and contrast gender roles as its introduced in Pinter’s The Homecoming. It will also illustrate how these roles have changed since the playwright's publication in the late 1960’s. Pinter’s play also highlights traditional views of communication and the hierarchal relationship between speech and silence, present and absent, and the role of masculinity and femininity in the struggle for power and dominance. Non-verbal communication is also introduced as a damaging factor to family roles.

Pinter's beginnings

Pinter, an atheist, was born in Hackney, east London on Oct. 10, 1930. He was the only child of his British Jewish parents; Hyman “Jack” Pinter, his father who was a ladies’ tailor, and his mother Frances, who was a housewife. His early writings, in which he used the pseudonym Pinta, and other varitations of the name, stemmed from his belief that his family was Sephardic and had fled the Spanish Inquisition. Later research by Pinter’s second wife, Lady Antonia Fraser, found that his family was actually Ashkenazic; three of Pinter’s grandparents came from Poland and the fourth from Odessa. Writer and biographer, Michael Billington, described Pinter’s family home as "a solid, red-brick, three-storey villa just off the noisy, bustling, traffic-ridden thoroughfare of the Lower Clapton Road."

Pinter was later evacuated from the home after the Blitz, a strategic bombing campaign conducted by the Germans against London and other cities in England from September of 1940 through May of 1941. The campaign targeted populated areas, factories and dock yards. The bombing left Pinter with profound memories “of loneliness, bewilderment, seperation and loss: themes that are in all his works,” Billington said. (Billington, Harold Pinter 5-10). He attended Hackney Downs School, a London grammar school, between 1944 and 1948. During his time in attendance Pinter had two close male friends and became very close to his English teacher Joseph Brearley.

At the age of 12, Pinter began writing poetry, and in spring 1947, his poetry was first published in the school’s magazine. In 1950 his poetry was first published in Poetry London, some under the pseudonym Harold Pinta. Pinter was the author of 29 plays and 15 dramatic sketches, and the co-author of two works for stage and radio. He was considered to have been one of the most influential modern British dramatists, in which he received the 1967 Tony Award for Best Play for The Homecoming, and several other American awards and award nominations.

Gender roles

The play was written in 1964 and was first pubished in 1965. It is set in North London and features six characters, five of which are men who are all related to each other: Max, a retired butcher; his brother Sam, a chauffeur; and Max's three sons — Teddy, an expatriate American philosophy professor; Lenny, who appears to be a pimp; and Joey, a would-be boxer in training who works in demolition. There is one woman, Ruth, who is Teddy's wife. The play concerns Teddy's and Ruth's "homecoming," which has had distinctly different symbolic and thematic implications for more than 60 years. In addition to the play being about Teddy's homecoming some critics have suggested that on a metaphoric level, in a variety of ways, the homecoming is Ruth's.

Billington perceives Pinter’s The Homecoming as a foundation exploring the significance of gender roles within the 1960s. "Above all, there is still a fierce debate about whether Ruth is an exploited victim or a free agent,” he said. “The answer varies depending on the viewpoint (and maybe the gender) of the questioner and the age in which it is asked. When the play first appeared, some saw it as a mythic study of the sacrifice of the ancient king (Max) and his replacement by a fertility goddess (Ruth). Others saw it as a classic Pinter study of a battle for territorial supremacy watched by an emasculated observer (the husband, Teddy).

It was also seen as a Freudian fantasy in which sons humiliate a father (Max) and achieve sexual conquest of the surrogate mother (Ruth). The great thing about Pinter is that all those interpretations are perfectly valid. But what fascinates me about the play is how attitudes to Ruth have subtly changed over the years.” Pinter’s The Homecoming begins with Teddy, an academic living in America, return to his home in north London, where he grew up, but he does not show up empty handed. He brings with him his wife, Ruth, who he secretly married some years ago and whom his family has never met.

Ruth discovers that she is an object of curiosity to the members of her husband’s brutal, misogynist, all-male household. Max, Teddy’s father, is a tyrannical ex-butcher. Teddy's brother, Lenny is a manipulative pimp, and Joey is a dim-witted boxer. At some point, Ruth decides to let her husband return to America without her and stays behind to live with her rackety in-laws. It is even suggested, at the conclusion of the play, that the men plan to make her earn her keep by becoming a high-class sex-worker in Soho. So the question that still arises about the play points to what Pinter actually means by the play.

Ruth as strong female lead

During the 1960s many male critics would have been shocked at Ruth’s seeming acceptance of the role. Penelope Gilliatt, a female critic for The Observer and novelist, pointed out that Ruth achieves a form of empowerment over the male characters. “Ruth looks on her body rather as a landlord would look on a corner-site,” Gilliatt said. “As soon as she has apparently been exploited sexually she really has the advantage because she owns the property.” The play suggests that Ruth rediscovers her previous identity prior to her marriage to Teddy and, symbolically, comes home to herself. Ironically, as she "comes home" to this woman-less family, she renders her own family with Teddy similarly without. By the conclusion of the play, she appears to have assumed the multiple roles of Jessie, the London family's missing wife and mother. The missing woman in their household puts the American family in a parallel position -- ironically reversing the situation at the beginning of the play. "In that sense, the play recalls Edward's reversal of roles with the silent Matchseller in Pinter's 1959 play A Slight Ache, initially broadcast on BBC Radio 3, and similarly ironic plot and character role-reversals resulting from power struggles throughout many of Pinter's other plays," John Lahr, a critic wrote for The New York Times, said. In October 2007, he quoted Pinter stating that he considers The Homecoming as his most "muscular" play.

After Teddy comes home and introduces his London family to his wife (Pinter 35–40), Max invites her to remain with them in London; as Teddy puts it to her euphemistically: "Ruth . . . the family have invited you to stay, for a little while longer. As a . . . as a kind of guest" (Pinter 91). Whereas Teddy ultimately decides to return home to his family in America (Pinter 96), Ruth agrees to "come home" (Pinter 92) as the family's missing mother figure and possibly also a prostitute whom Lenny can pimp (Pinter 92–94), filling in the gap created when their mother died: "I've never had a whore under this roof before. Ever since your mother died" (Pinter 58). Upon first seeing Ruth, Max believes his eldest son, Teddy, has brought a "filthy scrubber" (like Jessie) into "my house" (Pinter 57–58). A major irony of the play is that Max's apparently-mistaken first assumption comes to appear accurate as the family (and the audience) get to "know" Ruth better (Pinter 65–76). The play exposes to Teddy's family that Ruth has been unhappy in her marriage. Though Teddy insists that she is "not well" (Pinter 85) and simply needs to "rest" (Pinter 71), he may not have recognized the cause of her apparent depression. Nevertheless, ultimately, he appears willing to leave her with his family in London, or at least wants to give the others that impression (perhaps to save face; or perhaps he really does want to leave her there).

The play introduces sexual intrigue along with sexual guilt, family ghosts, corrupted power and revenge as its theme. All of which diverts from traditional roles of a modern family. Ruth's exchange value is her sexuality. As the play begins Ruth had already expressed a detachment from her husband in challenging his authority upon entrance to her father-in-law’s house. Critics can argue that her character shows a strong female presence, demonstrating a nontraditional role of suvival, in a male dominated society.

Thomas Postalwait describes it as a haunting within the home, based on past crimes concerning sexual matters and the misuse of power. “Almost all of the aspects of the homecoming story are present in some form: the double identity of woman, a son’s return home, a ghostly prescene hovering over the action, the false power of a father figure, the imagery of blood and pollution,the violation of sexual taboos, confusion or controvery over conception, family violence, breakdown of moral codes, revenge of or against the mother, and the call or impulse for vengence,” he said.

Communication

Pre-1950 dramatist were accepted as an omniscient figure who knew everything about their characters. In The Homecoming Pinter places his characters in a concrete, realistic setting suggesting that he knew no more about the ultimate fate of his characters than his audience. The three brothers in the play attempt, by means of language, to overcome barriers and find common grounds. Valerie Monogue describes their language itself, because of its imperfections --as a lack in expertise and revelation of the fears, needs and inadequcies that they struggle to conceal. All three characters mutually agree to hide each one’s embarrassment. "They attempt to close the abyss--silence is the great enemy---generally understanding too much rather than too little,” Monogue said. “Their talk shows...not so much a failure as an evasion of communication. In silence in this world becomes a catalyst of action, even action itself. Talk seems an expedient, a means of evasion. In silence and in the dark in the nonentity against which they all precariously struggle.”

Prior to the Progressive Era plays were written in high-flown poetry, or what frequently known as realistic prose. "What Pinter did was take common everyday speech with all its hesitations, repetitions, periodic crudities and aching silences --and turn it into a form of poetry," Billington said.

Conclusion

The premise of a father, his two sons, and his brother all living under the same roof is a simple and completely natural setting in Pinter's

The Homecoming. However, the sexually charged nature that the characters relate, in addition to Ruth's open advances towards her husband's brothers and her renunciation of her family in favor of a life as a prostitute, are anything but commonplace.

Works Cited

1. Pinter, Harold. The Homecoming.

2. Harold Pinter – Interview", British Library Online Gallery: What's On, British Library, 8 September 2008.

3. Billington, Michael. Michael Billington Themes: Exploring identity, 20th-century theatre, Gender and sexuality Published: 7 Sep 2017

https://www.bl.uk/20th-century-literature/articles/an-introduction-to-the-homecoming\

4. Lahr, John. "Demolition Man: Harold Pinter and 'The Homecoming' The New Yorker, 24 December, 2007.

5. Postlewait, Thomas. "Pinter's the Homecoming: Displacing and Repeating Ibsen." Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, edited by Jennifer Baise, vol. 82, Gale, 1999. Literature Criticism Online, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/MUSLVA632264600/LCO?u=morr47546&sid=LCO&xid=a3c64412. Accessed 22 Sept. 2019. Originally published in Comparative Drama, vol. 15, no. 3, Fall 1981, pp. 195-212.

6. Monogue, Valerie. "Taking Care of the Caretaker." Contemporary Literary Criticism, edited by Carolyn Riley and Phyllis Carmel Mendelson, vol. 6, Gale, 1976. Literature Criticism Online, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/VZZXNM812763975/LCO?u=morr47546&sid=LCO&xid=60a2985d. Accessed 22 Sept. 2019. Originally published in Printer: A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by Arthur Ganz, Prentice-Hall, 1972, pp. 72-77.

7. FEEDBACK:

8. 1. Expand  on this outline, and consider perceiving Ruth as a metaphor for modern women, resistance, and hope in a patriarchal world.

9. 2. Specify the title of your work

10. 3. Yoke Pinter's background to your thesis or your topic so it is not just an isolated section of your work with no clear link to your overall work

11. 4. Consider Ruth as one who uses sexual power to create a pathway in the play or to control strong men around her.

12. 5. Think of the expected length and scope work of this magnitude have and adhere loyally to the current MLA format.