-: Comedy of Menace in The Birthday Party :-
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Richard Baird, Max Macke, and Matthew Hennerson
Photos by Daren Scott
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As a playwright, Harold Pinter is an innovator of a new kind of drama which becomes famous as the Comedy of Menace. Unlike Coleridge, the famous Romantic poet, Harold Pinter begins his plays in our known, familiar world but gradually makes us move into the trajectory and psychodynamics of a world which is beyond our comprehension. In Pinter's Comedy of Menace, the laughter and elation of the audience in the same or all situations are immediately followed by a feeling of some impending disaster. An audience is, therefore, made aware, in the very midst of his laughter of some menace. The feelings of insecurity and uncertainty throughout the play also enhance the menacing atmosphere of Pinter's The Birthday Party. The menace in Pinterian drama is also produced by potential or actual violence or from an underlined sense of violence throughout the play. Pinter makes the audience feel that the security of the principal character (Stanley) and even the audiences' own security are threatened by some sort of impending danger or disaster. Actually the term 'Comedy of Menace' was first coined by David Campton who used the phrase as a subtitle of his four short plays The Lunatic View, published in 1957. However, in Pinter's hand, the concept of menace becomes highly symbolic and vague.
Pinter's The Birthday Party is a perfect example of Comedy of Menace. Throughout the play, we find that the hint of menace is inflected upon the individual freedom of a person and it juxtaposes the comic element drastically dilutes the comic appeal. Pinter shows his state in the existential view that danger prevails everywhere and life can't escape from it. Pinter thinks that Stanley, the protagonist, might have committed a serious crime and is on the run for escaping the consequence and legal implications of his life. This is precisely comprehended while he almost never leaves his room and becomes furiously apprehensive when Meg informs him that two gentlemen are coming to stay in this boarding house. Stanley soon tactfully tries to conceal his apprehension by mentioning his successful concert and about a favourable job proposal of a pianist. But we can realize his innate apprehension for imminent interrogation or arrest by the two new guests at the boarding house:
In his attempt to percolate his fear upon Meg, Stanley informs her ironically that some people would come to the boarding house in a van along with a wheelbarrow and take away Meg permanently along with them:
In a mood of topsy-turvy-dom, Pinter often shows an apparent fearful apprehension, but actually gives occasion to amusement. Lulu's arrival and knocking at their boarding's door fulfil the purpose. Similarly, Meg's funny answer to Goldberg's question about Stanley also sustains the suspense of Stanley's immediate arrest. Thus, the dramatist gives a comic relief to his audience.
When Goldberg continuously refers to the "job" which he has to execute, makes an audience conscious about their unknown job, so as to say, by enhancing menace. Again the conversations between Goldberg and McCann are often comical but the possibility of danger and violence always pervade above the comedy:
They won't come. Someone's taking the Michael. Forget all about it.
[Act - I]
In his attempt to percolate his fear upon Meg, Stanley informs her ironically that some people would come to the boarding house in a van along with a wheelbarrow and take away Meg permanently along with them:
They're looking for someone. A certain person.
[Act - I]
In a mood of topsy-turvy-dom, Pinter often shows an apparent fearful apprehension, but actually gives occasion to amusement. Lulu's arrival and knocking at their boarding's door fulfil the purpose. Similarly, Meg's funny answer to Goldberg's question about Stanley also sustains the suspense of Stanley's immediate arrest. Thus, the dramatist gives a comic relief to his audience.
When Goldberg continuously refers to the "job" which he has to execute, makes an audience conscious about their unknown job, so as to say, by enhancing menace. Again the conversations between Goldberg and McCann are often comical but the possibility of danger and violence always pervade above the comedy:
Goldberg: But why is it that before you do a job you're all over the place, and when you're doing the job you're as cool as a whistle?
[Act - I]
The interrogation of Stanley by the "two gentlemen" is sometimes funny or comical but have threatening impact both upon Stanley and the audience. Even the birthday party which begins in a light and jovial manner ends with Stanley's attempt to strangle Meg and rape Lulu. Similarly, the birthday party also becomes the excuse of Goldberg's seduction and deflowering Lulu. Again the arrangement of the birthday party acts as a plan to prove Stanley lunatic and takes him away from the boarding:
OR
Goldberg: You know what I said when this job came up. I mean naturally they approached me to take care of it. And you know who I asked for?
McCann: Who?
Goldberg: You.
[Act - I]
The interrogation of Stanley by the "two gentlemen" is sometimes funny or comical but have threatening impact both upon Stanley and the audience. Even the birthday party which begins in a light and jovial manner ends with Stanley's attempt to strangle Meg and rape Lulu. Similarly, the birthday party also becomes the excuse of Goldberg's seduction and deflowering Lulu. Again the arrangement of the birthday party acts as a plan to prove Stanley lunatic and takes him away from the boarding:
Goldberg: ...All is dependent on the attitude of our subject. At all events, McCann, I can assure you that the assignment will be carried out and the mission accomplished with no excessive aggravation to you or myself.
[Act - I]
At the end of the play, audiences are given an unsolved riddle about what has been of Stanley which is of paramount significance in Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party - a perfect example of Comedy of Menace. Some critics even believe that it is a superimposition of the European concept of absurd (Martin Esslin has been described the drama as an example of the Theatre of the Absurd) to the English native wit. Here what is true or what is false, is not matter but the ambience which Pinter clarifies as his concept of menace: '...menace and fear do not come from extraordinary sinister people but from you and me; it is all a matter of circumstances.' (Pinter, Harold).
