paper no.9 The Modernist literature

·        “The Birthday Party”  is a complete play,Expect that Some one    has left out the beginning and the end.”:-

v  Something puzzling about the beginning and the ending:-

                        If we judge the birthdy party by tradinal or conventional sandars,we shall certainly find that it falls short or our expectations in so far as it has neither a satishfactory beginning nor a satisfactory ending.The principal deficiency in these respects is the lack of adequate information which we would normally expect from the auther.When after the brief opening dialogue between mwg and her husband potey,namely stanley,is introdiced,we are told little about his background or about the circustances which have brought him to this seaside town and to this bording house.When we learn that he used to be a painist but that now he has been out of work for some time,we naturally want to know how he lost his job and why he has so far not taken up and any other job.if he has been idle because no job was available,Why has he not left this town nad gone some where else in quest of employment?similarly,the ending of the play is Inconclusive because we do not understand why thw two visitors are taking stanley away with them against his own will.In view of these facts,It is Possible for the redder to experience a felling of dissatifaction and to say that both the beginning and the ending of this play are puzzling.

v  A picaresque play,With Element Of mystery

         

                        If however,we keep in mind the fact that we are reading a new kind of play,a pinteresque play,we shall be able to overcome our disappontment in respect of the beginning and ending.In the play by printer,certain question arise which remain unanawered throughout and even at the very end.The element of mystery is one the most conspicuous features of any play by Pinter.Ruth in the homecomming agrees towards the end to become a prositute,And we feel baffled by her decision because we can not understand why she wants to give up a respect able and prosperous life and tae to a degarding profession.Davies in the careter is a myterroiu character about whom we  learn very little.In the cause of the birthday party the circumstances which have brought stanly to this town and the circumstances under which he has proglonged this stay here remain a mystry and yet it is not such a baffling mystry as it on the surfance appears to be.We are given enough hints ans suggestion which enable us to guess what has not specifically been conveyed to us by  the auther through the conventonal devise.If we do not know much about stanly at the very outside,We are able to glean enough about him subsequently from his own tal.For intance from his felling of apprehension on Hearing about the two visitors from meg ,we can judge that he is afraid of a possibility that some body might come to harm him in some way,His talk of a van and a whele barrow seems to be a projection of the same fear of somebody coming to seize him,alive oe dead,It is possible that he is by this talk,Trying only to scare meg who has informed him about  the visiores and thus disturbed his truths llity but the gret her probability is that he is apprehensive of  a danger to his own security,And that he speck of the van and the wheel barrow in connection with his own possible removal from this place.When he gives meg an account of a concert which he was to give but which did not mater ialize on account of the hositility of certain persons towarda him,his anticipation of danger in the presant is confirmed.His telling meg that he has been offered an excellent job with a touring concert party may also be a hint that he is in some danger and that he would like to go  awy from this place.His subsequent questiona about the two visitors(after they have actually arrived and accupied a room in the boarding house)Further strengthen the impressions that he is apprenheading some danger to him self  evidently than he has been hiding in this town and in this boarding house from some people whom he regards as hospital to him and there for dangerous.There is no doubt at all that the two visitor seem to be a menace to him.Perhaps he has incurred the hostility of some criminal or antisocial elements,or perhaps he has himself comitted some wrong to some body and is therefore afaierd of retaliation.At the end of act ,I,when he suddenly begins to beat the drums wildly and violently,It is evident that he is in a mood of desperation and rageperhaps,this mood has been induced by the arrivle of two unknown men at the bording-house and by the hint of menace which they seem to have caused in his mind,Though there may be other reasons also contributing to this mood,For instance his felling thae meg has made fun of him by having given him a boy`s drum as a birthday presant and having thus insulted him by suggesting that he is yet a juvenile and not a mature man,or that he a mature man has regressed to s state of childhood.

v   Act 1: The Exposition,And Therefore the beginning:-

                              Now all this shows that act I dose give us adequate information about stanly who subsequently proves to be the central character in the play of courese all this information is a matter of ‘’perhaps’’ or of probability.we are not certain about anything.But the basis for our guess work is solid enough for our purpose.Therefore,it is not quite correct to say that the ply has no beginning.Act I is in the nature of an exposition which which acquaints us with the basic situation of the play.The basic situation is that a man called stanley webber,who used at one time to play the piano on the pier,is hinding himself from the outside world in meg`s boarding house and felling a sense of  security here.This man suddenly finds that he is in danger and that the danger has appeared in the shape of two intrudera called goldberg and mccann.Stanley seems to have come to this town to find shettre against some people who had become his enemies as a result possibly of some wrong or misdeep which he himself hand commited.That he had commited some wrong is clear from a secreat sense of guilt which he seems to experience and which finds a confirmation in act it when he is subjected to a cross examination by the two visitors.

v   Some more facts Brought to our notice At the Beginning:-

             Other facts in the exposition (Act)are:

                   1.Stanley`s special relenship with meg;

                   2.His attitude of indifferent to lulu;

                   3.Goldberg`s prospal that a birthday party in honour of Stanely sholud be held;

                  4.The present of boy`s drum of stanly,and stanley`s reaction to it

                  5.The peculir character of goldberg and McCann,And the mysterious job which they have              come execute

                   Thus,inspite of the inconquential tal with which the play opens,there are certain vital and significant facts which are communicated to us in in Act I about stanley and the two visitors who have unexpectedly arrived.Of cours, certain questionas still remain unanswered,but we can find the answer to them through our own guess-wor which is a legitimte exercise on the part of the reader of a literary work,or on the part of an audience.

v   The play is not without beginning:-

            The criticisam that the play has no begininig is thus not quite justified.The begininig is very much there.Act is the begininig.The atmosphere of uncertainty and myery,which shrounds certain facts about stanly and about the teo visiters,is a deliberate,and a part of pinter`s drametic technique evidenced also in his other ply such as The Room,The Caretaker,and The Homecoming.

v   Act 2:the middle of the play:-

                              That the play has a middle,is not denid in the remark quoted in the question which we are answering here.Act ii constitutes the middle.Here a confict begins.The conflict,Which is the central sitiation in the play,Taes place between stanly and the conflict reach its climax at the close of act ii when the two visiters  advance meanacing owards stanley,perhapes to seize their prey and deal with him according to the instrucation which goldberg has recived organization for which he is worrying.

v   Ending Inconceivability unansered Question:-

                        The other charge againts the play that it has no ending,or that no conclusive ending has been supplied by the auther,Now many reader do feel that at the close of the play they have been left in a state of bewildment.There is certainly some ground for thid charge.Some question certain remain unansrwered at the end,so that we feel that we have been confronted with a riddle,For instance,we do not now what was done what was done to stanly during the night after the birthday party was over.We do not knowwhy satnly hassufferd a nervous breckdown,We do not understand why Goldberg and McCann,Who have been persecuting stanley,are themseleves felling nervous and even againted mcCaan says that he will not gi bac into  Stanley`s room again while Goldberg says that he is feeling ‘’knocked out’’.Goldberg has a donmineering personality,and he has made  agreat impect on our minds,but this man is for alittle while unable even ti talk coherently:he splutters andstmmer and almost gets lost.Thenwe do not undersatnd what Goldberg and McCann are taling about when they subject stanly ti another barrage of words,alternately speaking and offering all sorts of assrances and promises to him.Nor do we understand how stanley has been of hispower thiniknig.Well the answer to all these question have to be arrived at thruogh guess work based on the avilbale facts.

v   Guess work Necessary to answer These Question:-

     

                      The first question which needa to be answered is: What was done to Stanley during the night after the birthday party was over? Well,It seems that Stanley was subjected to some kind of pysical and mental torture which was unendurable and which has therefore brought about his neverous breckdown.The answer to the next question is that Goldberg and McCann  who are the two agents of some oraganization,are feeling shaken by the very brutality and inhumanity of the torture to which they have subjected their victim.It is true that men are seasoned gangsters;but in this particular case their  task has proved too much  even for them.What act of brutality they have  perfomed remain a mystery,of course.Someone has suggested that they have carried out stanley`s circumcision,but every reader has right to imagine any kind of torture.And it is due to the inhuman torture which staneley has suffered that he has been bereft of his power of thining and speaking.he is ahattered man who has almost lost his wites.What is the meaning of th second brain-washing sesson? Well,This is a drametic devise to enhance the sense of mystery in the play.The idea of coures is to overwhelm stanley further and to paralyze his mentle power completely.Or,the intention of the gangster may be to restore some  of his thinkinging power to staley by offering him all kind of attrective  proposition and inducements.What does Goldberg mean when he says that they would stanley to monty,and who is money ?well is perhaps the leader of the organizer whom Goldberg and McCann are serving and the two  men are talkning Stanley away to monty who till then personlly deal with stanley in  any way he think fit.Stanley`s ordely may have enaded,or it may countine now under the direct supervision of Monty.but one thing is clear:Monty is not a docter and Satanley is not being taken to him for any tretment.Goldberg and McCann are the avenging agents of the organization and no ministering angels.