Harold Pinter¿s Comedies of Menace. Fear and Control in "The Birthday Party"

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Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1, 5, University of Trier (Anglistik), course: Proseminar Harold Pinter, language: English, abstract: Converging comedy and fear, that is a strange art practiced in the comedies of menace.One of the most prominent authors who intermingles the two in his plays is Harold Pinter. But what is the role of menace and fear in a comic play? To examine this question closer the present term paper looks at the role of fear in one of Harold Pinter's first plays, namely his first full length play The Birthday Party. As we will see none of the characters in the play is free from fear. Especially the main character Stanley, the permanent guest in Meg's boarding house, is hounded by his emotions.To begin with I will discuss how Pinter came to choose such a devastating theme and work on it to figure out the fear in the play, along with the emotions and actions it affects. Hereby the menace that the outside world projects on the main character Stanley will be an important factor.