Illness Narratives In Harold Pinter’s Plays

The history of illness is as long as human history, which has been a hot topic since ancient time. In the primitive society, illness was regarded as the symbol of the gods. With man’s increasing ability to understand the outside world, the mystery of illness gradually decreased. As the cognitive abilities of human beings were strengthened, the mystery of illness faded. However, the metaphorical meaning of illness has never been obliterated, and it becomes extensively acknowledged, instilling into various domains of human society. The meanings of illness in literature differ from those in medicine. The emergence and development of illness’s connotation has been deeply marked by human traces. Its evolution is intertwined with the material culture of human society. Therefore, illness has been regarded as the carrier of civilization and culture, and it reflects the contemporary social outlook of the writers. In modern times, the frequent outbreak of wars, the transition of society, and the process of urbanization gave rise to the collision of different values and conflicts of personal interests, which initiated a series of social problems, and they, in return, caused lots of pains and trauma. The images of illness, the projection of real life, are increasingly used in modern and postmodern literary works to interpret the world and to convey the writers’emotional experience, and used as a way to understand the social outlook as well as the writers’intention. Growing up in World War II, Harold Pinter witnessed the transformation and turmoil of the western society. As a descendant of the Jew, he experienced an amount of tribulations such as the London Blitz in his childhood, which left him with traumas and gave him a sense of identity. In the Theatre of the Absurd, metaphors are usually deployed to imply emotional experience. As an absurdist playwright, it is inevitable that Pinter should use illness to reveal the painfulness resulted from severe social conditions. As illness mirrors social background, Pinter’s close attention to it shows that he is observant and insightful. Most of Pinter’s works are imbedded with his personal experience and inspects of illness, and by using the cultural connotation of illness, Pinter demonstrated not only the historical, political, and religious aspects of his times, but also his understanding of the world and his humanist concerns.Illness prevails in Pinter’s different types of works including poetry, prose and drama. However, since drama is known as Pinter’s most important achievement, this dissertation will focus on his drama. In this research, medical theory is used as a specific criterion for the categorization of the diseases in Pinter’s plays. Besides, the theories of psychoanalysis, narratology, body politics, metaphorical rhetoric, and theatrical aesthetics are also applied to several aspects, including illness inspiring Pinter’s creative motive, while pushing the plot itself forward, conveying the metaphorical meanings, giving political significance, as well as achieving the absurd dramatic poetics, which aims at exploring Pinter’s theatrical technique and understanding the social significance of his plays. In the research, some specific analyses are given on Pinter’s17plays related to illness narratives. The17plays include The Room, The Birthday Party, The Caretaker, The Homecoming, A Slight Ache, Family Voices, Betrayal, The Lover, A Kind of Alaska, The Hothouse, The Moonlight, Tea Party, Mountain Language, One for the Road, Ashes to Ashes, The New World Order, and Precisely. Meanwhile, the specific analyses are also given on Pinter’s poems New Year in Midlands, The War and his prose The Party. The dissertation is composed of five parts as follows.The first part is a literary review of Pinter and his works at home and abroad, which clearly states the reasons for this topic, the values of this study, and provides a description of the research methods, the focuses, the difficulties and the innovations in the process of research and analysis. This part is intended to give an explanation to Pinter’s creative motives, as well as an overview to the structure of the dissertation.The second part firstly gives an illustration of illness narratives in literary history. Based on medical theory, this chapter gives an analysis on the illness images in Pinter’s plays, and divides them into three groups as physical illness, mental illness and injury. The various types of illnesses in Pinter’s plays may arouse the readers’ interest. It may be related to Pinter’s life experience. In his childhood, Pinter witnessed the1940Bombing of London. Therefore he has a deep understanding of the brutality of the war. Having the identity as a Jewish descent, Pinter experienced the injustice and the hardship of life even when he was very young. The cynical attitude similar to a fighter adds more to his sympathy towards the weak, and to his resentment towards the powerful ruling classes. Besides, literary trend of illness, especially contemporary writers such as Samuel Becket, Franz Kafka also exert an influence on his writing. All these factors have formed a kind of synergy to drive Pinter to choose illness as his key component in his works. From the viewpoint of post-classical narratology, there is an interpretative and communicative process between authors, texts and readers. In this process, text itself may generate energy to promote the development of the plot, to realize the thematic significance and to strengthen the characterization. Both the instability generated in illness and the dramatic tension generated in theatricality push the plot forward. In addition, the subtle selection of narrative perspective of illness and narrative voice of illness also contributes to the realization of thematic significance. Moreover, the illness narratives promote the formation of characters’ images and demonstrate their character.The third part points out that since illness in Pinter’s plays is generated in specific social and historical background, it is provided with strong function of metaphor. In Pinter’s plays, the misery of illness is often fond of the ethnic minorities. They suffer from physical illness such as blindness, deafness, aphasia, as well as mental disease and even death, which can be traced to Pinter’s identity as a minority, and is also closely related to the common race discrimination phenomena in contemporary western society. Illness is a metaphor of the miserable life of ethnic minorities. In Nietzche’s view, God has died. To the Existentialism philosopher Heidegger, human’s life purposes are confused. Freud believes that mental disease is the normal state of modern people. Attributed to the influence of the specific context, Pinter in his plays shows a number of psychopaths, who distort the traditional notion of love, family affection and ethical morality. In his plays, people lose their faith, and often their spirit is in decadence. In Pinter’s view, the traditional religious notion of kindness and love has already been lost in this extremely alien world. As an abnormal phenomenon, illness is generated in people’s bodies and is regarded as the dark side of life. Therefore, the politics of illness is actually the politics of the body. In macro-politics, illness is utilized by the ruling classes to control, discipline and punish the dissidents. Those victims are persecuted to be ill with limbs injured or even to be dead. In micro-politics, illness is utilized as a discourse strategy by both patients and healthy people to conceal their real purposes or to form alliances to compete the interests in daily life, which is a political struggle without declaration, but also thrilling. In female politics, illness exists only as a representation. Being ill or not ill is actually determined by social culture. The disease of sadomasochism is the projection of the real life of female in Pinter’s times. In his plays, Pinter also shapes scenes with lots of ruins and wounded limbs and bodies, which are attributed to the brutalization of war. Through these injuries, Pinter expresses not only his condemnation and resentment towards war, but also emotional pains and wounds in his heart.The fourth part mainly focuses on the discussion of the relationship between illness and poetics of the Absurd."Uncertainty" and "threat" are two distinct features and the main styles in Pinter’s plays. Not just pursuing the rhythm of the dialogues, Pinter also intends to make his plays similar to poetry which merely presents image, but not with any explanation. Illness has strengthened the feature of uncertainty and increased the possibilities of interpretation. Meanwhile, the illness’s feeling of misery, its universality, its relation to violence, coupled with its social effect adds more atmosphere of threat to Pinter’s plays. Sometimes, to appreciate ugliness is to appreciate beauty. To make illness public engenders the allegory effect. Illness, the abnormal state of human is similar to the absurd, the abnormal state of society. To make illness, which is regarded as ugliness widely known is intended to reveal the absurdity of the society and to satirize the society. Illness plays an important role in achieving theatricality and dramatic tension, which finally contributes to the dramatic effect of catharsis, and which not only clarify the audience’s emotion, but also the playwright Pinter’s emotion.Through the research, one conclusion can be drawn that illness is Pinter’s strong psychological experience of life, which plays an important role in Pinter’s dramatic poetics and is one element which has a surprising variety of types, a wide range of symbolic meanings, and which is also quite expressive and active. The various types of illness, its violent quality and its political metaphorical quality make Pinter’s illness application unique in the contemporary theatre, which on one hand highlights Pinter’s personal style, on the other hand enriches the poetical forms of the Theatre of the Absurd. In the viewpoint of sociology, illness is related to both the individual and society. Therefore, Pinter’s illness narratives are the reflection of social reality. Compared to the traditional playwrights who believed that drama could be used as moralization, playwrights in modern times believe that drama can be used to explore the complexity of human beings, then as a mental treatment to cure audience and themselves. Therefore, illness, while helping Pinter to express his emotion, actually plays another role of revealing sufferings, pains and finally instructing the audiences and readers, which is also a symbol of Pinter’s superb artistic skills and his strong sense of humanism.