A Psychoanalytical Study Of Pinter’s The Homecoming

Harold Pinter, as the most influential playwright of England in the second half of20century, occupied his own region in British drama just as modern classic writers Kafka Franz,Graham Greene and Proust.“Pinteresque”", the word comes from Pinter’s family name waslocated into the Oxford English Dictionary. It’s his great reputation that the Nobel Prize forLiterature was awarded to him in2005.The Homecoming is the representative play of his early works. Critics at home andabroad had interpreted this play from various angles. Their studies are mainly about the play’sdiscourse analysis, theme of absurd and feminism study and so forth. The play is full ofmiseries because of characters’ strange conversations, weird actions and awful interpersonalrelationship. Pinter’s refusing to answer these questions aroused critics’ interests in thediscussion of this play.The Oedipus complex, the Personality Structure and the Defense Mechanism are thethree main branches of psychoanalytical theory. This thesis analyzes Max, Teddy, Joey andLenny in the perspective of Oedipus complex and found that they were influenced by it deeply.They loved their mother but hated their father just like the King Oedipus. Freud claimed thatthe Oedipus complex was driven by the Libido. The Libido becomes powerful that the Egoand Superego are ineffective. Based on the analysis of main characters’ personality structure,it is clear that they are influenced by the Id and chase the “pleasure principle”. It is the answerof their awful relationship and unreasonable abuses to each other. The Ego tries to depress thepowerful Id to keep the balance of the personality structure. However, the Ego is so powerlessthat their depression projects to Ruth finally. They proposed that Ruth would stay in Londonto be “a public lover” and “a money maker” to support their family.The conclusion is dropped on the basis of former analyses: Ruth’s homecoming is tosave the broken family and let it go back to be harmonious again. What’s more, it is notmerely the return to Ruth’s past time but the fulfillment of her freedom. Ruth is brave enoughto pursue her new life. It is the female image who is admired by the author Pinter as well.