Consumption Imagery And National Consciousness In Harold Pinter’s Early Plays

Harold Pinter(1930-2008),as the one who won the Noble Prize for Literature in the year of 2005,is the most influential figure in the contemporary British theatre.Born in the Second World War,Pinter had greatly experienced the transformation of social unrest.The plays which Pinter had created always happen within the daily life scenes of the characters.It sets the tone of the description of simple consumption.And the plays not only recreate the social appearance of Britain after World War II and reveal the consumer culture of British society at that time,but also highlight the influence of British society after social change and embody Pinter’s worries over the destiny of his country.However,most of the scholars in China and abroad,concerned about the richness of Pinter’s plays’ thematic meanings and language features.In reference to the theme of consumption and consumption imagery,much less notice was taken on them.Thus,studying the consumer culture in Pinter’s plays can provide a different way to analyze its motif and meaning.Based on the context of consumer society,using Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party,The Dumb Waiter,The Room,The Caretaker and The Homecoming as research object,from the theory of consumer culture,this thesis tries to combine the specific consumption imagery to analyze the British people national consciousness,so as to reveal the most real influence on British society and people after the social change in Britain.And the research includes the following four aspects: to begin with,define the core concept of this thesis—“consumption imagery” and “national consciousness”;then tease out the origin,development and characteristics of consumer culture and its methods as a literary theory,so that the author can use it as a theoretical framework to analyze Pinter’s early plays;furthermore,from the perspectives of clothing,eating,residence,transportation and leisure activities consumption to analyze the consumption imagery in Pinter’s play;finally,based on the consumption imagery and consumer culture,the British national consciousness is analyzed.Throughout this research,one conclusion can be drawn that the consumption imagery in the plays are the reflection of the social reality.And the consumption imagery in the plays can best signify the aftereffect of the Second World War and the shadow upon the domestic life.The character’s simple life scenes are the epitome of the life of the lower classes of the British people from 1950 s to 1960 s.They set as a reflection of the change of country’s economic conditions.The embarrassment in life has caused ordinary British citizens to vent their dissatisfaction on immigrants and even become increasingly disgusted with immigrants.And the characters in the plays live in a self-centered world and refuse to communicate with the outside world.This not only reflects the passive response to the living environment as an ordinary British citizen,but also reflects the psychogenic anxiety of many people after the country has undergone tremendous changes.