Question- What is the theme of the play. "The Home coming" writer by Harold Pinter.

Answer -

The Home coming is a tow act play writtern in 1964 by Harold Pinter and first published in 1965. Its premises in London (1965) and Newyork (1967) were both directed by sir Peter Hall. The original Broadway production won the 1967 Tony Award for Best play for Best Revival of a Play. This play set in North London, the play has six characters. Five of these are man who are related to each other. Max, an retired butcher, his brother Sam, at chauffeur and max's three sons. Teddy, a philosophy professor in the united states, Lenny, a pimp who only makes discrete references to his "occupation" and his clientele and flats in city (London) and Joey, brute training to become a professional boxer and who works in demolition.

The Homecoming Themes

The Dueling Rules of women In the Homecoming, there is little room for moderation, and this especially true of the two female characters who are mentioned by name, Jssie and Ruth, in many ways, there are similarities between the two; both of them have three boys were married and yet carried on sexual relations with other men. This illustrates that both of the characters fulfill two roles of the mother and that of the prostitute.

The role of mother manifests most clearly in Jessie's, the late absent matriarch of the play. Several times, max sings Jesses's praises during his reminiscing. He claims that Jessie would have loved to have seen the family united together and that she would have Made a perfect grandmother. The children two, seem to fondly remember Jessie as a mother figure in their lives. In early scene, even Sam, max brother, claims that their relationship must be strong because max once trusted Sam to drive. Jssie around. Sam is insistent that driving her around was all that he did, and that she remained faithful to max. This illusion, Though, is dispelled at the play's end, when it is implied that the car rides were actually so that Jessie could carry on an affair with max's now deceased best friend Mac.

Ruth also embodies both halves of the mother - prostitute dichotomy. In dealing with Lenny and Joey. She is only two. happy to make sexual advances and to, as Pinter puts it, give out the gravy. Her negotiations of the terms by which she will become a prostitute also suggest that she has some experience in the business. This side of her characters is tied in to her sexuality and her attractiveness as a female; it is while she tells Lenny of her time as a model or when she declares that she is interested in the movement of her legs that her role as women is most emphasized. At the play, though it is left unclear whether this is actually a future to which she aspires or whether she simply longs for the beauty of her youth and to be recognized as valuable.

Masculinity - The Homecoming is one of Pinter's few plays that deals specifically with the theme of masculinity touching on the idea in a vein similar to Heming way's machismo. Masculinity is almost like a toxic disease in the household, pervading the actions and thoughts and values of the characters. All the moles fed the need to asset dominance over others; they criticize, bully, manipulate and threaten. They find their identity in their work and in their assumptions of power. They view women as objects and as falling into only two categories of mother and where. They become disconcerted when anything or anyone threatens their masculinity, and work to asset it at all lost. While each of the male characters has a trait or two that save them from being totally reprehensible, ultimately they are classic mid 20th cent very makes, keen on retaining and enforcing the patriarchal status quo.

The Passage of Time - The theme of aging haunts the older characters in The Homecoming' Two prominent members of the older generation Mac and Jessie are never seen onstage because they are already dead max and Sam, white alive, only talk about the past when they are together. They talk about Sam's old Job, their dead mother's role in the family, their memories about mac and finally Sam reveals that Mac and Jessie world have sex in the backseat of his car. This theme is most prominently displayed in the play's final lines, in while Max insists that he is not an old man and is clearly trying to prove to Ruth that he is still able to perform sexually. An Ironic aspect of this theme is the ordering of the children Teddy, the least masculine son is the eldest, while. Joey, the son with the most humanity and the most concrete ambitions, is the youngest.

The Power of Silence - The "Pinter pause," as it has been called, is a characteristic of many of Harold Pinter's play. Printer once asserted that silence can either be the complete absence of conversation or the complete inundation of conversation from all parties. In the Homecoming are Teddy and Max. For Teddy, his pause are bouts of hesitancy where he is unsure of what to say. This exemplifies the complete absence of conversation because Teddy is unable to fill in the gaps left by his family and his life for max, his pause are breaks in his reminiscing when he is discussing the past nauseam. These broken monologues sometimes take up several minutes' worth of the play.

Family as Home This is a tursted family but it's a family nonetheless. There is bickering, violence, rivalry and cruelty, but as Lenny tells Teddy, it is a unit an it must be protected. The working class London world is clearly difficult in terms of material success and social dynamics but the family is there unconditionally. In a strange ways Ruth is only really accepted when she is deemed part of the family; similarly Teddy letting her stay is also a bit of "grace" for his family.

Modern Life - As critic John Warner avers, "The Homecoming drama which describes man's plight in the godless world of science and reason." Indeed, God is pretty much absent from the text, as are conventional morals or social norms. Teddy/who looks like the most anodyne character at first, comes to reveal the dearth of value and morality. Teddy choose to live and work. Teddy values objectivity and has few emotions; thus it is not surprising that Ruth finds her life there oppressive in its barrenness. Materialism and commercialism and rationality at the expense of emotion and authenticity characterize modern life.

Sex - Much of the play is about sex - Jessie and Mac Gragor, Lenny's Job, Ruth with Joey and Lenny, Ruth's potential role as prostitute - but it is oddly stripped of heat, of passion. Critic Thomas Postelwait comments, "sex lacks its moral (and immoral) meaning for guiding the attitudes of the characters and the audience, "and Bert states doubts Pinter's characters are troubled by sexual appetites and "Seem far more interested in manipulating the idea of sexuality, for its effect on others, than their own performance.

Power and Dominance - There is one theme in "The Homecoming that permeates almost every scene, every character, every line and penumbra, it is the desire for power and dominance. All of the characters want to assert these things over others, whether it is verbally or physically or sexually. They want to survive and thrive but not in an amicable, communal way; rather, they preen and posture and provoke. Everyone competes with everyone else, and even though they do not all attain power, and dominance oretain it. They at least have it in the moment of assertion.

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