1. Theme And symbols
(The Birthday Party)
Name: Dodiya Meghana J
Roll No: 11
Paper Name: The Modernist literature
Email Id:mdodiya26@gmail.com
Submitted To: Department Of English
2. • Harold Pinter was born in
1930 and died in 2008.
• He was a Nobel prize
winning English
playwright, screenwriter,
director and actor.
• He was one of the most
influential modern British
dramatist who whole
for round about 50 years
3. Absurdity
The term "absurd" was originally used by
Albert Camus in his 1942 essay “Myth of
Sisyphus,” wherein he described the human
condition as “meaningless and absurd.”
Albert Camus “Myth of Sisyphus”.
The absurd in these plays takes the form of
man’s reaction to a world apparently
without meaning ,and or man as a puppet
controlled by invisible outsider.
In almost every character we find a kind of
disappointment and complain from life. Meg
keeps on running meaningless conversations
like “how is cornflakes ?” or “didn’t you
enjoy your breakfast ?”etc. It is perhaps to
fill the emptiness within her
4. Violence and cruelty
• In the birthday party full of
violence, both physical and
emotion ,overall suggesting
that violence is fact of life.
• Stanley is cruel and violent
towards but, much more afraid
against other man.
• Much of the violence in the
play concern women.Stanley
not only intimidates Meg
verbally,but he also prepare to
assault Lulu.
• Finally,the threat of violence is
ever-present in the play.
5. Blindness
• Man groping in the
darkness-search for identity
or search for existential
human predicament.
• Game-played at party-Blind
man’s buff
• Stanley’s glasses-cannot see
without it –removes when
feels nostalgic-Maccan
breaks it-at the end
promises to give new one.
6. Death
• Process of death
• Stanley first loses his
sight(glasses broken),then
his speech, finally ceases
to exist.
• Wheel brrow and black
car is symbolic of hearse
where in coffin is carried
for burial.
• He is neatly dressed up as
dead body is cleaned and
dressed up.
8. Mirror
• Shows what we want to
see about our self .an
illusionary image.
• Shows self reflection to
character what we are.
• In beginning of the
movie ,camera focuses
on mirror of the car,
and through this we see
what is passing by.
9. Newspaper
• Obstacle in communication.
• Petey is reading in the
beginning .we can read that
behind newspaper he is
hiding his impotency.
• Later on this newspaper was
torn into pieces by
Maccan,which represent
that Maccan himself is
broken inside like these torn
pieces of newspaper
10. window and Toy-Drum
• Stanley as an artist but
someone is destroying it at
last.
• Window is symbolizes Hope
of escape but it is
meaningless
