Critical Analysis of The Homecoming Essay -- European Literature Harol

Harold Pinter's play, The Homecoming, represents a series of urban characters involved in the family relationships whose prime interest is in wining dominance over another, and the depiction of gender roles which radically severed from traditional family in urban life. This essay will explore the family relationships between the characters against traditional family and how it relates to modernity. I will exam the text in the following aspects: I will identify the way that in urban life, characters struggle for dominance over another, in attempt to assert identity in order to secure love and identity. I will then illustrate the situation of gender roles, in which possess freedom from constraints of tradition notion of being at home. Finally, I will explore the penetration of homecoming and how it against traditional family, as a way to announce itself as modern. Throughout the analysis, I argue that pinter formulate the notion that the struggling for power, constantly revolves around the city, which demonstrates the disruption of traditional family structure and relationships, in order to comment on modernity. The homecoming is located in the north London and introduced in 1965. The boom site is considered as an image of the post war Britain, which was reeling from the economical and psychological cost after the World War II. The war has encouraged the disintegration of the class system and mutual distrust between the genders. the increasing social acceptability of contraception help to modify tradition of gender roles. In the play of The Homecoming, "all of Pinter's characters struggle for power over others, and beneath the surface that struggle is again an attempt to assert identity in order to gain attention, admiration,... ...the main site of modern commodification of both nurturing and sexual services. The dysfunctional family relationships are presented through the manipulation of sexual attraction, as well as the exertion of dominance between characters in the urban London city after the World War II. Reference: M. Billington, The life and work of Harold Pinter, London: Faber and Faber, 1996. p.168 E. Diamond "Pinter's comic play, Lewisburg: Associated University Presses, c1985. J. Donald imagining the modern city (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999) P. Penelope, The Pinter ethic: the erotic aesthetic. New York: Garland, 1994. p.131 Gale Stephen H. Harold Pinter: critical approaches. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. London: Associated University Presses, 1986. p.113 Volker S. Harold Pinter: towards a poetics of his plays New York: P. Lang, c1989.