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    Oumellal Melissa M1 Lit Civ Title: Identity Struggle in "The Caretaker" by Harold Pinter

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    Melissa Oml
    The absurdist play "The Caretaker" by Harold Pinter explores the identity struggles of three post-war British men - Aston, Mick, and Davies. Aston takes in homeless Davies and allows him to stay the night. However, Davies has difficulty proving his identity, as he uses two different names and claims his papers are in another town. Mick lives with his brother Aston and tries to portray himself as a businessman, but never achieves any of his goals. Aston struggles with his former self after receiving electroshock therapy. Pinter uses symbols and a lack of character development or resolution to the plot to illustrate how the characters have no clear sense of identity or place in society after World War II.

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    Oumellal Melissa M1 Lit Civ Title: Identity Struggle in "The Caretaker" by Harold Pinter

    Uploaded by

    Melissa Oml
    425 views2 pages
    The absurdist play "The Caretaker" by Harold Pinter explores the identity struggles of three post-war British men - Aston, Mick, and Davies. Aston takes in homeless Davies and allows him to stay the night. However, Davies has difficulty proving his identity, as he uses two different names and claims his papers are in another town. Mick lives with his brother Aston and tries to portray himself as a businessman, but never achieves any of his goals. Aston struggles with his former self after receiving electroshock therapy. Pinter uses symbols and a lack of character development or resolution to the plot to illustrate how the characters have no clear sense of identity or place in society after World War II.

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    An essay on identity crisis in the Caretaker by Harold Pinter

    Original Title

    Caretaker Essay

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    The absurdist play "The Caretaker" by Harold Pinter explores the identity struggles of three post-war British men - Aston, Mick, and Davies. Aston takes in homeless Davies and allows him to stay the night. However, Davies has difficulty proving his identity, as he uses two different names and claims his papers are in another town. Mick lives with his brother Aston and tries to portray himself as a businessman, but never achieves any of his goals. Aston struggles with his former self after receiving electroshock therapy. Pinter uses symbols and a lack of character development or resolution to the plot to illustrate how the characters have no clear sense of identity or place in society after World War II.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    425 views2 pages

    Oumellal Melissa M1 Lit Civ Title: Identity Struggle in "The Caretaker" by Harold Pinter

    Uploaded by

    Melissa Oml
    The absurdist play "The Caretaker" by Harold Pinter explores the identity struggles of three post-war British men - Aston, Mick, and Davies. Aston takes in homeless Davies and allows him to stay the night. However, Davies has difficulty proving his identity, as he uses two different names and claims his papers are in another town. Mick lives with his brother Aston and tries to portray himself as a businessman, but never achieves any of his goals. Aston struggles with his former self after receiving electroshock therapy. Pinter uses symbols and a lack of character development or resolution to the plot to illustrate how the characters have no clear sense of identity or place in society after World War II.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 2

    Oumellal Melissa

    M1 Lit Civ
    Title : Identity Struggle in “The Caretaker” By Harold Pinter

    Considered as an odd Drama at its time, the public reluctantly welcomed Theatre of the
    absurd with its gloomy scenes. Deemed too depressive by some individuals, it illustrated the
    atmosphere going through Europe after the Second World War as poverty and depression
    settled on most of its countries. “The Caretaker” By Harold Pinter a notorious absurdist play
    of his time for depicting the endeavors of post-war Britain in his characters. Aston, Mick, and
    Davies describe a solid notion of the British low/middle-class men of that era. The three men
    seem to deal with their identities as they struggle to belong in society.

    As the play sets up, a man named Aston rescues Davies from a fight. He takes him to his
    home and welcomes him to stay the night. However, Davies does not behave a guest. Very
    talkative, he babbles about nothing and judges everything. In the play, the author writes
    Davies as a homeless tramp going about without proper papers. Davies takes a hard time
    proving his identity as he goes with two names and his papers are situated in another town
    “Sidcup” to which he cannot go because of his shoes and the weather. He blames his
    joblessness on other races such as “the blacks” or any non-British person. In reality, Davies
    blames anybody but him for his misfortunes and does not admit that he cannot get ahold of his
    life. The writer portrays all of this through racism, selfishness, and egotism to indicate the
    blindness of Davies towards his identity.

    Aston, a kind and considerate man who offers refuge to Davies. He is an artisan who lives in
    his brother’s apartment to restore it. Through the play, Aston reveals he struggles with his
    former self, who suffered from a mental disability. He is traumatized by the electroshock
    therapy he received in a medical facility. He claims to be building a shed but never does so.
    Aston is alienated from society as he is no longer an active member of it. He avoids going out
    and cannot interact properly because of his trauma. Mick, his brother, tries to show himself as
    a businessman but fails to do so as he only talks about his projects but achieves none of them.
    He is quite a mysterious man, as he is not very talkative. He struggles with his identity as a
    middle-class man and refuses to stay as such, however; he fails to work on his situation.

    Harold Pinter not only marked the lack of identity of his characters through themselves but
    also through his writings and plot. No character has a proper background about neither their
    past life nor their relatives. The play is relatively plotless as there is no growth of the
    character, none of Davies and the brothers accomplish their plans. The play could end as it
    started because there is a stagnation of events as nothing changes. Furthermore, he uses
    symbols to classify the characters. For example; Davies is perceived as a piece of rubbish
    brought to a cluttered space, so he has little to no use there. The Buddha on the stove too
    depicts Mick’s career as he is not where he belongs and when he breaks it he indicates how
    fed up, he is with his life. Through these, he confirms the point that all the characters lack
    proper identities and that absurdist plays aim to show how individuals struggled with a sense
    of self after WWII.

    In conclusion, The Absurdist play “The Caretaker” By Harold Pinter images the identity crisis
    Oumellal Melissa
    M1 Lit Civ
    Title : Identity Struggle in “The Caretaker” By Harold Pinter
    of the men after the war through the three characters in the plot. With awkward sensations
    during the scenes, the Author succeeded to install a thought in the audience about the
    importance of identity. Mick, Aston, and Davies are the perfect example of different men
    struggling to climb the social ladder because of their battle with their identities.

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