‘성애’, ‘폭력’, ‘광기’의 소극: 오튼의 『집사가 본 것은』에 나타난 현대 영국 사회의 신화 해체

Abstract

This study explores Joe Orton’s What the Butler Saw related to the theme of sexuality, violence and madness, which reveals harsh reality of modern English society he attacks. In What the Butler Saw Orton emphasizes nightmarish world through Dr. Prentice’s psychiatric clinic in order to portray mad, sexual and frightening violence of contemporary life. Through the play, Orton subverts the traditional norm and values of modern English society which presents a hypocritical formality. In particular, he satires the authority of institutional mores and deconstructs a modern myth represented by psychiatric doctors who symbolize the inherent madness and violence of bureaucratic authority through the action of the play. For the theatrical devices, Orton takes the convention of bedroom farce combining the comic activity of the traditional farce with the tragic reality of crueler society. In What the Butler Saw Orton accents the aggressive nature of farce which satirizes conventional social and moral code. For this reason, What the Butler Saw is the most play which Orton shows the exaggerated image of chaos, violence, madness and sexuality for reveling trenchant modern English society there is nothing worth concealing.