‘Homecoming’: A Pinteresque Parable of Lost and Found

Abstract

Pinter, the synonym for culture shock, is one of the prominent figures of the school that eventually matured up to become the Absurdist Theatre. Harold Pinter, the British playwright had a fifty- years long writing career, highly productive and significant as well. The equations of personal, family, social relationships are shattered or rather defined from a new perspective. Pinter’s debut play The Room gave way to the term ‘comedy of menace’, where a ‘one- person dialogue’ (rather than monologue) is the only format. Homecoming, a two-act play, won the 1967 Tony Award for Best Play. The play as claimed by critics, is a metaphor of the true meaning and feel of Home and finding one. ‘Pinteresque’ is the term which was invented to define the genre that Harold Pinter’s play fall in as it was not I accordance with the formulaic scale. Evoking the truth, without decoration, devoid of any fake positivity or morality. He says it with words, he can tell it without words as well, with ‘silence’ at the right spot. Pinter owes a lot to Beckett theme-wise and style- wise. Beckett’s world is one of problems without solutions, bare reality and the inadequacy of words for expressing the emotions. The present paper is an effort to dive deep into the ‘Pinteresque’ portion of the Absurdist world and ponder over his style and thematic expression with special reference to the play The Homecoming.