THE IMPLICIT PRESENCE OF KAFKA IN HAROLD PINTER’S
THE ROOM, THE BIRTHDAY PARTY AND THE CARETAKER
A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF PUNE
FOR THE DEGREE OF
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
BY
FATEMAH AZIZMOHAMMADI
UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF
DR. B. S. VALKE
Ex-Chairman, Board of Studies in English, University of
Pune
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
UNIVERSITY OF PUNE
JUNE 2007
CONTENTS
I
Acknowledgement
II
Declaration
III
Certificate
IV
Abstract
1.
2.
3.
Chapter 1: Introduction
1.0 – Hypothesis
1
1.1 – Survey of Recent Scholarship
3
1.2 – Plan of the Thesis
12
1.3 – Glossary of the Terms Used in the Thesis
14
Chapter 2: Existentialism and the Absurd
2.0 – The Philosophy of Existentialism
22
2.1 – The Concept of the Absurd
25
2.2 – Literary Anticipations of the Absurd
37
Chapter 3: Franz Kafka
3.0 – Kafka’s Life and Works
53
3.1 – The Metamorphosis
62
3.1.1 - The Metamorphosis: Profile
62
3.1.2 – The Metamorphosis as an Existential Allegory
63
3.1.3 – The Metamorphosis as a Psychological Allegory
75
3.2 – The Trial
98
3.2.1 – The Trial: Profile
98
3.2.2 – The Trial as an Existential Allegory
101
3.2.3 – The Trial as a Psychological Allegory
125
3.3 – The Castle
142
3.3.1 – The Castle: Profile
142
3.3.2 – The Castle as an Existential Allegory
145
3.3.3 – The Castle as a Psychological Allegory
162
4. Chapter 4: Harold Pinter
4.0 – Pinter’s Life and Works
180
4.1 – The Room
204
4.1.1 – The Room: Profile
204
4.1.2 - The Room as an Existential Allegory
205
4.1.3 – The Room as a Psychological Allegory
223
4.2 - The Birthday Party
230
4.2.1 - The Birthday Party: Profile
230
4.2.2 – The Birthday Party as an Existential Allegory
232
4.2.3 – The Birthday Party as a Psychological Allegory
245
4.3 – The Caretaker
248
4.3.1 - The Caretaker: Profile
248
4.3.2– The Caretaker as an Existential Allegory
249
4.3.3 - The Caretaker as a Psychological Allegory
267
5. Chapter 5: Kafka’s Shadow in Pinter’s plays
5.0– Common Heritage
279
5.1 - Literary Strategies of Kafka and Pinter
286
5.2 – Kafka’s Shadow in The Room
289
5.3 – Kafka’s Shadow in The Birthday Party
297
5.4 – Kafka’s Shadow in The Caretaker
310
6. Chapter 6: Conclusion
6.0 – Tying up Loose Threads
321
6.1 – Possibilities for Further Research
325
7. Select Bibliography
333
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
It goes without saying that any new study of Kafka and Pinter is
indebted to many previous works. Such scholarly debts I have
incurred have been duly acknowledged in the thesis. Here I should
like to mention gratefully the personal debts I have incurred during
the course of my research.
First and foremost my thanks go to Dr. Meghdadi Bahram, whose
book Knowing Kafka really created in me interest for that remarkable
novelist. This study to a large extent is an extension of his inspired
and inspiring teaching of Kafka. When I succeeded in registering
myself as a Ph. D candidate in the University of Pune, I was
exceptionally fortunate in having Dr. B. S. Valke, Ex-Chairman Board
of Studies in English University of Pune, as a guide.
Frequent
consultations with him have been invaluable and eye-opening for me
in many ways. I was particularly impressed by his meticulous care
regarding
even
minor
matters
of
punctuation.
Really
his
punctiliousness is worth emulating. My thanks must next go to Dr.
Shivajirao Mohite, Dean of Arts Faculty, University of Pune and to
Dr. A. R. Thorat, Chairman Board of Studies in English, University of
Pune for their constant support and timely help. I am also thankful to
Dr. Aniket Jaware, Head Department of English and also to the
members of the departmental faculty University of Pune, who were
not only supportive but who also constantly enquired about my
progress. Their enquiries always kept me on my toes.
India is a land known for its generous hospitality. During my stay
here, I found so many friends and well-wishers that it is just not
possible to name them individually. But I would like to assure them
collectively that I am deeply indebted to them for their warm
friendship and moral support. They gave me a home away from home.
Without their love it would not have been possible for me to steer
clear through the Scylla of Kafka’s maze on the one hand and the
Charybdis of Pinter’s menace on the other.
I should also like to put on record my heartfelt thanks to the staff of
the Jayakar Library, Pune University and also the Administrative
Staff, particularly the Ph. D Section, who have all been invariably
solicitous and co-operative.
And now I turn to my familial debts, which in a sense can never be
repaid. First my mother who, in the absence of my beloved father,
stood like a rock and looked after my household and kids in India
leaving me free to pursue my scholastic adventures. As a small token
of gratitude, I dedicate my thesis to my parents. My kids Sarah and
Amir have shown remarkable forbearance with me, and allowed me to
be away from them for long stretches of time. And finally how does
one thank one’s consort? Had it not been for my husband, Dr. Nasser
Mahmudi, himself a great scholar of Persian Poetry and the ViceChancellor of Shoshtar Branch of Islamic Azad University, whose
encouragement, support and interest in my career really gave the
strength and confidence to pierce through Kafka’s labyrinth and take
on squarely Pinter’s ‘menace’. Last but not the least I thank Jyoti for
making the best possible job of typing out from my almost
undecipherable hand.
(Fatemeh Azizmohammadi)
DECLARATION BY THE CANDIDATE
I, Fatemeh Azizmohammadi, hereby solemnly declare that the
thesis entitled “The Implicit Presence of Kafka in Harold Pinter’s The
Room, The Birthday Party and The Caretaker” submitted by me for
the degree of Doctor of Philosophy is the record of work carried out
by me during the period from 9th September 2004 to 18th June 2007
under the guidance of Dr. B. S. Valke and has not formed the basis for
the award of any degree, diploma, associateship fellowship titles in
this or any other university or other institution of higher learning.
I further declare that the material obtained from other sources has
been duly acknowledged in the thesis.
Place:
Date:
Fatemeh Azizmohammadi
Candidate
i
Abstract
The present study proposes to bring out the implicit presence of
Franz Kafka in Harold Pinter’s selected plays. Kafka and Pinter
are well-known as major exponents of the Absurd. Though they
chose to embody their vision in different modes, one in the
fictional and the other in the dramatic, the thematic and, at times,
even technical congruence between the two writers is too
remarkable to be explained away as a matter of happy literary
coincidence. In literary history, Kafka precedes Pinter by almost
half a century. In addition, Pinter has gone on record in many
interviews to admit the influence of earlier writers like
Dostoevsky, Kafka, and Beckett. Such a candid acknowledgement
provides the basis for finding out what Pinter has learnt from his
predecessors. For pragmatic reasons such as the argument having
sharpness of focus, it was decided to limit the thesis to tracing out
Kafka’s influence in Pinter’s first three plays, as, anyway, they are
the most talked-of works in any discussion of the Absurd Drama.
The task of tracing the contours of Kafka’s shadow in Pinter’s
plays naturally divides itself into six stages or chapters. The first
stage is the statement of the aims and objectives of the thesis. It
ii
clarifies that though the study argues for Kafka’s influence on
Pinter it by no means implies that the playwright has nothing of his
own to say or to contribute. The interest is rather in the chain of
intertextuality. This introductory chapter goes on to explain the
‘why’ of one more study on Pinter. And the justification of course
is that though there have been ‘hints and guesses’ about Kafka’s
presence there is not yet a full-length book outlining the extent of
Kafka’s influence on Pinter. The study expects precisely to fill up
this lacuna. The absence of such a study has been brought out by a
rapid survey of recent scholarship of both Kafka and Pinter. Since
the present study examines the works of both these writers from
philosophical as well as psychological viewpoints, a glossary of
technical terms from these specialist fields has also been given in
the chapter. It is hoped that such a glossary of terms will facilitate
greater clarity and precision in the argument. Since Absurdism in
literature is an off-shoot of the nineteenth century school of
philosophy called Existentialism, founded by Soren Kierkegaard, it
becomes imperative for any researcher to get acquainted with this
intellectual power-house from which so many modern writers have
drawn their share of literary energy.
Accordingly the second
iii
chapter examines some select concepts or tenets of Existentialism
which find a direct reflection in Kafka and Pinter’s works. These
concepts are 1) Existence precedes the essence, 2) Man is Free, he
condemned to be Free and 3) We are thrown into the world,
unconsulted.
The first of these principles is a rejection of Platonic
essentialism. Plato believed that every object on the earth has its
essence in the world of ideas. Existentialists reject the notion and
assert existence is prior to essence. Philosophy should therefore
concentrate its attention not on essentialist categories but on the
nature of life itself. Such a view has tremendous implications for
human mind and character.
If there are no essences, human
character is not a sum total of stable characteristics but an entity
constantly shaped and reshaped by existence. In the writings of
both Kafka and Pinter characters keep on shuffling their identities.
K. in The Castle and Rose in The Room or Davies in The
Caretaker are cases in point.
Sartre’s famous declaration that Man is Free, he is condemned
to be Free is extremely frightening for it takes away from man the
external props or pegs like God or Fate on which he could hang on
iv
his failures in life. Man alone makes a heaven or hell of his life.
Kafka and Pinter’s protagonists also move in the godless universe
and their destiny is entirely the result of the existential choices they
make.
Paul Tillich’s comico-serious statement that we are thrown into
the world, unconsulted underscores the contingent nature of our
life. It recalls Heidegger’s “thrown into being” (Geworfenheit ins
Dasein). Thus the two important events of life—birth and death―
are beyond the individual’s control. One has only to add Albert
Camus’ comparison of man’s life to the futile labour of Sisyphus
and the picture of Absurdism is complete.
It is true neither Kafka and Pinter nor Sartre and Camus were
the first ones to voice forth the basic absurdity of life and world.
There were earlier literary manifestations of the absurdist vision.
Martin Esslin in The Theatre of the Absurd speaks indeed of the
“tradition of the Absurd”. The genealogy of the Absurd traced in
this study is different from that of Esslin.
Here the literary
antecedents of the Absurd are located not only in the Romantic
Agony of the early 19th century and the grave-yard, macabre
humour in Hamlet but especially in the Persian poet Omar
v
Khayyam, whose Rabaiyat is seen as a great metaphysical quest
for meaning in life.
After sketching out the philosophical background of Kafka and
Pinter, the next two chapters go on to examine their works
respectively. At the outset, the third chapter notes that the mode of
being of Kafka’s texts is not realist but allegorical. As fables they
function like a poetic image whose appeal is emotive rather than
intellectual and which is open to multiple interpretations.
Naturally, the works selected― The Metamorphosis, The Trial
and The castle are examined as Existential and psychological
allegories. It is shown how these works as Existential allegories
reflect the themes of guilt, alienation and authentic existence or the
conflict between Being and Unbeing; similarly as psychological
allegories, these works highlight the themes of divided self, the
Ego and the unconscious and finally the theme of awakening.
Chapter four studies Pinter’s selected plays — The Room, The
Birthday Party and The Caretaker— under the same rubric. Like
Kafka’s works, Pinter’s plays also are dominated by the
philosophical and psychological themes such as the problem of
guilt, alienation, menace and divided self.
vi
Chapter five is the pivotal point, the very heart, as it were, of the
thesis. After an examination of Kafka and Pinter’s works, the
chapter now builds on the similarities and differences between the
two writers. It is stated at the outset that such an attempt is not
entirely a comparative study. Rather, the aim is here to see how
Kafka’s shadow haunts these early plays of Pinter.
This is
rendered possible because of Kafka’s precedence over Pinter in the
matter of literary chronology and also by Pinter’s open
acknowledgement of his influence. It also sees the difference
between the two writers. Whereas Kafka shows his protagonists
rebelling against a mindless authority symbolized by the Father,
the Court or the Castle, in the hope of sense ultimately prevailing,
Pinter’s presentation is far more bleak and stark. His protagonists
give in quickly to the menacing authority.
Is it because, the
chapter asks, because Kafka did not live to see the Second World
War and Pinter had to live through it?
The chapter then goes on to show how despite the difference in
their Aristotelian ‘means of imitation’, Kafka and Pinter’s texts
show a remarkable similarity in their mode of being.
Firstly,
Pinter’s plays like Kafka’s novels function as allegories and
vii
present us with an enduring human situation which is to be taken
as a poetic image. Further, Pinter like Kafka is preoccupied with
themes like problems in identity, feelings of insecurity the everpresent menace in the world outside a room of one’s own. Once
again like Kafka Pinter also shows his protagonists to be divided
selves and their precarious struggle to unify the claims of the Ego
and the Unconscious.
The chapter also draws attention to the
adoption of a similar technique by Kafka and Pinter. Like the
metaphysical poets of the 17th century, these modern writers also
show a curious blend the serious and the comic. For instance, in
the interrogation scenes in The Trial and The Birthday Party,
there is an element of farce as well as menace, the former, instead
of neutralizing the frightening impact, heightens it.
Having established the congruence between Kafka and Pinter at
the level of theme, character and technique, the thesis in its
conclusion draws inferences of general significance. For example
how because of their Jewish origin and upbringing, both Kafka and
Pinter are inwardly drawn towards the themes of man’s alienation,
the mindless and cruel authority, guilt and angst. The influence of
Existentialism provides them with the notion of Absurdism which
viii
becomes in their hands a powerful tool of dealing with the world
and in a sense gives them an answer to the question basic to all
philosophies — how to live.
The ‘Conclusion’ also draws attention to the fact that Kafka and
Pinter were not the first ones or the only ones to find adequate
defence in the idea of the world as the theatre of the Absurd.
Alongside Martin Esslin’s ‘Tradition of the Absurd’, the thesis
makes a Persian detour and shows how many Sufi poets like ElGazali, Omar Khayyam, Attar of Nishapur and Jalaluddin Rumi
had anticipated the exponents of the Absurd. The thesis ends by
indicating this line of argument as a future direction for further
research in the field.
Indeed, a comprehensive survey of Sufi
poetry will enable one to establish linkages between Absurdism
and this ancient Islamic sect if only to prove that the Absurdist
vision cuts across all boundaries of time, place and culture.
1
Chapter I
Introduction
1.0 – Hypothesis
T
he present study aims at tracing the influence of Kafka
in the works of Harold Pinter the Absurd dramatist. It
is well-known that both the writers are exponents of the
intellectual and philosophical movement called Absurdism
which in turn derives its sustenance from perhaps the most
influential school of philosophy in the twentieth century,
Existentialism. Thanks to the pioneering work of Martin Esslin
Absurd Drama is no longer a puzzle to readers.
After his
anthology of Absurd plays with a very useful explanatory
introduction to this bewildering form of drama and also after
that his compendium The Theatre of the Absurd (1968) the
connection between this new drama and the Existential
philosophy became widely known and acknowledged. Kafka of
course has been seen right from the start as the main exponent
of the Absurd. It would be seen therefore as labouring the
obvious if one strives to trace the implicit presence of Kafka in
2
the works of the Absurd playwrights. In fact, the presence of
Kafka in Harold Pinter’s plays has been indicated before.
… like Beckett and Kafka, Pinter’s attitude to his work is
that of an existentialist, the mode of a man’s being
determines his thinking … and the nature of his own being
that fundamental anxiety which is nothing less than a living
being’s basic awareness of the position of the threats of
non-being, of annihilation… (Martin Esslin: 1976: 35)
Naturally, therefore, one may legitimately ask as to what
justifies a thesis of such a type. Now in defence of a venture
like this, one may point out that the Kafka-connection in
Pinter’s work has been suggested only in the form of hints and
guesses; no detailed study of the relation between the Czech
novelist and the English playwright has so far been undertaken
certainly not in the manner this study proposes to do. In tracing
Kafka’s influence in Pinter’s works the study not only goes to
their common intellectual and philosophical roots but also
examines the whole phenomenon from a psychological
3
perspective. It, thus, aims at bringing out the psychology of
such writers in being influenced by particular philosophies. In
other words, the literary manifestations of the Existential
philosophy as reflected in the works of two major figures like
Kafka and Pinter are studied in relation to their psychological
needs and compulsions. Thus the study can be seen as an
exercise in psycho-existentialism from the viewpoint of a
student of literature.
1.1 – Survey of Recent Scholarship
A rapid survey of the recent books on these authors will
show in what way this study departs in important ways from
them. First and foremost are the works of Carl Jung. In his
Modern Man in Search of a Soul (first published in 1933, rpt.
1990) Jung in his essay “Psychology and Literature” shows
how psychology helps the study of literature in important ways
as both the subjects have common object of study, viz; the mind
of man. And the human psyche is the womb of all sciences and
arts. Thus psychology can explain the formation of a work of
art on the one hand and on the other reveal the factors that make
a person artistically inclined. In his later book The
4
Undiscovered Self (1958) Jung states that no problem is more
basic to the Western society than the plight of the individual in
the highly organised and mechanized world of today. Modern
man has surrendered more and more of his freedom to the
subjugating forces of a mass civilization. Resistance to this
organized mass civilization can be made only by one who is as
well organized in his own individuality as the mass itself. Jung
explores the roots of the 20th century man’s anxieties which are
the major factors in most of the psychological cases that come
up to the psychiatrist’s couch. Jung’s observations in this book
are
particularly
helpful
in
understanding
the
schizoid
personalities of a Joseph K. or a Stanley.
The Divided Self (1965) by Dr. Laing is another useful book
on psychology which is a unique study of the human situation
as it makes the process of going mad comprehensible.
He
offers a rich existential analysis of a person’s alienation from
the view point of psychology. According to him the outsider, a
stranger from himself and others cannot experience life like
other people. So he invents a false self for himself which is his
defence mechanism in dealing with both the outside world and