The Basement by Harold Pinter: Why the ‘Absurd’ Is Never- ending A Thing?

Abstract

Harold Pinter and other Absurdist writers were the aftermaths of the World Wars. The hollowness of claims of unity, the world being a beautiful place, greatness and development, and above all, humanity shattered with the two World Wars. Pinter got ‘the absurdist’ nerve right on the stage devoid of any possibility for relief. Also, the bare minimum that a man can do to find escape is following his will without thinking of the consequence. Pinter’s characters are always in a war for possession of something or the other, a flat, a woman or both. The Basement features two ‘friends’, Tim Law and Charles Stott and their ‘shared’ female interest Jane. The plot revolves around the competition for possession of a basement flat and the girl between the two men and the shifting attitude of the girl herself. Pinteresque mode of expression is likely to manipulate both language and silence to the cause. When characters handle a ‘should be’ and ‘could be’ two- way dialogue single -handedly, it is either the others’ failure in or the speaker’s denial to accept communication. Absurdity lies in this very reiteration, the monotony of suffering and the helplessness increased with the fall of each day. The Absurdist Theatre features these attributes personified in the manner of Miracle and Morality plays of the European Middle Ages. Pinter’s ‘Pinteresque’ plays create this magic within the four walls of a house. The present paper is an effort to get an insight into Pinter’s presentation of the world as it is, bare and rough, having absurdity in profundity, with special mention of his television play The Basement.