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Review.
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COHN
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RUBY COHN
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JIMMY
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what could be more gilt-edgedthan the next world! It's a capital gain,
and it s all yours.
Vladimir and Estragon, at the beginning of Beckett's Godot, describe
the invisible deity figure in trivial human terms:
VLADIMIR. Let's wait and see what he says.
ESTRAGON.Who?
VLADIMIR.
Godot.
ESTRAGON.Good idea.
VLADIMIR. Let's wait till we know exactly how we stand.
A change of air.
MCCANN.
GOLDBERG.
Somewhere over the rainbow.
RUBYCOHN
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angelsfearto tread....
We'll make a man of you.
GOLDBERG.
And a woman.
MCCANN.
You'll be re-orientated.
GOLDBERG.
You'll be rich.
MCCANN.
You'll be adjusted.
GOLDBERG.
You'll be our pride and joy.
MCCANN.
GOLDBERG.You'll be a mensch.
You'll be a success.
MCCANN.
You'll be integrated.
GOLDBERG.
You'll
MCCANN.
give orders.
You'll make decisions.
GOLDBERG.
MCCANN.
You'll be a magnate.
MCCANN. Where
GOLDBERG.A statesman.
MCCANN.
You'll own yachts.
GOLDBERG. Animals.
MCCANN.Animals.
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against the stove.But it is Rose who is Bert's victim,Rose whose suffering is sustained throughoutthe play, Rose who is suddenlyand finally
afflicted
with the Negro's blindness.
When the play opens, Rose is busy preparinga realistictea in their
realistic room, while Bert Hudd quietly reads a realistic newspaper.
Bert'ssilence in the face of Rose's disconnectedrambling,seems to be a
silence.When Mr. Kidd, the landlord,enters
lower-class,
marital-comedy
to look at the pipes, to conversewithhusband and wife,Bert's persistent
and insistentsilence takeson a threateningquality.Mr Kidd talksabout
the house, about the time he used to live in theirroom. Quite suddenly,
room and inhabitantslose their humdrumexterior,and take on new
depth. When Rose asks how many floorsthere are in the house, Mr.
Kidd replies,"Well, to tell you the truth,I don't count themnow."
Close upon thisrejectionof the numerable,Mr. Kidd reminiscesabout
his dead sister,his Jewishmother.There is a sporadic returnto small
talk,as Mr. Kidd admiresBert Hudd's van, his driving.AfterMr. Kidd
leaves, Bert Hudd, in increasinglysinistersilence,goes down to his van.
During his absence, a Mr. and Mrs. Sands come looking for a room; a
man in the basementhas told them therewas one for rent. There is a
confused conversationabout the landlord, whom Mr. Sands mixes up
with Bert,since the names Hudd and Kidd sound alike. Rose's security
is shaken,and she denies the rumorof a vacancy.Mr. Sands insiststhat
the man in the basementhas offeredthemnumberseven-Rose's room.
When the Sands couple leaves, carryingwith them all hint of social
satire,the surfaceplausibilityof thedialogue collapsescompletely.When
Mr. Kidd reinters,Rose pounces upon him to affirmher claim to the
room. But Mr. Kidd can talk only of a mysteriousman in the basement,
who has been waitingforBert Hudd to leave, so thathe can come up to
see Rose. Even as she denies any knowledgeof the man, she consentsto
see him. When a blind Negro enters,Rose screamsthatshe doesn't know
him, that his name is not Riley, as he claims. Riley announces his message: "Your fatherwants you to come home." Calling her Sal, Riley
soon shiftsto, "I want you to come home." [My italics] AfterRiley's
final, "Come home now, Sal," Bert Hudd returnsto the room, and
speaks for the firsttime. In short,harsh sentences,he describesdriving
his van throughthe cold streets:"She took me there. She broughtme
back." When Riley addresseshim, "Mr. Hudd, your wife-," Bert cries,
"Licel" He knocksRiley down and kickshis head until he lies still.Rose
stands clutchingher eyes,moaning,"Can't see. I can't see. I can't see."
Of the rival claimantsforRose, Riley and Bert, the latter bludgeons
his way to triumph.Bert's role as villain explodes 'climactically,
forit is
RUBY COHN
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"Tomorrow, when I wake, or thinkI do, what shall I say of today?That with
Estragon my friend,at this place, until the fall of night, I waited for Godot?
That Pozzo passed, with his carrier,and that he spoke to us?
Probably. But in
all thatwhattruthwilltherebe?"
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RUBY
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COHN
thisit?
This is it.
MCCANN.
Are you sure?
GOLDBERG.Sure I'm sure.
GOLDBERG.
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RUBY COHN
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In The BirthdayPartyand The Dumb Waiter,there is a higher,invisible power behind the messengers,but Monty remains even more
mysteriousthan Wilson, and more authorityis invested in Goldberg
than in Ben. In all the plays,the motorvan becomes a clear symbolof
modern power. In the firstplay, The Room, the van belongs to Bert
Hudd, but is the object of Mr. Kidd's admiration. In The Birthday
Party,as in The Dumb Waiter, the van is the propertyof one of the
messengers--ineach case, of the dominantand senior partner.It seems
to be theolder,cruelertraditionwhichbestembracesmodernmechanization. Only the recalcitrantindividual mustbe quashed.
As thevictim-villain
conflictin The Room is somewhatdiffusedby the
sociallysatirizedSands couple, so the Boles couple in The BirthdayParty
provides a comic relief fromthe mountingtension.And yet the latter
couple functionsmore directlyin the symboliccontext,for the Boles
are not, like Mr. Kidd, mere landlords; they provide a temporaryif
tawdryrefugeforStanley.Distastefulas are theattentionsof Meg-mothermistress,impersonal as is Petey's presence, the Boles express affection
and concern for Stanley. But human emotions are trickedor brushed
aside by the ruthlessteam of a dogmaticsystem.
In Pinter'slatestplay, The Caretaker,as in the earlierDumb Waiter,
there are no deflectionsfrom the hunting down of victim by villain.
Although none of Pinter's victimsare sentimentalized-Rose is gruff,
Gus has performedbloody deeds beforehe has begun to question them,
Stanleyis ungratefulto Meg-the old man of The Caretakeris perhaps
the least sympatheticof all. He is ready to take anythingfromanyone,
he feels superiorto "them Blacks," he is suspicious of everyone,he repeatedly complains that the weather preventshis going to Sidcup for
thepapers whichhe leftthereduringthewar,and whichcan establishhis
identity.
After the opening tableau of The Caretaker,in which the leatherjacketed Mick slowlyexamines the miscellaneousobjects in the room,
Mick exitswhen he hears voices.Aston entersin worn but conventional
clothes,and afterhim comes the raggedold man, "following,shambling,
breathingheavily."Thrown out of his job and beaten up by a younger
man, old Davies has been rescued by Aston and broughtto the room.
There seemsto be no reason forthiskindness.The old man takes stock
of the scatteredcontentsand inquires about the other rooms in the
house. When Aston replies, "They're out of commission,"we findourselvesin familiarPintercountry.Aston invitesthe old man to
sleep with
him in the room, until he gets "fixed up"; he gives him
money and a
key,lets him tryon some old shoes.
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RUBY
COHN
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