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“Follow the line”: Violence and Complicity in The Birthday Party and The Lottery

  • Journal of Modern English Drama
  • Abbr : JMBARD
  • 2010, 23(1), pp.259-278
  • Publisher : 한국현대영미드라마학회
  • Research Area : Humanities > English Language and Literature > English Literature > Contemporary English Drama

Rim, Dohyun 1

1서울시립대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This article explores the theme of violence and complicity in Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party (1958). Shirley Jackson’s short story, The Lottery (1948) is discussed as a tool of intertextuality because it functions like a commentary to explain the theme of violence and complicity revealed in the play. First of all, this article analyzes the victim of collective violence, Stanley, comparing him with the victim of the lottery, Mrs. Hunchinson, so as to prove it is his assertion of individuality that makes him the scapegoat of collective violence. In relation to collective action, it is argued that the birthday party arranged for Stanley is a ritual that accomplices choose to avoid the responsibility for the violence, and the participators of the ritual are accomplices in Stanley’s destruction. Finally, this article claims that Pinter’s theatricality of presenting the drama of menace in the form of comedy is very effective to make even the audience who accept the violent interrogation with laughter accomplices because he focuses upon the mentality to make violence possible in our lives. In conclusion, this article argues that collective violence performed in the name of tradition or duty can hide a desire to satisfy savagery within human nature.

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