The modern woman and conflict of gender performance: An analysis of Pinter’s Selected plays

Abstract

This dissertation is an opportunity to explore Harold Pinter's selected plays to unveil the representation of women in modern drama and the conflict of gender on stage. The goal is to demonstrate a literary study of the portrayal of Pinter’s male and female characters, as well as the tension that arises between them that can be found in three plays of Harold Pinter which are The Homecoming (1964), The Lover (1962), as well as Night School (1960). The study incorporates the ideas of famous philosophers including the French Simon de Beauvoir and American Judith Butler who have profoundly written on gender, masculinity and femininity. I would like to analyse how Pinter creates the illusion of family while also suggesting the fragility of traditional family structures that are easily challenged and broken. In addition, I will demonstrate how sexuality is used as a weapon of control by both genders, male and female, to manipulate each other in the false family structures depicted in his plays. Lastly, the connection between Pinter’s plays and philosophies of Judith Butler and Simon de Beauvoir will illustrate that these plays depict the emergence of modern women on stage, through which Pinter creates a conflict between patriarchal society and the modern woman.