ambiguity in the character of caretaker-2

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TragiComedy , Theater of Absurd

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AMBIGUITY IN THE CHARACTER OF CARETAKER

AMBIGUITY IN THE CHARACTER OF CARETAKER

AQSA SARFRAZAYESHA GULLIQRA ASIFIQRA RASHEEDKHADIJA SHAUKATMADIHA MANZOORMALIHA MASHADYSAHER NAVEEDSABA SARWARTEHMINA WASEEMZARNAB MASOODZOYA SAQIB

GROUP MEMBERSThe play offers an absorbing study of characters and the power-play within relationships. The ambiguity of these relationships keeps us alert, our sympathies shifting constantly.

They develop intriguing yet credible relationships with each other, Davies trying to play one brother against the other, while Mick treats Aston with a mixture of exasperation and fraternal care-taking.

A power struggle ensues in which no one is a caretaker of anything or anyone.INTRODUCTION

Caretaker the play is not totally about obscurities. Martin Esslin characterizes best this plays combination of realism and ambiguity: The caretaker is the first of Pinter's plays to have achieved this complete synthesis b/w utter realism in the external action and the poetic metaphor, the dream image of external archetypes, or deeper or higher levels of impact.The Caretaker takes place in a world characterized by absurdity. Life has no meaning or meta-narrative; it is fragmented, chaotic, confusing, and hostile. The individual cannot rely on others, or society, or God, or even themselves to find meaning or value. The characters are isolated, lonely, and oppressed by forces outside their control. Desires they possess or choices they make seem to be wholly unconnected to the outcome. They seem adrift from history, both collective and personal. All that Mick and Aston can hope for is for things to remain more or less the same, and all Davies can hope for is another small respite from the gnawing emptiness of his life.

SYMBOLIC SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TITLE

The title may be a reference to the human condition and of mans relationship with God and this world.

God is the creator of this world and man is the care-taker who has been assigned with the duty of living init and taking care of it.

The title can be said to be ironic since Davies, the man being offered the position of the care-taker, is perhaps the character who is most in the need of care himself.

Of all Pinter's plays, The Caretaker makes the most bitter commentary on the human condition; instead of allowing an old man to die beaten in a caf brawl, "the System" is set on tantalising him with faint hope, thereby immeasurably increasing his final desperate anguish. There is perhaps a pun contained in the title: The Caretaker is twisted into taker on of care, for care is the human destiny.

The caretaker is a montage of images or determinations. The overlying image of the montage is Davies. The old tramp. He continually defends himself by rationalization. The controlling contradiction in Daviess life is his ambivalence about the act of caretaking itself. He loves to accept care but not to give it. Throughout the play Davies shows his love of care as he reveals his grasping and selfish nature. He shows his dislike of giving care in his reactions to the job both brothers offers him.

DAVIES

Aston however is also a caretaker. His understanding and identification prompt him to bring Davies home, give him a bed, a key to the apartment, clothes, shoes and friendship. He also takes care, initially to protect the old mans feelings.ASTON

Aston says to Davies:

You could be...caretaker here, if you liked.

Aston's simple suggestion is indicative of his sweetness and compassion. He helped a man out whom he did not know, and brought him to safety and shelter. He offered him food and a place to sleep, and then went even further by offering him this job. This suggestion is one of the turning points in the play, for it means that Davies will not just be an overnight guest but a possible fixture in the room. This idea is not at all palatable to Mick, who can only handle a situation with just himself and his brother, certainly not a trio featuring a loudmouthed and "erratic" tramp with no work ethic. While the play is representative of the Theater of the Absurd, and thus has very little in terms of traditional plot, the offering of the caretaker position and the resultant tensions are as much of a plot as there will be.

Davies is the first person who stimulates Astons positive interest since his horrible experience at the mental hospital. A further act of generosity is shown by Aston to offer him the job of a caretaker: You could look after the place, if you liked you know , the stairs and the landing keep an eye on it In bringing Davies home and offering him a job , Aston is doing more than showing charity towards his fellow-human . On a large scale , this could be taken as an expression of his yearning for a genuine companionship , for a person who would perhaps look after him. Thus, by taking are of Davies , Aston has shown a similar interest to be cared for .

Mick also takes on the role of caretaker when he protects Aston from Daviess selfishness. He also expresses hostility over the care and concern Aston gives him. He also shows contempt for Aston condition.

MICK

AMBIGUITY IN THE IDENTITY OF CHARACTERS

Identity in this play is elusive, fractured, under assault.

Davies has two names and no identifying papers, while Aston's identity came under attack by doctors and is now fragmented.

The characters are introduced by Pinter without explanation, background, or history. They offer little information about themselves. Overall, they seem adrift, unmoored to time and place and not fully formed.

COMPARISON WITH BECKETTS WAITING FOR GODOT

The play has often been compared to Waiting for Godot, by Samuel Beckett, and other absurdist plays because of its apparent lack of plot and action.

Artistically, The Caretaker is clearly influenced in both style and subject matter by Samuel Beckett's 1955 classic Waiting for Godot, in which two tramps wait endlessly for someone they know only as Godot to come and give meaning and purpose to their lives.

Just as the character of Godot in the play Waiting for Godot is mythical and enigmatic and his identity remains elusive similarly there is ambiguity surrounding the the character of the care-taker in the play.

Through the story of the two brothers and the tramp, The Caretaker deals with the distance between reality and fantasy, family relationships, and the struggle for power.

The play is a complex one of three overlapping images. It contains, as Pinter's insists, a caretaker and two brothers-all real people. But the images they reflect are of three would be caretakers whose self interest has ended their responsibilities to others.CONCLUSION

THANK YOU!