props in the caretaker by harold pinter
DESCRIPTION
Pinter's use of props in The CaretakerTRANSCRIPT
Props in The Caretaker by Harold Pinter
Through these conventions, sight, sound, stillness, motion, noise and silence, the idea of a
random and lonely world is portrayed. The notion that we are born alone and die alone
and fortuitous, unrelated events happen in between is created by the use of these
techniques throughout the play. The setting is a key aspect in revealing the ideas from
which the play is based. …a couple of suitcases, a rolled carpet, a blow-lamp, a wooden
chair on it's side, boxes, a number of ornaments, a clothes horse, a few short planks of
wood, small electrical fire and a very old electric toaster… this is an excerpt from the
description of the room in which Aston and Davies live. The room is full of junk,
unconnected things that have been collected over the years and presently have no real
meaning. This is a comment on life and the experiences a person has, each experience
and memory may seem important at the time, like the gathering junk in Aston's room
may once have, yet after some time they are no longer significant and become isolated
and dimmer. …a kitchen sink, a step-ladder, a coal bucket, a lawnmower, a shopping
trolley, boxes side board drawers, the setting also adds to the idea that people are lonely
and isolated beings, each item is completely unrelated to the others, like people they are a
mixture of things, and therefore can be nothing but isolated. The use of props is essential
in adding meaning to the play. Mick walks to the gas stove and picks up the Buddha…He
hurls the Buddha against the gas stove. It breaks.(Passionately.) Buddha is a symbol of
calm and serenity, when it is broken the organisation and order is also broken. The
breaking of the Buddha is a symbol of mans everlasting struggle with the universe,
human beings wish to order and structure everything, while the universe is constantly
moving towards entropy and chaos. This idea is reflected in the play's outcome, the
household was reasonably calm and ordered until the Buddha was broken and Davies was
asked to leave, a disturbance to the harmony. The utilization of the statue can also be
viewed as comment on human emotions. Throughout the play the characters were quite
detached, both from each other and the outside world, however when Mick passionately
breaks the Buddha (serenity), Davies is requested to leave and the order that has been
displayed throughout the play is lost. The idea being, that the human emotions work
against the human will, the anger exhibited by Mick disordered a seemingly ordered
world. The broken toaster is another fundamental component of the play. Aston goes
back to his bed and starts to fix the plug on the toaster. At the very beginning of the play
Aston is fixing the toaster and at the very end, …takes of his over coat, sits, takes the
screwdriver and pokes the plug, he is still fixing the toaster plug. This displays the
concept that life is meaningless. Nothing was accomplished during the play. Each
character stayed in the same position that they were in to start with, nothing that they did
changed or achieved anything. The sound of the dripping bucket, which is present
throughout the play, helps create meaning. A drip sounds in the bucket overhead. They
(Mick and Davies) look up. The dripping sound is a metaphor for all the failings in the
world, those who answer to it fail, those who don't succeed. Later, A drip sounds in the
bucket. Davies looks up, Davies who is a homeless tramp, a failure looks up, Mick, who
is a success, keeps his attention trained on Davies. The dripping sound produced by the
leak and the bucket also symbolizes the ever-present menace in the world. The overhead
leak is symbolic of the unstoppable menace and harm that could strike at random,
looming overhead. Silence and pauses are critical to the play and the ideas underlying the
play. Pauses are used to portray the concept that language is a vague and meaningless
tool people use to hide their own discomfort. The pauses indicate that to fill the silent gap
a person must think about what they are going to say to fill it. More can be said during
the pauses and silences than in the actual dialogue. What's the game? Silence. Well? Here
the silence is used as passive aggression. Davies does not answer, resisting Mick, as an
act of defiance and thus aggression. The metatext operating in these silences and pause
creates the feeling of unease and tension. These tense pauses and silences are devices
used throughout the play to display the notion of the constant menace that exists in the
world. The pauses also show that while intense thought is still occurring inside the
characters, nothing is being said out loud. This adds to the sense of isolation, nobody can
know what another is thinking during those pauses, so people are essentially isolated. The
lighting used in Aston's monologue is significant to the concepts put forth by the play.
During Aston's speech the room grows darker. By the close of the speech only Aston can
be seen clearly. Davies and all the other objects are in the shadow. The fade down of the
light must be as gradual, as protracted and as unobtrusive as possible. Aston goes form
standing in a room where the light is everywhere to standing in the light by himself. The
fade down is very gradual and leaves Aston completely alone. This scene is symbolic of
the isolation that people experience. It is also a comment on how fragile people are, most
people do not start out believe they are alone, but gradually the feel the sense of
loneliness, the unobtrusive departure of safety and the introduction of menace and
isolation. The change from child to adult is alluded to in connection with this realisation
of separation in Aston monologue. Through the application of sight, sound, stillness,
motion, noise and silence, meaning can both create and aid dialogue in the depiction of
meaning. In the absurdist play, The Caretaker, by Harold Pinter much of the play is
constructed through these techniques.