Comedy of Menace

 Thinking Activity: Comedy of Menace

Hello Readers! This blog is a response to the Thinking Activity assigned by Yesha ma'am, Department of English, MKBU. In this blog I am dealing with Characteristics of Comedy of Menace.

About Harold Pinter:-

Harold Pinter was a Nobel prize winning English playwright, screenplay writer, director and actor. In the year 2005 Pinter won Nobel Prize for Literature. He has directed and acted in radio, stage television and film productions. The Birthday Party is the second full length play by Pinter and also performed frequently. He was famous for "Comedy of Menace' in his plays. His use of Pause and Silence is very significant in this play. His plays are noted for their use of understatement, small talk, reticence, and even silence to convey the substance of a characters'thought.

As we are studying Theatre of Absurd and different types of comedies. There are seven important types of comedies. 

1. Sentimental comedy
2. Comedy of Humours
3. Comedy of Errors
4. Farce
5. High Comedy and Low Comedy
6. Comedy of Manners and
7. Comedy of Menace 

Comedy of Menace:- 

Comedy of Menace is a term used to describe the plays of David Campton & Harold Pinter by drama critic Irving wardle. It is borrowed from the subtitles of campton's play, 'The Lunatic View: A Comedy of Menace'.  Comedy of Menace is a tragedy with a number of comic elements. It is a comedy which also produces an overwhelming tragic effect. Throughout the play we are kept amused and yet throughout the play we find ourselves also on the brink of terror. We feel uneasy all the time even when we are laughing or smiling with amusement. This dual quality gives to the play a unique character. 

Characteristics of Comedy of Menace:-

• Painters Comedy of Menace have a rather simplistic settings they might focus on one or two powerful images and usually are set in just one room.

• Language plays a significant role when it comes to the action in the play.

•  A powerful force that isn't specially defined to the audience threatens character in the play.

• The loss of identity can be also observed in the comedy of Menace.

• For example, The powerful characters like- Goldberg and Macan attacks the weaker character for instance. Stanley Webber suffers from loss of identity when he is attacked verbally. 

•  The atmosphere of Menace' is also created by Pinter's ability to drop suddenly from a high comic level to one of deep seriousness. By this technique the audience is made aware that the comedy is only at surface layer. The sudden outbreaks of violence in the play confirm this and leave the audience unsure of what come next?

For example, in The Birthday Party by Harold Pinter, we can noticed the violence through the characters of Goldberg and Maccann. While Stanley weaber suffered because of that.

•  The Comedy of Menace' is a tragedy with a number of comic elements. It is a comedy which also produces an overwhelming tragic effect. 

• The comedy of Menace literary established the outer reality as a force of threatening to the inner space of an individual.

• It is a comedy which also produces an overwhelming tragic effect. Throughout the play we are kept amused and yet throughout the play we find ourselves also on the brink of terror. Some identifiable and vague fear keeps our nerves on an edge. 

• The Situation and circumstances looks absolutely perfect and normal.

• We feel uneasy all the time even when we are laughing or smiling with amusement. This dual quality gives to the play a unique character.

• Covering Comedy and fear at the same time in the play that is a strange art practice in the comedies of Menace. This types of comedies also known as Tragicomedy. Including birthday party, there are some other works also by Harold Pinter which can be considered as a comedy of Menace. 

• The Room 
• The Birthday Party
• The Dumb Waiter
• The Caretaker
• The Homecoming

Let's discuss his play The Birthday which can be Party seen as one of the best example of comedy of Menace.

The Birthday Party as a Comedy of Menace:-

The Birthday Party first published in 1958. The play has been classified by pinteresque elements such as ambiguous identity, confusion of time and place and dark political symbolism.

The Birthday Party described as a Comedy of Menace because one can find Comic as well as terrific elements in the play. 'Pinter actually exposes the state of Modern man and the idea of fear that exists in human mind.' 

Stanley Weaber who is protagonist of the play. He is such a character who tries to protect himself from the outer society. Pinter's play often does not give a brief description of the past of character's life. As we also don't know what happened with Stanley Webber in his past. The fear of Stanley is noticable throughout the play. 

When Meg discovers that two strangers will come to stay at boarding house at that time Stanley behaved violently to Meg's announcement. Stanley actually reflects modern man isolation and a kind of fear that exists in modern man from being exposed to outer reality. The outer reality becomes a threat to their inner space which they like to avoid and disconnects easily. 

When Goldberg and Maccan asking questions to Stanley at that time also they were not giving Stanley a chance for even answering the questions. So that is how we can understand that how they both verbally attacked on Stanley Webber. As a audience and as a Threatening effect that what will happen in the very next movement. Through their acting characters what to create comic atmosphere but inside they are very much in stress and in depression like our protagonist - Stanley Webber. So that is how Comic + Terrible and fearful effect in one's mind that is one of the main characteristics in this play. 

The feeling of fear is very common in Harold Pinter's play. And especially in The Birthday Party the existential fear is very present. Stanley Webber does not want to step out from the house because he had a fear of something which already happened in the past.

Language plays a significant role when it comes to the comedy of Menace. It exposes the fear, frustration and violence of the characters through language. There are so many repetition, sounds, pauses in the play that gives insight into the flow of characters fear and menace and delve deeper into their inner space. The loss of identity is observed when the powerful characters attacks the weaker characters for instance Stanley suffers from loss of identity when he is attacked verbally.

Conclusion:-

To conclude, one can understand that Comedy of Menace means the audience knows nothing about the characters and their past. It can be said that the final impression of the play on the audience echoes Pinter's own words: "In our present day world, everything is uncertain, there is no fixed point, we are surrounded by the unknown... There is a kind of horror about and I think that this horror and absurdity go together". So we can say that Comedy of Menace creates a atmosphere of Suspense and Menace. 

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