Psychological, Physical and Non-Verbal Communication, Timing, and Appearance in The Homecoming

The pre-1950 dramatist was accepted as an omniscient figure who knew everything about their characters. The Homecoming Pinter places his characters in a concrete, realistic setting suggesting that he knew no more about the ultimate fate of his characters than his audience. The three brothers in the play attempt, to bridge communication deficits by means of psychological and physical communication in nonverbal strategies of language, to minimize hostile confrontations, seeking to overcome barriers and find common grounds.

Valerie Monogue describes their methods of communication vulgar, brass and intimidating as an fractured language within itself, because of its imperfections – likened as a lack of professional expertise in mental health counseling revealing a level of the family’s dysfunction is anchored in fears, emotional needs, and inadequacies that they individually struggle to conceal. All three characters conspire mutually and commit agreeing nonverbally, selecting to hide each one’s embarrassments, secretly.

"They attempt to close the abyss--silence is the great enemy---generally understanding that revealing than too little, could have more that the adverse option of revealing too much.” Monogue said. “Their talks shows...not so much a failure as an evasion of communication, but a void of any emotional bonding as a family.. In silence in this world becomes a catalyst of action, based on those silences being misinterpreted as threatening, igniting defensive mechanisms that become physical and abusive. Loud speaking and yelling seems expedient, as an elective means of evasion through distraction.

In the Homecoming, successful non-verbal communication at times, has suffered when the emotional relationships between the individuals, are seen to be empty, fragile, without value due to the inability of the characters to agree effectively on how to communicate productively on any level available between them.

Prior to the Progressive Era, plays were written in high-flown poetry, or what frequently known as realistic prose. "What Pinter did was take common everyday speech with all its hesitations, repetitions, periodic crudities and aching silences --and turn it into a form of poetry," Billington said. The power of non-verbal communication, that mentally and emotionally eventually outwitted and defeated the cultivated history brutality, abusive behavior, a language of violence, verbal abuse, and physical intimidation, by thwarting all of which strategies, Ruth emerges triumphantly and victorious., escaping the collective generational conspiracy of male dominance and control.

The play has generally covered so many aspects of literature and it has made credible use of non-verbal communication, to document the accurately of subliminal messaging of successful nonphysical interactions to express a point of view, successfully. It can be termed to be a comedy of Menace and the characters are always feeling threatened through by the truth value of confrontations (Monogue, Valerie). The author, Pinter has also used what we can term to be “Drama of psychological and physical Communication. These exchanges are what is referenced as represents the human communication language that is usually used to avoid as well as prevent revealing the characters that find it hard to communicate.

The main reason why the characters may be afraid of communication is that they afraid of the following things:

· Avoid self-revelation

· Avoid direct contact

· Use of offense Language as a shield/defense rather than a form of contact.

The character avoids physical and emotional contact minimizing the possibility of the negative outcome resulting from such confrontations that they term as the trajectory of the routine of the blame responsible for the conflict. Homecoming has been used to question the different certainties of the different characters as well as how the audience weighs in with regards to the relatability to the involved character, in association with the audience and how they understand the character’s identities and their struggles with inter-personal relationships (Monogue, Valerie). The nonverbal communication exchanges have been used to demonstrate the expectations that are revealed continually and ironically, intentionally undetermined, without physical confrontation.

Silence can to be more impressive than a spoken language. The reason why the character speaks more is seen to be important eve what they speak to each other in the entire play. What is verbally said, there is something else said under it. Silence is used to create the ambiguity, there are many uncertainties that are used to suggest the impenetrability of the involved character. Non-verbal communications make it very difficult to discern or to know the actual character of the person(s) individually, compounding the difficulties, as well as exposing the limiting reality that these individuals are not able to capable to truthfully know each other or even themselves (Monogue, Valerie).

Nonverbal communication makes the truth to be very uncertain, more so, the use of cliché as well as the social formulae is continual in the entire play as we can see so many cases of repetition. Among the many other scenarios, they are used to form part of the game or the series of the games in the play.

Communications are sometimes forced and the characters are provoked and they avoid the challenges as well as the different confrontations. The communications both desire and undesired are all seen to be forced inevitably to avoid the contacts. The relationship is both public and social when opposed to the other that is personal and emotional. Nonverbal communications that are used among the characters in the play reflects the emptiness of the different relationship as the individual when they are feeling they are threatened.

Paradoxically, most of the characters are seem to avoid the contact which results in a huge irony. The vision of the relationship is then continually undermined we, therefore, see the essence of the illusions that are underlying among the different characters. The individuals in the play fear ignorance, they are very afraid of not knowing anything about what is happening around them, about the past and even about their own relationship. Their entire play, therefore, shows many cases of physical and psychological non-communication exercises among the different characters.

In the need for reassurance, the character seeks to know the idea as well as the truth about their past, they need an identity of each of them and what they all have in common. Their past cannot be well versed and it has been used in the play by max in particular but has also been used by Sam and Lenny. They have been used to reassure themselves through the use of the non-verbal communications about the position they hold in the family as well as the roles such as the authority in the family and many more. They need to be assured of the reality of the situations which they all need to be assured and approval.

The character(s) are just toying with each other as they are not certain of their own individual identities and until they find out who they are, can hold no supportive value to others. (North, Astrid). They continue to dissimulate as a functional family, to live lives based on exaggerated lies and mistruths. Max is insisting he is not an old man. The relationship is simulacrum of the involved intimacy as well as the communications. The character seeks to hold to the series of false illusions despite all the other things that are happening around them in real time..

{{{{{The betrayal of Ruth is a practical example that can be considered since there has been no communication that is clear and true example of intimacy among them or even a real fidelity (North, Astrid). The non-verbal communication that Ruth shows plays a huge part in hiding the real self and as the emergence of oneself into that of herself, hence became the role revealing her truth.

The character then comes up as a result of the roles they are playing in the play. The non-verbal communications are used to show the difference in the issue of personal identity which is fictitious construct like the past.

The character is made not to be in contact with each other, which makes the intimacy to be wrong and they are all ironically strangers to each other. The non-verbal communication makes Ruth give remarks like “Don’t become a stranger.” That character is able to go through some rituals and make time to maintain the status quo in the relationship (North, Astrid). The character in their talks makes them be polite and they are civilized in their activities in order to cover the real animosity they have.

The things that the people of the character do not say is what makes the real them, under all the things that are not said there is something said. The territory possession is seen to be very important as they are used to help the character to avoid personal conflicts.

The room was symbolic as the threat to someone’s territory makes them fear that the truth may now able to take place. The non-verbal communication is not real as they introduce the large desire of the character to have the invasions of the reality as well as their lives which becomes a fiction they had to invent their past so that they can preserve their current positions.

Facial communications have been used to show the positive face and the negative face among the character. The positive face is used to show, to want or to be respected or need approval while the negative face is used to desire or wanted without being impeded.

The action s are seen to be threatening the face to face acts which is seen to depend on the social distance and the power relations that exist between the participants that are involved (Lahr, John).

At the beginning of the excerpt, Teddy and his wife Ruth are seen waking up in the morning very late, went to join Teddy’s father Max, the first time that they had returned home as a married couple. (Prentice, Penelope). The non-verbal communication here palpable is interpreted as guarded in the smile that Teddy gave as he smiled and said, ‘Hullo...Dad...We overslept’. At that moment, Teddy is seen to be supportive of Max’s positive face, cautiously subtle so that he can be respected.

l communications here have been used to demonstrate the ways in which Max expected to be greeted in return of his eldest son, who has been away for six years, with a new wife. The facial communications exchange here are used to expose and demonstrate the impoliteness strategies where it reveals that the father and son relationship has been damaged. The positive face that Teddy had through snubbing him. Max is seen to be responding to the facts of abandonment and kept silent where he portrayed politeness and it worked as it was expected (Lahr, John).

There is a lot of unspoken tension when the character shows silence in the ways they are being mistreated or insulted. The offense leads to pause in the characters like Teddy as he shows the disjointed flow of the interactions. Teddy is seen to be trying to repair all the conversation by asking, ‘What’s for breakfast? ‘Which is then followed by Max’s stern silence and the responsive expression Teddy’s matching stoic expression on his face, can be interpreted and an example of non-verbal communication used to show that he is ignoring him, making Teddy feel uncomfortable, if not unwelcome.

His negative nonverbal response is not what Teddy wanted. As a result of that, Teddy attempts to difuse the situation by laughing softly when he chuckles and embarrassingly works through avoidance to respond restfully, attempting avoid the rudeness of his father’s silence. He does that by saying, ‘we overslept’. In these scenes, the use of non-verbal communication has been used e and awkward exchange has been used to show the state of the fractured relationship between them.

In the second act of the play, the scene is seen to be that of a happy family engaging in a celebration that is united by food and drinks. All the misunderstanding has been swept away, replacing with the ironic quality of appearance and some other more apparent reality in this scene.

The characters are seen to have all maintained their appearance so that they can continue to communicate through disguising their underlying behaviors, desires and the emotional internal conflicts that haunt them all individually. This mode of non-verbal communication is used to reveal the realistic nature of the daily inferences and used to draw the attention to those differentness consisting of fears of animosity that are seen to underlie a healthy observance of their social decorum.

There are emotional instances that can be interpreted to have implied to have used examples of nonverbal communications where the character is exhibiting selective memory lapses, behaving as if nothing has happened before that would explain a current behavior or action.. In the scene, teddy stood alone, metaphorically and that is separate from all the others who are set apart from the attitude confrontations with their family which are borne of what he said. He was not able to control the situation and prove to be linguistically incompetent

In the play, many things manifest and they ignite the emotions that Lenny had towards the mother. It was the violent feeling that was directed towards Ruth since she was the only lady from the time the mother’s disappearance or assumed death (Prentice, Penelope). The incidence appears to be as timely as it appeared she has been a prostitute which has been used and mentioned in the scene more than just one time. More so, when Lenny outburst to the father in the time of the circumstance, the timeline surrounding repressive doubts about his conception, appears to be disgusted and doubtful at the factual actuality of his father sexual intimacy with his mother.

This may also be used to explain Max’s ambivalent statement that he gives regarding Jessie. This was the once and all to familiar times he uses conflicting and contradictory praise towards her and called her a whore and a brut. This was timed, to condemn her character as it was the fact that she accused her by the fact that she claims the boys took the ethics that they have now from the behaviors that she has (Postlewait, Thomas).

This relates just by the fact they are rapists, pimps, and murderers, the question is what did she teach them yet they are already the way they are. Max sometimes said, “I’ve never had a whore under this roof before. Ever since your mother died”.

There are many issues that show the similarities between Ruth and Jessie’s moral characters that was not by mere coincidence. Ruth is used as the link to the gateway of the reincarnation of the boys’ mother. Sometimes Ruth, would cannily resort to calling Lenny by the name ‘Leonard, something that only the mother used to call him by that name. This parallels their characters by relating to the fact that Ruth also had three children like Jessie and reveals subtly to the audience that she (Ruth) was a indeed prostitute way before she met and married Teddy (Prentice, Penelope).

She states in the play that she was a different person when she met Teddy at first and that she has been changing over time. What we evidently learn is that she was formerly a nude photographer’s and artist’s model. This case of character analysis shows us that that was the reason why Max was openly rude and violent in his response when he met her for the first time and the fact that he was faced with images of his dead wife's time before she died (Postlewait, Thomas).

The relevance that Lenny was confronted by ghostly appearances of his dead mother was also the true representation of the history emotional conflicts he experiences regarding his mother. (Postlewait, Thomas). He also goes to the extent of feeling he needs both the harshness of her physical assertion of dominance and the gentle comforting of a mother love which he uses to justify how her confidence has grown, earning his approval and support as she becomes more powerful.

Ruth’s loosely veiled, repressive and seductive behaviors, undermine revealing prematurely, her strength through the use of her sexuality enables Lonny to remember issues regarding his mother’s sexuality and the question regarding his conception and paternity. The appearance was validation through his emotionally painful memory, the fact that she is both a mother as well as the sexual being in Lenny's eyes as a child and now as an adult..

Krasner, David, (478-497), has used the lens of postmodernism to explain the ways the drama by Pinter has been used to engage with the Freudian psychoanalysis as well as the ethics by Jewish people. This was used to show the elements and characteristics of Jewish philosophy and postmodernism. There are so many coincidences that are portrayed in homecoming and there are cases if silence as well as the fragmentation of the entire subject.

The Jews have been seen to put more emphasis on the material things over the spiritual things and the Freudian and the entire displacement is evident in the characters of the individuals. There has been the struggle of power as well as the struggle for the acts of corruption in the play as well as the relativism shown by the characters such as teddy’s actions (Krasner, David, (478-497).

Part One - Following the works Cited listed below of scholarly articles regarding The play “The Homecoming”, by Harold Pinter create10 pages of competent, utilizing those listed or others of scholarly sourced and researched articles that answers and follows the instructions consistently and stays on point and relative. Must make sense and maintain upper college level articulation. Of dissertation quality of professional writing language consistent For Parts One & Part TWO.

PART TWO - 7 pages of a conclusion on the

PART ONE Defining Non-Verbal communication, timing and appearance in The Homecoming

Pre-1950 dramatist were accepted as an omniscient figure who knew everything about their characters. In The Homecoming Pinter places his characters in a concrete, realistic setting suggesting that he knew no more about the ultimate fate of his characters than his audience. The three brothers in the play attempt, by means of language, to overcome barriers and find common grounds. Valerie Monogue describes their language itself, because of its imperfections --as a lack in expertise and revelation of the fears, needs and inadequacies that they struggle to conceal. All three characters mutually agree to hide each one’s embarrassment. "They attempt to close the abyss--silence is the great enemy---generally understanding too much rather than too little,” Monogue said. “Their talk shows...not so much a failure as an evasion of communication. In silence in this world becomes a catalyst of action, even action itself. Talk seems an expedient, a means of evasion. In silence and in the dark in the nonentity against which they all precariously struggle.”

In the Homecoming, Non-verbal communication has suffered and the relationships between the individuals both principal and minor, are seen to be empty and fragile due to the inability of the characters to agree effectively or communicate on any level between them.

Prior to the Progressive Era plays were written in high-flown poetry, or what frequently known as realistic prose. "What Pinter did was take common everyday speech with all its hesitations, repetitions, periodic crudities and aching silences --and turn it into a form of poetry," Billington said. The power of non-verbal communication, that mentally and emotionally eventually out wit and defeat the conspiracy of brutality, of abusive behavior, language of violence, verbal abuse and physical intimidation, Ruth not redundant emerges victorious .START NEW CONTENT for PART ONE FROM HERE!

PART TWO -7 pages of conclusion content on the “Homecoming’, by Harold Pinter, that encompasses the empowerment of Ruth who not only thrives but survives as victorious and the new matriarch of the family, defeating dominating the conspirators to achieve her freedom and independence in a male dominated society. Ruth introduces us to the modern nuclear family of the 19th century.

The premise of a father, his two sons, and his brother all living under the same roof is a simple and completely natural setting in Pinter's The Homecoming. However, the sexually charged nature that the characters relate to each other, in addition to Ruth's open advances towards her husband's brothers and her renunciation of her family in favor of a life as a prostitute, as a career advancement and promotion emergence as the Maternal CEO of the family dynasty are anything but commonplace. Ruth uses the strategy of wit and wisdom and seductive fantasy to the satisfactory conclusion for everyone. START NEW CONTENT for PART TWO FROM HERE!

Works Cited

1. Pinter, Harold. The Homecoming.

1. Harold Pinter – Interview", British Library Online Gallery: What's On, British Library, 8 September 2008.

1. Billington, Michael. Michael Billington Themes: Exploring identity, 20th-century theatre, Gender and sexuality Published: 7 Sep 2017

Introduction

Harold Pinter, a major English playwright, illustrates and mirrors women’s power, struggles, and achievement in the modern family. Throughout centuries, women have been the downtrodden people of the world. As shown in this work, roles of women have been impacted by events and actions from the Victorian period through the 20th century. Before delving into the background that constitutes the raw material from which modern literature is written, touching in brief on the play to be closely examined is critical. This thesis explores characters' battle between the mental and the physical, specifically the power struggle between men and women. Ruth is identified as an important character of The Homecoming. Ruth’s strong female presence introduces a change in women’s roles within the modern family. Her character personifies strength as an attitude, a fortitude that spreads and even suggests a sense of self-contained happiness. Although Ruth does not declare her happiness, it finds appearance in her mental state and actions. Ruth achieves power in the end, despite being the only female character surrounded by males who are still seeking strength, as if hoping to acquire it from her. Pinter's play questions traditional views of language, making readers reconsider the hierarchical relationship between speech and silence, present and absent and the role of each opposition in the struggle for power and dominance. Non-verbal communication is also introduced as a damaging factor to family roles. The Homecoming is about a victory of a woman who keeps doing what she wants to do notwithstanding the horrible unfairness of her husband. Ruth's husband, Teddy, takes a lead in the family's plan to degrade his wife, but she remains open to their relationship and the possibility of love. She possesses a resilient persona, and has personal insights and her temperament is stronger than that of any other character in Pinter's play. Her ability to control her environment in a world surrounded by men makes her a remarkable woman. Before delving into the play, a look at the male-dominated Victorian world would shed light on the condition of the modern woman embodied in Ruth and to the major historical events that constituted the ashes from which modern literature was written. Additionally, aims of the study, literary analysis, and methodology will be discussed.

Aims of Study

This thesis aims to examine Harold Pinter's The Homecoming and how each character in Pinter's play uses traditional gender roles as a way to maintain dominance within their family setting, yet Ruth saws her way from the margin to the center.

Review of Literature

During the 1960s many male critics would have been shocked at Ruth’s seeming acceptance of her role in Pinter's The Homecoming. Penelope Gilliatt, a female critic for The Observer and novelist, pointed out that Ruth achieves a form of empowerment over the male characters. “Ruth looks on her body rather as a landlord would look on a corner-site,” Gilliatt said. “As soon as she has apparently been exploited sexually she really has the advantage because she owns the property.” The play suggests that Ruth rediscovers her previous identity prior to her marriage to Teddy and, symbolically, comes home to herself. Ironically, as she "comes home" to this woman-less family, she renders her own immediate family with Teddy similarly without a Mother and wife in a Matrimonial position of wisdom, warmth and femininity. By the conclusion of the play, she appears to have assumed the multiple roles of Jessie, the London family's missing wife and mother.

The missing woman and feminine elements in their household puts Ruth’s now extended American family’s dramas in a parallel position -- ironically reversing the situation at the beginning of the play. "In that sense, the play recalls revisiting an familiar formulated plotline, such as when the character Edward's reversal of roles within the silence of the match seller in Pinter's 1959 play A Slight Ache, initially broadcast on BBC Radio 3, and similarly ironic plot and character role-reversals resulting from power struggles throughout many of Pinter's other plays," John Lahr, a critic wrote for The New York Times, said. In October 2007, he quoted Pinter stating that he considers The Homecoming as his most "muscular" play.

After Teddy comes home and introduces his London family to his wife (Pinter 35–40), Max invites her to remain with them in London; as Teddy puts it to her euphemistically: "Ruth . . . the family have invited you to stay, for a little while longer. As a . . . as a kind of guest" (Pinter 91). Whereas Teddy ultimately decides to return home to their family in America (Pinter 96), Ruth agrees to "come home" (Pinter 92) as the family's missing mother figure and possibly also a prostitute whom Lenny can broker in sex for sale arrangements (Pinter 92–94), filling in the gap created when their mother died: "I've never had a whore under this roof before. Ever since your mother died" (Pinter 58). Upon first seeing Ruth, Max believes his eldest son, Teddy, has brought a "filthy scrubber" (like Jessie) into "my house" (Pinter 57–58). A major irony of the play is that Max's apparently-mistaken first assumption comes to appear accurate as the family (and the audience) get to "know" Ruth better (Pinter 65–76). The play exposes to Teddy's family that Ruth has been unhappy in her marriage. Though Teddy insists that she is "not well" (Pinter 85) and simply needs to "rest" (Pinter 71), he may not have recognized the cause of her apparent depression. Nevertheless, ultimately, he appears willing to leave her with his family in London, or at least wants to give the others that impression (perhaps to save face; or perhaps he really does want to leave her there).

The play introduces sexual intrigue along with sexual guilt, family ghosts, corrupted power and revenge as its theme. All of which diverts from traditional roles, into the roles of, clearly definable dysfunctionality in a modern family. Ruth's exchange value is her sexuality. As the play begins Ruth had already expressed a detachment from her husband in challenging his authority upon entrance to her father-in-law’s house. Critics can argue that her character shows a strong female presence, demonstrating a nontraditional role of survival, in a male dominated society. Thomas Postalwait describes it as a haunting within the home, based on past crimes concerning sexual matters and the misuse of power. “Almost all of the aspects of the homecoming story are present in some form: the double identity of woman, a son’s return home, a ghostly presence hovering over the action, the false power of a father figure, the imagery of blood and pollution, the violation of sexual taboos, confusion or controversy over conception, family violence, breakdown of moral codes, revenge of or against the mother, and the call or impulse for vengeance,” he said, definitely.

Pre-1950 dramatists were accepted as an omniscient figure who knew everything about their characters. In The Homecoming Pinter places his characters in a concrete, realistic setting suggesting that he knew no more about the ultimate fate of his characters than his audience. The three brothers in the play attempt, by means of a new (less physical) language of communication, to overcome barriers and find common grounds. Valerie Monogue describes their language itself, because of its imperfections --as a lack in expertise and revelation of the fears, needs and inadequacies that they struggle to conceal. All three characters mutually agree to hide each one’s embarrassments. "They attempt to close the abyss--silence is the great enemy---generally understanding too much rather than too little,” Monogue said. “Their talks shows...not so much a failure as an evasion of communication. In silence in this world becomes a catalyst of action, even action itself. Talk seems an expedient, a means of evasion. In silence and in the dark in the nonentity against which they all precariously struggle.”

Prior to the Progressive Era, plays were written in high-flown poetry, or what was frequently known as realistic prose. "What Pinter did was take common everyday speech with all its hesitations, repetitions, periodic crudities and aching silences --and turn it into a form of poetry," Billington said. Through the lens of postmodern Jewish philosopher David Krasner Pinter's drama engages with both Freudian psychoanalysis and Jewish ethics in its deployment of elements characteristic of Jewish philosophy and postmodernism. Krasner's analyses, The Homecoming and Postmodern Jewish Philosophy, provides examples of the coincidence of Pinteresque silences and the fragmentation of the subject in The Homecoming along with the distinctly Jewish emphasis on the material over the spiritual, the Freudian displacement evident in the characters’ power struggles, the corruption of the act of homecoming and the relativistic ethics of Teddy’s actions.

Methodology

This thesis will make use of answering the question, how and when does each character in Pinter's play uses traditional gender roles as a way to maintain dominance within their family? Three methods of critical analysis were required for the thesis. This included conducting a psychoanalysis of Pinter’s plays along with a psychoanalysis of the modern family, and defining psychoanalytical terms in relation to The Homecoming.

Firstly, the psychoanalysis of Pinter’s plays is conducted by reading each play closely in relation to material and the modern family post 1960 and applying the psychoanalytical concepts to Pinter’s plays by using critical methodical analysis. Secondly, identifying characters in the play and their characteristics. Their characters are defined by their verbal and nonverbal cues towards their aggression. These terms facilitated in linking together Pinter concepts of the modern family in respect to male and female roles.. Thirdly, this thesis takes a psychoanalytical approach to examining the theatre, by

applying theories of the modern family to the theatre itself and discussing sexuality.

Research included a search for and a reading of secondary criticisms of Harold Pinter, using books, journals and electronic databases provided by the library at Georgia Military College. My resources for compiling material on the plays consisted of reading and/or watching recorded film adaptations of each play mentioned in the thesis, and viewing YouTube videos containing interviews with the actors, directors and Pinter himself.

Chapter One

The Patriarchal Victorian World

The Victorian Age was a period in history when society produced men and women who based relationships on the ideals and standards of a patriarchal system that was dominated by men who had all of the power and control and decided to rule under strict social rules and conditions minimizing the value of women, that had been set during the era. Women were considered inferior to men was the normal standard of invisibility, socially, culturally, politically, religiously and morally. Typically, if a male or female did not practice certain standards, traits or behaviors authorized by a male dominated society, he or she faced the distinct possibility of being dismissed publically by the opposite gender as a probable candidate for matrimony. A woman incapable of reproduction held no value, could be branded as being an unsuitable mate. Women were considered to be inferior to men socially, physical and intellectually. Victorian Society was deeply patriarchal, where women obligingly, without any resistence, had no voice and were denied freedoms, autonomy, and liberty. Controlled by men politically, religiously, culturally, socially and financially, women were defined as having a single role to play out in their lives, which was living a formal strict and proper up bring, getting married and taking a invisible behind the scene role in the husband’s hobbies, interests, careers, and businesses. Victorian society had disciplined set of internships, a system where women could learn expectations of how her husband expected to be serviced, entertain and oversee management of a house staff that consisted of other domesticated skilled servants and laborers in tasks such as childcare, washing, cooking, cleaning and landscaping of the gardens before they could get married. It essential that potential wives could handle the formal demands and requirements necessary to run and operate a manor or estate. The system did not allow women to acquire academic knowledge or any formal training outside of the home, as the extended world was considered as singularly a man’s domain. Women were not to become physicians, barristers, craftsmen or labors. Their primary goal in life were to get married and submit to their husbands as the authority who made decisions on their behalf. The Victorian era was a patriarchal society, in that men in power felt it normal and quite natural that females were denied the freedom of choice and autonomy as they were considered to be possession who legally belong to men as their personal property.

Victorian women were expected to possess and exhibit feminine qualities and traits that rendered them appealing as ideal candidates for marriage, such as innocence and ignorance. Innocence in this context refers to naivety and a lack of sense of self-worth independent of their spouses, such as independence through, ambition of seeking any formal education and pursuing careers. As noted, women were not allowed to learn about or have interests that directed their focus outside of their homes, as the world was considered to be an improper zone to explore alone and unchaperoned, a domain that exclusively belonged to men. This reference to innocence means that denied access, they were unaware of what was going on in the outside world and the opportunities that having freedom to learn and explore could afford them. This absence of exposure and inclusion left men with the absolute monopoly of power, knowledge and skills, which helped them exercise authority over women. Men validated these negative opinions, which denied women the freedom of choices as Women were considered incompetent and unsuitable for tasks and activities outside of their homes. Indoctrinated from birth, to a belief that their main role in life was to give birth, rear children, and serve the interests of their husbands.

The gender biased social expectations became the mandated order that all women were expected to adhere to. Oscar Wilde’s, “The Importance of Being Earnest,” captures the thought patterns and aspirations that women possessed during the Victorian era. Wilde described two women, Cecily and Gwendolen, who are caught up in the fantasies of being married to an ideal husband, based on the name, “Earnest”, for some reason the name represents all of the qualities of confidence a gentleman and master should possess. This shallow and imitational reasoning of which she became obsessively insistently passionate defensive towards. It begins with Gwendolen and continues to include Cecily. The two are fixated on the name Earnest and it appears as if it is a mental obsession of a physical representation of a gentleman, husband and nobleman would look and act like (Norton). They show determination to only marry a man with the name Earnest because they believe such as a husband with that distinguished moniker would be honorable and moral. Oscar Wilde’s play portrays the aspirations of the women co-dependent on the character, status, wealth and prominence of their husbands, never thought about their cultivating their own dreams about building their lives. They only dreamed of getting married and reproduce children to and with an ideal husband to whom they could serve and submit. (Ackerman) As if truly believing that a name inspires absolute confidence and nobility. (Norton)

In fact Algernon, expecting the arrival of his Aunt Lady Augusta Bracknell and her daughter Gwendolen, remarks to Jack, to not touch the bread and butter as it is exclusively prepared for Gwnedolen, as she is devoted to bread and butter. (Norton)

The trend is repeated in terms of the solidifying a male dominated social order that had been established in this era, with stipulations that involved the legal status of first born male, known as “patrilineal” meaning that only the male lineage were entitled to the inheritances of property and titles a privilege, subsequently, legally denied to females. Lawfully, first born girls forfeited ownership of property automatically by being born female in spite of arriving before male siblings. Woman had been conditioned to not have any responsibilities outside the walls of the home. Females were marginalized into a sense of worthlessness outside of the home and it is this conditioning of helplessness without men. The controlling and dominating expectations demanded by their fathers, male siblings, husbands, leaders, politicians and clergy, led females to grow to accept themselves as men’s property. The three (if you include Lady Bracknell) females characters featured in Wilde’s play capture the actual realities of the era. The women spent their time preparing for an ideal husband who would also be expecting or anticipating a proper and ideal wife. It created a situation where each gender, males and females were expected to follow a cultivated out of balanced checklist, favored towards and dictated by men no doubt, to meet the agreed-upon social standards for a person to become a suitable mate for the opposite sex. However, inequality existed in rules set by men who were in total power and control and those male dominated prerequisites were examples of the double standards set, distinctly gender biased as the expectations for men, were not as high as the bar as those for females to follow. In male dominated patriarchal societies, males were expected to create wealth, to provide for and protect their families. They were not expected be supportive or to submit to their wives emotional needs by inspiring them to be empowered academically, artistically or creatively productive and certainly not expected to become involved in parenting or any participating interest in managing a household.

The only value a woman held was being cultivated into becoming suitable marriage material and attracting a husband, was the primary focus and goal a female needed to accomplish. In Wilde’s play, the women did not express any interest to do anything outside of polishing their skill as to how to successfully prepare to attract a potential husband and master all facets of domesticity. Learning the social skills of etiquette, entertaining and possessing qualities of conversation, guised in innocence and shyness meant that they were ready for marriage. The expectations of being an ideal husband induced males to lead double lives as indicated in Wilde’s play. He satirizes the play in wit and humor, when he shows how two men led deceitful lives for themselves to appear as ideal candidates for marriage. The two men outwardly portrayed ideal qualities to meet the social expectations, but led deceitful lies outside of their immediate communities whenever they could manage to escape to the country and into identities of different names and personalities, from the social pressures of the town. In some instances, men would assume dual identities such as the male characters in Oscar Wilde’s play “The Importance of Being Earnest” who assumed separate identities, one suitable for the country and another suitable for town. In their socially conformed privileged roles, it confirms that the men led double lives to meet the expectations of society and their perspective wives.

From the assertions made above, it is clear that the Victorian era had set strict standards of moral authority, social privilege, dominating political and religious leadership that predicated relationships with double standards set by men and followed women. Though the goal was to attain a certain social order, confirming that males were the heads of the families, it did nothing to reflect the interests and rights of women from being invisible as equals. Authors such as John Stuart Mill extensively criticized the social expectations and argued that changes were needed in order to generate a real change in social attitudes, for human improvements to be attained. He said that the society treated women as enemies to the extent of equating it to slavery. In what he considered a tyrannical system, woman held no value, was a slave and the man was the master.

We have learned that during the Victorian era, men held the absolute legal rights to his wife’s body, meaning the wife was more than just treated as his property, as she was expected to allow no matter how depraved her husband’s desires, to submit to him completed without resistance. Mainly, men’s passionate ambition was to accumulate wealth before they got married. This motivation was designed to attract women who would consummate the ownership of wives as personal property in concert with all of the other material representations of wealth and affluence. Woman did not have any rights or sense of value or self-worth, that could help her lead a life of independence once she was married. The instruction and institution of marriage was considered a permanent bond. With the lesser of equal rights being no rights, women had no expectations for equality. Empowerment meant not being abused socially, economically, sexually or morally. This created an atmosphere of submission, in situations and events where a woman must comply with the demands of her husband, no matter how depraved or morally corrupt at all times in good health or failing health, feeling ill or with child. It was considered as the norm in a subservient society where females did not have any rights over total submission to a husbands desires. A Women could expect to see that power and authority exercised at all-times unrelenting to compassion. In the 19th century, when men focused on pursuing financial independence, producing additional streams of income as the industrial revolution began to formulate, sub cultures such as the sex industry grew rapidly. The trend of publically socializing, traveling, sporting events, easing moral standards, was also fueled by heavily populated numbers of married as well as unmarried men, who were involved in prostitution. Bernard Shaw’s, “Mrs. Warren Profession” reveals how marriages and prostitution were interrelated. Married women were involved in prostitution with the consent of their husbands as they acted as their procurer’s. The husband’s consummate control over women as their property literally forced them to get involved in prostitution as a means of building wealth. Husbands could legally rent or sell their wives to willing buyers as a person would do with any their personal holdings. Thomas Hardy’s, “The Mayor of Casterbridge,” opens with a scene where a farmer sells his wife to a sailor during a country fair (Ditmore 288). These are two literary examples that confirm that a woman was considered as a man’s property, and he could do with her as he pleased. Resisting such treatment amounted to rebellion, and such a woman was considered an unsuitable mate.

In addition, authors such as Mill raised the moral issue of marriage as a process of converting females into properties that men owned. Society continued to treat women as objects to the extent that some males could barter/exchange them or their services for materials as shown above. Mill not only felt that this was discriminatory and violates basic human rights, dignity, flawing character traits which should be afforded to both men and women equally, regardless of gender or social status.. The fact that no efforts were being put in place to address the problem shows that patriarchy was a systemic problem.

In a patriarchal society, females are supposed to speak as permitted by males. In Victorian society, females were deemed disrespectful if they did not acquire consent or permission from their husbands in advance, whenever they wanted to project their views or opinions publicly. Emily Bronte’s novel, “Wuthering Heights,” captures the details of suppression that females experienced at the hands of their husbands and significant others. She writes about two families where female characters Isabella and Catherine are both victimized by the social rules created by and legally recognized by men in power. We witness the issues of social class distinctions that dictate who a woman can marry, the legal enforcement of “patrilineal” practices, the automatic assignment of real estate property ownership to males upon the death of its original master and prejudice. Women were deprived of rights or power to legally own anything. There was no way for a female to gain material or financial wealth other than hanging on the males who had consummate all-consuming power and control. These overwhelming circumstances deprived them of any desires of personal freedom and produced an environment lacking in supportive psychological wellness. The novel shows the determination and honesty of Catherine, who desires to run away from her domestic enclosure. She is anguished about the suppression of women and desires unrealistically to do something about it, but is defeated by the deep-rooted patriarchal system. She goes ahead and leads a double life in a bid to meet the social expectations while she challenges through acts of emotional rebellion of the system she feels is unjust to women.

In Victorian society, women who felt the urge to fight patriarchy were unsuccessful at it due to the following reasons. They were not educated and lacked the financial independence as they totally relied on their husbands. The system had been set in a manner that ensures that women are inferior to men, and must serve the latter for them to lead normal lives. Resistance, on the other hand, such women who rebelled to social male dominance were labeled unsuitable as they lacked qualities such as submission and innocence. They were considered as bad examples and experienced stressful damaged social ties, as was experienced by Catherine. Further, they were labeled, ostracized and unable to acquire support from other women. Those who were married did not want to damage their unions through involvement in activities that damaged their public image. As such, the futile efforts did not lead to realization of the desired results as some women had even accepted their position in the society as men’s property.

The article, “The Subjection of Women,” by John Stuart Mill calls for the creation of a society that promotes the equality for all. Mill positioned that creating equal opportunities and empowering humans could have led to improved interactive human living conditions. He presented a strong supportive stance against social and legal conditions that made women continue to suffer in the hands of cruel husbands who treated them as their properties (Graham). The article mainly focused on the negative aspects of marital relationships which he likened to the relationship between the slave and a master. Specifically, he stated that marriage was the legal equivalent of slavery. Mill’s work can be used to deduce more intimate information about the ill moral and repressive marital issues that were being experienced by the women. As earlier noted, a wife was the legal property of the man, and she needed to serve the interests of the husband, dutifully without resistance no matter what. This is consistent with the assertions made by Mill that was the legal equivalent of slavery.

. The Victorian authors depicted these telling situations in the various works, such as novels, prose, plays, and articles as shown above. It is clear that the authors mainly criticized and served as the mirror of the society. They portray the Victorian society as cruel to women. The authors did exemplary work in trying to make the society rethink the position of women, which impacted their level of creativity as follows.

First, the patriarchal system was an area that the authors could actively write about from personal and firsthand experience. The novel, “Wuthering Heights,” by Bronte captures her own life experience when growing up. It indicates that creativity was positively impacted as the authors had firsthand experience of the patriarchy system and lived it. It explains why most of the female authors compiled literature that outlined details that the readers can identify and connect emotionally with. The ability to relate with the readers at the emotional level shows how the creativity of the authors was impacted by the trends they had personally and publically experienced.

Regarding patriarchy, Victorian society openly exposed behaviors that portrayed examples of male domination, power and superiority over females, the authors at that time could make observations and create stories that captured the reality of events they personally witness or gained knowledge as current events issues within the society. This attribute is portrayed in the plays where the authors create scenes that readers can visualize and learn more about the details of the patriarchy. The authors did not need to fictionalize the literature for them to connect emotionally with the readers. The social order became their source of literature non fictionalized material.

However, even though the subject area was rich in informative content as put into print by the Victorian authors, it is worth noting that a major limitation is evident. The authors wrote extensively in this area, and failed to explore other subjects that could also interest the readers. For instance, there were major developments in the 19th century in the society such as the rise of social classes that the Victorian could have written about. Their attention was drawn to the patriarchal systems that denied women, their rights to freedoms, liberty, and choice. It is understood that the authors focused on the content that was considered a pressing social issue, but it should not have limited their creativity to a single area. It is the duty of the author to compose literature in multiple areas in order to meet the interests of the audience, which in most cases is very diverse.

In conclusion, patriarchal systems existed in the Victorian era where women were treated as inferior to men. Women lacked freedom of choice, had no rights, suffered immeasurably, considered as valueless beyond domination and control. It is an area that Victorian authors, such as Mill, Bronte, and Wilde wrote about in an attempt to make the society rethink its cruelty when it comes to the rights and the position of women. The focus impacted their creativity as they were able to compose literature that the readers can connect emotionally with. However, their creativity was limited as they did not explore other areas that could interest the readers.

Chapter Two

Impacts of World War 1 and World War 11 on the Economy, Women’s Roles, and Industrialization

The effects of World War 1 (WW1) and World War 2 (WW2) were mostly unprecedented. Before the two episodes of combat engagements in Europe, the world enjoyed relative calm and stability. However, all that changed after 1914 and 1939. The amount of human and financial resources that were committed to the two wars left indelible marks on world economies, industrialization, and family structures. Many nations that took part in the wars used machinery and resources that had high funding demands. As such, the period ensuing after the end of 1914 and 1939 bared the economic shock. The periods that followed the end of the first and second world wars struggled for a long time to resume normalcy. Family life, the roles of women in society, the economy, labor, and industrialization were all impacted in profound ways.

World War 1

The First World War had significant effects on the role of women in society. The recruitment of male servicemen in large numbers rendered many households without male figures. Thus, women were to step up to those roles for as long as the men were away (Burgess, 1942). Apart from assuming the leadership roles in the families, women were suddenly exposed to employment opportunities, albeit with lesser remunerations compared to men. As a result, women got financially empowered. The new roles played by women also earned them respect from society. Consequently, self-belief and esteems were raised. On the other side of the coin, just like men, women had different reactions to the war. While others supported the combat engagement and rallied behind the troops to the point of wanting to join their male counterparts, others were opposed to it.

Of the many effects of the First World War, economic implications were the most profound. While many nations took part in the war, the economic impacts of the same were disproportionate. France, the United Kingdom, and Germany were directly involved in the war and hence, suffered more. Of the three countries, Germany took the worst economic beating (Broadberry and Harrison, 2005). In as much as the war had devastating effects on the UK and France, they overcame their economic challenges quickly. Unfortunately for Germany, the loans they took to finance the war came back to haunt them immediately after the war. The demands of the Versailles treaty demanded that Germany pay repatriations in monetary form (Broadberry and Harrison, 2005). The resulting large scale printing of money for the same brought adverse effects to its economy. Coupled with the devastation of economic infrastructure throughout the nation as well as political tensions during the reign of the Weimar Republic, economic depression resulted. On the other hand, the US leveraged its indirect involvement in World War I to advance economically. The fact that America's country sides and factories continued with operating informed increased industrial production (Broadberry and Harrison, 2005). As a result, the US cemented its position as an economic giant throughout the twenties.

As already highlighted above, World War 1 had unprecedented implications laser focused on industrialization. The reverse is also true because the industrial revolution influenced how the war was fought (Broadberry and Harrison, 2005). The United States of America mainly seemed to be the biggest beneficiary of the First World War. Its late introduction to the war in 1917 meant a lesser commitment to the same in terms of human and economic resources. Also, the fact that its geographical location spared it from infrastructural devastation gave it a head start and ample time to make significant industrial leaps. As a result, factories and industries developed faster than ever (Broadberry and Harrison, 2005). On the other hand, the industrial revolution that had given birth to new war technology before the war influenced the complexities of the fighting approaches used during WW1.

Labor and its dynamics were greatly affected by the First World War. The fact that WW1 was primarily centered on the mobilization of significant quantities of human resources underscored the critical role of the same. For all the parties that participated in the war, mobilizing and managing the available labor proved problematic (Broadberry and Harrison, 2005). The offensive strategy of the war informed the need for increased and sustained industrial production of munitions, something that depended on human capital. On the other hand, the battlefields also demanded vast numbers of servicemen, which stretched human resources. Consequently, France, Russia, Germany, and the UK always struggled to find a balance for the scarcity of human labor (Broadberry and Harrison, 2005). The workforce in these respective societies and economies was scarce. Conversely, women stepped up to assume most of the roles played by men who by now served on the war frontline.

Legacies of protectionism, debt, and crippling reparations underscored the devastating implications of WWI. At the end of the war in 1918, the Versailles treaty condemned Germany to billions of dollar repatriation payments to its allies (Broadberry and Harrison, 2005). While this had an immediate impact on its economy, the whole of the European region's economic performance also took gradual hits in the period that ensued. When Germany's allies didn't review their loans downwards as pleaded by Germany, it had to default its payments by 1923. As a result, France and Belgium's occupation of the industrial Ruhr region further aggravated German's situation, driving its economy down an economic abyss. Germany's decision to print more money to pay the loans aggravated the situation tremendously (Broadberry and Harrison, 2005). The ripple effects of the war on the world economy lead to the Great Depression.

World War 11

Like WWI, WWII had far-reaching implications on the modern family. As men and male youths were recruited in large numbers to meet the high demand for service members, families were deprived. That, therefore, meant that women and children learned to live and survive by themselves. The absence of men informed an assumption of new roles by women. Jobs and roles previously preserved for males were filled by women (Burgess, 1942). As a result, a crop of women with status and financial ability emerged.

Due to isolation from modeled family unity and structure, children grew up without the mentorship of fathers and brothers, a trend that led to increased cases of dysfunction amongst undisciplined youths in that now modern generation. The replacement of men by women in industry condemned children to lack of parental molding, discipline and positive demonstrations of leadership. Consequently, juvenile delinquency became widespread among this generation. Over time, the family unit was disenfranchised. Cases of divorce increased as men and women increasingly lost trust in one another, a factor that influenced the onset of companionship rather than marriage (Burgess, 1942). With the loss of family function as a result of the new disruptive gender roles, the rearing of pre-school age children was left to nursery schools.

As with the case during the First World War, the Second World War had significant economic impacts on even more nations. WWII was fought by 30 different countries, all taking part in different levels. As a result, most of these nations stretched their budgets to cater to the financial and material demands of the war (The Great Depression and WWII Teacher Resources - American Memory Timeline- Classroom Presentation | Teacher Resources - Library of Congress, 2020). The constant production of machinery and other equipment informed sustained substantial budgetary allocations from 1939 to 1945. By the end of the combat engagement, the staggering losses of human life, property, and critical infrastructure weighed heavily on these nations. The loss of human capital as a result of the killing of over 70 million persons hit hard. Coupled with depleting or depleted resources after the war, many nations except the US and the Soviet Union suffered greatly.

On the other hand, the economic advantages escalated, a progress embraced and enjoyed by the United States as these successes continued and peaked during and after the Second World War. Its ability to offer loans and manufacture goods and artillery used during the war, in the creation of profits, meant well for its economy (The Great Depression and WWII Teacher Resources - American Memory Timeline- Classroom Presentation | Teacher Resources - Library of Congress, 2020). Consequently, the US witnessed a sustained exponential growth of its economy to double digits of 17% throughout the 1940s (The Great Depression and WWII Teacher Resources - American Memory Timeline- Classroom Presentation | Teacher Resources - Library of Congress, 2020). Overall, while many countries reeled from the economic implications of WWII, a few others leveraged their positions and roles to advance their economic muscles.

World War II inspired significant industrial development in the United States of America. While Europe and the rest of the world bore the brunt of the first and second world wars, these global combat engagements were advantageous for the US (The Great Depression and WWII Teacher Resources - American Memory Timeline- Classroom Presentation | Teacher Resources - Library of Congress, 2020). The US's calculated involvement in the frontline combat and resource mobilization and supply to the allied forces brought with it economic tidings. For a long time before the Second World War, the American South was considered the nation's 'economic problem.' As such, the nation's WWII mobilization, which informed increased demand for industrial goods, favored the US. Consequently, Roosevelt's administration took this advantage to set up the south for industrialization. A total of 26 billion dollars was pumped into the construction of new factories that were spread throughout the southern states (Jaworski, 2017). Overall, WWII boosted the industrial growth of the south region of the US, raising its economy significantly.

As of 1941, the rate of unemployment in the US was approximately 25% (Impact of World War II on the US Economy and Workforce, 2020). As such, bankruptcy was not uncommon. Living standards took a beating 60% lower than the 1929 crash of the stock market. However, the start of WWII changed all that. The previously unemployed population suddenly got employed in the factories that produced weaponry and food for frontline servicemen (Fishback and Jaworski, 2016). Informed by the high recruitment of men into service, their positions in assembly lines were increasingly filled by women. It was evident that labor patterns were shifting with the new phenomenon. With this new pattern, women were encouraged to take up jobs that were traditionally deemed men's (Impact of World War II on the US Economy and Workforce, 2020). Existent companies shifted their production lines to purely war material and consumer goods, further placing higher demand for increased labor from women and the formerly jobless lot.

As a result of the new wave of industrialization that transpired during the Second World War, the end of the Great Depression was triggered. The previously plummeted economic and political trends got a new lease of life (Impact of World War II on the US Economy and Workforce, 2020). For the United States of America, increased industrialization brought a positive economic effect on its economy. New employment opportunities for previously jobless populations inspired better living standards (Impact of World War II on the US Economy and Workforce, 2020). As highlighted earlier in the discourse, the newly acquired status of women in employment further improved the economic outlook for many households in America. As submitted by many economic commentaries and pundits, America's new wave of industrialization in the early 1940s decimated the Great Depression.

The first and second world wars were largely unprecedented. Prior to these two global combats, the world had not witnessed military engagements, with heavy populated manpower, of such magnitude. As such, every participant didn't have prior experience on how to prepare for the dynamics. The increased demand for servicemen in the war frontline and sequential filling of their family and economic roles by women informed an economic shift. At the same time, family structures were largely disrupted by absentee parenting. Many children growing up at the time took the bait of peer pressure, sinking into the abyss of juvenile delinquency and indiscipline. In a nutshell, WWI and WWII brought major implications on the role of women in society, the economy, labor, industrialization, and the Great Depression.

Chapter Three

Expansion of Women’s Roles in World War 1 and World War II and Effects on the Modern Family

The effects of WWI and WWII wars were largely unprecedented and had a disabling effect on society, the economy, as well as the family structure. That was mainly because the majority of Americans did not think, for example, that WWII would last long. Of the many implications that WWI and WWII had on society, there was a profound expansion of the roles of women. As a result, these impacts trickled down to the operations and well-being of the basic family structure. Increased demand for more men in the battlefronts in Europe led to temporary vacuums in their role as providers and heads of families. As a result, it became incumbent upon the mature feminine population to not only express patriotism by supporting their country but expanded to support of men as soldiers who committed to imminent dangers, to step up and fill the gaps left by those vacancies. Consequently, there was a significant assumption of new roles to be filled by women during the wars, adjustments with staggering social and cultural implication that continues to affect modern American families.

Many women took up new roles in the defense and military industry, as well as increased responsibilities at home (Burgess, 1942). During WWI, many households were deprived of men as most were recruited to join the battlefronts in Europe. This call to action also left a deficit of men who would return from duty to resume traditional roles vacated during their absences. As a result, women stepped in to play the roles that were traditionally preserved, performed as positions expected as career objectives of, by and for men. The new phenomenon of expansion of roles meant that women stepped up to call to multitask and acted as both mothers and fathers to the children (Burgess, 1942). It often required long periods of away time before those deployed servicemen and soldiers could return home to retake their places as head of their families. During these extended periods of physical separation, many children were born and raised in single parent households, resulting in the passing of crucial early childhood development stages without getting to know and bond with their fathers. Burgess (1942) offers that while the case of increased access to employment opportunities came after 1941, the highlight of the period between 1914 and 1918 was a time of increased women's parental responsibilities at home in the absence of their husbands.

WWII was one of the highest levels of women being exposed to former traditionally male-dominated jobs. Due to the war causing a male deficit, a large population American women were exposed to military and defense job opportunities that, until then, were never open to them (Campbell and Weatherford, 1991). While women had a history of professional work before the onset of WWII, the type work of work they now did shifted significantly. Many women transitioned from sewing and typing jobs to the male-dominated industries. Apart from changing the types of work women did, WWII also increased the volumes of the working women needed to perform such duties

It is estimated that between 1940 and 1945, there was an upward surge in the number of employed woman to approximately 5 million (Campbell and Weatherford, 1991). Since many men were increasingly joining the army to fight the wars in Europe, their previous jobs were left void (Campbell and Weatherford, 1991). The gaps left by their departure provided new opportunities for many women. Most of these jobs were in the military, defense, and other fields that were deemed a preserve of the male gender. An interrogation of the numbers of American women in employment by 1943 reveals that women were the majority of workers in the aircraft sector. However, most women did not work in the defense field during that time as they occupied office and factory jobs that had been preserved for men (Campbell and Weatherford, 1991). In as much as these times provided unprecedented economic opportunities for American women, their remunerations were still far less than what their male counterparts got paid for the same roles.

It is estimated that roughly 350,000 women were recruited into military positions during WWII (Campbell and Weatherford, 1991). These women were trained to be truck drivers, nurses, aircraft maintainers, mechanics and clerks. The Women's Airforce Service Pilots were tasked with flying military planes from factories to bases to deliver weaponry and food supplies. As many women thronged opportunities in the civil service, others became engineers and chemists. That includes the women in their thousands hired on the Manhattan project of building the atomic bomb. In as much most history books have failed to highlight the roles of women in the two world wars, some got captured as war prisoners while others died by the enemy's bullet or bomb. Many female nurses that served during WWII were recognized with prizes for their contribution despite the tensions that ensued (Campbell and Weatherford, 1991).

Despite their significant contribution during WWII, most women lost their jobs to men returning from the war (Campbell and Weatherford, 1991). Women were generally admonished to resume their 'traditional works and place in society' despite their desire to keep working. However, reports submit that by early 1950s, many women had beaten the 'housewife stereotype' as 32 percent of them worked outside homes (Campbell and Weatherford, 1991). By this time, WWII had inspired the thought processes, that women were viable to be considered placement, permanently in the labor market.

Women faced new challenges as a result of their new roles in the labor force during the WWII. These challenges were dire for women who doubled up as mothers. The demands of temporarily assigned, in the absences of males and husbands due to wars, female heads of households being career women and those of motherhood placed pressure on their delivery both at home and work (Campbell and Weatherford, 1991). As such, motherhood bared the brunt most of the time. In a bid to address the serious challenging phenomenon, Eleanor Roosevelt convinced her husband, the then sitting president Franklin Roosevelt to fast track the approval of government childcare institutions. The fruits of the first lady's efforts bore fruits in 1942 with the approval of the first childcare facility through the Community Facilities Act (Campbell and Weatherford, 1991). However, despite the government and private companies' efforts to help in this course, many childcare demands were not addressed (Campbell and Weatherford, 1991). As a result, many children that grew up during this period had discipline issues. The absence of fathers coupled with absentee parenting by mothers aggravated the problem as most children missed out proper growth and nurturing.

Consequently, the phenomenon of absentee parenting had far reaching impacts on successive generations. As children lacked mentorship and guidance by parents, a lapse in discipline, caused family disruptions and juvenile delinquency cases increased. With that surge in negligent distractions created from now two working parents, came juvenile delinquency in modern families (Campbell and Weatherford, 1991). On the other hand, the increased self-esteem and financial empowerment for women birthed marital problems. Many husbands felt threatened by the woman's independence. As a result, cases of mistrust increased, leading to a trend of failed marriages and high divorce rates. The family unit was under a threat. As a result of these successive factors and trends, the modern family continues to bear the brunt.

In a nutshell, WWI and WWII provided unprecedented economic opportunities for the roles of American woman, with the expansion of those roles of women as breadwinners, co-parenting with a voice, contributing financially to the family, generated a radical shift in authority, regarding gender? Women began to have a voice as to the distribution of responsibilities and priorities on a family’s focus in childrearing and spending, savings and worship. The gaps left in jobs by men who were now in the war front were filled by young women and mothers. Despite the loss of most of these opportunities to men when returning or coming back from war after 1945, the commitment to continue and hold on to these specialized skills, never relinquishing the commitment to quality of service, work ethics or productions, and in some instances, perfecting production and performance, while still managing the home, these multitasking, women left an indelible mark on the labor market and their roles cemented. By 1950, at least 32 percent of women were working outside their homes, a proof that the trend would only improve. Unfortunately, these new trends introduce and ushered in social dysfunctions into the family unit, implementing and exposing many parenting and marital challenges, some which continue to bedevil contemporary families.

Chapter Four

The Great Depression and Impact on Modern Families & Theoretical Background

The ‘Great Depression’ occurred between the years, 1920-30s is considered one of the longest economic downturns swells to have occurred in history. The era of the Great Depression started in the year of 1929 in the United States of America and lasted till 1939. It was considered the worst economic depression ten years in the history of the country. The stock markets crashed, and the downturn started. Many historians and economists believe that the Great Depression was the resulted of the crashed stock markets but multiple other reasons included in the occurrence of the Great Depression. The major reasons and causes that lead the country towards the Great Depression include the stock markets crash, failure of the banking systems, and the artificial boom created by the Federal Reserve System of the country.

One of the most evident causes that have been concluded to have played a large part in the origination of the depression was the Stock Market Crash of 1929. Black Tuesday is denoted by the abrupt crash of the stock market. Many scholars trigger that this was the beginning of the depression since it affected such a huge proportion of the economy. It was started with the crash of the stock markets when in October the markets crashed by losing 12 percent of its total value, and it caused damage to the $14 billion of investments. Later on, in the same year, the stockholders lost more than 39 billion dollars ("Stock Market Crash of October 1929", 2019).

Due to the stock market crash, banking systems started to fail and became a major cause behind the Great Depression. When the stock market crashed, the people started worrying about their money in the banks. They started to withdraw their money and funds from the banks. The beginning of the decade also accounted for banks closing and failing on a routine basis. Bankruptcy was a common phenomenon of the depression, whereby the end of 30’s more than 8000-10,000 banks had gone bankrupt (Stuckler, Meissner, Fishback, Basu & McKee, 2010). The banks that did continue had a little function; they stopped providing loans and credit because of increasing unemployment and the fear of bad debts.

Before the crash of the stock markets, the Federal Reserve System of the country started the speculation buying. The credit expansion process was adopted that resulted benefits in the start but later lead to decline ("What Caused the Great Depression?", 2018). The reserve banks started making money in new credit that leads the bank to expand the credit. This expansion was considered as beneficial but leads to decline in 1924 with the failure of monetary policies. Mainly the Fed increased the rates of interest in the country to deal with the issues of power speculation that overall resulted in consumer spending.

The major reasons behind the Great Depression include the stock markets crash, failure of the banking systems, and the artificial boom created by the Federal Reserve System of the country. One of the major implications of the great depression shows that every concept in the economy is interlinked. The economic system is an amalgamation of economic events that lead the country towards the Great Depression, which collapsed modern families. The great depression formed as a result of signs and struggles that were erupting for many decades, leaving piles of dysfunctional families on its path.

Harold Pinter's Biography

Harold Pinter, an atheist, was born in Hackney, east London on Oct. 10, 1930. He was the only child of his British Jewish parents; Hyman “Jack” Pinter, his father who was a ladies’ tailor, and his mother Frances, who was a housewife. [footnoteRef:1]Writer and biographer, Michael Billington, described Pinter’s family home as "a solid, red-brick, three-storey villa just off the noisy, bustling, traffic-ridden thoroughfare of the Lower Clapton Road." Pinter was later evacuated from the home after the Blitz, a strategic bombing campaign conducted by the Germans against London and other cities in England from September of 1940 through May of 1941. The campaign targeted populated areas, factories and dock yards. [1: ]

The bombing left Pinter with profound memories “of loneliness, bewilderment, separation and loss: themes that are in all his works,” Billington said. (Billington, Harold Pinter 5-10). Although Pinter’s early life was sometimes lonely, it was full of profound memories and an overindulgence in writing. He attended Hackney Downs School, a London grammar school, between 1944 and 1948. During his time in attendance Pinter had two close male friends and became very close to his English teacher Joseph Brearley, who encouraged Pinter to write and acted as director of his plays. Pinter's early writings were appreciated and featured in school magazines.

In 1952 he pursued a career in acting, mostly within theater companies where he also strengthened his skills as a playwright and director. During his free time Pinter performed for radio and TV productions, most of which were aired and got him to the limelight. His plays captivates different audiences, and have received acceptance all over the world. In 1965 Pinter wrote, and saw to its production, The Homecoming. Plays like Betrayal and No Man's Land, which share themes in relation to familial bonds, betrayal, and separation, followed after. His early writings, in which he used the pseudonym Pinta and other variations of the name, stemmed from his belief that his family was Sephardic and had fled the Spanish Inquisition. Later research by Pinter’s second wife, Lady Antonia Fraser, found that his family was actually Ashkenazic; three of Pinter’s grandparents came from Poland and the fourth from Odessa.

Pinter was the author of twenty-nine plays, fifteen dramatic sketches, and the co-author of two works for stage and radio. He was considered to have been one of the most influential modern British dramatists, in which he received the 1967 Tony Award for Best Play for The Homecoming and several other American awards and award nominations. Pinter’s plays are notorious for their ambivalent plots, dramatic presentations of characters and endings, and undeniable power and originality. Pinter typically begins his literary works with a pair of characters whose stereotyped relations and role-playing are disrupted by the entrance of a stranger. The audience sees the psychic stability of the couple break down as their fears, jealousies, hatreds, sexual preoccupations, and loneliness emerge from beneath a screen of bizarre yet commonplace conversations. In Pinter's The Caretaker, for instance, a wheedling, garrulous old tramp comes to live with two neurotic brothers, one of whom underwent electroshock therapy as a mental patient.

The tramp’s attempts to establish himself in the household upsets the precarious balance of the brothers’ lives and they end up evicting him. In similarity, Pinter's The Homecoming focuses on the return of a University professor to his London home who brings his wife, Ruth, to meet his father and brothers. Ruth’s presence exposes a tangle of rage and confused sexuality in the all-male household.

Characters

Max: The seventy-year-old patriarch of the family, Max is the father of Teddy, Lenny and Joey by his late wife Jessie, and he is the brother of Sam. He fondly recalls his days as a butcher and his troublesome youth alongside his accomplice MacGregor. The horse track was also once a favorite place of his, and he prides himself on his ability to tell a good beast by smell. He feeds the family and provides for them, but does not make much money. He often speaks of his deceased wife, sometimes in glowing terms and sometimes in critical ones. Max is aggressive towards his sons and brother and is constantly dismissive of them. He is concerned with his virility but is still an impassioned and irascible man.

Lenny: A man in his early thirties and the middle son of Max. He apparently works as a pimp, arranging prostitutes for his supposedly distinguished clientele. Lenny is intelligent and surprisingly articulate but often brutally violent and conniving, exerting a degree of control over his family and others.

Teddy: A man in his middle thirties and the eldest son of Max as well as the husband of Ruth. He is an expatriate to America, where he lives with his family of three sons, just like that of his father, and works as a professor of philosophy at a university. He claims to love his family but also expresses some ambivalence towards them. He was however, Jessie’s favorite son, according to Sam. Teddy is a logical, practical, generally emotionless figure who does little to intervene in his wife’s behavior with his brother. He only half-grudgingly leaves her to return to America, a place he loves for its cleanliness and the orderliness of his university life.

Ruth: A woman in her early thirties and the wife of Teddy. She has a mysterious past which she never truly divulges, instead preferring to conceal her darker aspects. Ruth is a complex character, adopting to the roles of both manipulator and exploited victim at various times, by ultimately successfully redefining and living her truth.

Jessie: Max’s (allegedly deceased) wife and the boys’ mother, she has already died when the events of the play take place and is not seen onstage. Nevertheless, she looms large as a maternal figure. Max in turn complains about and praises her while the sons remember her fondly. She had an affair with MacGregor a former friend of Max’s who was observed having sex with Jessie in his car.

Sam: A sixty –three old brother od Max and a chauffeur, supposedly one of the best in the business, a effeminate and docile personality was often the subject of his brothers abusive contempt and derision, who also held a secret regarding Max’s wife Jessie who reportedly fooled around with his friend, MacGregor (deceased) and could possibly be the biological father of one of Max’s three sons.

Joey: The youngest son considered to be intellectually delayed, childlike, brutish, aspiring to be a boxer.

Plot Overview

The Homecoming opened its doors to the Adlywch theatre in London in 1965 (Clarke 26). The story is based around the main character of Ruth a mother of three who comes visiting her in-laws from America with her college professor husband called Teddy. The play is characterized by the betrayal and infidelity from the family matriarch Jessie, Teddy’s mother, who was expected to play the role of the family whore, and separate the sexual nature of the job from her emotions (Alogaili73). Therefore when the character created an emotional bond with a client she’s considered a cheater -- the betrayal leads to conflict and a disintegration of the family unit. However, as Ruth enters into her in-law’s lives the sheer lack of another female character or mother figure within her husband’s household leaves her yearning to take up the role of the family matriarch. She decides to become the family whore in order to conform to the idealized figure of a family matriarch and authority figure.

Themes

The Homecoming was written in 1964 and is still regarded as one of Pinter’s finest works. Pinter’s own personal issues of the 60s, the pursuit of the new woman image and the conflicts of gender within the home and family, shines through the play. In an interview with [footnoteRef:2]Lawrence Bensky, Pinter claimed that “of all his plays up to that time, The Homecoming satisfied him most in terms of structural entity” (57). The play marks a peak in the dual character portrayal of women as Ruth is rendered with confidence and accuracy in a shocking narrative that never loses focus. The portrayal of women as multifaceted whores occurs in Pinter’s later plays, but never with such an accentuated focus on a female character and her social surroundings. Ruth differs in her strength, attitude and independence effortlessly towards the male characters in The Homecoming, and their conspiracy laden surroundings as to her purpose, through their self-serving, eyes, contributing their lives. [2: ]

Roles of Women in The Homecoming

The "homecoming" of the play belongs to Teddy, who is returning home from America to visit his all male family members, living under the same roof, with his wife Ruth. The male’s relationship with one another is established through their interactions at the beginning of the play. New characters are introduced steadily with dialogue giving the audience insightful information about their relationships with one another, and the nature of their communication. Upon Ruth’s first encounter with Max, her father-in-law, she is mistaken for a prostitute brought into the house by Teddy. Max suggests that his house has not encountered a harlot since his deceased wife, Jessie, lived in the home. The lack of a respect and sensitivity of a female presence is declared through the character's comments on her passing away, and a split history of the family’s story is told through their conversations. Their use of words, and their tone suggests a menacing dialogue with exaggerated messages of ill content, along with accolades for her now missed feminine presence.

In a 1980 [footnoteRef:3] interview with Miriam Gross, Pinter claimed that love could be found in his plays. Taking The Homecoming as an example he said, “I think there’s a great deal of love in that play but they simply don’t know what to do with it, referring to the violence exerted by the all-male family” (74). Once Teddy and Ruth arrive in the London home, it is clear that she will become the main focus of the male characters, in their pursuits maintain their assumed power and conspire to control Ruth. The power dynamics which was already in play, became superior to a much greater degree. The male characters are receptive towards Ruth because she fulfils the void of absence of womanly tasks with a woman’s touch the cast of all male inhabitants have seen lacking and been missing in the home, for some time. [3: .]

One of the most unforgettable lines in the play belong to Teddy, when talking about the living room and how they had knocked down a wall between the room and the hallway, he says “The structure wasn’t effected, you see. My mother was dead.” (29) Implying that his mother’s death left a comparable hole in the family’s structure. This job thus needs to be filled and Ruth is tried and tested by the family members in an effort to fill the empty role of the mother figure. But Max and Sam’s dialogue suggests that the deceased mother was not only a mother figure but also a prostitute. It is clear that Max represents the lost man in Pinter's play. He struggles with his possession of authority as head of the household, yet at the same time his character reminds the audience of a time of different values.

Max's youngest son, Joey, is just the opposite. Ruth easily lures him into sexual activity which strips him of his manliness and asserts his role as a child of the family. He expresses longing for Ruth in the most innocent manner, ending with him kneeling at her feet in the final scene, completely succumbing to her sexuality and power.

Ruth clearly shows that she is not the traditional woman the previous female of the house, Jessie, had been. Ruth's character portrays a modern woman whose fascination for power and freedom drives her desire to join the family. Her interactions with her husband demonstrate that she is not a submissive woman, as expected in the patriarchal society that The Homecoming presents. Soon after the couple's arrival Lenny tries to intimidate Ruth with threats of physical violence, as a form of affirmation that women are expected to stay submissive to men. He attempts to dominate Ruth by telling her about women that he has beaten up due to lack of submissiveness, and tries to take away her glass.

Defending herself from the misogynistic approach, Ruth responds in an affirmative way telling Lenny, [footnoteRef:4]“If you take the glass…I’ll take you.” The confrontation with Lenny asserts women’s feminine power to overcome physical abuse in a misogynistic environment. Ruth's ability to assert her strength and defend herself from physical altercation leaves Lenny confused. The altercation amuses Ruth in a manner that gives her more fulfilment in the new environment. She is intrigued by the violent, physical, and sexual impulses of the English household drives her to gain more control over her husband’s family. The patriarchal household offers Ruth a chance to reinvent herself in a powerful identity that she had only experienced before her marriage. Ruth wins the battle as she leaves the house for a 4“breath of air” (31) leaving the more insecure Teddy behind. Symbolically, she takes the key to the house with her. [4: ]

Roles of Men in The Homecoming

The relationship between each character in Pinter's The Homecoming is fragile and empty because of their inability to communicate effectively with one another. The play is conceived in Pinter’s various and varied modes of communication such as pauses, silence, gaps, dots, gestures and postures. The sub-textual undertones often robs the literary work of its unified meaning. Pre-1950 dramatists were accepted as omniscient figures who knew everything about their characters. In The Homecoming Pinter places his characters in a concrete, realistic setting suggesting that he knew no more about the ultimate fate of his characters than his audience. Pinter himself writes, "...The characters which grow on a page, most of the time, are inexpressive, giving little way, unreliable, elusive, evasive, obstructive, and unwilling. But it is not of these attributes that a language arises. A language, I repeat, where, under what is said, another thing is being said" (Pinter, 13-14).

The mysterious nature of each character manifests itself through their problematic communication. Pinter puts it clearly in writing, "I think we communicate too well, in our silence, in what is unsaid, and that what takes place is a continual evasion, desperate rearguard attempt to keep ourselves. Communication is too alarming. To enter into someone else's life is too frightening. To disclose to others the poverty within us is too fearsome a possibility" (Pinter, 15). The three brothers in the play attempt, by means of language, to overcome barriers and find common grounds. Valerie Monogue describes their language or lack thereof, in itself, because of its imperfections, as a lack in expertise and revelation of the fears, needs and inadequacies that they struggle to conceal. The three male characters in The Homecoming mutually agree to hide each one’s embarrassment. "They attempt to close the abyss--silence is the great enemy---generally understanding too much rather than too little,” Monogue said. “Their talk shows...not so much a failure as an evasion of communication. In silence in this world becomes a catalyst of action, even action itself. Talk seems an expedient, a means of evasion. In silence and in the dark in the nonentity against which they all precariously struggle.”

Productive nonverbal communication between each character also suffers accurate interpretations. The characters avoid self-revelation and use abusive language as a defense, with violence as a shield, rather than a form of emotional contact. In fact, when communications are sometimes forced, the characters are provoked and completely shut down in avoidance of emotional confrontations. [footnoteRef:5]For example, Max keeps his silence in response to Teddy's arrival. Max's silence in response to Teddy's greeting is particularly insulting (Saville-Troike 1985: 6). The offense leads to a ‘pause’ in Teddy’s turn (Pinter, 2), [footnoteRef:6]suggesting a disjointed flow of interaction (Herman 1995: 97-98) and ‘unspoken tensions’ between the two characters (Esslin 1972: 56). Despite Teddy's attempt to repair the conversation by asking ‘What’s for breakfast?’ (Pinter, 3), it is followed by Max's continued silence (Pinter, 4). [5: ] [6: ]

The interaction, or the lack thereof, damages not only Teddy’s positive face, by publically ignoring him, making him feel uncomfortable, [footnoteRef:7]but also his negative face, by refusing respectfully to give the information that Teddy wants (Culpeper et al. 2003: 1555). Teddy, as a result, ‘chuckles’ embarrassingly, trying to avoid the silence by saying ‘we overslept’ again (Pinter, 56). [footnoteRef:8]The repetition suggests the emptiness of the character's relationship to one another (Esslin 1972:39). After Teddy utters ‘we overslept’ twice (Pinter, 1 and 6), Max starts speaking, yet not to Teddy, but to his brother, Sam, and his youngest son, Joey. By excluding Teddy from the conversation and using the third person pronoun, ‘he’ (Pinter, 8), to refer to Teddy, damaging Teddy’s ‘wants’ to be acknowledged (Culpeper et al. 2003: 1555). [7: ] [8: ]

After several exchanges with others and ignoring Teddy’s greetings, "‘how are you?" (Pinter, 26) again, Max begins talking with Teddy, yet with no greetings, but an abrupt question: "How long you been in this house?" (Pinter, 26). It is clear that Max uses nonverbal language to communicate negatively with his son. However, when forced to communicate, Max chooses to use language as a defense mechanism. Elements of not having polished nonverbal communication skills hinders Teddy linguistically (Culpeper et al. 2003: 1555).

Chapter Five

The Changing Role of Women in The Homecoming

Harold Pinter’s plays have been subject to different literary analyses and criticism in the past by scholars trying to attain the actual meaning of his work. As a renowned dramatist, Pinter’s play “The Homecoming” reveals his recognition and evaluation of the theme; the transitioning roles of, gender, sex and power in the modern family. Pinter’s writing in this play consistently pits male weakness and insecurity against female strength and resilience to overcome societal pressure and redefine the value of intellectual power gender roles, once it is released from repressive stereotypical biases. Different scholars fail to pin a decisive meaning on the personality of Ruth in “The Homecoming”, but agree that she is an epitome of the changing roles of women in industrial Britain’s modern family. An analysis of the character – Ruth, in Pinter’s play, “The Homecoming” shows a woman faced with exemplary challenges that uses her feminine power to rule a male-dominated household.

As the only visible female character displayed in Pinter’s play, Ruth is certainly the protagonist in The Homecoming. Although Pinter’s work is largely interpreted as naturalistic, due to the dingy and working-class setting created in the drama, he maintains a close affinity beneath the surface of interpretation. The fact that Pinter maintains a close examination of Ruth’s character at every point of the play reveals that readers should focus on her transition over different scenes and scenarios. There is a significant interaction between Ruth’s internal feelings and the prevailing external forces pressurizing her to behave in a perceived gender-conceived manner. Pinter uses this interplay of forces to show that societal pressures are misleading and contradictory to what a person may intend for their lives. In the end, one of the forces has to overcome the opposing one to attain a natural balance in society.

In industrial Britain, women were designed to live in female subordination due to the patriarchal nature of the Victorian society. Pinter perceives this male-dominated society as a confusing setup that placed women in constant conflict on how to value themselves. Women in the Victorian age were culturally repressed and devalued by society to perform a particular role in the household (Black et al., 25). Pinter’s drama displays this aspect of industrial Britain during the initial scenes when Ruth and Teddy visit his extended family in England. The inhabitants of the small household display a fixed cultural perception about Ruth’s existence in Teddy’s life. Inevitably, Ruth has to be a mother, and subordinate wife to Teddy, while she should also follow all his instructions as an obedient wife, as female partners in marriages, would do in England.

As an empowered woman from America, formerly domesticated Ruth is confident, independent-minded, and witty enough to evade every instance of control and wrangle it from the male characters individually, as well as in concert, by living her truth, escaping the role of domestic bliss as a mother and wife to Teddy and the children left behind in the United State via the value of reverse psychology exercised expertly by subtle seduction of the men in her extended family abroad. In the opening scene, Teddy asks Ruth whether he can make a hot drink for her since she was feeling cold. She refuses the offer and in an immediate response, feeling rejected, he instructs her to go to bed. In a patriarchal society, women were expected to obey their husband’s instructions without a second response (Black et al., 24). However, Ruth subsequently refuses to go to bed as a sign of her confidence and independence, in control of her actions and feelings and feeling comfortable revealing them publically. In fact, Ruth restores control over her actions in subsequent scenes that take place after that initial incidence with her husband, formulating a pattern of resistant behavior over any control and dominance coming in her direction.

Ruth’s resistance against male dominance continues to be displayed through her consistent defiance against intimidation. As a witty woman, Ruth cleverly switches between a silent and aggressive personality as required by the nature of confrontation. During her first interaction with Teddy’s father, she remains quiet and responds in short responses when questioned about the nature of her relationship. In a different scene, Ruth has to abruptly become aggressive to fight-off Lenny, one of Teddy’s brothers who threatens her in a physical confrontation of how he has beaten women because they disgusted him (Free 3). Ruth displays a growing sense of importance and authority as she affirms her position.

An important affirmation in Pinter’s play is that women are essential and valuable members of the household. Although Ruth is the only woman that appears in the drama, clear parallels are made between her and Jessie, the deceased wife of Max. In one of the scenes, Max says to Ruth (Pinter, 761), “Listen, I’ll tell you something. Since poor Jessie died, eh, Sam? We haven’t had a woman in the house. Not one inside this house. And I’ll tell you why. Because their mother’s image was so dear any other woman would have…tarnished it. But you…Ruth…you’re not only lovely and beautiful, but you’re kin. You’re kith. You belong here.” As this statement suggests, Ruth is an important member of the household by virtue of being a woman.

In the principle drama, Ruth was welcomed with unmerited hostility by Teddy’s family members. Her initial encounter with Lenny involved hostile questioning about her identity and life in America. She has to answer him twice by stating that she is married to his brother. The nature of her relationship is confusing to Lenny as he asks how she lives with him over there (Prentice, 458). In this scene, it can be interpreted that her relationship is the only factor attaching her to the husband. Consequently, in the Victorian era, it was customary for women to accompany their husbands to their family home.

Critical analysis of Ruth’s initial interaction with Teddy’s family proves that she is a subject of feminine subordination. Although her husband suggests that their lives were perfect in America, she offers a contrary response indicating her dissatisfaction (Prentice, 461). Ruth describes America as a wasteland that is far from what she initially desired for her life. Despite being Teddy’s wife, she expresses her unhappiness in the marriage and lack of fulfilment, which was a common occurrence in most women’s experience during the Victorian era. She desires a different lifestyle away from female subordination.

After the occasion where she reveals that she is unhappy about their lifestyle in America, Ruth concocts a strategy to attain her freedom and live her own truth, by her own terms. The former photographer’s model intends to use all her feminine power to expose the men’s weakness and become dominant. An interesting contest between Ruth and the male characters occurs shortly after the family stops displaying hostility to the household’s new member. Ruth wittily engages the men in a battle for dominance as she subtly confronts each male member in the household that had previously attempted to dominate her.

Pinter’s plays have been accused of using absurd representations of his characters in order to advance the intended message of his dramas. In “The Homecoming”, this absurd representation is displayed through Ruth’s exploitation of every feminine power to regain her independence (Clark 15). In Pinter’s perspective, to become a dominant woman, Ruth has to go through unprecedented experiences that qualify as absurd representation. The use of sexual, emotional, and psychological power is visible through each of Ruth’s battles with the male characters. Her witty nature continues to be displayed by the selective application of different powers over the current foe. In this play, though unrealistic, the end justifies the means, which for Ruth involves abandoning her marriage to design a life where she has complete control over her roles in society.

First, she engages Max in an emotional battle as she preys on his nostalgic desire to have a woman in the household to replace Jessie. Max wants Ruth to become the mother of the household and restore the family’s backbone, but to only answer to him as he is the head of the family (768). Ruth realizes that she is meant to resemble Jessie and continue being the subordinate woman that the family desires. However, she does not desire that role since it involves being subjective and taking instructions from the head of the family. While playing along to Max’s will, she obtains an emotional hold on him that allows her to control what should be done in the household.

Second, she enters into a psychological warfare with Lenny through different dramatic scenes, where he confronts her about being submissive to him. Ruth’s words have a strong psychological impact on Lenny since he is a pimp that runs a business of prostitution. In the superiority battle with Ruth, he gives stories about women that have attempted to have sex with him but failed (Pinter, 745). His encounter with Ruth leaves him desiring her sexually but he also wants her to work as a prostitute for his business. Towards the end of the drama, he quits trying to convince Ruth to work for him under his or any terms since he is desperate to have her living in London instead of going back to America.

In the third battle, Ruth employs her sexual power to manipulate Joey, the youngest member of the family. Ruth’s battle with Joey is mostly sexual since he is described as the most naïve yet physical character in the drama. A boxer in his early twenties, Joey has claimed sexual victory over many women and he wishes to have sex with Ruth. In one of the absurd scenes in the drama, Joey spends two hours in a room upstairs with Ruth trying to be intimate with her (Pinter, 743). Nevertheless, Ruth still claims this victory as she tempts him sexually, then restricts him from going “whole hog” with her as he has done previously with other women. The scene is absurd because the rest of the family members are downstairs and they are aware of the sexual confrontation happening between Ruth and Joey.

At this point, Teddy has become emotionally detached from his wife, watching her behave erotically with his siblings as he scribbles on a notebook. The battle between these two characters is both psychological and intellectual. As the husband, Teddy expects his wife to travel back to America with him and resume their perfect life with their children. However, the patriarchal structure does not apply to Ruth anymore since she has become independent-minded (765). Her confidence in deciding what is best for her has grown over the short period they have been in the family household in London. At the end, she chooses to stay in England and Teddy has to travel back alone, proving that she has also won this battle.

Even more intriguing, is the fact that Ruth decides to work as a prostitute in England after her husband has left. In her negotiations with Lenny, Ruth does not give any clear guarantee that she will work for him when he finds her an apartment to become a prostitute. Instead, she gives him the terms of her stay in England and he agrees to let her control her activities as a prostitute (763). These agreements are contrary to the terms of operation that prostitutes in the Victorian era were presented with. It was no surprise for women in the Victorian age to practice prostitution on behalf of the family yet earn nothing from their sexual encounters. Pinter uses this scenario to display the changing role of women in the modern society, where women could also control the finances of a family by collecting their own money.

Ruth reveals herself as a cunning woman that is able to patiently wait and manipulate the circumstances in her life to attain the freedom to live her truth as she so desires. Although it takes a long period before Ruth can assert her dominance on the family, by the time she gains agency of the prostitution business, she employs all the feminine powers within her reach. Towards the end of the play, Pinter states, “she is in possession of a kind of freedom” in reference to her newly gained independence (Prentice, 458). In the household, Ruth becomes the matriarchal head, and has all the male characters at her mercy. In fact, Max, Lenny, and Joey still desire her sexually, which places the family’s control on her, as they all behave in whatever manner she desires.

In the end, Pinter’s drama “The Homecoming” portrays sex as a tool that women can use to gain control over men. Although he does not paint it as the only way that women exercise power over men through Ruth’s battle with Teddy, it is a strategy that is applicable against most male foes. A combination of Ruth’s witty, confident, and decisive character helps this woman to become dominant in a male-dominated household from the patriarchal society in the Victorian era.

Pinter’s attitude towards feminine power could have been motivated by some of his life experiences. Although little is said about his encounter with gender-conceived roles in society, it is evident that he considered patriarchy an unjust setup for women. Pinter grew up with a sense of loneliness in his early life as a young boy from a Jewish family in London (Krasner 478). He was relocated from London to Cornwall during his upbringing as a way to evacuate him from emerging tensions. Some of the difficult issues in society that Pinter describes using his plays may have been observed during this period of detachment from his family to acquire a skeptical view about societal roles.

At the age of nine, Pinter was evacuated to Cornwall, where he learned about the cruelty of school boys in isolation. The fact that he conceived the play’s setting around a male-dominated household may have been from his experience in Cornwall. Later on, he returned to London during the blitz, where he became aware of the palpable fear of death, and the sexual desperation among men, especially during wartime (Krasner 480). The genuine sense that life could end abruptly without one realizing their inner desires made Pinter to have a controversial perception about society. In this environment, Pinter became the overly concerned dramatist that he was renowned to be in England.

For women, Pinter suggests that exercising feminine power to attain their independence during the women’s suffrage period was a necessary move. Although devastating experiences had to occur before women’s freedom was attained, the suffrage would not end without attainment of independence. The ultimate goal of life in Pinter’s “The Homecoming” was to live a life unbarred by societal roles that could devastate their complete happiness. As such, Ruth’s application of her feminine power to overcome male dominance was extremely necessary in the drama. In conclusion, Pinter’s “The Homecoming” justifies the application of feminine power to overcome the male dominance in a patriarchy society such as the Victorian age.

Chapter Six

Ruth as a Newly Crowned Protagonist

The “Homecoming” is considered to be the most vital play developed by Harold Pinter. The literary analysis of the play recognizes that the female character in the play is demonstrated as a stronger personality. Exploration of character analysis proves and disapproves the hypothesis that women’s character in the play has a strong personality. The play has multiple themes, which include loneliness, reality, isolation, power struggles, and ghostly appearances (Free 3). The principal character in the play, “Ruth”, towards the end of the play, depicts the personification of feminine strength as a character that illustrate dominance and through her success in earning her freedom, gains personal happiness.

Even though Ruth does not publicly portray her happiness openly, it finds prominence and presence in her attitude and associated actions. She was able to attain power through reversing the roles of assistance by others who wished to acquire and manipulate the power to control her. The play illustrates Ruth’s victory that does what she desires despite her unsupportive husband named Teddy. Her husband is dominant and plans a revolution against her through the family, even though she keeps the communication channel open and loves him (Billington 45). Ruth possesses a strong character, and Teddy also becomes the focus of the play after coming back home from the United States to visit the extended family. The male associations are mostly seen through their relationships with new characters being integrated into the play through dialogues that exhibit interactions (Coe 200). Most of the characters in the play are not intellectually capable to understand Ruth’s character, including her husband, who at the beginning of the play launches his personal complaints, when he subliminally suggests she is cold and offers to serve her a hot drink, and she declines.

When she met Lenny, she reminded him on two occasions that she is married; when he said: “you must be coupled to my brother in some way,” she replies, “I am his companion” (Ganz 743). In the play, “Ruth” is the feminine character who dominates the stage, and at some point, the husband rationalizes her talents and exposes her character and refers to her as a former prostitute while she was still in England before their marriage and relocation to the United States together (Prentice, 755). In this play, Ruth is an uncertain character, who silently relaxes and eventually assert her power and supremacy in the family. She can escape her sad and unfulfilled life and transforms into a controlling and possessive female, fully in charge of her destiny. The males in the play attempt to possess and put her in roles, which she declines to fit into their customs and traps (Coe 493). She is not intimidated by Lenny, Joey together with her husband are powerless to make her leave while Max is dying for her kiss, she is in control of all these men and prevailing situations.

Ruth is a former model and photographer during her thirties and currently a mother who is forced to live with her husband’s uncle and Teddy’s brothers, who see her as not one of them. Teddy’s dad’s uncle and other male figures in the houses consider the presence of “Ruth” as disruptive to their comfort customs in their lifestyles (Free 167). Despite the situation, “Ruth” does not prefer leaving for America together with Teddy even though she cautions him not to turn into a stranger. Ruth was able to display a strong female character since she was not intimidated to like amongst men and was coping with all the situations amicably.

The play under objective analysis is one of the most significant works by the writer named Harold Pinter. The central hypothesis expresses women as representatives of power against eminent challenges. Even though Ruth, who is a lady in the play, beat all the odds to end up happy, opportunistic, and thriving in society. Towards the end of the play, “Ruth” acquires power that many envies in reality outside the context of the play. The analysis of Pinter’s play, “The Homecoming,” which is viewed as one of the most significant plays composed by him and depicts feminism (Billington 87). The literary analysis shows that Pinter presents the feminine character as a robust personality all through his plays. Utilizing Ruth’s personality and the character’s persona, the literary analysis attempts to demonstrate or oppose the existence put in speculation into reality. “The Homecoming” highlights numerous subjects, for example, personal emptiness, detachment, appearance, truth, and household power battles. Ruth is a significant character in the play that rises above challenges (Free 1-5). This play concludes with Ruth’s exemplification of a stable mentality, a strength that transmits out and proposes a sort of independent joy. Even though Ruth doesn’t proclaim her delight, the play ascertains the presence of demeanor and activity. Ruth realizes power at last and is encompassed by other people who look for their value though attempting to obtain it from her.

“The Homecoming” discusses a triumph of a lady who continues to live her truth, openly doing what she needs to do, blatantly disregarding the embarrassing, shocking shame to her better half, Teddy, who make attempts at salvaging his pride, by asserting his interests in actively participating in and taking the lead, in organizing the plot of his family’s to exploit and control Ruth. Ruth craftily keeps opening the door of the connection to sex, control, freedom and escape from unhappiness, proposing even the chance of collection adoration towards all the members of her family, as an one for all, all for one, all-inclusive arrangement. Ruth is the main character who overcomes challenges she faces during the play and cherishes others with no conditions set on her preferences or behavior..

“The Homecoming” was written in 1964 is still viewed as perhaps the best plays by Harold. In one of the meetings with Bensky, the author asserted that “of every one of his plays up to that time, “The Homecoming” fulfilled his most concerning auxiliary desire” (Pinter 57). The play represents the height of the double character depiction of females in Pinter’s plays as Ruth is rendered with certainty and exactness in a stunning portrayal that never loses its focus interest. The concept of how a prostitute as the multifaceted leading lady could evolve as the victorious protagonist in Pinter’s later plays; with such emphasis on character and her social environment and evolvements, rising above the negativity that would nullify her morally and socially by keeping her invisible, tout her strength in overcoming such obstacles to win. Ruth is altogether different in her quality of tone, disposition, and autonomy towards the males in the play and their existing environment (Coe 488-97). “The Homecoming” centers the scene of the play at some point to her association with Teddy, who gets back from America for a little while to his all-male family relatives who reside together with his better half “Ruth.” The men’s relationship with each other is set up through their association toward the start of the play, and new characters are presented consistently with the exchange providing for the crowd and nature of their connection to each other; and the idea of their regular correspondence with one another. The absence of the mother is pronounced through remarks on her death, and a split history of the family’s story is told through the character’s discussions and not actual scenes of the play. Something appears to be off-base from the very beginning, and the family utilization of words and tone recommends a threatening exchange with overstated messages of gruesome consequences.

In a meeting with Miriam Gross in 1980, Pinter guaranteed that despite proof in actuality, love could be found in his plays and accepting “The Homecoming” for instance he expressed “I believe there’s a lot of adoration in that play yet they essentially don’t have the bewildering idea how to manage it, alluding to the barbarity applied by the all-male family” (Pinter 74). When Teddy and Ruth show up in the house, she end up being the primary focal point of the male characters, and their quest for power, which was at that point in the play, gets better than a lot more remarkable incidences of similar degree. Presently the strategic maneuver is centered on the sole female as the men attempt to pronounce their power over her in different manners. Incredibly, Ruth enters this interest with her character and individual qualities in question (Coe 488-97). Singular showdowns with every one of the male characters follow, and the fight for power is battled through activity and discourse. The scene bringing Teddy and Ruth into the story passes on a married couple’s conventional force battle as they order each other around; each asserts they realize what is best for the other. Ruth wins the fight as she goes out for a “breath of air” (Pinter 31), leaving the more uncertain Teddy behind. Symbolically, Ruth takes the way into the house with her personality strengths to control and handle dominating situations. Teddy, from the start, goes about as the run of the mill trained male character of the 1950s, communicating worry for his better half’s joy, and demonstrating arranged moves in his endeavors to control her. Toward the finish of the play, he speaks to a spouse more by what men of the 60s could relate to when he is compelled to concede her total autonomy in her undertakings.

One of the most life-changing lines in the play has a place with Teddy, when discussing the front room and how they had thumped down a partition between the room and the passage, he says “The structure wasn’t affected, you see. My mom was dead.” (Pinter 29) Implying that his mom’s passing had left a significant gap in the family’s structure. This gap, in this way, should be filled, and Ruth is attempted and tried by the relatives with an end goal to supply the unfilled gap of the mother figure. In any case, Max and Sam’s discourse recommends that the perished mother was a mum figure as well as a working prostitute. Ruth’s father-in-law, Max, shows the broadest scope of feeling in his response towards her(Free 1-5). Upon first meeting Ruth, the father-in-law shows extraordinary brutality, utilizing derogative words that make one out of the most stunning exchanges between characters, especially in this remarkable play.

Pinter specifies the significance of utilizing vulgar words sparingly and to abstain from putting them on for exhibition as not to decrease their capacity and sensation to exhibit the right to speak freely of discourse (Pinter 63-4). This announcement adds weight to the significance of Max’s pointless antagonistic sense as he continues to consider Ruth a “smelling pox-ridden skank” and “soiled scrubber” and argues he has “never had a prostitute under this house before” ( Pinter 49-50). In the following demonstration, Max hails Ruth as “an enchanting lady” (Pinter 57), and “smart and thoughtful” (Pinter 59), his mentality towards her improved very quickly.

The limits in articulation and speedy turns in mentality are very in line with Max’s character. Max more than once exclaims unsatisfactory proclamations towards the remainder of the family, including his deceased spouse, whom and the rest of the family members describe as a magnificent mother and portrays as having had a “spoiled smelling face” (Pinter 17). Max speaks as a lost man, whose stature and job inside the home have been vexed. He battles to hold his position as leader of the family unit, yet simultaneously helps the gathering to remember a period of innumerable qualities. His youngest child Joey is the polar opposite. He is handily controlled by his sister-in-law, who takes part in sexual activity with him, which brings about his disrespect, stripping off his masculinity and stating his job as the offspring of the family. He communicates yearning for her in the most guiltless way, finishing with him bowing at her feet in the last scene, totally capitulated to her sexuality and force.

Ruth’s scenes with her husband’s brother “Lenny” are the ones generally distinctive of her character and the complexity of the genders. Ruth is energetic, quiet, and incredible, while on the other hand “Lenny” is mishandling her, battling her, and now and again senseless. Ruth participates in Lenny’s assaults and retaliates his offensive attacks and effectively shuns him with a vital line; “On the off chance that you take the glass . . . I’ll take you” (Pinter, 42). She appears too efficient and has a good time while taking part effectively regardless of Lenny’s unsafe practices; Ruth gives no indications of being compromised or debilitated by his assaults. She proceeds to call him Leonard, irritating him to hold fast to her protective status, which he accidentally declares by getting bothered and youthful. Lenny’s character is made out of common male attributes (Prentice 458-78). He is an incredible, legitimate, road cunning pimp, an alpha masculine character who holds his ground against the many male personalities. He acts as the opponent of the portrayal of the respectful muscular figure; in truth, the real danger to Ruth and her heroines originates from him, and he suitably plans the plot to benefit from undermining her. Ruth’s triumph over Lenny is finished when she arranges her terms into their agreement; however, delays affirming it until an increasingly reasonable time.

If Ruth epitomizes the last prostitute or goddess, the male characters in “The Homecoming” assume a final battle of the men to overwhelm the lady. The intriguing reality is that they lose despite the real storyline proposing something else. Ruth, even though being deserted with her parents in law for what gives off an impression of being sexual bondage, is not a wounded individual. After four pages of conversations and apathetic talks, Ruth, at last, acknowledges the job they offer her and turns into their active threats imaged as a prostitute/goddess. The previous expressions of the play have a place with Max, who, in his annoying epilogue, passes on an anticipating of a future progressively positive for Ruth (Prentice 458-78). It is in Ruth that Pinter prevails to consummate his vision of the prostitute/goddess and the last scene of “The Homecoming” underlines her stature; Ruth was sitting kind and quiet in a rocker with Joey bowing at her feet, Lenny remaining by her and the two more established male characters bending or lying on the floor (Free 1-5). The picture reviews that of an altarpiece, with Ruth speaking to Mary, the Holy Mother, and the female goddess. The character’s physical appearance toward the finish of the play should leave no uncertainty as to Ruth yielding control over all the men present. The central conflicted mentality is that of Lenny, who “stands watching” (Pinter 90), which could be deciphered as his present hang on the circumstance. In his response to a 1994 Paris creation where Lenny was seen putting his hand on Ruth’s shoulder in the last scene, Pinter asserted this was an off base translation, saying, “Lenny doesn’t have any control over her” (Pinter 175). Harold Pinter’s very own issues of the 1960s, the quest for the new female image, and the contentions of sexual orientation inside the home and family radiates through the play. The subsequent proclamation is that ladies have unique qualities and the capacity to accomplish balance in her assorted variety while confronting difficulty. Well beyond social or sexual governmental issues, Harold Pinter was a writer, and his plays are masterpieces, influenced by a need to make, and not intercede the meaning and societal issues (Ganz 186). Simultaneously we can securely expect that as a Pinter as a writer was affected by his contemporary talk on matters that convoluted up in his plays. During the 60s, Pinter thought about the force battle of sexual orientation in family life through his considerate way to deal with the prostitute.

Pinter, in his work, utilizes the character “Ruth” to express feminism’s personality in illustrating the power that supports females to be exceptional in dealing with catastrophes that we face. Ruth is a character who represents power, defiance against masculine challenges that hinder domination of male dominance in the play. Long down the line, women have been taken to be weaker representatives in society. However, over the years, females have proved to be influential in the community and cope with life challenges through the development of their models that ensure prosperity and achieving success. Pinter is an author that uses females to express domination and prowess that captivates authors and readers to get a clear picture of how humans co-exist and handle issues amicably. Tracing history, women have been considered to be lesser participants in finding a solution to problems that affect them globally. The play concentrates on highlighting readers that women, too, have essential expressions that make society grow.

Chapter Seven

Psychological, Physical and Non-Verbal Communication, Timing, and Appearance in The Homecoming

The pre-1950 dramatist was accepted as an omniscient figure who knew everything about their characters. The Homecoming Pinter places his characters in a concrete, realistic setting suggesting that he knew no more about the ultimate fate of his characters than his audience. The three brothers in the play attempt, to bridge communication deficits by means of psychological and physical communication in nonverbal strategies of language, to minimize hostile confrontations, seeking to overcome barriers and find common grounds.

Valerie Monogue describes their methods of communication vulgar, brass and intimidating as an fractured language within itself, because of its imperfections – likened as a lack of professional expertise in mental health counseling revealing a level of the family’s dysfunction is anchored in fears, emotional needs, and inadequacies that they individually struggle to conceal. All three characters conspire mutually and commit agreeing nonverbally, selecting to hide each one’s embarrassments, secretly.

"They attempt to close the abyss--silence is the great enemy---generally understanding that revealing than too little, could have more that the adverse option of revealing too much.” Monogue said. “Their talks shows...not so much a failure as an evasion of communication, but a void of any emotional bonding as a family.. In silence in this world becomes a catalyst of action, based on those silences being misinterpreted as threatening, igniting defensive mechanisms that become physical and abusive. Loud speaking and yelling seems expedient, as an elective means of evasion through distraction.

In the Homecoming, successful non-verbal communication at times, has suffered when the emotional relationships between the individuals, are seen to be empty, fragile, without value due to the inability of the characters to agree effectively on how to communicate productively on any level available between them.

Prior to the Progressive Era, plays were written in high-flown poetry, or what frequently known as realistic prose. "What Pinter did was take common everyday speech with all its hesitations, repetitions, periodic crudities and aching silences --and turn it into a form of poetry," Billington said. The power of non-verbal communication, that mentally and emotionally eventually outwitted and defeated the cultivated history brutality, abusive behavior, a language of violence, verbal abuse, and physical intimidation, by thwarting all of which strategies, Ruth emerges triumphantly and victorious., escaping the collective generational conspiracy of male dominance and control.

The play has generally covered so many aspects of literature and it has made credible use of non-verbal communication, to document the accurately of subliminal messaging of successful nonphysical interactions to express a point of view, successfully. It can be termed to be a comedy of Menace and the characters are always feeling threatened through by the truth value of confrontations (Monogue, Valerie). The author, Pinter has also used what we can term to be “Drama of psychological and physical Communication. These exchanges are what is referenced as represents the human communication language that is usually used to avoid as well as prevent revealing the characters that find it hard to communicate.

The main reason why the characters may be afraid of communication is that they afraid of the following things:

· Avoid self-revelation

· Avoid direct contact

· Use of offense Language as a shield/defense rather than a form of contact.

The character avoids physical and emotional contact minimizing the possibility of the negative outcome resulting from such confrontations that they term as the trajectory of the routine of the blame responsible for the conflict. Homecoming has been used to question the different certainties of the different characters as well as how the audience weighs in with regards to the relatability to the involved character, in association with the audience and how they understand the character’s identities and their struggles with inter-personal relationships (Monogue, Valerie). The nonverbal communication exchanges have been used to demonstrate the expectations that are revealed continually and ironically, intentionally undetermined, without physical confrontation.

Silence can to be more impressive than a spoken language. The reason why the character speaks more is seen to be important eve what they speak to each other in the entire play. What is verbally said, there is something else said under it. Silence is used to create the ambiguity, there are many uncertainties that are used to suggest the impenetrability of the involved character. Non-verbal communications make it very difficult to discern or to know the actual character of the person(s) individually, compounding the difficulties, as well as exposing the limiting reality that these individuals are not able to capable to truthfully know each other or even themselves (Monogue, Valerie).

Nonverbal communication makes the truth to be very uncertain, more so, the use of cliché as well as the social formulae is continual in the entire play as we can see so many cases of repetition. Among the many other scenarios, they are used to form part of the game or the series of the games in the play.

Communications are sometimes forced and the characters are provoked and they avoid the challenges as well as the different confrontations. The communications both desire and undesired are all seen to be forced inevitably to avoid the contacts. The relationship is both public and social when opposed to the other that is personal and emotional. Nonverbal communications that are used among the characters in the play reflects the emptiness of the different relationship as the individual when they are feeling they are threatened.

Paradoxically, most of the characters are seem to avoid the contact which results in a huge irony. The vision of the relationship is then continually undermined we, therefore, see the essence of the illusions that are underlying among the different characters. The individuals in the play fear ignorance, they are very afraid of not knowing anything about what is happening around them, about the past and even about their own relationship. Their entire play, therefore, shows many cases of physical and psychological non-communication exercises among the different characters.

In the need for reassurance, the character seeks to know the idea as well as the truth about their past, they need an identity of each of them and what they all have in common. Their past cannot be well versed and it has been used in the play by max in particular but has also been used by Sam and Lenny. They have been used to reassure themselves through the use of the non-verbal communications about the position they hold in the family as well as the roles such as the authority in the family and many more. They need to be assured of the reality of the situations which they all need to be assured and approval.

The character(s) are just toying with each other as they are not certain of their own individual identities and until they find out who they are, can hold no supportive value to others. (North, Astrid). They continue to dissimulate as a functional family, to live lives based on exaggerated lies and mistruths. Max is insisting he is not an old man. The relationship is simulacrum of the involved intimacy as well as the communications. The character seeks to hold to the series of false illusions despite all the other things that are happening around them in real time..

{{{{{The betrayal of Ruth is a practical example that can be considered since there has been no communication that is clear and true example of intimacy among them or even a real fidelity (North, Astrid). The non-verbal communication that Ruth shows plays a huge part in hiding the real self and as the emergence of oneself into that of herself, hence became the role revealing her truth.

The character then comes up as a result of the roles they are playing in the play. The non-verbal communications are used to show the difference in the issue of personal identity which is fictitious construct like the past.

The character is made not to be in contact with each other, which makes the intimacy to be wrong and they are all ironically strangers to each other. The non-verbal communication makes Ruth give remarks like “Don’t become a stranger.” That character is able to go through some rituals and make time to maintain the status quo in the relationship (North, Astrid). The character in their talks makes them be polite and they are civilized in their activities in order to cover the real animosity they have.

The things that the people of the character do not say is what makes the real them, under all the things that are not said there is something said. The territory possession is seen to be very important as they are used to help the character to avoid personal conflicts.

The room was symbolic as the threat to someone’s territory makes them fear that the truth may now able to take place. The non-verbal communication is not real as they introduce the large desire of the character to have the invasions of the reality as well as their lives which becomes a fiction they had to invent their past so that they can preserve their current positions.

Facial communications have been used to show the positive face and the negative face among the character. The positive face is used to show, to want or to be respected or need approval while the negative face is used to desire or wanted without being impeded.

The action s are seen to be threatening the face to face acts which is seen to depend on the social distance and the power relations that exist between the participants that are involved (Lahr, John).

At the beginning of the excerpt, Teddy and his wife Ruth are seen waking up in the morning very late, went to join Teddy’s father Max, the first time that they had returned home as a married couple. (Prentice, Penelope). The non-verbal communication here palpable is interpreted as guarded in the smile that Teddy gave as he smiled and said, ‘Hullo...Dad...We overslept’. At that moment, Teddy is seen to be supportive of Max’s positive face, cautiously subtle so that he can be respected.

l communications here have been used to demonstrate the ways in which Max expected to be greeted in return of his eldest son, who has been away for six years, with a new wife. The facial communications exchange here are used to expose and demonstrate the impoliteness strategies where it reveals that the father and son relationship has been damaged. The positive face that Teddy had through snubbing him. Max is seen to be responding to the facts of abandonment and kept silent where he portrayed politeness and it worked as it was expected (Lahr, John).

There is a lot of unspoken tension when the character shows silence in the ways they are being mistreated or insulted. The offense leads to pause in the characters like Teddy as he shows the disjointed flow of the interactions. Teddy is seen to be trying to repair all the conversation by asking, ‘What’s for breakfast? ‘Which is then followed by Max’s stern silence and the responsive expression Teddy’s matching stoic expression on his face, can be interpreted and an example of non-verbal communication used to show that he is ignoring him, making Teddy feel uncomfortable, if not unwelcome.

His negative nonverbal response is not what Teddy wanted. As a result of that, Teddy attempts to difuse the situation by laughing softly when he chuckles and embarrassingly works through avoidance to respond restfully, attempting avoid the rudeness of his father’s silence. He does that by saying, ‘we overslept’. In these scenes, the use of non-verbal communication has been used e and awkward exchange has been used to show the state of the fractured relationship between them.

In the second act of the play, the scene is seen to be that of a happy family engaging in a celebration that is united by food and drinks. All the misunderstanding has been swept away, replacing with the ironic quality of appearance and some other more apparent reality in this scene.

The characters are seen to have all maintained their appearance so that they can continue to communicate through disguising their underlying behaviors, desires and the emotional internal conflicts that haunt them all individually. This mode of non-verbal communication is used to reveal the realistic nature of the daily inferences and used to draw the attention to those differentness consisting of fears of animosity that are seen to underlie a healthy observance of their social decorum.

There are emotional instances that can be interpreted to have implied to have used examples of nonverbal communications where the character is exhibiting selective memory lapses, behaving as if nothing has happened before that would explain a current behavior or action.. In the scene, teddy stood alone, metaphorically and that is separate from all the others who are set apart from the attitude confrontations with their family which are borne of what he said. He was not able to control the situation and prove to be linguistically incompetent

In the play, many things manifest and they ignite the emotions that Lenny had towards the mother. It was the violent feeling that was directed towards Ruth since she was the only lady from the time the mother’s disappearance or assumed death (Prentice, Penelope). The incidence appears to be as timely as it appeared she has been a prostitute which has been used and mentioned in the scene more than just one time. More so, when Lenny outburst to the father in the time of the circumstance, the timeline surrounding repressive doubts about his conception, appears to be disgusted and doubtful at the factual actuality of his father sexual intimacy with his mother.

This may also be used to explain Max’s ambivalent statement that he gives regarding Jessie. This was the once and all to familiar times he uses conflicting and contradictory praise towards her and called her a whore and a brut. This was timed, to condemn her character as it was the fact that she accused her by the fact that she claims the boys took the ethics that they have now from the behaviors that she has (Postlewait, Thomas).

This relates just by the fact they are rapists, pimps, and murderers, the question is what did she teach them yet they are already the way they are. Max sometimes said, “I’ve never had a whore under this roof before. Ever since your mother died”.

There are many issues that show the similarities between Ruth and Jessie’s moral characters that was not by mere coincidence. Ruth is used as the link to the gateway of the reincarnation of the boys’ mother. Sometimes Ruth, would cannily resort to calling Lenny by the name ‘Leonard, something that only the mother used to call him by that name. This parallels their characters by relating to the fact that Ruth also had three children like Jessie and reveals subtly to the audience that she (Ruth) was a indeed prostitute way before she met and married Teddy (Prentice, Penelope).

She states in the play that she was a different person when she met Teddy at first and that she has been changing over time. What we evidently learn is that she was formerly a nude photographer’s and artist’s model. This case of character analysis shows us that that was the reason why Max was openly rude and violent in his response when he met her for the first time and the fact that he was faced with images of his dead wife's time before she died (Postlewait, Thomas).

The relevance that Lenny was confronted by ghostly appearances of his dead mother was also the true representation of the history emotional conflicts he experiences regarding his mother. (Postlewait, Thomas). He also goes to the extent of feeling he needs both the harshness of her physical assertion of dominance and the gentle comforting of a mother love which he uses to justify how her confidence has grown, earning his approval and support as she becomes more powerful.

Ruth’s loosely veiled, repressive and seductive behaviors, undermine revealing prematurely, her strength through the use of her sexuality enables Lonny to remember issues regarding his mother’s sexuality and the question regarding his conception and paternity. The appearance was validation through his emotionally painful memory, the fact that she is both a mother as well as the sexual being in Lenny's eyes as a child and now as an adult..

Krasner, David, (478-497), has used the lens of postmodernism to explain the ways the drama by Pinter has been used to engage with the Freudian psychoanalysis as well as the ethics by Jewish people. This was used to show the elements and characteristics of Jewish philosophy and postmodernism. There are so many coincidences that are portrayed in homecoming and there are cases if silence as well as the fragmentation of the entire subject.

The Jews have been seen to put more emphasis on the material things over the spiritual things and the Freudian and the entire displacement is evident in the characters of the individuals. There has been the struggle of power as well as the struggle for the acts of corruption in the play as well as the relativism shown by the characters such as teddy’s actions (Krasner, David, (478-497).

Psychological, Physical and Non-Verbal Communication, Timing, and Appearance in The Homecoming

The pre-1950 dramatist was accepted as an omniscient figure who knew everything about their characters. The Homecoming Pinter places his characters in a concrete, realistic setting suggesting that he knew no more about the ultimate fate of his characters than his audience. The three brothers in the play attempt, to bridge communication deficits by means of psychological and physical communication in nonverbal strategies of language, to minimize hostile confrontations, seeking to overcome barriers and find common grounds.

Valerie Monogue describes their methods of communication vulgar, brass and intimidating as an fractured language within itself, because of its imperfections – likened as a lack of professional expertise in mental health counseling revealing a level of the family’s dysfunction is anchored in fears, emotional needs, and inadequacies that they individually struggle to conceal. All three characters conspire mutually and commit agreeing nonverbally, selecting to hide each one’s embarrassments, secretly.

"They attempt to close the abyss--silence is the great enemy---generally understanding that revealing than too little, could have more that the adverse option of revealing too much.” Monogue said. “Their talks shows...not so much a failure as an evasion of communication, but a void of any emotional bonding as a family.. In silence in this world becomes a catalyst of action, based on those silences being misinterpreted as threatening, igniting defensive mechanisms that become physical and abusive. Loud speaking and yelling seems expedient, as an elective means of evasion through distraction.

In the Homecoming, successful non-verbal communication at times, has suffered when the emotional relationships between the individuals, are seen to be empty, fragile, without value due to the inability of the characters to agree effectively on how to communicate productively on any level available between them.

Prior to the Progressive Era, plays were written in high-flown poetry, or what frequently known as realistic prose. "What Pinter did was take common everyday speech with all its hesitations, repetitions, periodic crudities and aching silences --and turn it into a form of poetry," Billington said. The power of non-verbal communication, that mentally and emotionally eventually outwitted and defeated the cultivated history brutality, abusive behavior, a language of violence, verbal abuse, and physical intimidation, by thwarting all of which strategies, Ruth emerges triumphantly and victorious., escaping the collective generational conspiracy of male dominance and control.

The play has generally covered so many aspects of literature and it has made credible use of non-verbal communication, to document the accurately of subliminal messaging of successful nonphysical interactions to express a point of view, successfully. It can be termed to be a comedy of Menace and the characters are always feeling threatened through by the truth value of confrontations (Monogue, Valerie). The author, Pinter has also used what we can term to be “Drama of psychological and physical Communication. These exchanges are what is referenced as represents the human communication language that is usually used to avoid as well as prevent revealing the characters that find it hard to communicate.

The main reason why the characters may be afraid of communication is that they afraid of the following things:

1. Avoid self-revelation

1. Avoid direct contact

1. Use of offense Language as a shield/defense rather than a form of contact.

The character avoids physical and emotional contact minimizing the possibility of the negative outcome resulting from such confrontations that they term as the trajectory of the routine of the blame responsible for the conflict. Homecoming has been used to question the different certainties of the different characters as well as how the audience weighs in with regards to the relatability to the involved character, in association with the audience and how they understand the character’s identities and their struggles with inter-personal relationships (Monogue, Valerie). The nonverbal communication exchanges have been used to demonstrate the expectations that are revealed continually and ironically, intentionally undetermined, without physical confrontation.

Silence can to be more impressive than a spoken language. The reason why the character speaks more is seen to be important eve what they speak to each other in the entire play. What is verbally said, there is something else said under it. Silence is used to create the ambiguity, there are many uncertainties that are used to suggest the impenetrability of the involved character. Non-verbal communications make it very difficult to discern or to know the actual character of the person(s) individually, compounding the difficulties, as well as exposing the limiting reality that these individuals are not able to capable to truthfully know each other or even themselves (Monogue, Valerie).

Nonverbal communication makes the truth to be very uncertain, more so, the use of cliché as well as the social formulae is continual in the entire play as we can see so many cases of repetition. Among the many other scenarios, they are used to form part of the game or the series of the games in the play.

Communications are sometimes forced and the characters are provoked and they avoid the challenges as well as the different confrontations. The communications both desire and undesired are all seen to be forced inevitably to avoid the contacts. The relationship is both public and social when opposed to the other that is personal and emotional. Nonverbal communications that are used among the characters in the play reflects the emptiness of the different relationship as the individual when they are feeling they are threatened.

Paradoxically, most of the characters are seem to avoid the contact which results in a huge irony. The vision of the relationship is then continually undermined we, therefore, see the essence of the illusions that are underlying among the different characters. The individuals in the play fear ignorance, they are very afraid of not knowing anything about what is happening around them, about the past and even about their own relationship. Their entire play, therefore, shows many cases of physical and psychological non-communication exercises among the different characters.

In the need for reassurance, the character seeks to know the idea as well as the truth about their past, they need an identity of each of them and what they all have in common. Their past cannot be well versed and it has been used in the play by max in particular but has also been used by Sam and Lenny. They have been used to reassure themselves through the use of the non-verbal communications about the position they hold in the family as well as the roles such as the authority in the family and many more. They need to be assured of the reality of the situations which they all need to be assured and approval.

The character(s) are just toying with each other as they are not certain of their own individual identities and until they find out who they are, can hold no supportive value to others. (North, Astrid). They continue to dissimulate as a functional family, to live lives based on exaggerated lies and mistruths. Max is insisting he is not an old man. The relationship is simulacrum of the involved intimacy as well as the communications. The character seeks to hold to the series of false illusions despite all the other things that are happening around them in real time..

{{{{{The betrayal of Ruth is a practical example that can be considered since there has been no communication that is clear and true example of intimacy among them or even a real fidelity (North, Astrid). The non-verbal communication that Ruth shows plays a huge part in hiding the real self and as the emergence of oneself into that of herself, hence became the role revealing her truth.

The character then comes up as a result of the roles they are playing in the play. The non-verbal communications are used to show the difference in the issue of personal identity which is fictitious construct like the past.

The character is made not to be in contact with each other, which makes the intimacy to be wrong and they are all ironically strangers to each other. The non-verbal communication makes Ruth give remarks like “Don’t become a stranger.” That character is able to go through some rituals and make time to maintain the status quo in the relationship (North, Astrid). The character in their talks makes them be polite and they are civilized in their activities in order to cover the real animosity they have.

The things that the people of the character do not say is what makes the real them, under all the things that are not said there is something said. The territory possession is seen to be very important as they are used to help the character to avoid personal conflicts.

The room was symbolic as the threat to someone’s territory makes them fear that the truth may now able to take place. The non-verbal communication is not real as they introduce the large desire of the character to have the invasions of the reality as well as their lives which becomes a fiction they had to invent their past so that they can preserve their current positions.

Facial communications have been used to show the positive face and the negative face among the character. The positive face is used to show, to want or to be respected or need approval while the negative face is used to desire or wanted without being impeded.

The action s are seen to be threatening the face to face acts which is seen to depend on the social distance and the power relations that exist between the participants that are involved (Lahr, John).

At the beginning of the excerpt, Teddy and his wife Ruth are seen waking up in the morning very late, went to join Teddy’s father Max, the first time that they had returned home as a married couple. (Prentice, Penelope). The non-verbal communication here palpable is interpreted as guarded in the smile that Teddy gave as he smiled and said, ‘Hullo...Dad...We overslept’. At that moment, Teddy is seen to be supportive of Max’s positive face, cautiously subtle so that he can be respected.

l communications here have been used to demonstrate the ways in which Max expected to be greeted in return of his eldest son, who has been away for six years, with a new wife. The facial communications exchange here are used to expose and demonstrate the impoliteness strategies where it reveals that the father and son relationship has been damaged. The positive face that Teddy had through snubbing him. Max is seen to be responding to the facts of abandonment and kept silent where he portrayed politeness and it worked as it was expected (Lahr, John).

There is a lot of unspoken tension when the character shows silence in the ways they are being mistreated or insulted. The offense leads to pause in the characters like Teddy as he shows the disjointed flow of the interactions. Teddy is seen to be trying to repair all the conversation by asking, ‘What’s for breakfast? ‘Which is then followed by Max’s stern silence and the responsive expression Teddy’s matching stoic expression on his face, can be interpreted and an example of non-verbal communication used to show that he is ignoring him, making Teddy feel uncomfortable, if not unwelcome.

His negative nonverbal response is not what Teddy wanted. As a result of that, Teddy attempts to difuse the situation by laughing softly when he chuckles and embarrassingly works through avoidance to respond restfully, attempting avoid the rudeness of his father’s silence. He does that by saying, ‘we overslept’. In these scenes, the use of non-verbal communication has been used e and awkward exchange has been used to show the state of the fractured relationship between them.

In the second act of the play, the scene is seen to be that of a happy family engaging in a celebration that is united by food and drinks. All the misunderstanding has been swept away, replacing with the ironic quality of appearance and some other more apparent reality in this scene.

The characters are seen to have all maintained their appearance so that they can continue to communicate through disguising their underlying behaviors, desires and the emotional internal conflicts that haunt them all individually. This mode of non-verbal communication is used to reveal the realistic nature of the daily inferences and used to draw the attention to those differentness consisting of fears of animosity that are seen to underlie a healthy observance of their social decorum.

There are emotional instances that can be interpreted to have implied to have used examples of nonverbal communications where the character is exhibiting selective memory lapses, behaving as if nothing has happened before that would explain a current behavior or action.. In the scene, teddy stood alone, metaphorically and that is separate from all the others who are set apart from the attitude confrontations with their family which are borne of what he said. He was not able to control the situation and prove to be linguistically incompetent

In the play, many things manifest and they ignite the emotions that Lenny had towards the mother. It was the violent feeling that was directed towards Ruth since she was the only lady from the time the mother’s disappearance or assumed death (Prentice, Penelope). The incidence appears to be as timely as it appeared she has been a prostitute which has been used and mentioned in the scene more than just one time. More so, when Lenny outburst to the father in the time of the circumstance, the timeline surrounding repressive doubts about his conception, appears to be disgusted and doubtful at the factual actuality of his father sexual intimacy with his mother.

This may also be used to explain Max’s ambivalent statement that he gives regarding Jessie. This was the once and all to familiar times he uses conflicting and contradictory praise towards her and called her a whore and a brut. This was timed, to condemn her character as it was the fact that she accused her by the fact that she claims the boys took the ethics that they have now from the behaviors that she has (Postlewait, Thomas).

This relates just by the fact they are rapists, pimps, and murderers, the question is what did she teach them yet they are already the way they are. Max sometimes said, “I’ve never had a whore under this roof before. Ever since your mother died”.

There are many issues that show the similarities between Ruth and Jessie’s moral characters that was not by mere coincidence. Ruth is used as the link to the gateway of the reincarnation of the boys’ mother. Sometimes Ruth, would cannily resort to calling Lenny by the name ‘Leonard, something that only the mother used to call him by that name. This parallels their characters by relating to the fact that Ruth also had three children like Jessie and reveals subtly to the audience that she (Ruth) was a indeed prostitute way before she met and married Teddy (Prentice, Penelope).

She states in the play that she was a different person when she met Teddy at first and that she has been changing over time. What we evidently learn is that she was formerly a nude photographer’s and artist’s model. This case of character analysis shows us that that was the reason why Max was openly rude and violent in his response when he met her for the first time and the fact that he was faced with images of his dead wife's time before she died (Postlewait, Thomas).

The relevance that Lenny was confronted by ghostly appearances of his dead mother was also the true representation of the history emotional conflicts he experiences regarding his mother. (Postlewait, Thomas). He also goes to the extent of feeling he needs both the harshness of her physical assertion of dominance and the gentle comforting of a mother love which he uses to justify how her confidence has grown, earning his approval and support as she becomes more powerful.

Ruth’s loosely veiled, repressive and seductive behaviors, undermine revealing prematurely, her strength through the use of her sexuality enables Lonny to remember issues regarding his mother’s sexuality and the question regarding his conception and paternity. The appearance was validation through his emotionally painful memory, the fact that she is both a mother as well as the sexual being in Lenny's eyes as a child and now as an adult..

Krasner, David, (478-497), has used the lens of postmodernism to explain the ways the drama by Pinter has been used to engage with the Freudian psychoanalysis as well as the ethics by Jewish people. This was used to show the elements and characteristics of Jewish philosophy and postmodernism. There are so many coincidences that are portrayed in homecoming and there are cases if silence as well as the fragmentation of the entire subject.

The Jews have been seen to put more emphasis on the material things over the spiritual things and the Freudian and the entire displacement is evident in the characters of the individuals. There has been the struggle of power as well as the struggle for the acts of corruption in the play as well as the relativism shown by the characters such as teddy’s actions (Krasner, David, (478-497).