Spatial Psychology/ Psychological space: Psychological impact of space in the Creation of Semantic ‘Uncertainty’ in Pinter’s Early Plays

Abstract

The major motif in Pinter's drama is the desire for power, coupled with the achievement of domi nance. Pinter attacks the policies of oppressive re gimes practicing violence and torture, and his po litical dramas concentrate on the struggle be tween the individual and the authoritative power. Pinter's The Birthday Party (1957) examines the significance of power and identity in spaces of self and power relations. In One for the Road (1980) and Mountain Language (1988), Pinter deals with incarceration and torture, using the theatrical space of prison to highlight and examine the nar ratives of authoritative control and violation of human rights. Space as a motif in Pinter's plays, serves as a site for discourse and aims to mark the interaction between power and identity. In this paper, I will attempt to examine how Pinter uses the idea of space and to what extent space can be read and decoded as a site for struggle for power and identity. My aim is to show that how an ordi nary physical space of a room become a site for recreation of new spaces for exercise of power and maintaining identity. However, I aim to delve into these spaces of conflict, exploitation and subjuga tion showing the significance of power and iden tity. This paper, therefore, concludes that Pinter's theatre of power constitutes a polyphony of polit ical rhetoric within the spaces, all competing for approval or control.