Epilogue

Abstract

In exploring the affirmative aspects of Pinter’s works, I hope to widen our interpretations and perceptions of his plays in the Absurd tradition. In his later years, Pinter became increasingly preoccupied with political tyranny; many of these plays are dark and the call for action is urgent. It is telling that he continued to write in this strain until the last years of his life. Despite the despair and hopelessness that haunt his later plays, he created characters that are relentless in their despair; he does not present them or set them apart as heroes, but portrays their resiliency as instinctive, an unmistakably human trait. The four works discussed in this book each represent an instance of this resiliency. From the stoic resignation of Meg in The Birthday Party to the persistent need to pursue an individual freedom apart from institutional and cultural expectations in The French Lieutenant’s Woman Pinter celebrates the one thing that makes the Absurd man a hero in his own right—his blind faith in the absurdity of his plight.