The Birthday Party (Masterplots, Revised Second Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Harold Pinter
- First Published: 1959
- Type of Work: Drama
- Type of Plot: Absurdist
- Time of Work: Mid-twentieth century
- Setting: England
- Principal Characters: Petey Boles, Meg Boles, Stanley Webber, Lulu, Goldberg, McCann
- Genres: Existential literature, Drama, Absurdist literature
- Subjects: 1950’s, Values, Sex or sexuality, Crime or criminals, Music or musicians, Communication, England or English people, Fear, Paranoia
- Locales: England
The Story:
Petey Boles and his wife Meg were the proprietors of a dilapidated boardinghouse in a seaside town in England. One morning, as they were discussing the local news over breakfast, Petey mentioned that two men had approached him on the beach the previous night and asked him for a room. He said the men had agreed to drop by later that day to see if the room were available. Meg told Petey that she would have the room ready if the men arrived.
When their only lodger, Stanley, joined Petey and Meg for breakfast, he complained that he “didn’t sleep at all.” As...
[The entire page is 2221 words long]
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