Department of English

Course Code: ENG-413

Course Title: 20th Century Drama
Topic: Comedy of Menace in The Caretaker

Submitted To:
Renaissance Ahmed
Assistant Professor
Department of English
Comilla University
Submitted by :
Md Atiqur Rahman
ID: 11701026
Session: 2016-17
Department of English
Comilla University
Date of submission: 05-06-2021
 Comedy of Menace in The Caretaker

Comedy:

Comedy is a kind of drama which begins with adversity or discord but

ends in happiness. Comedy is generally defined as a literary work that is
written to amuse or entertain a reader. It’s aim is to correct the follies
and frivolities of the individuals of a particular society through laughter
and ridicule.

Comedy of Menace:

Basically, ‘Comedy’ means Humour and ‘Menace’ means Threatening

fear in mind. So a ‘Comedy’ is humours play while ‘Menace’ is
something which refers to that work of art of a play in which people
feels fear or the situation may become so much threatening that
people or audience who watches the play may don’t know that what is
happening; which doesn’t seem like a logical idea to fit with comedy.
Thus in a comedy of menace , the elements of humour are mingled
with the threatening elements.

The term was coined by drama critic Irving Wardle, who borrowed it
from the subtitle of Campton's play The Lunatic View: A Comedy of
Menace, in reviewing Pinter's and Campton’s plays in Encore in 1958.

    In ‘Comedy of Menace’ there was another more distinguished

interpretation is when counter-argue between two characters takes
place, there it creates a kind of mental depression and we can’t say that
we can make our self enjoying in that situation. If we talk about
conversation then we must look at the facial expression as well as a
thought process.

 Comedy of Menace in The Caretaker:

The most apparent source of menace is Mick. Davies is not only the
victim of physical assault but is often brutally reminded by Mick of an
ordered social world to which he does not belong. Then Mick's remarks
about references, solicitors, contracts, personal medical attendants,
etc. expose Davies's position in a world where he has no identity.

Furthermore, we see that while Mick causes menace to Davies, he

himself is frightened of losing his brother to Davies.

In Act One, Davies appears as a comic figure. There is considerable

comedy in his description of finding his wife's underwear in the
vegetable pan. His account of his journey to a monastery is amusing.
Here comedy is found in his assertion that when he goes to a
monastery in order to beg a pair of shoes, the monk tells him to "piss
off' which is offensive slang meaning to 'urinate'; but the monk uses the
words to mean 'go away'. But these comic elements are mingled with
serious elements when Mick attacks Davies. When Aston goes out
leaving Davies alone, Davies begins to search through all the different
items that are in the room. Mick silently enters the room when Davies
is rummaging through a drawer. He attacks the old tramp, throwing him
to the floor and demands to know what he is doing in the room. This
sudden outbreak of violence shows the very real danger of the world of
Davies. The safe haven of the room suddenly becomes a trap for
Davies.

Pinter creates the atmosphere of menace dropping suddenly from

a high comic level to one of deep seriousness as we find in Aston's

description of receiving electric shock therapy in a mental hospital.

Aston tells Davies about a cafe he used to visit years ago and about

his work in a factory. His problem was he talked too much and had

kind of hallucinations. One day he was taken to a mental hospital just

outside London. Against his wishes, his mother signed a form

allowing the hospital to operate on Aston's brain. They told him that

he had a complaint and that he had the chance of curing the

complaint only by an operation. If they are not allowed to operate on

his brain, he would be in a mental hospital for the rest of his life. He

tried to escape in vain. He saw other men being operated on the

doctors put pincers connected to a small machine round the patient's

head. When the doctors came for him, he tried to resist but he was

operated on whilst standing up. Electrodes were placed on his head and
electrical currents were sent through his brain. This electric

shock therapy had robbed him of his past and therefore of a large

part of his identity.

In Pinter's world, violence and menace lurk just below the surface.

Mick finds pleasure in frightening others. He chases Davies with a

vacuum clean, which is funny as well as terrifying. Mick seems to

sympathize with Davies's complaints about Aston. But, since Davies

says that he is not an experienced interior decorator and calls Aston a

‘nutty' (mentally unbalanced), Mick sides with his brother, Aston, and

makes a verbal assault on Davies. Mick tells him that every word he

speaks can be interpreted differently. Most of his words are lies. He is

violent, unreliable, and completely unpredictable. He calls him a wild

animal and a barbarian. Mick also reminds him that Davies has failed to

go to Sidcup to get references. As a result Mick refuses to offer him the

job of a caretaker, he gives him some money to go away.

Thus, The Caretaker may be termed a comedy of menace for the

very mixture of comic and threatening elements.

Conclusion:

In The Caretaker, there is a blanket of darkness which does not allow

the rays of sunny humour to enter. This darkness in the comedy comes
from the philosophy of Absurdism. The Caretaker is, therefore, a
successful dark comedy in the sense that all the three characters in the
play are to find a home and meaning of life for themselves but not
without a lighter side of it. Laughter and tears go together. The play has
the qualities of both farce and tragedy. It makes us laugh and at the
same time draws our tears.