Harold Pinter, The Caretaker

Pinter's The Caretaker is a powerful play that, if directed and performed with intelligence, can create tremendous dramatic tension. The battle of wills that takes place between the tramp Davies and Mick, shows us the very primal territorial instincts of human beings. And what are Davies and Mick battling for? On the surface, it seems to be over the room; a place of refuge for the homeless Davies and a place for Mick to dream of his future. But on a deeper level, the two antagonists are battling for the loyalty of Aston, who we later learn was treated with shock therapy at an earlier age, and is now mentally impaired. This information is delivered in a chilling monologue that skewers the idiocies of this barbaric treatment. Ironically, the monologue is delivered to Davies who has no capacity or will to appreciate what's being said. But it's a story that Mick would know too well. For the younger brother Mick is a Caretaker for his older brother Aston. Clearly, there is frustration and anger that Mick feels for having to care for his brother, and yet he sees that Davies is using his brother to gain access to the room where Aston lives, and that arouses Mick's loyalty for his brother. Or does it? Mick could easily throw Davies out, and yet he doesn't. Instead, he makes a game of it with Davies, going along with a fiction that Davies might be a qualified caretaker for Mick's properties. It seems pointless for Mick to play this game, for Davies is not qualified, and is clearly a free-loader, and yet Mick seems unwilling to evict Davies. He seems to be leaving the decision in his mentally impaired brother's hands. Remarkably, by play's end, Aston does ask Davies to leave; Davies has now lost his main ally and can no longer play the brothers against each other. This is the climax of the play; an important breakthrough, and the audience should feel a deepening bond between the brothers, who have been brought together by Davies, the interloper.

The Caretaker symbolises modern day hopelessness in life and illustrates perfectly the class divide that is so evident in our society. Very little is achieved throughout the play, and the story comes full circle as Davies is accepted into the room at the beginning and is made to leave by the end of the play.

Pinter fills the audience with frustration as this tragic tale leaves the audience wanting more, a twist, an explosion of action, anything. However painting the perfect picture of the lives these 3 characters have, he does not give in to the audience's plea.

There's virtually no plot whatsoever, if you like plays that are full of intriguing, interesting, and vibrant characters then turn away now! There are no great scenes of any real intensity or rapture, Harold Pinter keeps the reader in a torturous state of frustration and expectancy, throughout the play you are waiting for the explosion, the big event! Fireworks to fly! - Stop hoping or expecting before you've even picked the play up, I assure you it's not going to happen.

Harold Pinters' The Caretaker is entirely based on three mundane characters, of which it is very difficult to build any emotional attachment to, other than intense in particularly Davis'case, revulsion.

It relies heavily on 'significant' inanimate objects to express the plays themes, and the supposed 'brutally funny' (Sunday times) humour - don't get me started, one suggests they mistook exasperation for humour, suggest urgent correction

'Spiritual shocker' - (Sunday Times) I couldn't have been more shocked if all the characters had suddenly burst into song - it truly is the most tiresome, mundane, tedious, infuriating and irksome play I have ever had the misfortune to read, it is the worst play I have had to read, I'm currently studying it for A-level, and have come convinced there is only one place for it - the bonfire!

The caretaker by Harold Pinter is the story of three men. Mick is the proprietor of a shabby house in the countryside. Aston, his brother, is always busy with something but never accomplishes anything. Finally there is Davies, some kind of a hobo adopted by Aston who gives him a place to sleep and - after a while - asks him if he wants a job as the caretaker. Davies is very reluctant and find petty excuses to postpone the decision of becoming the caretaker.

What is the plot of this play? Everything stays the same, nothing will ever change. It becomes clear that the three characters are stuck with each other.

The most impressive part of the play is the monologue by Aston in which he tells how he was treated with electro-shocks when he was a kid. This is one of the most gruesome parts I know in modern theatre.