The Caretaker Discuss the variety of dramatic effects achieved in the three speeches of your choice, and consider what they reveal about the characters of each speaker

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Essay- Monologues/Soliloquies

Discuss the variety of dramatic effects achieved in the three speeches of your choice, and consider what they reveal about the characters of each speaker

        In his plays, Pinter uses long speeches quite frequently, aiming to achieve numerous forms of emotional effects. In The Caretaker, a play about down-and-outs in a flat in West London, the characters often speak at length, relating their opinions, thoughts and random events from their pasts.

        The three individuals in this play are very different in their styles of discourse. Despite the fact that they are all in a motivational rut, they all have different approaches to their ambitions. Davies, the itinerant tramp, is the hate icon. He represents all the deficiencies of human nature, in that he is conniving, backstabbing, scheming and, where he can get away with it, obnoxious. Although he is only accommodated because of Aston’s generosity, he quickly tries to assume as much power in the flat as possible.

        He makes several monologues, each revealing some new unpleasant trait about his character. The audience are increasingly appalled by the complete lack of scruples he displays. On page 95, he demonstrates a capacity for abuse that very exaggerated. He is alone in the room with Mick, and perversely angry about what he sees as a lack of generosity in Aston. “He don’t give me no knife!” he whines, selfishly, as though any host is obliged to provide their guests with a bread-knife. Later on in the play, he rants at Aston for failing to “slip me a few bob,” despite the fact that Aston gives him five shillings.

At the start, he displays such a degree of ignorance and paranoia that the audience have to laugh at just what an absurd character he is. “What about this gas stove? He tells me it’s not connected. How do I know it’s not connected? Here I am, I’m sleeping right with it, I wake up in the middle of the night, I’m looking right into the oven, man!...I could be lying there in bed, it might blow up, it might do me harm!”

Despite his boastful fabrication of a former life of luxury and comfort – “I’m no stranger to beds” – he is ridiculously afraid of a disconnected gas stove. The fact that he ignores Aston’s reassurances indicates that he is also very stubborn.

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        He then launches into one of his typical, vague invectives. “I told him about them Blacks using the lavatory. I told him, it was all dirty in there, all the banisters were dirty, they were all black, all the lavatory was black.” For all his racist bravado, and hateful, irrational comments about foreigners, he is terrified of the black family in the building. His apparent obsession with hygiene does not appear to extend to his clothing- he sleeps fully clothed, and is described several times by Mick as stinking. His xenophobia prevents him from even sharing facilities with black people. ...

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