哈罗德·品特“威胁喜剧”在变态心理学视角下的分析,应用心理学论文

Chapter One Introduction

1.1 Introduction to Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter, bom in London in 1930，has been regarded as one of the greatestplaywrights since Bernard Shaw in the history of English drama. For his great achievementand contribution to literature and society, Pinter earned his fame as a Nobel Prize winner in2005 not only for his 29 plays and some other screenplays or poems, but because of hisindefatigable efforts made to protect human rights and resist the war.
Pinter was bom in a Jewish family in Hackney, in London's East End, where got horribleand worst attacks during the world war. Therefore, little Pinter experienced a life of bombing,shooting，escaping and evacuation for more than ten years, even at no times，he and hisfamily lived in bomb shelter, But his farther, Jack Pinter, was a industrious tailor，who made adecent living for Pinter. His mother, Frances, went through a turbulent time when Pinter wasyoung，but she had never stopped teaching her son read. All that experience in childhood leftPinter an expression of fear and threat, which, to great extent, took enormous psychologicalshadow on Pinter's life and his works. Because of the special experience in his life, Pinterbecame a rebellious man. He refused to serve in the army and was thrown in prison twice.Therefore, challenging authority is one of his characteristics.
After graduating from school, Pinter adopted Davis Barron as his stage name in 1954，and became an actor in different theaters. Meanwhile, he also kept learning drama writing. In1957，for the sake of helping his friend, Pinter created his first play The Room. As the resultof the successful performance of this play in Bristol University, Pinter started his dramaticwriting career from then on. After that, a series of plays created by Pinter have been shown onthe stage, The Caretaker and The Homecoming brought him both with wealth and fame.Having obtained a mixed appraise, Pinter has never stopped writing. Besides，he was a screenwriter and a director as well; he adopted more than 20 works of others, including The ProstScreenplay (1972), and The French Lieutenant's Women. In all his life, not only did he devotehimself to the creation of dramas, poems, novels and screen plays，but also committedhimself to the struggle for human rights and a peaceful world. Especially，in his late years, he stopped writing. Criticizing hegemonism and opposing war has become one of his mostimportant missions. He never stopped struggling for social righteousness until his death in2008 for esophagus cancer.
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1.2 Introduction to Harold Pinter's Works
As a prolific writer, Pinter wrote more than 30 plays, 100 poems and 2 novels, ofwhich plays established him an unshakable position in literature history. On the one hand，hesucceeded to the style of Samuel Beckett，the representatives of Theatre of the Absurd andwas influenced by other writers like James Joyce, Franz Kafka, and German philosopherMartin Heidegger; On the other hand, Pinter himself was a dramatic innovator. He created anatmosphere of mystery, evasion, obscure, menace, which helped him get the unique tag of“Pinteresque，，and “Comedy of menace". In 1958，Irving Wardle applied “Comedy ofMenace" to The Birthday Party, which was firstly coined by David Campton in 1975 for thesubtitle of Pinter's one-act Plays collectively called The Lunatic View, though hesubsequently intended to break away from this label. ( Bernard F. Dukore, 1982: 23 ) Apart fromthe two tags, realism and theater of absurd also had been used as the main characteristics andstyles in Harold Pinter's works.
Pinter's plays are generally classified into four types according to the time: Comedy ofMenace, which put its plot in a closed environment such as a room, a house, a basement. Thecharacters in such plays suffer menace of some kind or are hurt by the unknown forces. Allthese threat or hurt comes from inside or outside，which is fUll of mystery. These plays havesomething in common with the Theatre of Absurd, Which conveys a sense of isolation ofhuman beings. Pinter's first five plays. The Room，The Birthday Party，The Dumb Waiter, ASlight Ache and The Caretaker belong to this type. All of them share the same characteristicsof mystery, silence, evasion, obscure, menace, and matters deliberately concealed.
The second type Theater of Family centers on a family and the relationship betweenparents and children, husband and wife. In addition, brothers and sisters, lover and friends arealso involved. Although continued the style of Comedy of Menace, the Theatre of Family hasthe tendency towards feminism and realism. The lover (1963) and The Homecoming (1965)are the representatives of this type.
In the Theatre of Memory, the plot and dialogue are composed of the characters'memories; the dramatic conflict is love triangle between genders. Pinter's plays in this period,to some extent, alluded to the author's personal life and emotional confosion in the past. Thetheme, to great degree, reflects the sexual relations. In this period, Pinter concentrates morestudy on the female internal world，by which he tries to convey a transition fromanti-feminism to understanding of female. Silence，(1969)，Old times (1971)，Betrayal (1978)are the classical works.
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Chapter Two Literature Review

2.1. The Researches of Harold Pinter Abroad
Nowadays, The study of Pinter's works have become a hotspot in western world. Manyresearch centers have been set up in universities and colleges and lots of academicconferences have been hold to study Pinter and his plays. In 1980s, Research association ofPinter was set up to issue a regular journal named Pinter Record in America. However, Pinterdidn't obtain deserved attention until he got the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2005. In 1970s，Pinter's plays were misunderstood by critical circle，Yeal Zarht-levo named this period as"the phase of critical consensus" (Yeal Zarht-levo, 2006:213). At the very beginning，hisplays have been regarded strange compared with the current realistic drama and Theater ofAbsurd. When Pinter's The birthday Party was premiered for the first time，what befalls onhim was abundant criticism. W.A.Darlington expressed his disappointment at Pinter's TheBirthday Party, he hold that "Harold Pinter never got down to earth long enough to explainwhat his play was about." (W.A.Darlington, 1958: 14) and Darling insisted that Pinter's playwas just symbols in obscurity, which was beyond his understanding. The negative commentslike this were numerous. Of all the critics, Harold Hobson was the only one who thoughthighly of Pinter and appreciated Pinter's plays very much. Nevertheless, Pinter was regardedas the representative of European Pioneer writers in Britain this time. Martin Esslin，the firstone to list Pinter's plays in the Theatre of Absurd in his book The Theatre of the Absurdpointed out Pinter was "Absurdist rather than realist，，(Esslin，1978: 273). Therefore，Pinter'splays have been compared with other absurdist writer such as Beckett's and Innesco's.Although it has admitted that Pinter was influenced by Beclett a lot, his location betweenrealistic and Theatre of Absurd has been a bone of contention. In addition to this，Essilininitiated psychoanalysistic perspective to study Pinter's plays in the early days. She found theOedipus complex and other mental phenomenon in Pinter's The Birthday Party，TheCaretaker，and The Homecoming, Later, Lucina Gabbard in his The Dream Structure ofPinter i Plays: a Psychoanalytic Approach handles problems of ambiguities and obscuritiesin Pinter's early plays through the mechanisms of dream of psychoanalytic theory thereby indicating that the plays develop around the oedipal wish. (Lucina Gabbard, 1977)Somescholars like William Baker have connected Pinter's personal life bakground with Freudianunconsciousness. Along this direction，Thomas Alder and Marc Silerstein used Jung's andLacan's theories to study Pinter's works. What's more, after 1970s，all kinds of artisticcharacteristics in Pinter's plays were another focus for researchers, such as his style ofmystery, menacing atmosphere, and comic features. Since Irving Wardle published his criticalwork The Comedy of Menace in 1958，people started to use this term to describe Pinter's style:“a unique combination of two contradictory feeling of comedy and fear，，.(Chen Hongwei2005:61) Francesca Coppa thought that Pinter's Comedy of Menace exerted great influenceon Black Comedy. In addition, language style, including ambiguity, repetition, silence, andpause have been analyzed by Esslin in his book Pinter: A Study of His Plays. He said that“words，in Pinter's plays, become weapons of domination and subservience，silences explode,nuances of vocabulary strip human beings to the skin".(Esslin, 1977:48) Another criticMichael Billington，Pinter's biographer, who wrote The Life and Work of Harold Pinter(Billington, 1996), which was a comprehensive and authoritative book to explore Pinter andhis plays, gave a systematic introduction to Pinter according to his family background,growing experience, creating idea，thematic analysis, etc.
Since 1980s, the western critics started to study Pinter from a three-dimensionalperspective. Stage performance and text were not as attractive as before. Therefore, morescholars began to study Pinter's radio play and screenplay, and put it in a cultural and socialbackground. Steven Gale thought that Pinter's screenplay not only can reproduce certainmeaning of stage play，but such meaning can be broadened and expanded. (Steven H. Gale,1977: 93) Of all researches, the hottest topic is the study on the theme of Pinter's plays.Katherine H. Burkman and Steven H. Gale regarded Pinter's play as "field battle，，or menace.Dominic Shellard analyzed Pinter's plays from existentialism, and emphasized what Pinterconveys to us is the danger of existence (Dominic Shellard，2000). In addition to the study ofthe theme in Pinter's Plays，the feminist interpretation is another direction. Victor Cain,Elizabeth Sakellaridon and Michelene Wandor all did lots of research on this aspect.Elizabeth Sekallaridou published her book Pinter's Female Portraits: A Study of FemaleCharacters in the Plays of Harold Pinter，and discussed the evolution process of the feminine image from split female in archetypal criticism to the new image in realism, accordingly,providing a brand new point of view for researchers. (Elizabeth Sekallaridou, 1988).
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2.2. The Researches of Harold Pinter at Home
The introduction of Pinter's plays into China started from 1970s. Yang XiUng，who wasconsidered to be the first one to translate Pinter's plays, translated The Birthday Party in 1978on World Literature, The translation of Pinter's works laid a solid foundation for “Pinterstudies，，. During this period，Zhu Hong published an essay named "Comment on Theatre ofAbsurd on World Literature，’ in 1978，which for the first time, systematically gave Theatre ofthe Absurd a comprehensive introduction, in which Harold Pinter and his writing style wasthe first time to be introduced into China by the title of "Pinter and Comedy of Menace".(Zhou Hong, 1978) In the early time，researchers concentrated on the introduction of Pinter'sworks. Du Dingyu published his introduction about Pinter and his representative works on"Foreign Drama，，in 1980s. What's more, the study on the relationship between Pinter's plays and Theatre of Absurd also had great influence on the study of Pinter.
From 1970s to 1990s, Researchers rested on the period of surface layer. What wasinvolved was just about the introduction of Pinter's early works and some backgroundinformation rather than a critical perspective. At the same time，many researchers importedthe introduction of Pinter and his plays into the phylogeny of English drama, Hou Weiruiedited Comprehensive history of English Literature (1994), in which Pinter and his workswas involved，but the theme mainly centered on "menace" and absurd style. In 1996，Professor He Qishen's book The selected British Drama, was the first time to make Pinter'splays get into Chinese college's class，in which The Dumb Waiter was introduced. Meanwhile,Since 1990s, many of Pinter's plays such as The Dumb Waiter, Betrayal，and The lover hasbeen put on the stage at home.
From 2000 to 2004, critical perspectives and approaches gradually show an increasingtrend at home. Discourse analysis, interpretation from feminism，post-modernism all wereinvolved in this period. "The Heroic Women in Mountain Language—with ObservationsAbout Female Image in Pinter's Works" by Wang Lan, studied Pinter's work from feministpoint of view with an emphasis on the function of language. "The post-modernist features ofcharacters in Pinter's Plays” by Yang Jing found the Post-modernist characteristic of"fragmentation" in Pinter's play, in which, by deconstructing the traditional image, it created afragmentary character with obscure personality and absurd behavior (Yang Jing, 2002). Thethematic study, including menace, absurd, intruder, the image of room, also attractedresearchers' eyes. In the "Behind the Absurdity and Obscure — On Harold Pinter's Plays”，Yuan Decheng" pointed out that absurdity and obscure just were the surface feature, theessence of Pinter's plays reflected the true situation of English society. (Yuan Decheng, 2002)
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Chapter Three Abnormal Psychology.............................. 11
2.1. Development of Abnormal Psychology.............................. 11
2.2 Related Theory on Abnormal Psychology.............................. 13
Chapter Four Performance of Abnormal Psychology in Harold Pinter'sComedies of Menace............. 16
4.1. An Analysis of Rose's Conversion Disorder in The Room.............................. 16
4.1.1. Rose's Conversion Disorder in The Room.............................. 16
4.1.2 The Analysis of Rose's Personality and Behavior from Abnormal Psychology..................... 17
4.2. An Analysis of Stanley's Acquired Brain Disorder in The Birthday Party................... 21
4.2.1. Stanley's Acquired Brain Disorder in The Birthday Party.............................. 21
4.2.2. The Analysis of Stanley's personality and behavior from AbnormalPsychology................ 23
4.3. An Analysis of Edward's Delusional Disorder in A Slight Ache............................ 27
4.3.1. Edward's Delusional Disorder in A Slight Ache.............................. 27
4.3.2. The Analysis of Edward's Personality and Behavior from AbnormalPsychology.................. 28

Chapter Five Artistic Evaluation of Abnormal Characters inHarold Pinter's Comedies of Menace

After a systematic exploration of characters' abnormal performance in Pinter's TheRoom，The Birthday Party and^ slight Ache，it is admirable to figure out Pinter's talents indramatic creation and his keen insight on human life. He employs simple and ordinarywords to convey a profound idea. On the one hand, he discloses characters' innermostanxiety in their times. On the other hand, he displays the traumas of people in a morbid andcareworn society. Therefore, it can be said that Pinter's plays contribute much spiritualtreasure to human society. In this part, the writer will demonstrate the significance and valueof abnormal characters in Harold Pinter's Comedies of Menace from three aspects.

5.1. Dramatic Significance
Drama, like other literary genre, is the manifestation of social reality; Aristotle calleddrama “imitated human action”. (Shao Jindi, Bai Jinpeng 2002: 383)Every character in a playhas a certain function to promote the development of dramatic conflicts. Abnormal characterhas no exception. However, the obvious feature is that the abnormal behaviors andpersonality was displayed in Pinter's these plays. Not only does the conflict between two ormore characters be shown but the intrapsychic conflict in character himself is anotherperformance, which to great degree, for Pinter, on the one hand, highlights the internalrelationship between anxiety and comedy of menace, and on the other hand，strengthens thedramatic effects of the suspense and mystique in his works.
Although the tag of Comedy of Menace was given to describe Pinter's works，the tragiccolor is a dominate tone in these plays. Therefore, strictly speaking，his plays belong totragedy. A well-organized tragedy usually shows the following division, each standing for aphase of the dramatic conflict; "introduction, rising action，climax or crises, falling action，and catastrophe". (Shao Jindi, Bai Jinpeng，2002:384) In which, the catastrophe comes as anatural outgrowth of action. It signifies the tragic failure of the hero. In Pinter's these plays,Rose's blindness, Stanley's speechless, Edward's delusional disorder are all the manifestation of the catastrophe. Different from other obvious traits of tragic effect, these plays presentaudience many low-key tragic characters, who finally become victim of society in silence.The fact that a dark society transforms his people into abnormal is the most tragic thing in theworld. Thus it can be seen if there was no such abnormal performance in the character，thetragic effect would be uneasy to reach.
In addition, as for Comedy of Menace, critics pay much attention to its threateningeffects. Threat in Pinter's works is like seaside humidity that permeates into every grain ofsand. Pinter's atmosphere of threat suffuses every cell of the air. Pinter, on the one hand，transforms the threatening force into concrete image such as the match-seller in The SlightAche, On the other hand, such an effect owns to the inner anxiety of his abnormal charactersin the play. It is the upgraded anxiety that strengthens the dramatic conflict. The anxiety andfear can be regarded as inner embodiment of dramatic conflict，namely, the internal conflictof a drama, which promotes the development of the plot.
Rose's anxiety in The Room, although is not so obvious than that of Edward in A SlightAche, It has the breaking point (Rose gets blind in a flash) in the last scene, which is amanifestation of threatening effect. The intruders one after another who themselves stand forunsafety and threat of life bring fear or terror to the protagonist and generate her conversiondisorder in the end. If there is no such an abnormal performance in the character, thethreatening effect would be difficult to reach. It is the long-term accumulation of anxiety thatleads to the abnormal personality of Rose. It is the same to Stanley and Edward. The menacein The Birthday Party and A Slight Ache is separately converted into the two unknown killersand match-seller who bring protagonist with tragic life.
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Chapter Six Conclusion

It is undisputed that Harold Pinter's Comedy of Menace represented by The Room, TheBirthday Party, and A Slight Ache are outstanding and valuable literary works, which areworthwhile to be studied from different perspectives. Abnormal psychology，as a matureclinical application discipline, is a new critical angle used to associate with literature inrecent years. As a new point of view, it is the first time to be applied to study Pinter'sComedy of Menace. Through comparing the performance of the protagonists Rose in TheRoom，Stanley in The Birthday Party, and Edward in A Slight Ache and the related theoriesof abnormal psychology, it can be found that the abnormal behavior and psychology existsin these three characters. Specifically speaking, it shows Rose's conversion disorder,Stanley's acquired brain disorder and Edward's delusional disorder respectively. With regardto the absurd performance of these protagonists, no one can give a reasonable explanationwithout abnormal psychology. Moreover, with an systematic analysis of the symptoms ofthese mental disease and corresponding performance of the characters, it also shows itsdeep-rooted social, cultural, and political reasons, which leads to people's abnormalpsychology in post-war society. Lastly, through a comprehensive evaluation of the abnormalcharacters in Pinter's Comedies of Menace, its dramatic, social and aesthetic significance aredisplayed. Firstly, in terms of its dramatic significance, through a vivid description of theseabnormal images，it highlights the internal relations between anxious emotion and theMenacing atmosphere and balances the mystery of abnormal behavior and dramaticsuspense. Further more，with regard to its social significance, it not only reveals the socialconflict of that time, but also displays a plight in which people are unable to communicatewith each other. Therefore, it may give rise to a sense of social identity and obtainself-redemption or self-criticism. One last point，，for the aesthetic significance of abnormalart, it gears up the fusion of tragic and comical elements, by which people's meditationaroused by the ridiculous and sad plight of the abnormal character better reflect the sublimeof this aesthetic perspective.
Therefore, it can be proved that，this method is feasible and effective to find somethingnew in Pinter's Comedy of Menace.
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参考文献（略）