Harold Pinter's 'The Birthday Party' and 'The Dumb Waiter' As Absurd Plays

Amid life's inconsequential moments, meaning emerges—though at times, it hidesbeneath the illusion of meaninglessness. Such is the philosophy propounded by dramatists ofModern and Postmodern Literature, who went out of their way to resist traditional structures andstylistics in order to create a realist absurdism that does justice to the fragmented self and portraysit in all its rawness. Harold Pinter, the Nobel Laureate, British Playwright and Screenwriter, wrote29 plays and dedicated most of his writing to the inexplicable human dilemma and thecontradictory phenomenon one must face every day. The initial reception of Pinter’s plays was notvery positive due to /the inadequacy of many critics to place him within a particular dramatist'sconventions defined by rigid standards and formal expectations. But they soon realised theirmistake because Pinter was not part of any single movement, but rather at the forefront ofsomething entirely new. ‘The Birthday Party’ and ‘The Dumb Waiter’ are two of his plays whichare rarely studied in conjunction, but to understand the depth of Pinter’s literary prowess inrepresenting the absurd milieu, it becomes undeniably imperative to examine his works with adifferent lens every time. This present academic paper will posit that both of these plays are notonly absurd, in every sense of the word, but are some of the finest works of drama that reject theidea of dramatic action and instead use mundane routines, circular language, silences and pausesand ambiguity to portray this world as it is rather than what it could be.