Political tension and existentialist angst in the drama of Harold Pinter and Isam Mahfuz. (c2012)

Abstract

This research presents a detailed comparative analysis between Harold Pinter’s The Dumb Waiter and ‘Isām Mahfūz’s The Dictator. It transcends linguistic, cultural and historical boundaries to explore the cross-resonance between these two plays and the sharp dramatic, political, and existential affiliations between their two playwrights. In a significant manner, both plays distinctively reveal Pinter and Mahfūz’s conscientious political stand against manipulation and totalitarianism. They represent the defeated and crushed victims of modern democratic systems as they expose the underlying hypocrisy and dinginess of their practices. Through theories of existentialism, especially Jean Paul Sartre’s main philosophical precepts of human freedom as a condemnation rather than a blessing and of man’s free choice as burdening, and Albert Camus’s notion of the absurdity of life and existence, this thesis argues that Both Sa‛dūn and Gus are afflicted with angst being the quintessential representatives of existential heroes who are heavily caught in the absurdity of existence and who tremendously suffer from the consequences of their free choices. Different theater productions and adaptations of the two plays are also fully examined to dwell on their enduring influence on and reception by viewers at different times and places as they deliver an undying comment on man’s inescapable sense of ennui and on the duplicity of modern politics. The study analyzes the commonalities between Pinter and Mahfūz. The thematic analysis draws on the similarities between their representations of a debased human condition in an afflicted world where political, social, and moral corruption have become the norm. Structurally, the study explores the similarities and differences between the two playwrights’ dramatic styles, their use of language, and their restructuring of a new form of dramatic irony.