Research Paper on:
Silence as a Recurring Theme in the Works of Harold Pinter

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
his plays The Collection and The Lover, Pinter employs silence to increase tension, heighten understatement and underscore the banality of cryptic small talk. Like an artists who uses white space  for contrast, Pinters use of silence provides a backdrop that serves to underscore his dialogue, as the audience becomes increasingly aware of what the characters are not saying. In  both The Collection and The Lover, the characters are involved in relationships that are obviously not fulfilling their emotional needs. However, instead of voicing their needs in a straightforward  manner, or even behaving in a manner that shows their true emotions, they indulge in game playing, using language as a defense rather than as a means to communicate.  Pinter brings this out in both plays largely through his use of silence. For instance, in The Collection, the first page of dialogue, the stage direction to pause occurs  three times. The play begins with Harry, a middle aged man of about forty, answering the phone. A voice asks for Bill, Harrys housemate and much younger homosexual lover. Harry  replies that Bill is in bed and the voice asks "Whats he doing in bed?" The pause that follows this statement causes the audience to naturally think consider the  two major activities that take place in bed -- sleep and sex. After pausing, Harry asks if the caller is aware that it is four oclock in the morning.  Nonplused, the caller demands that Harry "give him a nudge" and wake him up (43). There is another pause as Harry takes in the audacity of this unknown person. As  this illustrates, Pinter uses silences (pauses) to underscore the absurdity of the situation. The caller was James, the husband of Stella, who met Bill at a fashion show the