Prescribed question:

How has the text borrowed from other texts and

with what effects?

Title of the texts for analysis:

The Birthday Party and Nineteen Eighty- Four.

Part 3- Literature: Text and context

By: Vanshika Sabberwal

Word count:932

1
 “Nineteen Eighty- Four” is a futuristic dystopian novel written in 1949 by George Orwell. Set
in the year 1984, it primarily revolves around the protagonist, Winston Smith who rebels
against the authority of the Big Brother and is brutally tortured into breaking down;
eventually resulting in the disintegration of his identity. “The birthday party”, an absurdist
drama by Harold Pinter and first performed in 1958, enormously borrows from Nineteen
Eighty-Four in terms of thematic, structural, and stylistic features. This essay aims to explore
the similarity in the characteristics of the two texts and its effect on the audience.

The birthday party has a lot in common with Nineteen Eighty-four in terms of the way it is
structured by Pinter. Notably,” The birthday party” involves a scene where the protagonist,
Stanley is viciously tortured by Goldberg and McCann. They interrogate him by subjecting
him to a series of bizarre questions ranging from a medieval catholic heresy to why the
chicken crossed the road! This resembles the scene in Nineteen Eighty-Four where O’ Brien
is also seen torturing the principal character of the novel, Winston Smith by hurling a range
of questions at him. These questions can be seen as an attempt to distance both the
protagonists from what little sense of identity they seem to have. Furthermore, both the
works also feature the reconstruction of the protagonists by the authorities. The authority
wins in both the works and the protagonists are forced to conform destroying their sense of
identity.

The characters in the play are also borrowed from the novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four”. Stanley
is tormented by two sinister strangers namely Goldberg, a Jew, and McCann, an Irishman. It
is not a mere coincidence that in Nineteen Eighty-Four, the two most notable authority
figures are similarly tagged. O’ Brien is an Irishman who exposes Winston as an enemy of
Oceania and tortures him both physically and mentally bringing him into conformity with
the ideals of the party. Emmanuel Goldstein, the probably fictional enemy of the state is
also a Jew just like Goldberg in “The Birthday Party”. To add on, both the protagonists of
the novel are in their late thirties and their names share the same initials. This clearly,
indicates towards the fact that Pinter used Nineteen Eighty -four as a source of inspiration
for his play.

Prominently, Pinter seems to have adopted the logical approach used by Orwell in Nineteen
Eighty-Four. During the interrogation Scene of the play, Goldberg and McCann are seen
asking Stanley questions like “Is the number 846 possible or necessary?” and “How many
fingers do you see?”. This is analogous to the interrogation scene in Nineteen Eighty- four
where O ‘Brien tortures Winston by constantly subjecting him to questions like “How many
fingers, Winston?” and “two plus two make five” which are meant to question his intellect.
Thus, in both the texts, the incorporation of such questions by the respective authors can be
seen as a way of representing the forceful alienation of the protagonists from their personal
thinking, freedom and their own constructed view of the world.

There is much specific evidence present in the Birthday Party convincing the the audience
that Pinter had read Nineteen Eighteen Four and incorporated many aspects of it in his
work. For instance, in the Birthday Party, Goldberg is seen asking Stanley “What makes you
think you exist?”. This is synonymous to the interrogation scene in Nineteen Eighteen Four
where O’Brien says to Winston, “You do not exist.” To add on, the two sinister powers are

2
seen accusing Stanley of killing his wife and in Nineteen Eighty-Four, Winston confesses that
he had murdered his wife.

Another major parallel between Pinter’s work and the novel “Nineteen Eighty –Four” ties
down to the similarities in their themes. Both the works are an exemplification of the
relationship between the individual and the authority. Stanley, the protagonist in The
Birthday Party and Winston, the protagonist in Nineteen Eighteen four epitomize all that is
negative in that relationship. Both the characters are representative of an individual, a non -
conformist whose identity is crippled by the society. Their only crime was to take a
rebellious stance against the authority, in the quest for peace and freedom, which is
ultimately debased by the oppressive forces of the irresistible authority. They are not
allowed to leave in peace and forced to conform to the ideals of the society through
physical and mental torture. Thus, both the texts can be seen as a depiction of the
vulnerable condition of any individual facing the oppressive forces of the authority.

In conclusion, The Birthday Party can be seen as an absurdist reworking of the same theme
as “Nineteen Eighteen- four”. Both the texts feature an individual who puts up a futile
resistance by escaping from the conformity of a dominating authority and is eventually
knocked down, shattering his individuality. This individual is essentially the embodiment of
an everyman who experiences a force of brutality in today’s society. Despite the fact, that
the Birthday party is absurd in nature unlike Nineteen Eighteen Four which is more of a
traditional story, it effectively serves to convey the same theme prevalent in Orwellian’s
work and creates an emotional effect on the audience. This absurdism actually adds
meaning to the play in the context of Nineteen Eighty-four and makes Orwell’s vision
accessible for the second half of the twentieth century. The fact that the true motives and
identities of the characters are not revealed in this absurdist play by Pinter, allows the
reader to relate to the protagonist of the play on an emotional level.