Reading

and
about
Contemporary Drama
Poetry
Literature for Life

Modern
Learning
Section 6
From 1946 to the Present Day

Harold Pinter
The Caretaker

NOTEBOOK
Knowledge 1. What do you already know about Harold Pinter and his works?
base Refer to your notes from In Brief.

2. What does the term ‘Pinteresque’ mean in reference to dramatic works?

3. Focus on the title of the new work you are going to read. What is a caretaker?
Where might s/he work? What kind of jobs might s/he do?

First reading 4. First read a brief summary of the play. You will see that, in terms of events,
nothing much happens. Is that typical or untypical of Pinter’s plays?

Summary
It is a three-act play set in the room of a derelict house owned by two brothers,
Mick and Aston. Aston has given shelter to a tramp, Davies. After both brothers,
separately, suggest to him that he become the caretaker of the place, a strange,
fluctuating relationship develops between the three men. Finally the brothers
drive Davies out of the house.

 A scene from later on in the play showing tensions between the two brothers (left)
and the tramp, Davies (right). The production is that of University of South California
School of Theatre (Los Angeles), staged in 2005, hence the young age of the actors
playing the roles.

Section 6 From 1946 to the Present Day

Harold Pinter 1
 Reading
5. Now read the introductory stage directions describing the setting (lines 1-12).

and
about
Contemporary Drama
Poetry
Try and draw a plan of the stage and scenery. What difficulty do you find in doing it?

Modern
Learning
6. Read the extract from Act I of the play. Who speaks most? Who speaks least?

A room. A window in the back wall, the bottom half covered by a sack. An iron
T 131 bed along the left wall. Above it a small cupboard, paint buckets, boxes
Harold Pinter containing nuts, screws, etc. More boxes, vases, by the side of the bed. A door,
The Caretaker up right. To the right of the window, a mound1: a kitchen sink, a step-ladder, a
coal bucket, a lawn-mower2, a shopping trolley3, boxes, sideboard, drawers.
Under this mound an iron bed. In front of it a gas stove. On the gas stove a statue
of Buddha. Down right, a fireplace. Around it a couple of suitcases, a rolled
carpet, a blow-lamp4, a wooden chair on its side, boxes, a number of
ornaments, a clothes horse5, a few short planks of wood, a small electric fire
10 and a very old electric toaster. Below this a pile of old newspapers. Under
ASTON’s bed by the left wall, is an electrolux6, which is not seen till used. A bucket
hangs from the ceiling.

ACT I
MICK is alone in the room, sitting on the bed. He wears a leather jacket.
Silence.
He slowly looks about the room looking at each object in turn. He looks up at the
ceiling, and stares at the bucket. Ceasing7, he sits quite still, expressionless,
looking out front.
Silence for thirty seconds.
A door bangs. Muffled8 voices are heard.
20 MICK turns his head. He stands, moves silently to the door, goes out, and closes
the door quietly.
Silence.
Voices are heard again. They draw nearer, and stop. The door opens. ASTON
and DAVIES enter, ASTON first, DAVIES following, shambling9, breathing heavily.
ASTON wears an old tweed overcoat, and under it a thin shabby dark-blue
pinstripe10 suit, single-breasted11, with a pullover and faded shirt and tie.
DAVIES wears a worn brown overcoat, shapeless trousers, a waistcoat12, vest13, no
shirt, and sandals. ASTON puts the key in his pocket and closes the door. DAVIES
looks about the room.

30 ASTON Sit down.

DAVIES Thanks. (Looking about.) Uuh…
ASTON Just a minute.
ASTON looks around for a chair, sees one lying on its side by the rolled
carpet at the fireplace, and starts to get it out.

1. mound: here it means
‘a pile of objects’
(mucchio).
2. lawn-mower: machine
for cutting grass in the
garden (tagliaerba).
3. shopping trolley: small
cart for carrying purchases
(carrello).
4. blow-lamp: lamp that
produces flame from
a mixture of gas and air
(lampada per saldare).
5. clothes horse: structure on
which clothes are hung to
dry indoors (stenditoio).
6. electrolux: lamp
working on a battery
(torcia elettrica).
7. Ceasing: when he
stops doing that
(Quando smette).
8. Muffled: not clearly heard
(indistinte).
9. shambling: dragging
his feet (strascicando
i piedi).
10. pinstripe: cloth having a
design of thin lines repeated
at regular intervals
(in tessuto gessato).
11. single-breasted: fastened
in the middle by a single
row of buttons
(a un petto).
12. waistcoat: men’s garment,
without sleeves, usually
worn over a shirt
and under a jacket
(panciotto).
13. vest: a short undergarment
worn under a shirt next
to the skin (canottiera).

Section 6 From 1946 to the Present Day

Harold Pinter 2
 Reading
DAVIES Sit down? Huh… I haven’t had a good sit down… I haven’t had a proper sit

and
about
Contemporary Drama
Poetry
down… well, I couldn’t tell you…

Modern
ASTON (placing the chair) Here you are.

Learning
DAVIES Ten minutes off for tea-break in the middle of the night in that place and I
couldn’t find a seat, not one. All them Greeks had it, Poles, Greeks, Blacks,
40 the lot of them, all them aliens14 had
it. And they had me working
there… they had me working…
ASTON sits on the bed, takes out a
tobacco tin and papers, and
begins to roll himself a cigarette.
DAVIES watches him.
All them Blacks had it, Blacks,
Greeks, Poles, the lot of them, that’s
what, doing me out of a seat15,
50 treating me like dirt. When he come
at me tonight I told him.
Pause.
ASTON Take a seat.
DAVIES Yes, but what I got16 to do first, you
see, what I got to do, I got to loosen
myself up17, you see what I mean? I
could have got done in18 down there.
DAVIES exclaims loudly, punches
downward with closed fist, turns
60 his back to ASTON and stares at the
wall.  “… treating me like dirt.” Davies expresses
Pause. ASTON lights a cigarette. his anger in another photograph
ASTON You want to roll yourself one of of the University of South California School
of Theatre performance.
these?
DAVIES (turning) What? No, no, I never
smoke a cigarette. (Pause. He comes forward.) I’ll tell you what, though. I’ll
have a bit of that tobacco there for my pipe, if you like.
ASTON (handing him the tin) Yes. Go on. Take some out of that.
DAVIES That’s kind of you, mister. Just enough to fill my pipe, that’s all. (He takes a
70 pipe from his pocket and fills it.) I had a tin, only… only a while ago. But
it was knocked off19. It was knocked off on the Great West Road. (He holds
out the tin.) Where shall I put it?
ASTON I’ll take it.
DAVIES (handing the tin) When he comes at me tonight I told him. Didn’t I? You
heard me tell him, didn’t you?
ASTON I saw him have a go at20 you.
DAVIES Go at me? You wouldn’t grumble21. The filthy skate22. An old man like me, I’ve
had dinner with the best.

14. aliens: foreigners
(stranieri).
15. doing me out of a seat:
informal, ‘depriving me
of a seat’ (non mi
facevano posto).
16. I got: colloquial form
for ‘I’ve got’ (devo).
17. loosen myself up: informal,
‘get ready for action by
exercising the muscles’
(sciogliere i muscoli).
18. done in: informal, 21. wouldn’t grumble: wouldn’t
‘killed’ (ucciso). complain (brontoleresti).
19. knocked off: informal, 22. filthy skate: here it is
‘stolen’ (rubata). a term of abuse
20. have a go at: attack, (pesce rancido).
physically or verbally
(prendere di mira).

Section 6 From 1946 to the Present Day

Harold Pinter 3
 Reading
and
about
Contemporary Drama
Poetry
Pause.
80 ASTON Yes, I saw him have a go at you.

Modern
DAVIES All them toe-rags23, mate24, got the manners of pigs. I might have been on

Learning
the road a few years but you can take it from me I’m clean. I keep myself
up. That’s why I left my wife. Fortnight after I married her, no, not so much
as that, no more than a week, I took the lid25 off a saucepan26, you know
what was in it? A pile of her underclothing, unwashed. The pan for
vegetables, it was. The vegetable pan. That’s when I left her and I haven’t
seen her since.
DAVIES turns, shambles across the room, comes face to face with a statue
of Buddha standing on the gas stove, looks at it and turns.
90 I’ve eaten my dinner off the best of plates. But I’m not young any more.
I remember the days I was as handy27 as any of them. They didn’t take any
liberties with me. But I haven’t been so well lately. I’ve had a few attacks.
Pause.
(Coming closer.) Did you see what happened with that one?
ASTON I only got the end of it.
DAVIES Comes up to me, parks a bucket of rubbish at me, tells me to take it out the
back. It’s not my job to take out the bucket! They got a boy there for taking
out the bucket. I wasn’t engaged to take out buckets. My job’s cleaning the
floor, clearing up the tables, doing a bit of washing-up, nothing to do with
100 taking out buckets!
ASTON Uh.
He crosses down right, to get the electric toaster.
DAVIES (following) Yes, well say I had! Even if I had! Even if I was supposed to take
out the bucket, who was this git28 to come up and give me orders? We got the
same standing29. He’s not my boss. He’s nothing superior to me.
ASTON What was he, a Greek?
DAVIES Not him, he was a Scotch. He was a Scotchman.
ASTON goes back to his bed with the toaster and starts to unscrew the
plug.
110 DAVIES follows him.
You got an eye of him, did you?
ASTON Yes.
DAVIES I told him what to do with his bucket. Didn’t I? You heard. Look here, I
said, I’m an old man, I said, where I was brought up we had some idea how
to talk to old people with the proper respect, we was brought up with the
right ideas, if I had a few years off me I’d… I’d break you in half. That was
after the guvnor give me the bullet30. Making too much commotion31, he
says. Commotion, me! Look here, I said to him, I got my rights. I told him
that. I might have been on the road but nobody’s got more rights than I have.
120 Let’s have a bit of fair play, I said. Anyway, he give me the bullet. (He sits in
the chair.) That’s the sort of place.
Pause.
If you hadn’t come out and stopped that Scotch git I’d be inside the hospital
now. I’d have cracked my head on that pavement if he’d have landed32. I’ll get

23. toe-rags: insulting term
used for people considered
to be worthless
or contemptible
(spazzatura).
24. mate: an informal way
of addressing a man
(amico).
25. lid: top (coperchio).
26. saucepan: cooking pot
(pentola).
27. handy: here it means ‘good
at fighting’ (in forma).
28. git: slang for ‘idiot’
(idiota).
29. standing: position, rank 31. commotion: trouble
(livello). (fastidio).
30. the guvnor give me 32. if he’d have landed:
the bullet: slang, informal, ‘if he had hit me’
‘the boss dismissed me’ (mi avesse steso a terra).
(il capo mi ha cacciato).

Section 6 From 1946 to the Present Day

Harold Pinter 4
 Reading
him. One night I’ll get him. When I find myself around that direction.

and
about
Contemporary Drama
Poetry
ASTON crosses to the plug box to get another plug.

Modern
I wouldn’t mind so much but I left all my belongings in that place, in the back

Learning
room there. All of them, the lot there was, you see, in this bag. Every lousy
blasted bit of all my bleeding belongings33 I left down there now. In the rush
130 of it. I bet he’s having a poke34 around in it now this very moment.
ASTON I’ll pop35 down sometime and pick them up for you.
ASTON goes back to his bed and starts to fix the plug on the toaster.
DAVIES Anyway, I’m obliged to you, letting me… letting me have a bit of a rest, like…
for a few minutes. (He looks about.) This your room?
ASTON Yes.
DAVIES You got a good bit of stuff here.
ASTON Yes.
DAVIES Must be worth a few bob36, this… put it all together.
Pause.
140 There’s enough of it.
ASTON There’s a good bit of it, all right.
DAVIES You sleep here, do you?
ASTON Yes.
DAVIES What, in that?
ASTON Yes.
DAVIES Yes, well, you’d be well out of the draught37 there.
ASTON You don’t get much wind.
DAVIES You’d be well out of it. It’s different when you’re kipping out38.
ASTON Would be.
150 DAVIES Nothing but wind then.
Pause.
ASTON Yes, when the wind gets up it…
Pause.
DAVIES Yes…
ASTON Mmnn…
Pause.
DAVIES Gets very draughty.
ASTON Ah.
DAVIES I’m very sensitive to it.
160 ASTON Are you?
DAVIES Always have been.
Pause.
You got more rooms then, have you?
ASTON Where?
DAVIES I mean, along the landing here… up the landing there.
ASTON They’re out of commission39.
DAVIES Get away40.
ASTON They need a lot of doing to41.
Slight pause.

33. Every lousy blasted bit of
all my bleeding belongings:
slang, emphatic way
of referring to all his
possessions (ogni
maledetto pezzo delle
mie stramaledette cose).
34. having a poke: informal,
‘having a look’ (ficcando
il naso).
35. I’ll pop: I’ll go (passerò).
36. bob: informal, ‘shillings’,
British coins no longer
in use (scellini).
37. draught: air current 39. out of commission: waiting
(corrente d’aria). for repair (in attesa
38. kipping out: informal, di ristrutturazione).
‘sleeping in the open air’ 40. Get away: I can’t believe
(dormi all’addiaccio). it (ma va’).
41. doing to: repair (lavori).

Section 6 From 1946 to the Present Day

Harold Pinter 5
 Reading
170 DAVIES What about downstairs?

and
about
Contemporary Drama
Poetry
ASTON That’s closed up. Needs seeing to42… The floors…

Modern
DAVIES This your house then, is it?

Learning
Pause.
ASTON I’m in charge.
DAVIES You the landlord, are you?
Pause.
I noticed there was someone was living in the house next door.
ASTON What?
DAVIES I noticed them heavy curtains pulled across the window next door as we
180 come along.
ASTON Yes.
DAVIES I thought there must be someone living there.
ASTON Family of Indians live there.
Pause.
DAVIES I was lucky you come into that caff43. I might have been done by that Scotch
git. I been44 left for dead more than once.
Pause.
I noticed that there was someone was living in the house next door.
ASTON What!
190 DAVIES (gesturing) I noticed…
ASTON Yes. There’s people living all along the road.
DAVIES Yes, I noticed the curtains pulled down there next door as we come along.
ASTON They’re neighbours.
Pause.
DAVIES This your house then, is it?
Pause.
ASTON I’m in charge.
DAVIES You the landlord, are you?
He puts a pipe in his mouth and puffs without lighting it.
200 Yes, I noticed them heavy curtains pulled across next door as we come along.
I noticed them heavy big curtains right across the window down there. I
thought there must be someone living there.
ASTON Family of Indians live there.
42. seeing to: repairing 43. caff: informal, ‘café’ 44. I been: colloquial form for
(riparazione). (caffè). ‘I’ve been’ (sono stato).

In more detail
Content and 7. Several pronouns and demonstratives have no explicit referents in the dialogue.
characterisation Read the text again and try to infer from the context what the referents might
be for the following.
a. (line 38) “that place” = _______________________________________________________
b. (line 47) “he” = ______________________________________________________________
c. (line 80) “them” = ____________________________________________________________
d. (line 90) “them” = ____________________________________________________________
e. (line 93) “that one” = _________________________________________________________
f. (line 96) “They” = _____________________________________________________________
g. (line 104) “He” = _____________________________________________________________
h. (line 129) “he” = _____________________________________________________________

Section 6 From 1946 to the Present Day

Harold Pinter 6
 Reading
8. Consider the information you are given in, or can infer from, the dialogue.

and
about
Contemporary Drama
Poetry
a. Where did Davies work until that evening?

Modern
b. What did he do?

Learning
c. Why did he leave his job?
d. What did he leave behind?
e. How did Aston help him?
f. What memories of his past does Davies recall?
g. What aspects of Davies’s personality emerge from his words?
h. What do you learn about Aston?

9. Do you feel that the audience or reader is given a clear impression

of the characters in the extract or not?

Language 10. Decide which of the following features characterise Davies’s speech.
and tone  a. informal language
 b. non-standard grammar
 c. complex sentence structure
 d. long sentences
 e. slang
 f. unclear referents
 g. incomplete sentences
 h. inarticulate language

11. Which features in particular make Davies’s speech rather difficult to follow?

12.What is the most recurrent aspect of the dialogue between Davies and Aston
in the last part of the extract, from line 132 to the end?

13.Can you detect any examples of the following forms of humour in the extract?
 a. verbal humour (based on witty or absurd remarks in the speeches)
 b. behavioural humour (based on incongruous behaviour)
 c. situational humour (based on unlikely situations)

Conclusions 14.Read this commentary on Pinter’s plays in general and underline the parts which
are particularly relevant to the extract you have read. Add quotations from the text
to enrich the commentary.

‘‘ • Pinter rejects the traditional role of the omniscient playwright who knows
everything about his characters and makes plain their motivation and principal
traits through dialogue, action and stage directions.
Nor does he tell a straightforward story. Instead his plays present us with
a situation, or a pattern of intertwined situations, which evokes moods, emotions
and atmospheres. He seems to withhold information wilfully from the audience
‘‘
and never wholly satisfies their curiosity about plot or character. The atmosphere
created is often menacing and disquieting.

Section 6 From 1946 to the Present Day

Harold Pinter 7
SAY IT RIGHT

Say it Right
NOTEBOOK
Check what you know and how to say it.
You are going to use your literature notebook to verify your new knowledge about Pinter and his works,
and learn how to express what you know.
a. Copy and complete the text in your notebook, check your answers with your teacher.
b. In groups, use the completed and corrected texts to write questions and quiz your classmates.

The Caretaker is a play which has some bag because he dislikes foreigners and blacks, that he
typical Pinteresque traits. Act I shows charge is rather quarrelsome and that he is probably a (10) ;
the basic situation of two (1)
cleaning he says he has known better days but his manner
explain
in a room which is found in many of of speech and behaviour suggest he has always
humour
Harold Pinter’s plays. The room is very impression belonged to the (11) social class. He seems
untidy and cluttered with various incoherent to be a tramp.
(2) . The two people have just met; incomplete Davies’ way of speaking is his most peculiar feature.
from the dialogue we understand that informal He uses (12) language, slang and non-standard
Aston has probably (3) Davies
insecurity grammar. His language is also rather (13) .
kind-hearted
from a fight in a café and then invited There is a frequent use of repetition; his sentences
liar
him to his house. Aston says very little. lowest are sometimes left (14) ; and it is often
He seems to be in (4) of the house, menace difficult to understand who or what the pronouns in
but he is not the landlord. His treatment objects his speech refer to. There are some examples of verbal
of Davies seems to suggest that people (15) in the dialogue, such as Davies’s reason for
he is (5) .
prejudiced leaving his wife, her putting unwashed underclothing
questions
Davies does most of the (6) but he in a saucepan.
rescued
actually says very little. We learn that, talking On the whole the picture we have of the two characters
until that evening, he had some kind of uncertain at the end of the scene is rather (16) . We are
(7) job in a café whose customers given enough elements to form an (17) but we
were mostly foreigners, that he was given the sack are not sure how reliable it is.
after a row and that he left behind a (8) with his The audience’s basic (18) — who are the
belongings in. We can infer that he is (9) characters? Where are they? Why are they there? What
are they going to do? — are practically left unanswered.
Pinter’s main themes concern the nameless
(19) haunting everyday life, mental
disturbance, family hatreds, personal obsessions.
Pinter neither aspires to (20) life nor to tell
coherent stories. Instead, he mirrors the (21)

of the human condition in a world which is capricious

and malevolent.

 Actor Donald Pleasence (as Davies) in a photo on the front

cover of the 1967 Methuen Modern Plays edition of Harold
Pinter’s first significant commercial success, The Caretaker (first
published by both Encore Publishing and Eyre Methuen in 1960).
The play (that Pinter wrote for stage or television production) was
first performed on stage at the Arts Theatre, London, on 27 April
1960; it transferred to the Duchess Theatre the next month. Its
first run included 444 performances.

Section 6 From 1946 to the Present Day

Harold Pinter 8