The Birthday Party by Harold Pinter

Post view task: The Birthday Party by Harold Pinter

Hello readers,
                      This blog is a part of the post-viewing task of the play "the Birthday Party" written by Harold Pinter in 1957 and directed by William Friedkin, a 1968 film in which our Professor Dr.Dilip Barad sir gave us a task to interpret the movie. Here is the blog link of the given task click here.

1]  Why are two scenes of Lulu omitted from the movie?

• Lulu 's two scenes omitted from the movie because probably director doesn't want to show violence into his film. It may disturb readers. Also, the center of the film is Stanley, Goldberg and McCain. So male is the center of the film. If the director shows the scene in which Lulu harassed by Stanley. We felt more sympathy for Lulu, not Stanley. So maybe it is the reason for omitted the scenes.

2]  Is movie successful in giving us the effect of menace? Where you able to feel it while reading the text?

• yes, the movie giving a successful effect of menace. While we are reading the play at some level it creates that kind of effect but not that much like film does because the audio and visual effects are more effective than reading a text. In the movie, we find the effect of menace clearly in the interrogation scene where the number of the question asked and through the loud sound effect and Stanley was sweating in fear and frustration and when Stanley hears about the two strangers he runs in a fear.

3]  Do you feel the effect of lurking danger while viewing the movie? Where you able to feel the same while reading the text?

• Yes, throughout the movie we can find the effect of lurking danger when door knocking and in the interrogation scenes. Furthermore, we can find the lurking danger when Mccain tears newspaper in pieces. In the play, we can find when we think who drive the car where s/he going and interrogation scene of text.

4]  What do you read in 'newspaper' in the movie? Petey is reading the newspaper to Meg, it torn into pieces by McCain, pieces are hidden by Petey in the last scene.

• Newspaper can be seen from both sides means positively and negatively.newspaper is a symbol here. newspaper gives us information about all the thing whatever happens in society. petey is reading a newspaper which means he faces the reality but he is reading to meg which means he is hiding from Meg.

5] Camera is positioned over the head of McCain when he is playing Blind Man's Buff and is positioned at the top with a view of a room like a cage (trap) when Stanley is playing it. What interpretations can you give to these positioning of camera? 

• while seeing the film camera talks everything.thus when a camera is positioned over the head of McCann when he is playing blind buff which demonstrates that McCann is at a power position and is situated at the top with a perspective of the room like a trap which symbolizes that Stanley is trapped by a stranger who was touching him.

 6] "Pinter restored the theater to its basic elements: an enclosed space and unpredictable dialogue, where people are at the mercy of one another and pretense crumbles." (Pinter, Art, Truth & Politics: Excerpts from the 2005 Nobel Lecture). Does this happen in the movie?

• Yes, these all things are reflected in the movie. We don't know some characters and why they are coming as like politics. We can also see that an artist is not free to do whatever they want. So, these things reflected in the movie.

7]  How does viewing movie help in better understanding of the play ‘The Birthday Party’ with its typical characteristics (like Pinteresque, pause, silence, menace, lurking danger)?

• Obviously yes, this movie helped me a lot in developing the different insight of watching movies.  By reading, we may not get exact effects of it. We can feel the Pinteresque qualities in the movie like pause, silence, lurking danger like knocking and in the game of blindman's buff. Throughout the movie, the shrill voice gives more fearful effect. 

8] With which of the following observations you agree:

o   “It probably wasn't possible to make a satisfactory film of "The Birthday Party."
o    “It's impossible to imagine a better film of Pinter's play than this sensitive, disturbing version directed by William Friedkin”. (Ebert)

• According to me, both are right at its own place. Because everything has its own limitation that it can’t go beyond the limitation. Same thing if we apply here in the movie or in the text of the play then we realized that both has its own charm to satisfy the needs of the readers or the viewers. 

9]   If you were a director or screenplay writer, what sort of difference would you make in the making of the movie?   Who would be your choice of actors to play the role of characters?

• According to me, the movie is very much accurate to the original play there is no need to change or add the things in the movie because the setting, character, camera work, dialogue everything is perfect.  

Thinking Activity on Existantialism

Hello, readers
                       This blog is a part of Flipped Learning activity in which the task is to watch videos about Existentialism and write down whatever you understand. Here, is the link of the teacher's blog; click here.


What is Existentialism?

Existentialism. A difficult term to define and an odd movement. Odd because most thinkers whom the intellectual world categorizes as existentialists are people who deny they are that. And, two of the people whom nearly everyone points to as important to the movement, Soren Kierkegaard and Fredrich Nietzsche, are both too early in time to be in the group, thus are usually called "precursors," but studied and treated as members of the group. Major figures like Jean-Paul Sartre, Martin Heidegger, and Albert Camus all flatly deny they are in the movement, yet everyone says they are central.

Secondly, the term is very difficult, if not totally impossible to define. What is existentialism? I've been asked that a thousand times, have read most intro type books on the field, have spent much of my teaching life "doing" Existentialism, yet cannot give a coherent and relatively short definition. It's sort of a spirit or aura of how one responds to human existence, much easier to characterize in negative terms -- what Existentialism is NOT that philosophy generally is -- than in positive terms of a definition. (Webster)

#Video-1
The great thinker and writers such as- Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Dostoyevsky, Kafka, Heideggar and many more different in their views but for all of them, philosophical thinking and existentialism begin with the subject namely the individual. It could be seen as a triangle with- Individuality, freedom, and passion as its three sides. Believing or not believing in God can only be possible when one thinks as an individual. They Focus on ideas that belief in God is Philosophical suicide. existentialist emphasis the subject of emotion, anguish, and despair.

#Video-2
 Life if full of absurdity. The uselessness of suffering and repetition of same is an absurd reasoning. Another thing is that there is a truly serious problem and that is Philosophical suicide. "An elegant suicide is an ultimate work of art." Albert Camus does not only believed suicide an art, but he said it an ultimate art. when we think about absurdity of life, you feel like a darker side of life.

#Video-3
In this video, Camus says that seeking what is true is not seeking what is desirable. The idea is the same as truth is always bitter. Seeking truth is not desirable. Instead, truth leads toward despair. And in the opposite of we seek desirable things, it does not lead towards truth.

#Video-4
Dadaism is connected with the nihilism. Dadism is the quest for change, is against any existance value and rules ns it association with nihilism. Creation is the primary goal of Dadaism and its merely an art movement. Dadaism is the socratics of the warriors. Offering dadaism as the way of becoming free of everything. It said that “I don't want the value that other people invited”.

#Video-5
Is existentialism a gloomy philosophy? 
Existentialism is a gloomy philosophy because it became famous after world war 2. Every life is full of adversity, anxiety, despair, absurdity. But we are free to choose our own way of living. once we chose the things then we are responsible for its consequences.

#Video-7
Existentialism counters the nothingness of existence by embracing existence itself.

#Video-8
 Friedrich Nietzsche gave the theory of "Ubermensch" it means man as a superman. He believed that "God is dead". When human beings start in believing that there is no God then they become free of doing anything they want or  desire; without harming others. Existentialism is not believed in those rules which imposed in us by various institutions but do whatever you want and make your own rules.

#Video-9
  Existentialism accepts human being as they are. existentialism allow living life in their own way. No rules catch you, but you can mack your own rules. As per Nietzsche's idea of ubermensch, his superman can do anything but the only thing should remember is do whatever you like but without harming others and do by your own ideology.

#Video-10
Essentialism means whatever they think on earth expect human all that thing have their own essence. Absurdity is the search for an answer in an answerless world. 


2] Video no.8 I like the most because it gives the idea of "Ubermensch". It means man can do anything he wants. also This video help to understand existentialism very simple and easy way.  


3] Flip learning is always beneficial for the learners because as we all know our mind can capture more data by visuals rather than only by listening and this platform gives us better understanding by the form of videos. Thank you all the resource persons for their great hard work thank you Barad sir for this activity.

Oneness of literature.

Online Discussion: Oneness of Literature


This Blog is a part of classroom activities in which students have to interpret two works one is T.S.Eliot's 'Wasteland' and another is the story ' The Joke' by Anton Chekhov.


All literatures are connected with each other; all, those which are already written, those yet to be written. Thus, to understand a work of art, one must have an understanding of this continuity. This means that a writer makes use of one sign, symbol, character, situation is used by other writers, and if this goes on recurrently happen it turns into literary metaphor.

“Every organized body of knowledge can be learned progressively; and experience shows that there is also something progressive about the learning of literature.”   - Northrop Frye

Theory of Archetypal criticism based on the idea that whole literature has oneness of it’s existence. All literature shares common DNA or Skeleton.

These lines from The Waste Land can better be understood if we read it in the context of short story of AntonChekhov (A Joke).

And when we were children, staying at the archduke's, 
My cousin's, he took me out on a sled, 
And I was frightened. He said, Marie, 
Marie, hold on tight. And down we went. 
In the mountains, there you feel free.

Interpretation of lines:--
An ordinary reader can't understand hidden meanings of these lines beacause of esoteric chracteristics of poem. It seems easy to read but when it comes to dipper meanings it can be understood by some extra ordinary people who has historical knowled of it. 
In the story as well as in the lines of Wasteland there is deep meaning inside it. The act of coasting is not just for fun or for other things. It indicates the first lustful act, first attraction. How the first relation made deep effect in one's life.
E.g.-
"That memory is for her the happiest, the most touching, the most beautiful one of her life. But for me, now that I have grown older, I can no longer understand why I said those words and why I jested with Nadia" 

Here we can interpret that  from " A Joke " by  Chekhov . Same theme as in " The Wasteland "  there all part reflects this theme and a  lustful relation of people in burning land . at some point both reflects same theme of ," Sexual Perversion " so it can be said that all literature connected with each other in terms of representing time, love , sexual Perversion, Good and evil , existence of God , nature of human beings this all things presented in one or another way.