Summery :
The play takes place in one room of a house in West London during the 1950s. It is winter. The play begins with Mick sitting on a bed in the room, but when he hears a door open and shut somewhere offstage, he leaves. Aston, his brother, and Davies, an old tramp, enter. Aston has helped Davies in a fight at the cafe where he was working an odd job. Aston offers Davies clothes, shoes, and a place to stay the night. Davies is loud and opinionated, complaining about the "blacks" and people of other races. Aston, by contrast, is reserved, shy, and speaks haltingly. Davies accepts Aston's offer, and says he will have to go down to Sidcup to get his papers, which will confirm who he is.
The next morning Aston tells Davies that he was being loud in his sleep, a statement that Davies strenuously rejects. Aston prepares to go out, and tells Davies he can stay there. The tramp says he will try to find a job. After Aston is gone, Mick enters and engages Davies in a silent tussle. He asks Davies what his game is.
Mick asks Davies strange questions and discourses on random topics, discombobulating the older man. He finally says that Davies can rent the room if he wants. Aston returns with a bag of Davies's belongings. Mick leaves. The bag turns out not to be Davies', and he is annoyed. Aston asks Davies if he wants to be the caretaker of the place; he, in turn, is supposed to be decorating the landing and turning it into a real flat for his brother. Davies is wary at first because the job might entail real work, but he agrees.
Later Davies is in the room and Mick uses the vacuum cleaner in the dark to frighten Davies. Adopting a more casual manner, he asks Davies if he wants to be caretaker. Davies asks who really is in charge of the place, and Mick deceives him. He asks Davies for references, and Davies promises to go to Sidcup to get them.
The next morning Davies prolongs his decision to go out, blaming bad weather. Aston tells him about how he used to hallucinate and was placed in a mental facility and given electroshock treatment against his will. His thoughts are slower now, and he wishes he could find the man who put the pincers to his head. All he wants to do, though, is build the shed in the garden.
Two weeks later, Davies is full of complaints about Aston, delivering them to Mick. One night Aston wakes Davies to make him stop making noise in his sleep, and Davies explodes, mocking him for his shock treatment. Aston quietly says he is not working out and ought to leave. Davies curses him and says he will talk to Mick about it.
Davies speaks with Mick and argues that Aston should be evicted. Mick pretends to agree with him for a bit, and then starts to ask Davies about his claim that he is an expert interior decorator. Befuddled at this claim he did not make, Davies tries to correct Mick. At one point he calls Aston nutty, which causes Mick to order him to leave. He gives Davies money to pay him out for his services.
Aston enters, and both brothers are faintly smiling. Mick leaves, and Davies tries to plead with Aston again. He grows more and more desperate, wheedling and promising to be better. All Aston says is that Davies makes too much noise. The curtain descends on Davies' protestations.
Theme :
Analysis
The first act of Pinter's most famous play sets out a number of themes, motifs, and concerns that will permeate the entire work: racism, identity, and isolation. The three main (and only) characters are introduced right away, although the audience only comes to know more about Aston and Davies. There is only one set –the room –and all of the action will take place there. The closeness of the room and its cluttered state helps to reinforce the sense of isolation that will become more palpable as the play continues. There is a tension between the safety and womblike environment of the room and the arguments and miscommunications between the brothers and Davies. The room acts as shelter and as a claustrophobic space where contentiousness and conflict are exacerbated.
The first act of the play is generally considered the most humorous of the play, which is owing to the voluble, brash, and opinionated character of Davies. Davies is a masterful Pinter creation: low-class, immensely flawed, and short-sighted, but full of self-importance. He has an anecdote and an opinion about everything, from the type of shoe material that is best to his views on other races to cleanliness (which is ironic, given the fact that he is told by Aston and Mick at the end of the play that he stinks) to the lack of manners of people nowadays. It is amusing that he does not even have a kind word to say about the typically gentle and benevolent monks who tried to help him. Despite Davies's boisterous posturing, what is clear is that his identity is actually somewhat problematic. He explains to Aston that he will have to go down to Sidcup to get his papers because the papers prove who he really is. He goes under an assumed name –Bernard Jenkins –and wants to get his hands on them because if he had them, "I could prove everything!" (16). Strangely, though, Davies admits that the man at Sidcup has had the papers for fifteen years, which alerts the reader to something rather off about Davies's protestations that he needs and plans to get the papers. The second and third acts bear out the fact that Sidcup (an invented name that Pinter liked because it sounded dull and bureaucratic) for Davies is always out of reach, and, thus, a real sense of identity is out of reach as well.
Aston is a much more enigmatic character than Davies; interestingly, he later gives the most extended monologue about his past. Aston is a relatively young man but seems afflicted by something: he talks slowly, pausing between phrases (a term was even coined for this mainstay of the dialogue in Pinter's plays: the "Pinter pause") and remaining rather reticent while Davies discourses on his topics. What is clear about Aston right away, though, is his compassionate nature. He helped Davies out in a scuffle at the bar, invited him back to his room, gave him money and what clothes he could, and ultimately asks him to stay as long as he needs to in order to get back on his feet. This is profoundly kind, especially as he does not know Davies and Davies is manifestly unpleasant. The reasons for Aston's withdrawn nature are revealed in later scenes, but as of the first act, the audience can already discern that he is worthy of their sympathy and interest. Tellingly, the Buddha, a symbol of peace and compassion, is associated with him.
While the events in this first act are relatively straightforward, there are still certain ambiguities and peculiar structural elements. First, Pinter begins his play with no background and introduces characters with little-to-no exposition. It takes time before the audience has any idea what exactly happened to bring the two men together. The character of Mick is strange as well: he very pointedly is on stage when the play begins, but leaves when Aston and Davies come into the room and does not reappear until he silently stalks Davies and attacks him when Aston is gone.
Characters have a tendency to not answer direct questions, or to answer them in unsatisfying ways. The true owner of the room is a cause of confusion for much of the play. When Davies asks Aston, "This is your house then, is it?" (9), Aston replies, "I'm in charge" (9). Davies tries to clarify, "You the landlord, are you?" (9) and Aston simply responds, "What?" (9). The conversation then moves on to curtains and the family of "Blacks" next door, without ever truly answering the question of what Aston's place in the room is. Faulty communication is a major theme of the play, introduced here and borne out later.
Critics have designated the play as a tragicomedy and possessing elements of the Theatre of the Absurd as well as naturalistic and realistic elements. Indeed, as mentioned, this first act is the most amusing and the most realistic. Davies provides a great deal of comedic relief through his colorful language, appearance, and even physical comedy, as when he is caught with his trousers down by Mick at the end of this act. He is rendered even more amusing by his grandiose self-regard and his shortsighted belief that he is better than people of other races. By Act II, however, Davies becomes less amusing as he begins to complain more and grow obnoxious toward Aston. The play's second and third acts reveal how it functions as a tragedy, as all three characters, particularly Aston, are, as scholar Bill Naismith identifies, "deeply affected by factors beyond their control. In their different ways they are all surviving with a degree of courage in the face of circumstances which are, in the main, oppressive." All are lonely and isolated. This also reveals how Pinter's play is part of the Theatre of the Absurd genre (see Additional Content for further information) –the universe the characters navigate is uncaring, capricious, unconcerned, and absurd. Of course, on the other hand, as scholar Bernard Dukore notes, "[the characters] seem to be 'real' people, for their speech, their concerns, their behavioral patterns, and their rhythms of daily living have the ring of truth to them." The critical success and popularity of this play no doub
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