The Collection : ジョコンダの微笑み

This is a study of one of H. Pinter\u27s early works, The Collection. His early plays are often called \u27Comedy of Menace\u27(Irving Wardle), but this play is a little bit different from the very early plays like The Room, The Birthday Party, A Slight Ache, and The Dumb Waiter. Pinter\u27s interest seems to have shifted from \u27Menace\u27 to \u27Relationship\u27. So the point of this essay should be on the relationship among characters. The last problematic scene of this play must show the way the characters will take to live on together. Usually critics use concepts of oppositions such as \u27man/woman\u27 or \u27dominant/subservient\u27 to interpret this last scene, or I should say this play, but I don\u27t think these concepts are enough to explain the Stella\u27s enigmatic attitude. In this essay I will try to introduce another concept of oppositions for interpretation and receive Pinter\u27s message through the process of making the meaning of her attitude clear