Sainan Li

Sainan Li

31 October 2023

Antagonism, Alliance, Pinter’s plays, Freud, Joke structure.

Freud’s theory of jokes provides a new perspective for the interpretation of Harold Pinter’s early comedies. Pinter’s characters are often in a triangle, a relationship that can easily lead to an ever-changing alliance of two, while the third individual is isolated. Through the interpretation of the joke structure of Pinter’s early plays, it is not difficult to find that the triangular relationship between characters presents the ever-changing themes of domination, control, exploitation, conquest and victimization in the development of the drama, and reveals the alliances and antagonisms hidden under the surface of the dialogue between characters.

© 2023, the Authors. Published by ISCCAC

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