The Mystery of Human Being in Tom Stoppard’s Jumpers, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead and Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party and The Caretaker

Résumé de l'article

In this study, we examine, from an existentialist and postmodern perspective, the question of the human being in Jumpers, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard and The Birthday Party, The Caretaker by Harold Pinter. Two major playwrights of contemporary British literature, Pinter and Stoppard constantly raise the question of human identity in a context of epistemological crisis which affects practically all areas of life. Using very comparable dramatic approaches, they expose the inscrutable character of the individual. In Pinter's dramatic universe marked by an atmosphere of diffuse threat, the characters make identity ambiguity a weapon of war or defense. They speak and act so as not to reveal themselves, to hide their identities and intentions. They are thus mysteries both for the spectator and for those with whom they interact. Like Pinter's characters, those who populate Stoppard's plays are disconcertingly complex. They have such multiple and contradictory facets that it is almost impossible to give them a definitive identity. It is not surprising that the attempt of the philosophical characters in Jumpers to unravel the mystery of the female characters is a failure, just as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern fail to understand Hamlet's attitude or answer the question of who they are themselves. In both dramatic universe, the mystery of man is further highlighted by the unpredictable actions of the characters whose motives remain just as mysterious.