Make-up assignment- Harold Pinter’s play Betrayal.

Make-up assignment to turn in for today’s class: For reference: a page = single-spaced hand-written or double-spaced typed. Note: this was a complex class discussion that can’t be fully covered in the questions below, and it will be especially important for you to get good class notes, and to carefully work through the Pinter handout (which you picked up at the midterm). Make a list of all of the unanswered questions you had at the end of Harold Pinter’s play Betrayal. Consider as well how we’re not sure of the characters’ motivations for particular things they do or say. Then review pg 11 of the Pinter handout titled “Writing for the Theatre” (available on the Moodle site under Course Handouts). Next, make a list of all of the various betrayals in the play. Think about all the characters’ relationships with each other, not just the main affair. Write half a page in which you discuss how the play breaks the convention of exposition (look up under plot on pg 1040 in the textbook). Consider especially the first three scenes of the film, and the first three questions on the handout on the Betrayal film questions/things to look for (available on the Moodle site under Course Handouts). Write a half a page in which you discuss what is unusual about the dramatic irony in the play. Discuss specific instances from the film. Consider as well the typed Hope-Wallace quote on the back (pg 2) of the Betrayal film questions xerox. Review the definition of subtext (see textbook pg 1042), as well as pgs 13-14 of the Pinter xerox titled “Writing for the Theatre.”: Write half a page in which you discuss the scene with Jerry visiting Emma and Robert’s house when Emma offers to take Jerry and Robert out to lunch after a squash game. What is the real meaning behind Robert’s response? Review pgs 11-12 of the Pinter xerox. In light of this, write half a page in which you consider what Pinter is saying about how memories and our view of reality are created through the memories the characters have in Betrayal, such as Jerry throwing Charlotte up in the kitchen, and Robert reading Yeats on Torchello. What does he mean by the significance of these events being created in the future? How does the backwards structure of the play contribute to the audience understanding this point? Review the Pinter xerox from the bottom of pg 14 to the middle of pg 15. In half a page, discuss one example from Betrayal of a torrent of language; be specific about what was really being communicated in that example. Write half a page in which you discuss the ending of Pinter’s play/film Betrayal. What surprised you about the way the affair began? Discuss how your knowledge of how the affair will end, due to the structure of the play, impacts your experience of that scene. Write half a page in which you consider why Pinter doesn’t include Judith or Casey in the play. What possible impact would seeing Judith have on the audience’s view of Jerry and Emma’s affair, for example? Pinter wrote that the mind of another person is essentially unknowable and impenetrable. He said, “A door can open at any moment and someone will come in. We’d love to know who it is, we’d love to know exactly what he has on his mind and why he comes in, but how often do we know what someone has on his mind or who this somebody is, and what goes to make him…what he is, and what his relationship is to others?” Review pg 12 of the Harold Pinter handout, and then write half a page in which you discuss what Pinter is saying about the lack of resolution at the end of a play; what does he mean by a play is not a crossword puzzle? Then write half a page in which you tie this idea to the audience’s experience of Betrayal, including the ending of the play. Review pgs 11-12 of the Pinter xerox. In light of this, write half a page in which you consider what Pinter is saying about how memories and our view of reality are created through the memories the characters have in Betrayal, such as Jerry throwing Charlotte up in the kitchen, and Robert reading Yeats on Torchello. What does he mean by the significance of these events being created in the future? How does the backwards structure of the play contribute to the audience understanding this point?