Mary had a Little Lamb
... cruel insults are so jarring and insulting, that they are almost funny. Max relates a memorable and touching story of a night spent at home with his family, only to recant it with the typical viciousness that we see boiled up inside all the members of this ridiculous family. Max: I remember the boys came down in their pajamas, all their hair shining their Faces pink…I tell you it was like Christmas (46) Max: It makes the bile come to my mouth!... a crippled family, three bastard sons, A slutbitch of a wife-Don’t talk to me about the pain of childbirth, I suffered The pain! With Max, Pinter seems to be hitting upon a very interesting point about the nature of family life. It, along with humanity, is essentially hopeless. We can all go along well and good for a while pretending things are ok, but essentially all we are doing is biding our time waiting to explode. Max calls his sons wife a tart, and by the end of the play is asking her to have him. Both of Ted’s brothers not only want sleep with his wife, but keep here in London with them to prostitute her so as they don’t have to support her. Pinter’s absurd storyline, along with the warped treatment of the family by each other, seems almost surreal, and the element that this symbolism points to is a clear one, what a meaningless existence these people all lead. Another tactic that Pinter uses in his depiction of the meaninglessness of human life is the way in which his characters relate to each other. He characterizes them in such a way so as the reader does not have an ounce of respect of sympathy for them. All of the characters prey on each other’s insecurities for their own personal gain. They insult each other just to ...