The Birthday Party

The Birthday Party is an absurdist work. Very broadly speaking, absurdism is a philosophical theory that life is absurd—that it is devoid of any higher meaning or essence to be apprehended by the intellect. In literature, the theory is dramatized by human agents—often through bleak, sideways comedy—when humanity’s instinctive drive to find meaning clashes with the inherent meaninglessness of life. One common convention of absurdist theater is the deconstruction of language, since humans use language to assign meaning to lived experience.

From the play’s first moments, Pinter satirizes the meaninglessness of the small talk that fills the empty space in relationships. Because Meg and Petey are in their sixties and have most likely been married for a long time, their interpersonal monotony has an implicit perpetual quality. Meg forces Petey to maintain their daily conversational routine, asking silly questions about cornflakes and the newspaper, and pretending that the gender of a stranger’s baby is of consequence to her. Petey’s responses are placating and equally meaningless. He simply tells Meg what she wants to hear. Stanley, however, doesn’t do so; he tells her that the milk is sour, that her housekeeping is terrible, and that the home is rundown. Stanley’s and Petey’s words directly contradict each other, and it is impossible to be sure to what extent either is telling the truth or lying out of spite or kindness.