Harold Pinters, The Homecoming, is about the family as a predator. It is about men and their dependency on certain concepts and ideas for security. It's about their dependency on masculinity for self-reassurance and it's about their dependency on women for emotional reassurance. Without women, they would be lost and without a purpose. This is why the family of Max and his sons get progressively more attached to the character of Ruth as the play progresses, as Ruth replaces the void that Jessie had left, through her death, prior to the play's beginning, and takes on the role that she used to hold. The family then begins to rely on Ruth to reassure them in their roles as 'men', and they begin to do her bidding in order to get things out of her. They essentially begin to pray on her for the emotional security that they so desperately desire and need. This emotional security expresses itself is in the form of sexual and social factors; as a woman (Ruth) both reassures the men of their masculinity (Sexuality) and functions as a status symbol for them. Interestingly enough, even the character of Teddy (who throughout the play is shown as being 'separate' from the family as a whole) can be view as a predator, as he is in a way taking Ruth, or has been, away from the life that she would prefer to lead. Teddy also relies on Ruth for emotional reassurance, but in a much different way from the rest of the family. Teddy however, realises this in the end and leaves both the family and ruth, thereby also leaving his role as a