The Homecoming, a two acts play, is sprinkled with diverse elements of comedy. By setting off laughing in the audience, Pinter drives the attention to the instability of characters’ relationships. Yet, the comedy darkens when facing the human perpetual struggle to handle these fragile relations.
The Homecoming is articulated by comic cross-talking enlightening human relation. Thus the audience can be amused by the shouts of Teddy hoping to be listened to. The exclamations “She’s my wife! We’re married!” are vain, and even the silence imposed by the pause is not enough to be heard, he has to repeat himself. Pinter by creating this absurd and comic dialogue, in which nobody is listening to anyone, underlines the miscommunication that dominates human relations.
If sometimes the protagonists seem to have a pertinent discussion, actions might reveal contradictions. For example, despite the clarity of Ruth’s brief refusal “No, thanks.”, Lenny “takes the glass to Ruth”. Along with inappropriate actions, the unsuitable and vulgar appellation “dirty tart” used by Max to designate his daughter in law creates an awkward mood, hilarious for the audience. Besides, Pinter introduces unexpected changes of topic. Whereas Ruth presents herself, Lenny cuts short by declaring “I’ve been having a bit of rough time with this clock”. The interest switching suddenly from Ruth to Lenny, punctuates the dialogue with off beats. These comic devices are used to reveal the misunderstanding messing up human relations.
Moreover, the inability to understand each other and communicate leads to grotesque situation, setting off laughing. The lightness of Teddy and Ruth’s “summer suits” mirroring the upper class stereotypes creates a comical contrast with the bestiality of Max who, according to stage directions, wears an “old cardigan” and threatens to “chop Lenny’s spine off”. Not only grotesque situations are implied by the meeting of incompatible characters belonging to different social classes, but also by the comic of repetition. Few lines after that Sam “croaks and collapses”, Max “falls on to his knees”. The recurrence of the falls ridicules oldness and consequently reflects the lack of concern from the youngest characters. Thus Pinter highlights the fragility of relations settled between humans belonging, whether to different social classes or generations.
Yet weak relations are unstable and tend to be modified. Comic reversals of situation drive the audience’s interest to this idea. As an example, at the beginning of the play, Ruth received order from her husband through the imperative “Go to bed”, she seemed treated like a child. However, at the end of the play, she is the one who requires through a hilarious parallelism based on the expression “I would”. Moreover when “Joey puts his head on her lap”, the reversal is clear. Gestures underlines that the virile boxer became a docile child while Ruth established her authority inside the family.
Therefore Pinter uses comedy to provoke laugh in the audience but above all to captive its attention. Through different comic devices, he succeeds in driving the interest towards miscommunication which threatens fragile human relation. Yet, there is no place for the happy ending expected in a comedy. Pinter’s craft is a dark comedy. The title, The Homecoming, could let suppose a cheerful event but instead, the audience is confronted to a much darker scene.
Even when Ruth succeeds in establishing a new relation with Teddy’s family, her new condition is degrading and won’t bring her a real happiness. The polite appellation “Madam?” dedicated to her is finally replaced by the disrespectful expression “She’s a tart” which enlightens the loss of dignity. Besides the accumulation of short imperative, “Make the beds.”, “Scrub the place out a bit.”, “Keep everyone company.” create a kaleidoscopic effect, highlighting the idea that Ruth is now locked in her role of housewife.
At the end of the play, Ruth addresses her husband, a last time, begging “Don’t become a stranger.” Nonetheless, she loses him as he “shuts the front door”. The fact Pinter specifies in the stage direction, the silence, following Teddy’s departure, makes this scene terribly pathetic. Indeed this silence sets up a discomfort in the audience which witnesses the separation of a couple. Hence the audience drops suddenly from a high level of comedy to a deep seriousness.
The audience could be amused by Max comic gestures when he “hits Joey in the stomach”, although empathy dominates the minds. Indeed Max who can’t bear to be treated like an “old man”, struggles to preserve physical authority upon his sons. Nonetheless he is tragically caught up by his age. He is obliged to “clutch his stick”, the symbol of oldness which he carries everywhere. As a consequence the audience understands that no matter how hard he struggles, Max has lost the father’s physical dominance.
Finally Max underlines the repetition of the same family pattern pointing out “You’ve got three, I’ve got three”. The audience can now understand that every generation and by extension every human beings will be bound to suffer the same struggles whether to establish new relations or to preserve old ones.
Hence, when Pinter illustrates characters’ fights to communicate, not only he wants the audience to laugh at cross-talking leading to grotesque situation, but he also draws attention to many unexpected situation reversals illustrating the instability of human’s fragile relations. Then, The Homecoming is rather a dark comedy. The play becomes terribly pathetic as a feeling of empathy rises towards characters fighting but failing to preserve their links. Thus Pinter highlights that reality is much darker than comical misunderstandings messing up relations. Human relations represent a struggle that will persist ever and ever without leading to any real happiness.