Page 329 - DENG403_BRITISH_DRAMA

Unit 29: The Birthday Party: Characterization and Theme

29.1.4 Lulu Notes

Lulu is a woman in her twenties whom Stanley tries vainly to rape during the birthday party in Act II.
Described as a girl in her twenties,’ Lulu is a neighbor who first appears carrying Stanley’s birthday
present, the toy drum and drum sticks that Meg had bought for him. On the flirtatious side, she is
self-conscious about her sexual appeal and cannot sit still for long without taking out a compact to
powder her face. To her, looks are obviously important, and she sees Stanley as a washout because
he seems to care nothing about his unkempt appearance.

Self Assessment

Multiple Choice Questions:
1. Goldberg and McCann represent not only the West’s most autocratic religions, but its
(a) two most persecuted races (b) class society
(c) oppressed society (d) aristocratic society.
2. Which of the following statements is not true Stanley Webber?
(a) He is the tenant of Petey Boles
(b) He is a saint
(c) He is as dangerous as a cornered animal
(d) He is palpably a Jewish name.
Fill in the blanks:
3. Like his wife, Petey Boles is in his ...... .
4. Lulu is a woman in her twenties whom ...... tries vainly to rape during the birthday party in
Act II.
State whether the following statements are true or false:
5. Lulu is a neighbor who first appears carrying Stanley’s birthday present.
6. Nat Goldberg, in his fifties, is the older of the two strangers who come to interrogate and
intimidate Stanley before taking him away.

29.2 Themes

As in many absurdist works, The Birthday Party is full of disjointed information that defies efforts to
distinguish between reality and illusion. For example, despite the presentation of personal
information on Stanley and his two persecutors, who or what they really are remains a mystery.
Goldberg, in particular, provides all sorts of information about his background, but he offers only
oblique clues as to why he has intruded upon Stanley’s life.
The term comedy of menace was first used by David Campton as a subtitle to his four short plays
The Lunatic view. Harold Pinter exploited the possibilities of this kind of situation in his early plays
like The Room, Birthday Party and A Slight Ache, where the both the character/s and the audience face
an atmosphere, apparently funny but actually having suggestiveness of some impending threat
from outside. Pinter himself explained the situation thus: more often than not the speech only seems
to be funny—the man in question is actually fighting a battle for his life. He also said: Everything is
funny until the horror of the human situation rises to the surface! Life is funny because it is based
on illusions and self-deceptions, like Stanley’s dream of a world tour as a pianist, because it is built
out of pretence. In fact the play Birthday Party is built around the exchanges of words, which, though

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