World Civilization I Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 3

World Civilization I - Essay Example The Nubians and Egyptians had specific interests in their interaction, something that was to be of great benefit to their political spheres. Despite the pharaonic state aimed at drifting them from the culture of the Niles, Egyptians still held close relations with the Nubians who were powerful, making them feel threatened; also being that their interests were in the gold, precious stones, ivory and ebony that were only available in the southern parts of the Nubian kingdom (Timothy 2010). Nubian equally with the strong interests in Egypt wanted to protect their interests by taking charge of river Nile trade wise and in need of assurance in protection of their independence from Egypt to the north. There also was the Nile River that was a common source of water for their agricultural activities: watering livestock and crops. Due to their broad flood plains and ability to support larger populations, Nubians moved to Egyptian lands for agriculture, something that brought them even closer. In a nut shell, Egypt and Nubian had a lot in common and their interaction in trade and agriculture contributed a lot to their political life. Their interests in each other’s goods and services are what could never have separated them. Egyptians were blessed in terms of productivity and land which brought Nubians close to them also the need to protect their independence; with Egyptians having interest in the gold Nubians had, ivory, ebony and precious stones. This unity was beneficial as it positively impacted on both their political and economic

Treating Foxconn Workers As Machines

Treating Foxconn Workers As Machines Foxconn Technology Group is a multinational anchor company of Hon Hai Precision Industry CompanyLtd., a Taiwanese company that is the worlds largest leading of electronic manufacturer. Foxconn is the largest exporter in China which has a workforce of 90,000 workers all over China. Its well-known clients include Apple, Dell, Nokia, and Microsoft and so on, which take comparative advantages of labour cost and production resulting in profit maximisation (BBC, 2011). For satisfying rapid and huge demand on IPad, Foxconn has promised Apple Company to boost the productivity to fulfil their orders. Unfortunately, Foxconn did not be concerned on the employees of job stress due to intensive manufacturing process. According a report from Student and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (SACOM) (2010), it stated that 14 frontline workers died from suicides between January and August 2010, due to excessive working quantity and depressed emotion. It reflected that the boosting productive manag ement would lead the workers as dehumanized machines and the deterioration of dignity and well-being. In respond to the tragedy incidents, then the CEO Terry Gou Tai Ming advised that the workers signed the commitment of all kinds of suicides disregarding as the companys responsibility. He also attributed the suicides to personal problems, such as bad socialisation and finical debts, in order to obtain the grant amount of compensation offered by the company. Although the company initiated the action for the recovery of job satisfaction, the harsh management methodology was eventually not changed to contribute to job stress and burnout. For instance, the action invited counsellors to the factory, negotiated to make higher wage, established the hotline and Employee Care Centre, held an anti-suicide assembly and organised the activities for inspiration, but it is useless for reduce in job stress. Despite to carry out the emergency decision-making, there is a close relationship between poor wage and accommodation, harsh management and lack of health and safety protection (Chamberlain, 2011). First, the raised wage was slightly increased CNY 100 compared to the minimum wage (CNY 1250 per month) set by local government. This improvement is insufficient for living condition especially in Shenzhen where the monthly living wage should be CNY 2293 (Students Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour, 2010). In addition, each crowded dormitory can accommodate 24 workers and observer was told by a worker who was forced to sign confession letter after illicitly using a hairdryer (AM 730, 2011). Second, excessive and involuntary overtime is an apparently serious problem led to job stress and burnout. The report of SACOM (2010) revealed that workers had to work 10 hours and 6 days per week which means overtime adding up to 84 hours during the midst of series of suicides. The premium should generally be 1.5 or 2 times weekend hourly wage conformed to Labour Law, yet there is no bonus for overtime during weekend. Then, the frequent change of work shifts may be irregular that probably arrange the day and night shift in a day, are changed 2 to 3 times a month. The workers would not allow talking at work. Finally, the employer has responsibility to provide a safe work place and the effective protection and training the employees on occupational health by Occupational Disease Law of China. Unfortunately, 3 workers were diagnosed with leukaemia and 1 worker is anxious related to the harmful chemicals. Meanwhile, no personal protective equipment liked goggles and gloves would be provided when the workers operated a drill on his duty. The victims even need to pay medical fees themselves. An assistant of CEO explained to the criticism of anti-suicide commitment becoming over intensive and to the prohibition of talking during working in order to enhance the quality of productivity (The Liberty Times, 2011). Introduction While Economy becomes booming period, employer would make generous incomes by fulfil the demand. For example, the manufacturers would like to use existed production machines and a number of workforces in order to complete the orders and satisfy their clients. Responding to accomplishment of goals and targets, management may underestimate the front-line employees job difficulties and anxieties that results in turnover or potential negative outcome. This purpose is to analyse the threats of employees health and safety in Foxconn and to research the implication of leading organisation. Job stress and Burnout Job stress is defined as a relationship between employees mental or physical distress and working environment (Kahn Boysiere, 1994). Other definition may allow stress for improving performance that is the interaction of work conditions and employee personality with changing psychological functions (Beer Newman, 1978). However, the workers in Foxconn would not contribute to this improvement, the tragedies occurred under stress and harsh management instead. The main three stressors are job quality, relationship, and physical quality that yield to job burnout. Job burnout refers to a result of job stress that develops from the sustained situation that employees are unable to deal with the excessive demand resulting in physical, emotional and cognitive exhaustion (Hu Cheng, 2010). The degradation of job quality in Foxconn may compose of low wage and excessive work hours. The workers could not receive the compensation on overtime; even there is no internal (mental) or external (monetar y) reward. It would damage the job security and relationship between the employer and workers, then the company would be decreased the labour force due to the increasing resignation of workers. Another stressor is a lack of physical quality that results from irregular work hours and work-life imbalance. Consequently, the company should face the potential loss of revenue and take the responsibility of turnover. Emotional Labour Emotional labour plays a significant role in daily work life for employees and direct or indirectly influence to the company. For instance, the employees become emotional exhaustion and cognitive withdrawing from the job, and then finally resigned. Emotional labour is the regulation of emotion and emotional display at work that interact with customers, co-workers, and the public (Chau et al. 2009). The emotional labour consists of two categories are surface acting and deep acting. Surface acting refers as suppressing ones emotional and pretending to the desired emotional expression, while deep acting involves modifying actual ones feeling to show proper emotional display. Chau et al. stated that the surface acting would relate to the negative outcomes, such as turnover, or withdraw behaviour, due to emotional dissonance and internal exhaustion, whereas deep acting may reduce negative outcomes due to authentic and positive emotions. Acknowledge of deep acting for the employees perform s in Foxconn that can lead to decrease the emotional exhaustion and avoid the turnover intentions. Psychological Contract A psychological contract (PC) is considered as a mutual obligation that was established by both the employees and their employers regarding the terms and conditions of exchanging relationship (Kotter, 1973; Rousseau Tijoriwala, 1998). In other words, the expectations concern on what the employees owe their employers and on what their employers owe the employees in return (Ng Feldman, 2009). For example, the employers may provide the inducement, such as high pay or potential promotion, for the motivation to encourage the employees maximise effort. Nevertheless, the breach of psychological contract (BPC) could not reach the promise by either the employers or employees. Chen, Tsui and Zhong (2008) categorised into two types of BPC which are reneging and incongruence. Reneging occurs when employee breaks the promise, or the employer is unable to satisfy the promise. Incongruence occurs when the employee and employer have misunderstanding of the contract and promise. Obviously, the form er PBC is the Foxconn employers who violate the law and could not pay the overtime rate wage to compensate the employees effort. The excessive work quantity would be detrimental to their physical and psychological health that lead to depressive work condition and finally happened suicides. The latter BPC was analysed misunderstanding of the Foxconn employers driving the additional work hour into daily work quantity; on the other hands, employees would like to have a normal socialisation with certain work hour and well-being. Ironically, the employers made military management in order to achieve the productivity maximisation, but they neglected the employees job stress to seriously misunderstand that was the employees needs. The four methods can deal with BPC depending on age and work experience, because PC focuses on relatively young employees with relatively low work experience (Ng Feldman, 2009). The first method is exit that refers to voluntary withdraw behaviour. Flaherty and Pappas (2002) demonstrated that the older and more experienced workers have more likelihood to stability in their work live and less likelihood to intend to leave their employers. The second method is voice that the employees attempt to voice out to the employers yielding to improvement in work condition. On the other hand, it may increase the risk of retaliation from employers. Consequently, the younger and less work experienced employees should express their disappointment due to less malleable PC, while the older and more experienced employees should avoid using voice direct to employers in order not to decrease their job security. The third method is loyalty which involves silence or passion to negative work condition for remaining with an organisation. Generally, older and more experienced employees may have more flexible expectation to deal with interpersonal relationship problems. According the suicides at Foxconn in China record of SACOM (2010), the victims age range from 18 to 25 that belongs to young age or junior work age group. It implied the younger or less experienced employees that could not have appropriate expectation to overcome the difficulties. The last one is neglect in term of counterproductive behaviour that is lower involvement and greater workplace withdrawal. The older and more experienced employees would be less to engage in this method because of more malleability within the current firm and less replication in outside firm. In additional, other research showed that mentors and supervisors can support with BPC by providing career-related information and psychological support (Zagenczyk et al., 2009). The career-related support includes the provision as protection, visibility a nd sponsorship, while psychological support includes friendship, confirmation, acceptance and counselling. The supervisors would like to evaluate the performance as well as giving feedback to subordinates. Organisational Misbehaviour Organisational misbehaviour (OMB) is the intentional action that violates the shared organisational norms and expectation or unconventional practices which are not supposed to do at work (Vardi Wiener, 1996). Vardi and Wiener (1996) distinguished OMB into three types to influence in personal, organisation and others or organisations. OMB type S is intention to benefit self-interest which often occurred in internal organisation. For example, distorting data may obtain the high evaluation in order to increase the chance of promotion; stealing and selling the property from organisation take money into personal account; and harassing peers by handling the personal work task or gossip others is detrimental to other accounts of reputation. Type O OMB intends to benefit the employing organisation that usually occurred in external organisation. For instance, cheating other firms members is to obtain the contracts for the employing organisation. Type D OMB intends to hurt others or to damage the organisation that associated with both internal and external organisation. An example of type D is revenge in order to deriving the own satisfaction and responding to actual or perceived mistreatment. In addition to three types of OMB, workplace deviance and dysfunctional behaviour are important to analysis in the case. Workplace deviance refers as voluntary behaviour of organisation members that infringe upon the organisational norms due to threaten to the organisation or organisational members (Robbinson Bennett 1995). The latter considered as the behaviour instead of motivation, the action will carry the negative effect and consequence for an individual or group within organisation (Griffin, O Leary-Kelly Collins, 1998). Hence, dehumanised management in Foxconn belongs to type O that excessive work hours and low overtime paid would benefit to the organisational interest that encourage the profit maximisation. This action would deteriorate the relationship between employers and employees, and damage the employees socialisation and physical quality. Then, the supervisors forced to sign confession letter due to unintentional faults that attributes to workplace deviance because it should directly be detrimental to employees physical and mental aspects. Although the company attempted to allow the activities such as hotline and anti-suicide assembly, for motivating the employees, those activities would be compulsory to join and not be counted in their work hours. As a result, the behaviours would reverse the function of motivation that considered as dysfunctional behaviour. However, Shamsudin (2006) showed the ways to resist OMB that are personal counselling and surveys with questionnaires. Personal counselling is a primary solution that understands the reasons of OMB and the different standards of behaviours because employees may possess the different values, perception and norms. But personal counselling might not work when the OMB is in group, violent or criminal in nature, surveys can collect and analysis the whole employees perception and norms in order to avoid the conflicts in the relationship of employers and employees. Job quality Job quality can come from many dimensions that enhance job security and satisfaction. Consequently, understanding of job quality is significant to maintain employees in the organisation, and the likelihood of BPC can be decreased within the interaction of employees and employers. Job diagnostic survey is a job measurement that understands the degree of job quality (Hackman, 1975). The motivating potential score that add up skill variety, task identity and task significant to divided by three and then combine with autonomy and feedback. In addition, other studies expressed the job quality in America and Europe, so that can help to improve the situation of Foxconn. Handel (2005) explained that Fordism is a period which is the context of stable industrial system including American economic dominance, rising productivity and earning, steady or decreasing inequality, and robust employment growth. Neo-Fordist theory claims that job quality for most workers is in term of material reward and work pace which is the base principle of high pay, job security and career mobility due to inequality between management and labour in post-war market. Increasing job quality through Post-Fordist theory means the respect to both material (e.g. pay) and intrinsic (e.g. job challenge, autonomy and workplace cooperation) rewards and working condition (e.g. decreased physical workloads). Referring to Handels theory, post-Fordism period is similar as booming economy in China where real GDP grew at an average rate of 9.3% by foreign investments and become the worlds largest economy (Morrison, 2005). The Foxconn should increase the wage by the material reward, offer sufficient time and independence by intrinsic reward, and decrease the quantity of workload to diminish the possibility of job burnout. In European work market, the work-life balance and working time and training and career development are principles of job quality (ETUL, 2009). The management of Foxconn could provide the flex ible working arrangement by employees choosing working pattern themselves for balance the job stress and well-being in order to enhance the socialisation (Kelliher Aderson, 2009). Also, training and career development can expand the confidence in job task and identity. Conclusion In conclusion, Foxconn has made a military management to its employees as dehumanised treatment that drove the suicide tragedy. Job stress may contribute to job burnout that composed of excessive work quantity and low wage in Foxconn. Emotional labour could help to improve the turnover intention and emotional exhaustion by deep acting. PC is s mutual expectation involving employers and employees and BPC would fulfil PC which can use exit, voice, loyalty and neglect method to eliminate BPC depending on age or work experience. OMB type O should attribute to overtime and low wage deteriorate the relationship between employers and employees. In addition, the workplace deviance and dysfunctional behaviour could be detrimental to the relationship as well. Job quality is also significant to raise job security and satisfaction because job redesign is to change the role and return of career when the economy changed.

High School Exit Exams :: Argumentative Persuasive Education Essays

High School Exit Exams Exit Exams are an unfair way of determining whether a student should or should not receive his or her diploma. Most students work very hard throughout high school to receive good grades. This should be enough to determine whether a student should pass high school. There are many intelligent students which do not have good test taking skills, exit exams keep many good students from graduating and teachers have to narrow their lesson plans for these types of exit exams. These are all good reasons why exit exams should not be required in graduating from high school. When it comes to test taking, some students do not know how to remain calm. Many times when students fail a test it was not because they did not understand the material on the test, it is because students do not contain good test taking skills. Taking a test can be very nerve wrecking and uncomfortable. A student from Paris (texas) High School said, "some people get testaphobia, I passed my math classes with flying colors, but I get to that TAAS test and my mind's like a blank, I have no idea why." (Kunen 62). TExas is one of the 22 states that requires a high school exit exam like the TAAS test. Every year many students are kept from graduating high school because of these exit exams. This makes students and parents very angry. Students who have had high passing grades throughout high school do not understand why they cannot pass exit exams. Sometimes the student blames him or herself by thinking that he or she did not learn enough, when in fact there is nothing wrong without heir knowledge. These students do not realize that they lack good test taking skills. Parents are angry that their child was kept from graduating because of a single test, even though the child had all the he credits required. This situation occurred to Lee Hicks, another student from Paris (texas) High School. Had he lived 14 miles away in Oklahoma, which has no statewide exit test, he'd have received a diploma and would now be serving his country in the Navy. Instead Hicks severs customers in a Paris supermarket; he won management's Aggressive Hospitality Award for 1996. "He's a great employ ee, a bright young man--extremely hardworking," says store director, Larry Legg.

My journal

Teacher Some say being a teacher is one of the noble professions of all time. They serve as a friend, as a counselor and as a second mother. Nowadays a lot of students In college are taking up education courses because of the benefits and high salary they can get once they've passed the LET. If that would be the case, then maybe some of those teachers are not holistically Inclined and passionate or effective enough to touch the lives of the next generation. Based on my experience, I have met 5 kinds of teachers.First is a teacher that spoon-feeds his/her students with the knowledge and skills he/she has. Second is a teacher who terrorizes her students and pressures them to get high grades and to pass her subject. The third teacher is what I call, the missing in action' teacher. Why? Because he/she is always absent and usually assigns the class to do some reports about the next subject next meeting (this happens in undergraduate students but then I guess It's a normal thing in graduat e school. The second to the last is a teacher who Just reads her lectures in a power point presentation without adding anything to explain the topic further and lastly, the teacher with a long lasting energy, which makes the environment and learning, fun and enjoyable. Now, as I go with the topic, â€Å"My Effective Teacher† I am thinking on how will I become one? The courage standing before a crowd is a challenge for everyone who is not exposed in an environment where different kinds of people are in.Being effective teacher is not about the lesson plan she makes every day, not about the exams she prepares to give every lecture, not about the visual aids she makes but rather the active participation of the students in class, the high scores they get every exams and more importantly, when the student passes the board exams. Being remembered by a student after four years of feeding their minds with knowledge Is one of the best proofs that you've been an effective and efficient professor. I hope 2 years from now, I would be able to be remembered and be a huge art of my student's lives. Y journal By Jennifer Jane-Gangs a friend, as a counselor and as a second mother. Nowadays a lot of students in can get once they've passed the LET. If that would be the case, then maybe some of those teachers are not holistically inclined and passionate or effective enough to then I guess it's a normal thing in graduate school. ) The second to the last is a importer, I should also reach out to my students in order for us to have a harmonious relationship inside and out of the classroom. My fourth element would be knowledge is one of the best proofs that you've been an effective and efficient

Concept to Classroom: Constructivism as a Paradigm for Teaching and Learning Essay

In A Concept to Classroom: Constructivism as a Paradigm for Teaching and Learning, constructivism in a classroom setting is highly valued and is seen as an effective learning approach among students. Constructivism is a theory in which children are active in their own learning and take part in group discussions with their peers, as well as their teacher. A teacher in a constructivist-learning environment can simply ask a general question to his or her students and have them put their thinking caps on. This approach allows students to refer to what they already know, to form new ideas and possibly arrive with several solutions to a problem and finding answers to questions being asked. To begin, there are two types of classrooms that go about their learning approaches differently, due to their beliefs about how children learn. There is the traditional classroom where much of the content learned in the classroom is attained, but not necessarily discussed and then there is the constructivist classroom where children ask questions and their questions are an important part of their learning experience. In a traditional classroom it is likely that the teacher will leave students as they are and will be often seen working alone and using traditional learning materials, such as textbooks and workbooks; whereas in a constructivist classroom, children are working with one another and are engaging in hands on activities to help them better understand a subject matter. Furthermore, although these two approaches have its benefits and its setbacks, coming to a decision as to which approach to use, should be made according to preference and level of comfort. For example, there are some children that feel more comfortable working alone than they do working in groups and sometimes giving a child that option can reflect how he or she intakes new information and how well a child applies their knowledge. If a teacher for instance, is aware that a child performs better when working alone, than she would be more than likely to let that child work alone. A good teacher though, would suggest that the child work in a group even if at the end of the day the child chooses otherwise. As a teacher, it is important to keep in mind that not every student in his or her assigned classroom will be all on the same academic level. Whether taking the traditional idea as opposed to the constructivist idea or vice versa, learning is about finding common ground; a level of balance in the classroom. In any learning environment, the teacher as well as the child is bound to learn something. It can range simply from discovering a child’s biggest fear to learning the teacher’s favorite color. Children comprehend, work, respond, and learn at their own pace and should be given options and with that, the teacher learns about her pupils and his or her pupils learn from the teacher.

The 4 Best Free VIN Check Sites

The 4 Best Free VIN Check Sites SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Imagine this: You’ve been saving up to buy a new car for months. You finally find the perfect vehicle and drive it home, only to get a call a few days later. The car was stolen, and you now need to deal with a police investigation. Obviously, this scenario is extreme, but it’s not unheard of for consumers to have issues purchasing new or used cars. One way to cut down on potential problems when purchasing a car is to run a VIN report to check out the vehicle’s history before you buy it. In this article, I’ll explain what a VIN number is, why it’s important, and how to run a free VIN check through the National Insurance Crime Bureau. I’ll also review other options for free VIN reports and discuss whether or not you should pay money for a more detailed VIN report when purchasing a car. What’s a VIN Number? A VIN number is an identifying code that’s associated with a specific automobile. A VIN number is made up of 17 characters (numbers and letters) that act as the vehicle’s fingerprint. No two automobiles have the same VIN number, so you can use a VIN number to track a specific vehicle’s history, registrations, and more. You can find a car’s VIN number by looking on the driver’s side of the vehicle, either at the corner of the vehicle where the windshield meets the dashboard or on the doorpost of the driver’s side front door. You can also find a VIN number on a vehicle’s insurance card, title, and registration. Why Should I Check the VIN Number When Buying a Car? If you’re planning to buy a car (new or used), it’s important to run at least a free VIN report on the car’s VIN number to get a better understanding of its history. Running a free VIN check on the car will pull up its basic history, including information on previous claims of theft and/or accidents. You’ll want to run a VIN check when purchasing a car to make sure that the car is legally available for purchase and that it’s in good enough condition to drive. A VIN check will pull up any significant claims that have been made about the car. These include information about if the car was ever stolen and if it was ever subject to serious damage, such as flood, fire, or accident damage. Reputable car dealerships will often provide you with a copy of the VIN report for the car you’re looking to purchase, free of charge. Your salesman will likely review the report with you, noting the number of owners, any accidents or claims reported on the car, and any other issues of note, such as recalls or leftover warranties. If you’re buying a car from a dealership that doesn’t offer a free VIN check, or purchasing from a private party, you’ll want to run a free VIN report on your own to check for theft records and major accidents. Depending on the circumstances, you may also want to pay for a more detailed VIN report. I’ll discuss when to purchase a detailed VIN report in a later section. How to Use the National Insurance Crime Bureau’s Free VIN Check The National Insurance Crime Bureau is a great resource for running a free VIN lookup search to check for theft and total loss records. In this section, I’ll talk you through how to use the NICB as a resource to check the history of an automobile. The first thing you need to run a free VIN lookup at NCIB is the VIN number of the vehicle you’re looking up. As I mentioned earlier, you can find a vehicle’s VIN number on the driver’s side of the car, either where the dashboard meets the window, or in the driver’s side door. After you have the VIN number in question, go to the NICB VinCheck page and enter the VIN number where it says â€Å"Step 1.† Check the box to agree to the terms and conditions of use in â€Å"Step 2.† Enter the verification code that appears in the box for â€Å"Step 3,† then hit â€Å"search.† You’ll be taken to a page that displays the results of your free VIN lookup. You’ll receive information about the vehicle’s theft and total loss records. A theft record indicates that the car has been marked as stolen at some point in its history, while a total loss record means that the car has been damaged and marked as a loss in an accident, flood, or fire. If your VIN number shows that the vehicle has not been identified, as shown in the above screenshot, that means that the vehicle has never been stolen or had any significant damage that would signify a total loss, e.g., the car's been declared totaled. The vehicle will only be listed in this database if theft or loss records have been generated. If your vehicle shows that there’s a record for either theft or total loss, you’ll want to do more research to find out the exact details of the situation to determine if the vehicle is suitable for purchase. Other Free VIN Check Options You can get a free VIN check from a number of other sites as well. In general, these sites offer more detailed VIN reports than that of the National Insurance Crime Bureau. You can also pay at each of these sites to upgrade your VIN check and receive more information about the car you're purchasing. #1: CarFax CarFax is known as a leader in provided detailed VIN reports to consumers. In fact, many car dealerships will show you the CarFax report for the vehicle you’re looking to purchase. While the most detailed CarFax reports cost money, you can get a basic VIN report on used cars listed on CarFax’s website for free. These reports show accidents reported, owner history, usage information, and service history. #2: Research.com Research.com provides the most comprehensive free VIN report, offering extensive details about the vehicle’s inspection and performance records, safety ratings, warranty, and more. It will also tell you when and where the vehicle has been listed for sale, as well as its sale price. #3: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration offers a VIN lookup that gives you information about the car’s make and model, so you can know if it’s under any recall orders. Knowing about recall orders will help you decide if the car is safe to drive and if it’s facing any lengthy or costly repairs. Should You Pay for a More Detailed VIN Report? When should you pay for a more detailed VIN report? Well, a lot of it depends on how much detail you want to know about your car’s history. In general, it’s a good idea to purchase a detailed VIN report if you’re buying a used car and you can’t get one for free from the dealership or individual you’re working with. More detailed VIN reports are fairly cheap - $39.99 to check a single VIN number on CarFax, or $59.99 if you want to check a bundle of five different VIN numbers. Detailed VIN reports go into much more depth about the overall condition of the vehicle. For instance, CarFax’s detailed VIN reports offer comprehensive information about recalls, repairs, dates and times of servicing, and an overall evaluation of the vehicle’s condition. Knowing the vehicle’s condition is important for two reasons. First, it helps ensure that you’re purchasing a car that’ll actually run for you. Second, it lets you know if you’re paying a fair price for the car. Learning about a previous owner’s service records is important as well, as it shows that the car has been properly maintained. Likewise, learning about recalls and warranty information can save you money on repairs and routine service in the long run. If you’re purchasing a new car, you probably don’t need a detailed VIN report, as it won’t tell you much information about the car, since a new car won’t have any ownership or accident records. Review: How to Check a VIN Number for Free A VIN number is like a car’s fingerprint- you can look it up to learn about the car’s history. When purchasing a car, it’s important to run at least a free VIN check to lookup the car’s history and ensure that it doesn’t have any open theft or total loss records. You can also pay for more detailed VIN reports that offer information on a car’s service and ownership history, as well as detailed information about the car’s value.

Discuss the Caretaker as A Comedy of Menace. Essay Example

Discuss the Caretaker as A Comedy of Menace. Essay Example Discuss the Caretaker as A Comedy of Menace. Essay Discuss the Caretaker as A Comedy of Menace. Essay Essay Topic: House Of Mirth The Caretaker generally followed a pattern: the brilliance of the actors was celebrated and the questions of influence, primarily Becketts, were linked to discussions of the relationship between the comic and serious elements in the play. Interpretations of the meaning varied from the literal to the fully allegorical, by way of generalized abstract tags. Subsequent academic criticism, deriving from textual study rather than stage performance, has early always followed the serio-tragical-symbolical-abstract line- what we might call Modern Man in Search of His Insurance Cards, or, I stink. Therefore I am. The comedy of The Caretaker is not a dispensable palliative. To discuss meaning without taking this into account is to distort the play as a whole and devalue its achievement. The combination of the comic and the serious, laughter and silence, is often deeply disturbing for art audience: but only in confronting it can we begin to understand the play. For one member of the audience, at least, the relationship between the comic and the serious elements was unacceptable. Leonard Russell, the Sunday Times book reviewer, recorded his impressions of a performance at the Duchess Theatre in an open letter to Harold Pinter: I will go so far as to admit that I found it a strangely menacing and disturbing evening. It was also a highly puzzling evening; and here I refer not to the play but to the behaviour of the audience. On the evening I was present a large majority had no doubt at all that your special contribution to the theatre is to take a heartbreaking themes and treat it facially. Gales of happy, persistent, and, it seemed to me, totally indiscriminate laughter greeted a play which I lake to be, for all its funny moments, a tragic reading of life. May, I ask this question- are you yourself happy with the atmosphere of rollicking good fun? Pinters reply is such crucial importance for an understanding of the play: Your question is not an easy one to answer. Certainly I laughed myself while writing The Caretaker, but not all the time, not indiscriminately. An element of the absurd is, I think, one of the features of the play, but at the same time I did not intend it to be merely a laughable force. If there hadnt been other issues at stake the play would not have been written. Audience reaction cant be regulated, and no one would want it to be; nor is it easy to analyses. But where the comic and tragic (for want of a better word) are closely interwoven, certain members of an audience will always give emphasis to the comic as opposed to the other, for by so doing they rationalize the other out of existence. On most evenings at the Duchess there is a sensible balance of laughter and silence. Where, though, this indiscriminate mirth is found. I feel it represents a cheerful patronage of the characters on the part of the merrymakers, and thus participating is avoided. This laughter is in fact a mode of precaution, a smoke-screen, a refusal to accept what is happening as recognizable (which I think it is) and instead to view the actors (a) as actors always and not as characters and (b) as chimpanzees. From this kind of neasy jollification I must, of cause, dissociate myself, thought I do think you were unfortunate in your choice of evening. As far as Im concerned, The Caretaker is funny, up to a point. Beyond that point it ceases to be funny, and it was because of that point that I wrote it. Pinters letter is an essential starting point for discussion of the play. Adequate criticism must be based on a recognition of both the comic and tragic elements compounded in the paralleled process of stage performance and audience response. Out emotional reaction of laughter or silence complements what happens on stage. Both actors and audience create a structure of feeling that the play has in its living moment, as Pinter puts it. The point where The Caretaker ceases to be funny must be found within the movement of the play itself and within the emotional complex of our participation. In order to do so, I wasnt to focus not so much on the physical structure which is relatively straight forward but rather on the structure of feeling, the emotional rhythm of laughter and silence which culminates in the arrested tension of both. Rather than follow the tendency to generalise from paraphrase and thereby lose the essential drama, one must examine certain passages in order to bring out the deeply sensitive psychological insight that lies behind Pinters plain statement. Deeply Sensitive Psychological Insight When the curtain rises, Mick shares the activity of the audience. He slowly looks about The Room looking at each object in turn. He looks up at the ceiling, and stares at the bucket. Then he brazenly separates himself from the audience. Ceasing, he sits quite still, expressionless, looking out front. Silence for thirty seconds. Mick then leaves upon hearing muffled voices. This silent enigma is in dramatic contrast to the end of the play. At the outset Mick, in effect, rejects the audience by walking offstage after a protracted silence, while at the close it is Davies who is left onstage rejected by the audience insofar as we recognize that he must go. But this formal, inverted symmetry is recognised retrospe ctively. Micks silence and departure stays as a qualm, leaving a question behind the laughter that is immediate. Astons opening invitation to Davies to sit down is manifestly frustrated by the evident disorder of the attic. As Aston sorts out a chair, Davies breaks into the first of so many complaints: Sit down? Huh I havent had a good sit down I havent had a proper sit down well, I couldnt tell you Ten minutes off for a tea-break in the middle of the night in that place and I can’t find a seat, not one. All those Greeks had it, Poles, Greeks, Blacks, the lot of them, all them aliens had it. And they had me working there they had me working All them Blacks had it, Blacks, Greeks, Poles, the lot of them thats what, doing me out of a seat, treating me like dirt. When he come at me tonight I told him Daviess categorical discriminations (sit down good sit down proper sit down) express the degree of deprivation that he feels he has suffered. His present gratitude is deflected and finally demolished by recrimination directed at the immediate past. An aggrieved sense of active and collective discourtesy by default is magnified to a major injustice; it is as if the merely adventitious revealed the latent injustice of victimization as a permanent condition of the world. As so often in comedy a mundane occurrence is given an unwarrantedly inflated significance. Daviess bigotry, aggravated by constitutional self-righteous defensiveness, evidently distorts whatever really happened, and as a consequence we laugh rather than sympathize. The insistent repetition inadvertently suggest that, on the one hand, it is both the multi-racial conditions of work and work itself that has pained Davies, and on the other that his appeal is in part determined by a bit of tobacco coming his way: as Aston begins to roll himself a cigarette. Davies watches him. This initial comedy continues to develop in the ever widening gap between the intentions of Daviess speech and its effect on the audience. Daviess Tramplike Appearance and Mannerisms Even before he speaks Daviess tramp-like appearance has prompted a certain predisposition in the audience. Socially, tramps are at an inferior extreme, and their condition precludes a normative response by definition. Reactions to tramps are nearly always compounded of fear, distaste, embarrassment, seeming indifference, or a degree of sympathy arising from unconscious self-reproach at our own well-being. Whatever feeling predominates depends upon the tramps behaviour on a scale from abasement to aggression. Abasement invites individual, summary charity as a token of Societys larger responsibility for victims of circumstance. Aggression (like Daviess), though frightening on actual encounter, ultimately prompts laughter in the dramatic representation of self-determined viciousness. The transformation of the actual into the dramatic, the street into the theatre, the individual into audience, brings with it the laughter of relief. Before taking a seat, winded by climbing the stairs, Davies must loosen himself up. He exclaims loudly, punches downward with closed fist crying, I could have got done in down there. There is no book and Daviess evidently exaggerated claim is undermined even further by comic colloquialism. The stance of retrospective pugilism suggests a purely mimetic valour. It is clear that the combination of self-assertion and self-deception creates for Davies a fiction to live by. But although the imperatives of his existence have confounded fiction and fact, the distinction is evident to the audience throughout. Aston immediately offers Davies a roll-up but he replies: What? No, no. I never smoke a cigarette Ill tell you what, though, Ill have bit of that tobacco there for my pipe, if you like Thats kind of you, mister. Just enough to fill my pipe, thats all. I had a tin, only only a while ago. But it was knocked off. It was knocked off on the Great West Road. Daviess refusal of the roll-up is reinforced by a categorical statement similar to the earlier example which expresses both the certainty of negative choice and yet an alternative possibility in the suggestion of a latent discrimination. His initial question- What? - is a response to Astons putative motive and means; Davies is rejecting what he feels may be charity but offering to accept Astons tobacco in terms of his own positive preference for the more socially acceptable pipe, all the time leaving the actual decision to Aston. Daviess acknowledged indebtedness is modified by the subsequent etiquette. His self-conscious moderation forestalls any charge of excess, establishing his action as a gen tle manly custom rather than revealing a condition of permanent dependence. The closing anecdote is intended to alter the action of giving and receiving into a form of indirect restitution. A similar rationalisation takes place later in the act when Davies accepts a few bob from Aston: Thank you, thank you, good luck. I just happen to find myself a bit short. You see, I got nothing for all that weeks work I did last week. Thats the position, thats what it is. Though retrospective criticism of this nature articulates the ironies of Daviess gesture and utterance, the immediacy of the audiences experience registers this emotively, responding to the comic moment which is immediately fulfilled when Aston fails to corroborate Daviess revision of his misfortune. You heard me tell him, didnt you? Davies asks, Aston replies I saw him have a go at you, forcing him to attempt to draw sympathy by reference to age, Go at me? You wouldnt grumble. The filthy skate an old man like me. But here Daviess aggressive demotic ironically pre-empts the response he seeks, while the claim that breathlessly follows- Ive had dinner with the best- incites the broadest laughter with its blatant i mprobability. Aston, with a neutral imperturbability that promotes our laughter even further, refuses to comply and calmly repeats himself, Yes, I saw him have a go at you. Daviess only recourse is to recall his persona! standards to bolster his present judgments: All them toe-rags, mate, got the manners of pigs. I might have been on the road a few years but you can take it from me Im clean. I keep myself up. Thats why I left my wife. Fortnight after I married her, no, not so much as that, no more than a week, I took the lid off a saucepan, you know what was in it? A pile of her underclothing, unwashed. The pan for vegetables, it was. The vegetable pan. Thats when I left her and I havent seen her since. Davies has no apparent sense that such demonstrative probity is so farcically disproportionate that it cancels what it claims. Following Daviess earlier revision of events, this exaggeration suggests that what we hear is a ludicrous distortion of whatever may have happened. The indis criminately vulgar language of the opening- All them toe-rags, mate, got the manners of pigs- burlesques the posture of arbiter of decorum which it protects. Immediately following this, Davies describes the row in the cafe. While laiming proper respect due to an old man, if a few years younger he would break in half that Scotch git. All the socially regulative values Davies claims- dignity, respect, propriety, decorum- are confounded by the language and gesture of a caricatured ethic more appropriate to an anti-social wild animal, as Mick later describes him. In short Daviess comic character is founded on a total travesty of the mode of being to which he aspires. The pathos of his deprivation is made comic with the citation of a public lavatory attendant as a promoter of a personal hygiene. Vast significance is given to the quotidian- Shoes? Its life and death to me, man, Daviess scale of values inverts the normative values of the audience, accustomed to more abstract priorities, which remain unquestioned since Davies cannot be taken seriously. We reason not the need when it is rendered in comic picaresque. Elaborating on his need for footwear, Davies launches into the celebrated tale of the quest to the Luton monastery. A ‘bastard monk, the representative of a holy order, warns the suppliant, if you dont piss off Ill kick you all the way to the gate. As Davies expands on his misfortunes, mounting audience laughter accompanies each incident, culminating in applause at the close of the story. And with applause action is temporarily suspended. For a few crucial seconds the actor is divorced on the character as the audience celebrates a comic performance. The reality of whatever happened in Luton is subverted by characteristically jaundiced aggression which is transferred to the monk, dramatically evoking laughter rather than sympathy. Therefore, Davies as a credible being struggles not only with Aston and Mick, but with the theatrically formalised predisposition of the audience, a predisposition to see Davies as a type, a brilliantly embodied act, at best a tramp, but hardly an individual Shortly after the Luton story, the anecdote of Sidecup and the papers consolidates this. Davies insists that the Side up papers prove who I am They tell you who I am, but we know he will never collect those chimerical documents of fifteen years ago. Lack of shoes, or bad weather, or something else will always intervene. His re-assumption of a past bureaucratic identity could not alter what he is. It is being a tramp which has shaped his body and soul, and not the fact that he is called Bernard Jenkins rather than Mac Davies. Every utterance and every gesture he makes denote a class rather than an individual, dialect subsumes idiolect. Davies is finally no more than his languge and appearance- and this is how Mick encounters him at the end of the first act. Micks Insight It is as if throughout most of Act I Mick has been listening in, since he shows an uncanny insight into Daviess character. In this sense Mick is almost a representative of the audience, knowing, sardonically, as much as they know. On the other hand Mick knows his Davieses as he knows his London, but he expresses it indirectly in terms of Astons behaviour: Mick: He doesn’t work. (Pause) Davies: Go on! Mick: No, he just doesnt like work, thats his trouble. Davies: Ay. Mick: Hes just shy of it. Very shy of it Davies: I know that sort. Mick: You know the type. At the end of Act: Mick immediately recognises Daviess work-shy type, and his first words, Whats the game ? are really the later statement, I know what you want, put in the form of a question. Comic Relief It has been shown by Peter Davison that Micks first two speeches derive in form from the traditional music-hall monologue. As such, alongwith something like the bag-passing game, they border on the farcical. But there is more to them than this. In laughing at the combination of the ludicrous, the grotesque and the improbable, the audience join s Mick in laughing at Davies. In other words, Mick provides the relief of a new comic perspective which enlists the audience on its side. At this point the verbal slapstick seems almost innocuous: You remind me of my uncles brother. He was always on the move, that man. Never without his passport. Had an eye for the girls. Very much your build. Bit of an athlete. Long-jump specialist. He had a habit of demonstrating different run-ups in the drawing-room round about Christmas time. Had a penchant for nuts. Thats what it was. Nothing else but a penchant. Couldnt eat enough of them. Peanuts, walnuts, brazil nuts, monkey nuts, wouldnt touch a piece of fruit cake. Had a marvelous stop-watch. Picked it up in Hong Kong. The day after they chucked him out of the Salvation Army. Used to go in number four for Beckenham Reserves. That was before he got his Gold Medal. Had a funny habit of carrying his fiddle on his back. Like a papoose. I think there was a bit of the red Indian in him. To be honest, Ive often thought that may be it was the other way round. I mean that my uncle was his brother and may be he was my uncle. But I never called him uncle. As a matter of fact I called him Sid. My mother called him Sid too. It was a funny business. Your spilling image he was. Married a Chinaman and went to Jamaica. In spite of its seeming inconsequentiality this speech manifestly says a lot about Davies, Mick and Aston on a naturalistic and psychological level. Micks sardonic delivery expresses at once both discursive doubt and impatience with the conversation game and a sadistic playfulness. The verbal barrage parallels the earlier arm-twisting: verbal intimidation follows physical domination. Mick is equally dexterous at both. What Mick is really saying behind the formal obliquity of his narrative is this- I recognized your sort, a tramp (always on the move), with your story of papers (never without his passport), your ridiculous physical posturing (Bit of an athlete), thrown out of a monastery (they chucked him out of the Salvation Army) of questionable background (a bit of the Red Indian in him), now mixed up with my brother (Ive never made out of how he came to be my uncles brother), why dont you clear off (married a Chinaman and went to Jamaica). But at the same time Mick is deflecting a suppressed view of his own brother that is forced into his mind by the fact of Daviess presence: my brother (You remind me of my uncles brother) has picked up this nut (had a penchant or nuts), he must be nutty as a fruit cake (wouldnt touch a piece of fruit cake). Micks feelings only emerge eventually by way of his surrogate; Davies whose exclamation Hes nutty! enables Mick to savour the suppressed, emotionally forbidden, work: Nutty? Whos nutty? (Pause). Did you call my brother nutty? My brother. Micks second speech is also something more than an exercise in intimidation. It is a comically indirect way of elaborating on what is implicit: the foreignness of Davies. The indigenous Mick ironically compares the indigent Davies with a fellow Londoner. Micks irony is sharpened by his reflection on the sense of difference felt by a working-class North Londoner for those from south of the Thames. When I got to know him I found out he was brought up in Putney. That didnt make any difference to me. The bloke, after all, was born in the Caledonian Road, just before you get to the Nags Head. Micks North London references are to neighboring localities linked by bus routes at the centre of which is the blocks old mum still living at the Angel. Mick evokes neighbourhood, pub and home- the self-advertisement of a particular kind of Londoner recognising an outsider and reminding him of the fact. By contrast, Davies lonely wandering existence is reflected by sporadic, peripheral references to places outside of London proper (Sidcup, Luton, Watford, Wembley) and to past friends: I used to know a bookmaker in Acton. He was a good mate to me. Whereas Micks two speeches are littered with familial terms (uncle, brother, mother, cousin). Daviess anecdotes suggest that over the years, in all of London between Luton and Sidcup, only two encounters have ever led to friendship- and both friendships of a dubious kind. The style and delivery of Micks speeches suggest the amateur comedian at home in pub, club or family; Davies is only a solitary tramp stranded somewhere on the Great West R oad or the North Circular, an anomaly. But all these serious undertones are checked by a sense of game. Micks interrogation of Davies is deliberately punctured by straight music-hall cross-talk: Mick: Thats my bed Davies: What about that, then Mick: Thats my mother’s bed. Davies: Well she wasnt in it last night! Even when Mick rounds on Davies in this third long speech. Youre stinking the place out. Youre an old robber, theres no getting away from it. Youre an old skate†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. - the serious force of his charges is tempered, firstly by his appropriation of Daviess language (filthy skate, and secondly, by an extended parody of the conditions of tenancy and purchase. Between an outline of costs and recommendation of Aston as decorator. Mick threatens Otherwise Ive got a van outside, I can run you to the police station in five minutes, have you in for trespassing, loitering with intent, daylight robbery, filching, thieving and stinking the place out. Amusing to the audience, this exaggeration is frightening to Davies since the language parallels his own exaggerated sense of persecution. The ludicrous magnification of the obligations, commitments and penalties of legal responsibility in buying a house is a humorous reminder to the audience of an often exhaustingly protracted business, but to Davies it is a manifestation of a bureaucratic world that excludes him. Mick makes the point in his repeated final question Who do your bank with? This complex verbal humour is accentuated by the visual comedy. Throughout the act Davies has been on stage without his trousers, in his long pants, and Mick emphasizes the fact by flicking Daviess trousers in his face- several times. This is then followed, almost immediately, by one of the oldest plays in the slapstick repertoire, the bag-passing game with its knockabout sequence reversal. Threat and menace are conflated in Micks speeches and the bag-passing game is almost wholly funny (but not merely funny, since the same symbolises the way in which Davies himself passes from brother to brother). Then, with the terrifying attack in darkness and the succeeding revelation that it is Mick merely spring cleaning with an electrolux, violence and laughter are powerfully juxtaposed. Thus Pinter exploits different kinds of comedy in a cumulative and structured way: comedy of character is established in Act I and then extended by music-hall monologue and broad farce in Act II. Comedy of language, gesture and action is then allowed to build up to the moment when it is dramatically arrested by Astons long, painful account of treatment in a mental hospital, and the events leading up to it. Astons speech has always been recognized as a major moment in the movement of the play, but its full significance has not been adequately discussed. Astons Behaviour John Russell Brown has pointed out the correspondences between Astons hospital treatment and his present behaviour. He underwent electrical treatment and now fiddles obsessively with electrical equipment: he has a white coat, a pillow and a sheet at the ready: the uncovered light bulb glares down; he stares smilingly over Davies in bed. Brown also points out that Aston did go back to place like the cafe and did talk to strangers again- namely Davies- and suggests that the impetus for this was two-hold. Aston is haunted by revenge and somehow sees his own role as a caretaker of Davies. These are all important points, but need to be taken further. Aston refers to the piles of papers he was shown as medical evidence: Davies refers to the piles of papers kept in the attic. Aston says that the window of his hospital room was barred; the indications are that the attic window was kept open even before Daviess malodorous entry. Aston spent five hours sawing at the bars, and is now preoccupied with saws, ostensibly to carry out the building work. He recognises that in cafe and factory he talked too much, and his long speech is a chilling reminder that he still does. What does all this add up to? Surely the commonly accepted notion of Astons charity in taking in Davies is called a question here. Rather than a disinterested act deriving from an impulse or conviction of moral duty and thus a token of his social rehabilitation it is part of the irreparable damage brought about by his sufferings. Astons charity is a way of simultaneously vindicating himself and impugning those who have harmed him. Davies is there in the attic because of Astons psychology, not because of his ethics: Aston sees. Davies as a version of himself. Astons recollections of the glass of Guinness and the lady in the cafe indicate his continuing disorientation. Both these speeches occur after pauses and have no relation to what precedes them and both after pauses and have no relation to what precedes them, and both contrast forcefully with Astons previous reticence. As conversational gambits they are disastrously bizarre; it is almost as if of an interior monologue has suddenly come to the surface. The preoccupation of Aston and Davies are psychological treadmills imprisoning each in his mutually exclusive world. For Aston to work on the house he needs to clear the garden for a shed. To build the shed on the house he needs to clear the garden for a saw bench, is needed for the shed. Davies, to sort himself out needs his papers at Sidcup. To get to Sidcup he needs good shoes, to get good shoes he needs, money, to get money he needs his papers to sort himself out Both minds have been numbed by the different experiences of being on the road and being in a mental hospital: both are reduced to a preoccupation with the physical function of hands and feet. With Astons speech the laughter ceases. And there is no caretaker for them. The audience is silenced and confounded as the darkness grows. Comic Tableau As Act III opens, and before anything is said, Davies is seen in a comic tableau, pipe in hand and incongruously garbed in a smoking jacket. Here, after the strain of confronting the nature of Astons being, we are at last allowed the relief of laughter. But when Davies speaks, although his concerns seem much the same (the gas stove, blacks, shoes, etc. ) his continual reference to Aston compromise and complicate our response. At this point as subjective coefficient of guilt rises in us, deriving in part from our former complicity with Mick (now more evidently working on his strategy of expulsion) and in part from laughing at Astons expense. Whereas earlier Davies seemed self-determining and thus responsible for what he is, he now seems more like a plaything being used by Mick for certain questionable ends. The serious and the comic are now much more, forcefully counter pointed. Micks dry-mock is still there (You must come up and have a drink something. Listen to some Tchaikovsky and Daviess procrastination, although now invidiously ungrateful, is still lightened to pure comedy (the only way to keep a pair of shoes on, if you havent got no laces, is to tighten the foot, see? But Daviess response to Micks evocation of a penthouse palace- What about me? - gives voice to the inevitable question at the heart of the situation. Micks All this junk here, its no good to anyone, is much less casual than it seems. Davies as, part of the junk, will obviously have to go, and we recognise it. Mick obliquely incites Daviess verbal attack on Aston by giving voice to what the tramp has felt from the outset. Daviess real feelings in surveying the attic are compromised by the fact that Aston has rescued him. As a consequence Davies says the opposite of what he feels: Davies: This your room? Aston: Yes. Davies: You got a good bit of stuff here. Aston: Yes. Davies: Must be worth a few bob, this put it all together. (Pause) Theres enough of it. Aston: Theres a good bit of it, all right. Davies: You sleep here, do you? Aston: Yes. Davies: What, in that? Similarly, Micks pointed summary not only places Davies as part of the rubbish and simultaneously predisposed him to attack Aston, but gives utterance to that protracted stare at the opening of the play: All this junk here, its no good to anyone. Its just a lot of old iron, thats all Clobber. Davies Opportunistic Nastiness Davies echoes this in his viciously prolonged attack on Aston as an irresponsible lunatic, all this junk I got to sleep with this lousy filthy hole. Daviess contemptible vilification is emotionally complex for an audience. If it confirms our opinion, of Daviess opportunist nastiness and strengthen our impulse to reject him as wholly objectionable, at the same time it provides almost a release for our strained protective feelings towards Aston. The opening lines of the speech continue Daviess exaggerated sense of comic victimisation made ludicrous by disproportionate expectation: Its getting so freezing in here I have to keep my trousers on to go to bed. I never done that before in my life. But thats what I got to do here. Just because you wont put in any bleeding heating! We may derive a temporary sense of relief in what follows by intellectually assessing the circularity of Daviess charge- Aston is lunatic because he is irresponsible and irresponsible because he is lunatic- and even maintain our distance when Davies claim the friendship and kindred opinion of Mick. But this relief is completely shattered as Davies sadistically baits Aston with the prospect of renewed electrical treatment. As the emoti on rises both in Davies and the audience it is, paradoxically, both undercut and heightened by localised London slang: Theyd take one look at all this junk I got to sleep with theyd know you were a creamer. Davies charges Aston with what, in all probability, has been levelled at him, acreamer. It is almost funny as an unexpected synonym for the more current nutcase, but at the same time more insidiously mocking for Aston, since Davies uses the highly specific argot of Astons own background. Yet even at this point we are tempted to laugh as Daviess expression gets more and more Welsh in self-righteous anger: You want me to do all the dirty work all up and down them stairs just so I can sleep in this lousy filthy hole every night? Not me, boy. Not for your, boy. But the idioms that provoke laughter also arrest it: Youre up the creek! Youre half off! Our awareness of the possibility of this being true checks our natural tendency to respond humorously to figurative exaggeration. Daviess subsequent question Whoever saw you slip me a few bob? Simultaneously recalls Astons kindness in doing just that, and predisposes the audience to take up a defensive position, on Astons behalf, against Daviess final callousness- I never been inside a nuthouse! Even here, the colloquially derisive reduction makes us want to laugh, as we have laughed at the peremptory idiom of Micks attack on Davies. But as Davies draws his knife on ominous silence supervenes. This tableau recalls Davies ineptitude in threatening Mick earlier, and Aston finally breaks the tension with a delayed understatement that is totally deflating: I think its about time you found somewhere else. I dont think were hitting it off! This is precisely what Mick has been worming towards. He could have thrown Davies out whenever he liked, but he has waited two weeks for Aston to see through Daviess character. Mick has promoted the exposure in order that Aston will see and feel as he does. The usual interpretation of Mick and Astons relationship- that there is an unspoken bond of brotherly love between them- is really rather naive and sentimental. Mick smashes the Buddha to pieces out of a frustrated rage that derives from his suppressed acknowledgement of the truth of Daviess previous accusation (Hes nutty), and his subsequent passionate outburst is a wilful attempt to see Astons condition in terms of his failure to decorate the house, rather than in terms of what lies beneath it. To have thrown Davies out would have been a tacit admission that Aston was a lunatic to have brought him there in the first place. (Perhaps Davies wasnt the first? ) Mick and Aston In other words, Micks obligation to his brother is formal rather than affective. Micks character- tough, sardonic, worldly-wise- is similar to that of the people in the cafe and the factory who found Aston funny and were instrumental in having him put away. Like his mother and the doctor, Mick wants Aston to live like the others. He understands Davies so well because they both have a kind of bureaucratic view of the world. They both see human activity in terms of status conferred by institutions that regulate society (social security, solicitors, etc). Whereas the Buddha for Aston was an example of something well made, for Mick it embodies all that he cannot face in his brother- the inscrutable, the passive, and the alien. But, in tarring over the roof Aston is learning to take over of himself, in Micks term. At the opening of the play the suspended bucker focuses for Mick his brothers condition as he understands it, and their only exchange in Act II concerns the problem of tarring over the leaking roof. As Act III opens, Davies contemplates Astons silence in terms of his single activity of doing the job (ironically this anticipates his own expulsion). This small task signalises that Aston will comply with Micks view of things, a complicity dramatized by the taint smile they exchange towards the close. Mick smiles in recognition of what he sees as his rightness in paying off Davies, and Aston smiles back conceding the fact- his last words to Davies were Get your stuff. Davies must go, however plangent his appeal: What am I going to do?. Where am I going to go. The pauses between each utterance are lengthened into the long silence of the final stage direction. Aston turns back to the window, remains still, his back to him, at the window, but we are faced with Daviess concrete questioning presence. We are forced here to confront not only what laughter has created but also what laughter has suppressed. The repetitions of Davies language echo those moments of comedy which are now stifled by the specter of destitution. Daviess need for material items has created moments of high comedy, but the serious moral implications of such subsistence culminate in those questions. The material, social and cultural privileges that presuppose our presence in the theatre are indices of the totality of Daviess deprivation. Throughout the play Davies has been the object of the solidarity of laughter, but now the audience itself is exposed in its own silence before him. The possibilities of food, shelter and warmth are now to be replaced by the possibilities of hunger, cold and exposure, intimation of which have been present all along (I could have died on the road, Davies says at one point. Was this the substance of his nightmares? ). The harsh regimen of the doss-house has been evoked earlier in Daviess hurried attempt to forestall what he knows must happen as the rule of each daybreak: Dont you want me to get out. Rhythm of the Play The points where the laughter spasmodically ceases are obvious enough in the rhythm of the play. These dramatic moments correspond psychologically to the point in each of us where conflicting impulses and vestigial atavism and ostensible civility meet. We experience in The Caretaker the Hobbesian triumph of superior of laughter ovger inferior objects and ludicrousness transforms the socially embarrassing. But beneath this is the self-protective impulse to remove what is psychologically painful. Just as children laugh at (and thus exorcise) the sight of physical deformity, so we react to Daviess warped morality- all the time expecting him to ask for our compassion. But Davies remains intransigent, he does not offer us the adult compromise of compassion. In our laughter there stirs an uneasy atavism which grows in proportion as Daviess nastiness increases. We cannot finally accept Davies on his own terms- as he is. He has to be either killed off by our laughter, or transformed by the tragic dignity of self-awareness. Our emotional expectations are in part shaped by dramatic convention. Davies must be either contemptible or pitiful, a comic vice exposed in laughter, or, by token of some redemptive self-insight, an ultimately traffic figure. But he is actually neither, and this is what is almost too painful. In the theatre adult emotions are customarily channeled into a comforting species of self-protective compassion. Pinter refuses to provide this. Initially Pinter felt that there would have to be a death at the end of the play, but it is clear that this would have only provided another kind of emotional release- and evasion. Pinter not only dropped this notion but in revision, chose to stress the ineluctable concrete actuality of Davies there, before us: resistant to allegory, abstraction, and moral formula. Here, in the long silence, no longer so much an audience as a disparate assembly of individuals which includes Davies, we are forced to confront the limits of our human response, the edges of emotional vulnerability, the barriers of social ordinance that join and divide us all. This is our participation, and this is where the point of laughter and silence, as Pinters letter reminds us, both begins and ends. Bibliography: http://plays. about. com/od/playwrights/a/pinter. htm