Blindsight: The Interplay of Sight, Blindness, and Infantilization in Pinter’s Plays

Abstract

Harold Pinter’s characters cannot see very well.  This trend can be found in virtually every one of his plays, encompassing a wide range of characters who are blind, suddenly claim they cannot see, break their glasses, or even hold intense and suspicious proclamations of perfect sight. These visual defects are often complicated by their association with infantilized characters who display child-like characteristics despite being grown adults. In this essay, I will track the different ways vision and blindness show up in Pinter’s plays, specifically in The Homecoming, The Caretaker, The Room, and The Birthday Party, and how characters in these plays experience a visual distortion of reality. By grounding Pinter’s work in traditional literary contexts, I plan to showcase how Pinter’s work adds nuance to established portrayals and narratives of sight, leading to a perspective that sight can be unreliable and dangerous.