'Night' by Harold Pinter

MAN

Yes.

WOMAN

But my back was against the railings. I felt the railings... behind me. You were facing me. I was looking into your eyes. My coat was closed. It was cold.

MAN

I undid your coat.

WOMAN

It was very late. Chilly.

MAN

And then we left the bridge and we walked down the townpath and we came to a rubbish dump.

WOMAN

And you had me and you told me you had fallen in love with me, and you said you would take care of me always, and you told me my voice and my eyes, my thighs and my breasts, were incomparable, and that you would adore me always.

MAN

Yes I did.

WOMAN

And you do adore me always.

MAN

Yes I do.

WOMAN

And then we had children and we sat and talked and you remembered women on bridges and townpaths and rubbish dumps.

MAN

And you remembered your botton against the railings and men holding your hands and men looking into your eyes.

WOMAN

And talking to me softly.

MAN

And your soft voice. Talking to them softly that night.

WOMAN
And they said I will adore you always.

MAN
Saying I will adore you always.

This is a fragment from Harold Pinter's 'Night' which was first performed on 9th April 1969 and is part of his catalogued "Memory plays", which major and common theme is the conflicting versions of reality between two people. The dramatic principles are tension and silences and it portrays a couple and their difficulties of expression, their lack of communication, as an example of contemporary society. This is very characteristic of the generation of 56, which Pinter was part of.

This fragment is located at the last part of the play, a couple in their forties are discussing how they met but do not agree and in this part is where they finally reach a common point. That is the main theme of the play, the idea of how each person has a different version of reality, their own truth, which is a recurrent theme in most of Pinter's plays, stating that there is not one truth, as he said in his speech during the Nobel Prize 2005, which he received: "There are not hard distinctions between what is real and what is unreal, nor between what is true and what is false; it can be both true and false". Another typical feature of Pinter is placing the action in a small, closed-in set, clearly influenced by Kafka's claustrophobic atmospheres, we do not really know where are these two characters having a discussion but we can assume, as they are sitting, having coffee, that they are in a living room or a kitchen, but the action only takes place in a single room, which makes the scene more isolated and oppressive. That is what readers can guess about the setting. As for the actors, there are no stage directions in the fragment, it is one character answering to the other. The couple must belong to the middle class as their language it is not complex, it's an everyday language and Pinter usually portrays these kind of characters, especially at this stage because he only uses middle class characters which one can easily get identified with.
The "Yes" at the beginning of the fragment marks a change in the tone and the rythm of the conversation that the two characters are having, they seem not to be arguing anymore and start talking more sweetly, there are no more pauses or silences in this part, their moods change. She os the one leading the conversation now and he is accepting what she is explaining, in fact, he says "Yes" two more times ("Yes I did", "Yes I do"), he repeats that he remembers her story and that repetition is used to assure her that he really does, when he probably doesn't. In Pinter's world what is not said it is even more important than what is actually said so that is why it is not sure what he is saying is really what he feels or thinks. Here it is more obvious that what he is not telling it's really what he thinks, and the reader and the woman do not really get to know what it is, he tells her what she wants to hear. This also seems apparent by the use of "And" to start their responses, he continues her story by complementing it. same On the other hand, the woman is no longer talking about emotions but about feelings, as he has been doing all over the conversation, so in a way she is also contributing to that sort of acceptance that they are trying to reach, both are now at the same level. The text is full of words that refer to body parts, ("back", "eyes", "thighs", "breasts", "hands"...) which also emphasizes the importance of feelings at the end of the play.
They are no longer talking about the bridge, they continue their story and leave it behind, which also marks their beginning as a couple during all these years, "And then we had children..."

It can be applied the Actantial model which focuses on functions; this way the woman would be the subject of the model and her objective is to make her partner remember her version of events that happened the first time they met. The opponent would be the man because he does not agree with what she is saying but at the time he ends up being the helper as he finally "accepts" her version of the story. The other way round with the man as the subject would have the same object, to make his partner believe of what he is saying about their first meeting and as the woman would be the opponent, because she does not agree with him, here there would not be a helper because he fails to get to the point he wants.

The last part of the play it is definately the turning point. I personally liked the play and the ending, mainly because it is an open one, you cannot really know for sure what's going on in their minds or what did really happen, which again, makes you participant of Pinter's idea that there is not one truth but each of us has their own, even with his play.

'Educating Rita' - Willy Russell

Act One, Scene Eight

Rita I went into the pub an' they were singin', all of them singnin' some song they'd learnt from the juke-box. An' I stood in that pub an' thought, just what the frig am I trying to do? Why don't I just pack it in an' stay with them, an' join in the singin'?

Frank And why don't you?

Rita (angrily) You think I can, don't you? Just because you pass a pub doorway an' hear the singin' you think we're all OK, that we're all survivin', with the spirit intact. Well I did join in with the singin', I didn't ask any questions, I just went along with it. But when I looked round me mother had stopped singin', an' she was cryin', but no one could get it out of her why she was cryin'. Everyone said she was pissed an' we should get her home. So we did, an' on the way I asked her why. I said, 'Why are y' cryin', Mother?' She said, 'Because - because we could sing better songs than those.' Ten minutes later, Denny had her laughing and singing again, pretending she hasn't said it. But she had. And that's why I came back. And that's why I'm staying.

Blackout.

Rita goes out.

This is a fragment of stage comedy 'Educating Rita' by Liverpool-born playwright Willy Russell, first performed at the Warehouse in June 1980. The play centers on its only two characters, Frank and Rita, who are different when it comes to education and social class and Russell focuses on the extreme differences and the boundaries Rita has to overcome in order to improve her lifestyle and knowledge.

It is located on act one, scene eight of the play and Rita is beginning to change and realizing that she can no longer relate to her family and friends or educated people as she is in the process of becoming one. In the fragment she is explaining to Frank of an event that happened during a family reunion at the pub, where she realized that even her own mother was not happy with the life she was leading so, in order not to end up like her, Rita comes back to Frank more determinated to learn than ever and that way change her lifestyle. This is the moment of epiphany for Rita, when she really starts to make a transition from the person she was to the one she wants to become.

As we can read, she still has the Liverpool accent with the use of contractions like an', y', cryin', which reveals her working-class status when she talks. This is one of the major themes of 'Educating Rita', education, she wants to learn "everything" in order to change, but as it happens in the play it can be something dangerous if someone looses his/her own personality in the process and Russell condemns this using the figure of Frank, Rita's teacher, who doesn't like at first the person that she is becoming. But she finally reaches a balance between both extremes and finally getting the happiness she was looking for in her life. The scene shows us another main theme of the play linked with the previous one I have just mentioned, that is how a person can develop in a positive and negative way.

Another key theme is class divisions as she tells Frank, "Just because you pass a pub doorway an' hear the singin' you think we're all OK, that we're all survivin', with the spirit intact", Rita knows she belongs to a lower class postion than Frank and that is a boundary for her to learn and become educated, and she knows she has to overcome this even when this sets her apart from her relatives and her husband Denny. This use of the language is a great characterization device as one can guess where this character comes from and her education by knowing how she speaks. Rita tries to fit between the two positions, "Well, I did join in with the singin', I didn't ask any questions" but she has to change from one class to the other in order to make that improvement she wants. Escaping from her previous life with Denny and working as a hairdresser will make her have the freedom to choose her own life, which she can not do if she continues being stuck with them in the pub as if nothing happens, just like her mother does. Rita's mother response to why she was crying in the pub, "Because we could sing better songs than those" it is what pushes Rita to make that change, now in a more serious way than at the beginning, and the tone of the play changes from having a lot of humour, to become a more serious piece.

Here, it can be applied the Actantial Model, and Rita would be the subject, her object would be to have more knowledge and Frank would be the helper, as he is the one who is contributing to the subject to get the object. There may be several opponents, most particularly Denny and Rita's father, as they do not want her to study and want her to get pregnant instead. On the other way round, the subject would be Denny, Rita's husband, who wants her to have a baby and start a family, being that the object. The helper would be his father-in-law as he also wants Rita to have a baby and tries to push her and the opponent would be Rita and Frank, as they do not want that same object for her. At the same time, we could also use the model having Frank as a subject, because his object is to make Rita become an educated person but without loosing who she really is. The helper would be Rita because she is willing to reach that and the opponents would be Denny, Rita's father and also Trish and her friends who influence Rita in a negative way because she starts imitating them and loosing part of her personality.

The figure of Rita can be linked to Willy Russell's own life, as he was born in a working class family and worked as a hairdresser as well as in many other jobs until he returned to full-time education and decided to become a dramatist. In a way it can be seen as a play of the search of self-fulfillment and the struggles one person having working class roots have to overcome and this fragment is a clear exemplification of this.