Mountain Language is a one-act play written by Harold Pinter in 1988 after his trip to Turkey with fellow playwright Arthur Miller. The play echoes the situation in Turkey at the time concerning the suppression of the Kurdish culture. During the scene where the guards ask the women about the dog that bit one of them, Pinter demonstrates how language can be used to dominate discussion and interaction with others.
Pinter demonstrates the power in sarcasm when the officers interrogate the women seeking their husband and son in such a way that they belittle them. He asks them, 'Who did this? Who bit you?' He asks these questions after openly stating his understanding of the severity of their predicament by saying, 'Look at this woman's hand. I think the thumb is going to come off.' He asks not be
...cause he is genuinely concerned for the women's' situation, but rather to really illustrate that he does not care. The officers further undermine the women by repeatedly asking them questions they know the women will not know the answer to, 'What was his name?' or that have already been answered. This lack of concern makes the women's situation seem meaningless as it makes no difference to the officers what their answers may be because the direction and outcome of the discussion is entirely dependent on them.Parents always tell their children to simply ignore bullies who will eventually get bored and find something else to do when you do not respond to provocation, but what usually happens before this (as parents tend to forget) is that before they give up, bullies will often try one last time to "hit
them with everything they've got" and achieve some kind of reaction before they give up on their victim and move on to greener pastures. This behavior is observed near the end of the conversation between the officers and women where he overloads her with a relentless and brutal torrent of sarcasm.
The effect this has on the recipient as she was unable to respond for the duration of the miniature tirade is that she is instilled with a sense of futility. The unfairness and injustice of her predicament is plain for all to see so there is no point in her trying to argue her defense. Logic is known but thrown aside. She cannot win the discussion; she can only play by his rules, and all this because of the officers' use of language to completely control the discussion.Mirroring the Turks, the guards put down the women through both the language they prohibit and the sarcastic and demeaning language they use. Pinter effectively warns against the dangers of the abuse of language by demonstrating how by sheer absurdity, people can be easily manipulated. Through these lines and this play what Pinter truly wants known on the most basic level is the true power that language holds with his most imperative message being that oppression of a language is oppression of the people.
- Abuse Support essays
- Child Abuse essays
- Alcohol Abuse essays
- Physical Abuse essays
- Sexual Abuse essays
- Substance Abuse essays
- Rabbit essays
- Distribution essays
- Large Animals essays
- Mouse essays
- Poultry essays
- Animal Abuse essays
- Cats Vs Dogs essays
- Cattle essays
- Territory essays
- Child essays
- Childcare essays
- Child labor essays
- Doll essays
- Abortion essays
- Abuse essays
- Animal Rights essays
- Animal Testing essays
- Assault essays
- Bullying essays
- Controversial Issue essays
- Crash essays
- Cyber Bullying essays
- Feminism essays
- Human Rights essays
- Immigration essays
- Inequality essays
- Poverty essays
- Prejudice essays
- Racism essays
- Torture essays
- Violence essays
- Agriculture essays
- Albert einstein essays
- Animals essays
- Archaeology essays
- Bear essays
- Biology essays
- Birds essays
- Butterfly essays
- Cat essays
- Charles Darwin essays
- Chemistry essays
- Dinosaur essays
- Discovery essays
