Mother and Whore: The Role of Woman in The Homecoming

Mother and Whore: The Role ofWoman in The Homecoming ANITA R. OSHEROW • IN THE HOMECOMING THE CHARACTERS of Ruth and of Jessie, the dead mother, demonstrate a strange dichotomy in the concept of the female as both vacillate between the role of mother and the role of whore. This is, of course, not the only time Pinter explores this psychological area, but in no other play, including The Lover, does he place such emphasis upon the ambiguous role of the woman. The imbalance and instability of human relationships is stressed in The Homecoming by the seeming inability of the male characters to look upon woman without a deep ambiguity. As the play progresses, Ruth gradually assumes the identity of a domineering mother-substitute, while the men are drawn into emasculated and infantilized roles. And yet this apparent demonstration of female control is not simple, since woman is also strongly identified here as a whore. In contrast to the wife, mother or even mistress, the whore-figure is supposedly passive, dominated by the male as she submits to his desires. But here the fact that the male characters conceive of woman as whore ironically accentuates their own inadequacy. Thus Ruth, no matter what role she is made to assume, is placed in a position of dominance at the centre of power, establishing her command and reigning in full control of the situation at the end of the play. Ultimately it is she who has gained a kind of freedom, while those who have tried to imprison her in a role have themselves become entangled and imprisoned, victims of their own inability to relate to her naturally . The family in The Homecoming is suffering from an important omission in the basic family unit because of the absence of the mother. However, Jessie, as has often been pointed out, remains the focal point 423 424 ANITA R. OSHEROW of the play and has an enormous impact upon the family. As shown by the frequent references to her by Max and Sam, her influence is still strongly felt. In place of the mother they need, the family has a memory. The Homecoming may be viewed as the search for a mother to replace Jessie. Max yells to Joey, "Go and find yourself a mother"; and this is exactly the process which forms the action ofthe play. In order to compensate for the loss ofJessie, necessary but unsuccessful rearrangements have been made by the family. One rearrangement is the alteration of the living room, the place where the family interacts most, by knocking out a wall and enlarging it. This aspect is most noticeable on stage, as there is a conscious effort to display this change in the set. This must be subtly done, however, as Peter Hall, director of the original production, explains: And I remember the first model we presented to Pinter - I remember him being very concerned about the pillar that ran across the top of the set, which is where the wall had been knocked down. In our first model it was very rough hewn; it was very obvious that a wall had been knocked down, and a large beam had been put in to keep the house up. Harold quite rightly said, "Yes, that's right, but it's too explicit." When they talk about the wall being knocked down and the audience looks, then they should understand why the wall is like it is; but when the curtain goes up they shouldn't look and say, "Ah, a wall has been knocked down and a beam has been put in."! Teddy explains the change to Ruth: What do you think of the room? Big, isn't it? It's a big house. I mean, it's a fine room, don't you think? Actually there was a wall, across there ... with a door. We knocked it down ... years ago ... to make an open living area. The structure wasn't affected, you see. My mother was dead.2 The absent door and wall show the gap in the family created by Jessie's death, even though Teddy says that nothing has changed. With Jessie's absence, then, although the structure...