The Caretaker by Harold Pinter Essay -- Caretaker Harold Pinter Essays

The Caretaker by Harold PinterIn this essay I ordain take the position that the audience see Davies asboth a affable dupe and a affable parasite. Firstly a definition of asocial victim and a social parasite will be given. A social victim isan individual who is looked down upon by other members of society,vulnerable to blame and not accorded the same rights as others.Therefore this hard group of people do not experience theusual comforts and perks of society. A social parasite is someone whoexists off the backs of others efforts and not their own.Davies is a social victim because of his low social standing as avagrant. He is definitely at the bottom of the social hierarchyperhaps he is thither because others have trodden on him to climb higherthemselves .It is not explained how, but what we do know is thatbecause Davies is a social victim, to survive he also becomes a socialparasite.Throughout the play Davies shows some strong traits to the audience ofbeing a social victim. The au diences very first impression of Daviesis that his appearance is one of a vagrant,Davies wears a worn brown overcoat, shapeless trousers, a waistcoat,vest, no shirt, and sandals. This description shows Davies eitherdoes not take a large amount of care in his appearance, or he cannotafford smart, tidy clothes. This makes the audience feel sorry forhim. The audience recognises that his anti-social appearance setsDavies apart from the rest of society. The waistcoat Davies is wearinggives the impression that he was once a respected gentleman. However,the worn and shapeless clothes he is also wearing in contrast with thewaistcoat make him look unkempt and scruffy. Davies likes to picturehi... ...aps he had theintention of stealing from Aston. He noticeably does not want Aston tosee him looking around in this way this is shown because Davies opensthe door to see if Aston is gone, and then(prenominal) closes before lookingaround. It could be considered that Davies does this because he wouldnot want Aston to think he is taking advantage of him. Davies isinquisitive. He picks up some random items of Astons, comments onthem, and puts them back. To the audience, Davies is so interested inAstons things because he wants to see what Aston is worth. If Astonhad little, thither would be less point in staying, as there wouldnothing to gain from Davies perspective.To conclude, there are many episodes within the first act that reflectboth Davies victimisation and his opportunism, thus enabling theaudience to view him as social victim and social parasite.