The Caretaker is a play in three acts by Harold Pinter….

Mick, a man in his late twenties, Aston’s brother. He is the first character seen onstage in the play, although he does not speak or interact with the other characters until the end of act 1. From the outside, he tries to control the other two.

Pinter introduced new style of dramatic language, providing prominence to the element of authenticity. He liberated drama from many past shackles and opened new horizons to the twentieth century English Drama.

In Act 2 of The Caretaker, Aston speaks at length about his ongoing problems with mental illness. In this soliloquy , he talks about having hallucinations, having past difficulties with colleagues in the workplace, and having undergone a medical procedure. Although Aston does not use the term “electroshock therapy,”…

Antonia Fraserm. 1980–2008
Vivien Merchantm. 1956–1980
Harold Pinter/Wife

Antonia Fraser and Harold Pinter were married for 28 years before Pinter’s death in 2009 from cancer. It was January 1975. They were both in their early 40s and married — though, not to each other — with children. He was Harold Pinter, a world-famous playwright; she was Lady Antonia Fraser, a respected biographer.

The major themes of the play are: loneliness and isolation, personal identity , lack of communication, violence and menace, love of power , primitive instincts, human nature, dreams and illusions, etc.

Aston and Mick are brothers. Aston the elder brother is in his early thirties and Mick the younger brother is in his late twenties. Mick, as we understand, is a successful businessman; he owns a small van and lives somewhere else. Aston lives in an old house in a western suburb of London bought for him by Mick.

lienation, who has invited Davies to his room. The room is a metaphor of his confused state of mind. The sink which has no water connection and the gas stove which is not to be linked to any gas- king connection with others. Aston, too, has isolated himself from society, which had carried out an aggression on him.

Harold Pinterm. 1980–2008
Hugh Fraserm. 1956–1977
Antonia Fraser/Spouse
Harold Pinter and Antonia Fraser married in London on Nov. 27, 1980, five years after they first met.

The play’s main conflict can be found Aston’s unselfish generosity, and his brother’s attempts to put an end to his altruism.

In his reaction to all these Davies becomes violent. We see early in Act One of the play, he promises to revenge himself upon the Scotsman who offended him. On two occasions in the play, he draws knife, firstly on Mick in Act Two, and then on Aston in Act Three.

In this play, there are only three characters, the brothers, which are Aston and Mick, and the old tramp, Davies. It begins with Aston who brings Davies to his place owned by his brother, Mick.

The Caretaker is a play in three acts by Harold Pinter. Although it was the sixth of his major works for stage and television, this psychological study of the confluence of power, allegiance, innocence, and corruption among two brothers and a tramp, became Pinter’s first significant commercial success.

The Caretaker. The movie starred Alan Bates as Mick and Donald Pleasence as Davies in their original stage roles, while Robert Shaw replaced Peter Woodthorpe as Aston. First published by both Encore Publishing and Eyre Methuen in 1960, The Caretaker remains one of Pinter’s most celebrated and oft-performed plays.

It premiered at the Arts Theatre Club in London’s West End on 27 April 1960 and transferred to the Duchess Theatre the following month, where it ran for 444 performances before departing London for Broadway. In 1963, a film version of the play based on Pinter’s unpublished screenplay was directed by Clive Donner.