The Homecoming is a play whose emphasis is too much on trying to be realistic thus creating a wholly unrealistic outlook on life.

The Homecoming's sparse realism evolves from there being no guarantee that a visitor will possess a visitor's card detailing all his personal information. The desire for verification is often satisfied in a dramatically conventional play but in The Homecoming it is not. There is no hard distinction between what is real and what is unreal nor between what is true or false. The more acute the experience, the less articulate its expression thus convincing the audience of The Homecoming being a series of individuals caught in the tangled web of life. When Teddy enters the audience knows nothing about him and there are virtually no 'clues'. Neither Teddy nor Ruth brings up their relation with the family until an indirect force causes Teddy to tell Ruth, "That's my father's chair". However, the lack of clarity makes the play seems unrealistically ambiguous.

Throughout the play we are looking for clarification of what we suspect about Mac and Jessie. There is none, just as we are forbidden the comfort of an obvious meaning to the play.

The Homecoming is brimming with unrealism. In real life, people are not built as representatives of certain qualities. Watching a Pinter play it is evident that Sam's presence is representative of morality. Ruth could be a representative of silent power. She retorts to the world as she encounters it where men will exploit women, "and you'd have the whole of your daytime free, of course. You could do a bit of cooking here if you wanted to....make the beds......scrub the place out a bit". Except Ruth is prepared to fight back. Her appearance as a silent wife and mother figure "can I sit down?", "I think...the children...might be missing us" provokes the men to believe she is vulnerable and submissive whilst eventually becoming the most powerful, shown dramatically in her conversation with Lenny, " How did you know she was deceased?". It is proved that Ruth's power is far more effective than the pushy power exerted by Lenny and Max, "I just gave her another belt in the nose and a couple of!

"Have a sip. Go on. Have a sip from my glass.

Pinter draws attention to this unrealistic extract through the repetition of "I" indicating that Sam is trying obsessively hard to convince Max that he always tried to be a decent brother to Max. Max seems weak and doesn't have the strength to interrupt and argue with Sam but his silence, doubting tone and rhetorical sentences make Sam seem even more desperate to convince him. However, it is never actually said that Jessie had affairs, or was a prostitute, simply implied, which is far more common in real life conversation. It seems to me, however, that Pinter over-uses this technique and by the end of the play, it is irritating. Yet this could be Pinter's intention, for real life can be extremely irritating and uncontrollable. The ambiguity of life is reflected in the ambiguity of the play and its meaning, if there is one.

. The word has sexual connotations unnecessary in this context. It is unrealistic that a man would be flirting with his brother's wife in such a blatantly obvious and crude manner and even more unrealistic that she would respond so openly,

Sit on my lap. Take a long cool sip.

She stands. Moves to him with the glass.

ters themselves in their enclosed community. Unrealistically no outside forces generate menace therefore they lose all integrity and respect from the audience.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Max Max, Lenny Ruth, MacGregor Jessie, Pause Mind, Lenny Max, , Watching Pinter, Jessie Lenny's, Pause Sit, Ruth Teddy, real life, lack respect, throughout play, lenny appears, wasn't bad, play homecoming, respect audience, menace play, true life,
Approximate Word count = 1737
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)