The Caretaker by Harold Pinter

The Caretaker by Harold Pinter

In this essay I will take the position that the audience see Davies as

both a social victim and a social parasite. Firstly a definition of a

social victim and a social parasite will be given. A social victim is

an individual who is looked down upon by other members of society,

vulnerable to blame and not accorded the same rights as others.

Therefore this disenfranchised group of people do not experience the

usual comforts and perks of society. A social parasite is someone who

exists off the backs of others efforts and not their own.

Davies is a social victim because of his low social standing as a

vagrant. He is definitely at the bottom of the social hierarchy;

perhaps he is there because others have trodden on him to climb higher

themselves .It is not explained how, but what we do know is that

because Davies is a social victim, to survive he also becomes a social

parasite.

Throughout the play Davies shows some strong traits to the audience of

being a social victim. The audience's very first impression of Davies

is 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 either

does not take a large amount of care in his appearance, or he cannot

afford smart, tidy clothes. This makes the audience feel sorry for

him. The audience recognises that his anti-social appearance sets

Davies apart from the rest of society. The waistcoat Davies is wearing

gives the impression that he was once a respected gentleman. However,

the worn and shapeless clothes he is also wearing in contrast with the

waistcoat make him look unkempt and scruffy. Davies likes to portray

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...aps he had the

intention of stealing from Aston. He noticeably does not want Aston to

see him looking around in this way; this is shown because Davies opens

the door to see if Aston is gone, and then closes before looking

around. It could be considered that Davies does this because he would

not want Aston to think he is taking advantage of him. Davies is

inquisitive. He picks up some random items of Aston's, comments on

them, and puts them back. To the audience, Davies is so interested in

Aston's things because he wants to see what Aston is worth. If Aston

had little, there would be less point in staying, as there would

nothing to gain from Davies' perspective.

To conclude, there are many episodes within the first act that reflect

both Davies' victimisation and his opportunism, thus enabling the

audience to view him as social victim and social parasite.