DEPICTION OF EXISTENTIAL ANXIETY IN HAROLD PINTER’S THE ROOM

The term ‘Existentialism' might appear paradoxical or even absurd, as it (existentialism) is not a viewpoint, typically associated with any sort of idealism. It can be perceived as an inverse kind of idealism, as it does pre-suppose the philosophy of existence or being, which is in some indirect sense, idealized. Pinter's existentialism conforms to it in a different way. For him, it is not the man or the universe that is absurd, but man's relationship to the universe. This paper focuses on the way Pinter portrays the characters' existential anxiety, fear, angst, isolation and alienation in his first play The Room. The play symbolically displays the existential anxiety of man's situation through the mingling of reality and symbolic. The dramatist also intensifies the sense of alienation by creating the atmosphere of menace.