Davies: the Caretaker

• Introduction

I went into a room and saw one person standing up and one person sitting down, and few weeks later, I wrote The Room. I went into another room and saw two people sitting down and a few years later, I wrote The Birthday Party. I looked through a door into a third room and saw two people standing up and I wrote The Caretaker.

Harold Pinter

The Caretaker is a play in three acts by the well-known British playwright Harold Pinter. It was published in 1960. It’s centered around three main characters, Davies, Aston and Mick. 

• Davies as the Protagonist

The portrayal of Davies is a bitter commentary on the human condition.

Ruby Cohen

Davies is a tramp, the central character of the play. After a fight at his cafe job, he is brought by Aston to the room where he is offered the position of a caretaker, though he has not experience of it. At the end, he is thrown out from the room as Aston and Mick need him no more in their room and life as well. It is controversial either it was Davies who is responsible for not having stable job or the society in which he is considered as anti-social.  

• Davies – Aston relationship

The Davies Aston relationship begins with Aston apparently in command of the situation as both host and rescuer of Davies. His calm, quiet acceptance of the uneasy guest seems a natural posture of superiority and Davies at first accepts it as such. As both guest and rescued, Davies in contrast to Aston, is noisy, repetitive, and insecure.

Though, Aston is mentally not stable, he is helpful to others as we can see he helps Davies. Davies has a very good relations with Aston but later on he starts complaining about Aston to Mick.

• Davies’ complaints about Aston

Davies has a lot to complaint about in terms of Aston, and while much of it is quotidian and not all that interesting, this is important one:

I mean, we don’t have any conversation, you see? You can’t live in the same room with someone who…who don’t have any conversation with you.

Davies

• Davies’ racial prejudices  

All them Greeks had it, Poles, Greeks, Blacks, the lot of them, all them aliens had it…and they had me working there.

Davies

From the very first, Davies appears quite fixed on race. It can be considered as defense mechanism. He does not like other races. He represents the racial prejudices in the society in Britain in 1950s.

• Davies’ love for cleanliness

It’s because of dirty habits, I left my wife. After we were married just for a week…

Davies

Davies likes cleanliness; he doesn’t like those people who are dirty or not having sense of personal hygiene. For him, cleanliness matters a lot that we can see, he left his wife for this reason. He maintains cleanliness even in hard times of his life.  

• Quest for Identity

In some respect the three characters of The Caretaker are all in search of their identity in all dispossessed, all in search of their identity in a materialistic world.

Burkman

Davies has two names Mac Davies and Bernard Jenkins,  his real name and his commonly accepted name. Besides, he often mentions his identity papers which are not with him but he will fetch them from Sidcup.

• Conclusion

To conclude, one can say, Davies is the central character of The Cretaker and he represents the modern man after the Second World War.