The Homecoming

The theme of Power in “The Homecoming”

“Consider to what extent “The Homecoming” is a power struggle”

Harold Pinter’s play The Homecoming has one main important theme: the one of power. The definition of power is the ability to influence the behaviour of others. The characters in this play try to exert power over each other using sexuality and violence. The violence is shown through threats and threatened acts of violence such as hitting each other.

The first scene of the play is one of conflict between father, Max, and son, Lenny. Max threatens to hit his son with his stick after Lenny insults him. He says “don’t talk to me like that” while waving his stick at him, the power that should hold this threat is non-existent as the threat itself is empty, Max will not actually hit his son and Lenny will not change his tone of voice. Lenny doesn’t even react which leads to understand that these empty threats are common and as the play continues we see that they are a way of life and not really a display of power.
Each scene of the play is filled with a power struggle, each character holds a certain position and is constantly competing with others to try and gain power.
Max is the father figure he therefore believes he is the most powerful.
Lenny works as a pimp and is used to exerting full power of his prostitutes and most women, which will not be the case with Ruth, he will be overpowered by her sexuality.
Joey is a boxer, he gets his power from his strength and violent actions, he confesses to raping a woman, but even with this certain experience he doesn’t manage to get anywhere with Ruth even after taking her upstairs to the bedroom for two hours.
On the other hand, Teddy and Sam are rather passive, Teddy refuses to take part in any of his family’s plans to overpower Ruth and control her. He is a professor of Philosophy back in America although he is quite incapable of answering a simple question asked by Lenny: “what do you make of all this business of being and not being?” 
Sam is a taxi driver, he is a calm individual regularly insulted by his brother, he doesn’t have much authority and, like Teddy, isn’t able to exert any of the power he actually has. He is insulted by his brother as he takes care of all the cooking and cleaning in the household since Jessie has died “Joey (pointing to Max): “he’s the cook””. Max sees this as a weakness, even tells his brother he thinks he is gay: “anyone could have you at the same time. You’d bend over for half a dollar on Blackfriers Bridge”. No one in the household gives him credit for his work therefore he cannot exploit the power he holds, it goes unrecognised.

The men’s lives are revealed as the play goes on but Ruth’s past stays a mystery, she drops little hints such as being a photographic model for the body. Her air of mystery allows her to take control of the men. She fills the position of a mother which is cruelly lacking in the family since the death of Jessie, Max’s late wife. The men look towards her for attention, acting in some sort as her children. Her position as the new head of the family makes her powerful although she did not gain this position through violence. She unites the family; she becomes the centre of attention as the men focus of her. She is desired by all the men as she can provide sexual care as well as food and all the other necessities.
When Teddy and Ruth lived in America they lived a dull life, Ruth was dominated by her husband, and supposedly she had all she ever wanted, 3 children and being the wife of a professor. Being in England she finds herself in an environment where she can dominate and undermine Teddy’s ideas. She clearly defeats him in a power struggle when it comes to a philosophical question asked by Lenny. Ruth cuts in and although her answer is not one of intelligence it brings us back to her sexual power, she uses her body and underwear as an example rather than the table used in a previous example by Lenny. Teddy makes no attempt to stop her as she distracts the attention from him. Ruth gradually stops listening to her husband, even when he talks about her children, and he will go back to America alone.
Lenny and Joey each tell Ruth rather violent stories of how they have assaulted or raped women, these stories serve as a way of showing their power and control over women through the use of violence. The rape of the prostitutes is violent with no spoken consent of the women, the story doesn’t seem to disturb the family in the least and conversation continues as if nothing important had been said. Having been deprived of a sexual figure in the household these rapes are seen as a way to satisfy their urges.
Near the end of the play the men (except Teddy and Sam) come together for a common cause: making Ruth into the family prostitute. They seem to hold power through unity and think they can control Ruth however they please but quickly Ruth takes back the power they had shortly gained. She demands certain terms to the contract, such as an apartment with three rooms and a personal maid, and the men have no other choice but to oblige to her whims.

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