The Philosophy and Functions of Verbal Violence in Harold Pinter's Mountain Language: A CDA Approach
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The Philosophy and Functions of Verbal Violence in Harold Pinter’s
Mountain Language: A CDA Approach
Behrooz Mahmoodi-Bakhtiari*
Mahsa Manavi**
Abstract
The present study considers the issue of verbal violence in the language of drama. In
the evaluation of verbal violence, Jeanette Malkin (2004) proposes six maxims, through
which language may be considered as an arrogant element. The characters in dramatic
texts (as in other literary texts) are created, developed, evolved and - in some cases -
destroyed by language. In a considerable number of modern plays, language acts as an
antagonist who is to destruct and demolish the personality of the other(s) in the play
with violence and aggression; so, the theoretical study of dramatic verbal violence as a
component of dramatic discourse is considered indispensible to critical discourse analysis
of dramatic texts and the study of power relations as reflected in the dialogues.; Focusing
on the patterns of dramatic verbal violence introduced by Malkin, this study aims to
discuss the dominant patterns of verbal violence in Mountain Language, a play by Harold
Pinter, and investigates the role of language in shaping, and destroying of human identities
Key Words: verbal violence, discourse analysis, stylistics of drama, Pinter, Mountain
Language, Malkin.
*. Associate Professor, University of Tehran. Email: mbakhtiari@ut.ac.ir
**.M. A. Graduate of English literature, Kharzmi University, Tehran. Email: Manavi_mahsa@yahoo.comIntroduction study of dramatic verbal violence as a
Most analysts in critical discourse component of dramatic discourse sounds
analysis (CDA) endorse the claim that indispensible to discourse analysis of
language can be regarded as a medium dramatic language.
of domination and social force, serving In the plays by Harold Pinter, territory
to legitimize the relations of organized is typically a room (refuge, prison, cell,
power. Insofar as the legitimizations trap) symbolic of its occupant’s world. Into
of power relations are not articulated, this, and into their ritualized relationship
language is also ideological, portraying with its rules and taboos, comes a stranger
the structural relationships of dominance, on to whom the occupants project their
discrimination, power and control as deepest desires, guilt and neuroses (See
manifested in itself. Typically, CDA (Gale Contextual Encyclopedia of World
researchers are interested in the way Literature). The breakdown that follows
discourse (re)produces social domination, may be mirrored in the breakdown
that is, the power abuse of one group over of language. His preoccupation with
others, and how dominated groups may confined spaces, with small rooms, with
discursively resist such abuse (Wodak, constraining circumstances and brief
37
2001: 9). In other words “texts are often events provides a context for exploring
sites of struggle in that they show traces the complexities of local pictures, the
of differing discourses and ideologies instability and indispensability of verbal
contending and struggling for dominance” interaction, the shifting status of social
(ibid. 10). Wodak believes that language realities, the precariousness of attempts
indexes and expresses power, and is to establish general agreement and the
involved where there is contention over riskiness of anyone’s efforts to function as
and challenge to power. It shall be noted leader or spokesperson for a social group
that power does not necessarily derive (Quigley, 2009: 9). In his paper entitled
from language, but language can be used “The Theatre of Harold Pinter” Dukore
to challenge power, to subvert it, to alter (1962: 43-44) notes that Pinter’s plays
distributions of power in the short and the are frequently funny and also frequently
long term (ibid. 10). frightening. Their meaning usually
The characters in dramatic texts (as in seems obscure. The characters behave
other literary texts) are created, developed, in a “believable” manner, but they are
evolved and in some cases destroyed shrouded in twilight of mystery. We can
by the medium of language. Since the never be precisely sure who they are, why
characterization is done through the they are there, or what they have come to
dialogues of the characters, the theoretical do. Their motives and backgrounds areQuarterly Third Year, No. 11 Summer 2015
vague or unknown. We recognize that there varied; they vary in genre, in idiom, and
is motivation but we are unsure what it is. in subject matter. In the works of Harold
We recognize that there is a background, Pinter, for instance, concrete actions of
but that background is clouded. Each piece language which are violent, coercive, and
of knowledge is a half-knowledge, each domineering are demonstrated. “Language
answer a springboard to new questions. is either metamorphosed into a dramatic
antagonist that destroys the characters
Verbal Violence: Some Basic or forces them into conformity with its
Theoretical Issues pre-given structures and precepts; or it is
Dramatic inquiry into the relationship portrayed as an inescapable prison which
between man and his language is hardly determines the characters’ fate and defines
a uniquely contemporary (post-World War the limits of their world — conceptual and
II) phenomenon. Jarry’s King Ubu (1896), moral” (See. Malkin: 2). According to the
Shaw’s Pygmalion (1913), Hofmannsthal’s investigations of Malkin, man speaks so
The Difficult Man (Der Schwierige, far as he skillfully conforms to language
1921), some Dada theater evenings, the and language functions upon us: closing
Volksstiicke of Odon von Horvath and us in within its own laws and restrictions,
38 Marieluise Fleisser all suggest, in varying coercing our obedience.
ways, a concern with this issue (Malkin, This study is concerned with the
2004: 1). The elevation of language to the issue of verbal violence in the short
central action, and actor; in the pessimistic play Mountain Language (1988), one
vision of man’s ability to remain free and of Pinter’s plays mostly involved with
humane in the face of verbal coercion; and the matter of violence done by means
in warning that man has become a prisoner of language. In this play, language gets
of his speech are the major factors which on trial: it stands accused of usurping
relate to this inquiry. Verbal violence and molding reality, of replacing critical
is a characteristic of recent twentieth- thought with fossilized and automatic
century drama. (Culpeper, 2002: 87). As verbiage, of violating man’s autonomy, of
long as any analysis of dialogue needs destroying his individuality.
to be sensitive to the social dynamics of As an avant-guard playwright, whose
interaction, it would be concerned with plays are also classified in the category of
critical discourse analysis, evaluating the Absurd drama, Pinter watchfully portrays
power- based relations and the systematic man’s miserable and tragic condition in the
operations of violence upon the human verbal world in which he has caught up.
subjects. His plays involve a considerable degree of
The plays that animate these views are violence. The characters have aggressiveconflicts with each other, or with their structures and precepts; or it is portrayed
surrounding world. This aggression as an inescapable prison which determines
which, in many of his plays culminates the characters’ fate and defines the limits
in acts of language-motivated violence, of their world - conceptual and moral
signals a disturbed and threatening (See. Malkin, 2). The following is the
relationship between contemporary man characteristic maxims of verbal violence:
and his language. 1- Language is demonstrated as
This study aims to investigate the antagonistic force operating upon the
aggression that centers to a great extent individual. 2- Language is a tyrannical
on the dramatization of man’s loss of weapon of dominance and destruction.
autonomy and selfhood through the 3- Language imprisons and brutalizes.
normative pressures, reductive tendencies, 4- Language is menacing torture
or pre-determination of language. interrogation. 5- Language embodies and
Focusing on the Malkin’s patterns of controls political power. 6- Language as
verbal violence, the present study aims verbal cruelty defines human relations.
to explain how language becomes an
autonomous element in the play; and Verbal Violence in Mountain
what kind of effect the autonomous play Language 39
of language has got upon the human Mountain Language (1988) consists of
individuals; what is the relation of human four short acts. The setting is in front of and
being with the language he speaks and within a prison. In the first act, a group of
how language becomes the ideological women who want to visit their imprisoned
apparatus that exercises power upon the husbands are standing at a prison wall.
human subjects. They have been standing there for eight
hours in the snow. They are questioned
The Patterns of Verbal Violence by a sergeant and an officer. One of the
Malkin (2004) introduces six major women is bitten by a dog. The officer tells
maxims for the analysis of verbal violence the women that their language, namely
in the language of drama. According to that of the mountain people, is forbidden
her, the verbal aggression demonstrates and that their husbands are enemies of the
concrete actions of language which are state. Althogether one of the women turns
violent, coercive, and domineering. In out not to belong to the mountain people.
contemporary drama language is either Act 2 is set in a visitor’s room, in which an
metamorphosed into a dramatic antagonist elderly woman visits a prisoner. She is told
that destroys the characters or forces by the guard not to talk in her own language
them into conformity with its pre-given and is jabbed by him with a stick, when sheQuarterly Third Year, No. 11 Summer 2015
does not obey. The prisoner turns out to be have yet committed no crime!
a joker. Act 3 is set in a corridor, where Sergeant: Sir! But you are not
a hooded man is led to a young woman. saying they are without sin?
She has come in through the wrong door. Officer: Oh, no. Oh, no. I’m not
The hooded man collapses and is dragged saying that!
off. The sergeant advises the woman to Sergeant: This one is full of it!
ask a specific person for information. She bounces with it! (Pinter, 8- 9)
The payment can be aggression. Act 4 is
again set in the visitor’s room. This time The stubborn repetition of the same
the elderly woman is allowed to talk in question is echoed by an equally stubborn
her own language but she keeps silent. echo of the same answer, thus ridiculing
The prisoner, her son, falls from his chair, the formal procedure of questioning. Later
violently shaking. on this formal procedure is again ridiculed,
when the officer claims that the dogs do
The Analysis give their names before they bite - as this
Language is demonstrated as is the formal procedure. The assumption
antagonistic force operating upon of moral behavior and some code of honor
40 the individual. in dogs are so absurd:
The individual is converted from his
language to the one imposed upon him. Officer: Every dog has a name!
The speech in dialogue of cruelty is They answer to their name! They
saturated with unrealistic verbal assault are given a name by their parents
and vague phrases. The human subject and that is their name! That is their
silenced and emptied of his language, is name! Before they bite, they state
reshaped by the language which destroyed their name. It’s a formal procedure!
him. The totalitarian style allows no space
of response and self-defense for the victim The meaninglessness of the jargon
of verbal aggression. These are features of contributes to dumbness of the mind of
the so-called interrogation: The vicious, the individual under subjugation of the
irrational and contradictory accusations powerful.
of the victim which has the power of
creating an image of the impersonal web Language is a tyrannical weapon
that society weaves in order to snare the of dominance and destruction.
individual (See. Malkin, 58). The control of the subject takes place
through possession of the language: The
Officer: These women, sergeant, voice of the victim grows dull and dulland he gives acquiescent responses to of sessions of interrogation he is being
the opponents. His energy gradually force-fed clichés, faked truths and so on.
wanes, and he repeats the words dictated This happens implicitly, and affects the
to him (See. Malkin, 43). The victimized unconscious, so that individual is not able to
characters in the play, the elderly woman, get noticed of his own being brain-washed.
her son and Sara all undergo the harsh The peaceful and friendly conversation
verbal violence, they are being dominated abruptly switches to interrogation (See.
and ultimately are silenced and mutilated. Malkin, 57), and interrogation serves to
reshape the individual as product of the
3- Language imprisons and domineering organization (party), and
brutalizes. also extracts confession and converts
The individual is a prisoner in the belief through the force of the word the
painfully limited, obscene and cliché- quick, gapless rhythm of speaking of the
ridden verbal world. In literary texts this victimizers, as well as accelerating speed
finds its articulation when the characters and rhythm of speech which take on the
are imprisoned in the rigid system of tone and threatening curtness of public
language. This stunts the relationship prosecuters.
between characters and the outer world, The totalitarian style, in the process 41
so that the individual has no way out of of violent dialogue, allows no space of
this harsh, rigidly rule governed system of response and self-defense for the victim.
language (Malkin, 104). He or she as the These are features of the so-called
inmate of this system is prevented to think interrogation: The vicious, irrational and
beyond the fragmented speech-world. contradictory accusations of the victim
(p.58),
Elderly woman: I have bread- The case of Sara in prison exemplifies
The guard jabs her with a stick this condition. A hooded man closes her,
She looks at him. He jabs her. and in a give and take of some sentences
Elderly woman: I have apples- the young woman is abused, and ultimately
The guard jabs her and shouts. the act is so naturalized that the woman
Silence offers another sessions of it, herself. (See.
(Pinter, 13- 14) Pinter, 19)
4- Language is menacing torture The speech in dialogue of cruelty is
interrogation. saturated with unrealistic verbal assault
When the individual is socially, and vague phrases. The individual silenced
politically or mentally insurgent, in a set and emptied of his language, is reshapedQuarterly Third Year, No. 11 Summer 2015
by the language which destroyed him. attempts to resist the authority of the
The peaceful and friendly conversation officials through her questions and her
abruptly switches to interrogation: silences. She meets the officials’ repeated,
foolish questions with silence, refusing
Guard: I’ve got a wife and three to participate in meaningless dialogue.
kids. And you are all pile of shit. Yet by the end of the play, her spirit has
Silence effectively broken by the totalitarian
Prisoner: I’ve got a wife and three system.
kids. The meaningless jargon of the officer
Guard: You’ve got what? and sergeant gradually brings the men into
Silence silence and conformity. They have given
Guard: You’ve what? every dog a name, in the case of young
Silence woman’s pleading, they ask dog’s name
Guard: What did you say to me? that has bitten the elderly woman’s hand.
You’ve what? According to them, dogs have human
Silence (Pinter, 15) attributes and possess rights that mountain
men do not.
42 And interrogation serves to reshape the
individual as product of the domineering Young woman: She’s been bitten.
organization (party), and also extracts Officer: Who?
confession and converts belief through Young woman: She has. She has
the force of the word the quick, gapless a torn hand. Look. Her hand has
rhythm of speaking of the victimizers, been bitten this is blood.
as well as accelerating speed and rhythm Officer: Who did this?
of speech which take on the tone and Young woman: A big dog.
threatening curtness of public prosecuters. Officer: What was his name?
(Pause) every dog has a name!
Sergeant: Name? They answer to their name. They
Young woman: We’ve given our are given a name by their parents
names! and that is their name! Before they
Sergeant: Name? bite, they state their name. It’s a
Young woman: We’ve given our formal procedure. They state their
names. name and then they bite. What
Sergeant: Name? was his name? If you tell me one
Officer: Stop this shit! (Pinter, of our dogs bit this woman without
1988: 5) giving his name I will have that
Sara (the young woman) makes dog shot! (Pinter, 8)It is seen here that the interrogation Remember that.
serves to reshape the individual as product Sergeant: Sir! But you’re not
of the domineering organization (party), saying they are without sin?
and also extracts confession and converts Officer: Oh, no. Oh, no, I’m not
belief through the force of the word the saying that.
quick, gapless rhythm of speaking of the Sergeant: This one’s full of it. She
victimizers, as well as accelerating speed bounces with it.
and rhythm of speech which take on the Officer: She doesn’t speak the
tone and threatening curtness of public mountain language.
prosecuters. Sergeant: So is she. She looks
Sergeant and officer are torturing the like a fucking intellectual to me.
young woman, their language shifts from (Pinter, 10- 11)
normal tone to threatening interrogation.
The opponents who speak in the approved 5-Language embodies and
language, have right to accuse and blame controls political power.
the mountain people for unreasonable Characters are overtaken by language
matters. Although the young woman does and are either destroyed or converted
not speak in mountain language, she is and forced into preexisting verbal molds 43
a victim. They address her with abusive which, implicitly or explicitly implicate
terms and accuse her of being sinful. Sara a ruling ideology. Verbal terrorism is
continually tries to communicate with another matter; the users of terror are
the prison officials in order to convince the instrument of verbal power rather
them to treat her and the others humanly, than autonomous speaking individuals.
but her dialogue with them continually Verbal terror occurs when the meaning
degenerates into pointless babble. When is frustrated and concealed from the
the officials realize that Sara is not a audience. So, terror is conceived as the
mountain woman and so cannot control her usurpation of individual’s capacity to
due to her social status, they find another speak, and thus think, freely.
way to exercise power over her. After the People speaking in mountain language
sergeant identifies her as “f- intellectual,” are to be converted from their language.
he abuses her to assert his power over her. For their language is not accepted in the
totalitarian state. Although suddenly
Sergeant: What language do you the rule of prohibition is changed and
speak? What language do you mountain people are allowed to speak
speak with your arse? their own language, the old woman is no
Officer: These women, sergeant, longer able to utter any single word. She
have as yet committed no crime. does not react to any word of his son whoQuarterly Third Year, No. 11 Summer 2015
now speaks in their mountain language. You may only speak the language
Malkin states that the purpose of mental of the capital. That is the only
torture is to control and shape the mind language permitted in this place.
and also to gain power over the thoughts. You will be badly punished if you
Characters are overtaken by language attempt to speak your mountain
and are either destroyed or converted language in this place.
and forced into preexisting verbal molds
which, implicitly or explicitly implicate a Ruth Wodak assumes that “inclusion/
ruling ideology (See. Malkin, 150). The exclusion” of groups, people, nation states,
users of verbal terror are the instrument migrant groups, and so forth changes due
of verbal power rather than autonomous to different criteria of how insiders and
speaking individuals. As we see in the outsiders are defined in each instance.
play that the officer, the sergeant and the Thus a specific migrant status (coming
guard, although are playing violence upon from a certain host country) may serve as
the mountain people, they are apparatuses a criterion for exclusion (See. Renkema,
themselves. “Verbal terror occurs when 2009: 315). In Mountain Language, the
the meaning is frustrated and concealed victims, as human subjects under the
44 from the audience” (Malkin, 90). So, violence of the dominant, are called as
terror is conceived as the usurpation of “other”, for they are outsiders who are to
individual’s capacity to speak, and thus be demolished in order that the dominants
think, freely: exercise control and power more fully.
The elderly woman has undergone
Sergeant: Your husbands, your verbal tortures, has been forbidden from
sons, your fathers, these men speaking and talking to his prisoner son,
you have been waiting to see, are and now is in complete control of the state,
shithouses. They are enemies of for her language and thinking has been
the state. They are shithouses. manipulated. She grows weak and feeble,
Officer: Now here this. You and at the end is totally dumb, motionless,
are mountain people. You hear and not able to hear and speak:
me? Your language is dead. It is
forbidden. It is not permitted to Guard: they’ve changed the rules.
speak your mountain language in She can speak. She can speak in
this place. You cannot speak your her own language until further
language to your men. It is not notice.
permitted. Do you understand? You Prisoner: mother, you can speak.
may not speak it. It is outlawed. (pause) mother, I’m speakingto you. You see? We can speak. force operates upon the individual.
You can speak to me in our own According to Malkin, dialogue of
language. cruelty is wounding the person through
She is still teasing, insinuation and taunting through
You can speak. words alone. And second, Language is
Pause a tyrannical weapon of dominance and
Mother, can you hear me? destruction.
(Pause) it’s our language. (pause) Verbal cruelty brings ultimately the
Can’t you hear me? Do you hear destruction of the subject. Neither the
me? mother nor his son (the prisoner) is able
She does not respond. (21) to retain their subjective selfhood. Being
devoid of their language, and unable to
6- Language as verbal cruelty absorb the language of the powerful, they
defines human relations. are destructed by the totalitarian system:
Malkin believes that language
sometimes is treated as power tool, Prisoner: mother?
which is to be controlled and possessed. She does not respond. She sits still.
Verbal power is given through wit and The prisoner’s trembling grows. 45
creativity as conscious rebellion against He falls from the chair on to his
the banal, in this sense verbal power is knees, begins to gasp and shake
not given through linguistic control or by violently. (22)
“knowing words,” but through wit and
creativity. Sara is not of mountain people, Dialogue of cruelty is wounding the
she can speak her language, and due to person through teasing, insinuation and
this she possesses a degree of power in taunting through words alone (p.163).
her language, she questions, or does not Language is treated as power tool, which
reply their questions and is able to get is to be controlled and possessed (p.171).
engaged in the verbal playing with the Violent actions within language destroy
state men. In the beginning of the play individuality and bring the victim to
she pleads for help when the old woman conformity. One of the ways the prison
is bitten. Violent actions within language officials oppress the characters in the play
destroy individuality and bring the victim is to sensor them. In order to strip them
to conformity. of their cultural identity, they decree that
The below cited sample corresponds mountain language is forbidden, that it
with both the first and second maxim of should be considered dead, and those who
Malkin. First, language as antagonistic speak it will be severely punished. ThisQuarterly Third Year, No. 11 Summer 2015
censure not only denies the characters a indications. Language as the ideological
sense of self but also serves to isolate each apparatus has another function as well,
from the other because communication which is the corruption of free thought.
within the community becomes
impossible. 5-Language embodies and
The sample below also corresponds controls political power.
with the fifth maxim of Malkin that is And ultimately is the total destruction
language operating as power tool: of the character, the prisoner, when his
mother has been silenced. They declare
Officer: Now hear this. You that the rules have been changed; now
are mountain people. You hear the mountain language is no longer
me? Your language is dead. It is banned. They can speak. But in reality the
forbidden. It is not permitted to characters are knocked down under verbal
speak your mountain language in terrorism and aggression. Having lost the
this place. You cannot speak your linguistic power, characters are destructed.
language to your men. It is not This indicates that how absurdly and
permitted. Do you understand? You conventionally bound are the rules set in
46 may not speak it. It is outlawed. the society. And how miserable is the life
You may only speak the language of people subject to totalitarians:
of the capital. That is the only
language permitted in this place. Guard: I forgot to tell you.
You will be badly punished if you They’ve changed the rules. She
attempt to speak your mountain can speak. She can speak in her
language in this... (10) own language. Until further notice.
Prisoner: She can speak?
Language acts as an ideological Guard: Tell her she can speak
apparatus. It is bound to change at in her own language. New rules.
every time according to political plans. Until further notice.
According to Malkin, when Language Prisoner: Mother?
acts as the ideological apparatus it is the She does not respond. She sits still.
expression of values: the seamless web The Prisoner’s trembling grows.
of sententiousness, proverbial wisdom, He falls from the chair on to his
and social clichés (p.66), the verbal knees, begins to gasp and shake
formulations of moral norms (p.59) and violently. The Sergeant walks into
invocation of total and unquestioning the room and studies the prisoner
obedience and conformity (p.91) are of its shaking on the floor.The stuy of Pinter’s Mountain Language References
within Malkin’s pattern of verbal violence
shows that in modern times, the relation
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guage of Drama. London: Routledge, 2002.
world is stunted, since language is no
Dukore, Bernard. “The Theatre of Harold
longer an application in the human world,
Pinter”. The Tulane Drama Review, 6/3: 43-
and it operates automatically. The human
54, 1962.
individuals are subjects to the tyrannical
Esslin, Martin. The Theatre of the Absurd.
operations of language, and are being
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victimized by its rigid rules, although
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as we see in Mountain Language. The
Gilbert, Weiss and Ruth Wodak. Critical
character as the inmate of the rigid system
Discourse Analysis- Theory and Interdiscipli-
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temporary Drama. Cambridge: Cambridge 47
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Ashes to Ashes. London: faber and faber,
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Quigley, Austin. “Pinter, Politics, Post-
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voice, as represented in Mountain
Language.You can also read
