Entrapment in Relationships in August Strindberg’s The Father and Harold Pinter’s The Collection

Abstract

Modern drama is replete with different forms of entrapment in relationships and that is August Strindberg. Some authors have acknowledged their indebtedness to him and some have never mentioned it; Pinter is among the latter group. Though this paper does not investigate the influence of Strindberg on Pinter, studying these two plays, one can see the footsteps of Strindberg in Pinter's play. Employing Watzlawick and Laing's communication theory, this paper tries to investigate the shared concept of entrapment in relationships and the resemblance between these two playwrights.