LOOT: Hal

Question 1

SEX and WOMEN
1. (FAY) “How do you sleep, Harold?”
(HAL) “Alone.”
2. “You’ve never had the blessing of a rape…broke a tooth in the struggle, she did” (about Dennis)
3. “I’d have two Irish birds. A decent Catholic. And a Protestant.”

Answer 1

1. Obsession with sex, instead of morality.
   -> Just like politicians involved in the Sex Scandals of the 1960s? Especially following McLeavy’s speech, full of political clichés/language.
2. Shocking - casual/positive language (“blessing -> biblical? darkness in religion) contradicting the unforgivable action -> Ortonesque farce - lays out corruption/holds up a mirror to the darkness in society, without offering your typical farcical resolution.
   -> Attitudes to women - “broke a tooth” -> her action, removing blame from Dennis - disrespect, dehumanisation, objectification (“bird” = animalistic, primal, only sexual).
   3.
   -> “have” - sex as a commodity, power over women.
   -> “birds” - like pets, ownership over women - dehumanising them, making animalistic.
   -> “decent Catholic” - a), displaying an absurd hierarchy and b), mocking compartmentalisation of religion, as sins/actions are identical.

Question 2

DECEPTION
1. “The signal for tears”
2. (TRUSCOTT: “What’s going on in this house?”)
HAL: “Nothing”

Answer 2

1. Apathy at a funeral.
   -> Deadpan.
   -> Performative - compelled/forced, showing ultimate detachment.
   -> Abiding by social constructs - no emotion.
2. Hal is UNABLE TO LIE.
   -> Mocks him - he becomes a caricature of an inept criminal, making his actions, as well as being disturbing, farcical and Carnevalesque (eg. going to Portugal, not Spain -> criminal hotspot of Europe).
   -> Therefore, this must be true! and what’s going on in the house is normal in society - exposing.
   GENRE: Farce
   -> We almost become complicit in our laughter, which is directed at highly dubious morals - laughter which in itself arguably breaks the fourth wall between the corrupt, farcical world on stage, and our world,
   
   • Therefore Orton argues there is no difference
     between the two.
     -> T: “What has just taken place…had better go no farther than these three walls.”
   • Fourth Wall -> message goes out to the audience, so
     that Orton makes sure the public (like Mr McLeavy)
     can finally see the corruption.
   • THEATRE: Audience cannot leave/get away from the
     message/shock.