A Lacanian Study of Harold Pinter’s A Night Out

The present study examines Harold Pinter’s A Night Out (۱۹۵۹) using Jacques Lacan’s psychoanalytical model. This study applies Lacanian theories of psychoanalysis including the Imaginary, the Symbolic and the Real providing an alternative understanding of Pinter’s play. Suggested by Lacan, humans go through certain orders forming identity in the early years of life. Acquiring the language and developing psychological aspects of personality for an infant are similar to the mental struggles the characters in Pinter’s plays experience. The purpose of this study is to fill the gap of the previous studies by offering a psychoanalytical connection between Lacan and Pinter. The findings of this study will show that Albert in this play is stuck in the stages of development proposed by Lacan. He cannot go through the Imaginary and the Symbolic successfully as a result he is left alone, isolated and alienated. Reading Lacan, we learn that we spend all our life looking for our objet petit a and trying to satisfy our desires. Albert’s unfamiliar experiences will become clear when we accompany him on his psychological journey.

Keywords:

psychoanalysis , Lacan , the Imaginary , the Symbolic , the Real , Harold Pinter , A Night Out