The challenge of life and identity: Game theory and Pinter's dramatic menace

The detection of the application of Game theory, a method of applied mathematics, has been tried out with different topics and has attracted the view of many researchers. Its application to literary genres proves to be highly novel and interesting. Characterization as the major element of the dramatic genre has proved to lend itself to this theory. If one detects literary materials as a series of decisions in which each character's decision or action relies on the previous thoughts and wishes of others, it sounds to be a game, based on the formal game-theory introduction. Hence, implausible decisions or deeds prove to be rational in the course of a game. The current study has tried to appraise Pinter’s plays, Birthday Party and Caretaker, in light of the game theory and model them in trees and matrices. These plays prove to be nonzero-sum Games in which the characters' dominant strategies are associated with Nash Equilibrium, none of the characters is a winner at the end, and they sound to be involved in the absurd and endless game of life controlled by invisibly menacing systems and forces.

Keywords:

game theory , Literature , Pinter , plays , Game tree model , characterization