SOURCE: “The Epistemological Quest in Pinter's The Homecoming,” in Contemporary Literature, Vol. 11, No. 3, Summer, 1970, pp. 340-53.

In the following essay, Warner argues that The Homecoming asks the audience to reevaluate their expectations and values.

No one denied the brilliance of the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of The Homecoming when it was first produced in London in 1965 or later in New York in 1967. Harold Pinter's mysterious play elicited, however, responses that ranged from bafflement to outrage. One English critic found the key to the meaning of the play in the chance remark of a member of the audience that the characters all “behaved like animals.” Ronald Bryden concedes that Pinter “has written a stylish entertainment, but not much more. All that remains is a flavour. Still, it is a strong, individual one. Perhaps it is enough for him that, like the beasts which fascinate him, he has staked out...