What is the author's style in The Homecoming by Harold Pinter?

Language for Pinter is never divorced from tactical maneuvering. He very carefully catches the rhythms of thought and language, and he structures these rhythms partly through his use of pauses and silences written into the script. These rhythms are also integral to the situation and relationships. While a great deal has been written about the use of these devices, they are not really mysterious to the astute actor: they are part of the thought processes. Pinter put it very succinctly in his conversation with Gussow when he said, "The pause is a pause because of what has just happened in the minds and guts of the characters. They spring out of the text

They're not formal conveniences or stresses but part of the body of the action. . . . And a silence equally means that something has happened to create the impossibility of anyone speaking for a certain amount of time-until they can recover from whatever happened before the silence." Nevertheless, to an audience used to hearing rationally logical conversations in plays of the realistic style, the more elusive-and more "real"-dialogue of Pinter's plays caused confusion.