The Homecoming - Symbolism and Irony of Title

Symbolism and Irony of Title

In addition to the play being about Teddy's "homecoming," its ending suggests that another symbolic homecoming on a variety of levels is Ruth's. Symbolically, Ruth comes "home" to "herself" (rediscovers her previous identity prior to her marriage to Teddy) and to this woman-less (motherless, wifeless, sister-in-lawless) family (Max, Lenny, Joey, and Sam), ironically, in the process, rendering her own family with Teddy similarly without (mother, wife, woman).

By the end of the play, Ruth appears to have assumed the multiple roles of Jessie, the London family's missing wife and mother, the missing woman in their household ("mother/wife/whore"), while putting the American family of Ruth and Teddy in a parallel position, reversing the situation at the beginning of the play. In that sense, the play recalls Edward's reversal of roles with the silent Matchseller in Pinter's 1959 play A Slight Ache, initially broadcast on BBC Radio 3, and similarly ironic plot and character role-reversals resulting from power struggles throughout many of Pinter's other plays (Merritt, Pinter in Play 101; Batty, About Pinter 39–41).

For many critics the missing wall in the house, "removed" after Jessie's death, symbolises the absent female influence. After Teddy "comes home" with his wife, Ruth, Max invites her to remain in London. She agrees, in effect, to "come home" as the family's missing mother figure and possibly also a prostitute whom Lenny can pimp, hence filling in the gap created when "their mother died": "I've never had a whore under this roof before. Ever since your mother died" (58). Upon first seeing Ruth, Max believes that his eldest son, Teddy, has brought a "filthy scrubber" (like Jessie) into "my house" (57–58). A major irony of the play is that Max's apparent mistaken first assumption comes to appear accurate as they (and the audience) get to "know" Ruth better (65–76).

Pinter's "Homecoming" is considered to be one of the best plays in Absurdist Theatre as it has been revived many times since its first premiere in London.