Ashes to Ashes: Dramatic Violence and Audience's Reaction

In Pinter's late representative play Ashes to Ashes, the theme of violence has never been so ambiguous and complicated so far. Pinter has superposed his reference of violence on both the macroscopic and microscopic levels and added to ambiguity through the use of multi narrative perspectives, contradictory discourse and referential plots throughout the play. This article applies James Phelan's narrative progression and narrative judgment theory as well as Wolfgang Iser's readers' response theory to the analysis of Ashes to Ashes' dramatic presentation of violence, analyzing the audience's narrative judgment as well as their response to the theatrical presentation of ambiguity and complexity. This article tries to reveal Ashes to Ashes' dramatic charm.