Though Pinter belongs to the Theatre of the Absurd, the language[F1] linguaggio he uses in his works differs from the other Absurdists’. Pinter’s originality lies in the different use he makes of words. His style has been labelled as pinteresque for its originality. He reproduces the rhythm of everyday speech, so in general Pinter’s characters speak a colloquial language but they may also adopt slang, idiomatic expressions, non-standard grammar or – on the contrary – they may adopt elevated language, depending on their social position.
He never destroys the syntactic structure of the sentences, but attains ambiguity through the evasiveness of the characters answers, the imprecision of their memories and the contradiction of their statements.
His dialogues, quite often “duologues” have a realistic language as close as possible to actual spoken language, made up of syntactic mistakes, trivial remarks, repetitions (since, as Pinter said, “the everyday conversation is repetitious and inconsistent or both”).
Pinter not only reproduces the rhythm of spoken London English, he is also a master of meaningful pauses and silences..
In 1962 he cleared up:
“There are two silences. One when no word is spoken. The other when perhaps a torrent of language is employed…The speech we hear is an indication of that we don’t hear. It is necessary avoidance, a violent, sly, anguished or mocking smokescreen which keeps the other in its place. When true silence falls we are still left with an echo but are nearer nakedness. One way of looking at speech is to say it is a constant stratagem to cover nakedness”.
