N.F. Simpson's Play A Resounding Tinkle as a Satire on Suburbia - an Interpretation of Themes, Motifs, Figures, Attitudes, Language etc

Seminar paper from the year 2003 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1 (A), University of Frankfurt (Main) (Institute for Anglistics/American Studies), course: British Varieties of the Drama of the Absurd: Pinter, Simpson, Saunders, Campton, 8 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: Literary critics have discussed N.F. Simpson's one-act play A Resounding Tinklein a controversial manner. A number of them saw it as a representative of theBritish variety of the Theatre of the Absurd (Esslin 1964: passim); othersexpress doubts that there really is a serious philosophical intent and state thatSimpson tries to amuse his audience for more superficial reasons (Fothergill 1973:passim).Leaving these questions aside I will focus on the question whether the one-actversion of A Resounding Tinkle can or has to be interpreted as socio-culturalcriticism. By analysis of the motifs, characters, structure and language I will try toshow in how far Simpson makes allusions to suburbia and satirises the middleclasssociety. The term suburbia is frequently used by various authors. Most educated readerswill have a more or less clear idea of the phenomenon it stands for. It is howeverdifficult to find a full, comprehensive and precise definition of the term inliterature. For my analysis it is nevertheless indispensable to define the termsuburbia before analysing and interpreting the play. Due to the lack of literatureabout this topic I have to rely on my own experience with and knowledge aboutsuburbia. Additionally I base my definition on the thorough research work ofDavid Thorns from whose book Suburbia (1972) I give a number of quotations. It is difficult to give a date for the beginning of suburbanisation, but thephenomenon is known since after the Second World War. Urbanisation, havingreached a practical point of saturation, lead to suburbanisation, the desire to live inneighbourhoods with green spaces. (During the Industrial Revolution of the late18th and 19th centuries people had started to move from the country into thecities, which therefore grew at an enormous speed. The quality of life began todecrease in the overcrowded cities. Poverty and lack of space for the individual made living in the cities more strenuous.) [...]