Spinks
Pinter only provides skeletal stage setting throughout the play, and offers no physical descriptions of any of the principal characters. Strangely, the only character who is described physically is Spinks, the writer represented by Jerry who never appears onstage. In Scene Six, Jerry says that "he's a very thin bloke. About fifty. Wears dark glasses day and night" (p. 81). This physical imagery lends the impression that Spinks is a curious, enigmatic figure. Moreover, the imagery is especially vivid given the lack of description for every other character in the play.
Torcello at Dawn
In Scene Seven, Robert tells Jerry about his visit to Venice while the two have lunch at an Italian restaurant. Robert mentions that the "highpoint" was his trip to the nearby island of Torcello. In his words, it was an "incredible day. I got up very early and – whoomp – right across the lagoon – to Torcello. Not a soul stirring" (p. 93). For a play compromised mostly of muted dialogue, this is a moment of particular vividness. The image of Robert riding in a speedboat (enhanced by the onomatopoeia "whoomp") is even more impactful given that the reader knows that Emma told Robert about her affair with Jerry the night before. With neither his wife by his side nor a "soul stirring," Robert is left completely alone.
Jerry and the Bride
In the final scene of the play (though the first scene chronologically) Jerry attempts to seduce Emma during a party hosted at her and Robert's home. The two stand alone in Robert and Emma's bedroom, and Jerry begins to speak hyperbolically and passionately about his feelings for Emma, saying "I should have had you, in your white, before the wedding. I should have blackened you, in your white wedding dress, blackened you in your bridal dress, before ushering you into your wedding, as your best man" (p. 114). Here, Jerry speaks possessively of wanting to "have" Emma and suggests that in the process she would be "blackened," as though robbed of purity. It is a disturbing image, and one that reveals both the extent of Jerry's selfishness as well as his lack of moral scruples.
Charlotte Aloft
Throughout the play, Emma and Jerry recall a strange scene which occurred several years before the chronological beginning of the play. In Scene Six, Jerry says "do you remember, when was it, a few years ago, we were all in your kitchen, must have been Christmas or something, do you remember, all the kids were running about and suddenly I picked Charlotte up and lifted her high up, high up, and then down and up" (p. 84). This image evokes the sort of happiness and kinship that might have existed before Jerry and Emma began their affair. Contrary to the scenes in the play, which feature just two or three characters, this memory is busy with people and activity. In this way, Pinter suggests that Jerry and Emma's decision to begin their affair, and thus betray their families, has resulted in loneliness and disconnection.
