Summary:
The play’s first scene begins with the scene-setting “Pub. 1977. Spring” (p. 3). Emma and Jerry are meeting at the pub for drinks; however, it is not yet revealed how they know each other, or why they are meeting. Their conversation is stilted and Jerry admits that he has a “hangover” (p. 4).
As they continue to make small talk, Emma admits that she had been thinking of Jerry, saying “Well, it’s nice, sometimes, to think back. Isn’t it?” (p. 4-5).
It is then revealed that it has been “two years” since Emma and Jerry last met alone (p. 6). Jerry then asks Emma, “how’s it going [at] The Gallery?” and she responds that it is going well and that she enjoys the work. They continue to make small-talk and make references to several people, including Robert, Sam, and Judith. Commenting on the mundanity of their conversation, Jerry says to Emma “you remember the form. I ask about your husband, you ask about my wife” (p. 8). Jerry then proceeds to briefly talk about his children, Sam and Sarah, and Emma mentions her son Ned.
Again, Jerry and Emma break out of small talk as Jerry says, “you’re looking very pretty…I think of you sometimes” (p. 10). Jerry then mentions that he saw Emma’s daughter, Charlotte, walking on the street a few days prior. Emma reminisces about that time…when [Jerry] picked her up and caught her” (p. 11). Jerry says that it “seems like such a long time ago” (p. 13).
Emma tells Jerry that she was recently “driving through Kilburn….[and] drove past the house and then stopped about fifty yards further on” just as she and Jerry had once done (p. 14). Walking up to the house, she says: “looked at the bells, you know, the names on the bells. I looked for our name” (p.14). Jerry then expresses his belief that their name, “Green,” wouldn’t still be on the bell because “we haven’t been there for years” (p. 15).
Changing the topic of conversation, Jerry tells Emma, “I hear you’re seeing a bit of Casey” (p. 15). Emma appears to be flustered by the comment (p. 16). Jerry explains that he “couldn’t be jealous of Casey,” because, as Casey’s agent, he is largely responsible for Casey’s success (p. 17).
Jerry then asks about Robert, who the reader now knows is Emma’s husband, and Emma responds “I think we’re going to separate” (p. 17). When Jerry asks why they are separating, Emma responds, “he’s betrayed me for years” (p. 18). To this point, Jerry retorts “but we betrayed him for years” (p. 18).
Emma then reveals to Jerry that she told Robert about their affair the night before. The scene subsequently ends on a bleak note with Emma saying, “it’s all all over” followed by the stage directions “she drinks” (p. 23).
Analysis:
It would not be unfair to say that not much happens in Betrayal. It is a work in which characters talk a great deal, but somehow say very little. Yet as the scholar Harold Bloom argues in his critical collection on Pinter, "dialogue is, ultimately, a form of action; it is the element of action, the interaction between the characters, their reactions to each other, which constitute the truly dramatic element in stage dialogue" (p. 143). Therefore, although Betrayal is a work heavy in dialogue, it is nonetheless a work active and alive with the subtleties, subtext, and diversions of human communication.
We see this from the outset of the play in Emma and Jerry's conversation. At first, they engage in stilted small-talk. Without adequate context, we are left to wonder who they are, and why they are meeting at the pub. Pinter harnesses this uncertainty to dramatic effect, and as the scene progresses, he slowly fills in the backstory. By the end of the scene, we have learned that Jerry and Emma once had an affair, that it ended two years prior, and that Emma is getting a divorce from her husband, Robert. As a result of Pinter's mastery as a writer of dialogue, all of this information is revealed in a realistic and organic way.
From Jerry and Emma's first interaction, it is clear that the play will be concerned with memory, nostalgia, and regret. They discuss their shared memories and reflect on their past. As Emma says, "it's nice, sometimes, to think back. Isn't it?" (p. 13). In fact, they seem to be concerned with a past to the point that it clouds their experience of the present – they frequently comment on the past, but seem to lack an awareness or interest in the present. One gets the sense that the best time in life is already behind these characters. Pinter demonstrates this fact through the very structure of the play, which moves in a reverse chronology. Just as we see these characters ruminate about the past, we subsequently get to see this past unfold.
In this scene, we also get a sense of the character's personalities. Jerry is a heavy drinker, and although ornery at first, he also shows himself to be sentimental, and even sweet. Emma, while independent and self-possessed, is also thoughtful and caring. Even though we do not yet know why they are no longer together, it is clear that they still care about one another. As the play progresses, we eventually get a sense of who they were, and why they ended up in the pub on that day in Spring of 1977.
