Old Times Literary Elements

Old Times Literary Elements

Genre

Drama

Language

English

Setting and Context

A Converted Farmhouse 1971, Autumn

Narrator and Point of View

POV is that of Deeley and Anna

Tone and Mood

Dramatic, Serious.

Protagonist and Antagonist

Protagonist is Kate. Antagonists are Anna and Deeley

Major Conflict

Kate has a friend coming over that she hasn't seen in years and Deeley wants to know what she is like.

Climax

Anna is the friend that is coming, but she has been there the entire time. And, we find out that Anna is actually dead. She died in Kate's room.

Foreshadowing

Dark. The opening word of the play foreshadows the emotional quality of the play that is to come.

Understatement

It is understated that Anna is dead.

Allusions

The play is an allusion to how one person's memory of an experience can be vastly different from another person's.

Imagery

Anna uses imagery to describe Kate's incapacity to relate to other people. How Kate, when she goes out for walks becomes only depressed and wants to come home. And, also how Kate is very shy. Anna uses the description of a shy fawn to spark the reader's imagination as to what she does when she is sitting with anyone.

Paradox

Anna and Deeley talk as if Kate is dead, paradoxically it is Anna that is definitely not living.

Parallelism

The end of the play with each character motionless parallels the beginning of the play where Deeley, Kate, and Anna all sit or stand motionless, absorbed in the thoughts in their minds.

Personification

Pinter has Anna describe Kate as shy as a fawn. That Kate becomes shyness in her relating to any person that attempts to get close to her.

Use of Dramatic Devices

Pinter uses bright shining stage lights at the end of the play in order show that this moment is not realism.

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