Summary
With Mr. Kidd having left, Rose takes a plate and cup to the sink while Bert pushes back his chair and stands. She tells him to wait a minute, asking where his jersey (sweater) is. Rose fetches the jersey from the bed, making Bert take his coat off so she can add the layer. Rose continues fretting about Bert going out in the cold while adding a muffler scarf around his mouth. She advises him to put on an overcoat; still having said nothing, Bert responds by going to the door and exiting the stage.
Alone, Rose moves to various areas of the room. She picks up objects, listens to sounds, stands still, moves. She lights a fire and looks around. She darts to the window only to straighten the curtain. She returns to the center of the room and looks at the door. Then she puts on a shawl she keeps in bed before taking out the trash bin from under the sink. Carrying the bin, she opens the door.
Rose is surprised to see a young couple, Mr. and Mrs. Sands, standing on the landing outside her door. Mrs. Sands apologizes, saying they didn’t mean to frighten her; they were just coming up the stairs. Rose says it’s all right. Mrs. Sands introduces herself and her husband, Toddy, who grunts in acknowledgment of Rose’s greeting. Mrs. Sands repeats that they were going up the stairs, adding that “you can’t see a thing in this place.” Toddy agrees curtly.
When Rose asks, Mrs. Sands and Toddy explain they are looking for the landlord; Rose says his name is Mr. Kidd. The couple confer with each other, and Toddy says that isn’t the name of the man they’re looking for. Rose says they must be looking for someone else. Commenting on how cold they must be, Rose invites the couple to come inside and warm up by the fire. Mrs. Sands thanks her as she accepts the chair Rose brings to the fire. Rose tells Mr. Sands to come by the fire, but he says he is all right and he’ll just stretch his legs.
Mrs. Sands questions her husband’s response, pointing out that he shouldn’t need to stretch his legs because he hasn’t been sitting down. Toddy replies that there is no reason for him to sit down. Mrs. Sands says he must be cold, but he says he isn’t. She continues to insist that he bring a chair and sit by the fire, but he says he will be “quite all right” standing, concluding the statement with her name, Clarissa.
Rose comments that Clarissa is a pretty name. Mrs. Sands agrees, saying that her mother and father gave it to her. She adds that this is a room one can sit down and feel cozy in. Her husband looks around, commenting on the room’s large size. Mrs. Sands invites Rose to sit down, but Rose says no thanks. Upon hearing that Rose’s surname is Hudd, Toddy says that she must be the wife of the man she mentioned earlier. Toddy’s wife explains that Rose earlier mentioned Mr. Kidd, the landlord. A brief and befuddling exchange follows as the three characters clarify who Rose is and who Mr. Kidd is. Mrs. Sands suggests there may be two landlords. Toddy says, “That’ll be the day.”
After another awkward pause, Rose asks what it is like outside. The couple says it is dark, but no darker than inside the hallway of the house. Toddy says he thinks it is darker inside. Mrs. Sands agrees, telling Rose that inside her room is the first bit of light she’s seen since they came in the house. Rose says they stay in at night and never go out.
Mrs. Sands remembers suddenly that she thinks she saw a star in the sky when they were outside. Her husband dismisses the idea, insisting that she didn’t see a star. After a pause, Rose says she hopes it isn’t too dark out because her husband is out in his van, and he never drives slowly. Toddy guffaws and comments that her husband is taking a big chance then. Rose responds in alarm, and Mr. Sands corrects his statement, saying he only means it would be “dodgy” driving tonight. Rose says Bert is a very good driver.
After a pause, Rose asks the couple how long they have been there. Mrs. Sands says she doesn’t know, referring the question to her husband. Toddy guesses half an hour. Mrs. Sands suggests longer than that. Thirty-five minutes maybe. Rose says she thinks they will find Mr. Kidd somewhere, as he’ll be making his tea soon. Mr. Sands is surprised to hear Kidd lives there; Rose says of course he lives there. However, Rose doesn’t know what to say when Toddy asks where he would find Mr. Kidd. She confirms again that he lives there, but admits she doesn’t know where exactly.
Mrs. Sands comments that it is a very big house. Toddy agrees, but suggests Mrs. Hudd seems to know Mr. Kidd very well. Rose says she doesn’t know him at all, in fact. She says they’re very quiet and keep to themselves, never interfering. She asks rhetorically why she should bother anyone else. They have their room, they don’t bother anyone, and “that’s the way it should be.”
Analysis
The themes of alienation and fear arise with Bert’s exit from the stage. Left alone, Rose cannot stay still and doesn’t know what to do with herself. Pinter shows how Rose’s anxiety keeps her restless as she moves from spot to spot around the room, straightening up the place with pauses to listen to noises intruding from the frightening outside world. In a moment that could be played equally for comedy and pathos, Rose seems finally to settle; however, she is soon up on her feet, remembering that she can take out the kitchen trash. With her inability to stay still, the audience gets a palpable sense of Rose's deep uneasiness.
In an instance of situational irony, a young couple happens to be standing just outside Rose’s door at that moment. Although they are disrupting her safe space, in an extension of the politeness she showed earlier to Kidd Rose invites them in. The Sands, though described in the stage directions as young, have their own peculiar dynamic. Although Toddy isn’t as taciturn as Bert, he grunts in response to Rose’s greeting, and gives terse responses to his wife’s questions about why he doesn’t take the offered seat by the fire.
The couple’s bickering hits again on the theme of miscommunication while introducing more comedy to the play. Rose is absorbed easily into their dynamic, and the silly three-way dialogue is reminiscent of British music hall comedy acts. However, Pinter juxtaposes the humor with the discomfort of witnessing the couple grow increasingly hostile with each other. In this way, Pinter shows how the couple are alienated from each other. Their strained relationship might be in a precursor stage, and Pinter wants the audience to think of them as on their way to becoming like the mutually estranged Hudds.
Pinter builds on the theme of mundanity with the couple’s disagreements over trivial issues, such as whether they have been in the rooming house for thirty minutes or thirty-five minutes, as if the difference were meaningful. Miscommunication and uncertainty also figure prominently as Toddy returns to the issues of whether the landlord’s name is Kidd and whether he lives somewhere in the poorly lit house.
Adding to the bewilderment, Rose cannot say for certain where in the house Kidd lives. Toddy takes issue with her not knowing where the landlord sleeps, but in an instance of dramatic irony, the audience recalls that Rose asked Kidd several times which room he sleeps in, and the man wouldn’t give her a straight answer, saying only that he can take his pick of the rooms now. Rather than offer this explanation, Rose defends her uncertainty by proudly asserting that she keeps to herself and doesn’t interfere in others’ lives, as if her alienation from her surroundings were an accomplishment.
