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Assumptions in Applicant
Task B – Our answer
Our schema for interviews is that once the polite initial formalities
have been dispensed with the interviewer should ask questions to allow
the interviewee to demonstrate his or her suitability for the post concerned.
But instead, after gaining agreement in a polite way, Miss Piffs starts
doing things physically to Mr.Lamb, fitting electrodes to him etc. It
is just about conceivable that job-selection procedures might involve
some sort of testing in addition to the interview, but fitting him up
with electrodes looks more consistent with a lie-detector test, some sort
of psychological test, or even a doctor-patient consultation than an interview.
In speech act terms, she also orders him to relax in turn 22, which is
consistent with the alternative schemata we have just mentioned. It is
important to note that all of these alternative schemata, all involve
two people, one of whom is in charge and one of whom is in a clearly inferior
position. In other words, Pinter can move us from the interview schema
to another (any of the above would do) because they share some structural
properties, even though they are different from one another.
The stage direction after turn 22 indicates a much more radical change.
The ‘psychological’ equipment turns out to be an instrument
of torture, as the stage directions make very clear. This change clearly
moves us into the area of the absurd. Even if we accepted the idea that
Miss Piffs, as interviewer, might submit Lamb to physical/psychological
tests, torturing the interviewee, it is dramatically inconsistent with
our interview schemata.
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