Paper Summary:

The paper describes how Orton employs a variety of signs and symbols in "What the Butler Saw" to facilitate interpretation and more importantly, misinterpretation in the Prentice house. It discusses how the playwright relies on mayhem as a dramatic tool, but beyond the madness there is a method that Orton wants us to evaluate gender, crime and the medical establishment with.

From the Paper:

""Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar," Sigmund Freud is quoted as saying, to which Geraldine Barclay replies, "But it is a cigar!" So ends Joe Orton's 1969 play, Geraldine by now having been through sexual harassment, gender transformation and internment in an institution of mental health. "What The Butler Saw" is a play primarily obsessed with the interpretationaE"and misinterpretationaE"of symbols, signs and language. This paper will examine the ways in which each of the characters function to interpret the world of the play and the way that their interpretation informs us about them and their world."

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