哈罗德·品特于1963年创作的剧作《情人》是一部关于婚姻伦理反思的作品。理查德和萨拉夫妻间假扮情人的"幽会游戏"是这部作品中的主要戏剧情节,是对20世纪六七十年代特殊伦理语境下人们所持有的两性/婚姻观最为生动、客观地写真。通过"幽会游戏"这一"戏中戏"的表现手段,品特极力展示导致"情人现象"发生的本质原因,即人的人性因子和兽性因子共存的两面性本质。两人试图逾越婚姻的欲望成为危及他们婚姻关系的闯入者。游戏中,两人完全被兽性因子所主导,意志冲突中自由意志起到决定性的作用。透过"幽会游戏"的表面,可以看到游戏下面掩藏的本质就是如何进行伦理选择。与此同时,剧作家也指出"婚外情"对于健康家庭和婚姻生活带来的危害性。
Harold Pinter's The Lover( 1963) arouses reflections on the marital ethics. As the main plot of the play,the game-playing between Richard and Sarah in their house demonstrates literally the social and ethical transformation during1960s—1970s. By using the artistic technique of role-switching,Pinter intends to decode the fact that Man is an existence of Sphinx factor,composing human and animal factors,which causes the extramarital love. During the erotic game,the couple is controlled by the animal factors,and their free will overcomes the moral obligation within the ethical conflicts. There is no doubt that the essence of game-playing is how to make the ethical choice. At the same time,the negative effects from the extramarital love is also emphasized.