Manipulation through Language in the Memorandum The way you use language to perpetuate certain images or perspectives can greatly influence the way people think. Language can be used to manipulate the minds of others and subject them to some form of submission. In Vaclav Havel's Memorandum some characters use this manipulation tactic through different means involving language, and in the process, gain the authority or recognition they are seeking. Ballas promotes the new creation of the synthetic language, Ptydepe, which reduces human beings by mechanizing them for the purpose of a more scientific and efficient communication system. The language is created so that people do not show emotions or defects when speaking. This system is analogous to the bureaucracy, which also deploys its linguistic power to establish and maintain order in every aspect of Memorandum society. Havel illustrates how language is intrinsically omnipotent by exemplifying the drastic effects it can have on people's rationality. Characters in the play who use language to their advantage gain power, and those who allow language to control them become victims of the cyclical struggle to systematize humanity. Ballas is a person who uses language to manipulate and humiliate people, thus exercising his power. Although subordinate to Gross in title at the beginning of the work, Ballas manages to convince Gross to sign the supplementary order for the official introduction of Ptydepe, even though Gross is against the idea of ​​an artificial language. He uses public opinion on the rubber stamp issue to manipulate Gross into submitting to his demands. Ballas strategically attempts to tell Gross what he is... middle of paper... he also falls into alienation, unable to identify with who they are as human beings. The characters in the play have become so involved in a systematic way of life that they keep a knife and fork in the office drawers which they take with them to lunch every day "in a solemn procession, similar to a funeral" (2.12). As long as people allow this oppression of humanity, the circle of power will never cease. In the play, although Ptydepe was ultimately condemned as a failure, instead of liberating the system's organization, Ballas implemented a new method of communication, Chorukor. Just as the show ends as it begins, the system that controls people's actions and thoughts will remain intact until a greater power can control the system. WORKS CITED Havel, Vaclav. The memorandum in The Garden Party and other plays. Trans. Vera Blackwell. New York: Grove Press, 1993.