Theatre of the Absurd

THE THEATRE OF THE ABSURD The dictionary meaning of the word funny is unreasonable, awry(p) or funny. But it is used in a any(prenominal)what disparate sense when we speak of the landing field of the imbecilic, or more ordinarily kn avow now-a- twenty-four hour periods as amusing dramatic event. The excogitate The bea of the ludicrous was coined by the critic M wilein Esslin, who made it the title of his book on the identical subject, published in 1961. Esslin points out in this book that there is no much(prenominal) function as a regular movement of Absurd bidtists. The term was useful as a device to make authorized common fundamental traits that were present in the works of a account of dramatists.Esslin saw in the works of these playwrights as artistic co-relation to Albert Camus philosophical system that support is inherently without meaning as is described in his work The ro soldieryce of Sisyphus. In this essay Camus has described the concomitant of the compassionate beings as one(a) out of harmony with its surroundings. The bailiwick of the Absurd, today, shag be considered as a designation for particular plays written by a number of to begin with European playwrights in the late 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, and in any case, along with that, to the bolt and pains of theatre which has evolved from their work.A short hardly true stage narrated in the beginning of Martin Esslins book The Theatre of the Absurd provides the best definition on the significance of the Absurd, and also helps in understanding the humilitary personnel value of Samuel Becketts play Waiting for perfectionot, which is famous as an Absurd Drama par excellence. This is the story as told by Mr. Esslin On 19th November 1957, a group of worried actors were preparing to bet their listening. The actors were members of the comp whatever of the San Francisco Actors workshop.The audience harped of fourteen hundred convicts at the San Quentin penitentiary. The curtain parted. The play began. And what had mystify the sophisticated audiences of Paris, London, and New York, was immediately grasped by an audience of convicts The trio of muscularity men, biceps overflowing. parked all 642 lbs on the aisle and waited for the girls and funny stuff. When this didnt appear they audibly fumed and audibly decided to wait until the hearthstone lights dimmed before escaping. They made one error. They listened and looked two minutes too-long-and stayed. odd at the end.All shook. A reporter from the San Francisco Chronicle who was present celebrated that the convicts did not scram it difficult to understand the play. One prisoner told him Godot is ordination. Said another Hes the outside. A instructor at the prison was quoted as saying They know what is meant by delay. and they know if Godot in the long run came he would only be a disappointment. This story is helpful in understanding the genre of the Absurd. Playwrights commonly associated with the Theatre of the Absurd include Samuel Beckett from Ireland, Eugene Ionesco from Ru valet de chambreia, Jean Genet from France and Harold Pinter of Great Britain.The Absurd in their plays takes the conformation of universes reaction to a world app atomic number 18ntly without meaning, or gentlemans gentleman as a puppet that is controlled or threatened by an invisible outside force. Though the term is applied to a roomy range of plays, some fictional characteristics coincide in many an(prenominal) of the plays. For instance capacious comedy is mixed with tragic images where the characters be caught in hopeless situations and argon forced to do repetitive or mindless action. in time the dialogues be full of specialized jargons, and wordplays and cliches and even nonsense. Even the plots ar well-nighly airman or absurdly expansive.Regarding the story, it is either a parody or a dismissal of realism. The Theatre of the Absurd is commonly associated with Existenti alism, and Existentialism was an influential philosophy in Paris during the rise of the Absurd Theatre. However, it is not exactly correct. historically Existentialism grew with the nineteenth century writings of Nietzsche and Kierkegaard. On reading Nietzsches Zarathustra published in 1883, the readers come across a startling phrase that God is dead According to Esslin, since then for many more people, God has died.He says And so after two terrible wars, there are still many who are extending to come to terms with the innuendo of Zarathustras message searching for a way in which they can with dignity, confront a universe, deprived of what was once its centre and its living purpose, a world deprived of a generally accepted integrating principle, which has function disappointed and purposeless. The Theatre of the Absurd is one of the expressions of this search it seeks to re-establish an awareness of mans situation when confronted with the ultimate reality of his condition. For the people, in between the two homosexualness Wars, the world reckoned to be falling apart. Disintegration of the gild, the menace of the stranger and utter loneliness of man, all this and many more made human beings look upon life as useless and futile. The world had become a tell where man continues to waste, and pine and, and degenerate. In Samuel Becketts play, Waiting for Godot, the situation of man in this universe is summarized by Pozzos outburst in the second act of the play One day we were born, one day we shall die, the similar day, the same second, is that not enough.They give birth astride of a grave, the light gleams an instant, then its night once more. A most poignant image of death comes out in these lines. Esslin feels that in Becketts plays physical constitution follows its own cycle, birth growth degeneration break down and death. Seasons follow each other but there is hardly any escape The origin of the Theatre of the Absurd is rooted in the natural pio neering experiments in the art of the 1920s and 1930s. The aim of these experiments was to do away with art as a mere imitation of appearances.It was after the First World War that German Expressionism attempted to project the inner realities and also try to objectify thoughts and feelings. At the same time, the Theatre of the Absurd was also potently influenced by the injurytic set about of the horrors of the Second World War, which showed the total impermanency of any values and shook the validity of long time held conventions. It also highlighted the precariousness of human life and also its fundamental meaninglessness and unpredictability.The trauma of living from 1945, under the threat of nuclear annihilation also seems to drive home been an important factor in the rise of this new theatre. At the same time, the Theatre of the Absurd also seems to bind been the reaction to the disappearance of the religious dimensions from contemporary life. Absurd Theatre hopes to achie ve this by shocking man out of an existence that has become overused, mechanical and self satisfying. It aims to startle the viewer, flap him out of this comfortable conventional life of nonchalant concerns.The Theatre of the Absurd highlights mans fundamental bewilderment and confusion originating from the fact that man has no answers to the prefatorial existential questions like wherefore we are alive, wherefore we sire to die, why there is injustice and suffering. Playwrights share the view that man is inhabiting a universe with which he is out of key. Its meaning is indecipherable and his place within it is without purpose. He is bewildered, troubled and maybe even obscurely threatened. humannesss tragedy is that he is not aware of his problem. Man is forever and a day trying to seek some purpose in life by getting involved in trivialities and superficial pursuits.This is one reason why tragedy and put-on are closely interlinked in the Theatre oh the Absurd. Even at t he moment of the tragic climax in Waiting for Godot, farce enters the moment. Estragons trousers fall in attempting suicide and the chord breaks, when thy try its strength, making Estragon and Vladimir almost fall. The comedy here illustrates their lifes hopelessness and the futility of all their efforts to end them. The perfect statement of the philosophy of the Theatre of the Absurd as defined by Martin Esslin, is in which the world is seen as a hall of reflecting mirrors, and Reality merges gradually into fantasy.If God is dead, then for sure the Theatre of the Absurd is looking for an alternative spiritual goal, i. e. making man aware of his lost moorings and trying to make him feel what he has to regain. Plays within this group are absurd in that they focus not on logical acts or realistic occurrences or even traditional character development. They instead focus on human beings trapped in an deep world go about incidents which are illogical. Mainly the theme of incomprehensi bility is coupled with the inadequateness of language. Basically there is no story, no dramatic conflict and goose egg really ever happens.Mostly there is repetitive action and circular arrangement of events. Devaluation of language is also an important trait of the Absurd Drama. Esslin says that Absurdism is the requisite devaluation of ideals, purity and purpose. Absurdist drama asks its viewers to draw his own conclusions and make his own errors. Though Theatre of the Absurd may be seen as nonsense, they have something to say and can be understood. Even regarding plots, traditional plot structures are rarely considered as sincere plots in the Theatre of the Absurd. Plots usually consist of Absurd repetition of action as in Waiting for Godot or The Bald Soprano.Often there is an outside force that remains a mystery like in The Birthday Party or A Delicate Balance. Absence, emptiness, nothingness and unresolved mysteries are central features in many Absurdist plots, for exampl e, in The Chairs an old couple welcomes a large number of guests to their home, but these guests are invisible so all we see is empty chairs, representing their absence. another(prenominal) example is where the action of Waiting for Godot is centered on the absence of a man named Godot, for whom the two characters keep waiting till the end of the play. Plots are also cyclical like in Endgame, it begins where the play ended in the beginning.One of the important aspects of Absurd Drama was its distrust of language as a means of communication. During those times language had become a fomite for conventionalized, stereotyped meaningless exchanges. Words usually failed to express the fundamental nature of human experience because it was not able to penetrate beyond its surface. So the playwrights of the Absurd Theatre constituted first and foremost an onslaught on language, showing it as a very(prenominal) unreliable and insufficient beam of communication. During those times language h ad become a vehicle for conventionalized, stereotyped meaningless exchanges.Words usually failed to express the fundamental nature of human experience because it was not able to penetrate beyond its surface. So the playwrights of the Absurd Theatre constituted first and foremost an onslaught on language, showing it as a very unreliable and insufficient tool of communication. Absurd Drama uses conventionalized speeches, cliches, slogans and technical jargons, which it distorts and breaks down. It is by ridiculing the conventionalized and stereotyped speech, that Absurd Theatre tries to make people aware of the possibility of going beyond everyday speeches and communicating more authentically.The theme of the Absurd play is the purposelessness of human life. Albert Camus in his essay The Myth of Sisyphus has described the situation of human beings as one out of harmony with its surroundings. The Theatre of the Absurd is one of the slipway of facing the life that has lost its meaning and purpose. As such, it fulfils a repeat role. Its first and more obvious role is satirical where it criticizes a society that is petty, superficial and dishonest. Its second and more positive aspect is that it highlights the basic silliness of the human situation.It showcases the condition of human beings in a world in which man has lost all his trust. Here he is presented in his basic situation where he is left with no choice and desperately searches some refuge or heaven. Such a play produces the effects of alienation. We find it very difficult to identify ourselves with the characters in the Absurd Drama. Even though their situation is very painful and violent, they are presented to us in such a way that we tend to laugh at them and their condition and behavior. Esslin feels that this considerate of drama speaks mostly to the deeper level of the audiences mind.In a way it challenges the audience to make sense of the nonsense. It urges them to face the situation consciously and along with that, to laugh at this fundamental absurdity of such situations. So, the tyrannic theme of the absurd playwrights is mans loneliness, discouragement, and desperation when he finds that his faith in God is declining. In all the writers of the Absurd Drama, the common traits are usually the devaluation of language, absence of characterization and motivation and search for meaning in a basically absurd situation.But each of them has his own style of presenting these traits. For example Ionesco presents absurdism through hilarious and outrageous farce. In Becketts works, absurdism is presented by depicting a world which is devoid of God, where life is full of torture and hopelessness. In the plays of Harold Pinter menace and terror surrounds people. His plays, famous as comedy of menace, are basically funny up to a point. The most surprising thing about plays of this group is that in spite of their breaking of the rules, they are very successful.In his book, The Theat re of the Absurd, Esslin says, If a good play must have a clearly constructed story, these have no story to speak of if a good play is judged by subtlety of characterization and motivation, these are oftentimes without recognizable characters and present the audience with almost mechanical puppets if a good play has to have a fully explained theme, which is neatly exposed and finally solved, these often have neither a beginning nor an end if a good play is to hold the mirror up to nature and describe the manners and mannerism of the age in finely observed sketches, these seem often to be reflections of dreams and nightmares if a good play relies on humourous repartee and pointed dialogue, these often consist of incoherent babblings. To conclude, the Theatre of the Absurd presents anxiety, despair and a sense of loss at the disappearance of solutions and the illusions of life. Now facing all this means that we are facing reality itself. Thus, is can be said that Absurd Drama beco mes a kind of a modern font mystical experience. It aims to shock its audience out of complacency, to bring it face to face with the harsh facts of the human situations as the writers see it.It becomes a kind of a challenge to accept the human condition as it is, with all its mystery and absurdity, and to bear it with dignity, because there are no solutions to the mysteries of existence. That is because ultimately man is exclusively in this meaningless world. To accept all this freely and without fear may be painful, but doing so brings a sense of freedom and relief. And that is why we say that the Theatre of the Absurd does not provoke tears of despair but the laughter of liberation. Bibliography PRIMARY SOURCES 1. Martin Esslin, The Theatre of the Absurd alternative SOURCES 1. Martin Esslin, Introductin to The Theatre of the Absurd 2. Arnold P. Hinchliffe, The Absurd 3. Ronald Gaskell, Drama and Reality 4. Eva Metman, Reflections on Becketts Plays